City Council - Regular Meeting

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for joining us today. We're going to have an executive session. Um, how long is the executive session today? 25 minutes. 2530 minutes. Okay. So, um, item one is an executive session, Miss Clerk. Item one is noticed as exe executive session quarterly discussion update non-disclosure agreements and is being held pursuant to ARS 38-431.03 A3. May I have a motion to go into executive please? So moved. Second. There is a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor please signify by saying I.

I. Any against? Motion carries. So we'll be in executive for about 30 35 minutes and then we'll come out uh to del deliver deliberate. Thank you everyone.

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Heat up here. motion to return to study session, please. So moved.

Second. There is a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Without hearing any. Um all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Any against? Motion carries. Item two. What is the council's pleasure on item two? Honorable mayor, members of council, an appropriate motion would be to proceed as discussed in executive session to direct the city manager and the city attorney to revise and approve an administrative directive on non-disclosure agreements for immediate circulation. Second, I mean so moved. Second. There is a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this item? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I.

I. I. Any against? Motion carries. Item three, time has been set aside for discussion and direction on the independent economic analysis for Costco wholesale. Um, I know that you have you might have a presentation, but then I want to make sure that we go to Councilman Lee. Mr. Manager, honorable mayor, members of the council, yes, we do have some information to present to you today. Uh joining me at the table is Mike Jakowski of our economic initiives team. Um but certainly willing uh ready to defer to council member Lee.

Um thank you very much uh Mayor Romero, members of council, council member Lee. Welcome council members uh Schubert and Barahas. Very excited to be working with both of you uh today. Just briefly just going over you have in your packet a copy of the economic analysis that we've received for the Costco wholesale project at uh Hton and Old Vil. Again, a reminder, this is 158,000 square foot uh warehouse with fuel facility, 22 acres. They are simultaneously going through the big box ordinance on that. We did have a neighborhood meeting on that a few weeks ago and it was actually really really well uh accepted. The the neighborhoods and surrounding folks are very excited about this opportunity. Um as a reminder, Costco has requested the sightsp specific sales tax incentive. Uh the general terms of this incentive or reimbursement of city sales tax capped at our 2% rate uh to offset eligible on or off-site public improvements, impact fees, permit fees uh or workforce training in with that program. Um per mayor and council direction on nove November 18th, we did request a third party economic analysis as I mentioned projection of that is fairly strong for one of the projects that we've received over the history of our incentive program. They're projecting 320 full and part-time jobs uh directed directly with this facility. Um over five years after opening, projection of estimated $22.7 million in gross city sales and property tax. Of course, the majority of that is sales tax obviously. Uh what's phenomenal about that is they are obviously sell food which is not taxable. So this is a huge number for us on sales tax. Um $48.5 million is projected to go to the state over that same five-year period of which we would recapture a portion in state shared revenues as

well. Um 6.6 million as well to this county and the school districts in the form of property taxes. And in its current vacant condition, it does generate $35,000 a year for all of us on that. So for the city of Tucson, we are grossing a healthy about $2 or $3,000 annually on the vacant site on that. So um projected value of the incentive for this based on the 45% of sales tax on that would be $7.3 million over that 5year period. Again, an average of $1.46 million uh per year. And again, the lesser of the incentive is the actual taxes collected or the $7.3 million or the value of the eligible reimbursements. direction today is requested to formalize a development agreement with Costco wholesale, bring it back to mayor and council for final consideration. And just as a a reminder, next steps would be if that direction is provided, we would enter into a notice of intent which would come back as a mayor and council item and then followed by that council item of a development agreement for final consideration.

Council me,

thank you, mayor, and thank you, Mike, for that that briefing. That's wonderful. uh to double down on what you said. The neighbors are very excited. I know everyone is really really eager to have a Costco in our area. I know that uh it is projected to not only serve the folks in the Ward 4 area and outside of Puma County, but Sierra Vista Benson and I heard even all the way from New Mexico possibly people might come all the way in to bring their money and spend it inside the city limits. So very exciting on a lot of fronts. Um, I want to to ask Mike to kind of explain a little bit more about what this looks like and what this is and what it isn't because I know there's a lot of people across the political spectrum that are not wanting to give billionaires and corporations tax incentives and taxpayer money. So, can you explain to us kind of what this is and what it isn't with respect to the fact that the city's not writing a check to Costco for 7.3 million and just kind of explain what's actually happening with with these funds.

Yes, absolutely. Thank you, Council Member Lee. This is actually a very lowrisk incentive agreement for the city of Tucson. If they build it, then we reimburse. We do not do anything until they do what they say they were going to do. At the very least, the the reimbursement mechanism is an offset to those eligible costs that I spoke of. We do do not reimburse more than what they have already paid for. So it's in essence if they do a new traffic signal along Old Road and that's part of an improvement project to add capacity to the city that would be an eligible cost for reimbur reimbursement. If they tear out a sidewalk that's already existed in perfectly good condition and replace it just because they need to. That is not an eligible cost for reimbursement. So we have those types of things for on and off site improvements. We also have eligible for reimbursement is the impact fees, permit fees, help offset those costs. And what I think is also very nice is the workforce training to help their staff to climb the ladder and increase their wage their wage opportunity.

So again, this is a reimbursement of taxes collected. We verify that uh once the project's complete, we verify they're paying the taxes, that they've paid us, that they've done all of those eligible items. then we reimburse to offset those costs.

Thank you for explaining that. And one of the important points with this is in conversations with Costco, um they are committing to putting that funding toward Old Veil Road and helping us out with that expansion, which you folks who live out in Old Veil Road know how, uh critical that road is and how um we're concerned about the flow of traffic and the capacity to to get traffic around in that area. And that's something that we're talking to Tim as well about in terms of how we can get that road where it needs to be to support the growth that's happening. Um, also with respect to jobs, I'm really excited. As Mike mentioned, 320 full-time and part-time jobs, looking at about $13 million a year in new wages going to our residents who are taking those jobs. So, uh, all in all, I'm I'm really excited about this project and I want to go ahead and put a motion that we formalize we move forward with formalizing the agreement.

Second.

There is a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this? Any questions, comments? Um, for me, I just first and foremost, I um um can see the return on investment in terms of what the city is putting in and the um and the company, in this case, Costco is is uh returning on the investment that we're putting in. So, um I appreciate that we are doing this. I'm very happy that um Costco is building yet another um uh warehouse in the southeast part of Tucson, which is a an area that is growing and um always welcomes a lot of uh investment in new development because of the needs in services and retail that they have. I guess my question is um over the five-year incentive term the estimated amount is 7.3 which is a little bit more than a million uh 1.3 you said per year

and that 1.3 million could be put back into infrastructure or training. Uh is there any planned investment? Councilman, you said o veil. Is there any additional conversations or commitments from Costco that that the 1.3 is going back into the infrastructure of the area?

Yes, thank you, Mayor Romero. That has been the conversations ongoing. As council member Lee mentioned, Old Veil has been a question uh upon development opportunity in the area. If anybody knows Bill Kelly with Diamond Ventures, he may have mentioned this once or twice that improvements are needed uh in that area as are some other roads across the city. But one of the nice things and I will tell you that Costco has been a phenomenal company to talk to. They have mentioned several times about investing into the infrastructure directly that's impacts their development and it as much helps them to bring in their customers and their clientele as much that it helps us. I know that we usually do when we're in the development process, we usually do a transportation impact study and most developers as as Bill will tell us um are requested to build um especially on the road pieces uh capacity for the use that their development will produce. Are we doing the same thing with this one in particular? Yes, Mayor Romero, that is part of the normal process for submitting for a development package and permit for new development. And from what I understand, a traffic impact study has just been submitted. I don't think our team has had a chance yet to really review it and digest what's in it yet, but that will help

indicating what needs and what improvements. And as you say, our perspective here in Tucson is that development absolutely pays for development, new capacity. and this incentive tool is a nice way for us to help offset some of those costs with that

and to see investment in the city of Tucson, which in this particular economy I'm very concerned about not seeing. Um, but yeah, I just wanted to make sure that we had clarity and the public had clarity in terms of that incentive going back to either infrastructure or training for employees um or any other issues that um that are good for our city. So for me in terms of Costco, it's been a strong performer. Uh Costco is a company that aligns with a lot of the um you know uh priorities of Tonins and um since Costco came into the marketplace which is in W 5. We are seeing Costco become one of the fastest growing um retailers in Arizona and the Tucson marketplace becoming one of the fastest growing retail nodes in Tucson. So, uh Costco's opening there actually attracted significant growth and sales taxes, additional restaurants, new retail pads, and improved commercial occupancy levels. So, I would expect the same thing happen in this particular area in the southeast and I'm looking forward to uh continue building on this growth and this success along with Costco. So, with that, we have a motion on the floor. We have a second. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I.

Any against? Motion carries. Thank you so much. Congratulations. So, we're moving to item four. Time has been set aside for an update on the fiscal year 2026 budget and discussion in the fiscal year 2027 budget. Uh, Mr. manager.

Honorable mayor, members of the council, it has begun. Our journey toward an FY27 balanced budget begins today. It will be like something out of Tolken. There will be heroes. There will be challenges. And at some point, Anna's going to throw a ring into a volcano, at which point a balanced budget will emerge. Um we begin with um really level setting where we are today. We're in the middle of FY26. We do have uh midyear numbers that have been presented to you in the in the uh in the materials. We will talk through pretty briefly where we are. So that sets our grounding for where we're headed. Uh also in the materials um we give you some updates on things like TSRS the our our non-public safety uh pension in the city um and other matters that have been sort of accumulating over the uh since our last budget discussion and then in the materials and we'll emphasize it a bit in our commentary um we were asked to look at um trends in the general fund over uh since FY19. So we'll talk a little bit about that. Um, and then we really launch uh at our next meeting into what does FY27 look like and how do we how do we get how do we get uh to a good budget outcome on that. So with that um Anna Rosenberry, our assistant city manager and chief financial officer is here and I will turn the microphone over to Anna.

Thank you Tim. Hello Mayer council members. Um this is actually a good day. We're we're kicking this off. Um and I'm excited to do that. There is a lot of work um that our team as well as you as a mayor and council will be doing over the next six months, five months um to get to a adopted balanced budget. Um I'm excited to do that work and do that work with everybody on this team. So thank you very much. Um Director Ozalam and I have decided to divide um the topics here. she is going to walk you through um sort of the status update on fiscal 26 and then I am going to talk more about what we're doing um to develop fiscal 27 up on the screen we have the FY26 budget update in October of 2025 the mayor and council received the uh FY26 6 budget update that noted revenue trends below what was expected in 2025. And as such, we felt it necessary to wind down the fiscal 2026 uh recommended budget numbers to align them more closely with the fiscal 2025. what we were seeing as we pulled together the financials for fiscal 2025. So the the overall um the overall breakdown brought us to a negative 1.5% change down from where we were or where we saw the numbers trending in 2025 as we prepared the

financial statements. And so what we have on the screen is the fiscal 2026 budgeted revenues and also the actuals to date through December 31st. The third column reflects the projections the 1.5% reduction based on the fiscal 2025 numbers. So these numbers are where we where we thought the revenues would be to date as through the end of December in 2026. And if uh you know this may and council you would see that we are slightly below in the actuals based on the projections which tells us that toning down the numbers um in 26 in reference to what we were seeing for 2025 was a good approach to projecting what 26 would look like. And so it's about what 2% decrease which is not bad but when we look at it in terms of the overall expend um revenue budget of 776 it's a far cry from what we expected to to realize in 2026 in the expenditures in October Also, staff brought to Mayor a what we call spending plan adjustments because of course if we anticipate revenues to decrease, we would have to manage expenditures in light of what our projections were what we are seeing as our projections in revenue. And as such, we tone down as far as possible the um uh expenditures for 2026, which is reflected in the second column um of the

table on on the screen. And we turned the expenditures down to $760.7 million. So far we have spent 347.7 million which is about 45% of the overall of the overall spending plan. And of course our largest cost which is um um salary salaries and wages they we we spend about 46. Given that we halfway through the fiscal year, one would uh assume that we would spend probably 50, a little over 50, but we're holding steady at 46, which is a great indication that department directors are doing their best to try to level the expenditures based on where we're seeing the um uh revenues um trending in for 2026. We also provided to mayor and council. We also provided to mayor and council a breakdown of the framework dollars that were um the the um I'm sorry, the investment plan dollars that were allocated in in fiscal 2026. This is not on the board, but it is table three of the of the um of your in your packet. And we have expenditures at 16.6 6 million which is about 34% of the budget which again is tells us that that staff um are mindful of where we are financially and are doing their best to make uh do more with less if if you will. The last slide is, at least for my section, is on the state shared excise tax, the marijuana revenue, um, better known as the Prop 207, um, revenue. We provided to May and council information

from fiscal 21 to fiscal 25. And these numbers are all actuals. So far in 2026, we've collected $1.8 million. However, you will notice that we have roughly 5 million budgeted for FY26 that we do not anticipate collecting. We expect that this number the actuals would fall a little below or possibly way below way below the um the um projected or the budgeted numbers. But we we will continue to monitor these. Of course, it's not uh too large a number, but these uh ex these revenues go towards the expenditures for um public safety, police and fire. So, it is is it's an amount that is of interest to them and um we think would be of interest to me and council and hence the reason we presented we're presenting that to you this afternoon. Also not included on on on our in our presentation is information to may counsel on on the ward framework dollars which is table five. I will not um spend much time on it but may council so far um has spent $549 of the $2.7 million allocation in 20 allocated and that expenditure is just for uh 2026. Um that is about all the update we have on fiscal 27 activities. Thank you so much. So the next topic in the memorandum on page five is the um an update on our Tucson supplemental retirement systems. This is one of the retirement systems that the city uses. all of the employees who are not covered um within the public safety retirement system or the elected officials retirement system um would be utilizing our uh Tucson supplemental retirement system if they are um retirement benefits eligible. So we have

a little bit of a look back and then a look forward on the TSRS. Um we re the board of trustees for the TSRS received their June 30 2025 their most recent fiscal year um actuarial report in October and it was it was a very good year for the TSRS pension system. um they experienced investment returns of 12 a.5% which far exceeded that's well above their assumed um return rate of six and seven 6.75%. So investment of the pension assets um far exceeded expectations. Um as a result of that the ex the plan experienced an increase in its funded ratio which is good news. That's what we want to see. um each year. Um so they went from a funded ratio of 76.63% to a funded ratio of 78.97%. We're almost 80% funded on the expected liabilities within the plan. Um as a result, the plan is anticipated to achieve full funding, that 100% funding in fiscal year 2033. And that's an improvement over last year's estimate of full funding in 2034. So again, great performance results within the TSRS pension system. In addition, um the board has is recommending a continued increase to employee contribution rates in fiscal 27. So for the coming fiscal year, the board has forwarded a recommended increase in two areas. um and they are the areas that are shown in red um on the table on table six. So they're recommending that for tier one

members employee the employee in uh contribution would increase by 0.5%. Um and for tier 2 the employee contribution would increase by 0.25%. Now those uh the city manager is evaluating that recommendation um and among among other factors related to total uh employee compensation benefits and the budget and we'll be making a final recommendation to the mayor and council at a future date. There's no decision for you today. Um, and there's no recommend recommendation for you today, but I just wanted for your awareness to let you know that that is a recommendation that has been made by the board. Um, we will um, in addition to giving you this TSRS information today, there'll be a similar report of information for PSPs, the public safety pension system, in our next memorandum update to you in February. So let's talk in more detail big picture about fiscal 27's budget development. Um we have uh staff has been working on fiscal 27 budget development for a couple of months now. Process actually begins in uh October, November. It's uh pretty quick after we get the one budget adopted. We're working um to start develop the next budget. Um and as director Ozomalam has already talked about um we're just experiencing a tight revenue picture, a revenue picture that we've seen on a somewhat of a decreasing trend and we continue to see that trend um not turn a corner. You know, we've been taking a let's monitor this, let's

look for good news. Um and while we're not seeing a a great fall off, we're not seeing a lot of recovery. So, we have been talking with directors, leaders about a really tight revenue picture for fiscal 27 um and not having an expectation that there will be a lot of funds available beyond what's needed to cover a base budget um our current program commitments and our investment plan. Um, departments have been asked to limit what has been called supplemental requests in the past. Um, and to really just focus on essential unmet needs. That's the the term of art that we're using this year. Um, and as we work through any anticipated funding challenges, I'm happy to tell you we've had numerous conversations um, practically every department already about what they're identifying as unmet needs. Um and those conversations have been really productive on the revenue side. Um a couple of topics big picture. So as we've been talking about for months now, local sales tax revenues are trending below prior year levels. Um we've got a little bit more detail for you in the memorandum. We've seen the closure of two business establishments within the city, Big Lots and Sam Levit's Furniture. um and just declines in general visitation to Tucson um possible decline in border traffic from neighboring Mexico uh due to heightened immigration activities. All of those concerns continue. I think we've been fairly open about discussing those as at the table as we've talked about local sales tax collections in the area of state shared revenues um for the coming year. Um there's bit of a head headwinds

there too particularly in state income tax revenues as the state talks about um their policies related to um following through honoring um federal income tax reductions uh deductions and exemptions. Um what will happen to what will what impact will that have on the pool of state income tax revenues that are shared with cities? We also have a new city in Arizona, the city of Santan Valley, which will now start participating in the urban revenue share. A new city doesn't grow the pot. Um it means that there are more cities uh sharing revenues out of that same pot. Um and so that's definitely going to be having an impact. Um the League of Cities is doing its best to help us project the impact of that. Um and uh and so um we expect to be talking a lot more about urban revenue share estimates as we go through budget preparation. So we're working on full revenue projections based on the information that we have to date. Um and there will be a lot more to come on that topic. On the expenditure side um uh we start with this concept of a base budget. what is needed to what is needed to fund our current operations. We are working hard on the topic of employee investments. Um the city is working to develop a budget recommendation that includes year two of the city manager's three-year strategy for employee compensation investments. If you recall um last year as a part of the compensation plan of which we asked the mayor and council um to adopt year one uh there were there were year two and year three projections and plans for

employee pay progression, employee inrange adjustment and employee market adjustments. Um again we will have more details to come on how we are able to incorporate those recommendations into um the budget. I know that employees are very interested very interested in this topic and seeing how we bring this item forward. Um, last year, year one of the plan had us dedicating nearly $21 million to employee salary increases. Uh, all across all funds, uh, almost 14 million of of that was within the general fund. Um, that's not including increases for um pension costs or um health and wellness benefits. That's that's compensation. Year two of the plan is even I would say even more aggressive, bigger numbers. Um so year two of the plan was forecasted to have a $15.3 million invested, an additional $15.3 million invested in the general fund um and a total of over $22.8 million of um salary investments in city workers. We are um as I said, we are doing um the work to bring forward um a great compensation plan recommendation to the mayoring council. Um that compensation plan um which is really critical to the budget. Um that that recommendation in detail will be coming to the mayor and council at your April 7th study session. Um and then we within the memo we talk about the other timelines for other pieces of the compensation plan. We adopt the

compensation plan as a part of the um of the budget. So it is also up for adoption on final budget night which is expected to be June 9th. In the area of employee and retirey health insurance benefits, again, in investments in employees, um there's quite a bit of news to report. Um first of all, uh it's a bit of an odd year in that we have gone out with a request for proposals inviting bids for our medical, teleaalth, pharmacy, wellness, health savings account, um dental and employee assistance coverage. the whole package we have put out for requests for proposals that hasn't been done in more than five years. Um, and we have received 15 submittals that that you have a subcommittee of your employee benefits um committee working on um recommendations to award for those services. Um, in addition to that work, the request for proposals work, um, the benefits committee, again, comprised of employees who are in management, who are frontline staff, um, many representatives from all of our labor groups. That group has been meeting nearly every month to talk about other plan changes um that could improve benefits for employees, keep costs low for taxpayers, rateayers and employees who share in the cost of these benefits um and keep us competitive in recruiting and retaining workers. It's a critical part of the budget because the rate of growth in medical and prescription drug costs just continues to exceed other areas other rates of inflation in other areas of our budget. Um and

medical and prescription drug inflation is double digit and year after year um we continue to be um confronted with cost increases that push 10 12 15% in those areas. Um, we expect to have a full health insurance recommendation to the mayor and council at the March 17th study session, but we I will be giving you um bits of updates as we can um in the study sessions between now and then as we talk about the budget. Um the our health benefits recommendation needs to be approved before the final budget is adopted um so that we can proceed with benefits open enrollment which begins for all of our employees at the beginning of May. Just a reminder. So the culmination of all of this revenue and expenditure talk really um within the general fund happens um and is presented in what we call the general fund 5-year forecast document. Um it's it's a really great tool. We look at the current year that we're in fiscal 26. We show you the expected results. We show you where we are with developing the fiscal 27 budget and then we show you a forecast of four more years after that. Um we expect to have our first draft of that 5-year forecast at next at your next study session February 18th. So we will start to see um more of the meat of sort of bottom line. Where do we think we are um and what's yet to be really worked out within the budget recommendation. Our memo also includes information um a little bit of looking back and a little bit more looking forward. As the city manager discussed, um we have a general fund spending comparison that that starts to get into the differences between the general fund budget in

fiscal 19 versus the general fund budget in fiscal 26, the year that we're in. We're beginning that analysis. I think it might provoke some more questions from mayor and council members even today and we're open to those questions and doing further investigation. Um really short um summary of what you'll find in reading that analysis is that there has been an increase in the general fund budget in total of both ongoing and one-time dollars of a little over $280 million between fiscal 19 and fiscal 26. Um and we talk about a number of um large items that contribute to that. um that change of $280 million. Compensation adjustments um an investment intended to support market-based and fair compensation for our employees make up the bulk of this increase. Um and major investments in compensation began occurring for the city in 2021. Um and have continued. I've even talked a bit about um our continuation and the work that we've been doing in 26 and 27 through our compensation plan. So there have been significant increases in investment in employee compensation to keep us marketbased um and to provide fair compensation. There have been other areas of benefits, health care, um public safety, pension costs that are large contributors to that growth in the general fund expenditures, including um the issuance of um certificates of participation for pension obligations that occurred in fiscal 2021. And it added an additional $35.2 million of debt service to general

fund costs. um those are costs that did not exist were not included in the 19 budget that are are included in the fiscal 26 budget and have been included since fiscal 21. So um really coming up and looking forward um we talk about uh our strategic budget analysis. That's an effort that we have been um going through as an organization for a number of years. Um, it assesses how public funds are used by each department with the and the goal is to identify areas where funding might be inequitable or insufficient, particularly in services that support underserved populations. This year, the team um is looking for ways to incorporate the prosperity initiative goals into this budget analysis. So, um, we'll be touching on service to underserved areas, underinvested areas, and then looking at ways that we can positively impact residents um, intergenerational inviting intergenerational poverty within the city and our region. So, that's coming up. We gave you a bit of information on the community engagement sessions that occurred this fall. um and you have a report, it's attachment B called the housing equation where you can see um sort of the the reach and the results of that budget engagement effort. We're also working on some spring community budget information sessions and we'll be reporting back more information to you on that. We are also expect to hold our employee budget engagement event, budget town hall. It's a very popular event with employees and we get a lot of great feedback um during that event that um will be occurring again this year at the the um Tucson Convention Center or possibly um in a remote environment. We've had requests from employees, can

we do this remote? We're we are thinking of taking them up on that idea this year. Um and finally, we have the budget calendar budget developments. So, um, we will be talking, um, through these next months. Um, but really the formal city manager's recommended budget presentation after all of these work sessions and discussions will come before you April 21st, um, with a series of public hearings, tenative budget adoptions, um, and final budget adoption on June 9th. And that's all I've got, Mayor. Thank you. Um, pretty meaty information. Thank you so much, Assistant City Manager Rosenberry and Director Rosel Melum. Real appreciate you preparing this update for all of us. I know that um as we enter the budget cycle, we start, you know, thinking for me it's been 18 budget cycles uh in the city of Tucson and I've seen it all

and I'm pretty sure I'm going to see more. Uh but what I have seen is how the decisions that are being made in the state legislature really affect uh cities across cities and towns across Arizona. Um but uh the Doug Ducey um uh flat tax has affected us for the last four years. Um, and I just wanted to ask how it's affecting the flat tax is affecting us this time around. I know that the Republicans in the state legislature are talking about creating um package of uh income tax reductions as well. that could highly affect um the uh you know the the income tax uh state shared revenue into the city of Tucson. So, I think we're going to have to pay special attention to that and make sure that our state and federal um intergovernmental director really uh communicates with our delegation and everyone all of the um uh state legislative representatives uh to make sure that we're like right on it because um I hear talk of a big bill. I'm not going to call it beautiful because it's horrendous. Uh and it really um it really could damage the state shared uh revenue coming from the state ledge. Uh duly elected I mean duly um um part of the state and income tax uh sent by tonins to the state legislature. So um we want as much of it coming back into

Tucson as possible. So, I would like to have you pay special attention to those bills that could possibly affect um the state income tax state um sales revenues coming into Tucson as well. So, I'm just going to open it up for my colleagues on the council, see if you have any observations, questions, or comments. Vice Mayor and then Council Member Cunningham.

