City Council - Regular Meeting

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us via Teams for today. Items one and three are executive sessions. Miss Clerk, uh, items one and three are notice as executive sessions. Update on Colorado Riverwater, Interstate Negotiations, and Supply Contracts pursuant to ARS 38-431.03, 03 print A and print three print four print six and on Lacster versus City of Tucson at all Puma County Superior Court case number C20259167. May I have a motion to go into exe executive please? 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. I. Any against? Motion carries. Councilman Lee, I'll see you over in executive session.

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We do need a motion to come to return to study session. Second, your honor. There is a motion in a second. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. I.

Any against? Motion carries. Uh item two. What is the council's pleasure for item two? Your honor, appropriate motion would be to proceed as discussed in executive session to direct the city attorney, city manager, and city staff to work with other Arizona water users to include negotiating appropriate agreements to respond to the upcoming shortages to supplement Tucson's already robust water portfolio in light of the planned shortages in 2027 and 2028. If their proposed three-state agreement is adopted, the mayor is hereby authorized and directed to execute such agreements on behalf of the city as necessary. So move mayor.

Second. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. I. Any against? Motion carries. What is the council's pleasure for item four? Your honor, appropriate motion would be to move that the mayor and council authorize and direct the city attorney to proceed as discussed in exe in executive session to include the settlement of this tort lawsuit in the amount of $100,000. May I have a motion? Mayor second. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I.

I. Any against? Motion carries. All righty. Thank you so much, Mr. Attorney. Item five, time has been set aside for discussion of a recommended budget and compensation plan for 2027. Mr. manager. Thank you, honorable mayor. Um, we have no uh action required as of today of this morning. Um, but we do have an update for you and we're really um anxious to hear your feedback on our budget and comp plan. With that, u ACM and CFO Anna Rosenberry will give you some of the highlights of what we presented for you today.

Thank you, city manager, mayor, and council members. Your memo um for this study session is uh remarkably brief when compared to the all of the full details that you received for the city manager's recommended budget at our April 21st first meeting. We've provided you information um related to questions that were asked at the table last time about position vacancies, our internal street maintenance units, um the housing voucher weight list and communications, our parks restroom service and availability, youth and youth employment programs. We've also given you a brief update on the recommended compensation plan, the employee disputes and dispute resolution process and the um calendar for approval of the compensation plan. At the our next study session on May 19th, we will have a separate study session where the human resources director will be at the table with you here to talk about the disputes that were received and the proposed dispute resolution. So that's coming at our next meeting. We've also um in these materials provided you the um full slide presentation of our employee budget engagement process. This was a presentation that the city manager um made to uh team focus with Tim our citywide um employee groups as a result of the engagement feedback that we received. Um and since the the writing of this memorandum, we've completed the community budget information sessions. Uh we held those um April 22nd through May 1st. Um an opportunity for the community to come and hear about the city manager's recommended budget. The comments that we receive as a result that we've received as a result of that process will be coming to you through the the clerk's office. And with that, uh, we're available for additional

questions that you might have as we move towards budget adoption on June 9th. Well, I want to start by thanking, um, our city manager, Tim Tamir, CFO, Anna Rosenberry, um, and their incredible teams for preparing us a balanced $2.4 billion budget. Uh this is not a budget based on pitting one service against another or one part of a our community against another. It's a budget grounded in equity, sustainability, and prosperity for all Tonins. Our fiscical year 27 budget projects uh protects essential services even as we continue to absorb the juicy era flat tax and the continual onslaught of Trump's economic policies that are creating chaos uncertainty and is contributing to a loss of revenue not just for Tucson but cities across the country. Let me be very clear. Uh we are not balancing this budget on the backs of tonins. The state of Arizona is already hitting hard on removing millions of dollars. The Doug Ducy era flat tax alone has been eating up uh more than $40 million a year. Um if the state legislature were to pass uh their conformity to the federal um big beautiful bill policies, they would continue removing millions of dollars from cities across Arizona, including approximately 7 million from the city of Tucson. So, we haven't we're not done yet in seeing what the state

legislature is doing uh to our families uh here in Tucson. So, again, I want to say that core services remain funded because this mayor and council made deliberate choices to prioritize people, public, and community safety and quality of life. Uh we are meeting the needs of our entire community, including our employees. Investing $18 million alone this year in employee compensation, keeping recreation centers and fire stations open and fully funded across the city, supporting community safety programs, and continuing to invest in affordable housing, including adding 50 additional officers. This budget does that. We must continue to be honest about the financial strains outside of the control of the city of Tucson and mayor and council. Impacts of the Doug Doug Ducey flat tax, which continues to reduce critical revenue. Um, our city depends ongoing uncertainty and compliance requirements tied to federal funding roll backs from recent legislation forcing cities to do more with less. and most recently proposed actions at the state legislature to eliminate Rio Nooo district which is a direct threat to local jobs, small businesses and the continued downtown revitalization that is so important for our community. So again, I want to be very clear. A balanced budget does not mean acrosstheboard cuts. It means responsible uh stewardship and laser focus. It means making smart investments, protecting critical services, and planning for long-term stability. This is a holistic budget, a

wellthoughtout budget that protects services to our community, that protects our swimming pools and recreation centers, that protects and adds to our services and public safety. And uh it is really a budget that will continue to make sure that we're investing in working families um and helps thrive in a moment in our history where both the federal government and the state government is gutting investments um to cities like Tucson and throughout Arizona. So, thank you again for your work. I want to thank my colleagues on the council for really being part of this discussion. Our employees, our department directors, our executive leadership team, all of them have made sure that this budget is reflective of the investments that our our residents deserve. With that, Council Member Cunningham.

So, I know we're not talking about parks and rec fees today, and there's, you know, there's there's there are there are some good things in this budget. There are some pieces that um you're not going to you're not going to agree with every budget 100% every time. But um you do have to see the documents holistically. You have to see them objectively. And you have to decide measure. You have to measure whether or not you're an enthusiastic yes or a I guess so yes or an enthusiastic no or a a reluctant no. But you you you've got to measure the budget. And um the employment package and the compensation package is is is a enthusiastic guess for me at this point. Um or at least I'm very happy with it. Uh when we look at the other things though, there's one tweak I wanted to make today, kind of formalize it a little bit. We've got we had an we had an incredible opportunity to uh interact with the pickle ball community in the last few weeks. And one of the things that's happened with our pickle ball community is we have a paddle rack program for community play. And it's actually more unique than people think. There's only two or three sites in Arizona that have free community play and it's met with the enthusiasm uh that we we enjoy at the UD Doll Center. Uh you need to have multiple courts to do it. Uh the circumstances have to be right, but we do have over 200 members uh in the online pickle ball group for Tucson area tap. They have their own nonprofit. They actually put on tournaments at UD Doll. And they came with an interesting idea in which uh we would uh kind of trade services for them keeping their paddle rack program and allow them to kind of steward it. And and we didn't really want to do a uh the the ideal pro procurement thing. I think more of anou just kind of like codifying the informal agreement we have now. So I I've got a little motion for that that kind of just sets it up. We do we will have some cost avoidance in that uh Tucson area pickle ball is going to pay for resurfacing the

courts next year. They're also going to pay for the power washing periodically the maintenance. Not only that over their goal is over the five years is to raise enough capital to build three more courts and that's some cost avoidance that we don't have to put into our CIP each year. That's some cost avoidance and maintenance that we don't have to. Uh I've spoken with uh the parks department. I want to thank uh Larara Hemway and her team uh the manager and the mayor for all kind of uh collaborating with us on this. So with that um I'd like to move we removed proposed piece for pickle ball at Udall Park from the um recommended parks and wreck fees and fee increases budget for fiscal year 27. I furthermore like to address city attorney to work on an memorandum of understanding with Tucson area pickle ball regarding maintenance of the courts at UD Doll and the possibility of building new pickle ball courts in the future at that site. Theou is intended to be approved by the city manager in Tucson area pickle ball. We'll keep the courts going for about five years.

There's a motion. Second. There's a motion in a second. Any further discussion? I guess my only question, Mr. Attorney, is um we have similar partnerships with nonprofit and other groups in the community that do maintenance um in our parks. That's correct. System. Correct. That's correct. And is the motion The motion is sufficient. We we've already begun working with with TAP and we look forward to finishing this up. Okay. All righty. Any other questions on the motion? Council member Vakas.

It's it's just kind of related. Um I would love to see if there's a way that we can reactivate the parks foundation to help build a sustainable plan for partnerships and fundraising opportunities with private and nonprofit partners. just in case, you know, I I I look forward to this nonprofit um withstanding and I just know histories of nonprofits, you know, sometimes they fall apart. Um thanks, Council Member Barus. I believe we're bringing back a package of parks fees and that might be an appropriate time to discuss that. All righty. Any other questions on this item? Council member Dell.

Thank Thank you, Mayor. I just want to um thank Paul for grabbing the bull by the horns and working with this very upset um recreational community and coming up with a solution that seems like it might work for everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Any others? Uh just to piggyback on the nonprofit piece, we do have a nonprofit partnership that was successful and on May 30th we'll be cutting the ribbon for that facility as well. All righty. If there's no other questions, all those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I.

Any any against? Motion carries. Any other questions on the budget presentation? Righty, we'll have a public hearing later tonight. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. We move on to item six. Time has been set aside at the request of council members Lee, Barahas, and myself for an update on the safe city initiative, including public safety communications and an update on the progress made uh on previous direction regarding street racing. Mr. Manager, I know that we have our uh department directors coming up.

Thank you, Honorable Mayor. Uh joining us here at the table are our our director of public safety communications uh Mike Garcia and also to address the street racing portion is our police chief Monica Prito. Um with that I turn it over to the team to guide us through this this safe city update. Director Garcia.

All right. Good afternoon honorable mayor mayor members of the council. Thanks for your time today. I appreciate uh being able to be up here and talking to you today about all the great things that we do and how we work on supporting the safe city initiatives and and the city in general. Uh for some background, uh most of you are aware that the PSCD was established as a department in 2017 after combining the police and fire dispatch services and and came together as a single department. It really positioned our department well to have a really unique footprint uh amongst in in the city and even with a regional uh cooperative uh mindset because of the different agencies we serve and also the different committees throughout the region that we sit on between serving with hospitals and coordinating their staffs and working with the different emergency response groups that that reach out beyond the city even we have a very strong uh foothold in the in the regional perspective. Um along with that, uh we also have long had to work with and and gotten the opportunity to work with agencies within Puma County such as PAC and making those connections during emergency services and that sort of thing. And that's been able to be expanded upon over the recent years. Um, our core work is and always will be in 911, but what we have found over recent years is really the need to declutter 911 by expanding out or looking at these support functions that reduce the workload that's in 911. Uh, the reality is that we take um over 1.2 million uh calls coming in and out of the center on the emergency side a year and that gets really overwhelming. Uh in addition, we recognized that the city had over 280 different uh lines coming into the city to serve the different departments of the city, which is really overwhelming to the public and not a really great service uh with a lot of confusion, which meant that people would get confused, overwhelmed, frustrated at the ability to to get services and

they'd end up calling 911 resulting in almost um threequarters of the calls that were coming into 911 actually not having uh a highle acuity emergency call that actually gets a responder assigned to it immediately that have some form of a delayed response or actually need an entirely different service. Uh so that really pushed us to develop other levels of services which tie in really really succinctly with the um the safe city initiatives and the different priorities that are set aside in that initiative. Uh so the first place that we actually started working on was the coalation of the collocation of the crisis professionals and we work with the state reeba so the the regional behavioral health authority uh their primary agency that works with that their contracted agency in our region is the Arizona complete health and we have the crisis co-workers who the crisis co-responders who colllocate with us they sit they take the crisis calls and all of those calls get directed directly into our center where they can all of our calls for response that we have on the board as well and can help pick out those calls that they can help support. Also, 988 in most states deliver just to a state general office and give somewhat generic response and services there. Uh because of our unique situation, you call 988 in Tucson, it gets routed up to Phoenix, it gets routed back here to Tucson to then a center that gives we have this local central focused uh services that is really unique to our center. So, we improve that 911 to 988 connectivity and callers don't fall through the cracks between systems with that. Um, and having the crisis center workers in there, it also reduces unnecessary police and fire responses to behavioral health calls and responses to calls that those officers and first responders are not well equipped or properly equipped to handle or handle on their own. Um we also get crisis

professionals that uh can reach the callers before mobile teams can even get deployed to start deescalating calls to start providing support and getting other resources started. Um the concept even predates uh the consolidation of PSC but it was a great fit bringing in uh both the medical and the police side together and the work that went well. Um, this program is now a very proven model that's being studied from around the country and having a crisis professional right here in the room means that a caller in crisis gets a better resource and better outcomes sooner and it's essential. Um 3 in1 was the next integration that we worked on and it really provides a single point of contact for the city into the center hub and it means that things because of the way we structured the framework and the generous support that we had from you mayor and from the the council here and the the management team. Uh we were able to structure that in such a way that when calls come in, they can easily flow back and forth between 911 or 311 as we need it because people still call one or the other, not wanting to bother people and that sort of thing. We can redirect calls where they need to be. The whole thing about 311 is we like to look at our staff there and what we do there as being professional connectors. We work on connecting uh between all the different agencies and departments that we work with. So we work with encampment reporting. We work with housing and food assistant referrals. We work through various different social services connections. We directly collaborate with uh community safety, health and wellness, with DTM, with housing first, puma animal care, and many other partners. Um they are available to and regularly support safe city deployments through combined efforts of 311, Seesark, and Dispatch with the people that are out in the field during those events. and 311 was a deliberate choice to protect and decongest 911. When a constituent calls 911 for a heart attack

or an armed robbery in progress, they shouldn't have to compete with a call for a housing question or stray animal that 311 solves. Efficient uh we efficiently connect people to the right help at the right time. Uh the next big step that we took towards doing that was digging into uh how we can get people with low acuity medical problems uh the the most appropriate level of care for their needs at the time. And we worked very diligently since the summer of 2023 to onboard um MD Ally. You've all heard of our teleaalth uh system that we have in place there. And what MD Ally does is it allows us to take lower level calls, put it through our emergency dispatch uh criteria and work with our medical director to redirect those calls to a medical health care provider online who then can either prescribe and even have medications delivered, can uh diagnose some conditions online or can refer folks and even provide transportation for them to lower level medical clinics and more appropriate healthcare, make appointments for them, decide whether they need to go to a dentist or a doctor's office, those kind of things that are really critical. A lot of people end up calling 911, getting an ambulance to go to an emergency room to find out that they actually need a dentist and those kind of things. And all of those are very costly to the systems and very costly to our community members. In 2025, we took over 2,000 calls that qualified for it. Um, by not having to dispatch and refer those to uh medical providers online, it saved over 1,700 hours of fire and EMS runtime and over 4,100 hours of emergency room wall time. That wall time has a trickle down effect by allowing fewer patients in there leaves uh quicker turnaround time for other ambulance crews that are in

there uh getting in and out easier. So uh we we also reduce ambulance transport bills and emergency room visits where which are extremely costly compared to um things like a minute clinic and those kind of facilities for our constituents. So people in our community who call 911 with a low-level medical concern um but felt they had nowhere else to turn are now able to get a medical provider or doctor on the phone in minutes with no ambulance ride, no emergency room co-pay, no waiting room, and it's a better care at no cost to the city because it's a no-cost contract. MD Ally with us. It's a service that we don't have to pay for. It's an agreement between us and the city and significantly lower cost to the community members. Um, our most recent uh collaboration that's just in the final stages of actually becoming fully implemented is our connection with TOSD security. This came about because of um a grant and funding from the state that uh TPD was involved with that allowed a school safety initiative for software to try to link or provide alert systems to all the schools in the in the region. and we worked with TPD and the right people and we set up an RFP and and an RFP was um awarded and then when we were went and worked very closely with TPD to get school engagement, the schools weren't interested in it. Nobody liked it. Um so uh we ended up having to cancel that agreement. TPD did. But what really proved valuable in that was the relationships we got to build especially with TOSD, the largest school district in the region. and they they talked to us before about wanting to colllocate with us, but they really wanted to co colllocate with us. So, uh this time last year, you all uh signed an IG with TSD that allows us to colllocate them to

colllocate with us. Uh they will be on our shared electronic CAD computerated dispatch system will share common events that are of high urgency. Uh so police and fire will immediately see the the same incidents but they will also conduct their regular business from there seated in with us and when it's appropriate they'll share critical information and vice versa instantaneously in the same room at the same time. Um this enables a unified command structure across to USD security to some police to some fire and regional EMS. Uh there's uh automated campus alerts that are being tested and configured now that we'll be able to see. It provides Seesark with more visibility and uh ability to see what's going on right now. So when something happens in a school or campus to USD security and our dispatchers see it instantaneously at the same time. This results in a coordinated response from the first second of the incident, not after multiple phone calls and things being lost in translation. And finally, one of the most uh the bigger things that we do because we are so tech heavy, we ingest so much data and all of that is going to a common data lake and that is a secure data lake that with the right credentials can be put together and used to uncover or look at the various different needs of the community or where services are being asked for or called upon. And that can be overlaid um with the completed data with our other public sa safety partners to identify things like um where are some of the gaps in our underserved communities. We can look at where um where there are issues with um like high utilization corridors for various services. And because we don't deal with just police and fire emergency services, we look at all the different services u

with 311 and everything else. We can expand that quite a bit and so we can use all of that data along with the teams because we only see what people initially call for. That often changes by the time somebody gets there or the service is delivered. So it all needs to be combined together which is a really group big group effort that we need a lot of help with. But all the data goes to the same place. It can all be very strategically used if we can break it down and get it in the right pieces and we can pull out the parts that we need to really help inform and make some really uh good decisions based on that. So the data that we generate isn't just for the operations that we do although we use it for that quite regularly. Um it can tell us where the gaps are, which community segments aren't getting the right responses and what we need to do to address and support those areas. Having this information available allows the city to accurately defi, identify and be transparent regarding community needs and actions and results and have them achieved. So to track what we're doing and how we're doing it. So PSCD is uh committed to uh continuing staff engagement, our data transparency, and our cross departmental uh transpar uh collaboration. We we want to ensure that every community member gets an efficient equitable response. By tying these together, we place the right work in the right hands and we play a central role that's vital in supporting and advancing the safe city initi initiative action plan. So I thank you for your time and appreciate you being here. Open for any questions.

Thank you, Director Garcia. I'm going to take questions or comments at this time because I know that um Chief Prito is going to give us an update on street racing and I know that we're going to dig deep into that item. Um any questions or comments on this on this particular piece of the safe city initiative? Um Council Member Cunningham, are we using uh either Carbine Prepared versus Term? Are we looking at any of those AI companies at this time or whether or not to interface with them? How does that look? How has that looking for us?

So, we've looked at Carbine. Um, it's an over the top. We can't use it because the way our state 911 system is set up. It rides over the top. Um, it depends on which versat product you're talking about. Triage one that Phoenix uses was about.

So, we've looked at it. There's some cost prohibitions to it. We're actually what we're looking at is um VRA uh is one portion of it, which is Motorola's version. it it does some of that along with um some of the other tools that they have that are built in with rapid deploy which they just purchased last year which is a competitor to a couple of those that you mentioned there. So it's a space that we spend a lot of time looking at and seeing what we can do to to figure out some of the the things that all of those companies do. How many people you've got in your shop? Right now we have 167 as of uh Friday last week.

All right. And then lastly, just so everyone knows where I'm going with this, uh there about 240 million calls a year on 911 nationwide, but there's about 330 million people. There's only half a million people in Tucson, but our 911 takers take about a million calls. So, we actually take about triple the calls against the national average if you really look at the numbers. And that's that's something that we really want to improve on. And I think we are you guys are take you guys are doing more with nothing more with less than pretty much anyone else is. But uh I just wanted to let you know I totally understand the herculean task you're under right now and trying to take all those call. I mean we took a you took a mill I think a million calls last year is what I was told and that is that's like 2,700 calls a day and obviously there's certain days where if you get a few calls it must be overwhelming on those 10,000 call days. So, uh, thanks for everything you do and it seems like in my opinion, the people I've talked to, uh, there's a lot of good things going on in your shop right now. So, congratulations on that.

Appreciate it. Thank you. Any others? Council member Vakas and then Council Member D. Thank you so much, Director Garcia. I have a question with the school safety initiative. Is there any interest um, and or other opportunities for other school districts to engage in um,

this connection? Thank you. No, that that's a great question. Appreciate it. Um, so TUSD is right now the only one that has a 247 dispatch center of their own that stands up with our security uh team. However, uh, we actually structured our agreement with them very similar to the way that we structured it with the with our partners that we dispatch for on our fire agencies where actually what we do is our IG is set up with a single entity and all of the other entities actually coordinate with them. So we have one IG contract we work with and the other agencies can work with that one to bring in and we set that up as a ground at at the ground level to look at bringing in in the future and we've set it up with the whole idea of almost if you build it they will come because we want to be really open. We would actually love to have a way to build a foot a footprint for every school district in the region to participate in and we we would love to see that happen. And it gives us that opportunity to participate in like the monthly and the quarterly school security meetings and the the groups that meet on a on a regular basis with that group and to get closer with TPD on that group that does that. And that's that's our future look on the Thank you for asking,

Council Member D.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Director Garcia. We've met a lot over the last couple years, and your team has done such great improvements. I think you're doing a great job. You have become the face of Tucson, even more so than the ward offices at times, for people who are in trouble, vulnerable, seeking help, lonely, etc. Uh, and our staff will keep working with you. I've noticed, and this is a a a note for um the city manager as well, that sometimes there's not good coordination between 311 and the people who are solving the problems in our other agencies and um information about what's changed in say DTM doesn't get to your people. Um and just looking forward to better coordination of that over time and I'm sure it will be. Thank you.

