City Council - Regular Meeting

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One is executive session. Mr. Clerk.

Item one is known as Executive Session, Water Resources Development and Infrastructure Funding Opportunities with the United States Bureau of Reclamation to Mitigate Drought in the Lower Colorado River Basin and is being held pursuant to ARS Section 38-431.03 and .

May I have a motion to go into Executive Session?

So moved.

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. All right. We'll be back in 45 minutes.

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All those in favor? Aye.

Any opposed?

All right, item two, what is the council's pleasure?

Your Honor, I'd like to move that we proceed as discussed in executive session and authorize the manager, the city manager and the city attorney to negotiate and for the mayor to execute a final agreement with the United States Bureau of Land Reclamation for infrastructure development and storage of water resources within the Tucson area.

All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, motion passes. All right, time has been set aside for a discussion of the update on strategic initiatives related to unsheltered homelessness. Mr. Manager?

Thank you, honorable vice mayor and members of the council. For our presentation today, we'll have an introduction from assistant city manager, Liz Morales, and we are going to give you an update on a few items related to this topic. So with that, I'm gonna hand it straight over to Ms. Morales.

Thank you, Mr. Manager, honorable vice mayor, council members. I'll keep my remarks brief and focus on a few highlights. As you know, staff continue to conduct coordinated safe city deployments throughout Tucson, bringing together outreach teams, service providers, environmental services, and public safety partners. During the last three deployments, teams made contact with 53 individuals, with more than half accepting services, including shelter, shelter, housing, navigation, and treatment referrals. We also removed approximately five tons of debris from impacted areas. As we move into the hottest part of the summer, staff and community partners remain focused on heat relief efforts, cooling centers, hydration stations, libraries, and other heat respite locations continue to be available throughout the community and outreach teams are working to connect vulnerable individuals with those resources. The goal is simple, keeping people safe during extreme temperature while helping connect them to longer-term services and support. The city also continues to support emergency shelter and housing programs across our system. Today, our city-owned and partner-operated shelter sites are serving more than 200 individuals and families, providing emergency shelter, stabilization services, and pathways toward housing. With that, I'll turn it over to Jason Thorpe, Deputy Director for Housing Community Development. He will be discussing the shelter bed dashboard and continued care funding opportunity. And following Jason will be Director Laura Hamway with Tucson Parks and Recreation, who will speak on a new team aimed at outreach and connections for those who are unsheltered, who are also at home. any one of our city parks. So Jason, please.

Thank you, Assistant City Manager Morales. Good afternoon, Honorable Vice Mayor Santa Cruz and members of council. I have two brief updates today related to homelessness responses in our community. First, I'd like to provide an update on HUD's Continuum of Care funding program. As Council is aware, HUD announced significant changes to the Continuum of Care program in late 2025. These changes threatened many existing housing and homelessness programs across the country. Through litigation involving multiple jurisdictions, including the city of Tucson, and subsequent congressional intervention, HUD has now renewed all current Continuum of Care awards through 2027. This is a significant victory in our community. It preserves more than $17 million in federal homelessness funding, prevents disruption to critical housing and supportive services, and avoids the displacement of hundreds of households that could have lost housing assistance under the proposed redesign. At the same time, HUD has now released its fiscal year 2026 notice of funding opportunity, and the Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness has launched the local competition for 2027-2028 funding. Applications are due on July 15th. This year's competition remains challenging. The new federal requirements will require our continuum of care to implement additional participant requirements and shift a substantial portion of funding away from permanent housing and toward transitional housing models. TPCH staff and board members have been working closely with providers to align these changes with local priorities, reinforce strategies contained in the Safe City Initiative and One Pima plans, and position our community to remain competitive for federal funding under these new models. It's important to note that only 60% of our existing funding is protected this year. Approximately 40% or 40%, nearly $7 million is subject to national competition and remains at risk. One encouraging aspect of this year's funding opportunity, however, is the increased emphasis on domestic violence services. Currently, nearly 800 households fleeing domestic abuse are on our community's housing priority list, far exceeding available provider capacity. This competition presents a meaningful opportunity to expand resources for those households through increased funding being made available through HUD's Domestic Violence Bonus Initiative. City staff are actively working with DV provider agencies to capitalize on this opportunity. My second update is the introduction of TPCH's Shelter Bed Availability Dashboard. As you can see on the screen, this tool was requested by Mayor and Council, and additionally incorporated into the One Pima plan earlier this year. Led by city and county staff, TPCH developed and launched the dashboard. This shared effort involved our jurisdictional partners, as well as a number of nonprofit shelter providers, which worked collaboratively over several months. The dashboard provides near real-time shelter information for more than 700 community shelter beds. It is updated twice daily by participating shelter providers. It allows users to view available shelter beds, shelter locations, intake requirements, contact information, and eligibility criteria. The tool is available at tpch.net forward slash help and includes additional resource layers if we can proceed to the next slide. Oh, I have it, apologies. No, I've turned it off.

There we go.

Thank you. So the tool includes additional layers, as you can see here, which beyond shelter beds, which include heat relief stations, Suntran route information, and other community services. While Gospel Rescue Mission and the Southern Arizona VA have chosen not to participate in the real-time bed reporting component, Information about their programs is still included on the dashboard. As a result, this dashboard serves as the most comprehensive shelter resource directory currently available in our community. We appreciate the partnership of Mayor and Council, Pima County, service providers, and TPC-H members in advancing these efforts. Thanks, and I'm happy to answer any questions after Director Hemway's presentation.

Good afternoon, Vice Mayor, members of the council. So I'm here to talk a little bit more about our new PACE unit. I did send a communication earlier this year. So in March, we did transition some of our staffing resources to allow us to align to having a unit called PACE, which is Park Assistance and Community Engagement, which would allow us to have a dedicated team to be able to respond to the homeless encampment reports that we get about activities within a park. To have that centralized point of contact and team to be able to go on site, assess what the condition of a park is, what resources might actually be needed, whether homeless outreach, whether TPD, or environmental services, because every situation that occurs within a park is going to be a little bit different. We have a supervisor. She came on board about a month ago, but the team was already kind of rocking and rolling prior to her joining. But what I really love about the layered approach that we've done here is that we have a daytime team, which is a supervisor, a park maintenance coordinator, and a groundskeeper. And then we then folded B-shift underneath this unit, which operates from approximately 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., And so that allows us to then layer in a check. So if you have a condition during the day and we want to see if that condition is remaining in the evening time, we're able to ask those staff to stop by. They also help us with doing closures. A Mountain is one of their main responsibilities. But the whole goal of establishing a unit like this is to allow us to have a concentrated response plan. Prior to this, it was very diffused. It was assigned to different people to respond to the reports that were received. And it did not allow us to effectively really capture data, trends, locations that were needed more efforts and build a stronger partnership like with Justin Hamilton or Brandy or even Lee. And that's really what we want to do. And what we've heard directly from the staff involved in the work is they want to understand more about all the resources, the education that they can also help with that first point of contact. And they're also going to be collecting data on what they see in the park itself. And then we hope at our level, at the leadership level, to be able to aggregate a lot of that data that they're collecting in order for us to better inform you as to what we're seeing and experiencing within parks. Something else that we're doing as well is the deployments that are coordinated to happen with TPD and the homeless outreach teams in parks themselves. We will be inserting PACE into those deployments. We just had a meeting this week with Midtown about one coming up so that we can also layer in some of that park support into those deployments and also better educate our staff so that they're more knowledgeable in the space. So with that, I'm also happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you, Laura. Any questions from my colleagues? Council Member Dahl.

Thank you, very good reports. Justin, I love the dashboard. Can you speak to Gospel Rescue Mission? It always has no information about available beds. Are they not really part of the system? Are they not updating?

So Gospel Rescue Machine doesn't participate actively in bed reporting or some other continuum of care activities. As an organization, they opt not to receive federal funding and so in doing so, they aren't necessarily required to participate in some of these activities that many of the other providers are. Thanks.

Council Member Lee. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Just want to highlight in the memorandum the 55% service acceptance rate from the team. I think to Justin and the team, you guys are doing an amazing job building trust and inviting people in to accept services. Because I think Brandy said it's usually about 10% acceptance rate traditionally. So 55% is amazing. You guys are doing amazing work out there. For Lara, just curious when we may see the first data from the PACE unit, just so we have a better understanding of what the volume is for this work and what you're seeing out there.

Vice Mayor and Council Member Lee, it's funny, I just asked that same question this morning. How Danny Okola, she's our supervisor, like I said, she's been on for about a month and she's been rolling out some data tools to her team to collect. So I asked her if we could meet this week so I could understand where she is and how that is shaping up. So I think realistically within the next 30 days we should be able to do a first report.

Wonderful, thank you, Vice Mayor.

Council Member Barajas. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Well, thank you both for those updates. I have a question for you, Jason, with the dashboard. I noticed that the shelter, the one shelter that wasn't really mentioned in the memo was the Safer Center. Is that gonna be something that we'll be able to see included for future?

That's a really great question, thank you, Councilmember. I will need to check in with the folks at the Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness on possibility of overlap there. I know it's sort of a different model than an emergency shelter, and then sort of being new to operations and having a different referral pathway. I think there may be some limitations there, but really something worth exploring. So I'll be sure to look into that and make sure that folks circle back to let you know the outcome.

Thank you. And I have a question with the new pace, which is exciting. I know that there's just, you know, different layers at the parks, but in terms of a dedicated response team for homelessness-related concerns, will there also be the layer of mental health and then drug-related concerns included in that data report?

Vice Mayor, Council Member Brajas, so our staff really aren't going to be taking on, so they're going to be that first point of identifying that assistance is needed. And then they would be reaching out, whether it would be to the team under Cashew or the other partners that we've been meeting at the Safe City meetings that we attend on Thursdays to then identify, hey, there's someone here. We had something recently that just happened. Someone who had all their paperwork and really wanted to talk to someone about shelter. What Dani did is she connected them to the right group. We're not really... equipped properly to do mental health support. So I really want to make sure I'm very clear on they're going to go out and see if they can be that first point of identifying, hey, there's a resource that's needed here. What's the appropriate resource? And in some cases, they might not find a person. It might just be a cleanup. So it's going to vary.

So this position is more like a filter, like a pinpoint and then kind of just provide additional resources or connect them to the resources.

Yes, Council Member Barajas. It would be really for them to advocate on behalf of what's going on in the parks environment and then layering in the folks that are working in the space of whether it's shelter assistance, mental health assistance, and identifying that there's someone in the park that needs that, and then also depending on what other conditions identify if we do need to post because they're camping, working with TPD. So their hands will be full based on what they encounter, but what we know is that, and what we have seen so far is our every park is a different situation. So we're going to give them the best tools we can.

Thank you. Council Member Schubert.

Thanks so much for all the updates. I continue to appreciate the multi-pronged approach we're taking here in Tucson to address these complex and systemic challenges. And as we move forward on reopening and reactivating some of our most beloved parks like Armory Park and Santa Rita in the next few months, I'm encouraged by the pace approach. It's important that our parks remain open spaces where everyone can enjoy space to relax, have fun, be in community. Just a few follow-up questions related to the PACE teams. As we're reopening and reactivating many of these parks, how will the PACE teams be coordinating with organizations and neighborhood groups in the area, mutual aid groups, service providers? And then just a few other questions. You mentioned that just 60% of our funding is protected. Given the changes in the HUD NOFO, do we have any idea of how much of our local funding for existing projects like permanent supportive housing is at risk of being lost or shifted to other types of projects? And then the other HUD NOFO related question is, what are other funding sources that we might be able to utilize to mitigate the impacts of these federal changes?

So Vice Mayor, Council Member Schubert, what our plan is and what Dani has already been involved in is any of the meetings that we're doing where we are engaging with the community already, making sure she's plugged into that. She has also successfully gone to some activations that are happening within the parks with providers and introduced herself and starting to make those contacts. so successfully that an independent group reached out to her to wanting to stand up to do an event and she helped them to navigate how to do something within the park. So we are encouraging her to duplicate that as she gets out in the field. Her parks and maintenance coordinator, Linda, is also very personable and very much forward about building relationships. So we have given, almost empowered the team to do that work in that space so folks feel comfortable to ask a question and also identify when they're going to be in the park so that we can all work together.

If I may jump in on this response, one of the things we're working on last night and then on July 1st, we are meeting with both service providers, community groups, mutual aid groups, we're inviting them to hear some of this effort and really for us to listen to the groups on how they might want to help activate and engage with us in the parks and ways that the city can support them in the work that they're doing. So I would invite anyone that has not received an invitation to reach out to the city manager's office, to Tucson Parks and Recreation to say, I'd like to come to this meeting. Also on June 29th, we're doing a similar meeting with residents, businesses, and we're focusing on several parks, but it's with the same aim to connect our residents and businesses to understand the work that we're doing around both openings of parks and investments that we're doing and how can we continue to support them and make sure they can enjoy the safe and vibrant parks that we want to have for our residents.

Thank you. Any other colleagues? Jason, okay.

Thank you, Vice President. Thank you, Council Member Schubert. So to your first question about the extent to which existing programming is at risk of loss, in a traditional year, 90% of the existing programming is considered safe and 10% is at national competition. This year, it's 60% is considered safe, 40% is at national competition. So there's an additional 30% of our portfolio that is at risk this year compared to a normal year. The new models that HUD are using, in some ways, transitional housing models can look very comparable to rapid rehousing. And so many existing rapid rehousing programs are actually considering voluntarily reallocating to transitional housing, which would meet some HUD policy priorities and also allow permanent supportive housing as well as the rapid rehousing that does not reallocate into a different program type to remain within that safe 60%. So it is the continuum's intention to protect existing permanent housing to the greatest extent possible. We at the city manage about a $5 million, a little over a $5 million permanent supportive housing project that supports 270 households on a given night. That project, we have offered to voluntarily reallocate a portion of that project to ensure that all permanent housing projects can remain in the safe, protected 60%. So it's a bit of a moving target right now until each organization identifies definitively their path forward. And organizations are required to do so right closer to this today. So tomorrow I would have a bit of a different answer for you. The second question is it relates to other sources. Unfortunately, It's a pretty challenging time because we're seeing where other sources that have been very useful in recent years, the American Rescue Plan funding, CARES Act funding, State Housing Trust Fund massive infusion a few years ago. These sources are now all coming to expiration at the same time. And so there aren't a lot of new opportunities to sort of replace this type of housing. The Continuum of Care Program is the largest homelessness intervention funding program at the federal level. There are still opportunities that I think are important to continue to work at. One, HUD has recently released a new funding competition for the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project and Youth Homelessness System Improvement. They are this year allowing prior grantees to apply again for new programming. We received that Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program funding in fiscal year 2018. That added about $7 million per year to our annual funding through the continuum of care, specifically for youth projects. In the same way this year, there's also this increased availability of funding for domestic violence projects. And so that can increase the funding for those specific populations. But in addition to that, it allows those populations to be triaged into those types of programs, freeing up space in the more flexible programs for folks who don't meet those requirements. And then the last thing that I would note are actually two additional things. I think one, the county's ongoing investment over the next 10 years in housing work includes some funding that is set aside to support supportive housing and efforts. And then is we're really aggressively working toward affordable housing development. Affordable housing, of course, is a solution to homelessness at the community level. But in addition to that, many of those projects require we're assigning project-based vouchers to many of those projects where we're using the Housing Choice Voucher Program to support some of those units. And in doing so, attaching supportive services to those units. And so that essentially creates permanent supportive housing opportunity by sort of manufacturer as opposed to by design. And so that's another opportunity that we're exploiting and making use of locally, but isn't necessarily a traditional funding model.

Thank you so much, really helpful. And then one final question about the shelter dashboard. How will the effectiveness and impact of the dashboard be measured? Is there any way to measure utilization by potential participants and providers making referrals? And that's my last question.

So thank you, Council Member Schubert. My understanding is that there is some tracking occurring of visits to the site. So some basic web tracking that we'll be able to see how frequently it's used. In addition to that, we're looking at opportunities for more anecdotal and qualitative assessment of impact as it relates to user experience by referral agencies, things of that sort. We went through an initial 30-day testing period and immediately solicited that type of feedback to make revisions to the dashboard, and I think that will be an ongoing process. And then as it relates to sort of its effectiveness in illuminating shelter bed capacity and availability in the community, There are a few things. We're able to pull reports that show sort of the average availability on a nightly basis. And I'll tell you, we've been tracking over the last several weeks. On any given night, somewhere between 15 and 35 beds are generally available in the community that are reported as being available. Again, the dashboard is only updated twice per day. It's not a true real-time report. And so by the end of that evening, those beds are generally full. As of this morning, I checked, kind of anticipating this type of a question may come up, there were 17 beds for adults and 10 adult beds for minors available in the Tucson community that were not already fully occupied.

Jason, thank you. We are out of time on this item, but I did want to ask the colleagues if we can make sure we don't have the phones close to the mics because it's creating a lot of feedback and static. So just something for us to be mindful. So in the interest of time, thank you for sharing about the dashboard. I was curious if our commission on equitable housing and development is also getting these updates and kind of the recommendations they made outline a lot of the work. that's being done with you.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. I would need to check on whether an update has already been provided to the commission on these items, but if not, we can absolutely provide one to make sure that all commissioners are aware.

