Tucson Council Approves Downtown Hotel Incentive While Confronting Homelessness Inflow Crisis; Dramatic Shift in Addiction-Treatment Strategy Emerges

Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. [music] Hey, [music] hey hey. Hey hey hey. [music] Heat. [music] Hey Heat. [music] Hey, hey hey. [music] Hey, [music] hey hey. [music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [music] Hey, hey, hey. [music] [music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [music] Afternoon [music] everyone. we will um start our study session. Uh we do have a quorum and then we'll have the others join us at the executive session room.

So for the record, Councilman Lee will be participating electronically through Microsoft Teams and she is there right now. Item one is an executive session. Miss Clerk, item one is notice as an executive session, water resource developments to alleviate drought in the lower Colorado River basin and effects on potential amendments to the water service intergovernmental agreement with the Pascayaki tribe. May I have a motion to move into executive session, please? So moved. Motion and a second.

Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor of going into executive session signify by saying I. I. I. I. Any against? Motion carries. We will be out in 45 minutes to an hour. Thank you. [snorts] [music] Hey, hey, hey. [music] I'm [music] a [music] Ly down. [music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [music] Hey hey hey. [music] Wow. [music] Heat. [music] [music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [music] feel anything. [music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [music] [music] Heat up here. Everything else? [music] Hey. [music] Hey. Hey.

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[music] Hey Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. N. [music] Hey, [music] you doing? [music] Hey hey hey. [music] Hey, hey, hey. [music] [music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [music] Hey. [music] We need [music] a motion to return to study. So moved. I heard a second. Did I hear? Okay. So, there is a motion and a second. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Any against? Motion carries. What is the uh council's pleasure for item two?

Your honor, an appropriate motion would be to proceed, as discussed in executive session, to direct the city manager and the city attorney to negotiate and execute any and all amendments necessary to the Pasuayaki water services intergovernmental agreement to facilitate a settlement of Pascoyaki and city of Tucson water rights within the Tucson water service area. All righty. So, um, you need a motion. So, move, mayor. Motion and a second. Any further discussion on this item? Hearing none.

All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Any against? Motion carries. Item three. I don't know if we have the staff and team here. Brandy Champion is coming up and Jason Thorp. Time has been set aside to provide an update on the efforts to support unsheltered persons and how the city is addressing the concerns expressed by residents and business owners in Tucson. This [snorts] is an item that I requested a couple of years ago, must have been two, three years ago.

Um, so the mayor and council and the community would stay updated on the efforts that the city of Tucson is putting into providing a safe city for all. Um last week at our safe city connect sessions I joined in person and listened to the residents on what makes them feel safe. Um especially on our transit system. My priority is for every single person in our city to feel safe in our public spaces.

These safe city connect sessions um are an important piece of communicating with the community the work that we're doing and most important to listen to their input and feedback. Um I was really proud that also last week um in partnership with safe city and the vice mayor I requested city staff to create a back to school srans safe rights to school initiative.

Uh, I want to thank Jackie Ortiz, a policy adviser at my office for um volunteering all that week, other city staff and other volunteers that volunteered um to make sure that students and residents got to school safe, that they knew what bus to take, that they uh were feeling comfortable in our bus system. Thank you as well to our multidisciplinary outreach teams and every volunteer who's working on the ground every day to make our community safe.

Last Saturday I went to a celebration for the multidisciplinary outreach team volunteers. I'm very very grateful for their work. they without our volunteers uh this work uh would be much slower and our um MDOT volunteers and community volunteers make our our community so much safer. I was really happy to hear that since 2021 that we created Housing First, we have permanently housed 1,800 people in our community.

Um I feel that our balanced approach, our holistic approach and compassion and accountability that we layer over the work that we do have reduced uh our unsheltered homelessness. I was really happy to look at the material that you included it. it um it seems as though the holistic and layered work that we do for this have reduced unsheltered homelessness by 22%.