Any others? All right. I wanted to first and foremost thank you Director Garcia for um the incredible work that you do to our operators and uh really unseen heroes um uh our 911 and 311 professionals. They really are uh to be commended for the incredible work that they do. um you keep innovating and I love that uh because that's exactly what we need to do and then and you take the um the uh you know putting the right work in the right hands uh slogan that we've been using or the mission right um very seriously I love the innovation of MD Ally uh to be able to uh you know uh connect the people that are calling us to the services that don't necessarily mean we're going to send EMS to their doorstep, but that can connect to some preliminary um uh attention to medical needs that they might have. Um, when we first started working on the 311 system, one of the issues that we kept talking about, uh, the calls coming in to 911, 74% uh, have other response need, not emergency needs. Only about 26% need police or fire or EMS services. And so, uh, one of the, um, one of the things that we wanted to do was to be able to give a number to our community where we didn't have 260 different numbers that they needed to call in or council offices. I served on a council office for 12 years and it felt as though we were the information line,

right? and we had to do a lot of constituent work um that clogged our systems at the council offices. So um I think one of the decisions that I made as mayor in putting $300,000 to try and activate 311 from our ARPA money um really was an incredible investment in uh proving a pilot right. And so 311 has been picking up um a lot of the calls that would otherwise go to 911. And um again, like I said, you keep innovating in adding MD Alli in adding the coordination with TUSD. Hopefully we can bring other school districts along so that we can do have a coordinated emergency response whenever that is needed. So I just wanted to thank you first and foremost for uh doing unbelievable work and um putting the right work in the right hands and uh being open to innovation and uh uh continued improvement in our system. So thank you again for uh for being such an amazing resource to our community. Uh if there's no more no other comments on this portion of the presentation, Chief PTO, honorable mayor, members of council, good afternoon. Thank you for having me here to share our street racing updates. I just I'm going to give you a lot of information. So if you have any questions at any point, please feel free to ask any questions. Okay. So, your Tucson Police Department has developed and implemented a comprehensive intelligencedriven strategy to address the increasing threat of street racing and takeover events. Our strategy

emphasizes proactive enforcement, advanced technology, and investigative tools, regional coordination, and strong prosecutorial partnerships. And this is to disrupt and deter organized street racing activity. This approach not only enhances enforcement outcomes but also positions TPD to pursue higher level charges ensuring accountability ultimately leading to reduction in the frequency and severity of these dangerous events. But we can't talk about street racing um without talking about the unsafe culture of the driving behavior here in here in Tucson as we know. Um and it's most strikingly evident when we talk about our year-to-ate traffic fatalities. So year to date we have 38 traffic fatalities. 16 of those are pedestrian deaths and 14 are are vehicle or vehicle fatalities. My apologies. The major contributing factor is not being in a crosswalk. 13 of our pedestrian fatalities were not in a crosswalk. Pedestrian fatalities have increased exponentially compared to last year. Impairment is suspected in many of these cases, which we believe correlates directly to the fentanyl crisis. Within our fatal data, we track how far away from the nearest crosswalk these pedestrians were when they were struck. The average distance from the nearest crosswalk in these cases was approximately 128 yards. And I think it's important to note because DTM has done a great job of providing crosswalks throughout the city. Um, you will see a higher level of enforcement as a way to prompt more people to use existing crosswalks. As you recall, Lieutenant Breaof was was in a March session here talking about our traffic strategies. It's it was a three-prongong approach. Um, starting with our traffic TEOPS. These are the these are the deployments that began on March 4th where we identified the intersections and the corridors where most of our collisions were occurring. Um, these officers are automatically they're

they're autogenerated calls for service that they can put themselves on at which time they do a minimum of 20 minutes doing traffic enforcement and in education and the goal is to conduct about 10,000 of these deployments at the end of the year. Um, so far we have completed about 800 of these deployments and that's since March since March 4th. The second the second approach you you heard about was the regional traffic enforcement task force that began in January and these are deployments that we do with our partner agencies about once a month. We've done four so far and we're about to do a fifth one this coming Wednesday. Essentially we we target the major corridors around the city where the data is telling us the the collisions are occurring. We do this in conjunction with the Puma County Sheriff's Department, the University of Arizona Police Department, and the Department of Public Safety. The third approach was using our motors, um the data-driven deployment of our motors. Not only do we increased our motor unit by five, so now we have a total of 21 motor units, but we've also increased the coverage to include nighttime deployments, evening deployments. So, you'll start seeing more motors in the evening evening hours. Our newest traffic safety effort launched just this past week and we utilize these are called our traffic zebras and they're a group of six officers who have volunteered and have an interest in traffic enforcement. So they're out for about 3 to five hours every every other week hitting traffic hotspots and they are doing again proactive traffic education and enforcement during the evening hours and they are in conjunction with our planned enforcement details and will address specific complaints from the patrol divisions as well. We've completed two of these zebra deployments in the last week. Um, one being Sunday evening off of Hton. You might have seen them there. Um, this was after a private and legal racing event. Usually we see groups gather on on Hton. So, we we got some

intelligence that they were going to be gathering on Hton. We didn't allow them to do that. In fact, we made about 22 traffic stops that Sunday. Um, the deployment was interrupted based on a a driver the wrong way at a high rate of speed who ultimately almost crashed into our officers and then crashed into a median. He was charged with 10 counts of felony endangerment and also felony DUI. On Friday, we also did a deployment with our zebra units on Valencia. This was an operations division south and we had 100 contacts at that point. We made 92 citations and two criminal speeding arrests. So this leads me into speaking about the street racing and street takeovers which are as you know completely reckless and unacceptable. All participants and spectators are engaged in criminal behavior. And it's not just about trespassing. It's not just about reckless driving. As you know, the other violent criminal behaviors that we see alongside street racing is the discharge, the unlawful discharge of firearms. We see the use of narcotics drugs and organized street racing networks. We must not forget the the street racing event that took place that took the life of a three-year-old child, which resulted in two secondderee murder charges. Our past approach was predominantly reactive with the primary goal of clearing the roadways and dispersing the crowds. Our newest response, though, is grounded in a robust intelligence-led framework designed to identify, track, and dismantled organized street racing networks. As of January 9th, 2026, the department has shifted to a proactive investigative strategy led by the threat mitigation unit we call TMU. TMU serves as a central intelligence hub, collecting and analyzing information from multiple sources, including 88 crime tips, patrol observations, and extensive social media monitoring. Intelligence confirms that street racing activity is highly

organized with defined roles, including event organizers, drivers, and spectators. And this intel supports our follow-up investigative efforts as well. Advanced investigative tools and technologies are central to this effort. We leverage camera systems to include automated license plate readers through the community safety awareness and response center. Investigative outcomes demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach, including the service of over 70 search warrants to recover evidentiary items, 18 vehicles that have been taken as evidence development and also the development of cases supporting potential criminal syndicate charges. Encrypted radio communications further enhanced our operational success by preventing participants from monitoring police activity, allowing for improved tactical coordination and enforcement. We've transition to a proactive enforcement model focused on identifying organizers, participants, and repeat offenders. Intelligence regarding planned events is rapidly disseminated to patrol divisions, enabling coordinated efforts and deployments supported by TMU and our community response teams. Our operational strategies include directive patrol deployments at identified hotspots, real-time intelligence sharing during planned takeover events, coordinated containment strategies during active events, use of technology to support postevent investigations and arrests, and case development for follow-up enforcement and prosecution. Department utilizes a broad range of criminal and civil traffic statutes to ensure accountability, including felony charges such as unlawful flight and endangerment. I want to talk about some recent highlights that scale and show the severity of these events. On February 22nd, we had multiple takeovers. Seven vehicles were identified. Six of those vehicles were seized. We made arrests for unlawful flight and one suspect we found armed with a modified handgun. On March 15th, we had coordinated takeovers

again. 45 rounds were fired from multiple weapons during this event. This investig investigation is ongoing, but because of the use of our cameras, we were able to identify the suspect vehicle. Most notably is the April 18th deployment on COB, which made national got got national attention. Our proactive operation near Valencian cob resulted resulted in 23 trespassing arrests, multiple vehicle seizures. We arrested three for participating in a criminal syndicate and two were arrested for contributing to the delinquency of a minor because they some parents brought two young children with them. Five vehicles were taken as evidence and one impounded during this this deployment. So our response is strengthened through extensive partnerships at the local regional and state levels. A street racing regional task force model is being developed to enhance coordination, intelligence sharing, and operational effectiveness across jurisdictions. Our key partners include the Tucson City Court, Puma County Attorney's Office, and Arizona Attorney General's Office with dedicated prosecutors embedded in our operations. In fact, on the April 18th deployment, we had our prosecutors um riding along with officers so they could see firsthand the activity. We also report confirmed street racing activity to the National Insurance Crime Bureau so they can follow up and potentially cancel insurance policies. We have collaborated with the Phoenix Police Department street racing unit for cross trainining and best practices. We've coordinated with regional law enforcement agencies to track offenders also across jurisdictions. And these partnerships ensure strong case development, consistent prosecution, and alignment on our enforcement strategies while also supporting legislative efforts to strengthen penalties and enforcement tools. TBD street racing response reflects the significant evolution from reactive enforcement to a comprehensive

intelligence-led strategy targeting organized criminal activity by integrating data-driven analysis, advanced technology, proactive deployments, strong prosecutorial and regional partnerships. The department is effectively disrupting street racing networks. This approach not only enhances enforcement outcomes but also positions TPD to pursue a higher level charges while improving public safety and reducing the frequency and severity of these dangerous events. It should also be noted that this approach to combating street racing also aligns with the prosperity initiative goal one action item 1.1 targeting community policing and street level interventions. In summary, we've adopted an all hands-on deck approach to combating street racing activities. It includes a renewed emphasis and focus on the standards of traffic education and enforcement. Since January 1st, we've made numerous arrests and citations associated with unsafe driving and street racing. This includes 95 95 arrests, 47 of which for felony flight. And these felony flight is the officer's attempt to stop the vehicle and they they do not stop for the officer. Our commitment's evident. It's proven by our traffic enforcement activity. I'll read some stats. From January 1st to May 3rd, approximately 9700 traffic citations have been given out. Approximately 2500 written warnings have been given out and approximately 1300 verbal warnings have been assessed. This is over 67 of the traffic citations were related to speeding. 131 for reckless driving and 176 were made because of the excessive speed was going over 20 m hour. Bless you. Which was a class 3 misdemeanor. So, lots of data, but this concludes my update. Ready for questions.

Thank you so much, Chief. Really appreciate you and everything that Tucson Police Department and the threat mitigation unit are doing to combat this crisis. Um, first and foremost, I want to thank my colleagues, Councilman Lee and Council Member Barahas. The three of us uh requested this item because a few things, most notably the devastation of losing a beautiful three-year-old uh Ana Magdalena Garcia with such a bright future ahead. uh was taken from her parents and family and all of us um because of street racing happening in our streets. And I think that it's important uh to note that our police department, our mayor and council uh have been working on this issue uh for quite some time. And as a matter of fact, at the request of Councilman Lee, uh we cobbled up uh half a million dollars so that we could amp um the investment at TPD so you could do this work, right? And um I just want to note that um people ask what what is it that the city of Tucson is doing about this? Um we're doing a lot and and your report and update uh is clear about all of the work that not only TPD is doing but also Department of Transportation and Mobility and um uh you know PSC TPD um and threat mitigation unit there. You're all working diligently and swiftly. Um, but there's more to be

done. And um, you know, I I first want to also um note uh the brave parents of Anna uh, Brianda and Manny Garcia, and their now new baby sister that was born, Iana. Um because of this tragic incident, I'm in awe of the family's courage and um strength to transform their pain into into power and calling for Anna's law. Um, Anna's law calls for the state to be involved to set stricter penalties for street racing uh, especially in cases where it results in in serious injury uh, or death. Um, this particular online um, call from the family has gathered over 23,000 signatures. Um the petition for Anna's law sends a clear message uh that street racing is not harmless. Uh that street racing is reckless and violent. Uh and that it destroys lives. And so um one death from street racing is too much and the life of Anna Garcia mattered. And I know that the family and community and us as mayor and council, I'm sure all of us want to make sure that her death does not go in vain. And uh what we in my office started looking at is uh what are other cities doing nationwide and what can we as a city of Tucson implement um and add to the ordinance that may council passed on this. In Chicago, street racers and takeovers can also face public nuisance and mob action

charges. Um, in Philadelphia, they raised their fines to $2,000 uh dollars uh and added to drifting uh to their added drifting to their ordinance as part of illegal street racing vehicle empoundment for up to six months uh on a first offense in Louisville. Um, you know, I would say I think that it's important that we think exactly what is it that we can do as a city to um to send a very clear message that we will not tolerate street racing and that there are severe consequences. um for anyone find you know being found to be doing street racing and takeovers of our streets. Uh also that we have to change the culture and address these dangerous behaviors uh which many times coincide as you reported to us with illegal firearms and narcotics sales. And so what is it that we can do to continue to inform and educate not only the youth but parents many times involved in either knowing or allowing or participating in street racing in our community. Um so I think it's two things. It's one, what can we do to enhance the ordinance? And then two, what do we do besides um adding to the consequences of street racing, but what is it that we can do upstream in terms of prevention and intervention work with the community?

Um, so important conversation and I just wanted to offer my colleagues, Councilwoman Lee and Council Member Barakas an opportunity to help open the item. Council, mayor. Councilwoman Lee, Council, Gohead.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, you know, I just appreciate that we are having this discussion again because it clearly remains a major issue across our city. Um, but like you said, mayor, I am heartbroken and angry about the circumstances that have brought us to having this update today. And I also want to share that my heart goes out to the Garcia family and everyone impacted by the tragic loss. Um, as the mayor mentioned, back in 2023, I coordinated a town hall in Ward 4 to have a very specific conversation based on hearing the concerns as also hearing the street racing because I live across uh, Hton myself and make sure that TPD had as many of the resources that they needed and tools to go after this issue and make some progress for our community. And as the mayor said, we invested in some of those tools. Those things were implemented. Um, I myself have been out on a street racing deployment with the team. So, prior to this new strategy that the chief is talking about, I can vouch for the fact that our team has been doing a lot of work and and working uh very smartly and diligently to go after this issue for uh years now. Um, you know, there there are some realities that we face right now and some challenges. You know, as with any crime, and the and the chief kind of talked about this, our officers can't be everywhere all the time in a 240 square mile city, and our teammates do the best they can to understand the probability of these uh street racing activities and try to disrupt that as best as possible. Um, and also at the same time, we can't be responsible for what people do when they get behind the wheel and make bad decisions and especially when these decisions put other people's lives uh at risk. And the chief alluded to a lot of the technology that has been implemented, but there is also some a gap that I see that I I want to start talking about. And I know some of us have been talking about it for a while. I've been talking about it for a few years. And that is the challenge that we have with not being able to use certain types of technology for law enforcement

in the absence of an officer. So, for example, if we were to put cameras down Hton that would detect excessive speed, unless there is an officer there to witness that, it is my understanding based on the 2015 voter um initiative to ban red light cameras that we essentially can't use that type of technology. So, I think that continues to be a very real challenge for us in terms of doing everything that we possibly can to help keep our community safe. Um there's some stuff at the legislature that's happening right now that I know I'm keeping my eye on and some of our colleagues are keeping their eye on as well um to give us a sense of how we may be able to move forward with giving TPD some additional tools um moving forward. And in the meantime, I personally want to see what options we have to make the consequences of speed racing as painful as possible. I think that tonins deserve to be safe while they're out using our streets. And in my opinion, we need the harshest consequences possible to to start to shape that behavior. Um, there are a few other things that I have sort of question marks around and maybe some of my colleagues or maybe our city attorney might have some insight into this or could do some research, but as I understand it, a lot of this activity is incentivized by people putting this stuff online. So, I don't know if there's any work being done around engaging with the big tech companies to get this content demonetized or disincentivized. So there is less desire to try to film these things and put them online. And then also for the city attorney, um the chief mentioned the number of arrests that have been done, which I think is outstanding. Clearly TPD is is doing great work to make these arrests. I'm curious if we can understand how those arrests are moving through the system and if the work of our officers is starting to have a very real impact in how um this behavior is shaping up across the city through their enforcement. So those are just some of my comments. mayor and thank you for the time.

Thank you, Councilwoman. Uh before we start answering questions, um Council Member Barahas and then I know that Council Member Dah and then Vice Mayor want to want to have um some comments. Council member, thank you. Well, thank you, Chief and Mayor and Council Member Lee for helping us move this conversation forward today and for your leadership in addressing street racing and traffic safety across our city. Street racing is not new to our community. It's something many of us have seen and heard for years. But recently, we have seen a troubling increase at the frequency and surv and and the harsh effects of these incidences and more crashes, more injuries, more lives lost. That escalation is why this conversation is so urgent. And after hearing your updates, Chief, I thank you for sharing everything UNPD is doing to help prevent street racing. I do want to take a moment to acknowledge the tragedy that has deeply impacted our city, not just here in W 5. On April 10th, as we all know, we lost a three-year-old child, little Anna, in a high-speed crash at Valencian Country Club. An incident connected to street racing. Her passing along with the injuries sustained by her mother, her newborn little sister. The trauma of her family and friends that are that they're still dealing with has shaken our community and our hearts remain with them. This is not an isolated incident. Our community continues to experience serious crashes, injuries, and loss of life and it is clear that more must be done. I also want to acknowledge, as you shared earlier, mayor, that the 30 the 23,000 community members who have signed the online petition in support of what is being called Anna's law, which was initiated by little Anna's Thea, Samantha Rakamonte, that calls for stricter penalties for street racing. This reflects a strong and growing call from our residents for accountability,

safety, and action. Community voices are clear. We need solutions that protect lives and prevent tragedies like this from happening again. As a city, we must continue working collaboratively with law enforcement, policy makers in our community to strengthen enforcement and as you shared, change the culture, some type of citywide campaign, explore policy options, and invest in prevention efforts that make our streets safer for everyone. We owe that to Anna, to her family, and to every family here in Tucson. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member, uh, Council Member Dah, and then Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Chief, and thanks to my colleagues for bringing this up. This this is incredibly dangerous, but it's also incredibly irritating to be woken up in the middle of the night to hear the screeching things and and a shot of cortisol and hard to get back to sleep. Um, it's it's affecting all of our wards. I had a gentleman from Keeling neighborhood in my um office today to report and and to help get a a accurate report to the police on street racing that's happening every Saturday and Sunday night um in the neighborhood. Uh and I asked, "Has your streets just been improved?" And he said, "Yeah, they're really smooth." And unfortunately, some people are looking for the smooth streets so that they can really race down them. Um maybe potholes are better, but I I'm just joking. Um I really like the idea idea of um as mayor you identified this is a parental problem. These are kids who are not raised right. This is not entertainment. You know, you see this on movies and on TV, the street races and stuff, but it's a disrespect um that's clearly exhibited by people who are willing Yeah. take your own life into your hand, but don't take the life of families and babies into your own hands. Um, the idea of bringing back cameras, I think, is intriguing. And I know we're going to do questions at the end, but questions for you, Roy. Since this was a initiative that was voted upon, I was curious as to what we could do. We have to put it back on the ballot. Uh, can we put it on the ballot or would it have to be a citizens initiative?

Thanks, Council Member Adall. Um I I assume you're referring to the the red light or speed cameras and red light cameras. Yes. We'd have to put it back on the ballot. And we could do that. We you could. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, mayor. Yeah, vice mayor.