Thank you. I just wanted to add a suggestion to some of the work that we're doing. I know that we do targeted, I guess, deployments of heat relief kits throughout the city, And we're seeing more and more through our office, like young people and women coming in needing some relief from the heat. And we're feeling a little unprepared to support them. So as we're doing relief kits, is there a way to kind of have a universal system throughout the city? I'm okay with my office paying into it, but I just want to have access to be able to give something to folks when they come into our offices as well. The other last question, I know Star Village for the most part has been at capacity. I know one of the other recommendations from the Commission on Equitable Housing, they brought up about more safe sleeping sites and then is there any work being done to try to educate potential community partners of what we have done and how they could help step up during this moment. I think we have financial limitations in expanding that right now, but could really use some community partners to step up to provide, and faith groups too. Go ahead.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. To go through those, a few things. In terms of heat relief resources, I think our team has some financial capacity to continue to make those resources available, at least in the immediate future. And so I think we can absolutely provide kits to each of the ward offices that would like to have them for that distribution if that's helpful. The Housing First program can actually support that. And then in terms of Star Village, there has been some initial outreach that's occurred in community information that's been released primarily, less so than sort of one-to-one outreach that I'm aware of. And in the Housing and Community Development Framework Fund budgets that were appropriated by Mayor and Council, we've included a small amount of funding to support pilot expansions in FY27 for a few additional sort of replication models of either Star Village on a smaller scale or safe parking initiatives.

Thank you. All right. Do you need any direction from us, City Manager? Just informational?

No, Vice Mayor, just information today.

Okay, all right, so we'll move on to item four. All right, so upon no objection by mayor and council, this item will be continued at the request of staff. And that was the independent economic analysis for 45 North Fifth Avenue. Item five, time has been set aside for mayor and council to receive an update on multimodal traffic safety initiatives, Mr. Manager.

Thank you, honorable vice mayor and members of the council. We have two folks joining me at the table here, and others on reserve as needed. We have Patrick Hartley from the Department of Transportation and Mobility, who will be addressing part of today's materials, and then Stacey Shaner from the Tucson Police Department. And we've got a few things to cover, so without further ado, I'll turn it over to the team to dive us in.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. Honorable Vice Mayor, members of council, thank you for the opportunity to come before you today and provide an update to the February 18th motion directing us under a six-point directive on kind of how we should be thinking about and analyzing crash data to inform decisions across the city of Tucson. The purpose of today's update is to provide information about the progress that we're making on incorporating a lot of those direction from council into our current active programs and decision making. To summarize and briefly recap the direction as it was made at the February 18th meeting, it was point one, to develop a city of Tucson high injury network map, identifying corridors and intersections with the highest concentration of traffic fatalities, point two, Expansion of the City of Tucson's traffic reporting dashboard to include serious and incapacitating injuries looking beyond just fatal crashes. Point three, a prioritized list of top high-risk corridors and intersections with a menu of recommended engineering, signal, lighting, speed management, and crossing interventions. Point four, identification of quick-build and near-term safety treatments. Point five, a funding alignment strategy that directs Highway Safety Improvement Program, or HSIP, Safe Streets and Roads for All, SS4A, and Pima Association of Government Regional Funds to address our ongoing safety challenges. And point six, a proposed annual reporting structure so that Mayor and Council can track progress on fatalities and serious injuries by mode and by corridor. Instead of addressing each of those points in term, I prepared some opening remarks to address them at a summary level, but each of these is provided in more detail within the attached materials provided for this body. So with regard to the High Injury Network, Tucson, the City of Tucson is working in active partnership with the Pima County Department of Transportation as well as other jurisdictional partners on something called the Safety Action Plan. which was funded through the Safe Streets for All planning grant, the same grant that we can look to pursue future capital investment programs as well. One of the outcomes of this effort and one of the products that we've already developed in a draft form is available in front of you called the High Injury Network. And what the High Injury Network is based on where we see a disproportionate number of crashes on our roadway system. And this is looking at both frequency and rate of crashes. So we want to make sure we're identifying those locations where you are seeing an above number predicted, above predicted number of crashes in terms of what the traffic volumes on that roadway would indicate. In addition to developing a singular high-injury network, which is presented on the screen, which is looking at all crash types, we've also developed three additional high-injury networks looking at different user groups on the roadway. And these include our pedestrian high-injury network, our bicycle high-injury network, and our, what we call our vulnerable road user network, which is a composite of both bicycle and pedestrians where we're seeing a disproportionate number of crashes affecting those users. This data looks back five years, so we're not just chasing the last year of data, but we wanna make sure we have enough of a background to really be identifying meaningful patterns on the network. So typically we are looking at a five year rolling average of where those crashes are occurring. It is also weighted for severity, so it's not based exclusively on your fatal crash patterns. but it is also waiting in your incapacitating injury crashes all the way down to your property damage only crash, which is a crash that everybody is walking away from. But we want to identify those locations and make sure we're looking at the totality of the safety needs on the corridor. The way that this high injury network has been developed for the safety action plan is we are looking specifically at 20 segment locations and 20 intersections. It is a subset of the overall need on the corridor, but we wanted to make sure that we had a smaller network so that we could be focusing and reacting to where those investments were needed. What's exciting about what's happening with the Safety Action Plan is there's actually going to be a structure set up whereby this is going to be updated on an annual basis as those different needs emerge, as we get countermeasures out on the street and are addressing some of those safety challenges. We have an existing high injury network, which was developed under the Pedestrian Safety Action Plan in 2020, but that is a static document. It has been a really valuable planning tool for us as we've developed a lot of our investment strategies for the community. but it's now looking at eight-year-old data, so this is something that we can bring current and has a commitment to be brought current on an annualized basis. There is one more outcome from that analysis that we have provided to you, which is called a network screening tool. And this is looking at the totality of the safety performance of the network. So while this is a very focused output, looking at just those 20 locations, the safety screen looks at the safety performance of all of our roadways and has them on a zero to one scale. incorporating crash rate, something called the level of safety service, which is a product that is managed by the Pima Association of Governments, which is kind of a predictive safety model, basically estimating the number of crashes you would expect to see at a certain traffic volume at a certain cross-section of roadway. So for example, a median divided roadway is anticipated to perform differently than an undivided roadway, and it compares like for like. And finally, it incorporates the Tucson Equity Priority Index, looking through these crashes under an equity lens, understanding that it might be drawing attention to areas where residents are going to be more reliant on walking, taking public transportation, and biking to meet their daily transportation needs in an area to kind of focus those potential investments. In terms of expanding the city's traffic safety reporting dashboard, we currently rely on a number of data dashboards that look at crashes by all severities. So a lot of practitioners use something called Safety Explorer that is maintained by Pima Association of Governments, and that has five years of data. as well as a number of the contributing factors that are driving those crashes. So for example, we can isolate nighttime crashes, we can isolate left turn crashes, and we are seeing those at all severities, and we fully anticipate continuing to use all severities as analytical tools for decision making. Well, oftentimes we see in the newspaper that it is the most severe crashes that are getting the press. As practitioners, we are continuing to use all of those because we understand that Sometimes it's just a function of circumstance that something goes from one level of severity to another and it shouldn't be dismissed in terms of that decision making. As far as aligning our investment strategies goes, this is absolutely of the highest priority and something we continue to do as a planning function of the department. So the development of the HIN is going to be another really valuable tool to us as we look to both finalize our investments in our Proposition 411 safety program and as we look forward to the uncommitted funding under RTA next. So we will incorporate this HIN as it evolves on an ongoing basis as something for consideration and a way to align those investment strategies. One of the outcomes of the safety action plan is what we're calling cut sheets. And the cut sheets have identified 15 corridors that do a diagnostic of what some of those critical needs are on the corridor. For example, we've included an example of the cut sheet on Fort Lowell from Oracle to First Avenue. We know we have a disproportionate number of pedestrian crashes. So under the Safety Action Plan, they've developed some investment strategies that look both at larger scale, longer term capital investments, as well as shorter term, more immediate investments that we could make to improve safety on the corridor. As an outgrowth of that, we've actually now identified that project to submit for federal funding for safety intervention on the Fort Lowell corridor, because it was identified on the HIN. So we are pursuing SS4A funding for improvements on Fort Lowell, recognizing that that's an area where we could have significant impact and significant benefit for that level of investment. We've also identified $5 million in local funds on the Fort Lowell corridor under Proposition 411, so it's something we can use to leverage that federal investment to upgrade and kind of increase the scale and improve the quality and safety for all users of the roadway. Additionally, something that we're doing more immediately is we were just awarded federal funding under the Highway Safety Improvement Program. We were able to install retro-reflective back plates on our traffic signals system-wide. So we can leverage some of that federal funding at each individual intersection. That's going to be a relatively short disruption to the traveling public. We can have those up in a couple of hours. but at the end of the day you're now seeing that reflection on the back plate and the national research indicates about a 15 crash reduction just from putting those you know reflective back plates on our signals so it's something that's relatively low cost that we can roll out system-wide in the absolute new term and then finally in terms of the quick build this is definitely a tool that we are making extensive use of in the department and it's something we want to make sure that we are aligning in the appropriate location so it's one of these interventions that is kind of the right safety measure in the right location. So we are using that in areas where they can be shown to improve safety and can reconfigure intersections, can install protected bike lanes, can shorten crossing distances. And finally, our traffic signals. We are in an active program where we are continuing to convert our traffic signals from permissive left turns to the flashing yellow arrows for controlling those left turns, and in select locations, also going to full protected left turns at time of day, typically from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. We've done an analysis on the flashing yellow arrow conversions as well as the protected only time of day conversions. We've shown about a 15 to 60% crash reduction associated with the flashing yellow arrow conversion. One of the things that we do with the flashing yellow arrow conversions is we also install what's called a pedestrian protect function. Essentially, it keeps the red arrow on the signal while there is a pedestrian in the conflicting crosswalk. So it adds that next level of protection so the driver doesn't have to both try to look for gaps and look for the crosswalk to be cleared before making those decisions to really simplify the operation. The protected only time of day, we are focusing currently on our dual left intersections as well as intersections that have negative offset. That is where your conflicting left turns are offset so your sight lines aren't great. We've seen about an 85% crash reduction in left turns associated with the conversion to full protected intersection. And finally, with regard to the request for a reporting structure, what we would propose is that we provide data at two points during the year. At the beginning of the calendar year, as the previous, the preceding year closes out, we'd be prepared to come back to Council and provide a preliminary review of what has happened in the preceding year. However, as investigations can take time, the severity of a crash may change in the months after the year ends and sometimes the data requires some review and to be refined and cleaned a little bit. What happens is the data typically goes up to the Arizona Department of Transportation and it comes back to our region about mid-year. So what we would propose is at the beginning of the year, provide an update to council and then at around midpoint in the year, develop a more detailed document that kind of goes into the specific details of the preceding five years of crashes. This would align with the update of the high injury network and it would also be something that we can make available through a new public data viewer. that would be available to the public so that the community members can track what the condition is of on roadways and how we're performing in terms of addressing our safety challenges. And with that, I can turn it over to Assistant Chief Shaner to speak a little bit to some of the enforcement activities that are occurring.

Thank you, Patrick. Honorable Vice Mayor, members of the Council, thank you for having us here today. I wanted to start off our presentation with a follow-up reminder of some information that Chief Prieto presented on May 5th on some of the strategies that the Tucson Police Department has instituted since the beginning of January of this year. And then I'll move into discussion on photo enforcement, red light cameras, as requested in that Mayor and Council meeting. So in January of 2026, the Tucson Police Department decided to increase their investment in traffic safety and dedicated a lieutenant to the traffic services section to help have a more focused approach to strategy and operations within that section and department-wide. Lieutenant Jason Bredehoft is here with me today in the audience, so I give credit to him on a lot of these strategies and the implementation on those. I believe he presented here to you guys in the past also. Many of the strategies are directed by data and by concentrating resources and aligning different strategies, environmental, educational, outreach, enforcement, as well as visibility and using all the strategies that we can to have positive impact on traffic safety. Some of those strategies, as a reminder, include our hotspots policing initiatives that we call problem-oriented precision policing or POPs. In this case, it's traffic POPs where officers are dispatched to data-identified locations at certain times of the day to engage in traffic contacts, whether that be warnings, education, or enforcement. They are expected to be active in taking steps to improve traffic, driving, and pedestrian behavior in those areas. Also, Lieutenant Bredehoft initiated the development of the Regional Traffic Enforcement Task Force, which involves other regional jurisdictions, law enforcement agencies that come together and hold monthly deployments in locations where data identifies there's a high rate of collisions or problems or complaint areas the goal with that is to spread traffic safety regionally this is not just a tucson problem we have a lot of commuters but we want to use the benefit of multiple jurisdictions to help change the culture of driving pedestrian behavior in the city of tucson Since the beginning of the year, we've had four operations resulting in 1,364 traffic stops for traffic contacts during that time. Our next one is scheduled for this Friday in the Southwest Tucson area. They do rotate the areas and responsibilities between the different jurisdictions for running those deployments. Another strategy is our traffic zebras. Zebra is a designator that we use to identify proactive policing units. In this case, they are focused on traffic safety, and they are used to enhance any other operations that we may conduct, such as the task force deployments, any motor operations, DUIs, and the such. In fact, last week, they conducted an operation in the northeast part of our city focused on pedestrian activity. Additionally, we filled our open motor positions, so we have additional motors, we have also aligned their schedules to cover seven days a week, as well as primarily 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. to align with traffic collision data, and we have two motors that cover each side of the week for seven days that work 6 p.m. to 4 a.m. to help supplement traffic enforcement needs at night as well as DUI operations. The unit is highly involved in applying for grants and using the grants that we have received in the past. Those grants can be used for overtime expenses, equipment, operations. Increased enforcement activity does give us the data that we need to help be successful in obtaining those grants, and so they are working on getting additional funding to support those efforts. And finally, public awareness campaigns. You'll see that our Public Information Office has taken steps to be more proactive about posting about traffic safety, whether it be the harms and consequences of street racing, or the stats related to any of the traffic deployments or efforts out in the community to bring awareness to our community members with the hopes of proactively changing driving and pedestrian behavior and improving personal responsibility as far as that goes. An additional tool or strategy transitioning into photo enforcement would be the consideration of bringing back a photo enforcement program here in the city of Tucson. I will start with talking about some of the data associated with the program in the last three years when Tucson had it, so that would be 2013 to 2015. In 2015, as you remember, Proposition 201 was voted on by the public which removed our ability to have photo enforcement cameras so i will compare that time period to more recent time period while we know that overall photo enforcement helped support a time when we had fewer traffic fatalities. We know that information. We do know that it's not photo enforcement alone that contributed to that. It is a tool amongst the other tools that I just shared with you that would help with that reduction. So during the final three years of Tucson's photo enforcement program, again 2013 to 2015, we issued nearly 46,000 photo enforcement citations. We don't have good records on how many citations were issued by police officers during that time, but some historical information that we have indicates approximately 65,000 citations. And that information is relevant because as we look at more current data where we have the ability to better track the number of citations and warnings or traffic contacts that we've conducted, we have seen a significant decrease in traffic enforcement by our officers in the city of Tucson. With that, we've seen a significant increase in traffic fatalities over the same timeframe. So in 2013 to 2015, we averaged 45 traffic fatalities a year, with 2015 being the highest with 54 traffic fatalities. When you compare 2015 to 2018, there was a 27% increase. 2019 had a 48% increase from 2015, and 2022 had an 83% increase from 2018. In all, when you compare 2022 to 2024 to 2013-2015, we've had a 111% increase in traffic fatalities over that timeframe. We also can show that citation volume declined to approximately 36,000 citations annually during 2022 to 2024. While obviously correlation does not prove causation, there is some connection where higher enforcement and or traffic contact does have an impact on traffic fatalities, serious injury collisions. Some history on other Arizona jurisdictions that are using photo enforcement. Last year we conducted a query through the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police to find other state agencies that have photo enforcement programs to learn about how they implement those programs and the impact on traffic safety within their communities. At that time, Tempe, Mesa, Chandler, Scottsdale, and Paradise Valley responded to that. Essentially all of the agencies were able to show a reduction between their stats prior to photo enforcement to once the program was implemented, they showed a reduction in collisions at all levels, whether it be minor collisions, injury collisions, or fatal collisions. in all of those jurisdictions. They use a variety of technologies, red light cameras being the stationary red light cameras at intersections which are permanent. Those can detect speed and red light violations. There are also transportable speed cameras which are meant to be left within a location for a period of time, say during the week in a school zone, but can be moved to other locations with the assistance of the vendors. And then also mobile speed enforcement vans, which can be moved around at a moment's notice to different locations and are operated by an employee. Some of the benefits reported by those agencies, obviously those systems provide 24-7 monitoring of the locations, of the monitored locations. There's reduced staffing demands. Police officers obviously are juggling their demands between responding to calls for service, proactive, operations as well as traffic. Many of those units are primarily staffed by professional staff employees, so they're not taking the officers that we do have from the streets and putting them within those units. Sworn police officers are used to enhance their operations, such as following up for any criminal violations, because the systems cannot on their own handle criminal violations. They've seen improved driver behavior, decreases in collisions, and they have proven to be cost-effective traffic strategies in their jurisdictions. Ultimately, the program becomes a force multiplier. I had the opportunity recently to speak to some agencies. We have refreshed our query through ACOP, spoke to some agencies on the phone. I had the chance to visit Tempe in Scottsdale a couple of weeks ago to see their operations in person, which was very informative. But ultimately in Tucson we have to make the decision on whether or not we would like to move forward with attempting to bring that back here. We do know that we would have to overcome Proposition 201. We'd have to repeal that to bring it back. We also know that we're facing HCR 2004 and SCR 1004 in the state which are seeking to ban photo enforcement cameras within the state. but it would grandfather in jurisdictions that have contracts in place as long as they're in place before the end of this calendar year. So there's some work that would have to be done. That being said, I would recommend that we move forward with attempting to see what our options could be, seeing that we're on a timeline, but that ultimately it will be up to our community on what we would like to do to that, and of course with your guidance as mayor and council on what type of we would want that technology to play in supporting our traffic safety initiatives.