I mean the numbers I was I was reading the numbers and I was very happy to see that all of the work that we're doing is showing um is is making a difference in our community. And um you know I'm I'm I'm really happy to see that we are above average as a city uh when it comes to connecting people to permanent housing and helping them, you know, find um a permanent home and sometimes a job and the mental behavioral uh help that they need.

and you know a a permanent space for their children to be able to reconnect with them many of them. So um it's it's I'm really happy to uh see the numbers that we have. We did talk about it at the board of supervisors in our joint meeting. Uh we are he hearing even at the volunteer appreciation event last Saturday.

We are hearing that because of federal government cuts into Medicare and uh SNAP benefits in terms of food uh that it could be very uh complicated and it could complicate the um strides in terms of the advancement of the work that we're doing here. It's it really is going to um exacerbate the needs um of our community and perhaps um add more people that have nowhere to go. So, I'm looking forward to the update. Thank you so much for all of the work that you do.

I'm very excited about the numbers that you're bringing to us and hopefully we can work towards making sure that every level of government is doing what they're supposed to do to combat uh unsheltered homelessness and create a safe city uh in Tucson. So with that, Mr. manager. Thank you, honorable mayor, members of the council.

Joining us for this item are Brandy Champion, our program director for community safety, and Jason Thorp, one of our deputy directors for housing and community development, and they will be rolling right into the update. I turn it to Brandy. Honorable mayor, members of the council, I'm happy to provide an update for you today. Um, I'm going to just say a few of our updates and then I'm going to pass it to Jason so he has plenty of time.

Um, beginning September 1st, community members will be able to use a community storage program that we now have located at Tucson City Court. Um, we have eight very large lockers um that community members can access Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. um to store their items while they're going to court. Um, other important appointments in the city, it's very near a transit center, one of our major transit centers. So, um, and they can store those items up to 24 hours.

Um, I'd like to thank Arizona Complete Health, who sponsored those lockers for us. And, um, Joshua Halverson, our director of Tucson City Court, for allowing us to have that space, as well as Lori Distl, our management assistant with Housing First because she'll be overseeing that program. Um, our parks PACE people, which is parks assistance and community engagement. I want to give you a brief update about that.

Um they've had 54 engagements in June with 30 encampment reports through the dashboard. Um they've partnered with TPD and our multi- agency resource coordinator on some deployments. Two at Kennedy Park, one at Danny Lopez Park, and one at Reed Park. We'll continue working really closely with them. Um Lara, our director of parks and recreation is in the audience if there's any questions later.

Um and our other safe city employments continue to um um progress and connect people directly with shelter, housing navigators, detox, medic medication assisted uh treatment. Um and we're still seeing about half of those people accept services and and resources. So that's a good thing.

Um, on July 28th, the Regional Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee, otherwise known as ROSAC, uh, unanimously approved a request for 329,000, a little over 329,000 um, in opioid settlement funds to support Community Bridges, Desert Cove Transitional Housing and Recovery Program. That gives us an additional uh, four four months of funding. Um and right now they're making improvements um paint, flooring, bathroom improvements so that they can increase their capacity.

That funding will begin October 1st. Um so all in all the bigger picture is that um shelter is just one component of the many different things in our system. And with that, I want to pass it over to Jason Thorp so he can update us on uh Tucson Puma collaboration to end homelessness and some system level um responses to homelessness. Thank you. Thank you so much, Brandy. Honorable Mayor Romero, and members of the council, thank you for the opportunity to be here today.

I'd like to cover two items. First, I'll provide a follow-up to our last discussion regarding the HUD continuum of care funding competition and our recent youth homelessness funding application. Then I'd like to spend the balance of my time talking about how our department and our community partners are rethinking our approach to solving homelessness in Tucson. As you may recall when I last updated you, we were preparing for HUD's annual continuum of care funding competition.

That funding announcement included significant policy changes that would have forced local continuums of care to shift resources away from per proven permanent housing solutions and toward transitional housing models. The city of Tucson was a plaintiff in a lawsuit led by the National Alliance to End Homelessness challenging those provisions. On August 7th, a federal court found that HUD's actions violated the Administrative Procedure Act and ordered the funding announcement vacated.