Hi. Um yeah, uh thank you, uh Mayor. Uh my question is so I know we're we're talking about um actuals and projections for this current fiscal year and then we'll start talking about the next fiscal year. Um city manager, what are we what are we thinking as far as updates of what we're like how are we continuing to look at fiscal year 2026 in the next couple of meetings? if there any like do you foresee any kind of decisions that we might have to take to address the current fiscal year as we start discussions about fiscal year 27.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Uh great question. We when we made the adjustments in the fall and how we're tracking now, even when we made the adjustments on spending in the fall, it never really got us down to a balanced outcome on the year. We knew we were going to uh most likely uh reduce ending year cash balance more than we originally budgeted. So it is it is possible that we would be bringing you some additional spending turndowns for the current fiscal year. I don't have anything to present to you today on that. Um but that that is certainly a tool that we would could be looking at. Um, in addition, we um need to look at not just how do we walk down the slope toward what FY27 revenues might look like. We still have accumulated a number of uh one-time uh promises that we made to the community that need to be funded in the future years. So, we need a balance within the year, but also acrew cash uh for those for those promises. So, um, we we will be updating. We now January is not quite in the books. It's February 3rd, but we'll know in about a week how February or how January was. We're going to take another look how February is. And when we when we're actually bringing you a recommended budget for FY27, it'll have all the data up through February. Traditionally, we would have brought you all the way through the first quarter, but we we feel like we need to be a little bit more aggressive in monitoring and bringing you the budget um based on on those those data through February. Um so, uh that was a long way of saying there could be some additional spending adjustments in this current fiscal year. There's a handful of things that we budget that we haven't done yet that we have some one-time dollars that we might come back and say, uh we might want to hold off on this or that. Um, some of that might come as early as next meeting, uh, but most more likely on the

March 3rd meeting. And as we continue taking a look at the budget for 27, um I know that I've been very insistent on including uh our labor groups representatives in the benefits committee and they're the ones as well as others are making um recommendations to mayor and council in terms of the benefits, healthcare, dental, vision, etc. Um, I really would like to see um our labor groups also represented um in helping us with a 2027 budget. You know, them being uh intimately involved in um giving some advice and input to mayor and council. Um, I know we did this back in 2009, 2010, 2011 when we were feeling the effects of the recession.

Um, and it was very helpful to have mayor and council and the city manager and labor groups and employee groups uh really aligned when it came to very painful uh cuts in in uh in our budget. So, I would really like to see something um similar as we enter to 2027.

Honorable mayor, as as uh Anna mentioned, we do have the employee town hall coming up. Labor groups are integrately involved in that. We did open up an employee suggestion portal. We've always had sort of an open open door policy, but um not a lot of people walked through it. So, we did um enact an employee portal. We did pull the data recently to see if there's um some suggestions in there that could be an actionable that we will fold in as we move forward. Um and of course um as you mentioned the benefits committee which does have representation from from labor groups um has been a really effective tool for us. it really helps inform not just the types and quality of uh care services we can provide in health insurance but also what the city they're very mindful of the cost to the employee and to the organization. So um and we're really um it's one thing that's looks maybe uh exciting about this particular is that RFP process might might have generated some savings for us but don't don't count those chickens before they hatch.

Absolutely. I've learned that. Council member Cunningham and then Councilwoman Lee.

A few things. Uh so Santan Valley Incorporated, that's a really big deal because uh Bale Green Valley and Catalina Foothills have failed to and this is a big part of why we're always behind. So, I think it's important to point out um if Santan Valley was in Pimac County because we're the only county that it applies to, but if Santan Valley was in Puma County and did not incorporate, how much money would they have lost? And we want to get that number out to the people who live in Green Valley, Kelly, and Foothills and Bale because that's part of the challenge that we're facing.

That's why our property taxes are higher. That's why we pay more for jail board than other cities. It's just insane to me that people don't understand that. I've always said that one of the things I base some of our budgeting off is the take-home pay of our employees. We can't turn our back on them, especially the ones that stayed loyal. Um, so it's really interesting to me that the pension board would recommend an increase on the employees contributions when we had a 12.8% 98% growth. I mean, I'm look that 80% means that the the system is almost solvent. There's so many different other mechanisms that allow that they don't factor in. And I still think our fund managers fee schedule is sus. No offense to them. I mean, it's this it's a standard fee schedule, but they made 12 point we made 12.8%. Great. They also made like 9% of that. And I'm sure those six people who manage those funds are really unhappy about that. Um, so I think it's important that we continue to monitor that. And I don't really want to increase their pension obligation when we know that our health insurance provider is going to come out with us higher fees. They seem to never fail in doing so. And the next time we go out to bid, I want to be sure that we get to lock in what our fees are. Um, right now, I understand we're soliciting a new manager for our self-insured uh, health insurance program. But I'm going to tell you right now, anybody who's willing to commit to a flat rate for four years has my ear. And we ought to pro probably consider that right now.

We probably need to do a chart from year to year on how much one-time money we're putting into ongoing money to balance, especially our projections out and what we've done last year. It would probably be a little easier for the uh public and some of our newer council members to follow where we've outlaid one we're outlaying onetime money to cover our ongoing expenses. And I'm okay with that. Like you have to do that from time to time, especially when times get rough. But we need to be sure that that one time money stays solid. It's like I mean the best way I can do it if I was like teaching a class to help people visualize it is that you have your house and then you have your monthly bills and now you're going to sell a door from your house to pay your monthly bills. That's how I kind of look at it. So I'm okay and and again not um an uncommon practice in an organizations like ours when times are thin but we need to kind of chart that out like hey we're balancing but we're using onetime money here and in 2029 3031 when money runs out if the economy doesn't come back there's a lot of pieces that we can uh have some trouble with. Um, finally, I'd like us to take a look at procurement. And this is something that I've talked about at this table before, and I think we've got some really good people who are eager to try to take a look at those reforms where we have some type of sealed maximum when we put things out to bid. And that will basically disincentivize the folks who bid on projects for us to collude on how much they're going to spend. And if they all bid over, we'll just rebid the project. But I'm not going to take any 965 per square foot bids on a building that's already standing. That would be

the library, everybody. That's the bid we got uh at the county. So, I I I'm not going to I don't want to entertain those things. So, I think there's some opportunity and if we do it right and we're very methodical about this, um I think we can project some savings over the next three years with procurement reform. We have a memo that's being prepared with um uh with we're cooperating with the procurement office to try to get something forward. we just don't have all the specifics and some of it's a little theoretical, but it's also uh really important. So, those are my thoughts about the budget today. Um, I'm really concerned. I'm looking at this $347 million number and the $313 million number and, you know, that's the six-month base, and I know that February is different and all that other stuff, but still, when you really look at it, you're you're measuring 694 versus 626 million. That's $68 million that we're running behind on, ladies and gentlemen. That's not good. So, I'm really concerned about how that's gonna go down. Um hopefully we can Well, I I actually think the manager's plan and and some of the work you've been doing, uh Angelo and Anna, that I know your plan is pretty sound and we're going to be okay. Like, the the sky isn't falling. What I'm worried about is the sky in 27 and 28. And so anyway, thanks for the report. It's very detailed and thanks for giving us the numbers and not trying to sugarcoat it. It it's very helpful. Thank you,

Councilman.

Thank you, Mayor. Um just a a couple Well, actually, I have several things. Um first, I want to go to page 10 in your himnels, ladies and gentlemen. Um no, you you laid out four and I love the way this is framed. Practical actions. city can take to address structural pressure while protecting essential services. Um could you tell us what number three can you dig into that a little bit? Revisit transfers and cost recovery. Fiscal year 26 budget allocates roughly 70 74.7 million about 9% of general fund to support other fund operations through transfers. I'm really interested to understand what that what that includes. Honorable mayor, council member Lee, the fiscal 26 budget allocated, if I can go back quickly to what we submitted, $97.3 million um to transfers out and investments included in that $47.7 million um There are transfers for transit um primarily um there's a we have transfers for for transit and that goes to support the fund the operations of the transit system. Uh when we suggest revisiting transfers and cost recovery, it is a it is not a we do not recommend a peace meal approach. Rather, we recommend a broad approach that would look at all of the parameters involved in in what makes up the transfers in what make up the transfers um out of the general fund. Uh given where we are with the transit um

operations, the system has to rely on um uh transfers from the general fund to continue to provide the services to the public which is a service of course that does not generate um income um equivalent to the expenditures. So, so it is something that that that we cannot necessarily set aside, but it is something that we can come together. Um, staff could come together and take a closer look at to come up with suggestions to mayor and council on how best to handle the um ongoing cost out of the general fund.

Okay. Thank you for clarifying. I think it's really important that we're citing specific things that are included because the average person is not going to read that. It flagged to me because I'm aware that and I've talked about this so many times and spoiler alert I'm going to continue talking about this every meeting until we fix this this structural pressure as you said is that 9% of our general fund is being transferred out to fund transit and even in a memo that you all submitted to us in April of 2025 and I've talked about this often we're spending 9.0 9.04% 04% of our general fund to subsidize transit and that is completely out of alignment with every other city. Phoenix is 0% for its entire transit system. Mesa is 2.67%. I said 67 at the table. I don't know if I get a thing for that. My kids are going to be embarrassed. Um but that's the number in the spreadsheet. So to me, this is a major major thing that we have got to talk about and we have got to solve is how are we going to fund the transit system without relying on the general fund because the general fund cannot continue to carry the weight of that. And to me, you know, we either shrink the system to fit within the budget that we have or we find another funding source to relieve the pressure off of the general fund. And to that end, I did have a question. Uh, and you may not know, Tim, how to answer this yet, but do you know the dollar amount that we are required to provide in terms of matching funds for federal grants and whatnot to fund the transit system? Honorable mayor, members of the council, with respect to matching funds, um, that is separate from the, uh, fund transfer amount. So that would be um and we'll show that in detail on the um on the five-year when we come back on the 18th. It it varies from year to based on year to year based on the grants that we have active at the year. It can be anywhere

from probably1 to $5 million. Okay. Depending on the number of federal grants that we've received.

Okay, perfect. I was wondering how other cities do that when they have 0% of the general fund, but they also have to come up with matching funds. So I was curious about how all that worked. um to that end. said we have a 9% going to transit within that is the bus fair not collecting bus fairs and I want to talk about that for a moment because we had some recommendations in front of us back in August with five different scenarios for reinstating fairs and I want to Tim if we could prior to another meeting I think there there is a narrative that these numbers these scenarios and potential revenue were pulled out of thin air and I know that your team did the equity analysis that was required and also came up with these estimates for estimated revenue based on some criteria and some assumptions and some logic and I would like to see if you can provide that for us for these five scenarios just so we understand how you arrived at those potential revenue uh numbers and those targets so that we can answer that. Did you want to respond to that Tim? Uh yes, just real briefly, honorable mayor, uh council member Lee, we are happy to revisit uh the basis for all those estimates. Uh what I'd also like to indicate is we've also been asked to look at um what are the economic uh benefits and uh associated um both ridership but also economic investments associated with transit. Specifically, we there was a previous report done on the street car itself. we've been asked to look at um fair free in that same analysis on so we would be looking at both sides of the equation.

That's perfect. That is wonderful. Um table eight in the document um I love this fixed versus discretionary. I love this good table here. What I would like to see if we could get when we come into this next conversation on the discretionary policy choices piece like programs, pilots, initiatives, um, non-mandated service levels beyond minimum operational requirements. Can we double click down into that? Can we get some line items of what these different pilots and what these different options are? because I feel like um based on what we're looking at, we're going to have to make decisions and we're going to need that specificity on what is this particular line item, how much does it cost, so that we can start to visualize what those discretionary and those choices we have in front of us are going to be. Um I appreciate the narrative on fiscal year 19 versus 26. This was a question I asked in our last conversation acknowledging that when uh the vice mayor and I came into office and the mayor became mayor, we were spending uh 51% less in general fund expenditures and now we're spending 51% more. And my overarching concern with that is just what happens when we have to go back to living within our means and how are we going to be able to do that? And I think it would be helpful if we had some more definition. And I know you said the analysis is is going, but really what are those things? What are those onetime expenditures that are not going to carry forward? And I know we have done a series of investments in our employees from salary, which is critical. How are those stacking up so that we can see the progression of, you know, we approved $5 million for cola one year and then we did a $20 million and then now we're doing $22 million next year. How are all those stacking to tell us the story about where that $280 million is now allocated where it wasn't when we came into office? I think that's going to be really really important. Um, another piece, you know, I I know we

talked about when we visited the transit safety item revisiting at the second meeting in March after we know what happens with RTA, how we can move forward on transit safety now that we know what's going to be coming in or what's not. Um, I'm gonna work with the mayor and see if we can have a conversation around a long-term strategy for how do we get away from this 9%. What mechanisms are there for long-term transit funding? So, that's definitely an actionable thing to look at. Tim, I appreciate your point on um kind of a suggestion box. Hopefully that's an evergreen thing and that's ongoing so that when people see an opportunity they can submit um a suggestion and maybe there's a way we can tie it to people's goals and workday you know as we look at future goals for 2027 I guess it would be or midyear goals how can we add a goal to look for efficiencies and look for ways to do things better and save some money um and one of the other ideas I'll just throw out there is I know I know how much some of my colleagues love consultants so we don't want to do that But maybe there's an opportunity to create a program internally where we put people in different roles to shadow another organization to watch a process and look for efficiency opportunities because sometimes we get so stuck in what we're doing that we don't see the opportunities that are there to do things differently and to find efficiencies. So maybe if we can't, you know, have somebody come in and and look at all of our processes and help us identify those opportunities, maybe our own team can kind of jump in and shadow and help find those opportunities because I think there's probably a lot to be found and to be able to save and do things a little bit more cost- effectively over time to Paul's point about procurement for an example. But we've got to make that a dedicated focus to be able to find those opportunities.

Of course.

Uh thank you mayor and members of the council, Councilwoman Lee. Uh to that last point, I do want to highlight something we we haven't presented much on lately. Um but we did over the last year um really ramp back up our internal auditing process. Um we had internal auditors for a while and it's not just audit from a compliance standpoint. It's audits from a performance standpoint. And for about a year or a year and a half, we didn't have anybody in that role because we uh we take our most talented people and put them on the on the brightly burning fire at the time. We actually restored that and we've actually had a few um things come our way in the form of some um work output from that um from that function that hopefully will be doing much of what you were just saying. Um so that thank you for that suggestion.

Perfect. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Councilman Lee. I appreciate your um you know, request in terms of comparing 2019 to 2026. And I hear that a lot from many out there that you know, we have $280 million more. Whatever happened to it? Besides the transfers out, I I I would want to know, okay, how do we arrive at $280 million more? And uh there's a lot of misinformation out there that our budget uh in terms of disposable money is 2.4 mil billion dollars. Um I think people need to understand the general fund versus the entire budget and what is discretionary in terms of budgeting for mayor and council and what has to go to certain departments like Tucson Water and others. Uh, and so for me, what I would want to know, how do we get to the $280 million more, right? 2019 is very very different than 2026. Uh, we just went through a pandemic and uh a a huge inflationary period that I'm sure affected the funds coming in. But then we've decided uh to make huge investments, historic investments in our employees. And so how much of the funds coming in are really used to pay for the biggest resource that we have within the city of Tucson, which is our employees? How much more are we paying in and um health care benefits? all of the things that because one it's it's one uh story being told with the transfers out but

how did the 280 come to be and what are we spending that additional 280 on uh from 2019 2019 is a very different world than 2026 so council uh council member Barakas and I don't know if council member Schubert wants to jump in

thank you mayor well thank you all for that overview you um just some ideas that I have while you all were speaking as we move forward with the budget and and in preparing for the spring um community budget information sessions. I am interested in seeing some over I guess some some budget information ex sessions specifically for our boards, committees and commissions as we do think ahead for 2027 and getting them um while aware of our budget and also creating like a one-pager that could just explain the budget in plain layman's terms if possible with some visuals would be useful. for not only our offices to distribute but for our neighborhood associations and just our neighborhood groups. Uh this information could really provide an understanding of what the limitations are around moving money around within the budget along with data on what things actually cost. Um that's pretty much it. Thank you,

Council Member Schubert. Um, I really love council member Brahas's idea of community um, info sessions and a one-pager because I had a similar question. This is a really complicated process. Mayor, as you said, there's misinformation um, and a lack of understanding about um the the budget versus the general fund. And I know that in Ward six, um, we have a lot of interest on the part of our constituents in understanding the budget process better and how that aligns with, um, the city's goals and our priorities and like where we want to be in the future, which is always a hard thing to think about in a an environment of scarcity like we're in right now. But we still we have to do both the the short term response um to the situation at hand as well as think longer term about where we're going to go with this. Um, and I was really excited to hear that the strategic bud budget analysis is going to incorporate um, elements of the prosperity initiative. I think that would be a really cool thing to also be able to share out with constituents and just help them to understand how all of these things um, fit together. Um, I received really good feedback about those housing equation info sessions. Um, I was curious to know what the goals were in putting those sessions on and if we feel that they were reached and then I guess related to that if we're going to do something like that again. Honorable mayor, members of the council, um, I'll start with the the housing equation. Um, one of the primary goals was to have a more thoughtful, deeper conversation with with citizens or or customers outside of the time frame when we traditionally do it, which is the spring when we're in the middle of the budget. Because quite honestly, as as helpful and and important as that is during the budget process, it's very

much almost too late in the game to make fundamental change. it. The budget I'm presenting to you in a little over a month. Um, you're adopting it actually 4 months from today. So, and it's a big $2.4 billion beast to move around. So, and and I I credit the vice mayor with with challenging us on that um over several years about um that feeling that we're not able to really have a a thorough conversation with the with the with the with the community. So, we we uh tasked our uh office of equity and our chief equity officer and her team to to go out and do that deeper engagement in the fall when when we're not in the middle of the budget fire. And and they did it they they did it in a intentionally on a specific challenge of the community. They did it intentionally to get um people to be able to have many different ways to share and engage. Um, and so the goals were to engage with the community in an authentic way and then try to have that information on the front end of the budget. So that's that's what that's what we achieved. Will we do it again? I would say if you find it of value, absolutely. I think as staff, we found it of value. Um but you as the decision makers and you as the ones who ultimately adopt a budget um as you review those materials, as we engage on it, I I am absolutely seeking your feedback on a uh was it valuable and b how should we approach it next fall? Um so that we can keep getting better at that. So that's my answer.

Thank you. I appreciate that. That's really helpful. Um, I was kind of curious to know, is there a way to report back to the community about um, the priorities that they've expressed and how that may have impacted any decisions?

Honorable mayor, council member Schubert, I would say absolutely. Um, right now we we've provided this report, which is what we heard. Um, but I think what you're asking is what do we do with it? And so that would be something we would we can be tracking as we uh, build the budget narrative going up to a recommendation. Thank you. And then just um just to address the um the talk about uh how much of the general fund is devoted to transit and the fiscal impact of having um fair free. Um just want to mention that I'm not I always question the value of um whether or not we're concerned about being out of alignment with other cities when Tucson can't form our own metropolitan transit authority. Um so you know in Maricopa for example, they don't have that kind of pressure on their general fund. So, um I think when we're doing comparisons, it's important to make sure we're comparing apples to apples. Um and I was glad to hear city manager affirm that uh the plan to have a fiscal analysis. Um because uh every piece of data and research that we've seen has shown that when fairs are uh reinstituted in cases where they're fair-free, both revenue and wrership um decreases. Um, so, you know, I I too am interested in a long-term strategy to look for um dedicated and sustainable transit funding um and to just again help combat misinformation and create greater understanding. Um much as these budget conversations um will always prompt u my colleague Council Member Lee to talk about um transit funding and fairs, um budget deficits these days um prompt me to think about um the RTA next and that that has us uh devoting $20 million annually um to projects that are outside the city of Tucson. Um, so I think that it's important to look at the whole picture of all the decisions um

being made about the revenue and uh how Tucson's revenue is or isn't being reinvested back into the projects we need. Thank you.

Thank you. And talking about priorities, um, uh, we are having, uh, our city clerk talk to your offices to schedule a mayor and council retreat uh, so that we can talk about priorities and we can continue talking about uh, the budget at that time. But most importantly, when we enter into conversations about difficult budget years, it's important that we talk priorities. amongst um the seven of us to make sure that our priorities reflect the budget that we're putting together. So hopefully we'll we'll find we'll fall on a good date uh to talk about how we prioritize our budget moving forward. And I too want to thank all of you and the office of equity for putting together the um much more and uh expanded conversations on our budget. The housing equation budget forum uh was scheduled to happen one in each ward. um appreciate the council offices that that worked with the office of equity to put these conversations together. Um I one of my uh budget forums we focused completely on youth. We made it a youth um budget forum and we got a incredible turnout um and received information on uh on what their priorities are. So, in keeping the housing equation budget forums that we've done and then any other opportunities that we can get to get the input of our community, our labor groups into into the equation is going to be important for me. Um, and yes, I too, you know, agree that uh we

should move uh towards dedicated funding sources for lots of things. Um you know we've had many conversations around this table uh to talk about dedicated funding sources for parks and recreation uh for transit uh for public safety. Um I think the issue has been that um you know we have to convince the voters and putting together a uh voter informed question for them to uh tell us what they want to invest in is important. We went out and gave it a try with 414. Voters overwhelmingly rejected it. Uh we're looking at 418 419. Let's see what they say about that. Um I believe in yes and right. Um agree that Maricopa County and the city of Phoenix have very very different charters and um the city of Phoenix, you know, does have and Maricopa County, they do have a transit authority. And so the transit authority is funded uh through sales tax investments of the entire county of Maricopa. Uh and so the city of Phoenix does not have to spend um as much funds, very very little funds for transit because why Maricopa County residents decided to invest in their in themselves. So uh lots to talk about. I think I've said for a long time, if we want shiny, wonderful things, then we've got to learn how to pay for them. So, um, with that, if there's no more questions, I really appreciate the presentation. Uh, thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. City Manager.