Thank you, team, for the presentation. I know looking at this high injury network is very overwhelming to see our entire grid and all the different challenges that we have. And we have to start somewhere. So at least this gives us a good starting point. I'm thankful to see that we're not basing our information anymore just on fatal crashes, that we're talking about serious injury or property damage as well. I know I've mentioned in the past that when I was hit by a car on a crosswalk, even though it was a minor injury that I'm back to walking, It really had a huge negative impact in my life for a number of years. So I think with the, you mentioned the Prop 411 Street Safety Improvement Plan framework that we've been using 2020 data. There is a plan to update that to more current numbers to inform our projects, correct?

Vice Mayor Santa Cruz, that's correct. So while we were using the Pedestrian Safety Action Plan High Injury Network to inform some decision making, both for the projects that were identified for RTA Next as well as the 411 safety interventions, we've continued to use some of those other tools that have more current data, such as Safety Explorer. So while it didn't specify a high injury network, we could identify those crash patterns and see where we had a disproportionate number of crashes as one of the factors in decision making.

OK. Moving on to the flashing yellow lights, what are we using to determine which intersections use the permissive flashing yellow versus the protected only?

Vice Mayor Santa Cruz, excellent question. So it's ultimately an evaluation of looking where we have the equipment available and then what the crash history is. Given that some of the resources are finite, we have typically started with where we have those negative offsets, again where your sight lines are gonna be poor, and the dual left intersections as the primary, as the starting point for those investments. We also look at the crash history. So we wanna see locations where we have a high number of left turn crashes that could likely be addressed through the change of configuration and the operation of those signals.

Thank you. So I guess my final thing, since we ended with the red light cameras, I know that I'm generally not a fan of cameras, but I am hearing every day from neighbors who hear racing several nights a week on our wide roads. I also, yeah, I think, you know, people are driving at dangerous high speeds every day through our roads. And I want to be open to the conversation of not removing a tool without voter feedback on whether or not they'd consider wanting to bring red light cameras back. I just want to make sure that that's not our primary solution for some of these intersections that are problems that we continue to look at the road design to really disincentivize. THAT TYPE OF BEHAVIOR AND THAT ANY KIND OF SPEED ENFORCEMENT, RED LIGHT CAMERAS BE MORE OF A SECONDARY APPROACH TO THIS. AND I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT AS, I KNOW THIS IS FAR AHEAD, BUT IF WE WERE TO GET TO THAT PLACE, ANY OF THE FINES or money collected from that, that it go back to improving those intersections rather than going in to fill some other gap in the city budget. So I wanna hear from my colleagues on the council and see where they're at, and I will start with Council Member Dahl.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Patrick. Thank you, Deputy Chief, Lieutenant. Assistant Chief.

Assistant Chief.

Great presentations. Safety is a huge concern, and we hear it from our constituents almost every day. People think we're not doing much, but I think we're doing a lot, and I think we have to do more. I was at a meeting last night at code enforcement, and this seems unrelated, but code enforcement responds when a vehicle has crashed into a building, and they told us on average a Tucson vehicle crashes into a building once every day. illustrates to me that we have a lot of bad drivers, whether they're distracted, whether they're DUI, And we can only deal with that with infrastructure, like the projects you're talking about with the red light, and with enforcement, and increased enforcement, and with education. And I was really pleased to see that there's an education portion of what we're doing. I need to call upon schools and everybody else who deals with education. Let's all learn how to drive a little safer. As to red cameras, when I was a victim of red cameras, I got two tickets. And I was mad as heck at robots arresting me. And I couldn't face my person who had confronted me because it was a robot. I've changed my mind on that, and I think if we put it to the vote, and we must put it to a vote, I would suspect that Tucson would want to return to that level of increased enforcement that not only punishes those who are making mistakes, but trains us to be better. I had to go through traffic safety school, and I remember the guy said, if you're having trouble with left-hand turns, which I was, they'll do several right-hand turns and you'll get there safer. And so sometimes I even do that, though I've also learned how to be a better left-hand turner. So given that, if it's all right, Vice Mayor, I have a motion. I move that the city manager proceed as recommended and conduct a procurement process to select a photo enforcement vendor for a conditional contract to be in place before December 31st, 2026. Second. Second. And what that will do is set us up so that next year when we want to take it to voters, if we decide to take it to voters, we'll be in place. We can do that. And it'll be different depending upon how statewide voters deal with it. But I think we need to take those steps now. Thank you.

Discussion? Council Member Lee?

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Stacy, I appreciate you mentioning culture when you were talking about what we need to shift in this community. I just came back from visiting family in the Midwest in a small town, and one thing that I was reminded of is that everyone drove the speed limit were below, which sometimes was maddening, but everyone had a sense that this is their community and they want to navigate it safely, because everyone is neighbors and we want everyone to be safe on the streets and as pedestrians. So that kind of stuck with me, reflecting on the work that needs to be done here and how we go about shifting culture. And it's not one thing, it's not red light cameras, it's a variety of tools, as you all have mentioned. So I really appreciate you framing things in that way. With respect to the motion that's on the floor, I've been working for a couple years with TPD and the city attorney's office to really keep my finger on the pulse of how we might go about asking voters to consider repealing the 2015 red light camera ban, what that would look like. procedurally and just from a trust building exercise with the community, making sure that we are putting policies in place and communicating those policies and having citizen oversight. Reyes is here and he is wonderful at continuing to remind us of how important it is that we're responsible with the use of technology and that's been a continuing focus of mine and I'm happy to say that we're appointing our ward foreperson to the independent, the IAPC, to help make sure that we are using technology responsibly. So I encourage the rest of my colleagues to do the same if you have not so that they can meet and have oversight into this process. I think I'm gonna be supportive of the motion for the reasons that we've talked about today with the timeline. One thing that I think is gonna be really important, and it was 11 years ago that this repeal happened, is doing a bit of a retrospective and trying to understand why residents did not want this technology besides the fact that no one wants to get a ticket like Kevin and others have mentioned to me they've gotten tickets as well. From my understanding there were calibration issues, there were some challenges with the implementation of this technology. So it's really important to me that we understand why people did not want it so that if we do have the opportunity we're building in the design and requirements to address the concerns and that we have a very effective, accurate, precise system and people are not getting tickets when they shouldn't be and then people hate it and we're back here five years later having the same conversation. So I would just ask that to inform the procurement process, we're having a conversation internally to try to understand kind of the driver empathy of why they wanted to get rid of this system in the first place. And then to TPD, I would be curious, not at this moment, but to understand we had, I think you said 60 something thousand citations in the 2015, 2018 timeframe. That dropped significantly. I know COVID was a driver in a lot of that. We stopped doing a lot of traffic enforcement to minimize contact between officers and the community. But I would be curious if there are opportunities to look at how we do. I know that the team is doing a lot of that enforcement, but that seems like a pretty big, almost a half, in the number of enforcement done by our officers. So you don't have to answer that right now, Stacy, but I'm curious on possibilities there as another tool.

Thank you, Council Member Lee. Council Member Cunningham.

So a few things on this topic. Number one, the way we executed this program 10 years ago was a huge problem. We were charging $325 for one ticket in situations where uh you'd see videos and you'd review videos at court with people and it was a very prudent driving decision to turn left we systematically show well our vendor systematically chose intersections that geometrically had a line of elongation 30 to 40 feet away from the crosswalk so when we first implemented it There were multiple people on one side of town that got multiple tickets. And me being one of them. But the bottom line is, is that, and like, as I told the judge at the time, in each situation, I was like, well, I own that one. But the other one, it, despite all that, the way we ran the program sent the message that it was a revenue grab and it wasn't a safety piece at all. And that was the problem. So we have to be able to show that that's not what this is about. That's gonna be huge in part of it. I'm in support of the motion because of the traffic. I think there's other pieces to traffic safety that we want to pay attention to. I think we have a significant number of construction projects all at once right now. And we probably need to sync up better how those projects are done. Because what's happened is is that while we have RTA projects, which is more than their fair share right now anyway, because we're trying to finish up, we also have Tucson water projects and we have private projects. We just spent, almost six months on a private road project that closed up two lanes of traffic, one and a half lanes of traffic for six months on one piece. And at the same time, two other private projects went up and closed lanes on that same stretch of road. This becomes a problem. The other piece I think that's a big part of this is distracted driving. And we should probably be a little more vigilant and focus on that enforcement piece to distracted driving. I think it's just one of those things. We passed a distracted driving ordinance with this body on my motion, and I can tell you that I drive down the street all the time, and there's people with phones in their hand. At least hook up the hands-free thing. Lastly, I want to talk about traffic flow. We don't have any... MAJOR CORRIDOR THAT BYPASSES TRAFFIC CONTROL DEVICES. WE'RE VERY UNIQUE IN THIS CITY WITH THAT. WE'RE VERY UNIQUE IN A CITY WITH HALF A MILLION PEOPLE THAT SPANS OVER 225 SQUARE MILES. WE'RE VERY UNIQUE NOT TO HAVE ANY FREEWAYS AT ALL. I DON'T THINK THAT'S I THINK THAT'S A FINE. IT IS WHAT IT IS. SOME OF THESE THINGS WERE PASSES. BUT I WILL SAY THIS. WE SHOULD THINK ABOUT A GUIDELINE OVER THE NEXT TEN YEARS. passed when we're not here to have some type of connection from east to west where you don't have to go through 11 stoplights to get from east to west it shouldn't be a one hour trip on transit nor in a car to go one from one side of town to the other um golf links and aviation parkway actually already provide that opportunity But what will happen is I feel, as we all know, that traffic's kind of connected. It's all connected. And if we have that mobility there, at least to some degree, we will see a thinning of traffic on some of our major east-west corridors, specifically Broadway, Speedway and 22nd, where we seem to have the most issues. So I think that's an opportunity that we've not explored. The last piece I'll say is that on the east side, due to where the county is in proximity, where the city ends and unincorporated county begins, we have a point. at Tanque Verde and Wrightstown, or Tanque Verde and Pantano, depending on where you want to call it, where we have multiple different traffic it's a conglomeration of traffic between at Tanque Verde and Pantano and at Sabino Canyon and Tanque Verde. And that's where no one can leave those areas without going there. And that's not good. It just doesn't work. It's an unmanageable traffic situation. So whether or not we connect Cloud Road with Tanque Verde north to south, or we connect Snyder Road east to west, way north. That's up to the county. But those things have to happen at this point because that's where we're getting a considerable amount of traffic lined up. So those are my pieces to that. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member. We have 10 minutes left on this item and I want to give an opportunity for Council Member Barajas and Council Member Schubert to comment on the motion so that we can take our vote. Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Well, thank you both for those updates. I support the motion and wanted just to make a few additional points related to this overall topic. You know, when I was looking at the map and thinking about this past just six months that I've been here as Council Member, the tragic case of little Ana and thinking about how the footage captured by traffic cameras was really instrumental in helping law enforcement identify and apprehend the driver, bringing relief to not just her family, but our community. So I know the community was grateful and relieved that this technology helped bring answers and accountability and hopefully a measure of moving forward for justice for her family. Now, I know we've discussed education and making sure that our community is well aware, and I would like to provide a friendly amendment to the motion. I move that we also make the multimodal traffic safety updates at least quarterly. or more often a reoccurring agenda item as part of the monthly safe city initiative updates. These updates shall include the planned twice a year updates on crash data, but more frequent updates will help keep this urgent crisis at top of mind for all of us. More frequent discussions also gives us more room to go beyond annual trend data and could also include actions underway to improve our metrics. along with updates on policies with respect to street racing, severe crashes, property damage, and progress on our investments and safety improvements. Thank you.

Do you accept the amendment, Council Member Dahl? The amendment is to have quarterly updates

Would this be too much to ask for you guys to do?

Vice Mayor, members of the council, after conferring with staff right in front of you here, we could accommodate quarterly reporting on these matters. I'll accept.

The seconder?

Do you accept the friendly amendment?

Yeah, I accept it. All right. And thank you. I appreciate that wanting to keep that front and center for us will help kind of elevate the urgency here. So thank you. Council Member Schubert.

Okay, I had a lot more questions that I'm not gonna ask in this session because we're behind time, so we'll find time later to ask those questions. Just wanna say thank you to Vice Mayor and the Council. I appreciate the work staff has done to respond to the motion brought forward in February, and when I look at the language of that motion, y'all have completed that assignment to a T. You developed the high injury network, expanded reporting on serious injuries, and added a more data-driven approach to prioritizing investments. These are all important steps in better understanding the details of what we all know and feel we are experiencing already. But we need to be honest with ourselves and the public about what that data is telling us. According to the recently released Dangerous by Design report, Tucson ranks as the fourth deadliest metropolitan area in the nation for people walking. Tucsonans already know we have a serious public safety crisis on our hands, and they're asking us to take action quickly to address this. And I am grilled by constituents on a daily basis about what we are doing about this urgent crisis. What I see in this memo is a strong framework for understanding the problem, but less clarity on the scale and speed of implementation needed to solve it. I also see a hesitation to hold ourselves accountable. We're getting new maps, dashboards, studies, cut sheets, reporting structures, but we still need measurable targets and implementation deadlines. dedicated funding commitments that are specific, corridor redesign strategies, and a level of urgency proportionate to Tucson standing as one of the most dangerous places in the country to walk. I would encourage staff to return with specific fatality and serious injury reduction targets. a prioritized implementation plan for high injury network corridors, as well as a list of quick build projects that can be delivered within the next year. And I'm totally happy to send these notes to you too. If we know where people are being killed and seriously injured, our focus should now shift from identifying the problem to rapidly deploying proven solutions. The goal should not simply be to better track traffic violence. It should be to reduce it in a measurable way and hold ourselves accountable with the data we've identified through this work. If Tucson were ranked fourth nationally in any other preventable cause of death, council would likely expect emergency action rather than a primarily analytical response. The transportation system should be treated with the same level of urgency. I also think this conversation should begin to raise a broader question about whether Tucson has the resources necessary to respond to this crisis at the scale that it demands. We recently approved RTA Next, yet many of the investments most directly tied to reducing traffic-related deaths and serious injuries including increased transit service frequency, rapid safety improvements, and emergency response capacity, remain underfunded relative to the need. If we're serious about reducing fatalities, we may need to explore a dedicated transportation safety funding source that supports a comprehensive approach that includes quick build safety projects, transit investments at a level that can actually reduce our vehicle dependence, and the fire and emergency medical services that respond when prevention fails. I'm not proposing a specific funding mechanism today, but I do believe the severity of this crisis warrants a conversation about whether our current funding structure and streams match the urgency of the problem. And I'm also in favor of moving forward to talk about other tools that we may have in our tool belt, like photo enforcement, red light cameras. And I'm with my colleagues that this should be one of the tools, definitely not a primary tool by any means, but one of the five E's. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Council Member Schubert. Some of the comments that Council Member Schubert made I think are great around having metric-like goals that we're trying to meet in reducing these collisions. Is that something you need in the form of the motion, City Manager, or is this something that staff can kind of take on from the initial data we have?

Thank you for asking, Vice Mayor. I think we can take those comments and incorporate it in the quarterly reporting that we would do, assuming the motion passes. And I think we can accommodate everything that was stated there and take that as direction without an additional motion than the one that's on the floor.

Okay. So with that, all those in favor of the motion, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, motion passes 6-0. Item six, time has been set aside for Mayor and Council to receive an update from the Commission on Equitable Housing and Development on the recommendations for addressing homelessness. Mr. Manager.