That was the third time in less than a year that a federal court has halted a continuum of care funding competition in response to unlawful actions by HUD as the Trump administration has sought to substantially redirect federal homelessness policy away from evidence-based housing first practices. HUD has indicated that it is considering an appeal and activity related to the competition is currently paused. Existing grants have been renewed through 2027. So there is no immediate funding lapse.

Longer term, however, uncertainty remains depending on whether HUD renews awards for another year or issues another funding announcement containing provisions similar to those already challenged in court. We will continue monitoring those developments closely and keep mayor and council informed. There's also important news regarding the separate federal funding opportunity to address youth homelessness.

On August 10th, our department submitted approximately $4.18 million in funding requests to HUD on behalf of the Tucson Puma Collaboration to End Homelessness. Approximately 1 million would support regional coordination, including work to reduce the number of young people entering homelessness from systems of care such as child welfare and juvenile justice. Address workforce shortages among youth serving organizations.

elevate the role of young leaders in system design and strengthen public accountability for meaningful reductions in youth homelessness. The remaining approximately $3.18 million would directly fund four housing and service strategies.

a one-stop youth services center operated through the city's housing first program, host homes for unhoused youth in rural communities, shared housing for youth in the Tucson metro area operated by Catholic Community Services, and a specialized program operated by Community Bridges Incorporated providing housing, behavioral health, and substance use treatment for young people with complex needs.

HUD has indicated that awards will be announced by September 15th with funding available October 1 if we are selected. We'll keep you informed of that outcome. With those updates, I'd like to zoom out and spend the rest of our time talking about homelessness, not simply as a collection of programs, but as a system.

This discussion is an abbreviated version of a 75-minute workshop I recently presented to approximately 125 housing practitioners from across Arizona at the Arizona Housing Coalition Conference. If members of mayor and council would like to make that full presentation available to your staff, neighborhood groups, or constituents, I'd be happy to coordinate with your offices. For today, I'll give you the very short version. And I want to begin by acknowledging something important.

Tucson has made real progress. As the mayor pointed out, the numbers are proving that we have invested significantly in outreach, emergency shelter, supportive housing, homelessness prevention, and permanent [clears throat] housing solutions. We have strengthened partnerships with Puma County, nonprofit organizations, healthcare providers, faith communities, law enforcement, and many others.

Using using the systems approach reflected in the city's safe city initiative, we are bringing partners together around a coordinated response that addresses public safety and quality of life concerns while simultaneously connecting people experiencing homelessness to shelter, treatment, and housing. And those investments are producing meaningful results. But the next phase of this work requires us to ask a somewhat different question.

Instead of simply asking how many people can we serve, we need to refocus on how we can design a a community system that actually reduces homelessness over time. One of the simplest ways to understand that distinction is to think about homelessness like water in a bathtub. The water in the tub represents people experiencing homelessness today. The drain represents what we typically think of as the homelessness response system.

outreach, shelter, housing navigation, supportive housing, rental assistance, and other interventions that help people leave homelessness. But there's also a faucet. The faucet represents people entering homelessness, sometimes for the first time, and sometimes after previously regaining housing.

That inflow is affected by housing costs, eviction, loss of income, behavioral and physical health crises, discharge from hospitals and correctional institutions, domestic violence, family instability, and other pressures. And the math is simple. If people enter homelessness faster than we can help them leave it, homelessness increases even when individual programs are performing well. Tucson's experience gives us evidence of both sides of that equation.

On the outflow side, the city, county, and our nonprofit partners in the Tucson Puma Collaboration to End Homelessness are seeing measurable results. Since 2022, as the mayor pointed out, Tucson has experienced a 22% reduction in unsheltered homelessness. Returns to homelessness following supportive housing have declined 28%. The percentage of households leaving homeless assistance programs with earned income has increased 21%.