All righty. We are moving on to item five. Item five, time has been set aside for discussion with the city attorney and city clerk regarding mayor and council authority and responsibilities. Mr. Attorney, thank you honorable mayor, members of council. I'd first like to thank the uh our former uh city clerk for having this conversation as well as our interim uh Miss Lozano for uh having this conversation as well with our office to get this rolling. Um we thought it was very important to discuss with the current council. Obviously, we have coun new council members, but it's always good to sort of uh remind ourselves of what our what our playing field looks like. And so, um this is going to this is a lot because an attorney did the PowerPoint. I apologize for that up front, but yeah, Tim already started trying to do that. Um but, uh we'll go through this quickly and and at any time if you have questions, please feel free to to jump in. Um I I try tried to keep it as as limited as possible, but there's a lot to cover, so I'll get to it. Um the first I'll talk talk about is the uh the charter authority of the mayor and council. Click

the clicky clickity clickity click thing. This

um obviously the and we're all familiar the charter uh in the city of Tucson authorizes the government of the city of Tucson to be invested in both the mayor and the council. uh the mayor and six council members um under chapter 3 section one. Those the powers are also of the mayor and council are also um included in in those provisions in chapters four and seven or six excuse me of the charter. Um and they're carried out in by official legislative action. So that means it's it's a vote by the mayor and council. Um some of those uh powers include obviously taxation which we we've also discussed budget uh sale or purchase of property regulation of streets, buildings, public safety, those sorts of things. I won't go into all of them because it's quite an exhaustive list of the powers uh that the mayor and council have, but it's important to understand that they are they are there in the charter. Um the mayor and council obviously uh as as the city clerk and I are intimately aware uh as is the city manager appoint the city manager, the city clerk and the city attorney directly. Um the remaining the remaining department directors are appointed by the city manager. Um and mayor and council are generally responsible for city policy and again that's through direct um legislative action through the passage of ordinances and resolutions and orders and those sorts of things. um the city and and we're going to talk more about this uh further along, but uh this uh this is where it can be sort of um uh confusing for folks. U so this mayor and council are obviously uh responsible for city policy. The city manager and the various departments are responsible for implementation of that policy similar to the the executive branch and the legislative branch in in both the state and federal governments. Good. So, so, uh, and this is something that I know the city clerk will cover as well. Um, but I think it's always important for the mayor and council to have an

understanding of what the various offices do and and especially in those charter roles, the city attorney, the city clerk, and the city manager. And I'll go over what what our role is in the city attorney's office, just to give you a sense of of what that looks like. First, we'll talk about what the structure of the the city attorney's office is. There's currently three divisions. Uh that includes the civil division, the criminal division, and the internal litigation unit. So the civil division is what you would normally uh uh consider the the city's attorney, right? So uh we represent the city as an organization and advise both the mayor and council and the city manager and all city departments in any civil legal legal matter, including some non-torr litigation. So non-tort litigation is something like a contract dispute or something like that. Um, in addition, we also have the criminal division, which we've talked a lot about at this table, and I've tried to to to bring it up as as much as possible because they engage in prosecuting misdemeanor criminal violations within the city limits. That includes many of the programs that that you, Mayor, and others and the members of council have uh tasked with things like community court and um the safe city initiative and transit safety. Those are all things that get prosecuted by the criminal division. It's very important uh in our office. Uh in addition, we have an internal litigation unit that has been very successful at defending the city uh and certain employees in their official capacity in tort lawsuits. So these are things like trip and falls, motor vehicle accidents, non-crack contract kind of disputes, those kinds of things that uh we have talked about in things like executive sessions and settlements and those sorts of things. So then getting back to sort of what our role is again the the city attorney's office represents the city as a whole or the organization as a whole. So that includes um the policies and goals uh through the elected officials including the mayor and of course the mayor and council via those legislative actions that I talked about before. Uh in addition uh when the city attorney's

office assists with those those policies and goals uh we determine the little legal strategies and give advice as to those basic legal requirements and consequences. Is it should we enter into this contract or that contract? Should those provisions of that contract behindification clause? All those sorts of things that we we would make those decisions on. Obviously we advise as any attorney would advise their client. Then ultimately the client makes those decisions. During litigation, it's a little different because the city sets the goals and determines what the city's position. But then in the same way that a city attorney or an attorney would represent their client, that attorney would then determine the legal strategy to take and the process taken to ch achieve those goals. So you tell me, hey, sue this in uh organization. We will sue that organization. We will pursue that um uh suit in in the manner that is appropriate under our legal strategy. That makes sense. Excuse me. So what do we do don't do and this is always always important to understand just a you know just a hint. Um we don't advise uh individuals as to their personal legal matters unrelated to the city. Um we don't advise individuals as to employment actions taken against them. Uh we don't advise criminal defendants as to their personal legal cases. And and let me just make that a little bit clearer. So we obviously deal with in the criminal division we deal with prosay defendants pe defendants without attorneys often uh often in the majority of those cases are prosay. Um we will advise them of what their rights are but we don't get to determine what they choose to do with those rights. We just advise them and then they they get to determine what what course of action they want to take. Um, we also adi we don't advise third parties as to legal strategies or risks and obvious obviously the city works with hundreds if not thousands of third parties in many different capacities and uh they

may have their own legal risks uh to determine and if we're we are entering into a contract or an agreement or or are are implementing policy and that may affect them, we don't advise them of the risks to them to those third parties. We may uh negotiate with them and they may present those risks and we can talk about that, but we don't advise them as to what they should do. And again, obviously because the mayor council sets policy for the city of Tucson, we don't make final policy decisions. That's up to the the seven of you. So, um, obvious, uh, this comes up quite a bit, uh, in in our advising the the mayor and council, and so we'd like to take just a few minutes to to talk about it. Uh, conflicts of interests are generally laid out in, uh, Arizona law under Arizona statutes um, 38501 to 511. Uh we also include those those sections within our own Tucson code city of Tucson code of eth ethics and our administrative directives um uh 2-214 and basically we just call those statutes out. So it's pretty similar across the across the board. So, and what that says is basically uh requires any public officer who has or whose relative has had uh a substant substantial interest in any contract, sale, purchase or service to notify and refrain from participating in any manner as an officer or employee in such a contract, sale or purchase. And that's pretty straightforward, right? It where it gets a little wonky is the application, right? It's not always clear if there's a conflict of interest and and we're always available, the city attorney's office is always available to discuss those it items with each each of you and your staff uh to determine whether or not there is actually an interest. Generally, what what we're looking for is what we call a substantial interest. as substantial interest is any non-speculative

pecuniary or proprietary interest which is is a mouthful but really it's just a direct economic benefit or a detriment uh to the officer or their relative. So if I have a if I'm coming to the city and I I want to negotiate a contract um and my you know my brother's on the council that's going to be a pretty clear um uh benefit to me if I can negotiate that contract with the city. So, I would have to, you know, probably have my brother recused and those sorts of things. Um, where it gets a little bit more uh interesting is those sort of more more remote um interests that people might have. This is a this is not an exhaustive list of remote interests. And remember, if these are if it's a remote interest, it's not a substantial interest. So, that means there's not a conflict. Um, some of the remote interests are for folks that are on uh nonprofit boards. Um they're if they're not salaried, they're not getting any pecuniary benefit or not not getting any direct benefit. Um if they're an attorney of a party, uh they're not getting any benefit because they would get paid either way. Um member of a nonprofit marketing association, those are things that that don't uh qualify as a conflict. Um also a public officer of another um municipality or another organization or political subdivision. Um, so those are all all things that that people come to us with pretty regularly. The the last one is also one that comes up pretty regularly is a relative who's an employee of an of a company that the the the city does business with, but it's a large company and they don't have any control or decision-m authority, then we don't consider that a conflict under the current law. Um some of the more specific complex conflicts that are laid out in the Arizona statutes include uh obviously uh the for mayors for mayor and council if uh people generally if they move on uh they have to refrain from representing an

entity for compensation for that body for at least a year. Um, additionally, they can't disclose confidential information for at least two years after that representation, assuming you'll all be here for 50 years. It's not going to be an issue. Um, you also can't use your obviously the the biggest one is you can't use your official position to secure valuable things or benefits. You can't go to, you know, Pats and get a hot dog for free or, you know, anything. I would get more than a hot dog. I'm just saying. This is this guy right here. Um, also you can't use city equipment or facilities for what what's called the general convenience or profit. Obviously, you can use city equipment and city facilities for um for your for work and for your employ for your appointed employees and those sorts of things. But if it's just, you know, you just want to sit and play, you know, the latest video game on your your city computer all day, then probably not so much. Um, this guy. Um, while we're while we're speaking of that, I also put in uh the Tucson code section 1018 and and our political activity guidelines. I'm not going to go over them now. Um, I will go over one portion of them because I I did get a question related to it and that's um Arizona Revised Statute 9-500.14 and that's just using um city resources to influence an election. Obviously that's a state statute and the concern is is that the uh political subdivisions, cities, counties have have a lot of resources and if there are elections they can use those resources to influence the outcome of those elections. So that state statute exists for that reason. Mainly the the main thing you want to think about when you're thinking about that those kinds of things is one you don't want to uh influence the election. So the first thing you do don't do is either express support or uh opposition to a particular ballot measure especially if it's if it has not been voted on and it's before for the community. Now the main thing

though is also you don't use you uh one of the things they look at when they're doing the analysis for these kinds of uh violations is they look at whether you've used uh city resources. And for employees, it's very clear. Uh for employees, you can't do it while you're an employee, acting as an employee, right? You're on the you're on the clock, those sorts of things. Well, we also recognize that the mayor and council are are always on the clock, right? So, that's not included in the the analysis so much. It's really are you using those those city resources? Are you using city computers? Are you using, you know, city office space? Are you doing those sorts of things? um you do do have a first amendment right to um to express your opinion on any matter of general uh general public notice, right? But you have to do that as an individual. So that means that if you have an opinion about a ballot measure or something like that, you can express that, but you can you express it outside of your purview as a council member and mayor.

I'm sorry, Roy, this is contrary to what Mike Rankin had always advised us. So, as mayor and council, as I understood it, have a right as elected officials al to also to take a stand on initiatives and candidate endorsements. Is that correct?

You do, but it's it's a different um Let me explain how how that works. And of course I understand not using any city resources, not using our office, our printers, our computers, um not using our staff uh to say vote yes or no on something. But as an elected official, I could go outside, use my personal cell phone, my personal Instagram, my personal Facebook page, and tell people I support a certain candidate or a certain Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And that's exactly I'm I'm sorry if that came across. Yeah, that that came across completely contrary to what I understood.

Sure. I know. Um and getting getting back to what I was saying, you do have that first amendment right to uh uh to express those opinions. Again, you just don't do it as um you can use the you can even use the title that you just don't do it using the resources available to by by virtue of your position. So that means your, you know, like your city issued cell phone or your city issued computer and those sorts of things. Um the the statute does recognize that the you know elected officials are a little bit different in the in the sense that they may express those opinions um at any time and and aren't necessarily paid by by the hour and can express those. Um the important thing to remember though is just that resource issue. It's it's it's really focused for elected officials. was very much focused on using using other.

So, we wouldn't be able to use our newsletters that we use, right? Uh to inform our neighbors as a mayor from the mayor's office, but we would be able to add our name to a political mailer um paid for by whatever c you know uh candidate campaign or issue campaign happening. Okay. I just wanted that clarity because there is an election happening right now. I notice and many of us are taking positions um and of course I'm mayor all the time. Yes. So as mayor Romero I either support a candidate uh or an initiative and I can do that.

Yep. You sure can. Again just as long as we understand the resource. So for instance and sometimes and the the other thing that is clear is not always clear but and we may forget this is a resource right? we're we're using city resources for to broadcast this and and all those sorts of things. So so this is where we don't sort of express those views. Um additionally additionally you can also something that the that you can do is you can provide factual information. If somebody asks you a question about a particular proposition or something like that you can answer that question. It has to be factual though. So it has to be based on you know if they ask you how many you know how how much does the city spend on this particular thing you can answer that question as it relates to a proposition or something like that. Um you can't say well if we only did this and and you pass this then this will happen. That's a that's a more of an advocate advoc advocatory sort of uh position and you want to avoid that kind of thing. So, in matters of of registering to vote and voting,

is that a um um partisan or campaign thing? So, the mayor in her office could say, "Hey, you can register to vote today." You can actually and you can encourage people to vote, right? That's that's that's one of the carveouts from that statute. So registering to vote and making sure people are aware of elections that is absolutely game when it comes to using city of Tucson resources. That's correct. That's correct. And that's something just wanted to make sure because you know there's a lot of misinformation out there.

There is any other questions on that particular piece or I just wanted to make sure that we covered it appropriately. If you think of them, just thank you. We'll come back to it.

All right. So, um, one of the things this mayor council has been sort of forward looking on is is adopting their own code of ethics and they did this in 2013. Um, let me get back here. Um, generally the code of ethics applies to all employees, but also the mayor and council uh has adopted it for them and for themselves and their own staff. Uh it also applies to members of uh uh boards and commissions and committees. Uh includes rules related to the interaction between mayor and council and their staff uh and city employees. Um and I'm going to go, as I said before, I'm going to go a little bit into sort of that staff interaction with mayor and council because I think it's it's sort of important and can be a little awkward sometimes uh with folks uh just to understand the boundaries. So section and I've included in the materials the code of ethics as well as the ordinance and the rules of conduct uh for your own own review. So uh if you have questions on those feel free to ask those as well. Um what section seven of the uh code of ethics relates to open government and transparency. So it talks about things like open meeting law and public records. Also notes that emails as we know now are public documents as well. Um section nine uh talks about the council manager form of government and and I know mayor vice mayor and others we've had many conversations about sort of the different t forms of government in in Tucson we have a council manager form which which means that the council acts as a body and then uh as we talked about before develops those policies directs policy and then the city manager implements those policies. Some other uh forms are what we call a strong mayor form of government where a mayor may act individ individually and independently of their council uh on certain matters um but still uh get advice and consent from from that council. Um and sometimes

it's a strong manager uh uh position where the manager does most of the the the policy work as well as the uh as well as some of the implementation. So here in the city of Tucson, obviously we have a council manager form. Um the council and mayor as a body uh legislate and so they create policy, they they direct pol policy initi initiatives uh and uh sort of set the parameters in which the city manager works and then the city manager implements those uh implements those policies within those parameters. Um it's important to understand that there's a uh sort of a separate a needed separation right between the mayor and council acting in their policy initiatives and the city manager. City manager uh uh covers the uh gambit of the departments and makes sure that all of them are functioning appropriately under that policy direction. uh the mayor and council can uh reach out to those those uh departments individually for information and to get questions answered and stuff like that. But in terms of direction, the city and the the mayor and council act as a body. So that means that you know council member uh Schubert can reach out to department of transportation and say hey I would like some more information on transit. um in terms of what happens with that information, it would come back to this body and they would decide ultimately, hey, we're going to do this thing with transit and then the city manager that would implement that policy. Um sometimes that can get a little blurred and and we all are comfortable and our our directors are very good uh about managing that, but it's important to understand that the direction comes from the mayor and counsel through the manager to the departments. See here. Get my clicker going here. All right. And I I I think this just sort of repeats what I just said, so I'm not

going to spend any time on it. And that's just a lot of words saying exactly what I just said. So, we'll we'll go we'll go through um just a real quick uh run through the rules of conduct. Those are outlined in in administrative directors for employees, but also again because the si the mayor and council uh adopted the code of ethics adopted those rules of conduct. So those rules of conduct apply not just for the city employees but also mayor and council, the BCC's and the mayor and council's um appointed uh employees in their ward offices. So, it's important to understand that um if you're ever, you know, some sometimes we don't get a opportunity to I know um the clerk's office has a really good job of onboarding uh city employees that work for appointed are appointed uh through the ward offices, but sometimes it can be a little bit challenging being not only the council member, right, and the mayor, but also a boss, right? Because you have appointed members and and you have to sort of work through those HR issues and stuff like that. Obviously, always reach out to your, you know, your city clerk because they they do a fantastic job of of helping you with that. But just kind of to understand what are some of the basic rules and conduct, those are covered in 8202-5. Again, that's also in your materials as well. um some of the things that uh that covers their basic principles of conduct but also being a work on time obviously how to use city property what you can and cannot do with city property how to keep accurate track of your time um how to conduct yourself and this one comes up a lot unfortunately when we're dealing with with disciplinary issues but how to conduct yourself in a manner on and off duty that does not compromise your ability uh of themselves or their uh other employees to perform their their duties right how do they make sure that they're doing doing their duties in a in a professional manner. Especially important for mayor and and council members. Their staff are obviously uh uh much more so than than some other employees dealing with the public on a

regular basis. And so it's helpful to understand what those rules are, those sort of rules and engagement are. So it's always important to to understand that. Obviously, we want uh our employees and our employed uh employees as well to be truthful in pertinent facts. Um, and we would use those rules of conduct if we're ever in the unfortunate position of having to engage in discipline of of those individuals. All right. Now, you've always what you've always been waiting for, the open meeting law conversation, right? And this is this is sort of I'm going to have Yolanda's going to smack me a couple times if I get this wrong. So, uh, I'll I'll give it a shot. So open meeting law is covered

supposed to video that right?

Please do. So u open meeting law is covered in uh Arizona sections 38431 4310 through 43109 basically just requires an open meeting uh that the legislative action that we have been discussing through this whole time that that happens in the open right at a meeting. Uh meeting is defined broadly includes gatherings in person or through electronic devices. We're in a whole new world, right? When when we used to back not more than six years ago where we used to have, you know, meetings in person, that was it. And now we have a whole policy on how to have electronic meetings and hybrid meetings and those sorts of things. The only thing to remember that didn't change with all any of that, right, is open meeting law requires that if there's a quorum, it's a meeting. And so that's a good good thing to think about when you're, you know, out and about in the

You mean it's a public meeting? It's a public meeting. So if there's a quorum, the public must be allowed to be present. Right. Correct. Okay.

That's right. So uh obviously a quorum is a simple majority of the members of body. That's for us that's four. Um for other BCC's there's different there are uh specific rules that we had to engage uh American council. Again we're we're very forwardlooking uh in thinking about there were BCC's that we had that weren't able to meet quarum because of uh the covid uh pandemic and those sorts of things. So there are certain u there are certain different co quorum requirements for those BCC's. It's not a quorum of the appointed body. It's the quorum of the the the people there that was to allow them to to meet in a way that that made sense for that that organ or that committee or board. So what what are the key components? You have to have an agenda. You have to post it at least 24 hours in advance. You have to have a legal action report. Uh, and you have to do that within three three working days of the meeting. Uh, you have to have minutes. That's our wonderful clerk's office that does that for us. Um, called to the audience is not required. Um, obviously in most of our public meetings though, they are included, but it's not required. Um, under Arizona law and executive sessions can be had. Now, executive session for those of us who are I think we're all familiar with that, but for those folks who might be listening, um executive session is just an accession that that is used to consult the their attorney of record, right? Um on certain matters like employment uh or settlement or litigation or those sorts of things where where the um now what doesn't happen in executive session is any illegal act any legal action. So that's just a time for the body, the mayor and council to consult with their attorneys and staff to understand what their options are and then they come out of that executive session and then make their decisions. Um it's not a it's not a situation where we go into executive session, make a decision, then come back out. Um it's generally you will see that

deliberation and that sort of thing within after the executive session when we have our additional um study session item. Any questions up until Yeah, go ahead. Councilman, I do have one on quorum just out of curiosity. If four of us accidentally show up at the same place, is one of us supposed to pretend we're a stranger and we don't know like how do we handle that? And is that's obviously not for the purpose of discussing items, but we're kind of out and about all the time. No, it's a good question and I I can let um Miss Lono Zano speak to it, but it's it generally we handle it in two one of two ways in terms of the terms of the law. Nothing legal can happen there. So you can't discuss any items, but then also we can put out an agenda later at at the time.

So what we normally do if you know ahead of time or the department, whoever's hosting that sort of thing knows ahead of time and mayor and council is invited, they send us an email stating that this is going to happen. A majority of the council members will will be there. We post what we call a public notice of the event. And then at the bottom, note that uh no uh items of business will be will take place during this time. But if you want to ignore me, council member, that's okay. I would never I was talking more about Kevin. I'm just kidding. Wow.

But I know that many of us are like walk away. If you know a few of us are in in a group, we just walk away so that we make sure I'm always very aware to walk away if there's more than three of us there. So I I I try and just like, you know, run the other way. So I would just recommend if you know ahead in advance that that's a possibility, send us a quick email with the details of the event and we can post that notice and post it to the web.

That's right. Uh a couple uh additional items uh that are required components. Uh legal action and this gets more to what you were uh asking about council member Lee. Legal action is defined as a collective decision, commitment or promise made by a public body pursuant to the Arizona constitution, Tucson charter bylaws, uh or the specified scope of the appointment of the laws of state of Arizona. So it's something that you some legal action that you're taking. So, if you dec, you know, if you're at a a meeting out in the public and and the four of you get together and say, "Hey, we're going to do this thing." That's a legal action because then you can come into here, come here and do that same thing and it becomes a legal action and it becomes a little bit problematic unless we've done what what Miss Lozano has already talked about. Um, for any of those open meeting law, open meetings, uh, open public meetings, the public must be permitted to attend and listen. any member may record the meeting. Uh the room must be large enough to hold the number of people reasonably expected to attend. Um and again all the election has to occur during that meeting. So a couple of violations that we we I wouldn't say we see this regularly because most people are really good at this. Um but uh email can be a problem and that's because if if one of a if one of the c mayor and council send an email to a quorum and then that proposes legal action nobody even has to respond. But if you propose legal action and you're sending it to a quorum of the mayor and council that could be a violation. So, you want to be very careful about the discussions. Obviously, when the city manager and the city clerk or or I uh email you, we generally put in a disclaimer that says, "Please don't respond to this this email. We're informing you." Uh then you can you can discuss individually and then come back for for legislative action if necessary. So, an example of proposing a legal

action is I think we should put in a crosswalk at first and Maine. If any of you sent that to all the or quorum of the the mayor and council, that could be considered a violation because it's ob it's even though it's not a discussion, it's still proposing legal action. So, you want to be very careful about that. Um, the other thing that can happen is sort of um and this happens more with the BCC's than than mayor council again because I think you guys are all very good at this. Uh there might be, you know, sort of a chain of email that kind of makes it around makes it around in a committee or on a board where it starts with one to to another and then that gets to the third and then it gets to the fourth and then all of a sudden now you've got an email chain and has all four board members or council members or something like that on it. That can be considered a violation. The other one less common uh and but can be problematic is one individual going to each of four or five or six council members and talking about the same legal action. Again, just be careful about that kind of that kind of thing.