Honorable Mayor, members of the Council, from one challenge to the next, joining me here at the table is Anne Chenecka, our Director of Housing and Community Development, and I believe she's even brought friends. So let's turn it over to Anne.

thank you city manager good afternoon vice mayor and council thanks for having this agenda item to allow the commission on equitable housing and development to provide a brief update and talk about the recommendations that they provided to you earlier this year before i turn it over to said friends the chair of the commission jay young I'd like to take a moment to thank Jay and each of the commission members who volunteer their personal time each month to help the city of Tucson and give us advice on our housing efforts. In preparation for this item, it was really rewarding to go back and look at the many city activities that the commission has helped Advocate for and inform, including but not limited to the impact fee subsidy program expansion, reinstating of the housing trust funds, the source of income protection ordinance, the community corridor tools and more. I'm personally excited about the recent changes the committee has made and that they have gone from three subcommittees down to two subcommittees, but have really clear direction for each of those subcommittees. One is focused on housing development and innovation, and the other is focused on community engagement and collaboration. no action is needed for this study session today but of course your guidance is always important as we navigate the complex challenges of housing affordability homelessness poverty and equity this evening there is a consent item to remove the sunset date for the commission as we know the issues that the commission works on are long-standing challenges and we rely on the expertise of those commission members to create recommendations and help the city in doing what we can do to help address these societal challenges and so the chair of the commission jay young is here to talk about the recommendations and give an update from their perspective

thanks so much ann vice mayor members of the council thank you so much for having me today what i would like to do is as ann mentioned talk about the recommendations that we came up with as a commission talk a little bit about the direction of the commission this year and moving forward and then just to see if there are any ways that we can support mayor and council going forward or if there you know any items or issues that you think need attention from us. So without further ado, in 2025, we decided to really focus in on one issue in particular, and that issue was homelessness. And I will just say, one of the things that really made our work possible is working with outside facilitators. So any commission or committee that really wants to get work done, as a chair, having facilitators help us through some process stuff is really, really important. So just want to kind of throw that out there. So in 2025, we came up with recommendations. I believe they're in your packet. And I'll just go through them very quickly. Obviously, you have them already. So one of the recommendations that we came up with is funding affordable housing and homeless prevention services because they are dramatically underfunded. Obviously, I was here for about an hour or so. heard a lot about that as well. But we think it's important to establish a permanent source for the city's housing trust fund. And we think funding flexibility is really important in that context. For things like rent and utility assistance, transportation, other basic needs, we found out that oftentimes people just need a one-time infusion of cash for rent or other basic services to remain in their homes. And if they don't get that oftentimes, they end up homeless. We also think aligning these investments with Pima County's affordable housing efforts and the prosperity initiative is important. I'll also say, obviously, a lot of the things that are in these recommendations, either mayor and council has done, the city is doing, or are at least on the agenda. So we recognize that as well. And obviously with the state and federal funding, looking for local funding is more important than ever. The second recommendation, which I think probably has the biggest return on investment and maybe the biggest impact and something we heard from people on the streets regularly is a real need to coordinate services. And I think we've all heard that people that are on the streets often have a hard time connecting to services. They don't know what's available. They call a lot of agencies and kind of get the runaround, funding changes, that kind of thing. So having a centralized, adequately staffed homeless prevention information system to track current information and resources I think could be a really key thing to help reduce homelessness. Another piece of the puzzle here, I think, is thinking about having something like housing stability navigators. I'm the director of the Southwest Fair Housing Council. We get calls every day, all the time, and people just do not understand what their rights are, either landlord-tenant, fair housing, and just having somebody who understands that better and can help walk people through what they can do, what their rights are. I think it's really important because people often make their situation worse without understanding what their rights and responsibilities are. Let's see. Client-centered approaches, you know, we think the evidence still shows that housing first is the way to go, even though the federal government seems to have backpedaled on that quite a bit. We still think that's important. Under this recommendation, we also mentioned the safe camping sites. Obviously Star Village is a pilot here in Tucson that seems to be working quite well. So expanding that model I think maybe has some legs. Prevention and diversion. So this is an interesting thing that we came across that is being done in LA County, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County area in North Carolina. which is implementing a citywide prevention and diversion strategy by implementing a data-driven early intervention system to identify at-risk households. So it's basically like a data-driven system that is actively identifying households that are likely to face homelessness or some sort of housing instability before they actually get to that point. So that's been successful. Obviously, that's a large undertaking, but I think it's a really innovative way to go about it. Again, streamlining access to resources with an online, mobile-friendly, centralized portal. So this kind of goes along with what I was talking about earlier. Eviction mediation. This would be where landlords and tenants can get together to mediate before an eviction happens. Again, just speaking for myself as a small landlord, I know that dealing with tenants in a difficult situation where eviction might be on the table, It's difficult for a small landlord also to know about that process, and I think most small landlords want to keep people in their unit. So having a mediation process where that's possible I think could be effective. The next one, no surprise to anybody, increasing affordable housing. Obviously the zoning updates I think that the city has undertaken have gone a long way, but I think there's still room to work there. And then finally, public relations. Really launching a city-wide public education campaign about homelessness, the causes of homelessness. I think it's also really important that people understand that this homelessness and the things that are needed to prevent it and deal with it, the funding is just not there. So we can try as hard as we want with the resources we have, and there's always going to be a problem, I think, at least under the current regime and situation. So having that public education component, I think, is really critical. So those are the recommendations. I'm happy to take questions on those now if there are any, or I can continue. uh going a little bit further okay um so the next thing i wanted to mention and it it really kind of flows from i think uh number five and number six of our recommendations is what we're doing as the commission uh going forward as ann mentioned we have uh decided to go down to two subcommittees uh housing innovation and development so really trying to look at You know, developers are the people that build housing, whether they get a bad reputation or not. If they're not, you know, at the table developing, if they're not parcels to be developed, housing is simply not going to be developed. So we really want to look at the barriers to development and any innovations that can be made in terms of development. And then community engagement and collaboration. Again, just getting the message out there about homelessness, helping people understand what's going on in the community, addressing any misconceptions. And so that's where we're going. Again, I think after focusing exclusively on homelessness in 2025, We wanted to open back up and have a more broad discussion and kind of retool our subcommittees based on the work we did last year and just some of the other things coming up. And then the last thing, as I mentioned, is if you have any comments or suggestions about ways in which the commission can support mayor and council or any issues that you all think are important for us to engage with, I'd be happy to hear that. And again, I'm happy to take any questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Jay. We have like 10 minutes left on this item. I just wanted to just kind of remember how we got here. Back in 2020, Mayor Romero and I had given direction to city staff to develop the Commission on Equitable Housing and Development. We know housing insecurity remains a top concern for this mayor and council. And so I'm encouraged by all the work that the commissioners have done. And thank you so much, Jay, for shepherding this process. I loved your comment about having a facilitator kind of help herd the cats and all the ideas and all the things coming up so that you are putting recommendations to mayor and council that we can actually accomplish. So I appreciate you. Can you give my thanks to all the commissioners as well? I want to open it up to the rest of my colleagues if they have any comments or questions. Council Member Cunningham.

So our biggest piece for me is part of the challenges that we have, folks, is that they're in a situation where they're being overwhelmed by different services they're paying for, whether it's utilities, which are necessities, streaming services, cell phone, but whatever it is, we've got a whole bunch of folks in the missing middle. Right now, if you make over $17.25 and you are a parent with one child, it isn't worth it. It isn't worth it to take a raise until that raise is $25 an hour or more. That's what we've created. Not us, but the federal, state, and local systems have created that handicap for people. It's how it's faxed. It's insane to me that that's the system we've set up. But you literally are disincentivized if you make over about 165% of the poverty rate. Because the second you go over that rate, you lose kids care and you lose subsidized day care. If you're a single parent with no other income, once you make over $34,500 a year, it doesn't pencil out until you're making like $50,000 a year. That's what happens. So we have to figure out where we focus on that missing middle. That's a big piece. The second piece is the folks that we're rehousing. We've got to math our math. So you've got to figure out what is a person making minimum wage who works an aggregate of 34 hours a week, and what's 37% of that income, and that's how much their bill should be per month. And when you do all that math, it comes out to like $806 or something a month. So we have to find a way that a person who's earning minimum wage and working more or less full time, at least 32 to 34 hours a week, can afford an apartment. And right now we don't have it. It doesn't exist. It does not exist in the model we have. and that's why we run into the problems that we have. So for me, part of my idea is that to make affordability happen is we incentivize the idea of trading utilities and possibly property tax relief for voluntarily putting parameters on what landlords would charge for rent. As a small-time landlord myself, I identify with that I'd participate in a program like that if it existed. So that's kind of the stuff I'm thinking about. I'm also thinking about possibly tapping the IDA for solar loans to landlords, which sounds nuts, but I'd do it if they're willing to basically volunteer for rent control. I think that's worth exploring. I don't know if it's a thing yet, but that's kind of what I wanted to share to your commission as maybe a path we can go down. And I know there's legal parameters, as Roy cringes, but I think there's opportunity here to do it. So I think that's kind of like the House 2.0 piece. And I spoke with Director Chinnick earlier today kind of about it, saying maybe we can go down this path. I don't know if there's enough, but I hope you guys consider having that discussion. I'm sure maybe you already have partially, but I think that's a path worth pursuing and it's availability to basically anyone that's working. So I think that's important.

Thank you, Council Member Dahl.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. I read the memo to us with great interest. I don't disagree with any of it. I especially agree with eviction prevention is the biggest bang for our buck. And Ward 3, when we have some funds, we work with CASU to accomplish that as best we can for people in Ward 3 facing that challenge. And sometimes it's really successful. There's a couple of missing pieces, and I think it's because the report was presented to local authorities. But I feel so hamstrung by your inability to do some reasonable things to keep housing affordable. Rent control. Reasonable rent control would be so helpful to so many people. And we just need to change the state's preemption of us at this point, and maybe someday we'll do that. Likewise, inclusionary zoning so that developers do need to make these, build apartments and stuff. And I think it wouldn't be that hard for them to pencil out two, three, five, a percentage at market rate and some at affordable. And that would be a great place for them rather than just an affordable unit. To have every unit across the city have some of those new, brand new places available for folks. And that would increase our affordable housing stock. I've also been pondering two other areas. Airbnbs, again, we can't regulate them very well. But they take housing stock away from people who live here all the time. And there must be some way of reasonably There's marginal Airbnb operations, and maybe those should be encouraged to switch over to real housing. And just the empty housing. In my neighborhood, there are houses that have been empty for various reasons, because someone out of state has inherited it and don't know what to do, because someone's going through challenges and just doesn't have the capacity to deal with starting to rent that house again or to think about selling it, if there were programs to help navigate these owners into making what they own as a great house into housing for people. So those are my thoughts. Again, thanks for your report. I think we're all very supportive of the work you're doing.

Council Member Barajas. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Well, thank you, Jane, and to the Commission on Equitable Housing Development for your work. To piggyback on Council Member Dahl, thank you, Anne, for all the work you're doing. You know, our office, according to our senior advisor, Lupita Robles, we have never received this much volume of calls around eviction and rental assistance. And another additional layer is a lot of families, you know, big families where thinking of just the other agenda item with shelter beds, it's really difficult for a lot of these families that we can help accommodate. It's getting harder and harder with our office to help provide assistance. So just thinking about that with these recommendations and really focusing too on prevention and diversion. I'm curious to know with the case studies that you provided, how many of those cities do have a rent control, are under rent control, to see if that also correlates with the progress, because I too, I'm hopeful that one day here in Arizona we'll have some rent control assistance. But thank you both.

Do you wanna say something, Council Member Schubert?

Sure, just really quick. Thank you so much for the work. Commission on Equitable Housing and Development is one of the top commissions that I think about the most just because of the severity of this problem that we're in. You asked about ways to help. I do think that the formation of the Community Engagement and Collaboration Subcommittee is an excellent thing because as a council office, we're constantly working on strategies and ways to try to explain to the community the existing efforts and also how they can contribute to those efforts. because a lot of people care about this issue. So I'd love to collaborate. I love the idea of doing some type of info session or Q&A with experts. I know that Ward 6 constituents are very interested in learning more, and we get contacted a lot about this. And I think, you know, other than that, just these recommendations, especially the coordination of services, the centralization piece, I want to make sure we don't lose that and that we really move forward on getting that done and that we have a true culture of shared responsibility between the city, the county, and the continuum of care partners under TPC-H. They're just excellent recommendations. I don't want them to get lost. And also, we need more funding to make these things happen in addition to having a more hospitable legislative landscape within which to operate. Thank you so much.

Thank You councilmember Schubert and I have one question as we wrap this item up We talked a little bit about the our our own land trust and Let's see and we don't have like a dedicated funding source for it But the state ledge did appropriate 200 million for the 2026 2027 budget cycle Do we know if we'll be able to access any of that funding to you know, help fund our trust fund? I

Vice Mayor, that's something we'll definitely be looking into as they roll that program out, really trying to figure out how we can access it. But it's definitely good news in terms of providing more funding for housing.

Okay. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you for your time and for keeping us updated. Item seven, time has been set aside for discussion and direction relating to matters pending in front of Pima County Board of Supervisors and other regional jurisdictions. Mr. Manager?

Honorable Vice Mayor, joining me here in the room will be Laura Dent and Stephanie Zamora. We have provided the written materials and updates to you in your agenda packets. And with that, I'll turn it over first to Stephanie to do the Pima County and local jurisdictions item.

Good afternoon, honorable vice mayor, members of the council. This time around, my report covered only the Pima County Board of Supervisors, and specifically their most recent study session. At this meeting, the county discussed development of a long-term improvement plan for the loop, including user concerns related to safety, encampments, maintenance, and connectivity. The board also received an update on the local impacts of recent federal SNAP and access eligibility changes, including enrollment declines in our area and efforts to support affected residents. And then finally, staff provided an update on the implementation of the county's prosperity initiative, which focused on reducing poverty and improving economic mobility through investments in housing, work, health, and education, as you all are aware. And with that, Honorable Vice Mayor, that concludes my update.

Thank you. All right. Item 8 has been set aside for Mayor and Council to receive an update on state and national legislation and regional committees, executive orders, and direction to any associated litigation. Mr. Manager.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. We hold you to the highest of standards here. With that, I'll turn it to Laura Dent.

Good afternoon, Vice Mayor Santa Cruz, members of the council. Just going to share some federal updates to get us started. Congress is nearing the final passage of a bipartisan housing authorization package. Yesterday it was passed in the Senate. It's expected to pass tonight in the House. And President Trump is expected to sign it tomorrow. So this effort does make, bless you, affordable housing construction, eligible use of CDBG funds. It reauthorizes and reforms the home program, creates a HUD innovation fund, and establishes incentives for communities working to increase housing supply. So this is an affirmative and positive example of bipartisanship in a time of Not so much of that. So we look forward to seeing that move forth. At the state level, the legislature has adjourned sine die. As detailed in my report, lawmakers passed an $18 billion compromise budget about a week and a half ago. And they have referred a total of 10 measures to the ballot in November. Last Friday and yesterday, Governor Hobbs vetoed and signed dozens of bills into law. She has until June 25th. to veto and or sign remaining bills that were passed in the sunset of this legislative session. So once that final action is taken, we'll get a clear and complete understanding of the landscape for the year. At the next council meeting, I will be presenting a high level overview of the legislative session, including wins, challenges, and opportunities. and engaging with you all around some preliminary discussions around what's to come in terms of laws and the landscape at the state level. So that concludes my report.

All right. Thank you, Laura. I just want to take an opportunity to speak on a few items of particular concern. The SNAP program is experiencing unprecedented cuts and new regulations at the federal level. In April, the Arizona Department of Economic Security reported that just over 235,000 families received SNAP benefits. That marks a steep drop from last July when we had over 455,000 families receiving the benefits. That's a decline of almost 50%. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that Arizona had the largest percentage decline in SNAP participation across the nation since July 2025 as a direct result of HR1, also known as President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan organization that analyzes federal budget priorities with a particular focus on how budget choices affect people with low income, Arizona has had, again, over a 50% reduction. The federal government has caused devastating public health and economic disparities that not only impact the most impoverished in our city and the nation, but it's also exacerbating food insecurity, forcing Medicaid disenrollment, and hurting American people. This also has been a disastrous effect on our economy. And if less money is being spent in grocery stores in Tucson, less medical services billed by medical establishments in Tucson also has a correlation. I ALSO WANTED TO HIGHLIGHT HCR 2003 ALSO KNOWN THE PROTECT GIRLS SPORTS IN 22 ARIZONA ACT REQUIRES TRANSGENDER GIRLS TO BE EXCLUDED FROM SPORTS TEAMS AND FACILITIES DESIGNATED FOR GIRLS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS PRIVATE SCHOOLS AND PRIVATE RECREATIONAL SPORTS LEAGUES TO ENFORCE THIS LAW IT WOULD GIVE INDIVIDUALS THE RIGHT TO SUE SCHOOLS AND RECREATIONAL SPORTS LEAGUES IF THEY BELIEVE A TRANSGENDER GIRL has been allowed to participate on the wrong team. I believe that this is wrong. Every child deserves to be treated with respect and have a fair chance to pursue their dreams and interests. And then finally, in the November election, the state legislature placed HCR 2001, Fast, Accurate, Secure, Transparent Election Results Act, or the Fast Election Results Amendment on the ballot, it would require proof of citizenship to receive a ballot and essentially eliminate the early voter process by forcing voters to request mail-in ballots biannually and prove citizenship at each voting, including mail-in voting. While this amendment may be named transparent, it's not a coincidence that the amendment is set to take place in 2028, When the United States has the next presidential election, this amendment restricts voters and campaign funds in a way that intentionally and disproportionately impacts marginalized groups. It eliminates the voter option to use utility bills and approved forms of identification to vote. It also gives the state ledge the power to create other restrictions. This measure creates significant and unnecessary obstacles for voters, especially working families and those who live in rural areas. So thank you for those updates, Laura. Thank you. Item nine, does anyone have any items to remove from the consent agenda for today's regular meeting? And I wanted, can I, city clerk, can I jump in and pull an item? I don't know if the mayor gets to do that or the mayor pro tem. I would like to pull item J. Any other items? J? Council Member Schubert?

I want to pull item I from the consent agenda related to CPARB term limits. All right, so, okay. Item A.

Related to the pension. Item 10, does anyone have items for future agendas? Adjournment. Study session is adjourned. The next regularly scheduled meeting is on Tuesday, July 21st, 2026. I will see you all back here at 530. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. you you so you Thank you. you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. All right. so Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Bye. so so you Thank you. Bye. Bye. so so Thank you. Bye. you you

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COUNCIL MEMBER CUNNINGHAM, HERE. COUNCIL MEMBER LEE, HERE. COUNCIL MEMBER BARRAJAS, HERE. COUNCIL MEMBER SCHUBERT, HERE. MAYOR ROMERO, ABSENT AND EXCUSED. VICE MAYOR SANTA CRUZ, HERE.

BEFORE WE GO TO ITEM TWO, THE CITY ATTORNEY WILL GO OVER THE RULES OF DECORUM FOR MAYOR AND COUNCIL MEETINGS. MR. ATTORNEY.

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 decorum 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 council, or that disrupts the discussions of the mayor and council. The mayor has the authority to ensure compliance with the rules of orderly conduct. If disorderly or disruptive conduct continues after a warning, and this is that first warning, the mayor may direct the removal of persons from the chambers and or recess the meeting itself. If disruptive behavior makes it necessary to clear the chambers, the persons who disrupted the meeting will not be allowed to return to the chambers for the remainder of tonight's meeting. As a final note, please be aware that interfering with or preventing this lawful public meeting from being carried out in an orderly manner not only violates the rules of participation, but also violates Title 13 of the Arizona Revised Statutes.