While the percentage leaving with income from any source doubled between 2023 and 2025. And today 48% of households leaving emergency shelter and short-term housing solutions move directly into permanent housing. That's 42% higher than the national average. But perhaps the number that matters the most to me is this and one that the mayor highlighted. Since launching the city's housing first initiative in 2021, we have helped approximately 1,800 people obtain permanent housing.

Statistics can become abstract and I just listed several. So let's put that number in human terms. That is 1,800 tonins who have keys today instead of tents. 1,800 people with a door they can lock, a place for their belongings, an address for a job application, somewhere to recover after leaving a hospital, and a stable place from which to rebuild the other parts of their lives. That is what these investments are producing.

And we are continuing to evolve our approach beyond simply getting someone housed. In our Tucson Heart permanent supportive housing project, we recently implemented a 20-hour per week job training program in partnership with a local nonprofit, the How Project. Housing ends the immediate experience of homelessness, but income and economic opportunity sustains stability.

We increasingly want supportive housing to serve as a platform from which people can rebuild independence and self-sufficiency, not just a place to stay. We're also seeing what stronger coordination can accomplish immediately. This week, our housing first and Elal affordable housing teams are moving 41 households from homelessness into affordable Elportal apartments.

Elpatal is providing quality, affordable homes, while Housing First is providing the rental assistance and supportive services needed for people who have experienced chronic homelessness to maintain that housing. Last week, more than 50 housing and community development employees and community volunteers work together to prepare those homes for with furniture, bedding, household supplies, and stocked refrigerators.

And while I'm here with you today, members of our team are welcoming those tonins into their new homes. Returning briefly to the bathtub metaphor, that is what widening the drain looks like. Aligning housing services, staff, and other resources so people spend less time homeless and move into housing faster. We are also redesigning supportive service housing program budgets to guarantee access to substance use treatment for residents who need it.

The opioid epidemic is causing tremendous harm to our unhoused neighbors. We want the people we house to have more than a bed. We want them to have a meaningful opportunity for recovery, and that takes an active position. We've also introduced supportive service participation requirements in our housing programs. Participants retain dignity and choice in developing their plans for self-sufficiency, but they are expected to be active partners in pursuing those goals.

That distinction matters because housing first has never meant housing only. It means we do not require someone to overcome addiction, stabilize a mental health condition, or resolve every other challenge before providing a safe place to live. Housing is not a reward. It is a foundation. We provide stability first and then make treatment, employment, health care, and other supports genuinely accessible. These are just some of the ways that our team is advancing the safe city strategy.

Safe city cannot be measured only by what happens in encampment or in a public space. Its long-term success depends on whether the coordinated response creates pathways that actually move people from those environments into shelter, treatment, and ultimately stable housing. And our team is actively redesigning our work to improve those outcomes. So there is much to be proud of, but there's also an important challenge in front of us.

Despite these improvements, homelessness remains substantially higher than it was before the pandemic. And perhaps the most important number I will share with you today is this. Nearly 3,000 Puma County residents experienced homelessness for the first time last year. At the same time that TPCH partners are successfully housing people every year, thousands of new people are entering homelessness. That does not mean our response system is failing.

In many respects, the outcomes I just shared demonstrate the opposite. We along with our partners at Pimac County and Tucson's nonprofit community are getting better at helping people leave homelessness. But we cannot solve the crisis throughout Flow alone. Our next challenge is reducing how many people become homeless in the first place. A high-erforming shelter system cannot indefinitely compensate for an unaffordable housing market.

A strong outreach system will not prevent every jail, hospital, treatment, or foster care discharge that results in homelessness. And even a highly effective supportive housing system cannot sustainably reduce homelessness if more people are entering the system than leaving it. That leads me to three opportunities for the next stage of our work. First, we make prevention a co-equal part of our homelessness strategy.

We need to better understand who is becoming homeless, where they are coming from, and what immediately preceded their housing loss. If we understand those pathways, we can intervene earlier and more strategically. We cannot simply keep expanding the system downstream through additional shelter beds. We have to reduce demand upstream by addressing the system level causes of homelessness and prioritizing investments in homelessness prevention.