Uh thank you, mayor, and um for the colleagues for bringing this back, you know, to our attention. Um the the loss of any life, but especially a young baby girl is is devastating for our community, and we're sending the wrong message um to our families. I did just want to um make a start off by making a comment about um uh the crosswalk and um because we've had this conversation before, Chief Prito, that a lot of the times even when we're citing people who are not at the crosswalks, they've been cited six, seven times before they get hit by a car. And so that that's not necessarily deterring the behavior of not getting to a crosswalk. But I do think we need to focus on better lighting and also um lowering speeds in these high incident areas. And I know for one of them for in W one and W five is 22nd Street um that we see a lot of this activity. So I I don't think it's just an enforcement issue. I think it's also a a design issue that we need to address. Um as I've mentioned before, I got hit by a car in a crosswalk. Um, so sometimes even crosswalks aren't making us safer um from getting hit by cars. And I just want to make sure that um we're not putting so much the focus on the people walking and biking and whether they're in a crosswalk or not because they're not the ones killing people. A lot of the time it is still reckless behavior from folks, you know, behind the wheel um that is um uh causing um these these deaths. So, um, when it comes to the, uh, street racing, I know we we see a lot of, um, uh, a lot in our community being said about us as electeds being the ones solely responsible for the violence that's happening on our roads. And I want to push back on that because we are not saviors. We don't have a magic mom that changes human behavior. that um we are as a government body, one system among many that works alongside organized

community to facilitate change. Um and right now this moment is calling for all of those systems to show up together. And that continues to be our Department of Transportation and Mobility, TPD, um our Tucson area school districts, our parents, our coaches, our teachers, our faith communities, and as mentioned before, social media platforms and car manufacturers who profit from speed culture. while our communities um like communities like ours absorb the cost of lives. Um we can design better streets. We can build smarter enforcement. We can push the federal government on vehicle safety standards and platform accountability, but none of that's going to work if we're the only ones talking about it. Um so, as u mentioned before, we we have a design problem as much as a law enforcement problem. Um we are starting to see shifts and we've talked about South 12th Avenue as proof of minimizing a lot of this kind of behavior around there. Um but we need to um move um faster and further. Um the cities that are doing well like you mentioned, Mayor um aren't just arresting their way out of it. They're making the streets physically inhospitable to racing um by narrowing lanes um intersection hardening rapid repair of donut damaged surfaces. So, we're not sending a signal that a corridor is a is a playground for this type of behavior. Um, I know that the memo tells us DTM has more corridors under evaluation and um I would like to know which ones and maybe we don't have that information right now, but if we can keep that in front of us. Um, like council member Lee mentioned about social um media. It's a lot is where a lot of this is getting organized. Um, these events are being promoted on Instagram, Tik Tok, Snapchat. Snapchat organizers have a number of advantages because platforms um algorithmically amplify this content. I know that TPD is monitoring social media and that's great. Um but monitoring isn't holding

these um social media corporations accountable. Um other cities are legislating against organizers specifically using their own post as evidence. Um the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration identifies anonymity as a core driver of aggressive driving behavior. Um and then social media creates a perverse inverse um where it promotes anonymity for clout while shielding organizers from any kind of consequences. And I know that we are in a moment we're having um accountability to these big corporations and the impact they're having in our communities um is not the case, but I don't know if this is something legally um city attorney we would be able to jump in with other cities in some class action lawsuit around just allowing this kind of violent behavior um uh just be so publicly accessible and consumable and profitable um for these folks. The other piece is that young men are the demographic. Um, and so we need to continue to do um intervention um work that's not not just the downstream enforcement. Um, we see that 37% of male drivers ages 15 to 20 were involved in fatal crashes in 20 2023 for speeding. Um, we know who's most um at risk. The question is whether we're meeting them before the takeover happens. Other cities are partnering with local speedways to give young drivers a legal outlet for that impulse. Um I know council member Cunningham has um brought this up in the past as well. Um schools, families, and w programs are part of this ecosystem and right now we're not um we're not putting that as part of the conversation. I'm also curious if we can collaborate with schools and community based organizations that work with teens and young men who are in the Pima County juvenile court system who may be involved in street racing to develop some communitydriven solutions that complement what TPD is doing um to

disrupt this organized crime. Um, I I know I mentioned about car manufacturing, and I know that this is more at the federal level, but no street in Tucson has a speed limit anywhere near what modern vehicles are engineered to reach. And I think there needs to be some accountability there because that is a design choice and that we should be pushing our federal partners um and NHTSA on speed um standards um for for for vehicles in our communities. Um, I just have a couple of questions, mayor, and um, I know I asked already about the the DTM and the retrofit pipeline and and having making sure that's tied to our TPD incident data and that that keeps coming in front of Marian Council. Um, the the question about like what can we do to hold social media platforms accountable um, for allowing for this behavior? um and uh any possibility of looking into any you know con just lobbying our our congressional delegations on this speed limit issue. Thank you.

So I think vice mayor um I think it's important that we ask questions uh so that we can clarify some things but what I'm hearing all of you talk about I'm kind of trying to put it into different buckets as as to what we need to address. Right. one um the the possible update of the ordinance that we already have in our books and if there's any update that we should um uh put into the ordinance. I think I mentioned other cities nationwide implementing um more laws to penalize and prevent street racing. um empowerment of vehicles, adding um uh additional time, right? I think right now our ordinance talks about uh vehicle empowerment for about 30 days, maybe looking at the possibility of adding more time, maybe 90 days. Um uh I think that adding additional lang language to what's happening mobs and uh drifting to the ordinance. So kind of taking a look at ordinance and what we need to do there. And then both Councilwoman Lee and Vice Mayor talked about what are the consequences to social media platforms that is allowing they are allowing to post um about this. This is where the organizes organizing is happening. Um and then of course uh some prevention work. I know that you mentioned vice mayor uh infrastructure. I do want to give an opportunity to Department of Transportation Mobility. I know that our memo that is included on this item talks about infrastructure and

how we're changing the infrastructure uh to allow for um additional safety measures uh that will you know uh disallow for speed in our in our streets. Did you want to add something Sam? Is it on? Yes, honorable mayor. Uh members of the council, thank you for the opportunity. Uh as we put in the memo, we continue to partner with TPD on this effort. Um before I talk about the road infrastructure, I do just want to say that one of the most beneficial opportunities we've had to partner has been on the cameras that we've been able to deploy. It's a partnership with TPD and also working with our team on looking for opportunities to find our street light poles, which are a perfect place to place some of these cameras. and that's been a a valuable partnership. Um, as it pertains to um built infrastructure, as you know, uh, we're going through an effort right now to complete our 2006 RTA plan. Many of those projects do have capacity building um, elements to them. But one of the things that we're doing is we are looking for ways to narrow the roadways from the traditional 12 to 16 foot road lanes that you've seen and try to create uh narrower spaces for cars 10 to 11 ft thereby you know allowing for more space for for other modes of transportation and that's something that we've shifted to especially given the approved complete streets policy that this mayor and council approved. Uh some of the other things that we are doing are just looking for ways to repurpose the lanes. And so I think an example of that, a success story of that is 12th Avenue from Drexel to Irvington. We've seen speeds slow down there. We've seen that there's been a reduction in serious and fatal crashes. We are looking for those opportunities. What I can tell you though is we don't always have that opportunity on on major thorough affairs like Hton Road or Grant Road. Um but we are looking forward to seeing that come to fruition on Fifth Street which is under construction right now and we

continue to look for those opportunities uh moving forward. The last thing mayor I'll mention on that is as you know we are going down a process to select roadways for RTA next pavement rehabilitation. Those will be major arterial streets that will get the smooth pavement that council member Dah had talked about and we are going to look for those opportunities to restripe the roadways with narrower lanes as well as layer safety improvements with other funding sources where appropriate. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you. And then the other piece that we uh talked about was um the red light cameras and other possibilities of using cameras um to be able to, you know, help the situation. We uh cannot possibly have officers everywhere all at once. And so, um, we need to make sure that we use technology to our advantage and enhance the work that TPD has been doing, um, the successful work that TPD has been doing on our streets to help, um, mitigate the dangers of street racing. So, those are the buckets, um, Mr. Tamir and, um, um, Mr. attorney that I kind of put on on um the possibilities for continued work in this in this area. And then questions that my colleagues had. Um I think we should start with red light cameras and and the ordinance expansion.

Thanks, Mayor. Um so, uh a couple things to think about. Uh, one, as I mentioned before, we would have to put it on the ballot. The other thing is that that, and this is something we can we can talk with Miss Dent about, is that there was legislation on the agenda for at the state level to preempt our ability to do so e a even after we voted to do it, we would have to have done it this year. Um, but I don't know what the status of that legislation is. So, just to be clear about that. Um, as it relates to the uh other items brought up, I I think it's it's something we could definitely explore. Um, as it relates to updating the city ordinance, again, we want to be careful about. Um, I I think it is appropriate to add some language in there, especially around the empowerment piece. Um, the challenge though is that ordinance is is not as punitive as we would like it as it could be as it relates to state law because there it's it's limited to a misdemeanor. Um whereas state law uh violations including things like reckless endangerment are available for felony uh prosecution and that that would be uh allow the TPD to work with its county partner the the county attorney to to enhance those uh uh those punishments for that kind of behavior. Um so just something to think about in that uh respect. Um and then uh at vice mayors you you mentioned uh the the idea of working with other cities and and counties as it relates to um uh both working with uh uh talking with social media platforms about demonetization as as council member Lee discussed uh and uh working with uh uh the idea that this kind of behavior is a public health and safety crisis um is something we could definitely explore. And then I see Councilman Lee's hand up.

Also, education prevention strategies uh are important. Uh part of uh you know we are talking about safe city and part of my uh wanting to expand our safe city initiative is adding uh prevention intervention work for youth. Um programs and partnerships that can help create safe spaces for youth. uh offering mentorship, life coaching, uh connection to services, connection to employment, especially in areas, right? DA datainformed um investments like we're doing with uh our partnership with Goodwill and uh intervention work that our office of prevention intervention can do. We see time and time again the issues happening with young men and uh especially young men of color. The data is proving to us that um there's um a lot of investment work that needs to happen. But also it doesn't take or replace the culture and the responsibilities that they themselves and their parents or families have um to be able to um you know have productive people participating in our city. So Councilman, did you want to jump in with a question or comments?

Just one quick thing to throw in one of the buckets. mayor. Um, actually two things. One, I think it would be great if we could get from TPD kind of a wish list of what they would like to see the state do from a legislative standpoint to enable them to better address this issue. Um, I'm now thanks to uh, Director Dent, a part of the uh, public safety committee for the League of Cities and Towns. Definitely can take that advocacy at that level. Um, so I would love to see what they want. And on that note, one of the things that I've heard from Captain Brady out on the east side is that our ordinance mayor, so this goes in the ordinance bucket, I believe, does reflect a 30-day impound period, but it looks like the state in ARS 28-3511. Um, section E has reduced the impound time to 20 days, making it even less severe for this type of activity. So, um I think a minimum of the 30 days is what I'm hearing our team would like to see, but um again to go in those two buckets, I think those could be some actionable items for us, too.

Yes. Thank you, council member. Tucson Police Department will continue to work with Director Den on those on those changes. And just to to circle back, Vice Mayor on the comments, um I I agree with you. I don't think we can arrest our way out of the problem. I do think we have to continue our efforts though on our safe city initiative when it comes to the the opioid fentinyl crisis because a majority of our pedestrian deaths are are suspected impairment. So we really do have to to keep up with with addressing that that issue.

Any other comments, questions on this item? So Mr. Mr. Tamir, I think that there's some direction that we're and input and direction that we're giving uh for an update on the ordinance for continued work on a what is it that we as a city as a mayor council can do with the question about um technology and camera use not only in um our intersections but in areas that are proven that are hotspots for for these issues. Anything else?

Honorable mayor, members of the council, that I think that captures the what both the city attorney and I have heard for things you want us to be bringing back and we'll be um updating you frequently um at a minimum through the safe city updates that we do on a monthly basis, but as urgent items come up, we might uh approach you even in between meetings on that. And I'm sorry, mayor. We'll also make sure that director Dent has some fairly clear marching orders going um and doing u yeah collaboration. I was going to say doing battle. I was going to say collaborating at the state level.

Well, and and a lot of it has to do with state laws that are preventing or holding our hands behind our back in terms of what even TPD can do. even empoundment um is being uh reduced even the use of cameras and technology that could help our police department. Um I think in terms of safe city initiative prevention intervention work uh for youth is something that I've been talking about in terms of including in our safe city initiative and that would be in partnership with you know TPD and Goodwill and our nonprofit partners but the state legislature creating a clear um position on how the mayor and council feel that uh the state legislature could respond um to this crisis is equally important as well. All righty. Thank you so much, Councilman Lee, Council Member Barahas for joining me in putting this item on the council.

Okay, we move on to item seven. I'll give some time to Director Garcia and Chief PTO to move along. Thank you both so much for your update and presentation. All righty. So, item seven, time has been set aside for mayor and council to discuss the proposal for parking rate adjustments, Mr. Manager.

Thank you, honorable mayor and members of the council. Joining me here are director of transportation mobility Sam Credo and Deputy Director Andy Beimis. Um, this is an item we've been working on for several months now and we're kind of in the home stretch of of this iteration of it that we we hope uh to have um your endorsement for and also action later on tonight uh related to this item. So, with that, I'll turn it over to Deputy Director Beas.

Thank you, Tim. Honorable mayor, uh members of the council, um I'll start by giving a brief background on this item to understand how we got to where we are today. um bring some transparency to the Park Tucson budget and then summarize the revised proposal that um you have in front of you today. Um so back in April of 2024, mayor and council approved a phased in multi-year parking rate increase across a variety of parking types and that's included as attachment B in your materials. Um the last phase of these previously approved increases is scheduled to go into effect this summer on July 1st. Uh that includes garage uh and lot weekend and evening flat rates, garage and service lot monthly permits, and the student and commuter permits. Those are all scheduled to increase this summer. Um last year in August, uh mayor and council directed the Department of Transportation and Mobility to develop a proposal um for additional parking rate increases as part of the conversation of the heart of Tucson Tourism District. Um and that updated proposal was shared at a study session in November. Uh in addition to the 2024 previously approved rates, that proposal uh proposed to increase the rates for those parking pass types and also proposed increases to meter hourly rates, garage hourly rates, and residential permits. It also proposed increasing meter enforcement hours uh uh Monday through Sunday and further into the evenings. Um a public hearing was held on January 21st at which time mayor and council voted to delay the implementation of the proposed rate increase um and extended meter enforcement hours for additional public outreach. So, uh, since then, um, Park Tucson, DTM in collaboration with WS one and six and the mayor's office, uh, with downtown Tucson Partnership and Fourth Avenue Merchants and others have

held a series of, um, public engagement events and, um, listening sessions. Uh, and through those, we've heard a variety of feedback. I'll try and summarize those here. The main themes having to do with affordability. So, perceptions that um, parking um, rates are perceived as too high. Um some challenges with parking time limits. Um parking availability often with limited on street uh um parking available in the urban core. Some challenges with maintenance and repair of parking infrastructure like meters u garage facilities and others. And then just generally a burden on the workforce working in the kind of downtown heart of Tucson area with limited affordable u uh available parking nearby. Um and before I walk through the revised recommendation, I just want to contextualize the conversation in the Park Tucson budget. Um so as a special revenue fund, Park Tucson is intended to support its own operating expenses. For many years, it did um prior to the pandemic and had actually built up a positive fund balance. Unfortunately, the pandemic had a dramatic impact on parking activity um and parking revenue. And since 2020, Park Tucson has been operating in a deficit. Um we have reduced expenditures to every extent possible. Um although revenues are not keeping pace with the current cost of maintaining and operating a parking system and enforcing the parking code throughout the city. Um this is a structural imbalance and the current projections show the deficit growing um through the five-year plan through 2031 that's also attached in your materials. Um, so, uh, to respond to concerns raised by the community, uh, while seeking to improve the parking experience for our customers and also the financial health of the Park Tucson fund, the modified proposal has been prepared for consideration today. Uh, and I'll walk through that now. It's included as attachment A. Um, whereas the prior proposal recommended extending meter enforcement hours, we are no longer uh, recommending to do that. So,

we are recommending no change to meter enforcement hours, which are currently Monday through Saturday, 8 am to 7 pm. I will note with the exception of the 4th Avenue area, which is still Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. because a commitment had been made not to increase the meter enforcement hours in that area until the downtown links project is completed. So, our recommendation now is to have 4th Avenue catch up to the rest of the city and match uh the meter enforcement hours um on July 1st. Um we're now recommending no change to the previously approved rates that are already scheduled to go into effect in July. So, whereas the previous proposal recommended increasing them even more, um we're recommending now just do what had previously been approved for those past types. So, the only new rate increases being proposed at this time are hourly meter rates. We're proposing increasing from $1 to $1.50. Garage hourly rates and surface lot hourly rates from a dollar to $125 per hour. Um, and then the residential parking permits increasing by either $8 for the year or $10 for the year depending on the residential pass type. Um, and then there's one, the depot garage. We're proposing to add a flat rate in the evenings. um that didn't exist to so that it's matched with all the other garages. Um so this approach is aimed to strike a balance between providing affordable and available on and off streetet parking programs while pricing parking more appropriately to cover the cost of operating the system and enforcing the parking code citywide. Um specifically um these rate adjustments are proposed to you know cover our costs and then reinvest in parking facilities. So about a third of all the parking meters in the city right now are uh in some form of disrepair and need to be either either repaired or replaced. We have some deferred maintenance needs in the garages as well with the kiosks and the

gates. Um we have cut back on security hours in the garages um uh to you know the bare minimum. So this is something we'd like to return to a more robust level of security for our customers especially in the uh nights and early mornings in the downtown. And then to align with comparable markets where we found we were you know undercharging for parking on um comparable markets. I do want to mention that we brought this uh recommendation to the park Tucson commission as well and at their meeting last Tuesday um they with one abstension they unanimously approved uh support for the proposal um that you have in front of you. Um, finally, I'll say that the revenue ass uh projection associated with these changes, so um what was already scheduled to go into effect this summer plus what we're proposing now, we uh are projecting to generate approximately $636,000 annually, which, you know, if were to come to fruition, would help us get out of the park Tucson deficit at the end of FY28 and put us in a position to reinvest in those parking facilities moving forward and build back a positive fund balance. And then finally, uh, to address concerns we heard about parking availability for employees of downtown and Fourth Avenue area businesses, um, we're we're working on a couple things. So, one, in the 4th Avenue area, we don't own off- streetet parking, so we have on street parking. We're working to partner with people who do own off- streetet parking in that area. We've approached the ARI. Um they have about 30 spaces available in their parking structure and we're working on an agreement to dedicate some of those for permit monthly permit parker parking for 4th Avenue area employees. And then in the downtown area where we do own some more off- streetet parking we have committed 50 and we have up to a 100 um spaces in the tool lot that we could designate in the evening time um for permits for downtown area employees to park. Um with that I'll conclude my remarks and happy to take any questions.

Thank you. And madame mayor, if I could just clarify one part. Um, there's been some confusing information in the public about this revised proposal, specifically some information about enforcement hours. And there was notification sent to some people that there would be changed enforcement hours under this proposal. And I'm just clarifying there is no change to enforcement hours under this proposal. um despite some of that conflicting information that was out there. Thank you, Mayor.

And I know that um there's been so much conversation over the years with 4th Avenue um small business owners there and um I know that there's been several conversation. Many of them haven't worked out with those private owners of off- streetet parking. Is there continued conversation with uh Tucson High and TUSD about the spaces that they have available? Do we have any plans to approach TUSD? Maybe it might be a venture where they could, you know, it could be economically advantageous for them to make their little garage um available for uh Fourth Avenue employees.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh that's a fantastic idea. I don't believe we have engaged Tucson High about their parking availability, but especially in the evening time when presumably they're not needing it as much and employees are. It's a fantastic idea and we'll be happy. Yeah, they have a double decker um parking structure at Tucson High itself and they don't use it over the weekend either. So, or in the evening. So, I just wonder if there could be some conversation with TUSD and Tucson High to put that to work and it could possibly bring them additional funds uh for their own infrastructure at Tucson High.

Mayor, Mr. Manager, if I could just add something to that conversation, I I don't want to ignore the fact that we do have some parking challenges around Tucson High, especially during um pickup and drop off. We regularly are communicating with Tucson High administrators as well as the neighbors about those challenges. Um I will tell you that it's it's been difficult to break through with TUSD in Tucson High to find some resolution. So it

based on this recommendation, I'd also like to, you know, tackle that as well. I I would hate to ignore that that we we continue to struggle around that pickup time with 3,000 students at that school and such, you know, tight streets around that that particular high school. Well, and I'm I am very familiar having a student that graduated in 24 and had to we have drove him, you know, to um to school and so familiar with the daytime, but weekends are a bit different in terms of the double-decker parking. uh and they do have activities over the weekend, but I'm I'm just trying to think how we can think about the issue in a regional um area level and and see how how we can find solutions together on that. All righty. I know that there's some questions and comments. Council member Dah and then Council Member Schubert. Councilman Lee.

Thank you, Andy and Sam. Uh and thank you, Mayor. Um seems like we've come to a pretty good um spot here. Um we're not going to earn enough yet, but we're getting down the path to to be uh um uh no longer a drain on the general fund for our parking efforts. A question about 4th Avenue because because that that is a concern. There are some parking lots privately owned that are single just parking lots. is the economics of parking garages and somehow partnership between developers, city, whatever that we could develop more parking for that area with a parking garage. I'm thinking near uh Corbett and the one just directly west of there. Those are pretty good locations for the small businesses along there.