Thank you, City Attorney. Item two is the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance. We will get started with the land acknowledgement. Let us begin by grounding ourselves in acknowledging these lands. The City of Tucson is on the lands that have been stewarded by the Tohono O'odham since time immemorial and the Pascua Yaqui people who have lived in the Sonoran Desert for thousands of years. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Item 2C.

Proclamation.

So we have two proclamations and we'll be joining THE COMMUNITY SHORTLY IF ANY OF MY COUNCIL COLLEAGUES WOULD LIKE TO JOIN ME. WE ARE PROCLAIMING JUNE 2026 TO BE DISABILITY PRIDE MONTH AND WE ARE ALSO PROCLAIMING JUNE 4, 2026 TO BE HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR DAY. SO WE'RE GOING TO START WITH DISABILITY PRIDE. All right, my apologies, I do not have the list of all of our Disability Pride folks who are here today, but if y'all are here for Disability Pride, please stand up and join us up here.

Thank you.

All right, thank you all so much for being here today in this recognition. So I'm going to start with the proclamation. Whereas the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act on July 26, 1990 established a vital foundation for civil rights, yet true equality requires a continuous active commitment to breaking down systemic barriers through the integration of universal design into all new city infrastructure, digital platforms, and public spaces. And whereas the city of Tucson is home to a diverse and vibrant disability community whose perspectives, talents, and leadership are essential to the strength of our old pueblo, necessitating a pledge to nothing about us without us by actively including the disability community in the early stages of policy development and urban planning. And whereas... Disability Pride represents the transition from seeing disability as a medical condition to be fixed to celebrating it as a distinct identity and a source of innovation, resilience, and pride. And whereas the city of Tucson acknowledges that mobility is a fundamental right and that transportation equity begins with the transit system including prioritizing reliable, efficient, and accessible public transportation and paratransit services that ensures every resident can navigate our city with dignity and independence. And whereas the city recognizes that equity of access is a cornerstone of a just society, requiring the elimination of disparities in how city services are delivered to ensure that every Tucsonan, regardless of ability, has the same access to the benefits of our community, Now therefore, I, in place of Mayor Regina Romero for the City of Tucson, Lane Santa Cruz, do hereby proclaim July 2026 as Disability Pride Month in the City of Tucson and call upon all residents to join in celebrating the contributions of the disability community and committing to these pillars of progress to build a more inclusive and accessible future for all. And witness whereof, I, I have herein to set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Tucson, Arizona to be affixed this 23rd day of June, not July. My bad, 2026. Thank you. I'm going to pass this on. All right, Chris, I'm going to pass this on to you to share a couple of words.

Vice Mayor, thank you very much. Members of the council, boss. I'm speaking as myself now, not as a city employee. But I think the words in the proclamation say it all. And you can see from the turnout behind me, just how important and significant this is to the people with disabilities in this community. And it's also very important to understand that as a disabled person, as disabled people, there are lots of people that do a very good job speaking on our behalf. and we would like the opportunity to speak on our own behalf so thank you for doing this as you can tell it really matters and thank you for acknowledging that inclusion is a right and not a privilege and with that I'd like to hand it to my boss who has put his faith in me for the nine years I've had the honor of working for him council member coming here

Really quick, want to acknowledge a couple people who were here. Big shout out to Coach Hughes. Pete, where you at? That's our university. He runs the university adaptive sports department and helped us host the para basketball championships last year in Tucson. So give Pete a round of applause. I also want to acknowledge former council member Mike Crawford, who's here. Mike, thanks for coming out tonight. I know you're not here for this, but I'm still giving you a shout out. Finally, thank you for everybody here for Tucson School of the Blind. And yeah, right on. A lot of adversity this year. We have to close the campus due to the state, a lot of disagreements. But I'm happy to announce that Tucson Society of the Blind, excuse me, Tucson School of the Blind, Tucson School of the Blind has found a home downtown in Tucson. And I'd like to announce that my office is going to give them a grant, a framework grant for $5,000 to get them started. So let's go. And where is our principal? Kate, yes. Anything you'd like to say?

Thank you so much. We really appreciate the support at Tucson School for the Blind. Thank you.

All right, happy Disability Pride Month, everybody. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Let's take a picture. Let's take a picture.

Make sure you can see the camera. Smile, we like each other.

Look at the airplanes.

All right. All right, thank you, here we go.

Yeah, thank you so much for being here. And again, congratulations to the Tucson School for the Blind. Look forward to continuing working with y'all. All right, so for our next proclamation, Holocaust Survivor Day, we have a couple of guests here. We have Anique DeVry of Holocaust. Say it again? DeVry. DeVry. I think they misspelled it on here, I'm sorry, apologies. Sarah Leichter, widow of survivor Paul Leichter. Emily Hager, Director of Programs and Education at the Tucson Jewish Museum and Holocaust Center. And we wanna thank Lynn Davis, the Interim Executive Director at Tucson Jewish Museum and Holocaust Center for bringing us together with this proclamation. So if y'all would wanna come up here so we can acknowledge you. I'll give you this. Who do you want to hold?

All right.

Whereas the Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was a systematic, state-sponsored prosecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. And whereas Holocaust Survivors Day is observed each year globally on June 4th to honor and celebrate the lives, resilience, and enduring legacy of those who survived the Holocaust, providing an opportunity to recognize their contributions and sacrifices and the invaluable lessons they share with future generations. And whereas more than 270 survivors of the Holocaust have enriched our Southern Arizona community, raised families, and educated generations of people of all backgrounds on the lessons of the Holocaust, And whereas Holocaust survivors helped make our community safer and stronger by sharing the lessons of their own lived experiences and teaching about the dangers of discrimination and dehumanization. And whereas Tucson survivors past and present have made innumerable contributions to our local community and enriched the lives of countless others through their involvement with Tucson Jewish Museum and Holocaust Center. Jewish Family and Children's Services, other local Jewish organizations and synagogues, school districts, members of the armed services, and civic groups. And whereas it is estimated that as of 2025, there were approximately 220,800 Holocaust survivors living in more than 90 countries around the world. And whereas Holocaust survivors stand as living reminders of the power of hope and resilience. And whereas the city of Tucson joins with communities across the United States who are committed to remembering the victims of the Holocaust, honoring the survivors who rebuilt their lives and strengthening communities and educating future generations about the dangers of hatred, antisemitism, bigotry, and indifference. Now, therefore, I, in place of Mayor Regina Romero, Lane Santa Cruz, that the City of Tucson, Arizona do hereby proclaim June 4, 2026 to be Holocaust Survivor Day in this community and encourage our residents to honor Holocaust survivors, reflect upon the lessons of the Holocaust, and recommit to combating anti-Semitism, intolerance, and hatred in all forms while working together to ensure such atrocities are never repeated. And witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and cause the seal of the City of Tucson Arizona to be affixed this 23rd day of June, 2026. Thank you.

Vice Mayor, members of the council, on behalf of the Tucson Jewish Museum and Holocaust Center, thank you for this very meaningful proclamation honoring the Holocaust survivors in our community. Today, we recognize not only a chapter of history, but the lives of extraordinary individuals who endured unimaginable loss, persecution, and displacement, and who nevertheless chose to rebuild. They built families, careers, legacies, and communities. They enriched Tucson through their resilience, their courage, and the commitment to making the world a better place than the one they inherited. For many survivors, sharing their stories has never been easy. Yet they have done so because they understand that memory carries responsibility. Their testimony helps us confront the consequences of hatred, antisemitism, racism, and indifference, and reminds us the importance of protecting human dignity and democratic values. As the generation of eyewitnesses to the Holocaust grows smaller, the responsibility to remember passes increasingly to all of us. We honor survivors not only by recognizing their past suffering, but by carrying forward the lessons they have spent decades teaching. I'm joined tonight by Holocaust survivor, Annick DeVern, who represents the Holocaust, or the survivors who were unable to join us here tonight, and the wife of a Holocaust survivor, Sarah Lichter, who represents the families of the survivors. I would also like to introduce my colleague Raisa Moroz from Jewish Family and Children's Services, and together we would like to thank the survivors and their families for being here this evening. Words cannot express our profound admiration and gratitude to all the Holocaust survivors of Southern Arizona. Your strength has inspired generations. You have educated thousands. Your lives are a testament to the enduring power of hope, perseverance, and the human spirit. We are deeply grateful to the city of Tucson for helping to ensure that their experiences, contributions, and legacies are remembered. Thank you very much.

Item 2D.

Appointment supports committees and commissions.

May I have a motion to approve the appointments in the report? So moved. Second. I would like to thank Zoe Zeman for your willingness to serve the city. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye. Motion carried. Are there any personal appointments to be made at this time? Item three.

Mayor and Council reports, summary of current events.

City Manager's Communication Number 188, dated June 23rd, 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 events of activities within the community, not position statements on policy issues. Does any Councilmember have anything to report at this time? I am going to start with Councilmember Cunningham and then move through the dais. Thank you.

My first announcement is about the Habistore. The Habistore is a monthly pop-up store and it sells new and gently used furniture, home decor, appliances, building materials, all at discount prices. Proceeds generated from the Habistore actually support Habitat for Humanity. and its mission to build low-income housing for people and give opportunities for folks to own their own homes. So we're hosting that in my office, June 23rd through 25th, June 23rd, 24th, and 25th. We're hosting the Habit Store at 7820 East Broadway. So we'll be there starting at nine o'clock each day. And if you have a project you're working on and need excess materials, that's a really good opportunity a resource for you. The other announcement I have today is about General David Ratajkic, who was the Adjutant General of the Arizona National Guard, former. He passed away. I met him when I was serving in the National Guard 30 years ago. At that time, he was the same age I was now. And he had a really good relationship both with me and my father. And every single time I asked for his advice and mentorship while I was both serving in the military, but even later in life, he always offered it gracefully and generously. Gave me advice over the years on a couple issues, including the Warbird project that's being proposed, catastrophic response for possible flooding and fires in the state of Arizona, and the role of the National Guard. He was an insightful and thoughtful person, and I'm attitude. Arizona's mourn his loss. Thank you.

Council Member Dahl.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Hey, it's hot outside, and it's going to get hotter. I want to report that the Ward 3 Cooling Center has started operations Monday through Friday 1 to 5 in our community room. It's operated by the St. Francis Community Services, and they bring in all sorts of services already. Two individuals have gone to detox because of their experience there. Multiple others have engaged with such providers as El Rio, Kodak, and MDOT. In one case, a veteran who had recently become homeless and was diagnosed with cancer was able to get multiple services, found himself, he was able to be placed in a program and will soon be getting VA benefits. Individually, be careful out there. It's hot. Be cool. Stay hydrated and have a good summer. Thanks.

Council Member Lee. No announcements, Vice Mayor. Council Member Barajas.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Well, good evening, everyone. I would like to begin by acknowledging the strong microburst that recently impacted Tucson Southside last week. Our thoughts and prayers remain with the family and loved ones of 44-year-old Tiffany Miguel, who tragically lost her life after being swept away by the rapidly rising floodwaters. We also recognize the many residents and businesses affected by the resulting power outages and storms damage, especially in Ward 5. I want to thank our first responders, utility crews, and community members who assisted throughout the emergency response and recovery efforts. Last week, our community celebrated Juneteenth, a day that commemorates freedom, resilience, and the ongoing pursuit of equality. I would like to recognize the organizers, volunteers, performers, vendors, and attendees who helped make the 56th annual festival at the Keno Sports Complex a success. This longstanding community tradition continues to bring together residents to honor freedom, celebrate African American heritage and culture, and strengthen the bonds that unite our city. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this meaningful event and help continue its legacy. I am pleased to report that our latest lunch meetup with Ward 5 at Nicos Mexican Food was a huge success. Thank you to everyone who attended, met a new neighbor, reconnected with an old friend, and connected with our Ward 5 team. These gatherings continue to strengthen community relationships while supporting our local businesses. Please save the date for our next lunch meetup on Friday, July 24th, from 12 to 1 30 PM at El Taco Rustico along South Park Avenue. We are also excited to share that right next door to the restaurant is the Tucson Center for Black Life. It will also be open to the community during our meetup. We are intentionally hosting these events at businesses impacted by nearby construction projects and encourage residents to support these businesses throughout the year. Our Ward 5 team, City of Tucson Housing First, and the Multidisciplinary Outreach Team would like to invite residents to participate in a care package assembly event at the Housing First hub station located at 195 West Irvington Road this Thursday, June 25th from nine, oh sorry, not June 25th, yes, June 25th from nine to 11 a.m. Please contact the Ward 5 office for additional information if you would like to attend and help. On July 25th at 10 a.m., the Ward 5 office in Ricardo's Lassing Impact will host a special support group for bereaved fathers. This gathering is intended to provide a safe and supportive space for fathers who have experienced the loss of a child. All men who have lost a loved one are welcome to attend. Whether you would like to share your story, listen, or simply support others navigating this loss, we invite you to join us. For more information, please contact our Ward 5 advisor, Fernando Ortiz. I would also like to invite the community to a special event happening this Saturday, Celebration of Life, honoring the life and legacy of Coach Don Kluschak. This, from 6 to 10 p.m. at the TCC Grand Ballroom. The JET Sports Foundation and the Southside community will gather to celebrate the longtime Sunnyside wrestling coach whose leadership established a tradition of excellence and championship success that continues throughout the Sunnyside Unified School District today. Please don't forget to vote. As a reminder, important election dates are approaching. Early voting begins and early ballots will be mailed on June 24th. The last day to request a mail ballot is July 10th. The recommended deadline to return ballots by mail is July 14th and election day is July 21st. Lastly, I would like to express concern regarding Carlos Toledo's recent placement back into deportation proceedings after previously receiving a motion to dismiss. Cases like this remind us of the profound impact immigration proceedings have on individuals and families within our community. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Schubert.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. I'm gonna start my current event report with a traffic violence update. Each meeting I report on the crashes that have occurred since our last council meeting in an effort to keep this at the forefront of our minds as we work on solutions to address this crisis. And in the hopes that there's no crashes between meetings sometime, that would be nice. Okay, so on June 11th, there was a crash involving multiple vehicles. One truck ended up on top of an SUV, on top of it. The picture's very dramatic. Three people were hospitalized with serious injuries. On June 9th, a 68-year-old who was in my report at the last meeting for sustaining life-threatening injuries in a crash on June 3rd passed away. So it took him six days to pass away. And then on June 15th, a 74-year-old who had been hit by a car back in March died from his injuries. And then just a reminder that the Dangerous by Design report just came out Tucson ranks number four among the most dangerous metro areas in the United States for people walking. The report ranks all states and the nation's 101 largest metro areas for pedestrian deaths and finds that more than 80% of those areas have become more deadly over time. Although Tucson ranked third in the previous edition of Dangerous by Design and fourth this year, that change should not be mistaken for progress. The Tucson region recorded 235 pedestrian deaths between 2020 and 2024, and that's compared to 142 pedestrian deaths between 2015 and 2019, a 66% increase between the two reporting periods. Fatalities year-to-date for 2026 so far are at 48, compared to 32 this time in 2025. In terms of current events, just a quick update about the cooling center that we have opened at the Ward 6 office using our kitchen and our bathroom. We also call it the Chill Space. As of June 18th, we have had a total of 213 visits from 66 people, and that's since May 26, so it's been a little under a month. We had 16 new people in two days this week. On Monday alone, we had 10 new people in addition to 31 individual visits. Our capacity is at about 20 for the kitchen. First time non-duplicated visits since we opened on May 26th is 73 people. We've given out 96 showers. Eight people have worked with Sullivan Jackson to receive housing assistance. Two have worked with Community Medical Services, also known as CMS. 11 attendees have worked with the City of Tucson Housing, and 10 have received services from El Rio. And those services are rotating into the CHIL space on a weekly basis, rotating. We also, okay, so next item in current events, we invite all Tucsonans to join in our fun, analog scavenger hunt through Ward 6, inspired by Japan's eki stamp tradition. The Summer Stampede has started. It's a free, family-friendly activity that encourages people of all ages to explore Ward 6 while collecting unique, artist-designed, community-inspired stamps. The program highlights special locations, including City of Tucson parks, local businesses, and neighborhood projects throughout Ward 6. Custom-made unique stamps celebrating local flora, small businesses, parks, and artists are placed throughout the ward, with many of them available off main bus lines and bike routes. Use the special Summer Stampede passports and postcards available at the Ward 6 office to collect them all. And I brought props. So yeah, I already told Kevin I was gonna steal his idea, okay. So when you go to a place and you find it, it's gonna look like this. When you open it up, there's instructions. They're laminated. We have summer interns that helped us. We have a ink pad and a stamp. And then you put the stamps in these little passport books. And there's a little place for notes, like for where you get it. So we were actually, we were having our staff meeting on Monday at the Ward 6 office, and we saw a kid come up and get a stamp on the very first day. So we were very excited about that. So I have some books here if people want it. And then I've also pitched to the team that I should have my own personal stamp so that I'm the location for one of the stamps. So that if you run into me, you can ask me for a stamp for your book and it'll be our office. Okay, so we're gonna add new stamps throughout the summer and we'll announce those in the newsletter. This is just an effort to like help you get out and explore the unique public and green spaces that make our city special. At the end of the summer, we're going to have a celebration, and we're still working out prizes and swag. And then finally, upcoming events, we want to invite everybody to come celebrate the grand reopening of Armory Park on Thursday, July 2nd, beginning at 6 p.m. Please plan to bring a blanket or chair to sit and enjoy the performances throughout the evening. We'll have a ribbon cutting, youth mariachi ensemble, El Rey classic lowrider showcase, and performances by Flam Chen, DJ Q, Sonido Tambo, and Peruvian style psychedelic cumbia act, Chicha Dust. So it's gonna be pretty great. Hope you all can make it out. And that concludes my current event report. Thank you.