Second, we should double down on collaborative approaches to managing homelessness as one regional system rather than as a collection of individual programs and contracts. Shelter, housing, behavioral health, healthcare, criminal justice, workforce development, landlords, the city, the county, and our nonprofit partners are all influencing the same outcome. Safe City gives us a practical example of what that kind of system alignment can look like.

It brings together departments and partners that historically may have approached the same situation through different lenses, public safety, outreach, behavioral health, environmental conditions, courts or housing, and organizes them around a coordinated response. The opportunity now is to apply that same level of alignment not only to individuals deployments, but to how we manage the broader homelessness system. No single program owns homelessness, and no single program can solve it.

Our investments should therefore be managed as a portfolio against shared outcomes, not simply judged by whether every individual program is busy. Third, I believe we need to establish a small number of system level measures that this mayor and council and the Tucson community can follow consistently over time. Program measures will remain important, but to know whether the overall system is changing, we need to consistently be able to answer five questions.

Are fewer people experiencing homelessness today than they were yesterday? Are fewer people becoming homeless for the first time? Are more people leaving homelessness than entering it? Are we reducing the amount of time people remain homeless? And once people are housed, are they staying housed? Those measures tell us whether we are changing the trajectory of homelessness rather than simply increasing the volume or activity inside the response system.

They [clears throat] also require different and increasingly upstream approaches than we're using today. I want to close where I began with progress. Tucson has reduced unsheltered homelessness. We are moving more people into permanent housing. We are improving housing stability. We've built a housing force system that has helped more than 1,800 people trade tents for keys.

We are creating employment opportunities, strengthening access to treatment, and coordinating housing resources to move people into homes faster. Those accomplishments give us a strong foundation. Now, we need to widen our lens to prevent homelessness before it occurs, move people through homelessness more quickly when it does occur by aligning our investment investments toward a shared regional strategy, and ensure that when people regain housing, they have what they need to keep it.

Because ultimately, our goal should not be to build the biggest or busiest homelessness response system possible. Our goal should be to need a smaller one. Thank you for the opportunity to share this information with you. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you so much, Jason. I really appreciate it.

you've synthesized in 5 minutes um what we have been building on since 2022 right uh even before mayor and counsel approved I think it was back in 2020 we approved a housing first model that's what we requested as mayor and counsel and uh we put it to work immediately in co and that's how we found Brandy uh who helped us was working with OPCS and helped us put our housing our brand new housing first model that the city of Tucson adopted into practice.

And then we saw how effective it was in that one year that we tried it. And so um we started putting all of the systems together. That's why Safe City is important, right? because we're bringing down the silos. Um working together in a coordinated approach with a with a strategic plan in hand and um uh piloting, testing, and shifting if we need to uh the way that we do the outreach engagement and even accountability in our community. So, I'm I love how you put it.

The numbers that you brought us are pretty incredible. Uh you've said some of these numbers, but for me, like this last piece of statistics that you brought us, more than 96% of households exiting permanent supportive housing transition to permanent housing here in Tucson. That's an incredible number.

and 1,800 lives that have a place to call home that were previously like you said intents and now they have their um roofs over their head and the stability that they need of course with what you said which is very important and I think that's why the Trump administration is changing their no for notice of intent they many people confuse use housing first with housing only.

Housing first is a way to stabilize individuals because you cannot ask a person living in the street to stop um uh to stop their fentinel use, right? They have no stability. They don't know where they're going next. There's no uh help for them. Uh, and we ask that of them when they're stabilized, when they have a safe uh, bed to sleep in, when they have some warm food, when they have a shower to take a shower in.

Um and so I think that you know it's it's um a lot of people because of whether they don't want to understand uh or they just don't have the necessary information to understand what housing first means uh they are against it. But uh all of the programming from community safety, health and wellness to housing first um to our MD DOT program, all of it working together alongside TPD and Puma County and our nonprofit partners and um our city courts.