Thank you, uh, Madame Mayor, members of the council, council member. Um yeah, that is a good idea and we did approach um some of the owners of those surface lots related to the employee parking, but they do present opportunities to increase parking in the area in terms of a structure. Um I'll say from our standpoint given where the budget has been at for the last 5 years, we haven't, you know, not being in a position to be able to take on debt associated with a new capital investment in a garage, we haven't been um that proactive as of late on that conversation, but there certainly is an opportunity there. Um, I think it would likely require other fund sources outside of the park Tucson's ability right now. Um, and and likely private partners as well. Is it in Rio Noeo or is it just outside?

Darn. Council member Schubert and then Councilwoman Lee.

Thank you so much. Um just want to echo the support for the idea about approaching TUSD. Um especially given that what we've heard um from businesses along forth um is a safety concern around nighttime employees. Um first just want to give a big thank you uh to DTM and Park Tucson staff for their work um to collect additional feedback and incorporate it into the updated proposal that we have before us. Um, and I also want to thank everyone who reached out to our office and spoke with us during listening sessions. We co-hosted listening sessions with Downtown Tucson Partnership and worked with the coalition space on fourth. Um, and we really appreciate everyone who took the time to weigh in. People offered not only context to their concerns, but concrete suggestions and solutions. And it was a great way for our newer office to connect with constituents because this parking um discussion uncovered a lot of other systemic and ongoing problems that we need to address. Um and I I passed around um the report that our office came up with just to let you all know about the major themes that came out of that which are very much aligned with um with what's what's mentioned in the memo. Um Park Tucson's objective is parking management, not revenue generation. We've been educating constituents about this. Um, with that in mind, I appreciate the focus of this updated proposal, um, and balancing cost recovery for Park Tucson with constituent concerns. It gets us on a better better pathway to put us in the black um, but doesn't put an undue burden on um, the businesses in the area. Uh, we shouldn't have one of our enterprise funds uh, facing a deficit that forces borrowing from the general fund. So, the fact that these modest rate increases, even without additional hour or day extensions, should provide enough to close the current Park Tucson deficit and address um infrastructure, safety, and security needs. Um, makes it really compelling for me and I feel supportive of it. Um, I also want to acknowledge that many constituents and

downtown employers have flagged safety concerns, particularly related to parking at night. Um, and that goes beyond any plans that we have for parking fees, whether or not we're going to raise them. So, we just we we need to remain focused on continuing these conversations and finding real solutions. Um, I hope that the additional revenue can help get us back to better baseline levels for parking garage security downtown. Um, at the same time, I think it's important to note that many safety concerns are beyond the scope of what this proposal can do. We've got to keep working with partners like TPD, DTM, Downtown Tucson Partnership, and the local businesses on solutions to give employers and visitors um a good experience in these districts. you know, they've been struggling. Um, we have a lot more that we need to do to, um, make Fourth Avenue a place where businesses are thriving and where people feel comfortable visiting and like they know where they can park because I feel like the signage and the infrastructure repairs are just as much of a barrier, if not more, um, to people wanting to visit downtown than 50 more cents per hour. Um, I look forward to following the conversations around employee parking options. I appreciate the businesses and garage owners who have been in conversation with DTP and the city and um just let me know if the W 6 office can be helpful in any of these efforts. Thank you,

Councilman Lee. And then Vice Mayor,

thank you, Mayor. Um I too am supportive of this increase. We have to be able to cover the cost of doing business and providing this service. My question slash comment is more of a city manager conversation that I had with him this week and that is as uh council member Schubert mentioned about our employees. I know for our employees a lot of folks who live further out away from the downtown core cannot take transit. It would take me two hours to get to city hall from my home. So they have to drive into work and they have to pay for parking downtown. And I would really like to see a combination of this conversation and the budget conversation have a a mechanism for addressing the increased cost to our employees and doing a better job of covering their cost if they don't have other options and they have to drive into the office. Um so those those are just you know one of the things that I'm thinking about but overall supportive and Tim I would love to see those ideas before we move into approving the budget.

Mr. Mr. Tamir, honorable mayor, members of the council, Councilwoman Lee, um yes, we have actually been pulling data together for mayor and council's consideration on the downtown allowance and um my intention was to bring some that background to you and perhaps some food for thought on potential options to the study session of May 19th before you get to considering the final budget adoption. Thank you. and vice mayor.

Uh, thank you, mayor. I want to just appreciate um, council member Schubert for taking the time to engage community and uncover that some of the challenges on 4th Avenue go beyond parking and that um, we hear the concerns and trying to strike a balance here and that we want to continue working with them and I know you've mentioned that as well, mayor. So, I'm looking forward to uh, finding that balance. I think the only thing I want to add to the conversation is that I don't again I don't think we should be going another 10 years without raising rates. And so maybe it's something every two years we can revisit and see what where we're at with the market. Um we know that parking I know we all love free parking um but parking isn't really free and it's taking up um public infrastructure for private car use. And so I I'm going to always um keep putting that in front of us that parking isn't really free. It's it's costing us in different ways. And I think it's important that we recover the cost of providing that service to the public. But thank you team for that. I do also have some um ideas uh city manager for incentivizing our city employees, the ones who do live closer to the city center uh alternative trans, you know, options and having some kind of financial benefit for foregoing a parking spot. Um but we can have those conversations later. Thank you.

Thank you so much. I just want to thank the uh Department of Transportation and Mobility, our Park Tucson staff. I know we have a new um uh uh director or manager of Park Tucson uh that has put himself to work immediately. The uh outreach uh reflected is really really important. Um and uh this proposal is both community informed and mindful of our financial reality which is important. I too want to thank uh council member Schubert for spending so much time in meeting and doing outreach with uh stakeholders including neighborhoods and small business owners um in the 4th Avenue area and other spaces. Um, you know, this process has opened the door for more communication with the businesses and brought overdue attention to concerns, especially on 4th Avenue. I too had an opportunity to sit down with the 4th Avenue coalition. We talked about how the city can uh be a better partner to them because I think this goes beyond parking and uh they're feeling the impact of so many different issues businesses are facing right now uh related to unsheltered homelessness of fentinel opioid crisis and uncertain economy. Um, so I want to make sure that I and the city of Tucson become good partners in the needs of our small businesses on 4th Avenue and throughout our city. Um, but I think I feel a particular need um to pay attention to those needs on 4th Avenue. Uh, small businesses. Um it's important for us to be able to

include other problems solving um issues uh and to find solutions not just through Park Tucson but through our small business program and through our housing first program and through our safe city initiative and our safe city uh team up to cleanup efforts. all of these things that uh and services that small businesses um deserve in our community. So, um interested as well, Council Member Schubert, and everyone in being part of the solution and making sure that we're having these continued conversations. Also, I think that it's important that when we do charge additional funds that we reinvest into the infrastructure, the cleanliness and safety of not just our meters and our streets, but also our our parking garages and parking lots in the city of Tucson. I would be more than happy to convene these conversations, especially with TUSD to try and find solutions um that could be beneficial to both Tucson High and to uh Fourth Avenue employees. So, um with that, uh Council Member Barakasen, do you need a motion to um continue this discussion or would that be after the public hearing?

No, mayor. There's no public hearing tonight. Actually, there's a consent item that would if you would adopt the consent agenda, you would be adopting this proposal. Okay. All righty. Council member Rodus. Thank you, Mayor. I have a question. What is the current um percentage of the parking meters that aren't working? And what is the plan of action to fix those meters before we um enforce any parking rate in the fee changes changes? and will that affect the total number amount that we just saw right now? Thank you.

Thank you, honorable mayor, members of the council. Council member Bahas, um there are 189 total meters in the system. Um right now, 544 of those are in some form of disrepair. Um depending on what's needed with each of the meter, the cost of repairing that can vary from $150 to $900 if you need to fully replace the entire assembly. Um we are still we haven't just been sitting on those. We are uh sending them in for repair or replacement as needed. So we continue to do that. Um that's a moving target because in our sun and just given the equipment that it is, they periodically do fail. Um so every year we are are trying to keep up on the repairs, but right now that's the current current total. Obviously repairing them will um all the ones that are broken. we're not collecting revenue at currently, nor do we issue citations for vehicles that are parked in areas with broken meters for not paying. So, both from a meter revenue standpoint and possibly enforcement standpoint, um repairing those would contribute to new revenue. Honorable mayor uh vice u council member Barahas, I've also tasked with uh assistant city manager Swallow with leading a conversation with Park Tucson DTM and other stakeholders to look at the potential for modernizing our parking system away from uh on street meters. There's block metering. There's a number of other ways we could have meters, but different ways of collecting them than the infrastructure we have now that's very maintenance intensive and and

and kind of sporadic. So we I've tked that for over this next summer. So, by the fall, I'd be hopeful that we'd have some Oh, I just got the nod that by winter, hopefully we have some uh feedback for you on what what might it look like to modernize our parking systems at large and and perhaps move away from our current system eventually.

Yeah, absolutely. I think that that investment um and that review of our parking meters and parking systems is really important. Just yet another reason why we need to make sure that as vice mayor said we really need to take a we cannot wait 10 years to review what a cost of doing business is. We have to have like a every two years we need to review how much is it costing us how much are the needs in terms of infrastructure and um what is the appropriate charge for for the cost of doing business. I know council member Schubert, you have um you had a thought.

First, just 100% agree with the comments you just made. Um just wanted to add as we're looking at modernizing our system, um I have received um comments from constituents who um feel that the reliance on smartphones is an access problem. Um I even have people who wish that the meters still accepted coins and and money. I don't know how feasible any of that is, but I just wanted to put a plug in for um wanting to be mindful about any um technology or their accessibility barriers.

Thank you so much. Really appreciate the uh your work on this and um looking forward to uh a future update in terms of what we how we put these um new rates to work for us. Thank you. Thank you. We're moving on to item A. Time has been set aside for discussion direction relating to matters pending in front of the Pima County Board of Supervisors or other regional jurisdictions. Mr. Manager,

honorable mayor, members of the council, our dynamic duo of Laura Dent and Stephanie Zamora will be approaching uh the table to take you through these next two items starting with Puma County and local jurisdictions. and then we would slide directly into state and federal. So with that, um, I will turn it over to Miss Zora to to take us take us through.

Good afternoon, honorable mayor, members of the council. The report submitted on this item covered some updates from the Pimac County Board of Supervisors, specifically around housing, public safety, homelessness, and their climate action plan. There were no other updates to report on other regionals juris jurisdictions, at least for this report. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Any questions on this item? No. Thank you.

All righty. So, we move on to item nine. Moving on to item nine. Time has been set aside for mayoring council to receive an update on state and national legislation and regional committees, executive orders, and direction to any associated litigation. Mr. Manager. Uh, good afternoon, honorable Mayor Romero and members of the council. Just a few brief updates to share today at the federal level. Congress is currently in a district work period and the state work period this week. Uh, members will return to Washington DC for a two-eek session from the 11th through the 22nd before the Memorial Day holiday. Uh during that time, Congress is expected to take up a reconciliation bill focused on immigration enforcement, continual appropriations, and we may see the surface transportation reauthorization bill in committee. Uh at the state level, you may be following that Republicans shared their budget proposal a little over one week ago. Um I'll just touch on some brief highlights. My report goes in further detail, but the Republican majority has, as they have indicated historically and tried several times um this session, embraced full tax conformity. The JBC suggests that that proposal will reduce state revenues by about $438 million. Uh the GOP budget includes 5% cuts across the board to most state departments, excluding several public safety departments such as corrections, public safety, and child safety departments. And part of this cut includes a significant um decrease in funding to the University of Arizona. There is no extension of Proposition 123 in this budget. We see some sweeps uh from dedicated funds into the general fund which will have implications for programming um but does shore up the general fund and there's the proposed elimination of the Ronville tax increment financing district um that is identified as a $19 million line item savings in the budget although we have obviously some um considerations around debt service obligations that would be absorbed by that that would undercut

savings and um opinions out there that exist around the protection of um the enabling um creation of the tiff based on uh voter protection act uh defense of this effort. So um that's all in there. The house has uh voted on that. The senate voted on that um yesterday and it is on the governor's desk. Uh the house did vote today to adjurnn until June 1st and we expect um the senate to take a recess soon as well. So, it's going to be a little bit quiet at the legislature for a time. Um, but I will keep you updated on state and federal actions. That's my report. Thank you so much, Miss Dent. Um I had a couple of a question and then a couple of um comments in terms of the on the federal land, the Supreme Court um recently deciding basically to gut um uh section two of the Voting Rights Act. um dealing a huge blow to voting rights act and um uh voting rights act was passed to prevent racial discrimination and a fair representation. Um it remains to be seen in terms of what is going to happen to uh redistricting. Um especially I'm thinking about state redistricting. Um it seems like there's a race to the bottom uh in the uh different states that are wanting to I mean a election was cancelled that was happening I think already there was um uh people voting on on in Louisiana very specifically um on congressional seats and so it's

just um horrendous. I think we need to keep an eye especially Mr. Lusk in terms of what you know what other cities are doing uh what organizations are um um NAACP I think and other organizations are are planning uh legal fights against what happened in Louisiana very specifically. So, uh, it is just devastating, um, what this blow to the Voting Rights Act means to us all. I think we have to keep an eye. Um, and I I think that it just is going to have to go back to Congress in terms of passing passing laws to ban partisan and racial gerrymandering.

Um, it it's just devastating. Anyway, I just wanted to notice that because that was uh something recent that uh will affect redistricting uh and state state legislative um um districts. Other thing I wanted to ask, we received a call um to add the city of Tucson to the Myth Bristone case.

Um and I wanted to clarify, Mr. Lusk, how do we want to proceed when there's uh questions about adding the city of Tucson to certain cases in amicus briefs, especially on certain issues, public education, abortion rights, other issues that um previously we had added ourselves to just because of the history that we have as mayor and council. um on certain issues. So I just wanted to kind of on this time with the myth Pris case um we were asked to have the city of Tucson attached to an amicus uh to support the right to use methristone uh for abortion access. Um, I add it myself only because you didn't feel comfortable adding the city of Tucson, but I just want to make sure that we clarify um your process and how you think uh about adding the city of Tucson to certain amicus in certain cases.

Thanks, Mayor. Um I I think it's important to uh one address the specific issue that you just raised which is which I think um thanks to our conversation and and our conversation with the city manager I was able to uh do a little work in in looking at previous positions that the mayor and council had taken especially in in resolutions 23477 and 23419. Uh, and I believe it's consistent with uh, the city of Tucson uh, adding themselves as an ami amicus uh, to that brief and and I I we will we will do so um, as soon as we're we're done here. But um, as it relates to other matters um, obviously it's it's a conversation that we'll have with mayor and council uh, as we you know sort of new in the position for me but uh, not new with the city but having those conversations is important. Uh and as I am aware of those uh requests for amicus uh briefs, we will have those discussions and and we intend to to sort of address those both through our legislative updates uh state and federal, but also through conversations with mayor and council as going forward just to make sure that I'm I'm properly aligned with mayor and council's vision.

Yeah. This particular case, what was the group that approached?

Uh it's PRP. It's our our public rights project. public rights project approach um both the city attorney's office and my office to add ourselves as a city of Tucson to an amicus brief defending the right to use methone uh for abortion access. Um sometimes these things happen right between meetings we get requests to add ourselves. I added myself as a mayor. Um, but they really truly wanted the city of Tucson to add an uh in the amicus. And so, um, after some conversation, uh, with, uh, city attorney Lusk and I, we decided to bring it here so that we could be very, very clear in terms of how my colleagues on the council and I um, align uh, to add ourselves in between meetings on this. So, I don't know if you all had any questions or comments in terms of how those decisions are made by the city attorney, but um I guess in terms of if we the mayor and council have taken any positions on any of the issues that were being asked in between meetings to add amicus briefs on. I think that that's how you're going to base your decisions to add us on. Roy,

that's correct. Mayor, I'm I'm more than willing to take a direction from the mayor and council as as we can as we can have those conversations. Okay. Any questions, comments on any of this conversation? Okay. I just wanted to make sure that we were all well informed on this. Anything else that you want to add? Any questions that we have on this side of the table? Okay. All righty. So, thank you so much. Really appreciate you both. We move on to item 10. Does anyone have any items to remove from the consent agenda? Uh, council member Schubert.

Yeah, I just I want to remove the parking fee update from the consent agenda just to make some additional comments. Which one is that? Item 7. 7 C. Any others? Council member Vakas. Um, I want to ask a question. Will we be considering liquor license alto together or one by one? All together, but you can if there's some issue you can ask to consider one on its own. Well, I would ask if we can pull item 5 B2 under liquor licenses for sampling privileges for liquor Dan as we have received considerable community comment on this item. All

righty. Any others? All righty. Hearing none. Item 11. Does anyone have any items for future agendas? Hearing none, we are adjourned. Uh the next regularly scheduled meeting is on Tuesday, May 19th, and we will regroup here at 5:30 to start the regular meeting. Thank you all so much.

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Everything. Council will stand in session. Let's go to roll call. Council member Cunningham. Me? Yeah,

I am here. Great. Council member Doll here. Council member Lee here. Council member here. Council member Schuert here. Here. Mayor Romero.

Here. Before we go to item two, the city attorney will go over rules of decorum for mayor and council meetings. Mr. Attorney. Thanks, honorable mayor. 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 quorum and orderly conduct by the members of the audience. No person attending the meeting shall engage in conduct that disrupts or otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of the meeting, including any statements or conduct that interrupts the persons who might be addressing the mayor and counsel or that disrupts the discussions of the mayor and counsel. The mayor has the authority to ensure compliance with the rules of orderly conduct. If disorderly conduct or disruptive conduct continues after 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. Item two, invocation, pledge of allegiance, and appointments to boards, committees, and commissions. The invocation will be given by Pastor Larry Mongia of the Sober Project. After the invocation, I ask that you remain standing for the pledge of allegiance.

Well, good afternoon, Miss Mayor, city council, fellow tonins. It's a busy night, man. We need some prayer. If you are so inclined, would you please bow your heads? Lord, we come to you and we just ask you to just settle the dust. Just let everybody relax, focus on what's at hand. Father God, I pray for my city council, for my mayor, that Lord that they would come to you. They would come to you for wisdom, insight, knowledge, power, and truth. Lord, this is Tucson, Arizona. One of your crowns and jewels in your crown. We ask you to bless this city from mountain to mountain. This belly holds the the bones of my ancestors. Lord, I ask you to ordain, anoint, and protect this city. Take care of our city council and our mayor, Lord, and their families. Keep them keep them healthy. Keep them strong. keep them focused on what's at hand, Lord. But most of all, Lord, just keep them. We ask in your perfect name. Amen.

United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you so much, Larry, for gracing us with your presence. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Item 2C1 and 2C2 are presentations. our first presentation. Uh, I'd like to proclaim May 6th through May 12th to be National Small Business Week and National Economic Development Week. And then I'll go up there uh to introduce our guest for that item. And then um item 2C2 is a proclamation proclaiming May 6th through May 12th to be National Nurses Week. As always, if any of my colleagues wants to join me up there to celebrate and present this presentations and proclamations, please do so. I would love to have you there.

All righty. Okay. So, um, yes, there's a lot there's a lot of guests here today. So, I don't know if you want to hold this or Frankie or any of the business owners, but let me let me just make sure that we um that we introduce the people that are here with us today. Guests from our small business center and our small businesses. Uh here this week with us is Tacos Yanto Solid Guerrero. Uh, the cookie jar, Cynthia Mosio, Renaissance Antique, Adrianne Fel, Genuine Services LLC, Jose Gutierrez, Dibily or Delli Digital Solutions, Dell Baldde, um, Balikica Services, Edith Era, Sach Sasha's LLC, Joseline Sasueta and Mike Sasueta, Mskuit Handyman, uh, Alejandro Valenuela, Chalie Pow, Miguel Lopez, Pet Groomman, Mimundo, Arali Valdez, and Charles Ortado, Elanto Povlano, Anali Guzman, Doulce Pastello, Irene Al-Masan, Wendia Breakfast and Lunch Cafe, Julio Garcia, and Hyel Garcia. Um, our economic development partners, we have incredible economic development partners here with us today. Puma County Economic Development, Kelly Masslin and Frank Dylan, local furs, Chris Mazerella, Startup Tusen, Megan Frink, Puma College, Ian Ror, U of A is being represented with us today. Uh, Julie

Catzel and Doug Hogstead, UACI, Anita Bell, UA Tech Park, Carol Stewart, JTED, Mel Kemp, Wilcox, Downtown Tucson Partnership, Crystal Moore, Hispanic Chamber, Rob Elias. I saw Rob over there somewhere. Uh, CIC, Danny N, Startup Tucson, Liz Pcock, I saw Joe Snell is here with us today. Uh um Felipe Garcia with Visit Tucson is here with us and any other guests that have anything to do with economic development and small businesses. I think everybody should come up front. Um thank you all so much. Really appreciate the incredible work that you do for our community. Uh I know that you all work day in day out uh on behalf of tonins, not just your families and your employees, but to create a better quality of life to every single Tonan. We we see you. We see the amazing work that you all do for our community and appreciate you. I know that we have incredible staff as well. I see Franciscoca Viegas and Mike Shakowski with our economic initiatives team. So, um I know that I gave out the um proclamation. So, here we go. On behalf of the city of Tucson, the office of the mayor. Whereas the city of Tucson offici office office of economic initiatives work works to attract and retain primary jobs to grow and sustain the local economy. And whereas from the storefront shops that anchor our main streets to the high-tech startups that keep America on the cutting edge, small businesses are the backbone of our

economy. And whereas economic development activities promote job creation and ensure that all tonins enjoy economic mobility and wealth creation. And whereas according to the small business administration and we can all start dancing after this. According to the Small Business Administration, 36.2 million small businesses employ more than 62.3 million people across the United States. And whereas the city of Tucson's bilingual business navigator team located at the small business center offers free classes, open office hours, navigation services, and access to capital assistance in English and Spanish. has helped small business owners access millions of dollars in capital and has provided more than 3,100 hours of training and one-on-one assistance serving 435 businesses year to date. And whereas through connect Tucson outreach, the Tucson Small Business Center continues to promote local businesses, share training and technical assistance opportunities, highlight partners partnerships such as the Skillbridge program, and encourage residents to support business corridors such as 12th Avenue, Broadway, Grand Speedway, and many other areas in our city. Whereas the city of Tucson values its collaborative relationships with other local and regional organizations, state and federal agencies, chambers of commerce, colleges and universities, and a variety of other organizations dedicated to enhancing quality of life through economic development. And whereas the city of Tucson office of economic initiatives works to stimulate entrepreneurship and incubate new ventures in order to foster innovation

and help establish the next generation of new local businesses. And whereas when we support businesses both large and small, jobs are created, people's life lives are enhanced, and the community thrives. Now therefore, I, Raa Romero, mayor of the city of Tucson, Arizona, do hereby proclaim May 5th through 11th, 2026 to be National Small Business Week and National Economic Development Week in this community and remind all of our residents of the importance of the city's economic development efforts, which expand career opportunities and improve quality of life and encourage all of our residents to frequent local small businesses and appreciate what they may contribute to Tucson in our economy. So, please visit local and support local businesses. In witness whereof, I have here unto set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Tucson, Arizona to be affixed this 5th day of May, 2026. Congratulations. And I would like to invite our small businesses as well as our economic development partners to say some words if someone wants to join us.