Yeah, absolutely. So, when you say BC BCC's, can that be different members like from different boards and commissions or are you talking about one? I'm talking I'm generally talking within one board and commission because we're talking about a quorum from that board or commission. That's that can be the challenge sometimes though obviously people you know different organizations can be part of multiple and so you want to be careful about that as well. Um the Roy I hate to be rude but we have 10 minutes to go and 20 more slides.

Okay we'll get we'll get through it quickly. We'll go through it quickly. Um these are just some general uh what happens in the investigation. The investigation the ag or the county attorney can investigate. They can do records retention all the our record requests all those sorts of things. Um stay on topic violations. Uh the the main thing is uh violation is $500 per violation attorney's fees and if found to be intent with done with intent the court can order removal from office. So, that's the main one you want to be care careful about. Um, emails uh are generally the issue, but Roy, that violation, that $500 is

the council members. Yep. Personally, personally, yeah, it's not something the city Also, the city attorney's office can't represent you either. Uh, email scenarios. Again, I think we've sort of covered that. I I just talked about that. So now I'll hand it off to Miss Yolanda who yeah will do a great much better job.

So for me um yes because we are short on time and I knew that Roy would take up all the time um on what the clerk's office do. Most all of you know because we work with you on a daily basis but we do mayor and council agendas um meetings and the logistics for mayor and council meetings. I won't go into that because you basically know all that other than, you know, agendas have to be put out usually the week prior to the meeting. If you want to add something to an agenda item, if the agenda has already been set, it's got to be approved by the mayor. If you want to request that an item be put on an agenda, a memo needs to be sent to the mayor, city manager, and city clerk's office, and the mayor will decide which meeting that gets put on. Um then we do um oversee BCC's. There's like 50 plus BCC's that we see oversee. Our staff supports at least seven of those. We also do open meeting law with uh BCC's and make make sure they stay on track and stay out of trouble. Um, we administer city elections which includes candidates, candidate filing, campaign finance, um, public matching funds, um, initiative referendum recall, um, redistricting. When redistricting comes about, even though that's a BCC, it's still part of our elections process. We do the public publicity pamphlet or what is known as a choice is yours. Our office does that. We run elections from start to finish except for the part of the mailing out of ele of ballots, but we create the ballots, we send them to the vendor for printing, they mail, and once they get mailed out and start being returned, we do everything from then on. Um, we also do liquor license applications, special events, person transfers, person location transfers, um, new applications, extension of premises.

um staff is real good about making sure that they're always communicating with those applicants and with the state liquor board to make sure that they're meeting um city requirements and are in compliance. Um we also support mayor and council offices and staff with onboarding anything that the mayor and council offices need. um we're not as involved with your budgets because I think now you have a budget leaison that works with you. But if you need help at any point in time, um call our office and we'll be more than willing to help and assist in any way we can. Two areas that I really want to focus on is records management. Um for some time our records management has kind of been falling through the cracks. Um, but we really need to beef that up and make sure people are following state retention schedules. Um, Jesus, our records manager, has been reaching out to the different departments trying to get people on board, trying to get them trained to know what needs to be done. So, that's in the works. Plus, and then our other thing is the public records requests. We do both internal and external. We have gotten our our numbers for public records requests has like doubled in the past year and I think I heard in our legislative update that there's legislation to change um public records requests and the time uh that we need to respond to those requests. Right now it's respond in a timely manner. What does that mean? It means something different to everybody, but our staff is really really good about staying up on that, making sure that we're responding to the requesttor, keeping them updated. So, it it's a big big um area that we're we're working with and has Sus and his staff are have really been good about

that. So, that is in a in a nutshell what our office does. Uh, we're a small, as Roger and Suzanne always used to say, a small but mighty department because we do a lot. We're always the first office that people call for direction and help when they're trying to navigate through the city. And I'm sure, you know, with the hiring of the new city clerk, some of those changes will some of those processes will change um to whatever she would will want to update, bring new ideas, that sort of thing. So, more fun to come. Um and that's it. And thank you for your time.

Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Attorney. Thank you, Miss Clerk, for the presentation. I think it um um Roy had suggested that we have this little 101 session with our new council colleagues, but for me it's always good to, you know, refresh and ask questions over and over again. Um you know, as an elected official, uh usually there's people out there wanting to get me. Uh so I think that that'll be for all of you the same situation. Um and uh but but it's really important to know the charter so that we can uh perform the duties that we the charter is very specific on us having the power to. A lot of people come to me and say hey look the mayor of Chicago did an executive order to do x or y and the mayor of Chicago is a strong mayor system. I don't have the power and many times uh the state of Arizona and the state legislature preempts any type of power for cities and towns in Arizona. So, um, usually I find myself explaining the powers of the mayor and the council very frequently, especially in these, um, you know, in these unsettling times that we're living in that people ask, especially me, uh, to be able to react or act upon different things that different mayors around the country do. And what I've seen really that every single um mayor and council have different abilities depending on the charters um or even there's some unchartered cities that have different rules even here in Arizona. So um every single

jurisdiction I've come to find out um has different rules of what their mayors and councils can do. So, it's it Thank you for the update. Thank you for all of the help and amazing support. Uh, Miss Clerk, I really appreciate you and all your staff for for the work. Um, any questions? Council member Do. Thank you. I just want to say great job. I wish this was available when I was elected. Months later, I found an old document, you know, advice to the new city councilman and it was outdated. But, uh, this is great. I learned something and it's really great to have it all together. Thank you, Roy. Thank you. We just knew you knew it all,

Kevin. All righty. So, anything else that you'd like to add? No.

I always do this to myself. I think I have a a peanut um allergy and I always eat I always can't stay away from peanuts. Anyway, so if I start, you know, raspy voice or coughing, please bear with me. We are going to move to item six which is I requested this item to be discussed at this agenda the safe city initiative update. Uh this one in particular uh will be on our mayor and council agenda each month. So I've requested that the safe city initiative update be the first Tuesday of every month when we have a council meeting. I think it's important for us to make sure that we're discussing the progress that the city of Tucson and each of our departments are achieving through the safe city initiative. Um, as I said before, and I will continue to say every day as mayor, um, I believe that every resident in Tucson deserves to be safe in our public spaces. Um, and you know, we have a duty and obligation to do that work. Um, I've heard previously some say, you know, it it doesn't have it doesn't have this responsibility on our charter, right? Um, we are not obligated to uh to do that service because it doesn't say that we have to do it um with whatever mechanism created the the jurisdiction. Um for us the charter is very specific in terms of um public safety which is police and fire. That's what our charter says. But I know that my colleagues on the council and I advocate more for safety. And um even though our charter doesn't say you

must do something about unsheltered homelessness or affordable housing, this particular mayor and council and generations back have worked hard to make sure that we are uh doing everything we can to provide the services to our community that they deserve. Um this particular meeting and the update on safe city initiative is in honor of the gun violence survivors week that we started on Sunday. Um we're focusing in this update on gun violence prevention. Um Arizona has some of the weakest gun laws in the country and the 18th highest gun death rate in the country. Uh approximately 1,300 people die each year in Arizona from gun violence. One of my first acts as mayor was to sign on uh to the mayors against illegal guns uh coalition. It's a bipartisan coalition of mayors who are working to reduce illegal access to firearms and to support proven prevention policies. Um, I know that many of us have some sort of story in terms of gun violence done to our family or friends or people that we know. I just sat on a panel on Sunday with Gabby Gfords and she started the uh Gfords which is an organization bipartisan or or nonpartisan organization that really works to create uh gun laws that will help protect our communities. And so, uh, here in Tucson, one of my commitments as mayor has been to, uh, really reduce gun violence and

and and violence, period, in our city. Um, and, uh, some of the ways that we've done that is by doing prevention strategies and intervention strategies and investments in community safety. That's why we, you know, created um the um uh office of violence prevention and intervention. We recently hired our first violence prevention intervention program manager, Oscar Medina, who's here with us today, and uh other incredible work that we're doing in partnership with each and every department in our city, very specifically Tucson Police Department. that's an incredible partner in gun violence uh prevention and intervention in our city. So, I just wanted to start it off. Um, and I know that uh Liz Morales is our assistant city manager is going to uh guide us through this. Thank you, Liz. Thank you, Madame Mayor and members of council. Thank you for this opportunity to give you an update. Our first of many upcoming updates to safe city initiative which I'm very proud um to be able to be one of the um uh part helping lead some of this work and also thank you to the city manager for giving up his chair today for me to be so the three of us could sit at the table and have this conversation. Um and mayor thank you for that that introduction. it. This uh first uh series will be on the gun violence prevention and intervention efforts that we are doing. Um this work reflects a strategic citywide approach uh that combines prevention, intervention and enforcement rather than just relying on a single tactic. You know, gun violence is not inevitable as some may may think. It cities like

ours that invest in coordinated evidence-based strategies do see results. Here at the city, we have intentionally aligned prevention, intervention, and enforcement under safe city initiative uh framework so that we can ensure that the efforts are complimementaryary and not fragmented. This alignment also allows the city to intervene earlier, respond more precisely, and focus enforcement where it is most effective. And as a result of these of this alignment, we are already seeing meaningful reductions in gun violence in targeted locations and which validates the approach we are taking. For those in our city who are not aware of what Safe City initiative, here's a brief overview. Um, since October 2025, Mayor U had an open letter to Tucson residents. We have worked to integrate responses to violent crime, unsheltered homelessness, the opioid crisis, and quality of life concerns by coordinating across departments and community partners. The city is moving away from a siloed approach uh towards shared accountability and datadriven decision making. This structure allows resources to to be deployed more efficiently and with greater impact. As the mayor already indicated, we've been really working on building the infrastructure needed to sustain the work long term. Tucson Police Department, who's been doing this work for a while now, um has expanded the community-based violence intervention as part of the greater public safety strategy. We, as the mayor indicated, in 2025, we established the office of violence prevention and intervention that sits under the city manager's office to lead the coordination across systems. The hiring of Mr. Medina, as the mayor had indicated, is that first

step uh for the office of violence and prevention. He is going to provide the dedicated leadership to align partners, track outcomes, and ensure this work moves from short-term initiative to lasting systems change. And I have asked uh Oscar to share a little bit about himself and and some of his plans as our and we'll start this conversation. I've also asked assistant uh police chief Diana Duffy will share the also the various efforts and progress we're making in reducing gun violence. We will also hear at the end from Laura Dent, our director of state and federal relations, who will share the legislative agenda on this topic. So, I will turn it over to Oscar. Thank you, honorable mayor and members of the council. It's an honor to serve in this role as the violence prevention intervention manager. I get an opportunity to work with community members who are impacted disproportionately by gun violence. And I come to this work as a former community enrichment coordinator with uh the uh community safety, health and wellness, being on the ground for two years working in the Viva communities and before that uh 12 years as an educator uh teaching middle school and high school here in the uh Tucson community. This work is important to me because my former students and their families uh have been impacted by gun violence. and um thank you for allowing me to be here today and for allowing me to present some of the prevention efforts that are taking place in in our community. The Office of Violence Prevention Intervention is developing a multi-year roadmap 2026 to 2030 that will outline prevention and intervention priorities. The strategies used for the implementation and prevention and intervention practices and programs will be evidence-based and data informed. The multi-year roadmap will include benchmarks and align with some of the existing citywide prevention and

intervention goals including the safe city initiative, the violence interruption and vitalization action initiative and the prosperity initiative with the goal of delivering measurable and collective impact. The office will establish and strengthen coordination with key partners through regular meetings with Tucson Police Department's research and analysis unit, the community violence intervention management coordinator, and the Pima County Health Department, and their office of injury and violence prevention. neighborhood leaders and nonprofit organizations like Goodwill's Community Violence Intervention CVI program, The Village, the Kodak Trauma Recovery Center, and Puma County uh justice services and other organizations that are focused on violence reduction. Can we go to the next slide? I want to share some some of the updates from last year in our Viva communities. across four Viva communities. In 2025, we reached 899 residents through canvasing and strategic community outreach. Our community enrichment coordinators in the Viva conducted 20 289 surveys, getting feedback from residents and outlining top priorities that community members believe reduce gun violence. These priorities are guiding the community enrichment coordinators in the field as they bring resources and develop programs for residents in the Viva communities. 503 Viva community members attended one of five um on-site community resource fairs. We make these resource fairs festive and vibrant with music, food, and typically have anywhere between 8 to five community resource providers, tableabling, giving valuable contact information for workforce opportunities, workforce development opportunities, legal assistance, after school programs

and act and activities to keep young people engaged. These types of resource fairs create that social cohesion that is needed in the community. 487 Vivo residents participated in one of or more community events that our team hosted. These community events consisted of neighborhood cleanups, neighborhood yard sales, neighborhood tree planting, and neighborhood public parties. Lastly, 305 participants in one of in one or more communities attended one or more community safety meetings or workshops where they proactively discussed how to enhance community-led public safety. These types of meetings and workshops teach members how they can promote collective efficacy. So, I look forward to continuing to continuing this momentum and um continuing to have this type of level of engagement in 2026 in the Viva communities. Additionally, uh some gun violence prevention efforts. I want to thank the community safety, health, and wellness team. My colleague Lee Hopkins has an incredible team of care coordinators. In in 2025, 35 households within the Viva communities received some kind of care coordination. 17 of those were referred by our community enrichment coordinators and 10 Aviva households received higher level of intervention by care coordinator core care care coordinators assisting them in housing navigation, food assistance, filling out an order of protection related to domestic violence, substance abuse treatment services, enrollment and workforce development programs and mental health services. In uh 20 in 2024 um we created um a

community safety leadership institute and this uh leadership institute uh took community members uh through an eight-month uh leadership institute. Um these these courses or or sessions consisted of two hours and they typically revolved around empowering community members with skills and knowledge and tools to promote safety and well-being. Um in in May of last year, 19 of those community members completed the institute and many want to remain engaged and help the city and and their neighborhoods. Um, in November of last year, we had our first gun violence prevention youth summit that took place at the PBLO Community uh center. Thank you, mayor, for attending and for for listening to the youth. Um, that those themes of that summit were remembrance, those who who people have lost from gun violence, the root causes of gun violence, and the collective action that young people can take. We're in the process of organizing a violence prevention youth summer boot camp where youth ages between 12 and 22 can participate in a 5-day Kenyan nonviolence curriculum in partnership with the non-violence legacy program to promote youth with uh Kenyan historical framework to practice and promote peacekeeping among their peers and in their community. The uh Tucson Violence Intervention and Prevention Planning Council gathers quarterly at the Silver Lake Goodwill campus to share data, resources, and bring community members who have lived experience with gun violence to advance and grow our Tucson community violence intervention CVI ecosystem. We just had our meeting last week and I want to recognize the village program, Lance, Britney, Carlos, Fay, May, some of the CVI specialists who are out in the field

and and will join us sometimes at the Viva communities. I look forward to sharing later this year uh the outcomes and some of the deliverables of this ongoing work. I'll pass it over to Assistant Chief Duffy. Uh thank you mayor uh Romero and council for having us here today. I'm going to talk a little bit about TBD's focus violence reduction. Uh we've been actively involved in all of the Viva locations uh since the inception of the program. We have recently in the last uh probably year and a half centralized all of our non-fatal shooting investigations which I'll talk a little bit more about. We expanded the crime gun intelligence unit. Uh we created a partnership with Goodwill the village to engage with high-risisk youth and young adults and we enhanced our collaboration with our local and federal partners to prosecute violent offenders. So we work with the county attorney and US attorneys on repeat violent offenders. Um so I'll talk a little bit about the Viva location at Grant and Dodge. In the first two years we saw an 80% decrease in violent crime there. Since then we've sustained about a 50% reduction in that location. We continue uh to base our targeted efforts on certain sites in those locations based off the data. And in 2025, we made 450 arrests. Um and 26 of those involve the gun. And as Oscar talked a little bit about, a lot of those community members don't feel safe there. And so they've been attending meetings and they really communicate with us about what's going on there. Uh which helps our efforts in there. uh in there we go in and TPD non-fatal shooting investigation efforts. In 2023, the city of Tucson was named a gun crime intelligence center by the US Department of Justice. Uh we created a regional gun

crime intelligence uh unit that launched um about two years ago. Last year, we only had 12 participating agencies. This year, we're up to 24 participating agencies. And that's really important because we it's they're no longer siloed. All of Southern Arizona is communicating about gun crimes because they don't stop at certain streets. They don't stop in the city, they go into the county. And so we've really enhanced those efforts. We hold a weekly shoot, excuse me, a weekly shootute team meeting that involves all of the partners, juvenile probation, it involves the county attorney, it involves all the attorneys in the room to really discuss how we're going to work these cases and then what we're going to do uh moving forward. Our shooting investigation unit was created. U prior to this, different uh non-fatal shootings went to different detective units. Now they're centralized in two detective squads. Uh some of them are working in the room here today. uh really hardworking detectives that have put in a lot of efforts. So far, we've seen a 15% reduction in non-fatal shootings. Um in the first three months, our solve rate went from 20% to 66%. The solve rate is now 84% in 2025. A lot of that had to do with victims not being willing u to prosecute or to be scared. And so we really with the attorneys in the room, we took a different uh route on looking at these things like how are they going to um how are the offenders going to continue to commit violence? So what other charges could we look at um to stop the violence in the community? Um we have an 86% conviction rate with state and federal and that's really the partners working together um in the room. 320 prohibited possessors um were prosecuted. 1,825 crime guns recovered and a 19.5 reduction in homicide gun crimes. Um, I

just want to mention that the national solve rate is about 58% for homicides and 10 to 20% for non-fatals. So, we worked really hard to bring everyone in the room and take out the silos, share the information, and really use um evidence, social media, all of that stuff to solve um solve these crimes for the victims. In 2024, oop, sorry, 2024, uh, we launched with partnership with Goodwill of Southern Arizona, TPD, and Banner UMC level one trauma center. I really have to credit Britney Peterson, who's our violence prevention coordinator with this. She really worked hard uh, setting this up with Goodwill. They took a chance on partnering with TPD, which probably wasn't popular back then. Um, and then really worked hard to get UMC on board. Arizona. This is Arizona's first hospital linked violence intervention program and they come bedside to the gunshot and stab wound victim since May of 2020 2025. So anytime UMC has one, they call them they call Goodwill in, they start connecting them with services there when they're vulnerable. Uh food insecurities, housing insecurities, any sort of counseling, they're they're there to connect with the victims. Uh we since the inception 18 months ago, 638 referrals. Uh TBD has referred 30 Dang it I keep doing this sorry um 638 referrals in the first 18 months 357 of those came from TPD and these are ages 12 to 24 u just to give you a little insight in the shoot team meeting where we've the detectives have responded to a shooting weekly uh we talk about Britney's there at all of them who can be referred are there brothers sisters members maybe that haven't quite might um been our suspect or maybe you're a victim of crime to try and get them referred uh to the Goodwill

to do some intervention. Uh to date um 247 of the highest risk participants are enrolled. 2450 or a little bit more engaged through ongoing outreach. Um they're engaged in either education, workforce, behavioral health, um or other sort of training with Goodwill. and Goodwill has deescalated three known retaliatory incidents um since since working with us in the last 18 months. We have also recently seen that court is now um not in place of punishment, but they're also referring um some folks that go through either superior court or juvenile court to participate in Goodwill. So, we did present recently to some judges on on what it is and kind of uh that Goodwill needed to know all of the information so they they make sure that they keep everybody safe. Uh gun crime dashboard. So, as the mayor mentioned, uh, Mayor Romero is the co-chair of the nonprofit mayors against illegal guns, and our research and analysis worked with every town for gun safety to devel to develop the public dashboard. Uh, it covers victim demographics, offender demographics, incident mapping, and it's used to guide our deployments, intervention, and policy decisions. Um you can see a little bit of uh up there on the victim's um demographics, age, things of that nature. I think it's important to point out that half of the victims are 18 to 36, 15% of them are African-American, 50% of them are Hispanic Latino, and 80% of the victims are men. Uh we also cover the offender data. It's important to cover even though our solve rates are high, they vary between 83 and 86% at any given day. We're still

missing some of the demographics because all of them are not solved. But pretty similar here uh where the offender 58% Latino. So we definitely have some work on our hands um when it comes to to these demographics. Some are not proportional. Um, and that's really what Goodwill works with is uh generational trauma, generational um any sort of issues. They have counseling specific for men, especially because we see 80% of them are men. Um, and then the last one is the gun crime dashboard. Uh you will see on there that a lot of our gun crimes uh are focused on the either on the south side or the southern part of the west side. They are spread throughout the uh the city of Tucson, but we do see a large number of them on the south and west side. And now I'd like to turn it over to Laura Dent. Good afternoon, Mayor Romero, Vice Mayor Santa Cruz, members of the council. It's great to be with you. Um, I'm going to share a little bit of a snapshot of what's happening at the legislature in relation to gun uh regulation and proposed legislation. Um, preventing gun violence and preventing the preeemption of local communities to prevent gun violence is a priority in your legislative agenda. Uh so far more than a dozen bills have been introduced this legislative session that relate to the regulation of firearms in the state. A subset of these bills relate to the regulation and destruction of firearms and overall public safety. Uh current state statute preempts local governments from destroying weapons and obligates confiscated firearms to be made available for resale. I believe this legislation was signed into law in 2013. Uh several bills introduced this session

would modify state statute allowing local jurisdictions to destroy firearms, prohibit the creation of a firearm registry or carve out circumstances for firearm destruction. A few of the these bills include SB1028, SB 1079, and HB2861, which would require the destru the destruction, excuse me, of firearms used in the commission of a homicide. Um, I do want to uplift a powerful story and anecdote related to um some of this work. Uh, Julie Erl, I don't know if you all are familiar with her in Phoenix. She's the widow of Officer Nick. Tragically, Phoenix PD officer Nick was killed in the line of duty in 2007. His widow Julie was later made aware that the firearm utilized in the killing of her husband still existed and under current statute was eligible for resale and recirculation. Miss Erl has filed suit against the city of Phoenix to stop the auction of the gun that killed her husband and is now working to change the law. Uh it just goes to kind of uplift the very human experiences and stories um and really the power of those stories to u move the needle. It does appear that those bills do have um good traction at the legislature this year. Um, so just this second bucket of sorts are um proposed firearm regulations including sales, background checks, liability, and access. Um, these bills will obligate background checks and update prohibited weapons. Um, there's also been one referral introduced. As you all know, a referral goes directly to the voters. Um, HCR 2019, which if passed would go directly to voters and require firearm sales or transfers through licensed dealers. Um, obviously there's many political factors that influence what passes and what moves and what does not, but this is a bit of a snapshot of what's happening at the state capital in relation to gun regulation this session.

Mayor, mayor and council members, that concludes our presentation, but this is ongoing work and and would love to hear any feedback or direction you have for us.