We're all making a difference and the numbers prove it. Um I'm glad to hear that we have funding from the federal government into 27. I'm concerned about what can happen next in terms of funding and what it could do to disturb the advancements that we are doing at the multidisciplinary outreach volunteer recognition lunch.

one of the providers, um, the nonprofit providers, you know, I was thanking her and and she said, "I'm very concerned because this big, beautiful bill is going to exacerbate unsheltered homelessness in our community." And I don't and she said I don't think people understand what this means um to the pressure that it will cause that prevention piece. Preventing people from becoming homeless is important.

Um and and because people will lose their access because people will lose their food benefits. um they're going to find themselves in a place where they cannot afford to stay wherever they are. And so I think that that is something that we have to make sure we're holding hands with Pima County and the state of Arizona to try and find solutions to prevent people from losing their home and seeing more people exacerbate the unsheltered homeless crisis that we see. So, uh good job.

um incredible work that you're doing. We can always do more, right? I usually say the programs that we have, the work that we're doing um is working. We can always use more money. So, um, this conversation, we kind of had a conversation up the stream conversation with Puma County Board of Supervisors last week and, um, I'm I'm just really happy that we're having these conversations with Pima County in order to be able to find solutions for what's coming.

Um, just going to open it up for my colleagues on the council if if you all have questions. Vice Mayor and then Council Member Do. Uh, thank you, Mayor. I don't really have questions. I just wanted to thank our team, Brandy, and team um for all of your work. We had the opportunity about two weeks ago to take um Supervisor Matt Hines and his staff on a tour of Casa PBlo Elcat in Star Village. I think that speaks to how critical it is that we're working regionally together.

And I really appreciate your comments about um not trying to have the biggest, you know, um system um to to manage our our homeless um population, but that we're making sure that um at every uh level, like you said, the preventative, the interventions um are all in place for us to to be successful. So, I want to I want to thank you for putting that in front of us. Um, mayor also had the opportunity last week um to be in Houston with the National League of Cities.

Um, I joined other vice mayors from large cities across the country to discuss our our shared challenges especially around homelessness and they're all facing, you know, similar uh landscapes on funding cuts and not having enough housing stock um to be able to place people. Um, but I was encouraged, you know, by all the creative ways that they're handling um, uh, you know, their their challenges. Um, especially they, um, just recently created a 120 bed treatment facility.

Um, and so I was really encouraged by the work that we're doing with Desert Cove. Is that the one? Desert. Um, with Desert Cove and and moving in that direction because we know that our community needs more than like a 3-day, you know, sobering place. They need extended support. So anywhere between 90 and 120 days that we can get people um stabilized is going to go a long way. So again, just thank you all for the work. Um it just, you know, got to keep on keep on going.

So thank you so much, Council Member D. Thank you, Mayor. Likewise. Thank you for your good work and the work of your colleagues that you're reporting on. We're doing a lot. Um, I'm interested in the community storage program and it might be too early to answer some of the questions that I have. It's people don't get a key, right? They check in and check out and they use their IDs or a photograph or something.

Honorable mayor, council member Doll, um the the staff of the city court will be um walking the person to the locker and they're using lockers that we check out to them. Locks that we check out to them. And that's the reason they do have a key then. Yes, they they do have a key and um actually we'll be open probably open closing and opening those lockers for them um just so that we don't go through locks at a crazy rate.

And actually we're getting some quotes right now to make digital locks um because Arizona Complete Health is interested in um what the cost would be and possibly funding digital locks for those lockers, retrofit them and get them in. and they love the the fact that it's at our um courthouse because there's a judicial um type of attachment and so they love that.

So I'd love to see if this is a successful pilot it it go to other places and I think this would be a matter for the collaboration because maybe it associated with libraries, cooling centers, places where um uh people I've talked to on the street making sure their material their uh items are safe is is a constant concern and it means people are traveling around with lots of stuff. Um, I love the safe city deployments. From this report, it looks like there was two in June and one in July.