Thank you, colleagues. For my current events, tomorrow, Wednesday, June 24th, from 6 to 9, join our West Side neighbors for the 28th annual Dia de San Juan Fiesta Mission Garden. Enjoy an evening of music, dancing, food, traditional blessings, and activities for all ages as we celebrate this beloved community tradition, welcoming our summer rains. This is located at Mission Garden, 946 West Mission Lane. On Tuesday, June 30th at 6 p.m., be part of Tucson's skateboarding history at the Cushing Street Skate Park Groundbreaking. Join myself, Caleb Gutierrez, and community partners as we celebrate the beginning of a new skate park that will serve youth, families, and skaters for years to come. The location will be 700 West Cushing Street. We ask folks to either take the streetcar or park at the Mercado and walk over. On Sunday, July 12th at 8 a.m., join us for BCC Burros. This is the monthly bike ride out of the Ward 1 office. It's a family-friendly bike ride. We're meeting up at 8 a.m. in the summer. Enjoy free burritos from Los Jarritos, music and community connections as we pedal together for accessibility with Fuga. We meet at the Ward 1 office, 940 West Alameda Street. And finally, I just wanted to wish a very happy birthday to my partner, Melissa. Thank you. Item four.

City Manager reports, summary of current events.

City Manager's communication number 192, dated June 23rd, is received into and made part of the record. Mr. Clerk, please read the liquor license, or sorry, oh. I, City Manager, I almost skipped you. All right. City Manager communication number 189, dated June 23rd, 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, Madam Vice Mayor. A couple of things for tonight. All good news. One is related to the Arizona Department of Housing. Recently announced that the City of Tucson and our nonprofit arm, El Pueblo Housing Development, have been awarded highly competitive low-income housing tax credits for El Rincon, a new development that will create 67 affordable housing units across two vacant city-owned sites in Tucson at 560 West Davis Street and 450 North Main Ave. Meanwhile, Stone and Speedway phase one, a mixed income housing development led by Gorman and Company was awarded housing tax credit funds to support the construction of an initial 44 housing, affordable housing units and 12 market rate units at the southwest corner of Stone Avenue and Speedway Boulevard. So you'll see more of our good work soon. And then a couple of staff shout outs. The city's IT department, which often goes unheralded, working behind the scenes, but we recently had two of our staff members receive prestigious recognition for their work. The city's AI program manager, Kate Carter, received a formal appointment to Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs' AI Steering Committee, recognizing her work on outreach education and driving intentional AI adoption. and IT Department Director Chris Mazzarella received an OnCon Icon Peer Reviewed Worldwide Award for a Top 50 Technology Professionals. So my congratulations to them both. Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Thank you, City Manager. Item five.

Liquor License Applications.

City Manager's Communication Number 192, dated June 23rd, is received into and made part of the record. Mr. Clerk, please read the Liquor License Agenda.

Your Honor, on tonight's liquor license agenda, there are three applications for new licenses, one application for a person and location transfer, and one application for special event. Item 5B2, Taqueria Wild West in Ward 4 is not in compliance with planning and development services and will be considered separately. Item 5B4, Circle K Store 9618 in Ward 2 has written arguments opposed and will also be considered separately. All other applications are in compliance with city requirements. An appropriate motion at this time would be to forward items 5B1, 5B3, and 5C1 to the state liquor board with a recommendation for approval. So moved.

May I have a motion? Thank you.

Second.

All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carried. So we're moving on to consider 5B2.

Taqueria Wild West and Ward 4.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Due to the lack of compliance, I'm going to move to recommend denial of the application because the proposed establishment has not yet obtained the necessary approvals and is not currently in compliance with applicable city of Tucson development requirements. However, I want to encourage the applicant to continue working with the planning and development services staff to complete the change of use development package and certificate of occupancy process and return once those requirements have been satisfied.

Second.

We'll go to roll call. Mrs. Lee.

Aye.

Mr. Dahl. Aye. Mr. Cunningham. Aye. Ms. Barajas. Aye. Ms. Schup.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Santa Cruz.

Aye. Motion carried by a vote of 6-0. Item 5B4. Circle K store 9618 and ward 2. What is the council's pleasure?

Your Honor, is there anybody here to speak on this who's in opposition? All right, a couple things about Circle K. The biggest issue we had was they did three different applications in Ward 2 at the same time, more or less, I mean, within six months of each other. One of them, we came to a compromise and they shifted from a series nine to a series 10. So they shifted out of being able to serve liquor to just beer and wine. It was a good compromise. We also collaborated with Circle K because we had significant concerns with the condition and the behavior existing on Circle K properties, especially close to bus stops. We then went and argued at the state level against the Grant and Craycroft Circle K liquor license and it was denied and then it got appealed and brought back, which brings us to this Circle K, which is again a pretty simple procedure. They're moving across the street, they're moving into an area where they have hard zoning, so it's really difficult to say absolutely not, but we have all these different things surrounding Circle K in which we're all kind of pressing them to help us out and engage with more active and community partnerships. And to their credit, on some levels, in our word, they have. So I want to say all those things before I make this motion. So for me, I'm still not satisfied with the outcome at the Craycroft and Grant situation. Because we're having that discussion, I'm not sure if I can recommend a denial because of another site. And I also don't know if I can recommend a denial when there's saturation and all that. So I kind of want to defer to the city attorney on that piece.

Vice Mayor, Council Member Cunningham, I believe that you can recommend denial based on the written formal opposition. There are several issues that you just brought up that are discussed within that formal opposition. My recollection from my reading of the packet was that there was TESTIMONY RELATED TO THE CLOSE PROXIMITY OF RESIDENTIAL, THE NUMBER AND SERIES OF LICENSES WITHIN CLOSE PROXIMITY INCLUDING OTHER CIRCLE Ks, THE RESIDENTIAL POPULATION WITHIN CLOSE PROXIMITY AND RESIDENTIAL DENSITY WITHIN THAT AREA AS WELL AS LIKELY CUSTOMERS THAT WERE DISCUSSED AS A CONCERN INCLUDING THE UNHOUSED. And the issue of possible vehicular traffic, including racing in the area, that was my recollection from the opposition.

So all the written opposition pieces are still where there is a, where there already is an existing liquor license that has, to my understanding, no, they don't have any demerits or any violations in recent memory? Not that I recall from the written materials. All right, Circle K, do you have a representative to talk about your liquor license?

They, Council Member Cunningham, they do have an Andrea present, and then I do have a speaker card for a Jordan wishing to speak on this issue.

They're together, they work for Circle K. All right. Already talked to him.

Vice Mayor, members of the council, appreciate your time tonight. My name is Jordan Rydberg. I'm the real estate development manager for Circle K Stores. Been in front of you several times over the last couple of years as we've started to execute on our vision to reinvent our image and brand in Tucson. We've served this community for decades and as such have an established network of stores in the community. And it's no secret that many of those stores have become dated and are no longer representative of who we are today or who we want to be in the future. That brings us here tonight as we seek your recommendation for approval of the transfer of our liquor license from our existing store at the northeast corner of Tank Verde and Bear Canyon, 600 feet to the east to the northwest corner of Tank Verde and Catalina Highway. We have plan approval and we'll be pulling permits to demolish the existing Bank of America branch building on that corner and relocate our store that's at Bear Canyon to that corner and are in discussions with Larson Baker, the owner of the surrounding shopping center, work with us to re-tenant our existing building. The existing building is a small dated asset that does not offer fuel, lacks parking, and adequate space to serve our customers. The new store will be a state-of-the-art large format convenience store that will serve fresh food and better serve that community and represent Circle K for decades into the future. are here to answer any questions that you have and would appreciate your support.

Good afternoon, Vice Mayor and Council Members. I'd like to just return to, again, we always go back to the Arizona Administrative Code and Arizona Revised Statutes related to the qualifications of a location. Under the Arizona Administrative Code rule, 19-1702, you're familiar with the 12 criteria. The city attorney spilled off a few of those to you. However, I wanna focus on A1, where it says that we're gonna consider petitions and testimony from individuals who favor or oppose issuance of a license and who reside in, own, or lease property within one mile of the premises. Prior to filing this application in January, Our office sent out 169 letters to property owners within about a half mile radius, inviting them to a community meeting, which we held in February at Councilman Cunningham's office. We had about 20 people come in and talk a lot about what they would like to see, most of which had to do with their concerns related to fuel tanks. Some of it had to do with traffic. Circle K has hired and maintains and submitted to the city traffic studies, which the city has approved. Circle K has, I believe, everything it needs to move forward with this project. The city has approved the development package and the building permits. So we're ready to move forward. It's our understanding, confirmed to me today, there's just one individual who submitted a letter excuse me, in protest to the application. And although it does mention he's the president of an association, it doesn't meet the basic, and to be frank, very easy standards to show if he is truly speaking on behalf of anyone else. Since he did not, under ARS 4201C, he is not qualified to speak on anyone's behalf. So all in all, we have one letter from one individual who doesn't want this Circle K there. When we go back and we look at each of these other criteria, again, knowing that the store that's currently operating is just 600 feet away from the current store, Circle K has been a part of this community all this time. It has all the necessary licenses. We won't be increasing the number. The population density isn't going to change because of Circle K. The compatibility, all of these other issues, we meet these criteria. For one person to say we don't just doesn't seem to make economic sense or even a sense of community. Circle K is part of the community. So we'll hope that you will consider each of these criteria and recommend approval of the license.

Your Honor, referring to Colonel LaDain's letter, who is the president of both BCNA and former president of the Lakes of Castle Rock HOA. He's consolidated a lot of that opposition. Our biggest thing worth hearing from a technical aspect is that they're shifting one Circle K that's very far east on Tanque Verde, closer to Tanque Verde Loop Road, and they're bringing it west to Houghton. And then this Circle K is going across the street to Houghton. So the two Circle Ks will only be a mile away. This specific Circle K will also be across the street from a Fry's that also sells liquor. So when you're thinking about all those things, you want to gather a fair and accurate thing. I will say that Circle K has acted enough in good faith for me that instead of recommending a denial, I'm just going to recommend no recommendation. And we send it to the liquor board and let them decide. And I make that in the form of a motion. I'll second.

Roll call.

Mr. Cunningham. Aye. Mrs. Lee.

Aye.

Mr. Dahl. Aye. Ms. Baratek.

Aye.

Ms. Schubert.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Santa Cruz.

Aye. Motion carried with the vote of six zero.

Thank you for your consideration. Thank you.

Item six.

Call to the audience. 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, turn yellow when you have 30 seconds remaining, and will turn red and beep when your time is up. At that time, please conclude your comments.

We have a good stack here of books that caught the audience. In trying to get through as many of them as possible, I will ask that if you hear a speaker say something similar to what you were going to say, that you wrap up your talking points or your three minutes to allow time for somebody else to also be able to speak on that topic. Our first speaker is JP Salvatierra.

Chair Santa Cruz, county, city board members, JP Salvatierra, Tucson resident, not a retained speaker, speaking for myself. We're all disillusioned, including the Ward 5 office at has no electric. I understand that over 40 of our TEP murder poles were downed in the south side. Now, I did an estimate of Each individual at $100 ahead with overtime makes $1,400 in a 12-hour shift. 60 of these people, I would think, would be commensurate to service over 40 downed poles. Every 10 days, that creates... Is someone disturbing the volume on this? I hear it... There's a volume control at your desk, isn't there? Is that up all the way? I would appreciate it. Okay. No, but I've gone to these meetings and I've listened to it over the air, and it's very diminished. And the font size is not healthy for people that are senior citizens. You can't see a little half-inch little, you know, texting over that. But anyway, it's time this Council firmly addresses the refusal to renew Tucson Electric Power's franchise agreement. We don't need them. They're superfluous. We have so many more opportunities to reinvest that $1.6 billion that they take out of the state of Arizona and create the state level transmission power circulation. Each municipality that's affected will create its own bond funding And within that realm, we each have the ability to create and incentivize so many more things. We're interdependent on a minimal level, not to a foreign proxy, not to shareholders that couldn't care less about what happens here. It's like Copper World. It's like Hermosa 32. They're foreign proxies that just want to take something out of this city and county and state and walk away and sign off their liability and have a great day. You know, our... are virtual meetings. They serve stakeholder profiteers. They do not serve the public. You want to be paid in virtual money? Keep it up. You want monopoly money for the time you spend in a virtual meeting that doesn't address the public in attendance? Keep it up. I'm really upset with this. Please change your views. Thank you.

Thank you. J.D. Wallace. J.D. Wallace and after J.D. will be Margo Itole.

Hello, Mayor and Council. J.D. Wallace, Tucson resident and retained speaker for Tucson Electric Power at 88 East Broadway downtown, providing some updates on how we're working to remain a trusted energy partner. Wednesday's thunderstorms required us to replace 40 poles, mostly along Park Avenue and Benson Highway. Power outages initially impacted 9,500 customers, but by midday Thursday, the next day, That number was down to less than 200 and all residential customers were restored before the weekend. Restoring residential customers remains our priority during these outages. The Ward 5 office and the DES offices were without power for the duration of this outage. We thank them for their patience at this time We installed temporary equipment to get power back to some of the customers. We work year-round to fortify the electrical grid, including $320 million of upgrades in 2025, adding transformers, power lines, breakers at different substations throughout the city, such as at Pantano, Northeast, and Drexel substations, and $30 million of improved distribution lines in our neighborhoods to provide greater capacity for customers' growing energy needs. Now, last month I mentioned an expansion to our Roadrunner Reserve battery storage facility, and that additional 200 megawatts is now online, expanding our total battery storage to 550 megawatts. This time last year we had just 50. More than 10 times the battery storage capacity means that we can store plentiful solar energy during the day and then use that later in the day, and that helps us reduce fuel and energy costs for our customers. We also provide first responders access to the cameras that watch our transmission lines in remote areas. And in April, the Springerville Interagency Dispatch Center credited the use of those cameras with catching the Corral fire in April in its beginning stages and containing it at about 15 acres. The center said the fire could have burned an entire day if otherwise, because they wouldn't have been aware of it for that long. We're the first corporate sponsor of the Community Coalition for Prosperity, working in partnership with the City of Tucson and Pima County. The Prosperity Initiative is a community-wide, evidence-based policy framework adopted by the City of Tucson and Pima County to reduce generational poverty and improve economic stability through policies and community collaboration throughout our region. Our $100,000 donation comes from corporate resources and not rate payer funds. Thank you for your time. Constituents who are seeking ways to manage summer bills can find tips at TEP.com or of course they are welcome to call our customer service representatives.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Margo Itole and then after that will be Isabel Mariscal.

Good afternoon, City Council and staff members. My name is Margo Aituli, and I'm a Tucson resident. I would like to propose the possibility for a publicly owned power generation company. The alternative TEP is a for-profit monopoly owned by a Canadian corporation, with major investors who don't live here so the billions in profits don't stay in Tucson. Their exorbitant rate hikes are a reflection of the cult of profit plaguing our society. When investor returns hold more value than the well-being of the community, it's a clear sign that we are on the wrong track. When people can't afford to pay for basic needs like electricity here in the Sonoran Desert at a time when climate science clearly shows that it's getting hotter, it is time to push for public policy to change this grotesque economic inequality. TEP bills are going to continue to go up as they continue asking for upgrades to their grid. TEP's profit is calculated as a percentage of its infrastructure costs. The more infrastructure it builds, the bigger its profit. With the unprecedented influx of vampire data centers putting major strains on all utilities, TEP will, as they have shown time and time again, bend over backwards to accommodate the data center power needs, and we, the citizens, will pay the costs financially and environmentally. TEP's parent company reported $1.6 billion in net earnings last year. This is a billion-dollar company that continually increases the average Tucson consumer's monthly bill to pay for their infrastructure costs. We can't afford 25 more years of this robbery. It's time to say enough. Citizens should be given a choice as to where our energy comes from. Public utility would give the public an opportunity for that input. Given the choice between CO2-emitting, environmentally destructive, expensive fuel versus clean, low-cost, secure, and renewable energy, the choice is clear. Here, where we have an abundance of sunshine, solar is a logical transition. The only voices opposing this shift are the billionaire fossil fuel profiteers and their minions. The city of Tucson's own analysis of the question of for-profit private TEP versus public energy shows an undeniable benefit to transition to a publicly owned renewable energy generation company. Public utility would lower cost of capital for developing clean energy infrastructure, reduce energy bills for households and businesses, reduce emissions by accelerating to 100% clean energy power within the decade, support for an active green industry strategy, and the creation of good unionized jobs. We must start considering our planet and our species when looking to the future. We simply cannot keep ignoring our limited resources that we have treated historically as finite. The time has long since passed to come up with viable solutions to the existential threats we are all facing. The case for a public green energy champion is clear. Thank you.

Isabel Mariscal, and after Isabel, we have Ariane Chavez.