You're brave. Okay. So, our um program director of the small business program, Francisco Viegas.

Thank you. I'm going to be very short and sweet because I want to make sure um one of our guests is able to speak tonight. Buenosardes, thank you so much for um giving us the time. On behalf of the city of Tucson Small Business Center, I uh thank you for recognizing the work of these local businesses through this plamcomation. I appreciate the support. Please buy local visit our businesses. Um and I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to be with us tonight. And with that, uh, if time permits, I would like for Jose Gutierrez to just say a few words. And what business you

My name is Jose Gutierrez. I own Genuine Services. And first of all, I'd like to uh, sorry, I'm normally not on this side of the pedestal, but yeah. So, council mayor and the members of the council, it's my pleasure to be in this presence.

Yeah. So, my name is Jose. I own Genuine Services. And we do hardscaping and a lot of landscaping, a little bit of everything. And this program has helped out dramatically a lot because of my profits and employees has doubled 50% of what I started. And that's in in a two-year mark. So, within those two years, it's jumped up 50%. Oh, yeah. Sorry. Like I said, I'm Say that into the mic, please. I'm new to this. You have to excuse me.

Yeah. So, I'm grateful for the program. I'm grateful for everybody, the staff, especially. They're real helpful and grateful. And we're here to service Tucson and everybody. So, thank you again. And it's an honor. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you. And our economic development partners. Mike, if you want to introduce a couple. Sure.

Thank you, Mayor Romero. Members of the council, I too am short and sweet, so just so you know. Um, and all of us economic development folks are all introverts, so I'm having trouble get having anyone say any words. So, but I'm probably going to have Kelly Maslin, my partner from the county, come up and say a few things. But I I did want to just say number one, thank you to Mayor and Council for all your support on all the projects. As I've been discussing with a lot of you, we have been ridiculously busy over the last several months and that's only going to continue. And I really appreciate everything you're doing. Tim and Christina, everybody back there, Liz, Anna, thank you all for your support. Appreciate everything that you all do every day. This is just a great opportunity for us to say thank you for all of this. Thank you very much.

Thanks. I'm right here.

I'm taller than you. Mayor and Council, thank you so much for recognizing Economic Development Week. It's such an important uh time to recognize all of these people throughout the region who do work to build our small businesses and our medium-sized businesses to make them better and stronger. And uh that's what we want for this region is great jobs for people. And uh that's what we work on every day. So, thank you for recognizing that. I just want to say first and foremost to our small businesses. Okay, by the way, if you didn't hear this, um 50% job in uh job employees and and revenue and profits because of the help that our small business program contributed. Of course, it's all you. It's all you. But I want to uh thank the small business owners uh for coming, for making time uh to be here with us. Um you are the backbone of our economy. 60% of the jobs in Puma County are created by small businesses and so you are so important. Um and uh I just want to recognize how six years ago we created our small business program. uh as part of economic initiatives and um you know how important it is that we've created a program from scratch to make sure that we had success stories like yours

um and that we not only became a good partner as a city uh to small businesses to help you start up but also to thrive. And so what you say makes me very happy. And to our economic development partners, the chamber, the UVA Tech Park, University of Arizona, Puma Community College, CIC, nonprofit partners. Um, equally important. Uh, what you do is coming from passion and that only together, right? Right. I see Puma County and so many partners. Only together can we um push our community forward to make sure that every single person has a good quality of life and an opportunity for social and economic mobility. You and all of us uh make this possible. So, much gracias. Now, we're going to pose for a picture. Look at the camera. Council

colleagues

look at me two. Beautiful. Thank you.

Thank you. This is a pleasure.

Absolutely. Thank you. Gracias. Happy birthday. You later.

pretty happy economic development and small business week everyone. We have one more. I just asked the council colleagues to uh join me for this one. This is an important one too. Muchas gracias. Gracias. Gracias. Gracias. Thanks for coming.

Yes. Gracias. Gracias. Thank you so much. All righty. This is an equally important proclamation. So, um I want to invite our guests. This is um welcoming. Um there's tons of people here for this one as well. So, this is celebrating uh National Nurses Week. We're so glad we're here tonight. Thank you uh for the incredible nurses that actually keep us safe and and uh have tons of compassion and heart. Uh it really takes a calling to be a nurse and usually I like to say that uh nurses and teachers go directly to heaven. Um, and with that, I'd like to invite if we have any of the um the uh individuals here to celebrate Nurses Week with us. We invited Mimi Kumler, uh, CEO of Tucson Medical Center. And if you'd like to join us at Joyce Dros, uh, manager, Tucson Medical Center, Tucson, uh, collaborative community care with TC3. Allison Bodzer, RN, clinical well-being specialist with Tucson Medical Center. Uh, Natalie Norm, RN, family nurse practitioner practitioner at TMC1. Peter Garcia, RN, manager, clinical support, TMC Ringcon. Jennifer Tobias, RN, manager, oncology infusion, TMC Health Cancer Center. Mary Gagos, RN, clinical nurse lead oncology infusion at TMC Health Cancer Center. Jenna Joy, RN, charge nurse, Oncology Infusion, TMC Health Cancer Center from El Rio Health,

CL uh Clinton Cunes, President and CEO of El Rio Health, El Rio Nurses, Marian Huarees, Anna Ernnandez, Jennifer Styivers, Amber Flores, Mercedes Ria from Banner uh University, Beth Draves, Banner's chief nursing officer, our amazing Banner nurses, Kelly Morehead, Tara Knight, Melissa Davis, and Maren, Cherry Hudson, Rebecca Harrell, Kristen Hobin, Mike uh Kosis, Banner Director of Strategy and Communication, and from St. Joseph, we have Mon'nique Cortez, Maria Mansanes. From St. Mary's nurse Dominic Hamilton who's here with the nurses union and Christine Valenuela labor representative. And if you want to just like get in here and squish in.

Julia, you want to join join us? Julia Strange here with TMC. Julia, join us. I didn't know you were coming. Oh, come on.

Come on. All righty. So so happy to have these amazing and smart women. It's must be like 250 years worth of education and service and experience provided to our community. We are lucky to have you um and have your organization's representative here in in Tucson. So, with that, on behalf of the city of Tucson and the office of the mayor, we proclaim, let me see, um, what is it? May 6th through May 12th to be National Nurses Week in our community. So whereas National Nurses Week honors the indispensable role of nurses in delivering skilled medical care with unwavering compassion, caring for our children, the sick, the elderly, and more while advocating for fair wages and safe working conditions and strengthening the health of well-being of our community. Whereas nurses are often the first and primary contact for patients and their families facing uncertain medical emergencies. And whereas the state of Arizona is facing a shortage of 30,000 nurses underscoring the critical need to educate, recruit, and retain the very best in the nursing profession. And whereas we recognize the critical role nurses play in our community, making meaningful connections, advocating for quality care and increased access to care, and promoting a culture of respect and dignity for all patients. And whereas TMC, Banner, El Rio, St. Joseph, St. Mary's our many caring nursing homes, home health, school, and other offices collectively employ more than 14,000

nurses, including 11,000 registered nurses, 1,500 licensed practical nurses, 1300, 1300 nurse practitioners, and 300 nurse anesthetic. Okay. An anesthesiologist. Anesthesiologist. This is an nurse anesthetist

anestis in the city of Tucson. And whereas local nurses should be celebrated for their professionalism, passion, and service to our community. Now therefore, I, Raa Romero, mayor of the city of Tucson, Arizona, do hereby proclaim the week of May 6 through May 12th, 2026 to be National Nurses Week in our community and encourage all of our residents to acknowledge, appreciate, and celebrate the contributions that nurses make to our community. In witness whereof, I have here unto set my hand and cost the seal of the city of Tucson, Arizona to be affixed this 6th day of May, 2026. Um, congratulations. Okay, now I'm going to put you on the spot. I'm going to put you all on the spot because I'd like to welcome a representative from each organization to share a few words.

Thank you, Mayor and Council, for this beautiful proclamation. My name is Mimi Kumler. I'm the CEO of Tucson Medical Center and I'm a registered nurse. And um what you said is all true. Nurses are compassionate. They're kind and they show up in the moments in your life when you need them the most. And like all of you, nurses are advocates. Year-over-year those surveys get published about the most uh trusted professionals. And nurses year after year are at the very top of the list. And I believe that is because we work tirelessly to take care of our friends and family and the communities that we live in. And so, thank you for recognizing that incredibly important work today. Hi. Hi, welcome. My name is Marian Huarees. I'm the senior director of care coordination at El Ralo Health. I have the pleasure of working with such great community partners. It takes a team and a village to take care of Tucson. And the fact that we can contact each other and work together, it is such a joy. And in primary care, we want to keep them out of the hospital, but we're in there in the hospital, we will safely take them back and we will take care of them. So, on behalf of El Rio Health, thank you. Thank you to our partners. Thank you for allowing us to provide access to care to our patients. Thank you, Virginia.

A representative from Banner. My name is Beth Draves. I'm the chief nursing officer for Banner, our Tucson market, and I just wanted to extend a an amazing thank you for recognizing our fellow nurses. I had the opportunity of bringing some of our bedside nurses here today to honor them from Banner. We have over 2,000 nurses in our market, and that's just a just small number of what uh the amazing groups and teams do for our community. And I just wanted to extend just a heartfelt thank you to our partners within the community. We can't do it without each other and for us to be here as one team really representing nursing. Uh I am humbled and so proud to be a part of this profession. So thank you

and representing the nurses union. Hi just wanted to say thank you once again for the recognition of of nurses week. Um we all come to this profession wanting to help the vulnerable but learn skills along the way. They learned how to really build community along the way and be with uh patients when they're at their most vulnerable. So, as um uh the representative from National Nurses United, uh thank you so much.

And then if we can um squish everyone together and take a nice picture, we really Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for I didn't put myself I wanted to make sure I said hi. Yeah. Of course.

Of course. Anytime. I'm Christine. I'm the laborer. Thank you so much for Can we get a picture of you guys? adors. Thank you. Is it okay to get a picture?

Yes, you too. Are you ready? All righty. So, we move on to item 2D, appointments to boards, committees, and commissions. Are there any personal appointments to be made at this time? Uh, seeing none, we move on to item three, mayor and council report, summary of current events. City managers communication number 122 dated May 5th 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 events of activities within the community, not position statements on policy issues. Does any council member have anything to report at this time? All righty. Pretty much everyone uh what I'll do is I'll start over here. Word six down to W one. Um, yeah. Go ahead, council members to Schubert.

Okay. Thank you, Madame Mayor. All right. Um, so my current event report opens as usual, uh, with a traffic violence update of the incidents that have occurred since our last Marin council meeting, which took place on April 21st. So on April 22nd, um, 48-year-old and 16-year-old drivers were both taken to the hospital after a two vehicle crash. The 48-year-old later passed away. On the 24th, there was a three vehicle crash in which one of the vehicles rolled over and one person was transported to the hospital with injuries. Uh, three different things happened on the 29th. A 16-year-old driver was taken to the hospital and later died from his injuries. There was also a fatal three vehicle crash in which a 26-year-old driver was pronounced dead on the scene. And there were also two people who suffered serious injuries in a motorcycle crash. And then on May 1st, uh, two things happened. a 42-year-old mo motorcyclist died um at the scene of a two vehicle crash and a pedestrian was hit by a car and taken to the hospital with serious injuries. Um so I just wanted to briefly touch about touch on how we think about people walking in the roadway. Um because there's been a lot of talk recently about safety in the roads and about the importance of enforcement. Um so I just want to flag that the term jaywalking itself has an interesting origin. It was popularized in the early 20th century as part of an effort to shift responsibility for street safety away from drivers and onto pedestrians. That framing still shapes how we think about enforcement today. But the physics haven't changed. On streets posted at 40 mph, which are very common in Tucson. The risk to a pedestrian is extremely high. And we know that actual travel speeds are often 5 to 10 miles per hour over the posted limit. At those speeds, the likelihood of a person surviving a crash drops dramatically. So, when we talk about safety, we have to be honest about where the greatest risks lie. And of course, pedestrians have a role to play in protecting their own safety. But

I think that um in that situation, drivers are disproportionately um in a position of power um and posing a greater risk. So, that's why I would encourage a continued emphasis on aligning our enforcement efforts with risk. that we should be focusing our limited resources on the behaviors most likely to result in fatal or lifealtering outcomes while also continuing the important engineering and design work that reduces speeds and prevents dangerous situations in the first place. Um related to traffic safety, I want to acknowledge the new toucan signal at Uklid and Second Street that was installed and activated last week. in response to the tragic deaths of Sophia Kimi Trot, Josiah Patrick Santos, and Katya Castillo Mendoza on October 30th. The crossing is a toucan, not a hawk, because two can cross at the same time, pedestrians, pedestrians and cyclists. I look forward to strategizing ways to be proactive and present prevent more unnecessary road deaths with my colleagues on the council. And just just want to be clear, whether or not an individual um is jaywalking or inebriated, they weren't asking for it and they don't deserve to die. Um all right, moving on to upcoming current events. On Wednesday, May 6th at 6 p.m., the planning commission is going to review the proposed data center regulations to be added to the city's development codes. This update would create standards and regulations for large-scale data centers. The meeting is hybrid with a virtual option and in person option right here in the council chambers. Um after the planning commission review process, there would be a public hearing and recommendation to the mayor and council and then we would consider and adopt it. So this is a good opportunity to weigh in about the um the proposed data center regulations. Again, that's tomorrow. There's also a transportation funding 101 session happening on Thursday, May 7th. um an excellent opportunity to get a full breakdown of how funding for

transportation is secured and spent in the city of Tucson. Um since one of our top priorities is finding more funding for safe streets and transit, the W six team and I found it to be really helpful. Might sound a little boring, but it's actually really interesting. It's important to have a clear picture of where we stand now as we work on advancing solutions um for our transportation systems. The meeting is virtual 1 to 2:30 p.m. And again, that's Wednesday, May 7th. No, Thursday. May 7th, May 7th, Thursday.

May 7th is Thursday. Okay. Applications now open for economic and workforce development and special events grants. That deadline is May 18th. Um the workforce development grant is for local nonprofits that support youth and adult workforce development and help small businesses grow. And the special events grant is to support organizations that hold special events to help grow our economy, create community, and celebrate our heritage and culture. Speaking of culture, just my final note is that May is AAPI, Asian-American and Pacific Islander Month. Special shout out to um mixed people, also known as wian. I myself am half white, half Chinese, so I will be celebrating AAPI month and um looking forward to uplifting the organizations and businesses that are part of the Tucson community. Thank you.

Thank member. Council member Vargas.

Thank you, mayor. I would like to take a moment to share a few recent and upcoming highlights happening across Ward 5. First, I invite you all to join us for our first W 5 lunch meetup this Friday, May 8th, from 12 to 1:30 p.m. at Michael Restaurant, loca located at 835 East 22nd Street. This is a local family-owned business that has been serving our community since 2009. And this gathering is part of an ongoing effort to support our local small businesses, especially during construction and to create space for connection with residents. Our W five team and I will be there and we welcome folks to stop by, join us for lunch and to connect. On May 1st, we kicked off the month with some excitement and had the opportunity to attend the opening of the new Arizona public media facility, marking a major investment in public broadcasting and education in southern Arizona. The Paul and Alice Baker ACPM building, a 50,000 square foot facility located at the Bridges represents a new chapter for community storytelling, learning, and access. I look forward to supporting and collaborating with our nearby neighborhoods as this space begins to serve the community. Over the weekend, we had the honor of cutting the ribbon at Park View Park, celebrating a meaningful investment in the Julia King neighborhood. While the park has long served the community, the new Julia King Stormwater Park transforms years of flooding challenges into an innovative solution that protects homes while creating a vibrant, welcoming space. Inspired by the Sonor and Desert, it will continue to grow into a cooler, greener place and more shade and opportunities to gather, reflecting what's possible when a community comes together to shape solutions that honor its identity and priorities. Thank you to our partners including Puma County, Storm to Shade, Flowers and Bullets, and the Julia King Neighborhood Association. And a special thank you to neighborhood leader Leah Vidal, a

resident of over over 50 years for helping bring this vision to life. Over the weekend, I also had the pleasure of attending the 16th annual Legacy of Excellence College Scholarship Banquet. Congratulations to all of the TUSD high school seniors who received scholarships. Your hard work and dedication are inspiring and we are proud of you. I also want to take a moment to honor the life and legacy of Don Colrike who came to the southside of Tucson in the early 1970s and built a lasting wrestling legacy at Sunnyside High School. His his impact goes far beyond championships. He helped shape generations of young people who went on to become leaders in their fields and pillars in our community. May he rest in peace. I would like to welcome a new business to Ward 5. Bubbaq opens it opened its doors this Saturday at 5005 South Campbell Avenue. We wish them continued success and appreciate their investment in our community. Before I close, I would like to wish one of our war five council adviserss, Fernando Ortiz, if you could stand up, Fernando, a happy early birthday. Let's all wish him Let's all wish him many blessing. Many blessings. Thank you all.

Councilwoman Lee, no announcements, Mayor. Council member Dah. No announcements. Mayor, Council Member Cunningham.

I'm going to take a little extra time tonight. You'll figure out why. But let's start with the easy ones. Good news. Uh, as I reported a few weeks ago, we had to shut down the Fort Wall pool and um, we were worried about a leak underground. We worried about it was forming a sinkhole. We actually cut through. We took a risk hoping that we could repair it. It is currently holding. We have a few more days to find out if we're going to be able to reopen the pool this summer, but we're cautiously optimistic. But because it is holding, we do get to reopen the splash pad effective this week. So, Fort LOL splash pad will be open this week. That's a good thing. Uh, second of all, I want to wish a 154th birthday to Harold Bell Wright. Uh, they had their annual picnic on May 4th, the Star Wars day, but Harold Belright actually was the first ever novelist to sell a million copies and he built a ranch here in Tucson and lived here in the early part of the century. Uh, and so I was I really enjoyed the meeting with the Herald Belright uh, neighborhood association and congratulations to everything. Uh, Palvery Park has we've been working on it about a year and we have two events going on. May 29th at 9:30 a.m., excuse me, at 5:30 p.m. and May 30th at 9:30 a.m. The May 29th is a neighborhood uh, gathering uh to uh, open the new park. We've we have a new irrigation system, new grass, a lighted softball field, and a new playground. Uh we also converted the uh former basketball court to uh pickle ball courts. We have three pickle ball courts there as well. So, uh it's really exciting. It also opens up uh some extra fields for both the softball and baseball leagues and one of the east side uh youth football programs. So, we're really excited to be able to open Palibi Park after about a year of work. The next day, we'll be dedicating the Mama Blair Jud the Judith Mama Blair basketball courts. Joseph

Blair, an alumni of the University of Arizona who played in the 1994 Final Four, uh raised $125,000 privately and then gave some more of his own treasure to make this happen. This will be a covered basketball court with two full court two full courts that are both 94 ft length. To my knowledge, it'll be the only covered outdoor courts that are NBA length in the city. Uh, and it's a really great feature and a really good piece uh for the for the park. So, come on out either the 29th, I think, uh, at at 5:30 p.m. or Monday uh, Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m. for the big big community event uh, to celebrate the reopening of uh, that court. I want to thank Larara Hamway and her teams at Parker Recreation as well as the Palib Park Neighborhood Association for making all this happen. Uh this week a young man 92 years old named Frank Via passed away but uh he was also known as Kiko uh to his friends and family. He was born on a ranch on the other side of the Rencon man um um uh mountains and after graduating high school joined the army served in the 82nd Airborne and then worked at the department of what now is environmental services but he worked as the at the department of sanitation for 30 years and served the city of Tucson very well. And so I want to uh extend condolences to Frank Via Kiko's family and thank him for all the contributions he made to our country and to Tucson. Uh about one year ago today, we were at this exact space at this exact time of day and I had a missed call from my mother and a missed call from my mother's next door neighbor. My dad had a circularatory event and I had to leave the council meeting. Uh, Tucson Fire was able to keep him alive so I could get to the hospital and wish

him farewell. It's been an incredible year in public service for me. uh with all the things that have happened. I want to thank my colleagues on this council for everything that's happened in this year because it's even it's in a year of ups and downs, it's been super special and today was really difficult to reflect on all the things that have happened. So, I wanted to It's very rare that I'm going to bring my dad up again. So, this is kind of an emotional moment. It's been a year and my time of mourning in in my religion is over. And um I just wanted to say one last time I want to thank my dad for his contributions to our community and I want to thank him for everything that he's taught me. So this has been a great year and I thank everybody for letting me be on the city council. It's been an awesome ride. Thank you, Council Member Vice Mayor Santa Cruz.