Maybe there was another one in July. Are we doing about two a month? I believe I believe that's the case, council member. I believe that Justin is handling those with um TPD and parks. Um, so I believe that's so if it's evenly distributed, and I'm not one in favor of evenly distributing among wards because I want more in my ward um because there's more problems there.

Um, but it means one every every three months in my ward and I I think there's a greater need and and it's it's such a successful program. I don't know how we we ramp it up, but I'd be in favor of looking at possibilities for that because it it seems to be good uh and and doing what we intended to do. Again, thank you. I just wanted to I just wanted to add to the safe city deployments. Um, looks like we had three in June and July. Three deployments in June and July.

And I think one of the most important pieces of information about those deployments is that and I've been to them and I and I want to go again after summer. Um, but they really it's really wonderful to see uh video alternative to jail there, but also uh nonprofit partners, Pima County there. Um it it really is a uh s people are surrounded by resources that they can tap into. And because of the Safe City deployments and and because of Safe City, we switched, right?

We pivoted how we were doing this type of work, we had a correct me if I'm wrong, Brandy, a 10% acceptance rate by providing only housing first navigators. We switched to, I think this past month it was 52.24% acceptance rate. uh connecting people to either safer center or our uh housing first um options in the city. Um the resources are there and the support systems working with each other with some accountability there as well. Um has really changed that percentage of acceptance rate.

So thank you so much to the team. Council member Barakas. Thank you, mayor. Well, thank you both for the presentation.

Uh I just wanted to share as we continue to address homelessness, me mental health, drug addiction, poverty in our community, I do believe it is important that we continue monitoring how our resources are being used and most importantly whether those resources are producing measurable results um and how can we share and communicate this message and these numbers to our broader community.

I too was very impressed last Saturday at the uh volunteer appreciation lunchon and I would love just for our community to hear you know those results. So we need to support approaches that connect individuals to shelter treatment housing long-term stability. At the same time we must continue focusing on both connecting people to services and protecting our neighborhood quality of life.

Our residents and businesses deserve safe and clean neighborhoods while individuals experiencing homelessness deserve access to meaningful resources and opportunities for stability. I also believe it is important that we continue tracking the results of the safe city deployments and park responses. And I love the three um the three focus areas Jason that you provided prevention collaborative approach and the small level system measures measurements.

So this includes looking at the service ex acceptance and cleanup efforts, public safety outcomes, and whether we are seeing repeat activity in the same locations. I would also like to connect more of our business community to um all the work that you all are doing so they're fully aware as well. This work requires continued coordination between the city, the county, TPCH, service providers, law enforcement, and community partners. Again, including our business, community, and developers.

No single department or organization can address homelessness alone. So, thank you both. Any others? Uh, Council Member Schubert and then Council Member Kane. Thanks, Honorable Mayor. Um, and thank you Jason and Brandy for the update. Um, just as you know, we're a huge fan of your work at the W 6 office and all the different efforts. Um, and just echoing the praise of my colleagues on the council and I also want to bounce that praise back to the mayor and the council.

Thank you, Madame Mayor, for leading uh the charge to form the housing first program back in 2021. Um, and it is important to, you know, keep in mind like the I loved the image, Jason, of exchanging house keys for tents. The the returns to homelessness decreasing by 28%. It's huge. It suggests that we're employing a strategy that is breaking the cycle. Um the 48% of households exiting emergency shelters or short-term housing now moving into permanent housing 42% higher than the national average.

Um so I agree with my colleague Council Member Barahas about wanting to track those measurables and make sure that we're reporting out to the community that these approaches are yielding real results for real families and households. Um so so much kudos to all the folks doing this work uh trying new ideas using evidence-backed solutions and um I love the idea of you know continual evolution as as we move further down this road.

Also want to echo uh council member Dah in my support and appreciation for the community storage program and wanting to see how that works out. Um I know it's a project that Brandy and her team at um Cashew um community safety health and wellness have been developing for quite some time. and that informally they've been using their own offices as backup storage to make sure people's belongings don't get thrown away, which is so important. Sometimes that's all people have.