So, uh, first and foremost, thank you so much. Um, Liz, I know that you've been intimately involved with creating all these programs. Um, I want to also extend my heartfelt thanks to Chief Casmmore and his entire team, including, of course, uh, Assistant Chief Duffy who's presenting here, and I know that you all work day in day out, including our officers. It actually was our work with TPD that started the PNI plus network investigation program. Uh which was the pilot of our VIVA program maybe what was it four years ago. Um and we chose based on data um the areas with highest gun violence and crime incidents which became the VIVA sites that we're working on right now. Um, since I became mayor, um, as I said, my first act was to sign on to mayors against illegal guns, but we've steadily worked on reducing gun violence in our city. Um, and in 2024, um, I helped launch the again an initiative that Tucson Police Department went after federal DOJ funds, uh, to be able to create the village in partnership with uh, Goodwill of Southern Arizona. We've seen incredible um, uh, uh, evidence that the programming and prevention and intervention works. And I'm so proud that uh the city of Tucson is uh the first city in Arizona and I don't know if around the nation uh in terms of creating a hospital-based uh gun violence intervention program. Our partnership with Goodwill of Southern Arizona um has proven to be amazing. Viva has proven to bring down gun

violence up to 80%. Um and and it's a holistic approach to uh gun violence interruption and intervention in partnership with our community safety health and wellness program, our housing first program, our housing community development program, our council offices that have been involved in all of this uh and that will that continues to maintain the uh the percentages of gun violence down. I I just want to also talk about, you know, the um that we're not a Johnny come lately. We're an innovative organization that tries new things. And I want to deeply thank Chief Casmar for uh holding hands uh with me and the council on these really important projects uh that we all deeply believe in and that really are protecting our community um and our police officers on the streets. And so thank you, Chief. I know you're here with us. Thank you. really appreciate you um bringing ideas like these to me and to my colleagues on the council. And I just wanted to also thank Oscar Medina, our uh first um uh uh manager of the office of uh uh prevention and intervention in our city. There's a commitment uh from me, I know from my council colleagues that we want to continue pushing the envelope on the innovative um holistic approach to safety in our city. Um I went I was lucky enough to go to the youth summit. um and

hearing from the young people and the emotion and the trauma shared in the room, it was so powerful. And so I would highly highly recommend that you all um if if if we can attend the gun violence prevention boot camp that is being put together. Uh it is so powerful to hear from young people themselves. And at the summit I met the mother and sister of Eduardo Toyos, a young person uh whose life was lost to gun violence. And oh my god, it was really waterworks uh from all of us. Um them and I included uh their courage and love and their willingness to work to change um you know the the gun violence that we are seeing not just in Tucson, throughout Arizona, but throughout the country. It was just so powerful. and and and I also wanted to bring up in here in Tucson and in a weird way, right, the the uh the shooting and and the death of Juan Juan Christo Val Flores, an employee of Goodwill of Southern Arizona, um who was shot and killed, as well as a young woman working with him. um you know and and I know I've I've talked to the CEO of Goodwill and she said that they put they put this work that they do to work um at the hospital at St. Joseph's and uh the CEO of St. Joseph said, "We we want to participate in this. We also

want to be part of um Goodwill's the village program." And so good things are happening and and the tragedies of losing young people and losing any human uh to gun violence is something that we have to make sure that we continue working on. Um you know, these are not isolated tragedies. They represent lives and dreams and families and uh futures taken too soon. But the work that we do that we all do collectively here, it really is saving lives and it is improving the quality of life in many areas like in our Viva sites of our city. Uh as assistant chief Duffy said, some neighbors are scared to come out and we saw in your map where the incidents are happening. Those are the same places where we've created Viva sites that were bringing down those numbers through the holistic approach that we are we are using uh here in Tucson. So I'm I'm really proud of the work that you're all doing on the on the ground. I I uh see the lives changed every day and I encourage others to participate. You know, the young people that were at the youth summit um they were not just suffering through trauma um maybe lost a friend, a relative um but also wanted to they wanted to be part of of uh finding solutions to this. So I invite the community to participate. There are ways right of of participating in the safety of our community and intervention and prevention is one of the ways that we do this work. So I just wanted to add that to to the commentary. Wanted to open it up for my colleagues

on the council for questions or comments. Council member Cunningham and then Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. I'm just going to give my shout out to Britney. I mean, I'm proud of all y'all, but I've witnessed firsthand and up close and personal what Viva does, but more importantly, what the Goodwill program does. I don't think a lot of people understand that when you have a family that's struggling and already experiencing poverty and they are also gunshot victims, it becomes a tipping point in all their lives. just from one shooting on a family that's already disadvantaged. You can see children in foster care for the rest of their lives if the community doesn't act. You can see a family becoming homeless if the community doesn't act. And over the past two or 3 months, we've had the opportunity out of our office to work handinhand with all this entire organization to stave off those consequences to several families. So, I want to thank everybody for what they're doing. And the solve rates not surprising. Um, and that's not just in gun violence. We seem to be doing a great job on our solve rate on all the cases that we're able to follow up on. And it's a really about personnel and how many more people we need to be able to meet the solve rate that we really want. Well, not the solve rate to address every single incident. So with that, I'm I'm just happy to hear that with the resources we have, we're utilizing them and optimizing them, but uh we've got to it's our job on this side of the table

to figure out how we can gather and distribute more resources to you so you can keep this work up. So that's my piece, Vice Mayor.

Yeah. Thank you, Mayor and Staff, for this uh comprehensive overview of the work that's been happening over the past couple of years. Um, I know just seeing the map is helpful and hopefully the W five office and our office can be brought in, you know, to, you know, support these efforts and be a little um, more uh, connected to, you know, these uh, uh, gun violence incidents. Um, so, um, thank you for putting all that work together and thank you, mayor, for leading on this. I know it can be so overwhelming and emotional. Um, but I think all the steps that y'all are taking are putting us in a in a better position. Um, I had the opportunity to go to um, Goodwill uh, last year and look at a lot of their youth programmings and talk to a lot of their young people who are part of their programming. And I was curious if um if part of their participation in the program is a court-ordered participation or is it voluntary participation or is it a mix of both?

Thank you, Mayor Romero and Vice Mayor Mayor Santa Cruz. It's actually all voluntary, uh which is why we met with the courts. Um it sounds like maybe they could court order them, but we can't have it as um like a required. There's no sort of monitoring. It's just engagement. Um which is why we wanted to meet with the courts just to kind of say you we would love for you to refer them. There's lots of resources. Um but we absolutely it's voluntary and because there's four centers uh we have to know who can be in which center, what would what would be beneficial to each one of them. So we have kept it voluntary and I I want to I didn't mention this before it is a one flow of information. So Britney provides them the information from the police department and all I get is like this many are registered or engaged in services. We do not get feedback on individuals um and that had to do with part of them being willing to trust the goodwill to go in there. So it's just one it's a one-way flow of information. Council member Araas.

Thank you, mayor, um, for adding this item to today's agenda and just thank you to the office of, uh, violence prevention and intervention for presenting today, for you all for doing the, uh, hard work. You know, your dedication means so much for our community. I I want to piggyback a little bit on uh, you know, Vice Mayor, on the collaboration piece. if you can provide maybe more information on um existing partnerships specifically with our local school districts because we all know you know the ages are getting younger and younger specifically with our young men. Is there any type of collaboration with our schools uh school districts specifically SUSD and TUSD? And lastly, I just want to give you all um kudos, you know, for bringing that innovation and creativeness to this work. I attended the No Place Like Homeplay with my family and I was just amazed at how many neighbors were outside, all ages at that Viva site and all the resources that were handed out. there was not an empty seat in that um borderlands play and I hope to uh support more opportunities like that specifically in in these areas that I represent. So thank you

mayor council member Barahas we'll get back with you on some of those partnerships and and and also work with you to identify if there's any more that we can bring in. So thank you for that question. We will we will return to you.

Any others? Can I just say congratulations on raising that conviction rate to 86%. And I also wanted to um to uh bring attention to the 19.5% reduction in gun homicide in 2025. Uh one too many, right? One too many. Um but we did bring down that percentage and um it just goes to show that investment and prevention and intervention does work. Um, I'm also very interested in besides the village, I know that we have other nonprofit groups um that participate in working very exclusively with young men in areas of high need. I believe Boys to Men is one of them. I know Emerge does some violence prevention work. Um it would be really wonderful to partner with school districts to be able to um you know get them younger uh because they the exposure to violence is is is there and and the trauma uh is created a very very early age. Now there's so many layered uh issues in terms of need in um in the areas where this young where it's happening right the viva sites where it's happening there's layered reasons as to why this violence is a continuation of what is happening in in those areas and poverty is a huge piece of what we're seeing lack of education and and educational attainment uh just

continues the cycle of violence. So, uh I think the prosperity initiative and all of the work outside of this in particular are um you know, it's just we're it it's it's a layered approach to creating community safety in our city. And I just uh wanted to again thank you all so much for the incredible work that's happening. Thank you. All righty. Thank you all. Thank you all so much. Really appreciate it. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. So, we move on to item seven. Time has been set aside for the discussion and direction relating to ma matter spending in front of the Puma County Board of Supervisors and other regional jurisdictions. Um, Miss Miss Morales, go ahead. Madame Mayor, we have Jackie who will come and provide us an update.

Good afternoon, Mayor and members of the council. We have brief comments for you. Starting with Pima County, the board of supervisors approves the option notice and rent 475 East Broadway site to Rion Novo. This was at the January 20th meeting and this approval satisfies a requirement of the ground lease option agreement allowing Gri Novo to advance redevelopment of the site including the proposed Tucson in and marketplace hotel retail and event space project with OB companies as a developer. Moving on to Rio. Rio approves uh financial assistance of $250,000 for new spa and wellness center and this will be located at 410 North Tul Avenue. Moving on to regional updates. Uh town of Sawarita discusses findings from the summer 2025 public involvement process for the sonorin corridor project. Responses show strong support for a no build option and mixed views on project needs. Updated traffic forecast through 2055 indicate lower demand than previously projected and ADOT is considering changes and Sawarita supports a combined approach that limits community impacts while maintaining essential regional connectivity. And the last update on uh regional economic development is Mexican officials brief pack regional council on passenger rail expansion. Uh officials outlined passenger rail lines currently under construction in central Mexico with long-term plans to extend services to Ngales uh strengthening future crossber

mobility and regional connectivity.

Thank you so much for the update. Really appreciate it. I just uh recently, I think it was last week, I went to the safer center um that was stood up by opioid settlement funds in partnership with CBI. Um it really I would encourage my colleagues on the council to do a tour um to see what is happening there. I came out like very very happy and impressed with the work that CBI does. Um, and one of my questions was, u, it's a sixmonth pilot with opioid settlement funds, but how do we decide how to move on with safer center and investing in a safer center, expanding and making sure that we look at the data to see if it's successful and how many people are being served by the safer center. Um so I think it would be important one of the pieces of information that I was given was that um they have I think either weekly or monthly reports that are going to Pima County Public Health Department in terms of who's being served and the success rate etc etc all the data that we should be getting um as well. Um the other thing that I'd like to u make sure that we are paying attention to 6 months go by pretty quickly and so at the fourth month um what will be the course of action to evaluate the safer center and um continue uh funding it uh with opioid settlement funds. So, I I' I'd really like to make sure that we we look into that and that

we prepare um for whatever is coming next. But I highly recommend you all attend it. It's it it's clean. You know, they the individuals there are fed well taken care of. Um it it really is an incredible organization. And you know, I I know that some people are concerned with a possible expansion of a safer center in terms of other areas of our of our community. But, you know, it's a building. It's a clinic. Uh, and I don't think people should be afraid of having a safer center close to their neighborhood. Um, I would highly recommend people in elected officials, both on the board of supervisors and and here with us to to take that visit. You will be absolutely impressed by the work that CBI is doing there. Just wanted to mention that. Thank you so much. Any questions or comments? Uh, Council Member Doll.

Thank you, Mayor. and my staff and I are going to tour the safer center Thursday, but I had a question about the Suareito U item that had to do with the the highway bypass and you said something about a no build option. Uh I couldn't quite get the context. Are they proposing are they basically opposing uh the bypass? Uh yes, council member. So there was a public involvement process and they talked about the results at the Saurita town hall meeting and the results said that there was a strong support for a no build option. However, nothing has been decided. A dot is evaluating options but but it was basically uh responses to

it was the public it wasn't Sarita saying we support the no build which is saying hey don't build it. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Interesting. Any others? Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Thank you. All righty. So, we move on to item eight. Time has been set aside for mayor and council to receive an update on state and national legislation and regional committees, executive orders, and direction to any associated litigation. Uh, Miss Assistant City Manager. Yes. Thank you, Mayor, council members. I again welcome Laura Dent uh to be able to provide us this update.

Thank you um Mayor um Vice Mayor Sentus, members of the council. Um good afternoon. I will start with a state update on our state and federal updates. Um state lawmakers have submitted more than 1,800 bills for consideration this session. So, we have officially broken the record for the most number of bills filed in Arizona history that was set in 2021. So, and the work continues. Um, so we'll see a few hundred more of those probably uh coming soon. Uh, our organization has waited on 22 bills to date. Um, ranging from water issues, preeemption, housing, public safety, and more. Um, you have the updated resource, the tracking list that is provided to you all. um will populate in real time. So, if you ever have questions about what's moving um where we've weigh in, you can always reference that and of course um connect with me. I do want to just acknowledge Chris Avery and Natalie Jook with Tucson Water for joining me at the state capital last week and testifying in opposition to HB2328, a bill that would undercut city of Tucson differential water rates. Um and I want to thank again city staff for engaging on bill review and to your offices for raising priorities at as they develop at the state legislature. Um, just today as a sidebar and an update, HB 2116 passed unanimously. That bill would invest $1 million in the Colorado River Litigation Fund. So, that parlays quite nicely into our federal update. Um, I'll start with Colorado River. Uh, last Friday, Interior Secretary Doug Bham convened the seven Colorado River basin state governors, including Arizona Governor Hobbes, to advance post2026 Colorado River water sharing talks. Um, there was no agreement reached. However, discussions continue alongside um reclamation's draft EIS for future river operations. The deadline for agreement has been set for February 14th. Um and then a final update uh on the federal level. Last

week, the Senate approved five fiscal year 2026 spending bills uh funding most of the government through September 30th. They also approved a two-week continuing resolution for the Department of Homeland Security through February 13th to allow continued negotiations. Um, today, just a couple hours ago, the House voted to end the partial government shutdown and fund DHS through the 13th as well. So, that will allow for bipartisan negotiations over immigration enforcement over the next two weeks. This concludes my update.

Thank you, Miss Dent. I really appreciate it. I want to to thank uh the leadership that Governor Hobbes has brought um all of us uh to the Colorado River negotiations on Monday. Uh Tucson water director John Kimick delivered a statement on my behalf at the Arizona Reconultation Committee meeting in Phoenix. Um, I also will be sending our congressional delegation further uh laying out uh the city of Tucson's position on the Colorado River negotiations uh which is very important for the future of our community. I also want to take a moment uh to acknowledge all of the people who came together last week. students, educators, uh other elected officials to Sonins from all walks of life who joined people across our city uh to encourage our federal delegations to bring more accountability to ICE, CBP, HSI, and DHS and to stand in solidarity with people across our country um using their first amendment rights. Uh, I think more than 2,000 people showed up last Friday, including some of us here at the table. Um, and it really felt uh, safe and and incredible um, energetic to be there with community. I'd also like to thank Senator Kelly and can Kennet Senator Kelly and Senator Ggo for bringing the bicameal bill to stop excessive force in immigration act for consideration. I understand uh that representatives Grihalva, Representative Ansari, and res representative Stanton are all supporting the Stafix as a force in immigration act. Um so I'd like to thank

the senators for that as well. Um, uh, other than that, I wanted to also mention that the city of Tucson joined, uh, an amicus brief in partnership with the city of Boston and in support of Minneapolis, uh, Minnesota in their lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security. And, um, just really happy uh, that we were able to do that. that was uh based on previous direction that may council have given uh and that um Mr. Lusk and uh his office worked on to make sure that he added us on to. So other than that, that was my report for you all. Questions? Council member Cunningham? Councilwoman Lee?

This one's almost a personal a point of personal privilege. Um I've been working on it a little bit. Um February 19th tenatively is the date uh where they honor uh fallen legislators. So they'll do a death resolution for my father. Uh before he was a legislator, uh he served at the University of Arizona and he served uh the the state government. Um he was a lobbyist in between. He was actually a lobbyist for the University of Arizona. And after he retired, he became a lobbyist for um like his own private thing, but in my opinion, very righteous causes. So, we're asking the state to also my family's try asking the state to um take the lobby of one of the state buildings right two doors down to be the George Cunningham lobby. A little play on words. And I just wanted to make sure that it was appropriate that we coordinate. Well, I mean, I'm doing it on my own and I don't want to use any city resources per se, but you know, the conversations always come up with every you're talking about one thing and another thing. So, I wanted to make sure it was kosher. I don't know if the city attorney needs to chime in, uh, that we can actually at least say that I've got permission to talk to legislators about it. So, it's kind of above board. And I don't know if we need a motion for that.

Yeah, thank you so much for sharing that. Really appreciate it. I don't I don't know if we need any direction, Mr. Le. It hasn't currently been agendaized, your honor, but we could do it at a later date, I'm sure.

So, I think that, you know, as a family, you have every right to lobby our Southern Arizona delegation and any other legislators up in Phoenix. Um, if you do want to coordinate with us, I think it would be appropriate to just make sure that we agendaize it in whatever way necessary. But I think it's a great idea, Council Member Cunningham. I think um it's a good um it it really is a good um act to honor the work uh that that George Cunningham did for Arizona. So, uh Councilman Lee,

thank you, Mayor. Um so in our legislative agenda and I talked to the team about you know how do we use more technology for public safety in a responsible transparent um way and last legislative session there was an attempt to refer to the ballot something that would prevent local jurisdictions from using technology for traffic enforcement red light camera bans not being able to use traffic cameras for speed enforcement. So, I've been keeping my eye on this ball for probably 18 months to figure out how we can start to try to build trust with the community while also enabling technology to assist our officers because they can't be everywhere all the time. So, unfortunately, this came from the uh League of Arizona Cities and Towns legislation targeting traffic enforcement systems continues to advance. So, I want to put these on our radar. STR10004, which is photo enforcement systems prohibition, passed the Senate Appropriation, Transportation, and Technology Committee, on a partyline vote last month, and a mirror measure HCR 20004 is scheduled for a hearing on Wednesday in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Um, the league is obviously opposing this because just like I feel we should have the ability to uh address our community priorities and use these systems like plate readers and voter enforcement systems in a responsible manner to assist law enforcement and to uh keep our road safer and to solve crime. So, I just wanted to put that on our radar if we could um take a position to oppose along with other jurisdictions. I don't know if it will make it through and the governor can veto or if they'll try to refer it to the to the citizens of Arizona in the future, but that's another issue.

Um, thank you, Council Member Lee. Uh, just to add some context to that, um, yeah, SCR 10004 uh is sponsored by Senator Rogers. It um would be referred directly to the ballot. This bill did um come up last session and my understanding is that um it was narrowly defeated and that many of the um partners and coalition folks that engaged last round um might not be participating this time. So, it really will be interesting to see how far this goes. The league is very adamantly opposed. I think historically the city hasn't taken a position because of action by voters um more than 10 years ago now. Um but I definitely appreciate that this is a a safety issue and so have had discussions with our our team and have also flagged that interest that's come from from you and other members of this body. So, I will certainly keep that on the radar.

Thank you so much. Any others? All righty. Thank you so much, Miss Dent. Really appreciate your update. Thank you all. Appreciate it. Keep us informed. I know things are moving fast and furiously in the state legislature. So, uh, appreciate it. Item nine, uh, does anyone have any items to remove from the consent agenda? Vice Mayor. Hi, Mayor. Yes, I want to remove um items B and item E from the consent agenda. Okay. Any others? Council member Barakas.

Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, I would like to, uh, pull item 7B off the consent agenda, the item relating to the distribution of prepackaged food and refreshments and parks.

Okay. So, um, desire from both council members to remove. So, we will make sure that we make a note of it. Yolanda, any others? All righty. Item 10. Does anyone have any future agenda items? Hearing none, um, we are adjourned. The study session of February 3rd is adjourned. We will reconvene in our regular session and let me see we will uh see you back here at 5:40 uh to start our regular session. Thank you all so much. Really appreciate it. Wonderful presentation. Thank you. Great information. Heat. Hey, Heat.

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Heat. Heat. N. Thank you for coming uh and joining us Today council will stand in session and we will start with roll call.

Mr. Cunningham here. Mr. D here. Mrs. Lee here. Mrs. Barahas here. Nick Schubert here. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz here. Mayor Romero here. Before we go to item two, the city attorney will go over the rules of decorum for mayor and council meeting. Mr. Attorney,

honorable mayor, mayor, members of council, Arizona's open meeting laws provide that members of the public may attend and listen to the proceedings during tonight's public meeting of the mayor and council. Arizona law also allows the mayor and council to enforce rules and procedures for public attendance of the meeting to ensure orderly behavior and to prevent unnecessary interference with the public meeting. Here are the rules that apply. The rules require to quarum and orderly conduct by the members of the audience. No person attending the meeting shall engage in conduct that disrupts or otherwise impedes the utterly conduct of the meeting, including any statements or conduct that interrupts the persons who might be addressing the mayor and council or that disrupts the discussions of the mayor and council. The mayor has the authority to ensure in compliance with the rules of orderly conduct. If disorderly conduct or disruptive conduct continues after a warning, and this is that first warning, the mayor may direct the removal of persons from the chambers and or recess the meeting itself. If disruptive behavior makes it necessary to clear the chambers, the persons who disrupted the meeting will not be allowed to return to the chambers for the remainder of tonight's meeting. As a final note, please be aware that interfering with or preventing this lawful public meeting from being carried out in an orderly manner not only violates the rules of participation, but also violates title 13 of the Arizona Revised Statutes.

Thank you, Mr. Attorney. Item two, invocation, pledge of allegiance, appointments to boards, committees and commissions and presentations. The invocation will be given by Reverend Lynn Bartlo from St. Mark's United Methodist Church. After the invocation, I ask that you remain standing for the pledge of allegiance.