Hello, my name is Isabel Mariscal. I'm a resident of Tucson, and I'm not being paid to speak. According to the CDC, gun violence claims over 45,000 lives in the U.S. every year, leaving families shattered and communities engulfed in grief. Each life lost is not just a statistic. It represents a unique story, a dream unfulfilled, and a loved one forever missed. The nightmares and pain can feel insurmountable, but every story matters, and every voice deserves to be heard. There has been countless homicides throughout the years here in Tucson. Here are some of the lives lost. Oscar Leon, shot and killed at age 16 in 1992. Tomasin Pasos, at age 18, shot and killed in 1996. Jacob Dingdinger, age 20. Jacob Leland, age 21. Juan Flores, age 30. Arturo Gostalem, age 24. Abraham Vindola, age 18. Eduardo Toros. age 19, Carlos Cortez, age 22, today was his birthday, he would have been 23, Adrian Aguilar, age 16, James Sanchez, age 16, Freddie Hudson, age 20, Jesus Fierro, age 20, Gabe Zimmerman, age 30, Dorwin Stallward, age 76, Phyllis Snek, age 79, Judge John Rowe, age 17, 63, DOROTHY MORRIS, AGE 76, CHRISTINA TAYLOR GREEN, AGE 9, CARLOS CHAVERIA GONZALEZ, AGE 16, CAMERON FOSTER, AGE 19, OCEAN WASHINGTON, AGE 21, DANIEL ARRIEGA, AGE 19, ISAAC BENITEZ, AGE 17, RANDY SIMMONS, AGE 18, BAYDEN BEGAY, AGE 18, MITCHELL BRANHO, AGE 26, KATIA MOLINA, AGE 19, DAJAN BROWN, AGE 15, Peter Ortiz, age 25, Delicia Urbina, my friend, age 24, Christian Bracamonte, 17, and my brother, Joshua Scott, 20, were both murdered on December 27, 2025, at Willie Blake Junior Community Park. I come here today to ask you again, what are you going to do to stop this violence? And also, Selena Barres, please answer my email.

If you can, I'm gonna have one of our staff members come to you directly, because I haven't received, I personally haven't received an email, but we'll make sure. Thank you.

Next, we have Ariane Chavez. And after Ariane, we have Desiree Nguyen.

Good afternoon. My name is Adrian Chavez. I'm a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. And I'm a third year student at the University of Arizona studying chemical engineering. I urge the city council to listen to the voices of students and reject resolution number 24143, which is the agreement with the city of Tucson and the University of Arizona that would use funds from the local border support grant program to expand and aid the Department of Homeland Security's AI surveillance apparatus in the name of border security. At a time when nearly half of young people are struggling to afford rent, and 68% of college students say higher education is unaffordable, what the students need is not more money being funneled into the deportation machine. Students do not need more AI-powered technologies that criminalize black and brown students. The UA spends over a million dollars on AI-powered defog cameras, and now over 6,000 users have access to our data, including ICE and Border Patrol. We cannot trust these multi-billion dollar corporations to keep our communities and our neighbors safe when all they need is a big enough check to buy our information. These technologies are often framed as public safety or border safety measures. But the crimes that these technologies are supposed to reduce or prevent, like car property, traffic violations, and migration, are crimes that are consequences of poverty and are only exacerbated because this government refuses to meet the needs of working people. Meanwhile, The U of A continues to slash essential resources like mental health and financial aid counseling, the writing program, cultural resource centers, and even the campus pharmacy, all while reporting billions of dollars in revenue. And I don't got to tell you guys about the U of A's financial track record. I, as a student and as a worker, do not want more money going towards Trump's deportation machine. Instead, we should be taking that money and investing that money in the real needs of students in the working class, making education affordable, and creating a public power option to lower our bills. By passing this resolution, both the city of Tucson and the U of A would be collaborating with the racist and billionaire agenda that preys on communities' fear at the loss of our own privacy, all enabled and unregulated by the same greedy capitalist system that incentivizes people to rob, cheat, and steal simply because they cannot make ends meet. So please, reject resolution number 24143 and stand with the students of UA and stand against Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda.

Thank you.

I have Desiree, and after Desiree, I have Joseph Miller.

Good evening. My name is Desiree, and I'm unfortunately, because of any lack of any better options, a rate payer to TEP, or should I say the Canadian electric power that is running our electrical grid. For decades, TEP has been ruthlessly extracting every little penny from the late rate payers of Tucson, whether it's pushing an affordable rate hike, especially at the end of COVID-19, and backdoor deals with data centers that made Project Blue happen. This franchise agreement is the latest of TEP's insidious tactics to not just privatize our electrical grid, but to bypass our city regulations on our streets. The franchise agreement all hinges on the belief that TEP's main motive is not to exploit the general public for every last dime we have, but this couldn't be farther from the truth. How could we trust TEP to abide by the will of the people when they are raising our utility bills by 14% during an economic crisis? How could we trust TEP to protect our climate when they're the ones siphoning our resources to an unsustainable water-guzzling data center? We can't, period. The only thing we can trust is a public utility that is actually beholden to serving the people and needs of this planet, not minding the pockets of foreign billionaires. If we had a public utility, this wouldn't be up for discussion. The right of way would not be an issue because it would be our road and our electrical grid and not because of any expensive middleman. Not only would this agreement grant TV's access to our public roads, we would have to pay $2.25 22.25% franchise fee. If our utility bill is $200 per month, especially during the summer, this means that TEP will extract at least $5,000 from each person in Tucson over the next 25 years if this passes. That money could be going to our pockets, to our community, but is instead winding the billionaire's shareholders that are owning TEP. Fortis already inhales $12 billion in revenue last year. The ECA, the Energy Climate Agreement, 2 million represents only one out of 6,000 of the company's profits. The rest of our money, the rate payers, is going directly to shareholders in Canada and skipping over Tucson residents. And what could our climate goals possibly be when TP is giving unlimited energy to Project Blue and penalizing solar energy usage? Nowhere in the agreement is to our land is a directive to the pressing crisis of our planet, and that is climate change and data centers. urge not just the city council, but for the people of Tucson to vote no on the franchise agreement this November and not fall victim to TEP's lies. When TEP hands are already in our pockets, we do not need to lend an ear to TEP's propaganda. Public power should have been done last year, the last decade, but can be done now.

Joseph Miller. And after will be Alison Acmejian.

Tom or Tim? I'll be addressing them out of formalities, but if you could write a couple notes, it'd be great. It's a great day in Midvale Park. My name is Joseph Miller. I'm the president of Midvale Park. I've been president off and on for about 20 years, 22 years, and you guys are doing a fantastic job. Paul, what you did at Palo Verde Park, Amazing, really, really wonderful. Kevin, we really got to work in Balboa Park. That park over there belongs to us and we need solutions. So I'll come back to that. Nikki, I haven't met you yet, but I'm sure we'll see each other more and more. And Miranda, welcome, welcome. It's really, really nice. Dr. Santa Cruz, thank you for allowing me this time. Selena, you know, Coach Kostrak was amazing and to honor him is a really honor for Tucson. Sunnyside has changed the planet and he was part of that and the culture there. But also, but more importantly, Tiffany Kent, die in vain it's not right that people are on our medians and in culverts in this town and and to say those those things you know i understand that chief prieto has her hands full and she needs more money to do what she needs to do And I know that you guys are doing all kinds of initiatives with the prosperity initiative, but we've got a crisis right now. We've got people on every street corner in Midvale Park. And I'm sorry I can't talk about all of Tucson. I can only focus on Midvale Park right now. But we've got neighbors in need. at every street corner. We've got them in every bus stop. We've got them in the Oak Tree Channel. You guys know where Walmart is, and you see that big thing in the middle of the river right after Tiffany died. So we've got to use this opportunity to change. We can't let this go on. I appreciate the bigger projects you're doing, but we have a crisis right now, and we've got to take care of it right, right now. I've got a little bit of time. I'm going to run through these things, and I'll stop it short. I just really want to thank you for the work that you're doing. Grijalva Park, Parks and Rec, I know I'm talking to them, but Parks and Rec needs to do a better job. They're doing a fantastic job, and I know we had some real gems step down and retire, but these news guys, they're awesome. But we've got to have a volleyball net. We've been out there cleaning Grijalva Park every Wednesday. And we'll be over there tomorrow at 7 o'clock if you guys would like to come. But we've been there every Wednesday. And we need a volleyball court. Does that mean I got a minute?

You got to wrap it up.

Wrap it up. Wrap it up. Transportation, we need our roads done. And also if Chief Prieto can get the help that she truly needs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miller. We have Allison next and then Eduardo David.

Sorry, I think my foot fell asleep, okay. Hi, Tucson City Council. My name's Allison Ackmagen. I'm a local theater artist and a restaurant worker, and I'm here as a resident of Tucson's Ward 6, representing myself to voice my opposition to TEP's 25-year franchise. deal, I will be voting no in November, and I do support a public power utility, and I will vote yes when the Mayor and Council put that before us as voters. We need a public power utility that is responsive to the people, not a private for-profit monopoly Canadian corporation that is only beholden to profits. The people overwhelmingly made their voices heard in opposition to the project Blue Data Center, and you, the City Council, responded unanimously in our favor, and for that, you have my utmost respect. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to stop the madness because TEP colluded with Bale Infrastructure to move forward with construction. of this harmful data center that asks us to pay for their power and leaches our precious water in a desert in which we are already experiencing water bankruptcy. With a public power utility, this data center would never have happened. Why in the city of 300 days of sun aren't there solar panels everywhere? The simple reason is that TEP cannot profit off of them in the same way that they profit off of oil and gas. TEP has discouraged solar panel installation in the city while proposing to build more power plants to meet data center needs. What are we doing? It's capitalist business as usual while the planet burns. Record-breaking summer heat and water bankruptcy. Why can't we implement climate solutions that have existed for decades at this point? It's because they are not profitable for these private corporations. In courts fighting for a 14% rate hike to our power bills, forcing us to pay for them even after we rejected them unanimously. Thank you again. a data center for no one, by the way, since Amazon backed out of the deal. So just, yet TEP still asks us to trust them with 25 more years of private power. And we TEP customers We'll pay $14 million a year through our monthly bills for the franchise fee, but TEP will only give the city $2 million a year for the energy collaboration agreement. Transparent greenwashing, that doesn't even begin to make for the harm that they've caused by lying to us and colluding to build a harmful data center. I will vote no. Despite what is best for the planet, this desert, and all the people living in it, this greedy corporation does only what matters for their profits. We need public power. Thank you.

Thank you.

Eduardo David, and actor Eduardo Reyes Suarez.

Good evening, city members, council, public. The reason for my concern and my address, it's a simple question that I'm not aware of. Every time I try to ask different departments, I get sent to different departments, and one issue of my concern is when the public has a frontation with with authorities Where are they supposed to send their claims for the abuse of authorities by your public officials? Because Throughout two years that I've been here in Arizona. I've been getting the runaround and and sending emails and packages of documents to certain individuals within the board and city council, there's been little and minimal response back. And also to my concern is, there's certain claims that individuals have sent, but I'm asking if, the certain staff that you guys have for claim adjusting, do they know the law? Because as aware that I know, each and one of you have sworn oaths to defend and protect the US Constitution. And that includes everybody's rights, the provision of rights, due process. And so I'm just wondering if there's anything new Do you guys have a certain agency where that can be expressed that at least the public can come in sometimes once in a while and directly express their situation or no? So I sent you guys some emails and a package delivered yesterday to the mayor. And so hopefully I can get a response for that because there's over 200 10 individuals that have the same express or same concern. So I'm a voice for those individuals and I would just like to hear. If there's anyone in particular, just let me know so I can communicate back with the individuals. Thank you.

Thank you. City Attorney, is there any way to respond to the question?

Thank you, Vice Mayor. I'm not quite sure what the actual claim is, but I think if we have the name, we can probably reach out.

All right, so we have Reyes, and after that, we have Michael Crawford, and then we've, I'll allow one more after that, and then we've run out of time, so we're going over right now.

Good evening, Vice Mayor and City Council. My name is Reyes Suarez. I'm a resident of Warrenwood. Lane Santa Cruz is my council member. Tonight I'm representing D-Flock Tucson, though I am not a paid speaker. Who here knows who Larry Allison is? Elliot Ellison is a close friend of Donald Trump, billionaire. Ellison is one of the biggest backers of the AI gold rush, and him and his family own the rights to a staggering amount of media. Paramount, Skydance, Warner Brothers, they own CBS, CNN, HBO, Paramount, TikTok, Discovery, DC Comics, BET, Food Network, et cetera. To say this man is influential is an understatement. Larry is also a proponent of total surveillance and a post-privacy world. To quote him, we are going to have supervision, supervised at all time, and if there's a problem, AI will report it. Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that's going on. Is that safety or is that control? Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir, also shares this view, although Karp also doesn't own a cell phone, use social media, and uses white noise machines to block laser microphones from listening to his conversation in his house. It's funny how when they want no privacy for us, that doesn't mean them. Meanwhile, Palantir has its ties in DHS, the armed services, IRS, Social Security, and recently the Department of Agriculture. Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, has also been in the news recently. Peter just fled to Argentina after he became aware he was having secret meetings with some of the most powerful and influential on both sides of the aisle. Their agenda, navigating World War III, battlefield technologies, and how to build a cult. Thiel himself is also known for saying he believes freedom and democracy cannot exist, and is interested in building a post-democracy world. Peter Thiel is also one of the earliest founders of Flock Safety, the LPR company that changed the game when it came to ubiquitous warrantless surveillance. What am I talking about? Tucson doesn't use Flock cameras. Well, maybe a drone, but we haven't gotten the public records request on that yet. But let's talk about one of Thiel's buddies instead, Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein, along with former Prime Minister Ehud Baruch, were both financial investors in an Israeli tech company called Carbine. Carbine was known for headways in predictive policing. They were leaders in hacking people's phones using their voice patterns, background noise, and movement patterns to mark individuals as suspicious to law enforcement. Carbine is used globally in El Salvador, in Mexico against cartels. Most famously, it was used by NYPD to track BLM demonstrators. Carbine is currently being bought out and merging with another company, an Arizona company based out of Scottsdale. Its name is Axon. Axon provides all of our police body cameras and are AI-enabled, and they're also being used as ALPRs here in Tucson by TPD and the Sheriff's Department. That same company also has a... They have a monopoly, basically. Anyway, just to wrap it up, you say you're doing your due diligence with this tech and you're being responsible and you dropped my name during the study session, but I have yet to have a full conversation about this with any of you. DFLOG did produce a workshop along with the ACLU of Arizona and experts in U of A and also border security. We send it all to your emails. I suggest you watch it and listen before you implement any AI technology within Tucson. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Suarez. Michael Crawford and then our final speaker will be Kimiko Washington. MICHAEL?

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR AND COUNCIL. MY NAME IS MIKE CRAWFORD. I LIVE AT 19 NORTH FREEMONT AVENUE, JEFFERSON PARK. Most people come down to complain about things. My original intention coming down was to not do that, was to compliment the mayor and council on I think probably the best project or program that you put together, which was the neighborhood street reinvestment program with the dedicated funds to help improve, basically redo all of the neighborhood streets and the city over a 10 year period. Having had the worst, probably, neighborhood streets in the city for about 20 years, having them redone is a life-changing thing for the neighborhoods. You see it all over town now being done in different neighborhoods, and I think it's probably the best program the City of Tucson's approved and got accomplished in the last probably 20 years. I would ask that you consider using some of those funds in the downtown streets, given that our downtown is the heart of the city. The streets should reflect that, and a lot of them don't, especially the crosswalks are unsafe and need repairs. I also came down to ask you to repeal an ordinance, ordinance number 11978 that you approved two years ago, those of you that were on the council. It has to do with the special use exception procedures regarding social equity licenses. I would ask that you put that on a study session and review its implementation over the last several years. I believe it's nothing but a waste of time and city resources. I heard you guys during the budget discussions talking about how you, development services doesn't have enough staff to do the work it needs to do. We've just been, we were compliant operation I own part of the prime leaves and we were compliant operation we were in conformity by passing that ordinance you made us a non-conforming use I'm trying to do a modification of one of our properties we're at nine months now trying to do this should have taken two cost us thousands of dollars wasted thousands of city hours so I'd ask that you look at repealing that Now to my major complaint. I was gonna be here on June 9th at your council meeting to speak on the vine substation regarding TEP. And fortunately, I was in LA going to the Rush concert and missed your meeting. But I had no doubt that you would support Jefferson Park neighborhood in its request to have an exception made to the approval of TEP's buy-in substation, which would be that they underline or power basically bear the power lines in conformance with the Arizona U of A overlay zone. For those of you that voted to require that, I applaud you. To those of you who didn't, I would ask that you reconsider your vote. That special condition would not, we're talking about less than two miles of undergrounding.

Mr. Crawford, could you come to a conclusion?

You're gonna put 100 foot poles going down Park Avenue and through Adams Street. I would encourage you that those in Ward, it's a Ward 6 operation, but it's near Ward 3, and I would ask that you come down and look at what 100-foot poles are gonna look like going down Euclid and going down Park Avenue. It's absurd.

Thank you, Mr. Washington. I mean, Mr. Crawford. Kimiko?