Uh, thank you, Council Member Cunningham, for sharing your your dad and telling all the sharing all the stories of how he's influenced you throughout your life and um, sending you and your family like all the love and light today. Um, for my uh summary of current events, today May 5th is the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People in the US and Canada, highlighting the disproportionately high rates of violence faced by indigenous women, girls, and two spirit people. Re research shows that Arizona has the third highest number of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in the nation. For too for far too long, this crisis has continued without the level of awareness, resources, or coordinated action needed to properly investigate and prosecute these cases. And we know that this needs to change. Um, since the mayor and I launched the new task force in 2023, we've made a clear commitment to prioritizing this issue across southern Arizona. The city of Tucson is the first in the nation to establish its own missing and murdered indigenous people's task force focused on developing meaningful recommendations around data collection policy training and service delivery. This task force brings together partners from the city of Tucson, Pima County, the Pascoyaki tribe, Toonam Nation, Indivisible Tohono, and Emerge um to create a dedicated forum for law enforcement, subject matter experts, organizations, tribal leaders, community members, advocates, survivors, and their families and stakeholders to collaborate on concrete actions and recommendations for Tucson and Puma County. Um, last week my staff attended the task force meeting here at city hall where TPD shared its current efforts and heard directly from the community about what still needs to be done. One key takeaway was the importance of the language we use when discussing these cases. A guest speaker emphasized the need to use terms like missing or endangered child rather than runaway or delinquent. We will provide an update to the community on the task force progress since 2023 at an upcoming Maring Council meeting.

Um this uh now over a week ago, Saturday, April 25th, we gathered at Mission Manor Park for our fifth annual dean, our first time celebrating in this space and we were filled with joy. Um we had the opportunity to partner with council member Selena Barakas and the W five team to bring together hundreds of families to celebrate our children. We had over 800 people in attendance. As a mama and a commun and as a community member, we know our children deserve to be celebrated, protected, and uplifted, not just in words, but through action and connection like this. I want to thank all of our generous sponsors, partners, volunteers, and food vendors. And to those who donated candy, toys, and bicycles. Because of you, it was a beautiful day, and we we look forward to continuing this celebration um for many years to come. Um, I'd also like to share an upcoming opportunity, our community celebration at the Mercado San Augustine on Friday, May 8th, where we'll be celebrating the 15th anniversary with the Ginsera themed event honoring the history, culture, and small businesses that have made the Mercado such a special place in our city. Mayor Romero and I will be joining to offer remarks alongside founders and original tenants as we recognize this important milestone. Our ward one budget de laenta team will also be there giving community members the opportunity to vote on our participatory budgeting proposals which are projects submitted by community members of what they would like to see come to life in ward 1. It's a beautiful opportunity to celebrate community culture and collective vision and we invite um everybody to come out and participate. And then on Sunday, this coming Sunday, our Westside Ride, BC Buros, um where we're going to celebrate our mamas on Mother's Day and all the caretakers who show up for our community with love. Um I'll be leading the ride along with my staffer Kristen. Um it's a morning of connection, movement, and joy. Bring your babies big and small. Let's ride together in honor of the mueres who guide us, lift us, and keep us going. We'll meet Sunday, May 10th, 8:00 a.m. at 9:40 West Alamemeda Street. If you need a bike, Google bikes

will be available. Thank you. Thank you, uh, Vice Mayor. Um, really appreciate the, um, making it a mother themed, um, ride. Really appreciate all of all of the information that you've all shared. I, too, want to celebrate Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Usually, what I like to do at the mayor's office when we celebrate um, these heritage months is highlight small businesses. And so this month, my office is connecting with local AAPI owned small businesses and organizations, highlighting their stories and their work on my social media and Instagram. Please give me a follow at Tucson Mayor. Um, AAPI owned businesses are a vital part of Tucson's history, uh, culture and economy, and I'm proud to support their work, um, and share their stories with you. Also, May is Older Americans Month and on May 1st, my office was honored to join Puma Council on Aging and TMC alongside Council Member Schubert to help kick off the month by say celebrating Puma County's centinarians in the city of Tucson. We're proud to support older adults through our parks and recreation senior programs and our annual senior Olympics. Our city is uh vibrant because of the experience and wisdom of our elders. So uh happy older Americans month this May and appreciate everything that you uh everything that you do for our community. With that, I am going to move on to item four, city manager report, summary of current events. City manager's communication number 123 dated May 5th is received

into and made part of the record. This time has been scheduled to allow the city manager to report on current events. Mr. Manager.

Thank you, mayor. Uh just one thing for this evening. Just want to uh reiterate that the city of Tucson Housing and Community Development Department is inviting nonprofit organizations to submit letters of interest to operate a mobile shower unit program serving individuals experiencing homelessness. Through this initiative, the support city will provide a mobile shower trailer at no cost to a selected nonprofit partner. The goal is to expand access to hygiene services, improve public health outcomes, and support outreach efforts among unsheltered tonins. While the city will provide the trailer and onboarding support, the selected organization will be responsible for all program operations, including staffing, transportation, supplies, water, wastewater disposal, and maintenance. Uh interested parties can learn more at tucsonaz.go. Go. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. All righty. Item five, liquor license applications. City manager communication number 131 dated May 5th is received into and made part of the record. Madame clerk, please read the liquor license agenda. Your honor, on the evening's agenda, we have one application for a personal transfer, one application for a sampling priv privilege, and one application for a special event. All applications are in compliance with city requirements. At the request of council member Barahas, we will separately consider item 5B2. So an appropriate motion would be to forward items 5B1 and 5C1 to the state liquor board with a recommendation of approval. May I have a motion, please? So moved. May I have a second?

Anyone? Second. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this motion hearing? None. Um all those in favor please indicate by saying I I. Any against? Motion carries and we will be considering um a separate item. Can you read it, Miss Clerk?

Yes. Um so it's item 5B2, Liquor Dan. Um, city number 1026 series 9S at the address of 6121 South 6th Avenue. Uh, staff has indicated the applicant is in compliance with city requirements. Council member Barakas. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, sir clerk. I would like to uh call to the audience request to address the mayor and council. All righty. Uh there are a couple of people that want to speak on this item. Yes. All righty. Can you introduce them to us? Uh, Yolanda Hereda and Jamal Given.

All right. You want to speak?

Okay. Thank you. Hello. My name is Jamal Given. I'm the president and CEO of LPKNC, which is a nonprofit organization that focuses on prevention of substance misuse and promoting mental health and wellness for families and community. And so I wanted to just um share with you all a little bit of the concern around sampling uh permits within our particular community. Uh I res I I work within Ward 5 um and have been working in that community over the last 20some years. Uh we've continuously come to this council over those years with Miss Yolanda and other members of our community just to share about how we want to make sure that we're keeping our communities safe. There's been many um efforts by this council and I should say awesome efforts by this council to deal with the unhoused, to support those that are having mental health challenges and those that might be dealing with addiction. There are things that happen within communities that can also assist in those things. And there are things like oversaturation of liquor licenses in a particular community or uh underage selling things that are you know people breaking the law and things of that nature. So there's opportunities where the council can say, "Hey, maybe we should take a look at this and be mindful of how we move forward on supporting or denying um the issue that might be in front of you, which is allowing an u establishment to have a sampling permit." Um within Ward 5 there has been over um within the last uh year and five four months four and a half months now uh you know 60,000 60,000 calls um for officers to you know do some work within the community around police activity and this is off of their their website TPD uh stats and things of

that nature. And so, um, just really want to ask, we're not anti-, uh, business. We're not anti-, uh, businesses that are selling alcohol legally, but we just want to be mindful of what are we doing? It's those little things sometimes, excuse me, that we don't consider and then we wonder five years later, well, how did we get here? Um, this is a small liquor store. I've worked with liquor dans in the past before its previous owners. Um and he was really community oriented and he allowed us to come into his stores and educate um the people that were buying liquor there like don't buy for the little guys one of our campaigns and he would allowed us to put that on his um on his alcohol um and his beer and stuff like that. So reminded people during graduation um and so he understood even though he was selling liquor and alcohol within his community that he had a responsibility and so there were certain things that he would not allow to have happen. also and so when we look at liquor dans I just ask that uh when we look at the sampling it's nothing against liquor dan themselves um it's just about the opportunity of that little crack that could open up for some other things because of that particular community its proximity to the school uh schools uh and so just ask you guys to consider that as we move forward so I would thank you for doing it and miss

oh no you're It's okay. So, as you know, I'm no stranger to you all when it comes to uh liquor establishments. We do want to maintain and protect the integrity and safety of our community for youth and our elders, of which I I guess I'm now an elder. I'm in my seventh decade. So, but I'm very grateful for LPKNC to continue what we started back 30 some years ago. So, please be mindful of what you're looking at um to help protect our community, the area. It's not the safest place when it comes to a four-way stop. Uh we heard your issues with um accidents. We don't want to increase accidents. We don't want to lose any more of our community members, especially our youth. So, with that, we do request that you move this forward with a a denial. Uh with a denial, it gives us better leverage at the state. We'll do our work that's necessary. It's the burden of proof always seems to be on the community. So, we really need your support and assistance with your attorney in helping represent our community to keep it continue to keep it safe. So, please honor our request to um recommend a denial on this, especially when there's no limitations to how many uh samplings they can hold in a year. Thank you.

Thank you, Jamal. Thank you. Yolanda, do you want to invite the applicant if they're present? Um, yes, if they're present. Lickor Dan, I don't believe so. Okay, go ahead, council member.

Well, thank you, mayor. I would like to take a moment to discuss liquor Dan and share my concerns regarding their request for sampling privileges. I want to acknowledge the advocacy of LPKNC and members of the Sunnyside neighborhood who have constantly raised important concerns around community health, safety, and quality of life, particularly as it relates to issues of addiction and mental health. These are real challenges that our neighborhoods are actively working through, and they deserve careful consideration in any decision we make. At this time, I would like to pause on improving sampling privileges for this establishment. This area already includes several businesses that provide alcohol service and bar environments and I have concerns about the potential impact on both customers and the surrounding neighborhood. We welcome innovative businesses and we value entrepreneurship in W 5. However, this moment also presents an opportunity for the new owners to engage directly with local leaders, neighborhood associations, our nonprofit partners, and families to better understand community priorities and concerns before moving forward. especially since this business has been around since 1965. My goal is to ensure we strike the right balance between supporting economic development and protecting the health, safety, and stability of our neighborhoods. I move that we provide no recommendation on this item.

Second. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I.

I. Any against? Motion carries. Thank you, council member. Uh we move on to item six. Call to the audience. Madame clerk, please read the announcement. At this time, any member of the public is allowed to address the mayor and council on any issue except for items scheduled for a public hearing at the meeting. 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're called to speak. It will turn yellow when you have 30 seconds remaining and it will turn red and beep when your time is up. At that time, please conclude your comments. Our first speaker is Emmanuel Garcia. Good evening, council members. Mayor, thank you for hearing me today. Um, my name is Emanuel Garcia and I'm here because

And I'm here because on April 10th, 2026, my life was permanently changed by street racing. Multiple drivers chose to race on public roads. um not a track, not a controlled environment, but on a public road or families like mine and just trying to make it home safely. That decision resulted in our family car being cut in half. And inside that car, my pregnant wife, my three-year-old daughter, by the grace of God, my wife and unborn child are safe. My three-year-old did not. I'm not here today as an expert on law. I'm here as a father who had to bury his child because someone decided that the speed of thrill was more important than a human life. Now the reality is this. The consequences for street racing are not strong enough to stop it, especially for young drivers and repeat offenders. If the risk does outweigh the reward, the behavior continues. And it continues. It is continuing.

What happened to my family is not an isolated incident. It's part of a pattern. Thank you. And patterns don't change unless something forces them to change. So I'm asking you respectfully and urgently to take stronger action, stronger penalties, real consequences for repeat offenders, measures that make people stop and think before they press on the gas pedal. Because right now, too many people aren't thinking at all. This is not about punishment for the sake of punishment. This is about prevention. This is about making sure another parent doesn't have to stand where I'm standing. You have the authority to influence that change. Oh, please use it. My daughter's life mattered. And if my story can prevent even one more family from going through this, then it has to be heard. Thank you all. I appreciate it. God bless you. We are with you in your loss, Mr. Garcia. Thank you so much for putting your pain into action and we will work with you and your family to make sure that your daughter's life does not go in vain. Hello.

Um, my name is Samantha and this is my niece Anna on my shirt. Um, that was my brother Emanuel. Um, I'm here today because last month on April 10th, my three-year-old niece, Anna, was killed as a result of street racing. Um, in a matter of seconds, our family's life was changed forever. We didn't just lose Anna, we lost her future, her dreams, her laughter. And the hardest part about this is that we feel like it could have been prevented. So far, just halfway into 2026, four people have lost their lives due to street racing. And it was nearly six people, but my sister and her unborn child at the time thankfully survived. Street racing was an issue prior to us losing Anna. And just days after we lost her, and since there since then, there have been more street racing incidents across our city. That should tell every everybody one thing very clearly that what we have in place right now is not enough. Street racing isn't harmless. It's just reckless driving. It's dangerous. It's deadly. And it's destroying families. This is why my family is here today to advocate for a petition that we started called Anna's Law. Anna's Law is about creating stronger penalties and real consequences for street racing. consequences that will actually make people think twice before they get behind the wheel and put other lives at risk. Right now, there's not enough being done to stop this behavior. As you can see, it continues. And until there's change, families like mine will continue to pay the price. My family is

here today to call on the city of Tucson to support Anna's law and to take real action to make our street safer. We need stronger penalties. We need accountability. We need stronger laws that will deter people from making these choices before another life is taken. Anna should still be here with us. Sorry. My family should not be standing here today, but we are. And through our tragedy, we're trying to make sure that another family won't have to be standing in the same spot. Please don't let her story just be another statistic, another headline, or just another meeting discussion. Um, let it be the reason that something finally changes. Thank you, Savannah Salazar. Good evening. My name is Savannah Salazad and I want to thank Mayor Regina Romero and council for taking the time to hear me today. Um, sorry. on behalf. I'm here today on behalf of my family and my uh myself, my community, and we're urgently requesting uh action. Um since 2023, there have been ongoing discussions about street racing and excessive speed on Tucson streets. Yet today, the problem has only worsened. We've heard about possible solutions like designated racing zones, but there but where are they? Why are

they still seeing tragedy after tragedy without meaningful followthroughs? As of this year, fatalities have already surpassed last year's numbers. There are not just statistics. There are lives lost, families shattered, and communities left grieving. We need stronger enforcement, real consequences, and an immediate action. Other states, including California, Texas, and Alabama, have implemented stricter laws uh to address street racing. Tucson should not fall behind. Offenders must face serious penalties. License suspensions, substantial fines, and mandatory community service. First offenses with harsher consequences for repeat violations. Spectators should also be held accountable. And when reckless racing results in death, there must be a firm and unwaving consequences. We must also focus on prevention. I urge you to consider installing additional traffic lights along 6th Avenue and between Ngalis Highway and an area where racing is frequent near parks, neighborhoods, and children. This is a practical immediate step that could save lives. This issue is deeply personal to me. My brother-in-law, Oscar Salazar, was killed on December 7th, 2025 by someone racing and speeding on 6th Avenue. The driver was not arrested immediately and later then he was later released within hours after bail was uh bail was significantly reduced while my family was left grieving the personal the person responsible um returned home. We didn't get to spend the holidays with Oscar. We didn't get uh more time. And yet every day cars continue racing down that same street. How many more lives must be lost before action is taken? Every loss is a reminder that change is overdue. Right now, the system is failing families like mine. I'm standing here not just to share our grief, but to demand stronger laws, better

enforcement, and real accountability. We can we can't bring Oscar back, but we can prevent another family from experiencing this pain. Please act. And thank you for your time. Thank you, ma'am. Sorry for your loss. Margo. Marggo,

good evening, city council and Mayor Romero. Um, the Trump administration's policy of buying up warehouses and jails and turning them into prison camps is simply put an authoritarian's wet dream. The estimated capacity of these camps is to hold up to 100,000 people. The number of immigrants in detention is dramatically rising. More than 75% of immigrants in ICE detention today have no criminal records and are being detained without due process. If the DHS plan is to eliminate so-called illegal immigrants, which as we know is a code for brown and black people, why do they need to expand detention centers to this extent? If they succeed in eliminating all the brown and black immigrants who will be the next victims to lock away in the prison camps, protesters, anyone who disagrees with Trump. This regime is monetizing this private prison system. Who profits? private system corporations like Core Civic, MTC, Geog Group alongside giants of surveillance infrastructure like Palunteer and making billions from this endeavor. Only the only uh these captured businesses and parties stand to gain. Everyone else stands to lose and hundreds of thousands of our immigrant neighbors stand to lose the most. Watchdog groups have long been concerned about conditions at detention detention centers regularly found guilty of medical neglect, abuse, and unsanitary living conditions. Detention centers are unjust, immoral, and an affront to our democracy. We can and must resist the cruelty and terror of this policy through constant and relentless public protest,

blockades, boycots, and local government pressure. We need to constrain what Trump and his loyalists are trying to do before it's too late. I strongly support the mayor and city council's opposition to the detention center in Morirana. I don't know how much weight this resolution holds or how it could possibly be enforced, but I encourage the mayor and the council to continue the opposition. Local campaigns to end ICE detention centers and shut down uh these detention centers have been winning. So, please keep up the fight.

Thank you, Miss Tulle. JP Salvater JP Salvatra. Madame Mayor JP Salveter, native Tonan, speaking for myself, I I'm reminded by a quote my mother often made. I love the person, but I refuse to condone the behavior. If the city truly values its collaborative effort for small businesses, it would immediately move to replace TEP Foris with a state, city, county, public, utility, commonwealth. Rather than a half-hearted gesture to beg TEP to reduce its userous rate hike demands, new energy tech will never come from TEP Fordis. Never. After 50 years of 47 KV transmission, renewed application now comes for for more fossil fuel energy transmission uh generation. And at the same time in uh the current news uh we've uh they've established a a request for a a nuclear permit uh to transmission uh utility and energy and uh smallcale nuclear uh reactors are in development now in New Mexico for this uh purpose. uh TEP's unlimited

Irvington Road uh regional aquifer uh for itself and uh future AI data center uh collaborative uh covert resource uh cost avoidance uh is ongoing. I believe uh the uh state attorney general uh outlined some areas where they had redacted uh and omitted areas that they they seek to uh do collaborative efforts to benefit themselves outside of ACC approval. uh residential solar contract property leans will hinder more home resales and create a a negative cost benefit uh payoff. this I'm I'm proposing a master IGA between uh Arizona who can maintain all electric transmission service statewide and each city and county affected will raise municipal bond funding to underground 161 twin KV fiber optic and uh cap potable non-pottable honor.

Thank you, JP. I appreciate you. Thank you, Leonard Finkele.

Good evening, Mayor Romero and city council members.

Oh, hello. Can you hear me? Good evening, Mayor Romero and city council members. When I I hear about life and death, it makes what I'm going to talk about almost inconsequential. But I'd like to thank the many people we work with. I represent Tucson area pickle ball. And I'd like to thank the many people we work with from the city of Tucson for listening to our input and acting accordingly. I'd also like to thank Lara Hemway, director of parks and recreation for understanding the community that we've built and how it exemplifies the mission of parks and wreck. Thanks to the media for keeping our struggle at the forefront. And most of all, I'd like to thank Councilman Cunningham and his terrific staff for taking the ball in carrying Tucson area pickle ball and the UD Doll pickle ball community over the goal line. We couldn't have done this without the councilman's leadership and support. and you have our eternal gratitude. Thank you.