Good evening. I recently took my daughter to visit colleges in Washington DC. I forced our family on a two-hour walking tour of all the monuments, and I was once again struck by the legacy of thinkers and doers that we have here in the US. From Washington to Jefferson to FDR to Lincoln to Eisenhower to Martin Luther King, our nation's capital has erected grand monuments of people who've made lasting marks on our nation. We can learn a lot from our history. I've come back over and over again to a statement by former first lady Michelle Obama who said, "History has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own." Courage is contagious, friends. As you do your work tonight, I remind you to have courage. As Martin Luther King said, "The time is always right to do what is right." We need to see your courage to stand up in these troubled times for your courage can give us hope. with hope we can get up again and again and do what's right. Let us pray. God of us all, we are blessed and we are grateful. Thank you for a wonderful community in which to in which to live, for the freedoms given to us in our nation's highest laws and for those who serve our community using their skills and their knowledge. God of us all, help us to be people of courage like our ancestors before us. Help us to have the courage of Abram and Sarah who left their home for another land. Help us to have the courage of David who faced a giant who threatened his people. Help us to have the courage of Daniel who stayed faithful even in the midst of persecution. Help us to have the courage of the Samaritan woman at the well who defied the acceptable practices of the world around her to speak with Jesus. God, give us courage. Help us not to be limited by other people's imaginations, but instead to face the hard things. Help us face those things that can lead

to a better life for all among us. Help us face those things that must be faced so that there will be liberty and justice for all. Tonight we pray for those before us who were elected to govern. May they govern with courage in all that they do. Give them courage to stand up for those whose voices are silenced. Give them courage to ensure public safety for all people. Give them courage to tackle environmental issues that are easier to ignore. Give them courage to ensure economic development helps each person, not just big corporations. Give them courage. Loving God, may their courage be contagious that we all may hope for a better community. Amen. United States of America stands nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you Reverend um Bartlo for those beautiful words and for gracing us with your presence. Um we now move to Item 2 C. I'd like to proclaim February 1st through February 7th, 2026 to be Gun Violence Survivors Week. We have a host of guests here with us to help us celebrate and bring attention uh to this important uh proclamation. Uh I'd like to uh invite our guests to come to the podium and join us there. Um Pam Simon will be with us, survivor of gun violence. Patricia Mish, survivor of gun gun violence herself. Emily Noddingham, uh mother of Gabe Zimmerman, whose life was tragically lost to gun violence. Aul Navarete Valera uh and Oscar Medina from the city of Tucson's Viva Violence Interruption and Vitalization Action Program. the University of Arizona student body president Adriana Grihalva, students, faculty, and staff that are here with us. Uh members from Moms Demand Action, members uh from giffords.org, uh Denise Lei, and members of Homicide Survivors, Inc., Mila and Mark Ortiz from uh Borderlands Theater, youth participants of the gun violence prevention youth summit organized by community safety, health and wellness, uh our TPD team, gun violence prevention coordinators, uh UAPD. Um and then um these next two teams are are partnered together in Arizona's first hospital linked violence intervention program, a level one trauma

center at Banner University Medical Center, uh Dr. Colin Stewart, Lisa Mikall, Pete Palmer, uh Goodwills, the Village Community Violence Intervention Program, Mr. Fans League, Lance Meeks, Carlos Ramirez, FA McCory, Infinity Patterson, Andres Medina. Also, I know that we have Chief uh Chad Casmar here with us and any others uh in our police department uh who would want to join us. Um any others? I know that we have dignitaries um vice provost I believe uh of the University of Arizona. Please all join us uh in recognition of what we're doing. As I usually do, my colleagues on the council are also invited up there to celebrate um this proclamation with us. This is a a a a huge and beautiful group. Come join us. Thank you so much.

And who wants to hold this? Can you do me the honor? Whatever.

All right, Adriana's here. Um, join us. Get closer if you'd like. All righty. You all look beautiful. Thank you so much for the incredible important work that you do. Um we had an incredible study session agenda item today talking about the advances that we have done as a city and as a community in the last uh five years uh because of the important work that you all do to keep our community safe to bring down uh gun violence in our community. We're leading the way. We're leading the way in the state and we're leading the way together um throughout the country in the innovative work that we're doing uh to bring down gun violence in our community. So, it is my pleasure that on behalf of the city of Tucson and the office of the mayor that we proclaim um February 1st through February 7th uh in honor of gun uh survivors of gun violence. So, put this aside. Whereas gun violence survivors week is observed nationally from February 1st through February 7th. This is a time to honor survivors of gun violence, remember those whose lives were lost, and recognize the profound and lasting impact gun violence has on individuals, families, and communities across the United States. Whereas gun violence not only affects physical safety, but also mental health, educational access, workforce stability, and community well-being, leaving a long-term trauma for survivors and loved ones. And whereas every day more than 120 Americans are killed by gun violence and

more than 200 are shot and wounded with an average of more than 17,000 gun homicides every year with Arizona having,290 gun deaths per year. And whereas the city of Tucson's violence interruption and vitalization act action is a holistic datadriven and evidence informed approach to address gun violence at specific sites like Fort Lel corridor Grant and Albernon 22nd and Prudence Bby and Campbell all locations that have experienced high levels of gun related violence. Whereas since implementing this work, three of the Viva sites have seen a reduction of gun violence by 80%. um and Grant and Albernon 77% and 22nd imprudence and 75% gun violence reduction at Campbell and Bilby whereas the University of Arizona community has also experienced the impact of gun violence including three acts of violence reminding us that young adults and institutions of higher education are not immune to the national crisis of gun violence And whereas in the wake of these devastating tragedies and profound losses, the University of Arizona in partnership with the Office of Public Safety, UAPD, Student Affairs, ASUA student government has taken step to respond, support those impacted, and strengthen resources focused on prevention, safety, and care. And whereas recognizing Gun Violence Survivors Week provides an opportunity to raise awareness, honor resilience, and reaffirm a shared commitment to

preventing gun violence while supporting those whose lives have been forever changed by it. Now therefore, I, Raa Romero, mayor of the city of Tucson, Arizona, do hereby proclaim February through 1st through February 7th, 2026 as Gun Violence Survivors Week and encourage neighbors, parents, youth, uh, educators, and community members to observe this week through reflection, education, and renewed commitment to violence prevention and survivor report and witness whereof I have here unto set my hand and caused the seal of the city of Tucson, Arizona to be a fix this third day of February, 2026. Thank you all so much for your work. Mayor and Council, my name is Pam Simon. I was on the staff of of Congresswoman Gabrielle Gfords when I was wounded at the January 8th shooting. And beside me is a group. We represent Moms Demand Action. We represent Gfords for Gun Safety. And that is an organization started by Gabby Gfords and her husband Mark Kelly. So I wanted to emphasize the importance of why we do this, why we survivors do this work and raise our voices. So I wanted to share some statistics. These come from the CDC, the Center for Disease Control to illustrate why what we do is so important. And I recognize that there are many law law-abiding gun

owners and we recognize that uh a growing number of them are speaking out and joining the gun violence prevention movement. So some of those statistics that you have just heard from the mayor and I'm going to add to them. Across the nation 46,000 people each year die from gun violence. 56% of those are suicide. Many of those are veterans and active duty military. This is unforgivable. This is followed by police shootings and unintentional shootings. Many less though. Three times that number are shot and survived. And many of those are disabled for their entire life. not only disrupting the lives of themselves and their family but also a tremendous financial burden to our nation. U the US has by far the highest gun death rate than any other country. It is higher than all the other higher inome countries added together. Our nation has more guns in the hands of civilians than we have people. over 400 million. If more guns make us a safer country, then we should be the safest country in the world. Instead, we have a national crisis, a national shame. Since 2020, it is unbelievable, but gun violence is the leading cause of death for children and youth ages 1 through 17. That's more than car accidents, more than disease. So, let's look at Arizona. How are we doing? Well, we are 41st in the nation for the weakest gun laws. There are only

nine other states that have weaker gun laws than Arizona. The Gfords organization gives us an F. We have the 18th highest of all 50 states for gun deaths. That means that 32 states are safer than our own state. Each year there are over 1,300 gun gun deaths in this state alone. And consistently research has shown that states with the highest gun ownership also have the highest suicide rate. But progress has been made. States with the strongest gun laws have the lowest gun deaths rates. So progress has been made as more and more states are passing gun safety laws. I'm sad to say that the Republican le Congress seems intent on making our communities less safe by closing the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention by slashing literally billions of dollars from programs for intervention, mental health counseling, and grants to states for gun safety programs. They have kids, too. They have grandchildren, too. It is hard to believe that they actually care more about the gun makers lobby than their own kids, but apparently they do. And tragically, we see that gun deaths are now happening at the hands of federal agents. These are statistics, but in the audience today standing with me, are the real stories, the stories behind the numbers. In this room are individuals that have lost sons and daughters. They have lost friends, cousins, parents taken by gun violence. Some of us have scars where bullets entered our bodies. The statistics can't show the silent bedrooms, the empty chair at the dinner

table, the weddings and graduations that never happened. Survivors are a club that no one wants to be a part of. Survivors honor with action. We honor our loved ones that have been taken by a deadly bullet. We tell our stories and we have the moral authority to advocate for gun safety laws and programs because we do not want others to experience the pain of being a survivor. Mayor Romero and city council members, we want to thank you. We thank you for recognizing this day as National Gun Violence Survivor Week. We thank you also for joining the bipartisan mayors against illegal guns, one of your very first actions, and we realize that that puts you in communication with other communities seeking solutions. Thank you for looking for ways to make Tucson safer in the face of the draconian and illconceived state statue that ties all of your hands from making laws and making rules that would make us safer. The same Republican legislature is continuing to block any safety bill from even getting a vote while introducing guns everywhere, especially a bill that now wants to have every student and professor at the University of Arizona armed. What could possibly go wrong? Thank you for finding creative ways to reduce gun violence in our city, such as the the Viva, the Violence Intervention and Vitalization Act initiative that has led to a significant drop in gun violence. As you said, thanks for focusing on youth and youth adult programs. The saying says nothing stops a bullet like a job, and you are

following through on that. Thank you for creating the the uh 311 non-emergency line to do deescalate situations that could build a tragedy. Thank you for expanding the community service officers. Thank you for opening the Kodak um trauma and recovery center as survivors, as a group here as friends, not only those of us that are survivors, but our friends and fellow advocates. We look forward to working with you, mayor and city council, as we look for ways to solve this problem. And we look forward to the day when our Congress and state legislature will work with you to support them.

My name is Katie Woodall and I am a survivor of the Route 91 mass shooting um in Las Vegas. Pam did an amazing job of bringing to light statistics and things like that, but what I want to just briefly touch on is and I thank you. I I let me go back. I thank you. I thank you, mayor. I thank you, council members, for recognizing that this should not be normal. But what I want to share with you is when I go out and speak, oftentimes when I say I'm a me I'm a survivor of the Route 91 mass shooting, the deadliest mass shooting to date on US soil. People often say to me, "Oh, I'm so sorry. I don't know what shooting that is." Okay, think about that. Think about that. The fact that I can say I'm a survivor of the deadliest mass shooting to date. When I go on to explain 60 people were gunned down by an asalent using an assault rifle he had armed with a bumptock who were simply at a concert trying to enjoy the evening. I am often looked straight in the face and and told well at least it wasn't children. My response to that is they were innocent people. They were someone's daughter. They were someone's son. They were someone's mother. They were someone's sister. They were someone's friend. They were someone's husband. They were people. So, as you continue to do your work, and again, I thank you. I ask you to just look at the 60 hearts on my back and never ever accept that it's normal in our society that we can rationalize that it's okay that they were gunned down because they weren't children. again, they were someone's children. So, as I leave, and again, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Remember the hearts on my back that don't beat. Those heartbeats no longer beat because we've

rationalized and normalized gun violence to the point where we say it's okay cuz at least they weren't children. It's not okay. So, thank you for all you're doing to never allow 60 people to be gunned down on American soil ever again. Thank you. Good evening. Uh, my name is Adriana Grihava. I serve as a student body president at the UOVA and was a Gford's courage fellow in 2024. I first want to thank council members and mayor Rometo for recognizing this week. As a student that has not remembered a day without an active shooter drill um how normalized gun violence is in our communities, seeing everyone here today shows that there is progress to making change and I think at the University of Arizona being a student that has seen shootings there. I want to thank our office of public safety, UAPD, student affairs for the efforts that we've put to making sure that students don't have to live through this. Professors, families don't have to go through this because enough is enough. And I think prayers and thoughts is only a saying. Um, but legislation and this is where it really is and action behind it. So, I want to thank everybody that is here today. Thank you to all of you for letting us put this in and to our survivors that speak out and their stories are never forgotten. Um, so thank you all for being here and thank you guys for Owen.

I did want to invite Aul Navarete um part of our community safety, health and wellness program in charge of youth violence interruption. Did you want to say something? You've done amazing things with our youth community that's here. So, uh, please talk to us about it.

Thank you. So, good afternoon everyone. My name is Asuna Vareta Valera and I work with the city of Tucson community safety, health, and wellness as a community enrichment coordinator focused on gun violence prevention, community building, and community empowerment in areas and towns that have been historically disinvested. Um, a little bit more personal side. My mom used to work for the Gfords office as a social worker and when the shooting happened I was 7 years old. So some of you know some of this is very personal to me. I know a lot of young beautiful women in this in this um room and yeah this is very personal to me and I want to thank the council for making this possible. So I like to work with this sentence that is prevention only works when people feel they belong and prevention only works when young people feel they belong. So an example um of how we made this possible is that we organized the gun violence prevention youth summit where youth participated in five circle dialogues exploring the root causes of violence, grief, healing and resilience. We had about 35 participants and each participant had different lived experiences. Some have been victims or perpetrators of gun violence or violence in general. And some were more familiar with the systems put in place that create violence. So, the mix of lived experiences was very interesting. Conversations and debates began to spark. Concerns and worries began to be vocalized. And for me, that's progress. Talking about gun violence and its potential solutions is progress. Planting that seed in young people's minds and continuously watering that seed and providing its sun is progress. What became very clear was this. Young

people already have the answers and our job is to create brave spaces where they feel safe enough to share them. And like mentioned previously, prevention only works when young people feel they belong. So, I'd like to recognize the Indigenous People's Movement Council. If you guys can raise your hand, um they were also participants at the youth summit and they also made a an event following the youth summit. And I'd like to pass the mic to Ashton. Michael Julian Cruz. Good day. My name is Ashton Ramon. I come from cells district ga community. My dad is the late Michael Ramon and then my mother is Julianne Cruz. Um I'm here today as representative of Hashan Indigenous People's Movement, a student led uh collective at Tucson High School. As an indigenous person of this land, I grew up hearing stories about our relationship with mother earth. Not as a metaphor but as a real responsibility and tham. We are not separated from the land. The land is our relative. We take care of the land and the land take cares of us. Um our communities are built on trust, responsibility and care. I want to be clear in tham there is no word for poverty or homelessness in an indigenous way of life people are not left behind everyone belongs everyone has a place when we see poverty and homelessness today we should call it what it is not personal failure failure not bad choices and not accidental not accidental it's a

result of colonial systems um this po this position forced removal, broken treaties, stolen land, and profit over the profit over life policies. These are colonial conditions. Colonial conditions do not just create poverty, they create violence. When people lack housing, dignity, and stability, trauma follows. Trauma spreads to our streets, schools, and homes. Gun and community violence are not separated from colonization. They are its symptoms. As a participant in the gun violence prevention summit hosted by the city of Tucson. Um I felt inspired to keep working for the Tucson my ancestors promise. A place a place where our people are safe, our youth are protected and communities are whole. I thank the city of Tucson for these events but responsibility cannot rest on only the cities. Governments have roles but so do we. We have a ch we have a collect responsibility to our children and our communities to in interrupt violence, rebuild care and restore balance. This is a political this is a political and a indigenous way not just voting or speeches but living responsible every day. um to I want to extend the support of Hashan Indigenous People's Movement as we continue to beautifi beautify our communities and rebuild the reciprocal yeah reciprocal responsibility we have to the world and to each other. If we truly call Chukan our home, we must stop treating our home with disrespect. We need action. We need it now. and join us on February 21st to honor Guatemok and the indigenous uh resistance by taking

action, bringing your voice, being your presence, and your commitment to defend our people and land. Together, let's pursue liberty, justice, equal and dignity for the for the roio and all our communities. Thank you. And then I also wanted to invite if there's a member from the Banner University team um or Mr. Lance Meeks if you'd like to also come up and uh join in the in the commentary because I think this is a partnership that's important. Come on up.

Hello, my name is Pete Plamer. I'm the trauma outreach coordinator for Banner University Medical Center and on behalf of Dr. Colin Stewart, our trauma medical director, uh Dr. Caitlyn Seyed, and our trauma program manager Elise McCall just like to speak uh in regards to the gun violence that's been going on for a long time. So, as a healthcare worker, we in the trauma bay here at University Medical Center have been dealing with gun violence for a very long time. And when they say uh gun violence affects the entire community, it's true. Um it affects the healthcare workers and that profession as well. So for us as a frontline trauma nurse, medic, doctor, we have been seeing some of your faces, your family members for years. And you have all become a blur because of so many faces that we have forgotten. And so we take some of those stories and they all become mixed together. And the stories become the same. And for many of us, we get tired of the same old we're so sorry for your loss. We become numb to it. And so several years ago, we were fortunate enough to partner with the city of Tucson and Goodwill Industries and to put together a village program where our patients when they leave the hospital from their physical wounds had a place to go. We at the hospital for the longest time could not provide the services on the back end of the trauma. We are really, really good at fixing the broken pieces physically, but the mental aspect, the social

wraparound program services that people needed, we were unable to provide. And it was a source of true frustration and sadness for many of us. And so this partner that came to fruition over the last couple of years has given those on the front line in the trauma bay a sense of hope and promise in the future. And so not only are we able to provide services through our partners at Goodwill and now the uh TRC at Kodak, but we are also um able to refer patients and we have an active part in speaking to the patients immediately after these tragic events occur and trying to get them enrolled into the village program. And so on behalf of us at Banner University, thank you to the city, thank you to Goodwill Industries, our partners at TRC, and we hope to continue these programs in the future so that we give hope not only to the community, but everybody involved in gun violence. So, thank you very much. And just just on a personal note, as someone who operated on people in Vegas during the shooting, your shooting is not forgotten and it's changed me forever as well. So,

hello everyone. My name is Lance Meeks, the vice president of community engagement for Goodwill Southern Arizona Mayor and Council. We want to thank you as well as all the partners in this room. Um we are grateful to be in partnership. We understand that it truly matters to do this work. We cannot do it in silos. Um recently, you know, that we've been impacted as organization. Um so it is very real and present. Um but I really want to, you know, um encourage us all to community in this community to be with each other. Um we wouldn't able we wouldn't be able to do this work without partners like our bereaveved fathers in this community parents of murder children homicide survivors emerge against uh domestic abuse and so um and banner um we are so thankful for the support and and being in partnership and we are committed to this work so thank you for having us

chief Did you want to say something? Did you want to add something? Just invited. Chief, thank you so much for allowing us to take this time for this, but it feels like a healing healing for all of us. Chief, did you want to add anything?

Thank you, Mayor. I I don't come to all the proclamations, but I've never seen so many community members add a proclamation, and that gives me hope as the resident of Tucson, third generation, and the chief of police. Uh it warms my heart that this is not just a police problem. And you know, we think about, you've heard a lot of stories today and earlier today in study session that these numbers are just data points. They're families. So, I'm proud to stand here today and say that our collective work of mayor and council, the evolution of what um a safe community looks like uh has an impact and that impact is over 90 homicides in 2021 and last year we had 56 and the year before that we had u 65. And so, let's keep working together. Those numbers need to continue to come down. zero should be our goal, but let's start with half of what we have. Uh, and the power of community is reflected in those numbers. So, let's keep up the work. Uh, let's let Tucson be the example for other communities across our country to follow and just proud to be a small part of it. And thank you to my team. Uh, you know, my team does the work. Um, sometimes we joke that cops hate two things, the way it doesn't change. These numbers would not be possible without all of our staff who are willing to rethink the way that we do the work. Significant, substantial schedule changes that impacted families. um Puma County attorney partnerships. It's the whole region u all of the collective law enforcement to come together. The use of smart technology, all these things come together. It's not a simple solution. It's a complex problem, but everybody who came here tonight recognizes that and I applaud your work. Thank you.

Thank you all so much. Really appreciate the work. Obviously, we have more work to do. Um, but the incredible I just want to say that because of all your work, the innovation that we've done together, policy work from mayor and council, your leg work uh and partnership, we have been able to decrease just in one year alone 19.5% reduction in homicides in the city of Tucson. Uh the goal is zero. Uh and so lots of work left to be done. Thank you all. Muchimas gracias. And before you all leave, we're going to ask you to uh squish in together and let's try and take a picture.

Come over here and look. Yeah. And you like each other. It's a beauty. It's a beauty pageant. Project. Try to make sure you see the camera. Try to see all the cameras.

Look forward. Don't blink. You're happy. Smile. Thank you.

Thank you. Lance. Is there someone here from the trauma recovery center?

I did the testimony. Give it to him. I will. He's a very popular guy today. We all have

students. Okay.

Sorry. Sorry. No, you're fine.

Thank you. Now I All righty, we are going to continue. Thank you everyone for coming. Really appreciate you all very much. We're going to move on to item 2D, appointments to boards, committees, and commissions. City managers communication number 27 dated February 3rd is received into and made part of the record. May I have a motion to approve the appointments on the report, please? So moved. Second.

There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Any against? Motion carries. I would like to personally uh thank John D. Bur uh and Maria Viane Valdez Cardinas uh all serving in commissions or committees of the city of Tucson. Thank you so much for your service. Are there any personal appointments to be made at this time? Seeing none, we move on to item three. Mayor and Council report summary of current events.

City manager communication number 28 dated February 3rd is received into and made part of the record. This time has been scheduled to allow members of the mayor and council to report on current events. These are to be current event activities not within the community, not position statements on policy issues. Does any council member have anything to report at this time? Okay, we have we have a group of people. Do you have some? We're going to start with um with W six. Council member Schubert. Thank you, Madame Mayor, members of the council. Okay, so just a quick summary of recent past current events. On Saturday, January 24th, I was privileged to be able to attend the annual fallen firefighters memorial ceremony at the Tucson Fire headquarters. I saw Council Member Dah there. Uh it was a beautiful ceremony in honor of those who have sacrificed their lives uh serving others. And then Wednesday, January 28th, was the annual point in time count coordinated by the Tucson Puma Collaboration to End Homelessness. Um, several W 6 staff, including myself, volunteered that morning. And I just want to say that, you know, I encourage anybody who's ever been curious or wanted to get involved to consider signing up when the chance comes up again next year. It's a really valuable experience. Um, I also wanted to shout out the Greater Western Arizona Coalition of Labor Women, Labor Union Women, also known as Clue. Um, also CWA Local 7000 and Arizona AFL CIO. They hosted a fabulous labor town hall this past Saturday and I was honored to be on a panel with our own uh Congressional District 7 Congresswoman Otalita Graavves as well where as well as my colleague uh Council Member Selena Brahas. Another quick shout out to the Tucson Peace Center who held a fundraiser this past weekend. Um I did get to the gathering late but I showed up just in time to hear Isabelle Garcia speaking. And finally on Friday, January 30th, uh

this was mentioned in study session. Um, but over 6,000 people protested at the federal building downtown here in Tucson. Over 50 local establishments closed their doors. Those who were unable found other ways to express their support, some of them by opening their doors to the community. Classes were also canceled at 21 TUSD schools. And we saw a huge showing from TEA um teachers and also lots of student support. um for the activities locally. So, uh the W 6 team and I are proud to stand in solidarity with communities across Tucson who insist that hate has no place in our society. Immigrants are welcome and ICE needs to be dismantled. And then just a couple of upcoming current events. Uh the W 6 open house is on Tuesday, February 17th, 4 to 7:00 p.m. at the W 6 office, which is 3202 East 1st Street. Everybody is invited. Um this family-friendly event is a great opportunity to meet the W 6 staff, tour the office, and build engagement in local issues. We'll have snacks, we'll have sweet treats and drinks, and kids are welcome. And then come learn about plans for protected bike lanes on Mountain Avenue on Saturday, February 7th, 10 to 11:30 p.m. There will be three free bike repair, coffee, and pastries at Mitchell Park. Um, so hope to see you there. Thank you so much, Council Member Barahas.