Hello, good evening, Vice Mayor and Council. My name is Kimiko Washington. And I'm the mother of Ocean Washington who was shot and killed on October 18th, 2021 at Mission Manor Park. Last year around this time, the construction for the new aquatic center began and we were there on July 1st, which would have been Ocean's 25th birthday. We were standing there in shock. His memorial had moved and there was a dumpster placed where he took his last breaths. In eight days it will be Ocean's, would have been 26th birthday. And today I'd like to recognize Carlos Cortez, whose birthday is today, and he would have turned 23 years old. And also James Sanchez, whose life at 18 years old ended by gun violence this day, June 23rd, 2022. And June is Gun Violence Awareness Month, and we appreciate the proclamation recognizing June 3rd as National Gun Violence Awareness Day and the Wear Orange Movement. And tonight I ask, now what? When June turns into July, the grieving family sitting here behind me in this audience will still be grieving. We're still asking, now what? We are still broken, supporting each other, and spreading awareness. Gun violence first broke my heart in 1996 when my friend's sister, Thomasine Pazos, was shot and killed in her neighborhood while sitting in her new car that she just received as a birthday gift. She had just turned 18 years old three days before she was shot and killed. Decades later, the crisis is still in our neighborhoods and in our parks, the very places we send our children. Isabel Mariscal, she spoke earlier this month about her brother, Joshua Mariscal, who was shot and killed December 27th, 2025, sharing the devastating homicide statistics in Tucson, the lives being lost by gun violence, and those committing these crimes are young adults and teenagers. Sometimes, as grieving families, we feel like we're doing this for nothing. Our loved ones are dead and they're not coming back. But what if their names can still heal and help and teach this world? My son Ocean, his life stopped at Mission Manor Park and I will grieve him for the rest of my life. But Ocean was a light and a free spirit. And his life, had it not been cut short, he'd be doing good right now. I have submitted a formal proposal to the mayor and city manager, I'm asking you to place this on the future agenda to advocate with me to name the facility the Ocean Washington Memorial Aquatic Center at Mission Manor. Let's turn a place of loss into a place of positive legacy. By naming the center after ocean, we can establish permanent education. Let's teach the devastating effects of gun violence and provide gun safety information and show youth where to go for help. We must look at our city's pain and ask, what are we going to do next? You announced the Awareness Day, now let's make less loss. Please put Ocean Washington Memorial Aquatic Center on the agenda. Thank you.

Thank you. Item seven.

Consent agenda.

Reports from the city manager and the consent agenda are received into any part of the record. Mr. Clerk, you're requested to read the consent agenda.

Your Honor, on this evening's consent agenda, item 7A is approval of minutes. Item 7B, approval of the fiscal year 2027 public safety personnel retirement system funding policy. Upon no objection from Mayor and Council, this item will be considered separately at the request of Councilmember Cunningham. Item 7C, resolution authorizing the Chief Financial Officer, Assistant City Manager, TO SUBMIT AND FILE THE CITY'S ANNUAL EXPENDITURE LIMITATION REPORT. ITEM 7D, FINANCIAL PARTICIPATION AGREEMENT WITH THE PIMA ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2027. ITEM 7E, INTERGOVERNMENTAL AGREEMENT WITH PIMA COUNTY VICTIM SERVICES FOR FISCAL YEAR 2027. ITEM 7F, EXTENSION OF SIGN CODE SUNSET DATE. ITEM 7G, FIBER TO THE PREMISES LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR USE OF THE PUBLIC RIGHT OF WAY IDEATECH TELECOM ARIZONA LLC PROJECT. Item 7H, commission on equitable housing and development, removal of sunset date. Item 7I, amending Tucson code section 10A-134B to eliminate the eight year membership limit for members of the community police advisory review board. Upon no objection from mayor and council, this item will be considered separately at the request of council member Schubert. Item 7J, sub-award agreement with the city of Tucson and the University of Arizona governing the use of monies awarded to the city by the Arizona Department of Public Safety under grant 2025-345 from the fiscal year 25 DPS local border support grant program. Upon no objection from mayor and council, this item will be considered separately at the request of Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. Item 7K, amendment number one to intergovernmental agreement for transportation funding with the city of Tucson AND THE REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY OF PUMA COUNTY FOR SILVER BOW ROAD TO AL CAMINO DEL CERO IMPROVEMENT PROJECT. Item 7L, Amendment Number 2 to Intergovernmental Agreement for Transportation Funding with the City of Tucson and the Regional Transportation Authority of Pima County for the Howden Road, 22nd Street to Irvington Road Improvement Project. Item 7M, Authorizing the City of Tucson to act as Fiscal Agent for a MIDI Foundation regarding its application to the Ak-Chin Indian Community for grant funding to support the Better Together Initiative. An appropriate motion at this time would be to pass and adopt item 7A, 7C through 7H, and 7K through 7M on the consent agenda and the proper action taken.

So moved, Your Honor.

Second. Roll call.

Mr. Cunningham. Aye. Mr. Dahl. Aye. Mrs. Lee. Aye.

Ms. Baragas. Aye.

Mick Schubert.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Santa Cruz.

Aye. The item on the consent agenda approved by a vote of 6-0. The items? Okay. Seven, so now we'll move on to item 7B so we can discuss it and vote on it separately.

Yes, Your Honor, I pulled this. The reason I pulled this item, this is the, for the folks here, this is the pension, this estimates our, how at what level our pension is funded. And that seems like a meaningless thing. It should be pretty cut and dry. But sometimes I get suspicious. My little voice tells me, wait a minute, what's going on if the math isn't mathing perfectly? In this case, I'm not trying to question anybody's numbers or anything like that. But if we can get a report at least knowing how many retirees we have in the two systems, and how much we're paying out every year, I think that would be helpful. I'd like to be able to transfix that number with the amount of money in our 115 trust and our money at PSPRS minus the $30 million debt service we're paying. Because it doesn't make any sense to me that they're listing us at 66% funded when if the math may tell us that we're like 80 or 90% funded, especially if the delta that we're earning after the debt service payment is equal to or just under what we paid out this year. And so I just want some clarity on those numbers because it really wasn't in the material. Not that that's a big deal, but I just wanna ask staff to do that. I can make that in form of a motion or is this direction good enough?

Honorable Vice Mayor, members of the council, we can certainly, we don't need direction to pull that information together for you. We have our audited financial reports and other reports that we can pull that information to you. What we would ask for is a motion to move the item for tonight so we can proceed down the path that we need to make our payments for this year. But we can get that material to you in 30 days.

All right, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Manager. And with that, I move the item. Second.

Roll call.

Mr. Cunningham? Aye. Mr. Dahl?

Aye.

Mrs. Lee? Aye.

Ms. Baranda? Aye.

Ms. Schubert?

Aye.

Vice Mayor Santa Cruz?

Aye. The item on the consent agenda approved by a vote of 6-0. Moving on to item 7-I, Council Member Schubert.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Yeah, I pulled this item and just have a few comments about my concerns. And this is related to amending the Tucson Code to eliminate the eight-year membership term for members of CPARB, which is also known as the Community Advisory Board for the Tucson Police Department. So my worry is that removing term limits allows the possibility for a group or an individual to control decision-making on this important board. I think we need to consider the ripple effect that this could have on the goals and mission of a community advisory board. I understand that per the memo, a barrier we're navigating on this issue is due to ARS 38-1161, which requires members of a civilian police review board, such as CPARC to undergo extensive unpaid training for 80 hours. This has been a huge barrier for keeping those vacancies filled. Topics of the 80-hour training include use of force justification, dynamics of use of force encounters, de-escalation techniques, understanding the use and limitations of body-worn cameras, processes for in-custody deaths in jails and prisons, the structure for investigation and administrative needs to ensure due process, and simulated event law enforcement training, which makes up 20 of the 80 hours of required training. For context, these rules were enacted in 2021 after HB 2462 was passed entirely on party lines and signed by then Governor Doug Ducey. This bill faced significant opposition from over 500 individuals and various organizations, including the ACLU of Arizona, Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice, the Arizona Faith Network, League of Arizona Cities and Towns, and both the cities of Phoenix and Tucson. I recognize the problem this ordinance change is trying to resolve. In fact, I will share that the recent Ward 6 appointee to CPARB resigned due to the extensive 80 hours of training that conflicted with their work schedule and their daily life. However, I'm not convinced that removing term limits is the right solution. A 2020 study completed by the Policing Project emphasizes the importance of term limits due to the high tendency of burnout as members review difficult and traumatic cases. That's on pages 16 to 17 of the report. Currently, our eight year limit of CPARB in Tucson is greater than similar cities, including Phoenix, Albuquerque, and Las Vegas. Their term limits are all six years. But again, I understand the concern surrounding board recruitment and ensuring quorum is met. Therefore, I'd like to make a motion to continue this vote for 60 days to give mayor and council time to review this important item in more detail. I ask, and Tim, let me know if this is appropriate or if there's maybe a different department for this, but I was thinking the independent police auditor and or city clerk's office to provide a report that includes average length that a member engages in CPARB, I can send this as well, over the last 10 years, just to find out how many of those CPARB members stay for the full eight-year term. We also are curious to know the number of cases that CPARB heard in 2025, the number of hours that CPARB met in 2025, and the number of times quorum was and was not met in 2025. I think this information will help us make a more informed decision. It'll help us determine if increasing the length of term limits will actually solve our problem with quorum or if we need to look at an alternative solution. So those are my comments. My motion again is to continue this vote for 60 days to give additional time and to receive further information.

Do we have a second? Okay, motion dies due to a lack of second. Motion to move the original item forward. So moved.

Second, and in giving the second, I think we brought this forward because Annabelle Nunez has done such a great job and we need to maintain a quorum. I couldn't find somebody at this point because of that, of the things that you said. So I don't mind, I don't mind revisiting it, but I wanted to get Annabelle Nunez, and thank you, Annabelle, for your eight years of service to continue in this role.

I think what I would add to that is that as an elected who served in four-year terms, if I were to serve a third term, I like to continue the relationship that I have with my commissioners, but I still think that the concerns you raise are valuable and we should also consider doing that at the same time. So I'm not sure city manager, if that needs direction to also move the other items that are not postponing this vote. If you need a motion or if that's something staff can work on.

Honorable vice mayor, members of the council. We're happy to pull together that information that was requested and report that back to you in an off agenda memo. So you can have the context and understanding of the history of that commission and Council Member Schubert, that'd be correct. The city clerk and then the independent police auditor, which is in my side of the shop, they will collaborate and we'll get that to you as soon as possible.

Roll call.

Mrs. Lee?

Aye.

Mr. Dahl? Aye. Mr. Cunningham? Aye. Ms. Baraka? Aye. Ms. Schubert?

Nay.

Vice Mayor Santa Cruz?

Aye. The item seven, I... on the consent agenda is approved by a vote of five to one. Okay, now we're moving on to item 7J. And so I pulled this item because the community has raised concerns that deserve to be answered in the open and not just passed quietly on consent. We're in a moment when our neighbors are being detained and disappeared by federal agents, when families don't know if loved ones will come home AND WHEN SURVEILLANCE TECHNOLOGY HAS A LONG DOCUMENTED HISTORY OF FALLING HARDEST ON COMMUNITIES OF COLOR, THIS FEAR IS NOT ABSTRACT, ESPECIALLY IN WARD ONE, AND I WOULD ALSO ARGUE WARD FIVE WHERE THE FREEWAY IS, AND THAT'S THE AREA THAT'S BEING DESIGNATED FOR THIS GRANT. So in residency, the words border security and license plate readers on a city agenda, the right to ask hard questions and take those questions seriously. I wanna use just the next few moments to ask some clarifying questions. Can staff confirm the technology and the funding that were already decided by the DPS award? So tonight's item is just the independent evaluation, the oversight piece. So a no vote wouldn't stop the program. It would just remove the external review of it. Is that accurate?

Honorable Vice Mayor, joining us tonight is Dr. Eric Kerner from our data analysis unit. He's closest to the information and be able to answer your questions adequately.

Vice Mayor, council members, thanks for having me today. To answer your question directly, ma'am, this is just for the Independent University of Arizona evaluation of the program, yes.

So how does TPD define its border security work under this grant? I want to be able to describe this to our constituents in terms that they can understand.

Yeah, absolutely. And happy to answer any questions. And thank you for asking the questions as a resident too. So the first thing I would answer for you is that although this is an FY25 grant, the money is appropriated actually under the Biden administration. The priorities for this grant are the Biden administration, violence reduction, narcotics reduction activities. The grant is being implemented in a new administration with new priorities at this time. So the way that we defined the activities in this grant when we submitted the application for it was to reduce the trafficking of guns up and down the I-10 and I-19 and for the mid-level narcotics distribution up and down the I-10 and the I-19.

What specific data does the U of A receive for this evaluation?

Yes, so I think most people would be wondering, especially in the era of data sharing and the federal government, the U of A would receive data that is at the end equivalent to a public records request. We are not providing, if this is approved, we would not be providing the U of A any publicly identifiable, personally identifiable information, no HIPAA information, no criminal justice information, no license plate hits, none of those things. This would be geolocated calls for service police incidents and arrest that occurred or originated in a specific geofence area around the locations that the automatic license plate readers are deployed, as well as comparison sites where there are no automatic license plate readers to understand the crime impact, the impact on crime in our community for this deployment. And there was no personally identifiable information provided to them.

And so how will the city, I guess, how do we make our community assured that this isn't an increase in militarized immigration operations happening here in Tucson?

Yeah, so the Tucson Police Department does not perform any military operations. I'd also say that by policy, the Tucson Police Department prohibits license plate readers from being used in immigration for any capacity in immigration. So that by policy is not something that we're going to participate in.

The other question I had is that the fact sheet that was shared with us talked about this as being a license plate readers. The grant also funds 130,000 for a drone program. Can staff explain what that is and how it differs from the ALPR and why it's part of this grant?

Yes, sure. So the city of Tucson does not have AER or DFR at this point. That program is being developed in consultation with council and in consultation with all the public safety partners. So there is a $130,000 fund that includes software licensing, pilot training, and procurement of hardware for drones. But because the city has not launched that program, that funding is not spent and hasn't been used because we're still in that process of implementation.

Okay, and so just again to confirm, tonight's item is just the independent evaluation, not the grant specifically.

That is correct. This would authorize the U of A to receive the fund to do the independent evaluation.

Thank you. I wanted to see if any of my colleagues had questions or comment. Council Member Schubert.

Thanks, Vice Mayor. Your questions covered most of it, but I was a bit curious. If the subgrant isn't approved, is there a plan B to have the design, oversight, and evaluation be done internally by TPD, or would we need to seek another evaluator? Just curious to know the consequences.

Yeah, sure, so I'll answer a different question, but I promise I'll answer your question right afterwards. External and independent evaluations were not required by the grant. TPD specifically wrote this in because we wanted to understand the impact. TPD will do its own evaluation of this program, but we wanted to give the community that independent and impartial evaluation on top of it so that we had double-layered understanding of what was happening. If the subrecipient award is not granted through this vote right here, we will have to understand what that means for grant compliance, possibly seeking a grant adjustment modification, and that's all an unknown next step on there.

Council Member Barajas? Did you have a question?

No, the only question I had was, so when you're saying it's under the Biden administration with the grant compliance, depending on how we vote, then it'll just, because it was under that administration, it'll just dissolve?

So I don't think I fully understand the question. Let me try to rephrase it and maybe it'll help out a little bit. The priority areas for this grant were to reduce violent crime and to reduce narcotic trafficking. And that is what the Tucson Police Department submitted for under the umbrella of the border support grant. So there was nothing in the grant that we put in for immigration or anything like that. So I'm not a lawyer that there's a lawyer in the room with us. If the current administration changes any stipulations of the grant, the city respond to that through a legal process. I am simply telling you the priorities that were presented to us and the priorities that we said we wanted to benefit the city of Tucson with. Let me know if I answered your question or spoke too quickly.

Well, I just, you started off by saying it was FY25 grant under the Biden administration. Right? Okay.

Yeah, yeah. So that would have been appropriated in October 24-ish.

Okay. No, the questions you had, pretty much, those were the questions. Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Council Member Lee? Just a question on if, to Council Member Schubert's question, if this was not awarded and you had to go back and get a variance, for lack of a better word, could that put the entire grant at risk of not getting following through?

Yeah, so the state is a pass-through. They will seek authorization through the federal government, is my understanding. And so if we put in that adjustment, the federal government and the state could decline at any point. I don't know what they will choose to do. I don't know. I can't give a probability either way.

Okay, I just wanted to understand if we would be possibly putting the entire grant award at risk by making adjustments at this stage of the game?

I think that's a possibility.

Okay.

Council Member Dahl?

Yeah, I don't have any questions. I think this, the university is just asked to do an evaluation and it seems to me that the very specific professors are listed and the percentage of time that's spent on it, it's not really creating any additional surveillance danger at the U of A or anything. So I'm in favor of this contract with the U of A professors.

Council Member Cunningham. All right, I think we're ready to vote on this. I guess I would just on the record that we'd be mindful of how we put these materials together so we don't lose community trust in how we're delivering public safety to our community. So may I have a motion, please? Move it forward.

Second.

Roll call?

Mrs. Lee?

Aye.

Mr. Cunningham? Aye. Mr. Dahl? Aye. Ms. Barajas? Aye. Ms. Hubert?

Aye.

Vice Mayor Santa Cruz?

Aye. The item, this consent agenda item is approved by a vote of 6-0. Item eight.

Fixing, levying, and assessing the primary and secondary property taxes for fiscal year 2027.

City Manager's Communication Number 194, dated June 23rd, is received into and made part of the record. Mr. Clerk, you are requested to read Ordinance Number 12262 by number and title only.

Ordinance number 12262 relating to taxation, fixing, levying, and assessing primary and secondary property taxes for the City of Tucson upon the assessed valuation of the property within the City of Tucson subject to taxation. Each added rate for each $100 of valuation sufficient to raise the amount estimated to be required in the annual budget, lest the amounts estimated to be received from other sources of revenue and unencumbered balances from previous fiscal year. Offer the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2027 and declaring an emergency.

What is the council's pleasure? I motion to pass and adopt ordinance 12262. Discussion?

Roll call?

Ms. Barajas?

Aye.

Mr. Cunningham? Aye. Mr. Dahl? Aye. Mrs. Lee?

Aye.

Ms. Schubert?

Aye.

Vice Mayor Santa Cruz?

Aye. Ordinance 12262 passes by a vote of 6-0. Item nine.

Adjournment.

Council will stand adjourned. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be on Tuesday, July 21st, 2026, at or after 5.30 p.m. Thank you.