Thank you Eva. Thank you, um, Mayor Romero and city councilman for allowing me to come here today and talk about a very serious issue that I'm really happy that you're taking up as far as making having a resolution on the detention centers. Um, I have a a memory of the detention center that is something that I can't get out of my mind. You know, sometimes you get these memories and you just wish you can get rid of them, but you can't because they're there and they'll always be there. I went to a detention facility back when President was Obama was president and over there by Nogalas and um at that time they allowed more people to come in and see what was going on and I don't know why they thought that they had some pretty good things going on I guess but when we went in there what we saw was deplorable. um the children that we saw in these cells, um altogether, different ages, toddlers, uh young teenagers, just sitting there with nothing to do. They didn't have any books. They were just sitting there for hours on end. They uh were we were told they were taken out for about an hour a day, but that was it. Then they would go back into their um into their cages, into their u cement cages. Now, every now and then they get out to be able to try to reach somebody on the phone, but if they couldn't reach somebody right away, then they didn't have anybody to talk to that day and they would be brought back into the into their cages. They weren't with their moms and dads. They were out by themselves. And, you know, it was just really hard to see and

look into their eyes and see this desperate look of, you know, where's my mom? Where's my dad? When can I see them? When will I be with them again? And then we walked around, we saw these giant flags. And I'll never forget that because I'm a patriotic person, but there was no need for these giant flags. It was just something to intimidate them. There was like three of them. Giant giant flags. I've never seen flags so huge hanging all over on the roofs just for intimidation. The things that happen in detention centers should not be happening to any human being. And you hear about the stories of their health. Um and there is no good health at these places. That one person that died cuz he had a septus from tooth uh infection happens. I mean I was when I was working at Florence State Prison uh working with the the inmates to teach them how to use computers. I saw this myself. They would come to me and they would tell me, "Oh, I've had this horrible toothache for two weeks. I can't even imagine that." And so this is happening to kids. this is happening to adults in detention facilities and I I'm just uh grateful that you're looking at it and I'm not sure you know what else we can do but whatever we can do please let us know because as a community we are very much against this deplorable um conditions that they have them in at the detention centers. So thank you very much for thinking about them.

Thank you Miss Dong Timothy Hart. Timothy Hart.

Lori Salaf. Oh, Timothy. Yeah. Okay. Come. Come forward. I just didn't see you.

Okay. What I'm wanting to address you guys about is all the construction that's going on around town that's blocking all the uh roads and access. I door dash for a living and I'm getting contract violations now because I'm running late because of all the construction. Parking 22nd, that's a nightmare. It took me over 25 minutes to get to a restaurant in that area and I got a contract violation this past weekend for it. I was able to contest it because I called into Door Dash during the uh while I was trying to navigate it. But the fact that it's happening like that is ridiculous. And I just read where Broadway is getting ready to have more construction done on it supposedly. And I find this unacceptable. Broadway is fine at the moment. There's a lot of other smaller roads around town. Wetmore, Irvington, all of it. Um that needs to be completely redone itself. They uh when I first moved here in 2017, I was told about the road project that's meant to be happening on Hton to expand it. It stopped at 22nd Street or no not 22nd Street at Irvington. Irvington through to 22nd Street has yet to be done and it needs to be completely ripped up anyways no matter what because that is I feel like I'm tearing my car apart when I go down either that or Irvington. Um, but I would like to see the city actually complete a few more projects on the roads like Grant that we still can't turn left off of. Takes a mile and a half to go up and turn around and come back to get to the Taco Bell that's on the other opposite side of the street from Nutah Holix. And I'll have a double order because Door Dash thinks that they're right next to each other right now, which they are, but they're not. Um, I go drive down these streets. I don't see any construction workers. I never see anybody working on them. I would like to see these actually

completed. I'm sure other people, especially these small business owners that you just uh commemorated, would love to see these projects done so people can actually get to their shops and not think, "Oh, I don't want to deal with Grant or 22nd Street and say no." It feels almost like you guys are wanting us to stay home because all the construction, all the de uh the rrooting we have to do and then the higher gas prices, nobody's going to be able to do that. Um but for us to be able to actually get around the city, we need to be able to um have some of these projects completed before you move on to other ones. Otherwise, why mess with a road that seems to be decently okay compared to others that you actually feel like parts of your engine are falling off of as you go down them? So, please consider that when you're doing this and trying to get our roads fixed.

Thank you, Mr. Head. We'll get your uh concern to Department of Transportation Mobility. Lori Solaf.

All right. Uh thank you um mayor and council for the resolution that some of the other um folks have already spoken about. Um I'm here representing myself but I'm also involved with the community protection task force and with Indivisible Tucson Action Alliance and previously had been um an active volunteer with the um help of support services for legally processed asylum seekers that came through our communities going to sponsors. So I wanted to um just make brief remarks. I strongly support the city of Tucson in opposing the proposed Morirana prison and any other ICE detention facilities in the region. Um I am a second generation Holocaust survivor and I do believe that these prison facilities um than many that are operating across the US right now are concentration camps by by definition. Um, and rather than having second generation survivors like me talk about the past or telling stories of the Holocaust, um, I very strongly feel that we need to focus on talking about what's happening right now and, um, and the inhumane and criminal acts that are happening in these concentration camps right now across the country and in Eloy and Florence and, uh, what's been proposed in Morirana. Um, I strongly believe we must speak publicly and call for an end to these DHS ICE concentration camps that they're calling detention centers. And I'll just read a brief dictionary definition from Miriam Webster. Concentration camp is a guarded facility where governments, particularly authoritarian regimes, systematically imprison large numbers of people without trial or legal process. Detainees are typically targeted based on their identity such as ethnicity, race, religion, political beliefs rather than individual guilt and are often held in crowded inhumane conditions. All right. And thank you for support and whatever else you can do to um to

prevent these concentration camps. Thank you, Miss Olaf. Jasmine Pierce.

Jasmine Pierce. I was gonna say sorry.

Um, hi. My name is Jasmine Pierce. Um, we've had a longtime business on 4th Avenue. Uh, actually 22 years this year. Um, that's what I'm here to speak about about the parking changes, the proposals for downtown 4th Avenue, all the parking meters and what have you. Um, so 22 years on 4th Avenue, we are very familiar with a lot of the challenges of our district. Um, I have attended all of the meetings on this matter over the last few months and I do appreciate that there have been some changes made to the original proposal and they have been positive changes. Uh, but I still do have some concerns about the proposal how it stands right now. Uh, Fourth Avenue has so much less available parking for employees and patrons of our district compared to others. 97% less parking than downtown to get very specific. And with no parking garages and very little off- streetet options, the majority of our parking is on street metered parking. So the 2-hour time caps that's on the meters in all of our districts make it make it really difficult for patrons to enjoy the neighborhoods and businesses for extended periods of time. And I don't understand why if people are paying the meters, why they should be forced to actually move their vehicles and try to find another space every two hours. It makes patrons feel very unwelcome in our districts and almost impossible for employees to work an entire shift without getting parking tickets. And for 4th Avenue area in particular, we have very few longerterm parking options to choose from, even if we wanted to. And the new proposal will extend the days and hours of meters in our 4th Avenue district to 7 p.m. and include Saturdays. And I'm very sorry if I always sound

like a broken record on this, but I mean our our district like only has like we have less than 400 parking spaces. Like in comparison to downtown that has over 13,000 parking spaces, you know, we don't have long-term options. So, I mean to change all of these extensions and time caps, they have such incredibly negative effects on all of our businesses and our districts. And I mean, like the 4th Avenue meter revenue was supposed to go towards parking solutions for for our district. You know, this is this is a long-term problem for our district, but over a decade, it's not been reinvested in Fourth Avenue. It's been going towards debt services for other districts. And uh like I think the fairly extreme 50% parking like increase on the meters like that's that's going to increase revenue exponentially. So I don't think it's unreasonable to ask that you remove the time caps and don't extend the days and times on 4th Avenue meters. Like we love our Tucson community and we love all of our neighboring districts, but our districts do have very different needs and challenges and making blant changes is not always the responsible choice. Thank you so much.

And sorry, may I also just say thank you for your opposition to the ICE detention center. Like there's no place for ICE in this world and definitely not in our community. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for your time. Bennett Burke. That's why I love our small businesses.

Good evening, Mayor Romero, Vice Mayor Santa Cruz, and council. My name is Bennett Burke. I'm here tonight representing Puma Resist ICE Price and I'm here to thank you for the resolution opposing the ICE detention center in Morirana. I have spent 30 years in ministry with many, many kinds of marginalized communities. And speaking of marginalized communities, there are no more marginalized communities in our nation right now than immigrants. And who was a champion of marginalized people? My favorite teacher, Jesus. He told us that we should treat the least, which we now call the marginalized. We should prioritize their welfare. And he specifically in chapter 25 of Matthew mentions prisoners and immigrants. specifically telling us that their welfare should be our priority and that as we are treating them, we are treating him. Every kidnapping, every detention, every death and detention, every bit of violence in this pogram against immigrants, they are doing those things to Jesus. But regardless of your faith, I follow Jesus. But regardless of whatever faith or philosophy anyone here follows, every world religion, every legitimate philosophy, and every human centered philosophy recognizes that what ICE is doing is cruel and absolutely inhumane. Now, we must nonviolently oppose ICE and

all of the detention centers through many on many different fronts. The detention center is just one. And it's not just a political issue. It's not just an e economic issue. It is the moral issue of our day. Thank you, Mayor and Council, for your resolution opposing an ICE detention center in Morirana. Thank you, Mr. Burke. Alba Harameo. Hi. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Well, I too want to thank you for this resolution against the ICE detention center in Morirana. I am an activist. I'm a lawyer. I'm a formerly undocumented person. And now I spend my time defending immigrants. But I want to tell you about an asylum seeker that I met here in Tucson. His name is Neestor. Neestor was on his way to work uh one morning. Uh a vehicle followed him. A few vehicles followed him. It turned out to be 15 ICE agents that were not um in uniform. He got scared. He went back home and as he was trying to run to his home, 15 ICE agents beat him and almost killed him. He ended up getting 15 stitches to his stomach, seven stitches to his arms, all in front of his wife and his children. So, they took him to the Florence detention center and at the Florence detention center, they did not give him the medical treatment that he needed from the wounds inflicted by ICE and he almost died. He spent three days in an in the ICU. And when I spoke with Neestor, Neestor had been attending all of his uh court cases. He had a strong asylum case, but he chose to he didn't

choose. He was pretty pressured to sign his stealth self-deportation papers even though he had a strong case. And he said, "Alba, I'm going to sign these papers because I'm I'm going to die here." He really did believe he would die. And his fear was actually very well founded. Last year, we had 32 immigrants die in ICE detention centers. and they died from things that were preventable. Many of them had had um chronic illnesses that needed medical care. They died from cancer, suicide, COVID, diabetes, strokes, tuberculosis, epileptic seizures, and two immigrants were shot by a sniper. If you remember that over 10,000 immigrants were placed in solitary confinement and this included a a period of over a month which is actually considered a form of psychological torture by the United Nations. Currently, Eloy is the deadliest detention center in the world. And right now, in real time, Surprise Arizona is building a warehouse detention facility that is going to incarcerate 1,500 immigrants. So, I just commend your bravery and I thank you for standing with our immigrant community and I encourage you to keep resisting and to stand with us all as we demand justice for our immigrants.

Thank you. I think it's Karolina Spun Silva. Silva Karolina.

Hello, Mayor and Council. My name is Karolina Silva. I've been part of the Tucson community for six years and I serve as the executive director of scholarships a we serve we are an immigrant youthled organization that builds pathways beyond high school for the over 10,000 young immigrants living in Puma County I know the fear our families are facing too well as someone who also grew up being undocumented as a child my everyday was filled with anxiety that I may come home to find that my parents are gone it's so heartbreaking to know that this is the reality for so many of our friends and neighbors today. It seems like every day now our organization receives a call from a family that has a loved one in detention and they want to know what to do next. But under this administration, it is harder than ever to fight deportations and get people out of detention. That's why we must do everything we can to prevent detentions before they even happen. Or in other words, stop the Mana detention center from opening. I am glad to hear this council will vote on a resolution in opposition of the detention center. A detention center would only make matters worse, not only for our immigrant neighbors, but also for anyone in our community who looks black, brown, or indigenous. A detention center would result in more detentions and separated families, less trust and harmony in our community. I urge you to consider the long-term impact this detention could have, detention center could have on Tucson. Arizona is still recovering from the legacy of racism of SB1070 and that was 16 years ago. Um I also urge you to act beyond this resolution. Maybe have conversation with our neighbors in Madana about why they are now taking right steps um in opposition to this. If you want to see our community, right, which includes immigrants, all of us are impacted by this, survive the next two

and a half years, please vote yes on this resolution and continue opposing the Mana Detention Center in every way you can. All of you on council and also all our friends here in the audience. Our community deserves better. Tucson deserves better. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Silva. James Owens. Hi, I'm uh Jim Owens with Breakbox downtown. Um thank you mayor and city council for taking time to hear us speak today. Um I just want to step forward and talk about the parking scenario that we have going on. Um, and I want to say that we've been able to meet with Park Tucson and make some progress with them, I feel. Um, so I wanted to acknowledge Park Tucson for sitting down and listening to us and, uh, drawing up some compromises kind of with what we were talking about as downtown businesses. Um, and yeah, just encourage uh, you guys to keep engaging with us. Um, there's been a lot of engagement, which we really do appreciate. And um at least on my behalf, I feel like we've been part of the conversation with it. Um and that's been important and also if we could continue to encourage part Tucson um in being involved in the conversation with us. There's still some things we want to work on safety-wise and we would just enjoy to be able to sit down with them, meet with them, and continue to talk about some of that and further the conversation. So that's it. Thank you very much for taking the time to listen.

Thank you, Mr. Jones. Paul Stapleton Smith.

Madame Mayor and and uh council members, I'm fortunate that I get to work with you and with city staff on lots of uh projects for our community. Uh and and what I'm here tonight to do is I couldn't say better than the sisters and brothers did earlier regarding the Morirana detention center. the euphemism which in my world in my policy world we we refer to them as prison camps and concentration camps because that's the note of accuracy that it commands and I thank you for bringing that up. I want to say that I'm very grateful for each and every one of you because you have once again taken a step uh to to do what's the morally courageous thing to do. You could just ignore it. You could just take care of parking. You could take care of clean water. You could take care of all those energy rates that we're all screaming about, but you're doing something that is really empowering and you're not allowing the normalization of prison camps, concentration camps. It it's astounding to me that we're even here discussing it. But each and every one of you, I want to commend you for your courage and also for your outreach. I know that all of you have the ability to do organizing with additional allies. And as powerless as as folks may feel about this, certainly the detainees and those folks who would protect and provide the due process that they deserve, I I'm just enormously proud of all of you for doing this and for staff that stands behind you. Uh it's not easy to do, but you guys are really being inspiring for all of us out here as we look to defend the most certainly the most vulnerable folks in our communities. And thank you. Thank you very very much. Thank you, Bethany Quilter. I believe it is Bethany. Okay. Um, and these will be our last two speakers. Gula Veles.

Okay. Yeah. Thank you so much. And I'm I'm just very grateful to be in a place where there is this open forum where people can express what they're concerned about. And I, you know, I think it's very valid to be there pickle ball or whether it it's all valid. We want to enjoy ourselves. We want to park and we want to have people not locked behind cages near us. And all those things are valid. Um, when I was a younger person and reading about things, I'm Jewish. I'm reading about the Holocaust. And one of the things that bothered me most wasn't even the cruelty. It wasn't even the violence. It was the people who lived nearby who were like, "Oh, I don't know. It's not my business." That was what bothered me most. And I'm very very grateful that you guys are not taking that role that you are saying, "Hey, we live nearby. Hi, we're Tucson. We live nearby. It does concern us." Um, so MTC uh has been in had a lot of medical violations. I do want to raise the names. Huang, uh, Raphael Padilla, I may be mispronouncing it, Benvdas Quantara, Carlos Mario. They died in MTC facilities. Um, probably for lack of medical care. Um it's still not all the investigations are out um in ICE facilities generally and not necessarily specifically MTC. There's been reports. It certainly concerns us because their little medical so-called medical unit there is doesn't really care. Uh they reuse needles and got a heepsi outbreak in the facility. That affects us. Okay. Um there was somebody who was kind of pressing the call button a bunch of times and they were the therapist was anonymous. So, I'm actually not sure exactly which facility this was, but it was an ice facility and they said, "Ah, they're pressing the call button too many times. They're really annoying." But they died 4 hours later. So, you know, there's people who died of preventable cancer. Your PSA is up. Okay. If you're out, you get, you know, you you get treatment. If you're in, it could be a death sentence. And so, there's these people that we can't see. And I'm so glad people here are coming up to speak up for these people who do not necessarily have lawyers. There's

not funding for them to have lawyers. they do not necessarily have representation. Unless you have their A number, you can't even write to them. You don't know what's happening over there. And so I'm glad we are saying no. I hope we can say that very strongly. Um, you know, Human Rights Watch has done reports, Amnesty International has done reports on it. Um, so I just think I am grateful that you are standing up for it and I hope that we win.

Thank you. Wilson Jefferson. Wilson Jefferson. Hello. Thank you for having me tonight and everybody here. Uh this is my first time at one of these and it seems like people are very happy or very mad to be here. Um, you know, I just learned at this time like the incredible things that you guys have been doing uh with this ICE situation. I didn't know that. Um, so coming here there is education and I think that is one of the boxes that I've checked off is how can I get more educated about my city instead of just getting emotional about the things that are happening. Um, I've been in business in Tucson for the last 11 years. I'm 35 years old. I'm a father of two girls. Um, I have a gym, a spin studio, and a bodega all on South Fourth Avenue. Um, I also have a gym on the north side of town. And, um, we really do this. I believe in Tucson. Um, I started my business without a business loan, without family help. Um, and I've built it into something where there is a million dollars plus being generated on South Fourth Avenue. Um, and it is all local and I don't have any partners. And I'm very proud of that. and I wake up um and I want to represent that for my daughters every single day. Now, the problem is when I get there, my my my neighbors are CSL Plasma, Armory Park, um behavioral health places all around. It is a zoo down there. I have seen death. I have seen feces. I've seen nudity and whatever I've seen, my kids have seen. And I'm just over it. Um and I want to be a part of the sol. I just want to do what I call running water. I

own gyms and I run women in sports bras and yoga pants down South 4th Avenue. Over the last 6 years of me being downtown, it's possible to get your street clean without even having to call the police, without even having to call on the city. If you call on yourself and you call on your community, you can clean it up. And that's what we've done. Um, one thing that we are doing is we are adopting Safford Elementary School's basketball court and we are totally redoing it and then activating it to be able to be public uh during the week and the weekends. Um, because in my opinion, Sanorita Park opens and Armory Park opens after reconstruction and we have just built the Taj Mahal for our homeless people to be able to do whatever it is that they do, especially in splash pads. Um, this basketball court is fenced like 15 ft high. We're getting lights, cameras, all that stuff there. And, uh, we are going to activate that corner for, uh, the community and Stafford Elementary School. Um, but like I said, I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Wilson Jefferson. Um, super hungry to see downtown uh, become what I truly believe it is and what I pay for every single month. So, thank you guys for having me and um you know, I want to be educated and I want to get to know everybody in here and see what we can do together.

Thank you so much, Mr. Jefferson. Really appreciate you very much. Thank you to all of those of you that came to express your opinion. All of the issues uh that you brought up are very important to all of us. So, thank you for being here. Um we are going to move to item seven which is our consent agenda item. Item seven consent agenda.

Reports from the city manager on the consent agenda are received into and made part of the record. Madame clerk you are requested to read the consent agenda. I'm 7A approval of minutes. 7B relating to the downtown Tucson enhanced municipal services Improvement District. the bid approving the downtown Tucson partnership annual work plan and budget for fiscal year 27 expressing an intent to levy assessments for fiscal year 27 on the property within the bid setting a public hearing and directing staff to publish and mail notice to bid property owners as required by law and declaring an emergency um administrative note that item 7 C has been moved to the regular agenda and will be addressed after the consent agenda. Item 7D, a supplemental agreement for highway road grade separated crossing between the city of Tucson and the Union Pacific Railroad Company for the 22nd Street I 10 to Tucson Boulevard phase 2 project. Uh item 7E, adopting a heart of Tucson Tourism District. Item 7F, 2026 heat awareness week resolution. Item 7G, special magistrate compensation adjustment.

May I have a motion, please? So moved. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, we do need to go to roll call. Council member Barahas. I. Council member Dah. I. Council member Schubert. I. Council member Lee. I. Council member Cunningham. Hi. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. I. Mayor Romero. I. Items on the consent agenda are approved by a vote of 70. We want we want to consider one separately. Yes. Item 7 C, proposed changes to Park Tucson rates and fees.