Thank you, Mayor. I would like to congratulate Wii resident Maria Veane Baldes Cardinas on her appointment to the Puma County Tucson Women's Commission today. Over the past several weeks, our office has been very busy um with engagement, accountability, and steady progress across W five. In response to community concerns, we issued a statement regarding ICE that reaffirm the city's values and our commitment to transparency, dignity, and the safety for all. I am pleased to report that our office is now fully staffed, strengthening our capacity to respond to constituent needs and we have welcomed new leadership across several neighborhood associations, deepening collaboration and partnership at the neighborhood level. We also took part in critical conversations elevating women's leadership, including the YW.CA's CA's 37th annual women's leadership conference where I participated in a panel called leading with connection alongside Dr. Sheree Meeks and Leslie uh or Lisa Sesma as well as the Greater Western Arizona Coalition of Labor Union Women Town Hall representing Arizona's Women in Labor where I joined Council Member Schubert and Congressman Woman Grihava to highlight the leadership and contributions of our union members and women across sectors. Um, city staff and volunteer and volunteers participated in the annual point in time count to better understand and address homelessness in our community, including our Ward 5 team. It was my first time participating in the point in time count, and I met several folks in the community, a lot of neighbors. I met a lot of young men as well as older adults, people of all ages experiencing unsheltered homelessness while we were out. Um, we bumped into the community safety, health, and wellness team also volunteering. And I learned about the amount of work that

goes into this annual pit count and the type of data we are able to collect. as um with any of us, you know, the community members were open to being interviewed, expressed appreciation for being seen, acknowledged, and were treated with dignity with dignity. And I'm really glad that I went, and I look forward to um bringing more folks with us next year. And economic activity continues across W 5, including the opening opening of new businesses. And today, earlier this afternoon, we welcomed a Chick-fil-A at the marketplace. I want to congratulate uh the Romo family for opening this new W 5 restaurant. Today was a ribbon cutting and the restaurant will open to the public on Thursday morning at 6:30 a.m. Tomorrow at noon, we invite the public to join us for the 22nd Street Bridge project groundbreaking, a major infrastructure milestone that reflects continued investment in connectivity and safety. And looking ahead after you attend Ward 6 open house, we invite you all to join W 5, our W 5 fiesta on Thursday, February 19th between 4 and 8:00 p.m. an openhouse style event to meet staff, connect with neighbors, reconnect with friends, and to continue on the conversation. Rodeo attire is strongly encouraged. Thank you all.

Thank you, council member. Councilman Lee, thank you, mayor. Just want to remind everyone that the RTA election is coming up. ballots will go out next week. Encourage everyone to read the pamphlets, understand what is being asked and what they have an opportunity to chime in on. And in the spirit of making sure everyone has information, council member Cunningham and I are co-hosting an RTA east side town hall that's going to be happening on Monday, February 9th from 5:30 to 700 p.m. at the W 2 council office, which is 7820 East Broadway Boulevard. Thanks, Mayor. Council member D.

Thank you, Mayor. two short items, one of which has already been mentioned by my colleague, Council Member Schubert. We share Mountain Avenue north of the university. And if you're interested in the safety of bicycling, there is a um presentation of the plan to make the the bike lanes um uh to improve the bike lanes by um putting um barriers between the cars and the bikes. And there'll be coffee and there'll be pastry. And if you have a broken bike, you can bring that and get it fixed. Do you know anybody 99 years old or older? Uh if so, uh you should know that there's a wonderful annual event where our centenarians are celebrated. So if you know someone like that who might like to go to that and see their their story and their face on a big screen with a lot of other wonderful people, call TMC for seniors at 5203241960 by February 27th. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Council Member. Council member Cunningham,

clue, pit count, RTA, all that stuff I said already. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. All right. Um,

ditto to what you said and council member Barathas and Council Member um, Schubert. um with a lot of those um current event updates. Um I wanted to invite the community for this Saturday, February 7th, um from 4 to 6 PM at El PBLO. Um we're closing out our El Po 50 celebration um celebrating the lives and the heart of the Southside. Join the community for a closing celebration um marking the culmination of this historic exhibition honoring 50 years of the El Po Neighborhood Center. The evening will feature coffee and conversation, live music, a pop-up theatrical reading, and reflections on El Po's next 50 years. Attendees are encouraged to wear 1970s inspired attire in celebration of the cent's founding decade. This event is also the final public opportunity to view the exhibition displays in the multi-purpose room. Um, El PBLO Neighborhood Center is located at 101 West Irvington Road. We will be meeting in the multi-purpose room in building 1. And then this Sunday, February 8th, from 9 to 11:00, we have our monthly BCC Buros ride, which I will have the honor of leading this one. Um, ride with us on the second Sunday of each month for a fun and family-friendly uh morning bike ride. Enjoy free burritos from Mosaritos, music, and community connections as we pedal together for accessibility and coming together. Um, we meet at the Ward One office, 940 West Alamemeda Street. And then finally, we're excited to announce that our budget de laente, our participatory budgeting um process for cycle 4 is now open. Um community um in who uh works, plays, learns um in W1 are able to apply for grants of up to $10,000 for communitydriven projects. Um learn more about the process and how to vote by visiting our Ward One website or following us on Instagram. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. And finally, I'd like to uh remind the community that February is Black History Month. Throughout this month, my office will be highlighting blackowned businesses of all sizes on my social media accounts. Black history, as we all know, is American history. It is also local history. I have been honored to work alongside black residents for many many years to uplift black economic and civic civic leadership, protect our civil rights and liberties, and preserve our shared cultural memory. I was very proud to speak and march alongside hundreds of tonins at this year's uh Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King celebration in Tucson where we saw the spirit very much in action. The best response to the chaos and fear that federal agents and the federal government are inflicting in our residents is in creating solidarity, in working with each other, in holding hands and locking arms and fighting uh for the rights that we have and that we must preserve. that only comes from deep, supportive social connections that many of us have been working to build in our community for decades. We don't just build those connections in when times are hard. We build them when we share joy, when we share successes, and when we work together for a better future. Black History Month is an opportunity to build those connections and to build that solidarity. I want to ask every Tonan to enjoy and support our locallyowned black businesses, not just this month, but throughout the year. Um, when the news is often about federal agents creating fear and chaos, it feels hard for Tonins to know what steps to

take. Um, I talk with a lot of people who want to know what they can do to support our community. To make sure that everyone has accurate information and legal resources, I hosted a know your rights training this Sunday with Congresswoman Adelita Gribba and the ACLU of Arizona. We discussed protesting and documenting federal activity peacefully, what to do if federal agents knock on your door, and how to contact civil rights organizations active on these issues here in Tucson and in Arizona. There are lots of groups doing important work that you may want to consider supporting. Besides marching and rallying and calling your elected officials, especially your congressional representatives, you can donate and volunteer. Uh the Huntos Fund is a fund that was put together by the Sunnyside Foundation and uh the immigrant rights project. It was kicked off by Vice Mayor Santa Cruz and I. Uh the Huntos fund um really helps people uh with uh food and uh money cards to pay their bills, pay their gas, do whatever they need. So Hunto's fund is raising money to share directly with residents who need uh help with emergency expenses, education costs, mental health, legal fees, food, and rent. Also, I would highly recommend the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona if you can volunteer or donate. Um, they're continuing their important work in um donating food to those that need it. Also, Grace St. Paul's Episcopal Church, they're distributing

food boxes. Chosmanos as always uh for decades have been uh spreading awareness um to the community um making sure that people have uh legal information uh and that and and helps anyone that needs the help. Uh they're also part of the rapid response network. So please consider donating to this organization. And last but not least, a civil U of Arizona. They challenge illegal and unconstitutional unconstitutional government actions in court. Please consider donating. If you can't march or rally, please make sure that you are contributing to these needs. With that, we're going to move on to item four, city manager report, summary of current events. City manager's communication number 29 dated February 20 February 3rd is received into and made part of the record. This time has been scheduled to allow the city manager to report on current events.

Thank you, mayor. A couple things for tonight. Uh first of all, just a reminder that the 2026 gym mineral and fossil showcase is underway and runs through Sunday, February 15th. that explains some of the dinosaurs we see roaming the streets of downtown um late this week. Uh the original public show that started it all was the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show which is operated by the Tucson Gem and Mineral Society and that particular show opens at the TCC on Thursday the 12th and runs through Sunday the 15th. The city of Tucson has partnered with Visit Tucson to bring you information on all the show locations, hours, parking, and transit connections at visit tucson visit tucson.org. or and I encourage everybody to join the world's largest treasure hunt. And speaking of hunts, if you are job hunting, uh there are two uh of many opportunities that I want to call your attention to. First of all, Sunran is hiring bus drivers. Job seekers can start a career in transit at a hiring event this Saturday, February 7th, from 9:00 a.m. to noon at the Suntran Administration building at 3910 North Suntran Boulevard. If you're interested in becoming a coach operator, this event will fasttrack your career with on the spot interviews. Uh applicants are asked to bring a clean 39-month motor vehicle record and resume. Suntran.com has all the details. If driving a bus is not your thing, but jumping in the pool is, Tucson Parks and Recreation is hiring lifeguards to operate and maintain the safety uh at our city pools this summer. The minimum age to be a lifeguard is 15 years old. Our police chief started his career with the city as a lifeguard at about that age. Uh pay starts at $16.75 cents an hour. Those interesting can sign up for a swim test to begin the process. More information available at the city's homepage at tucsonaz.gov. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. Item five, liquor license applications. City manager communication number 30 dated February 3rd is received into and made part of the record. Miss Clerk, please read the liquor license agenda. Your honor, on the evening's agenda, we have two applications for new licenses. One person transfer, one person and location transfer, and four special event applications. All applications are in compliance with city requirements. So an appropriate motion would be to forward items 5B1 through 5B4 and 5C1 through 5C4 to the state liquor board with a recommendation of approval. So move mayor second.

There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please indicate by saying I. I. Any against? Motion carries. Item six. Call to the audience. Miss Clerk, do you have any announcements on this item?

Yes. At this time, the public is allowed to address the mayor and council on any issue except for items scheduled for a public hearing. Call to the audience will last for 30 minutes, and speakers are limited to three minute presentations. The green light will turn on when you begin speaking. It will turn yellow and beep when you have 30 seconds left of your allotted time. When your three minutes are up, the light will turn red and the timer will begin beeping. If that happens, please immediately conclude your remarks. Thank you. All righty. Our first speaker is going to be Brighton. Brighton. I think it says Brandis. Brighten. Brandice.

Good time. Use the tall mic, please.

Okay. Hello uh mayor and city council. I'm sure you've all seen the news surrounding uh increasing ice actions around town. Uh one image that comes to my mind is the pepper spraying of Adelita Ghalva back in December. And what we've seen out of Tucson is already uh horrible and bad enough. Uh not to mention what's happening elsewhere in the country, especially Minneapolis. Um, so I'm standing here as a community member to say that you as the city council and mayor uh must ensure that the Tucson Police Department does not act as a force multiplier in these atrocities. You must take action to restrict and prevent TPD from collaborating or assisting with any and all ICE operations. Uh two possible first steps would be the banning of 287G agreements uh which prevent TPD from becoming an extension of this cruel and inhumane immigration enforcement apparatus and to deflock Tucson whose security cameras present uh massive risks to everybody. I know there is nothing you personally can do about this, but I want you to know that the Tucson community demanded in solidarity with the rest of the country last Friday that we must disarm, defund, and abolish ICE. Thank you very much. and Brighton. Um, just for your information, the city of Tucson has had not had 287G contracts with the federal government for more than 15 16 years. Uh, but thank you so much. Really appreciate it. And I joined uh the community of Tucson last Friday, which was amazing. Um, and it was very, very peaceful. So, thank you JP Tal Vera.

Madame Mayor, council JP Salvater, Tucson native homicide survivor. If this council does nothing to remove TEP and Foris, RTA Next, and Prop 418 and 419 are a waste of our efforts. I vote on a platform. Money does not vote. People vote. No non-disclosure agreement use should be maintained for full public disclosure. No public non-disclosure by executive session final decisionmaking. fully fund and expedite public records requests. Full transparent disclosure avoids public exclusion and timely input. Humanitarian ethic is and should always be a part of public policy. Abolish virtual meetings as discriminatory. Abolish virtual meetings. They only represent stakeholders who are profit driven and not members of the standing public that you want to address and identify. Full regular council office hours and fully staffed should be the record. the the regular norm here. Uh we're not under martial law and uh we're not in a pandemic.

States rights allow municipalities to allow more stringent health and environmental safe safeguards over EPA and World Health Organization general guidelines. This means that we can create more benefit and safety measures for the public at large. Air, water, quality of life, uh the the issues that we we cherish in our community. This refers to PM2, talcum powder, dust abatement, safer endemic immunizations, and the attorney general, Chris Maize, uh, is doing a wonderful job uh, in identifying our our nuisance ordinance uh, issues that that allow our future to be as safe as our present. Um but we can follow up that with

come to a conclusion please JP. We can follow up with that by doing preemptive motions to identify uh the u non identify nuisance ordinance issues like uh the second green valley.

Thank you JP. Really appreciate you Robert Royce. I'm Robert Royce. This is officially city council meeting number 376 since 2001. Uh sorry I haven't been here last year. I had to deal with my brother's demise 475 miles away in uh Southern California. I'm here on my please vote no on the RTA tour. As everyone here knows, the city of Tucson has well over half the population of the Puma County and has collected well over half of the taxes. Yet, we have 11% of the representation on the RTA board. And I must insist to everybody who has ears that this cannot go on for another 20 years. The RTA was formed specifically at the urging of the satellite cities to specifically tax Tucson heavily to to uh subsidize their growth and expansion and sprawl. And it has worked spectacularly for that purpose. All you have to do is look at uh Grant Road, which has been torn up for way too many months. There's absolutely no progress going on. I'm pretty sure they don't have money to finish it. People are paying 21st century rents and there's not a single left turn on Grant Road between Swan and Country Club. And this is just not right.

So, I'm asking everyone to vote no on the RTA as a matter of civic pride for the city of Tucson to take our city back from the satellite cities which are dominating the RTA in their own interests. My I told the board of supervisors two weeks ago that my countywide sales tax plan is superior in every way to the RTA. There's nothing revolutionary about it. But I lived in a county in Arkansas that had a county sales tax payable to the municipalities directly and the balance of unincorporated collections went directly to the Washington County um government, which is what we need here. I understand we need enablement from the legislature. I'm promising everyone that as soon as the RTA is voted down next month, I will begin lobbying the legislature for my plan to lower literally lower property taxes throughout the county and give every municipality and the unincorporated areas a penny sales tax for transportation. Once again, please vote no on the RTA. We don't need it. We do need my countywide sales tax plan. Thank you.

Thank you, Robert.

Our next speaker is Kenneth. I think it's Berman. My name is Kenneth Berman and I live in Ward 3. Uh I'm speaking today to encourage you to put a public power utility before the voters this year. My visits with neighbors and HOA members suggest there's a lot of interest in this subject. I want to congratulate you on authorizing the city of Tucson energy sourcing study that was published in April last year. This was an important step. Clearly, there are a number of hurdles to be overcome and it is going to take many years to bring a public power utility to fruition, but I believe the potential benefits are worth it. As I see it, there are two primary benefits of a public power utility. First, reduced costs for consumers as outlined in the report. In 2021, after the death of my wife of 50 years, I was bored and I wondered if anybody would hire an old geyzer like me. So, I applied and was hired by my local fries grocery. And I worked for four years as a part-time minimum wage courtesy clerk. I didn't need the money. I was a retired librarian. I have decent retirement income, but in those four years, I got to know my fellow workers pretty well and they struggle and the TE bills is one of their big bills that they have trouble paying particularly in the summer. So, anything we can do to reduce the cost of public power is is a real benefit to everyone, but especially those at the lower end of the income scale. From my perspective, the second major advantage is control. As a profit-making company, TP's primary goal is and must be to maximize profits not for the citizens of Tucson, but

rather for their sh for the their share shareholders. As such, they may not always make the best long range decisions for the citizens of Tucson in their pursuit of short range profits. For a public power utility, the only consideration is what is best for the citizens of Tucson. I believe a major function of government is to provide services that benefit all the citizens, but especially those at the lower end of the income scale. The rich and powerful don't need government help. A public power utility can set rates that benefit all of the citizens, but especially those at the lower income end. More importantly for the long range future, a public power utility will control the power source and con increase the inert green future of wind and sun. In conclusion, I encourage you to put the issue before the voters. Such a move will cause a great deal of discussion and debate. The vote results will tell us how seriously or not the citizens of Tucson are to undertaking such a major endeavor. Thank you for providing this opportunity to speak.

Thank you, sir.

Vida Rodriguez. Vida Rodriguez. Uh, good evening, Mayor Romero, Vice Santa Cruz, and council members. My name is Va Rodriguez. I am 20 years old. I'm a proud I'm a proud trans man, and I'm alive today because of mutual aid. When I had nothing and I was homeless at 17 years old, it was our very own neighbors and community, not systems, who kept me fed, safe, and connected. That experience is why I'm here. I'm deeply rooted in Tucson. I work with several organizations across the city, advocating for youth experiencing homelessness, queer people, and anyone pushed to the margins. This work isn't abstract to me. It's my community, and it's personal. I'm here to support allowing the distribution of prepackaged food and be and beverages to our unhoused neighbors, ordinance 21.4, and to support declaring a homeless emergency, a resolution 24067. I am also here to call out that these pressing matters our community faces are just now being addressed, which is long has been long overdue. Helping someone eat should never be treated like a crime. Offering water in the desert should never require a permit. Mutual aid should never be regulated as a threat. It's one of the strongest tools we keep. We have to keep our communities alive. I'm also here to say that if we declare an emergency, we must act like it. That means real con real coordination, real follow-through, and leadership that treats this crisis with dignity, not punishment. Criminalizing survival has been has never solved homelessness. Blocking community members from helping our m helping only make suffering worse. My life only looks this way today because my community showed up when systems didn't. So, I'm asking you to show up, too. Not just with words, but with action. Tucson is at its best when we take care of each other the same way people once took care of me. I urge

you to pass these policies and ensure they're implemented with compassion and accountability because our neighbors deserve nothing less. Thank you.

Thank you, Vida. Our next speaker is JD Wallace.

Good evening. JD Wallace. I'm a retained speaker for Tucson Electric Power at 88 East Broadway. I'm also W 6 resident and have been at the same address for more than 20 years in that ward. I'm here to update mayor and council on how Tucson Electric Power has been contributing to the C community and delivering safe, reliable, affordable, and renewable service. renewable because our largest solar site yet, Baba Kamari, is generating up to 160 megawatts. That's enough to power more than 40,000 homes. All of its panels sit on a single axis tracking system that moves with the sun. Basically catching the sunlight like that, so it can maximize the energy it produces. And it uses bfacial panels, which means it not only catches direct sunlight from the top, but also catches sunlight that is reflected off of the ground and hits it from the bottom. That actually is 30% more energy than those monofacial ones that only capture sunlight that hits it directly from the top. Now, we'll add another 200 megawatts of battery storage at Road Runner Reserve 2 this year along with 100 megawatts each of solar and battery storage at Wilmont Energy Center 2. Our community investment last year not only hit almost $1.7 million in donations, but included more than 15,000 volunteer hours by our employees. and those contributions are not recovered through customer rates. 179 nonprofit organizations received support in areas ranging from community vitality to education to environmental stewardship. Nonprofits receiving support range from community food bank of southern Arizona to interfaith community services. The YW.CA of southern Arizona received support for heat relief for residents. Mobile Meals received funds for meal delivery for lowincome and senior residents and assistance for an electric vehicle and charger. And that uh as for the reliability for that kind of electrification in 2024, TE invested

more than $250 million, that's more than a4 billion in local energy grid improvements. The average time a TE customer went without service in 2025 was 42 minutes total for the entire year. And that's a new best down from 48 minutes back in 2020. The national average is around 100 minutes or an hour and 20 minutes. Thank you, Mayor and Council, for this opportunity to provide just a few updates on how we're working each year to be a trusted energy partner by updating and maintaining our infrastructure as well as providing support for community services. And uh we have details all about our budget billing and community assistance programs at te.com. Please feel free to send constituents seeking more information to us either at the at the at that address or to our customer service line or please let us know how we can provide more assistance information. Thank you.

Thank you, Judy. Uh Roy Trout So, uh, I'm I'm kind of here to address the city's homelessness issue because, um, I'm one of them. And while this city talks about how much they're doing to help the homeless, I see a lot of us just being arrested for sleeping, which is sad considering the fact that we're standing up for people who violated our nation's immigration laws and jumped our borders while our people are being put in jail for simply not being able to afford rent. When are we going to address people being suffering in homelessness in our own nation before we address people who jump our borders illegally? That's unheard of and disgusting. It's a human rights violation if I've ever heard of it. Our nation I I support immigration. I really do. I support people coming here legally. I do. I'm an immigrant because none of us are here legally, right? I mean, none of us. We all were migrants. But the fact is, I'm here legally with an Arizona ID and I simply can't afford rent, but I'm arrested for sleeping for trespassing. And I find that just totally nasty. I mean, you guys talk about all this crap that you try to do, but why are you arresting homeless people? Why is there a citywide camping ban against homeless people? Why is it we're being arrested for being unable to afford rent? I have an income. Why don't I have housing? I'll tell you why. Because it's called selective help. People who speak out are less likely to get help than people who just shut up and take whatever abuse is laid out before them. And that's not cool either. I think we need to make a

system where people are helped equally and rightfully. People who deserve help. People who have been citizens of this country all their lives before people who jumped our borders illegally. Thank you for your time. Valerie Gaudy or yeah Valerie. Thank you.

Hi, good evening. Um, thank you so much for the opportunity to speak with you. I wanted to express that I feel it's incredibly wrong to utilize uh tax dollars to support ICE. We are very well aware of the fact that they are willing and enthusiastic about shooting people in the street. They have taken their uh no time or effort to ensure that what they're doing is correct or lawful. and um to utilize our tax dollars and support them with uh by reinforcing them with uh TPD is a violation of our human rights. Please don't use our money to kill us in the streets. Um right now it's more important than ever to have documentation that um helps you prove that you are a US citizen. Uh there is an organization vote writers. They are quite willing to help you obtain your ID, your birth certificate and your social security card. Their phone number is 1-8664328683. You can call or text that number. So, if you need those documents for housing, employment or um voting purposes, please reach out to that number uh and they will be able to help you obtain documentation. Um, thank you so much for your time and have a nice evening.

Thank you, M. You too. April Putney. April Putney.

Greetings, mayor and council. My name is April. I'm a W one Tucson resident. Um, I have a lot to say. I firstly want to support the distribution of food and water in any public space at any time. I support public power and I congratulate you on recognizing the very real fact that homelessness is an emergency in our city, as in so many others. Homelessness is an emergency for every single individual who faces uncertainty about where they will sleep tonight and tomorrow. Thank you, city of Tucson, for finally recognizing that homelessness is also a societal emergency and taking responsibility for your role in it by acting to make way for more humane land use. I support the declaration of an emergency around homelessness with a caveat that I hope it won't be leveraged to increase police harassment of our unhoused neighbors, even in the name of trying to help them through law enforcement. My unhoused friends do not want any more police interaction for any reason. Another critical public health and safety issue is the violent incursion of ICE, DHS, and HSI into our communities. We cannot allow harassment, imitation, im intimidation, racist profiling, and abuse of power on our streets. I want to address the city's role in resisting and assisting ICE in their brutal, often illegal, and always despicable operations. I support that the city is exploring an ordinance to prohibit the use of city-owned and controlled property by ICE in response to the harassment of a city employee. This is a welcome form of resistance that our elected lawmakers should use. I hope when that law is passed, it will be enforced, but I have my doubts. The city of Tucson is also assisting ICE in their harassment and violence within our neighborhoods. This weekend, ICE officers spent a good part of an otherwise peaceful morning driving erratically and dangerously through the Elsupair parking lot on South 6. The clear goal of the two Durango and the officers within uh was to intimidate and

harass the public, spreading fear and chaos to all members around in the shopping center that day. Naturally, community members in the area responded to the threatening situation by being on scene to record the agents and hold them accountable, even risking their bodies by occupying freely public space in the aisles of the parking lot to do so. TPD arrived on the scene after which an ICE officer struck a peaceful cyclist physically with their vehicle in a menacing and threatening manner. Not one of the several TPD officers or South TPD on scene prevented, acknowledged, or responded to the assault that happened in plain view. And what seeing this tells me, as it must tell many others, is that TPD is not willing to enforce laws when an ICE agent is the aggressor, even for assault. And it tells me that no matter what Chief Casmar and TPD PR says, the action and inaction of officers show that they believe ICE is above the law and may act with impunity. and I encourage city electeds to change my mind by taking action to end TPD ICE collaboration with personnel and data. Thank you, Russell Smith. Russell Smith, good evening and thank you mayor and council. My name is Russ, lifelong W five resident. Um, we started tonight invoking the name of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Why is that significant? We acknowledge Black History Month. Why is that significant? We have indigenous people in the room tonight. We heard from a very moving indigenous speaker earlier tonight. Why is that significant? Because our country is founded on slavery and genocide. We have trans neighbors

in the room tonight who are currently facing genocide at the hands of our government. Now, bear that in mind as we talk about ICE tonight. Remember what they're capable of. Earlier in January, you released a uh a press release on January 13th titled or excuse me, regarding the federal agents. Um yeah, titled information regarding potential federal deployments in Tucson. It's regarding ICE. It states while mayor and city council cannot prevent ICE from legally operating in Tucson, the city does not condone the behavior of ICE agents toward members of our community. They're not operating legally. This has been established in state and federal courts. Please familiarize yourself with court rulings. They're targeting people based on skin color, not based on on immigration or resident status. They've detained at least 2,300 people illegally since July. They're murdering people in broad daylight in front of crowds and laughing about it. They rape and murder in their concentration camps. They attack police officers. There need to be tangible and concrete consequences for lawless violence and terrorism on our streets. Otherwise, you're not only condoning their behavior, you're encouraging it. You're announcing to them, "Do whatever you want, nothing we can do." If if that's an argument that doesn't speak to you, think of the economics from norstarpolicy.org. Federal ice surge, excuse me, the federal ice surges causing statewide economic crisis in Minnesota. Businesses along key corridors in Minneapolis and St. Paul are closing with sales down 50 to 100%.

While businesses in Rochester, Wilmer, Alexandria, and St. Cloud are also experiencing impacts. Workers in health care, child care, construction, food production, and service industries are staying home or leaving jobs out of fear of detention. The ripple effects extend statewide. Similarly, in Washington DC, reporting indicates that restaurant and construction industries in particular were hurt by ICE and National Guard occupation even though their situation was drastically less chaos. So, please do something tangible and concrete as opposed to strongly worded letters. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Smith.

Sarah Roberts. Sarah Roberts. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Thank you for the opportunity. Well, it's just it's been said really well by the previous couple of speakers, but I I just want to reiterate that ICE is a rogue agency. We know that. We've seen what's going on in Minneapolis, LA, and Chicago, and everywhere they've been. They've been on their surges. They violate the constitutional rights of citizens and non-citizens alike. And Tucson Police Department is calling being called by ICE to back them up. So, we've seen this in several incidents. Um, I'm a resident of Ward One. I'm I'm not speaking or to represent any organization, but I do volunteer with the rapid response network and also the Hosaphina, the worker center. So since we've seen that TPD is being called by ICE to back them up, this feels like looks like collaboration. So I would just urge you to issue directives to TPD to not collaborate, meaning not responding when they're called to back up this rogue agency. And I think this will help us keep alive our idea of being an immigrant welcoming city. Thank you.

Thank you, Sarah. John Dory.

Good evening, everyone. I'm here to stand up for people who can't stand up for themselves because I swore an oath to the Constitution to defend this country. Um, there isn't much I can say that hasn't already been said about ICE. So, instead of bitching about them, I'm going to propose some very common sense, reasonable solutions for what we can do from a city perspective. I think it's perfectly reasonable to ask the Tucson Police Department to go around documenting their crimes against humanity. Like it says to serve and protect on their vehicles, right? Why don't they go and serve and protect the community for a bit? Also, state troopers could go and verify their IDs to see if these are actually federal agents. We don't know if they are or not. I'm all about proposing solutions. So, we could start with stuff like that. And also, uh, TPD could, uh, treat these guys like what they are, public enemy number one, and actually start treating them like an organized criminal element because they are. If there was any other gang out there that was doing this stuff and was anonymous, all the resources for TPD would be bent towards dismantling them and holding them accountable. Just because these guys are ostensibly federal agents doesn't shield them from accountability whatsoever. So, we got to get serious about holding these guys accountable. As serious as activists like me on the ground are. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Dherty. And our last speaker today is Ryan um Eglesson, I think it is. Good evening. Thank you for hearing us. I just want to echo and reiterate what my fellow citizens have been saying about, you know, this extra constitutional military force that comes onto our streets, takes our people. I was at Taco Hero on uh December 5th and without just to be there to exercise our first amendment rights. We were pepper-sprayed. We were shot at with pepper balls and I saw several people around me just get taken down, beaten, handcuffed, sprayed in the face this just this far from their faces. and TPD comes and protects them to get away with our friends and our community members who are then held at a TPD substation. You know, this is it's they're collaborators at that point with a fascist force and that has to stop. It's reprehensible and disgusting. Thank you. That was our last speaker for call to the audience. Uh we're going to move on to item seven,

consent agenda items A through E. Reports from the city manager on the consent agenda received into and made part of the record. Miss Clerk, you are requested to read the consent agenda. Item A is approval of minutes. Item B is revision to city ordinance 21.4 to allows free distribution of prepackaged food and refreshments and parks without a permit. This item is to be considered separately at the request of the vice mayor and council member Barahas. Item C is write off write off of uncollectible accounts receivable. Item D is authority to acquire right ofway for Prop 101 Fifth Street Albernon to Wilmont payment rehabilitation project. Item E is housing and homelessness emergency declaration. This item will also be considered separately at the request of the vice mayor. So an appropriate motion would be to approve a consent agenda agenda items A through E with the exception of items B and E which will be considered separately. All righty. May I have a motion to move the items on the consent agenda?

So move. Second. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion hearing? None. Um, we've got to go real quick. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. Hi, Mr. Cunningham. Hi, Mr. Dah. Hi. Mrs. Lee, hi. Mrs. Barahas. Hi, Miss Schubert. I, Mayor Romero,

I All righty. We're considering a couple separately. And item B, parks and recreation revision to city ordinance. Um, uh, council member Vakas, and then I don't know, Vice Mayor, if you wanted to add to it. Thank you, mayor. Yeah, I asked for this item to be removed from the consent agenda because I've been receiving um some concerns from neighbors about food distribution in our parks and open spaces and they're asking for more parameters, more accountability from the groups providing these services under the proposed uh revision to this ordinance. I don't see any specific hours or specific parks. Um, so I just want to ensure that not just one park or one geographic area is affected, but that this ordinance is going to be distributed across all neighborhoods across the entire city. Um, you know, I believe in the power of collaboration and partnership and I would like to see if there's a way that we could um discuss this more in depth about how we can partner with our existing law local nonprofits because what I've been hearing from uh several of our nonprofits is that due to funding um they haven't been able to execute, you know, what they want to fully do. And I feel like as somebody that has worked in, you know, social services, somebody that has worked directly with parks and recreation, um, I want to provide more holistic long-term solutions and not just putting a band-aid on the wound. So, you know, I also reviewed um the materials from November 5th, 2025, the mayor council meeting along with memos from last September, results from the community engagement that occurred last March along with the 2022 ordinance, and you know, just stepping into this role,

I want to u make sure that we address those concerns. So, I propose that we postpone a decision on this ordinance until we can further explore these questions and conduct additional stakeholder engagement to ensure that our neighbors are fully aware and that way we don't have any existing questions moving forward. Thank you. All righty, Vice Mayor, and then and then I'll go to you, council.

Well, this is a little awkward um because I was not expecting that from council member Barahas. Um, I know my office has been working um with parks and wreck for the past two years on this ordinance and we did community engagement um where we brought mutual aid groups, nonprofits, neighbors um to kind of have dialogue around this and it was a very split process. Um, I do understand the concerns that like by limiting I think part of the challenge was we limited where people could get food so it was concentrated in certain areas. The um by rescending this ordinance were taking away that concentration to just one park and being able to spread it out um throughout the city so that it isn't just in one neighborhood that were um experiencing this. We had um engaged community I would say for the past 5 years coming to call to the audience talking about the frustrations of being able to provide something as basic as food and water to our unsheltered neighbors. And I think that in this moment, especially the city and other nonprofit entities are strapped financially and making it easier for mutual aid groups and and neighborhood groups or anybody that wants to step up and help us carry that load should be welcome. I do think we, you know, as challenges and concerns come up, we need to address them directly. Um, but I think part of the harm of this ordinance was this blanket approach that wasn't working. And so I um I commend the the work of the city manager and staff to say, you know what, maybe we need to back this up. Um we came in hot with this ordinance. Um and in the moment where we can't as a as a governing body can't meet the needs of our community, making it easier for those who can meet the need is what we

should be doing to move the needle right now. So, if I may, um, if I may request from council member Barakas that she reconsider and but what we could do, council member, is um pass the ordinance today, but request from the city manager that he put together a plan in terms of how he's going to organize, you know, how we're going to organize ourselves because I know that and and I've been, you know, sitting here for the last few years and hearing from the work that mutual aid groups do and nonprofit organizations do. I think that it's we should be very clear with the community that that nonp preackaged food will still need to be permitted through the Pima County Health Department. Uh the Pima County Health Department permits um nonp preackaged food because they need to know how it's how it's prepared. Um but I but I think that there should be some um parameters in terms of how we you know allow mutual aid groups, nonprofit groups, there's faith-based groups that want to do the right thing that want to feed people that are hungry and that need the food. Uh but there should be some rules, right? If you're going to do this, make sure that you clean up after yourself. there should be some parameters and then we have to make sure that it's also as the vice mayor has said that it's spread throughout the city of Tucson um uh in partnership with neighborhoods in in the area. So just putting it out there and see if that would satisfy you just to give additional uh direction to the city manager to come up and the parks and recreation director to come up with uh hey these are the parameters if you're going to be giving

out food in our parks.

Yeah, absolutely. I I just want to make sure you know that there that it is equitable as you're sharing vice mayor and mayor. So, I just I the concerning issue is how are we making sure that it is equitable across all neighborhoods because a lot of the neighborhoods that are affected um a lot of the families don't have access to green space. So, I just want to make sure that the parks are used um you know for for their recreation as well. So if there is a communication type campaign that we share across the city with our neighborhoods to ensure that um you know it is equitable and that it is enforced um I'm okay with moving for forward. Mayor, can I in too? Like I mean I know all mutual aid groups are the same and not all on nonprofit groups are the same, but there's different mutual aid groups that operate out of different boards and I think it's helpful if we're meeting with them and talking to them because the conversations I've had, it is it is them showing the plan of like how they set up, how they clean up afterwards, how they stay till everybody leaves. And so I think and it that took me going a number of times myself to see it for myself. So, I just think keeping those open lines of communication um is going to be beneficial for us moving forward.

Yeah. I just wanted to ask the city manager if if you had any plans, Mr. Manager, in terms of um yeah, how to put some process and protocol together for this.

Thank you, honorable mayor, and members of the council. Um we're happy to take your direction tonight with regard to the ordinance. We're also um happy to um make sure we probably socialize some expectations around these distribution events. Uh part of the reason we suspended the program in the first place because it it was creating some unnecessary conflict in an area where we were trying to collaborate. So, I think leaning into that collaboration space with with with some basic cleaning up after the event, things of that nature,

also coupled with some monitoring and maybe some follow-up discussions if if each side's expectations aren't being met. Uh, happy to do that. Um, and and put something in writing as well for for all of you.

Right. and and I think that um the the discussions with mutual aid groups and and them moving around throughout the city uh in areas where there is need, there's proven need is important. I hear you and I hear from your residents in Ward 5 that you know surround areas like Santaita Park and other parks, Armory Park that um usually are the ones that are being used. I was here at this council when council member Fres requested the permit and the idea was uh so that we could have different groups go around the city of Tucson and use other parks. Um, of course residents in Ward 5 deserve to be able to um to use their green space in their parks and um be able to feel safe doing so. And um so I I absolutely agree with you, but I think that we could I think that we could come up with um some protocol to make sure that that we are in communication with mutual aid groups, with faith groups, with nonprofit groups that want to distribute prepackaged and that they should know that if it's not prepackaged, they will need to go to Pima County Health Department. if they're selling food, they they will need to get a permit. So, all of the rules and the procedures uh should be um part of this communication that we have with others.

Yeah, thank you, mayor. And just to reiterate that that some of those expectations are actually expressed in the ordinance revisions that have been proposed, you know, cleaning up after and and things of that nature. I think the key will be um on the staff side, making sure we're doing the followup and and communication and accountability piece. Mhm. So, if if um if you feel good about that direction, council member Vas, then I would I would accept a motion. I mayor, I move that we um pass and adopt the revision to city ordinance 21.4 to allow free distribution of prepackaged food and refreshments and parks without a city permit. Okay, we have a motion. Second.

There's a motion and a second. Council member Cunningham, I know that you wanted to add some thoughts. There's a couple there's a couple things when it comes to this. Look, let's back our lens out a little bit. This isn't going to be a problem until it's a problem, right? So, what we want to have is we want to have some guidelines and I think they're in there or they're they're kind of inferenced in the ordinance. I think parks did a really good job of kind of navigating that piece. um it's not going to stop issues where we create a very visible issue at a certain park or something like that and neighbors are going to respond and we're just going to have to be able to uh be adaptive to those those items. There's under no circumstances does there need to be an ordinance that regulates handing out prepackaged food. I mean you got to do that stuff. That's that's part of the whole uh humanitarian thing. I mean that's the human thing to do. So, let's do it right. So, that's it. But it again, we just need to I wish we were actually more vague in our guidelines because every situation is going to be different.

Um, any others? All righty. Hearing none, we have to get a roll call. Let's go to roll call. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. Hi, Mr. Cunningham. Hi. Oh, said I. Oh, I thought that was Mr. I said I Mr. D I. Mrs. Lee, I. Miss Farahas, I. M Schubert, I. Mayor Romero, I. Um, item B passes by a vote of 70. The following one that we're going to consider separately, Miss Clerk. Housing and homelessness emergency declaration.

All righty. So, um, I'd like to open it up for Vice Mayor Santa Cruz to, uh, open the item and then we can continue with discussion.

All right. Thank you, Mayor. Um, and thank you to you and your team for all your support, um, in getting us to this point. Um, I wanted to, you know, also recognize the work of the, um, Council Member Kazachic and Council Member Doan approaching the University of Arizona's Draftman Institute to help, you know, draft the study and how do we make it easier to have tiny homes or micro homes and, you know, all of that. And so, one of the recommendations that they had given us to start off with was declaring a a housing emergency. And, um, I really want to thank Corin um, and um, why am I blinking? Um, an I see an probably every other day in meeting. So, Ann, I'm sorry it's been a long day. Um, I want to thank them and their teams, you know, for kind of working this through all of this processes for the past year. So, thank you and your team so much for um getting us to this place. And then um the mayor adding, you know, it's not just the housing crisis piece, but it's the homelessness piece that we need to take into consideration. And at the end of the day, this doesn't allow us to leverage funding as in previous federal administrations. You know, we'd be able with the emergency declaration leverage fundings. But what this declaration allows us to do is to minimize the hurdles that people in our community have to face to create this, help us create the housing. Like I stated earlier, we have limited means and resources going into this existing fiscal year, the next couple of uh fiscal years, and everything that we can do to make it easier for our nonprofit partners, our faith partners, any other groups who want to help us tackle this. Um, it's making it easier for them and creating a process that allows us to take everything into consideration, but instead of it being a year-long process, it's very costly, is something that our staff can take care of inhouse within 2

to 3 months um of of expediting um yeah, these uh these permit requests. And so, I want to thank everybody for for getting us here. um the city attorney's office, even though you gave me a couple of headaches and migraines um to get us here, I appreciate um the the teamwork. And so um I know that um again, this declaration is not just a symbolic thing, you know, it's it's making sure that in front of us we're keeping this urgency, this coordination, and this accountability because too many of our families um are one paycheck away from losing their home, and many already have. So, we want to uh create the conditions to stabilize our community members um from um having to uh face uh homelessness. So, with that, mayor, I would move that we pass and adopt this housing and homelessness emergency declaration.

Second. Seconded.

There's a motion and a second. And I know that we have some additional discussion. And I just wanted to add uh vice mayor, I wanted to thank first and foremost all of the residents that um have come to Mary and council have engaged in really authentic conversations about creating affordability and uh really being partners in the work that I and my colleagues on the council first started by creating a housing affordability strategy for Tucson. on all of the countless hours of forums and town halls and calls to the audience and um our residents really are are a guiding light for all of us. Va I want to thank you for coming sharing your story caring about this. Um it is that phase, your face that I put to the individuals that need affordability, that need a shelter, um that need that um additional support and help. Uh that's why for me being innovative, being creative, pushing the envelope on things that we have not tried before um really is worth the time and effort because of people like you, Vida. Thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for coming. Uh thank you putting for putting a face, a beautiful face um to uh to the issues that we see so many young people and people of all ages uh go through. Um you know that's why it was important for us to try the Star Village uh safe sleeping site. That's why I put Ancheka and um and Corin Manning and Roy and and Liz Morales and others in a room and I

said we're not going to leave this room until we figure this ordinance out and we get what we need to get in terms of language but also movement because when I talked to the vice mayor and we've been talking about this for months now um about one adding the homeless emergency language into the ordinance. Um, we both said we don't want just words on paper. We want action, actionable steps that will actually make a difference. And this particular uh ordinance will give uh all of us the flexibility to be able to create additional safe sleeping sites and safe parking sites. as well as creating shelter spaces and moving those along with um um planning and development services director special um I guess powers to be able to flex on the land use codes that are preventing um from more shelter space to be built. So, it really has been a group effort and so many people uh so many nonprofit groups uh working on this uh to be able to to get to this point. So, actionable steps really good work. I hope that uh faith groups and nonprofit groups will take full advantage of this. Um and it's not going to be uh just a certain area. this is going to be um used in the entirety of the city of Tucson. So, thank you so much for all of your work. Any additional comments? Uh, Council Member Schubert.

Yes, Madame Mayor, just want to thank you and Vice Mayor Santa Cruz for your leadership on this issue. It's really exciting to finally be here today to have it official and on paper that this is an emergency. um that homelessness and housing are linked and that we have to talk about them together. Um and I I feel proud to be on a council that recognizes the importance of partnering with the community. Um not just faith-based groups, nonprofits, other groups doing work on the ground, mutual aid groups. Um but I mean, we're all stakeholders when it comes to this crisis. Um, and I, uh, stand with you all, um, in my commitment to taking action and making sure this isn't just words on paper. Um, at the W 6 office, we've received, um, at least 15 emails in support of this declaration and just underscoring the urgency of needing to act. And we've also heard from multiple neighborhood associations within Ward 6 who are interested in exploring safe sleeping sites. Um, and we're already seeing results from Star Village. we're already seeing that it's helping real people every day. Um, and so I'm just excited to be on board with um with this effort and and congratulations to Corin and Ann and everybody who was involved in putting this together.

Any others? All righty. Hearing none. Um, we need to go to roll call. Miss Schubert, I miss. Mrs. Lee, hi. Mr. D. Hi, Mr. Cunningham. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz, Mayor Romero,

I um motion passes by a vote of 70. Congratulations. Thank you all so much for coming and thank you to the entire group of staff that worked on this. Righty, we move on to item eight, city clerk. Appointment of city clerk. City manager communication number 36 stated February 3rd is received into and made part of the record. Miss Clerk, you are requested to read ordinance 12228 by number and title only. Ordinance number 12228 relating to city clerk appointing the city clerk of the city of Tucson and declaring an emergency.

What is the council's pleasure? May I have a motion? So moved. There's a motion and a second. Oh, second. Did we get a second? There's a motion and a second to pass and adopt ordinance 12228. Um, any discussion? Council member Cunningham. Congratulations to Miss Stler. Welcome to the city of Tucson.

Any others? Uh, Councilwoman Lee. Well, first I I just want to acknowledge Suzanne for 46 years. I know we said that when she was stepping down, but I also want to honor Sorry, it's been a long night. Yolanda for her amazing service and stepping into this role and doing it with grace and excellence and for the city clerk team out there in the audience. I want to acknowledge all of your work. Yes, we're getting some woo whoops out there. Um and just I know this is going to be a big transition and I just want to thank you all for the amazing work that you do every day to keep all of this working behind the scenes and you all are the engine that keeps everything moving. So, I just want to share my gratitude to each of you and uh welcome Marissa to the team. Any others? I too want to uh recognize the incredible service that um both Suzanne message gave to the city of Tucson, 46 years. My goodness. Um and then of course Yolanda for your service uh as a as our interim city clerk. the entire team. I believe that the city clerk plays a critical role in our democracy uh in keeping mayor and council in in uh in line and shape um and making sure that you run clean and fair elections uh in keeping records. I mean, it's it's an important job in all of the work that you do. I know that each and every member of the staff at the city clerk's office does this with integrity um and highly believe that the work you do is um important uh for our democracy. So I I just want to thank you all for the incredible work. Um I also want to

welcome Marissa Stler uh to the city of Tucson. I'm excited uh to be able to um welcome Marisa to Tucson and look forward to working with her in service to our residents. Um it's an important job as I said from overseeing elections to modernizing our records management improving public access. Um this work reflects deep respect and accountability for good governance. So congratulation Marisa. Uh, welcome to the city of Tucson family and we're looking forward to seeing you uh, here in Tucson. With that, um, is this roll call? Let's go to roll call.

Mr. Dah. Hi, Miss Schubert. Hi, Mr. Cunningham. Hi, Mrs. Lee. Hi, Miss Barahas. Hi. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. Hi, Mayor Romero. I item passes by a vote of 70. Item nine, adjournment. Council will stand adjourned. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be on Wednesday, February 18th, 2026 at or after 5:30 p.m. Thank you all so much. Have a wonderful rest of your week.