I know that council member Schuber, you wanted to pull this um separately from the consent agenda. So, if you'd like to jump in.

Thank you, mayor. Uh yeah. So I just wanted to pull this item from the consent agenda because we've had so many conversations and spent so much time on this topic. Um and in our conversations, we have found that the issues that it has uncovered are bigger than just the single proposal or something that could be addressed by parking fees or lack of parking fees. Um so I just wanted to make a few comments. First, I want to clarify um that what we are voting on today is just to um change the rates. Uh today's vote has nothing to do with changes in um times or in days. The proposal originally proposed an extension um to Sundays and to 10 p.m. Those are both off of the table. um mayor and council voted before I got onto the council um to schedule a change in hours effective July 1st, but that is a separate vote that already took place. Um I want to thank uh Department of Transportation and Mobility and Park Tucson staff for their work um to collect additional feedback and incorporate it into the updated proposal that reflects what we have heard um and also balances the need for cost recovery. Park Tucson's objective is parking management and not revenue generation. Um I think maybe that was the original hope, but as uh the issue developed, it was discovered that um any revenue brought in by this update in fees would just go toward bringing Park Tucson back into the black. Um we shouldn't have one of our enterprise funds facing a deficit that forces borrowing from the general fund. So, the proposal that we have before us balances the need to recoup expenses um while also honoring the community. Uh, and I want to um express my commitment to continuing conversations about the things that need to be addressed, specifically safety and security. Um, safe and convenient access to parking,

especially for employees and especially for employees who are working at night. Um, so that wasn't going to be fixed by this proposal. Um, many constituents and downtown employers have flagged safety concerns. Um, also concerns over reinvestment of revenue into infrastructure, fixing the the broken meters, you know, the 500 of,800 broken meters that we currently have. Um, so there's a lot of work that we need to do and I'm here to do that work handinhand with the community. Um, I understand that it's possible that what we're voting on today isn't going to please everybody, but I think that's the nature of the work that we're engaged in, and I hope we can keep working with partners such as TPD, uh, Department of Transportation and Mobility, um, Downtown Tucson Partnership, and local businesses on solutions that give employees and visitors a good experience in these districts. We we can do a lot more to make these spaces welcoming, um, to activate them, to bring more people downtown. Um, I'm on Fourth Avenue all the time. I'm always biking through uh walking through with my dog. Um so I'm taking note every day of what's happening and um again we want to be a part of those solutions. So I look forward to following the conversations about employee parking options. Um and if our office can be helpful, please let us know. We're always happy to hear from you and our inbox and phone lines are always open. Thank you.

Can you make a motion to um Yeah. So, with all that being said, um I move um to approve and adopt um the currently proposed um changes to Park Tucson rates and fees. Second.

There is a motion in a second. And I just want to add um 100% agree with your sentiment, Council Member Schubert. I too had the opportunity to meet with 4th Avenue businesses and it is much much more um support and investment uh that 4th Avenue business owners and all downtown business owners deserve. And so, um, I too am committed to continuing that conversation, to making sure that, um, the support systems that the city of Tucson, um, needs to focus in in our, uh, 4th Avenue and downtown businesses is there. And so I too am committed to making sure that um employers um have um a plan, an action plan uh that is tangible for their employee parking safety, um continued support from our small business program, uh etc., etc. Um, so I'm I'm looking forward to our work together and I too agree that Park Tucson should not be operating in a deficit. Right now we have about a $550,000 deficit and the proposed changes would generate roughly three $636,000 per year. So, um that is important that we reinvest back into the parking system, into our meters, into our safety, the cleanliness uh of our parking structures, and in finding solutions for our small businesses within our community. So, with that, if there's any others, any other comments on this, I think we need a roll call.

Sure. Okay. Council member Schubert. I. Council member Dah. I. Council member Barahas. I. Council member Cunningham. Hi. Council member Lee. I. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. I. Mayor Romero. I. The items on the consent agenda is approved by a vote of 70. And then we move on to item eight.

Public hearing. Public comments regarding the presented city manager's recommended budget for fiscal year 2027. City manager communication number 125 dated May 5th is received internally part of the record. This is the time and place legally advertised for a public hearing on the city's fiscal year 2027 recommended budget. Will staff be making a brief presentation before we begin the public hearing? Honorable mayor, we do have a brief presentation for you. Go ahead. Would you like it to be pulled up? Yes, please bring up Can we please pull up the presentation?

So, mayor, while they're bringing that up, I think some of the key things that we'll be covering in this are where we're at in the process and um what you have presented to you last meeting is an FY27 recommended budget. Um, but that's not the end of the story. That actually is is somewhere along the journey and ultimately on June 9th is when you would be adopting a final budget for the city. So, we've been doing a lot of public and employee engagement as we've been developing the budget. It dates back to last fall when we had the housing equations set of fall and budget budget engagements with the public where we facilitated deep dive conversations with with the community uh specifically around housing. We've had a tradition of the last three years of an employee budget town hall. It was virtual this year with over 600 comments from or 600 different employees commenting. We convened a joint meeting of labor and our executive leadership to talk through some of the challenges we had this year. And as you know, we closed all of our deficits to bring you a balanced recommended budget. And then we've had five public information sessions recently uh from April 22nd through May 1st and will report on the results with us on on May 19th. So FY26, the year we're in, has some projections to it. We had budgeted $776.2 million of revenues in the general fund, and we were tracking to be below that as soon as the fiscal year began. So, in in the fall, we've made some spending adjustments, and we're projecting to end the year $43 million below on SP on on revenues, but that does not mean we will end $43 million of a deficit. When we enacted the spend plan in fall of 2025, we did a lot of efficiencies and other measures that uh reduced spending without sacrificing service to the community, except for um

a few um small changes that we made. Um, and through those actions, we've been able to reduce that $43 million shortfall in 26 down to 1.6 million, which is essentially means we're ending uh almost balanced. We expect and project to end the fiscal year with an $80. 80.4 million of available cash balance, and that is above our policy reserve uh rainy day fund. So, our projected year-end results are better than mid-year estimates and attributed mostly to effective spend management. Why are we why are we wrestling with some of these spending issues and revenue issues? Well, the revenues are not coming in um as we had uh projected, but also uh they reflect some broader uh trends in the economy and in um state level decision-making. So to begin with, our local sales taxes have not been increasing in recent years as they were prior to um the recent economic downturn. Um and we've seen actually local sales taxes decline. And we are uh expecting and projecting for FY27 that we would begin a slow recovery there. That's not guaranteed by any stretch, but that's where we're expecting local sales tax to go. And we've talked a great deal about this. And in fact, there's an article about the city of Mesa's budget facing a deficit and they for the first time that I'm aware of invoked the flat income tax. So Tucson's been ringing this alarm bell for a couple years. It's nice to hear other cities sharing the same story, which is that the flat income tax in Arizona has reduced revenues to cities, even the red ones. So, we are seeing also not just $40 million that should be coming to the city, no longer coming to the city, um, but which we we've made those adjustments. You've made the tough calls

and we're bringing you a balanced budget despite those reductions in state share revenue. There is talk of additional tax conformity and if tax conformity is done in the state to the federal tax, we would see a reduction yet again next year. My ask of the state would be just stop taking money from us. You don't have to give us more. That would be nice. But could you stop taking money from the cities? The good news on our local uh tax rate uh for our local property tax which is not it's a small but mighty part of our budget is our um effective tax rate would be actually be going down yet again um in the city because the growth and our ability to optimize local property tax is being maximized but the the growth is actually allowing the tax rate itself to decrease. So with that, we look at what does the FY27 budget look for. In the in the recommended budget, we are projecting total general fund revenues of 75 758.8 million, which is lower than we were in recent years, but we're hoping to see that slow recovery begin. And we are um being able to close the budget to a recommended balanced budget. First of all, by having that recom or those expected projected expenses be very closely indexed to our revenues uh essentially balanced. We do have a planned use of general fund balance. This is not this $39.2 million is not to plug the budget gap. It's actually the planned spendown of framework dollars and investment plan dollars that you had allocated in previous years from our previous fund balance. So, it's not budget plugging hole process. It's the planned investments you've been talking about. With that though, we do bring a $350,000 to the good budget. That's the

recommended budget. And we do project to end the year with still available fund balance of 19.2 million at the end of FY27 with the recommended budget. We do recommend a new policy um that would bring any savings that occurred from the council offices and mayor budgets forward to next year to fund some of the priorities that were funding cliffs from this past year that were not funded by the general fund but the federal funding or other funding has not uh continued. So, we're recommending that we use savings from 26 to fund the DVFTAP program, which is the program to take firearms away from domestic violence uh perpetrators. Uh, but we also plan to partner with Pumac County on that. Uh, we would project that we would be able to fund year two of Star Village, which has been very successful. Um, we would be able to continue some of the nonprofit discounts we give at the Tucson Convention Center and then fund affordable housing development fee incentives for the city. So, some of the highlights in this recommended budget, you have year two of the employee investment plan fully funded. That's the 18.1 million you've all talked about, and it's the investment in our employees. The safe city initiative is supported, including the addition of 50 police officers. Our our pensions are fully funded. TSRS, Tucson Supplemental Retirement System, and our public safety pension fully funded. We have robust employee benefits funded. The transit system is funded with actually a reduced general fund transfer required for next year compared to this year while staying in a fair-free status. We see substantial completion of that investment plan I mentioned. So, we're making good on our promises to the community. No loss of critical programs or drastic service cuts. means no shuttering of fire

stations, no reductions in pool services, no closures of rec centers, and no pickle ball fees, I will add. Um, and the enterprise and special revenue funds, the other two-thirds of our budget, continue to be on track. With that reminder of the next steps, tonight is your public hearing, but no action required. May 19th, we have another study session and discussion and then that night it'd be scheduled for your tenative adoption. What that means is you set the spending cap while the details can continue to be resol re resolved leading up to June 9th for the final budget adoption study session and ultimately adoption of the budget. Uh with that, mayor, um we're glad to take any questions andor convene the public.

Thank you so much for the presentation. Really appreciate it. Um there are no cards submitted for the public hearing surprisingly. Uh but I do see JP Salvatra wanting to add his uh opinion to it. Uh you do have the right to uh speak to us uh at this time. Make sure that your presentation keeps to five minutes and please state your name, whether you live in the city or not, whom you are representing, and whether or not you are a paid speaker.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. JP Salveter, Tucson native, Tucson resident. Speaking for myself, um I've followed many uh directions that uh the uh city manager and the previous city manager have taken to uh support and substantiate uh the betterment of our community. And uh to that end, we also have done some cost cutting. I see that you know is reasonable. But uh the uh the major things that are really traumatizing our community are the uh health and safety. Uh the increased mortality of pedestrians and bicyclists and people traveling driving on the road. Um it's it's abominable. Now there are different ways that that can be addressed. uh some of the uh the bus stops can have better uh facilities for maintaining that protective element. Uh our streets can have a parallel easement that uh is separate for bikes, pedestrians, and uh other activities that they're not put into direct trauma alongside of of traffic. Now in the budget itself we keep beating ourselves to death I think with it. Yet, you know, here before I have mentioned time and again the fact that if Tucson, Puma County, and the state of Arizona joined together with the Commonwealth utility

uh and and uh directive could take over all the functions of TEP and Foris, all the electric transmission. throughout the state could be taken over by the state. All the county the counties and cities that are affected could maintain their own municipal bonding. Uh we saw a really wonderful benefit like the uh the prop uh 411 that had very very good oversight and and it was welldirected. It wasn't a shot in the dark for the next 20 years. Um unfortunately uh there are some things that we cannot project when we determine that far out in our in our progression of uh something that is realistic and practicable and and has value engineering. Now the best thing the best thing I feel that that has been done is is consolidating uh the the importance creating a priority on on public health and I know uh 20 30 years uh over the last 20 30 years we've Arizona's been behind uh Alabama and Mississippi for mental health and what that looks like to us uh is uh more criminal recitism and it's mistaken mental health issues are mistaken for criminality and that's not what we need and and to that benefit the mayor and and council have directed a number of programs that are trying to mitigate that and create the diversion

court experience for these people and create more security for everyone else that has to deal with these people when they're in the street costing their homes or threatening their property. um in in the the budget itself. Um housing, not renting, home ownership will take at least $und00 million a year for 10 years. That's a billion dollars. And when we consider our XYZ gen uh in the future creating a legacy, it it really prompts us to consider those kind of efforts in a budget. Um and it's very practicable. It keeps them nested in Tucson. They don't leave. they have good opportunities here and security and safety and and we have a wonderful community that we maintain. So all these things are a part of a budget. It's it's a psychosocial kind of a thing.

So I thank you Mr. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. We have no additional speakers for the public hearing. So may I have a motion to close the public hearing? Move. Mayor second your honor. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion on closing the public hearing? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I.

Any against? Motion carries. The public hearing is closed. So there is no action required uh from us today. Um it was much more an opportunity for the public to chime in. So we move on to item nine. Reszoning city manager report TP NT12250024 Lion School East Dogwood Street SR2R2. City manager communication number 130 dated May 5th is received into and made part of the record. This is a request for ordinance adoption to reszone approximately 10.02 02 acres of property located at 7555 East Dogwood Street from Suburban Ranch to Urban Residence R2. The reasoning site is located within an existing residential neighborhood directly to the east of Gross Park south of Escalante Road and west of South Pantano Road. The subject side is a formal Lions Elementary School closed in 2013 and currently consists of unoccupied school buildings and sports fields. The preliminary development plan proposes the development of approximately 63 single family homes with a central common open space. The public will utilize the flexible lot development FLD option to develop single family homes. The zoning examiner recommends authorization of the zoning subject to certain conditions. Is the applicant or representative the applicant present?

Mayor, members of the council, Carrie Silvin with Lazarus and Silvin. I just want to uh introduce most of whom don't need an introduction to you, the folks who are here with me tonight. Um Bryant Nodine is here from Tucson Unified School District, Kelly Lee and Adam Call from KB Home, and Corey Thompson from Rick Engineering. We are very comfortable with the conditions. Want to thank the ward office as well as the neighborhood. I will tell you, I've been doing this now for almost 30 years, and I've never been to a neighborhood meeting where not only were they excited about this infill project. They were encouraging KB Homes to take a look at the state land next door and possibly develop that for homes as well. I'm not saying that's happening, but I can tell you that I've never had a neighborhood ask one of my clients to develop the next door um property. So really great neighborhood, very supportive of infill housing and this was a true success.

Well, thank you so much. That is great news and appreciate the work um that ward I think this is a word for. Thank you so much for the work that preliminary work that the ward for um council office always thanks uh to you too um for wanting to build infill development in our in our city. So with that and uh putting into the record uh that the PLA applicant is agreeable to the proposed requirements uh what is the council's pleasure.

Thank you mayor and Carrie speaks the truth. This is a very exciting project and there's a lot of uh excitement around it for sure. Um, so I also want to thank you Carrie and and the team, everyone who engaged with the neighborhoods and thanks to my staff for helping assist that process. And thank you to Groves Lincoln Neighborhood Association led by George the president who worked with KB Homes and Carrie Silvin to reszone the former TUSD Lions Elementary School property that closed in 2013. This proposal that falls before us has full support of the neighborhood association to reszone the 10 acres into a new housing subdivision that complements the existing neighborhood. Thank you to KB Holmes for continuing to vest. Siri's listening to me somehow. I got to turn that off. I said Carrie Silvin, not

S I R I. Um, thank you to KB Holmes for continuing to vest in Ward 4. Uh, I move we approve the requested resoning to the R2 zone subject to the attached conditions in PDP. Second. Second, your honor. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Any against? Motion carries. Thank you so much. Really appreciate your work. Item 10, resolution relating to Hud Bay Minerals, the proposed copper world development and mining in the Santaita mountain range opposing the copper world mine and declaring an emergency.

City managers, communication number 133 dated May 5th is received into and made part of the record. Madame clerk, you are requested to read resolution number 24114 by number and title only. Resolution number 24114 relating to environmental and cultural resources opposing the Hud Bay Minerals proposed copper world mine and mining in the Sanorita mountain range and declaring an emergency. What is the council's pleasure?

Your honor, I move that we uh approve and adopt resolution number 24114 um in opposition to um the proposed copper world development and mining in the Santaorita mountain range. Second. There is a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Just thank you, mayor, for bringing this um forward. Um I think we all know why we're doing this and um aligns with how we've consistently shown up and protecting our um precious resources here in southern Arizona. So, thank you again.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. And also, I want to thank our two new council colleagues that wanted to make sure that they took a position on this. Mayor and council have been very clear and consistent on this issue. We oppose open pit mining in the Santaita Mountains because of what it means to Tucson's future, especially when it comes to our water, our environment, our cultural and natural resources that make this recent region so special. So, this is this is is not something that we've raised for the first time, but we wanted to make sure that we had an opportunity to include our new council colleagues on this item. So, if there's no further discussion, um I believe we need a roll call. Council member Schubert,

I. Council member Cunningham, I. Council member Lee, I. Council member Dah, I. Council member Barahas, I. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. I, Mayor Romero, I. Resolution 24114 passes by a vote of 7. Thank you so much. Um, item 11, resolution opposing the use of former Arizona State Prison in Mariana as a US Immigration and Custom Enforcement ICE detention center. City Manager, communication number 134 dated May 5th is received into and made part of the record. Madame Clerk, you are requested to read resolution number 24116 by number and title only.

Resolution number 24116 relating to intergovernmental relations, a resolution opposition to proposed federal immigration and customs enforcement ICE detention center in Mariana and declaring an emergency. What is the council's pleasure? Mayor, I move that we pass and adopt resolution 24116. Second.

There is a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Council member Schubert. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Just a few comments um before we take a vote on this. It's easy to look back in hindsight and identify incorrect choices to state what we would have done differently if we were there. These are not abstract things. We have landmarks that serve as reminders of inhumane government decisions right here in Tucson. The Gordon Hiabayashi Campground on Mount Lemon is named after a man who resisted Japanese internment during World War II. In the name of national security, Japanese American citizens and Japanese immigrants were forced into camps run by the Immigration and Naturalization Service and guarded by Border Patrol agents. Because Mr. Herbayashi refused to comply with the legal but inhumane national order to relocate to an internment camp, he was sentenced to the prison labor camp where his namesake campground now stands. Similarly, the Dunar School was established under a 1909 state law mandating segregation. Even after it was integrated in 1952, racist covenants across Tucson neighborhoods maintained de facto segregation for years. Local historian Lydia Otero has documented the stories from individuals directly impacted by the destruction of Mexican-American neighborhoods and businesses in downtown Tucson in the 1960s in the name of urban renewal a decision made by a majority white city council. A statue titled La Vida de Noestros Bario Zunitos, the life of our United Neighborhoods, stands on the corner of Cushing Street and Granada Avenue, serving as a reminder of the neighborhood that once thrived there. More recently, we saw the 2010 state legislature passing laws to ban TUSD's Mexican-American studies program, an award-winning culturally relevant

curriculum designed to engage students, encourage them to ask tough questions, and boost graduation rates. While much of the law was eventually overturned in 2017, the program has never been fully restored, especially given the recent federal attacks on DEI and culturally relevant education. Despite these welldocumented histories, we see this happening again. The ICE Detention Center in Morirana should not even be a discussion, but here we are. So, I wholeheartedly support this resolution and stand against the cruel, wasteful, and unnecessary detention of immigrant communities. By moving forward with the contract, the town of Morirana condones federal policies that tear apart families and allow private prison industries to profit under the dog whistle of national security. I'm proud to stand with my colleagues on the council and enthusiastically vote yes on this resolution opposing the ICE detention center in Morirana. Thank you.

Thank you, council member. Any other comments? Council member D.

Thank you, mayor, and thank you for that history lesson and fine words. We are in history. Um this is just one of dozens of horrible things that are happening by the Republican mega federal administration and we have to say no. Um, if we tell our grandkids, "Oh, yeah, we used to be able to vote. Oh, yeah, there never was places where people would be imprisoned and die from medical conditions that could easily have been prevented. Um, we we wouldn't be able to live with ourselves. I'm proud to vote to ask our neighbors not to allow a concentration camp in Puma County. Thank you. Any others? I just wanted to add um I requested that we add this resolution to our agenda because I wasn't willing to not take a stand on this issue. I was not willing to take this sitting down without saying how much I am opposed to these ICE detention facilities, especially anything coming close to the city of Tucson. The mayor and coun council always chooses dignity over detention, community over feel, fear and unity over div division. We have always been a welcoming community and this resolution affirms our values, the human dignity of immigrants, family unity and respect for all people no matter their legal status. I was not willing to take this sitting down without doing anything and taking a position against it. So with that, I believe we need to go to a roll call.

Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. I, Council Member Dah. I, Council Member Barahas, I. Council member Schubert, I. Council member Lee, I. Council member Cunningham, I. Mayor Romero I resolution 24116 passes by a vote of 70. Thank you all so much and thank you to the community for joining us today. Item 12, adjournment. Council will stand adjourned. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be on Tuesday, May 19th, 2026 at or after 5:30 p.m. Thank you all so much. Have a wonderful rest of your week.