So, yeah, it would be great if we could consider replicating it in other areas of the city in the future. And then just in the spirit of, you know, continual iterative improvement, um, thinking about the 22% reduction in unsheltered homelessness since 2022, our outcomes are strong. And also the memo points to a significant gap that we need to talk about. Our 2025 point in time count still identified 1,269 people living unsheltered.

And when Safe City teams conduct deployments, we're finding that about half of the people contacted are willing to accept some kind of service. Love the increase in the service acceptance rates. But my question is this. When someone says yes, do we actually have somewhere appropriate for them to go that night? And if more people start saying yes, which I think they will, do we have places in our system for them too?

I think we need to focus much more intentionally on the space between the street and permanent housing. Permanent housing must remain the ultimate goal, but permanent supportive housing takes time to build and people need somewhere safe and dignified to live while we're working toward that goal. We already have a small version of this with Star Village, but we know that the capacity is just 25 people.

I would like us to seriously consider explore seriously explore expanding safe sleeping sites, emergency micro shelter communities, safe parking, non- congregate shelter, and other low barrier options that can accommodate partners, pets, and belongings, which this memo itself identifies as barriers to accepting shelter. We've declared a housing emergency thanks to the leadership of this mayor and council, but we have yet to see it put to active use.

We have groups working on emergency shelters that are dignified, safe, and aesthetically pleasing, but we have yet to identify places to deploy them in meaningful numbers. If we're going to tell people they can't continue sleeping in a park, wash, or sidewalk, I want us to be able to say, "You can't stay here, but we have a safe place for you to go." Not simply, "You have to leave." So, I'd like staff to help us understand what I would call our placement gap.

How many people are willing to come inside? How many appropriate placements do we actually have available on any given night? And what would it cost us? What would it cost us to substantially close that gap? Because if outreach is working and people are saying yes, then I think our responsibility is to make sure there's somewhere for them to say yes to. Thank you so much.

That's a those are wonderful questions and uh I we have been wondering about who's taking the opportunity that we the mayor and council um have given uh through the um housing and homeless emergency that we passed. We've made it easier to build um shelters and um safe outdoor sleeping sites. I just wonder if you hear of or you're hearing of any organization that wants to take advantage of those land use codes that we've flexed in order to do that. Mayor, if I could just jump in.

Um, I'm curious if if um PDSD and perhaps our housing department could hold a public session of what that emergency means and invite some of our nonprofit faith groups and other people interested. I think part of um the purpose of creating that emergency was to make it easier for other people, other organizations to step up because we have limited resources and we're at capacity with what we can do or have funding to do.

but that we want to help educate um our community partners that might be willing to to step up and fill up fill that gap. And I don't know if you've heard of any any groups out there that are interested in using our uh homeless and housing emergency in that way. Thank you, mayor. And um thank you for that suggestion, Vice Mayor. I think that's something we can absolutely talk with PDSC about and could make a lot of sense. Um the you know, we've heard informal conversations. I'm aware of that.

I'd need to check with PDSC and with some of the colleagues in our department to know if there are any organizations that are actively working it as opposed to kind of discussing.

Um, I do want to make mayor and council aware, um, and I think something also we could be highlighting in a community session is that in housing community development, we have set aside a small allocation of remaining framework funds, um, to be able to provide limited financial support for a couple of um, the next pilot sites of safe outdoor sleeping to try to um, incentivize that engagement and provide um, we're looking about $25,000 for two to three sites um, is what we've budgeted for next year.

um if there are organizations that are willing, understanding that that initial setup can be um cost prohibitive. So, all righty. Thank you. Uh we've run out of time, but I did want to make sure that Council Member Cunningham jumped in here. Just a quick question on a few things. We've redone uh permanent housing for 1,800 [clears throat] people or households people. So, do we have a number of households that's affected? I do not have it off the top of my head, but I'm happy to pull it. Okay.

And I will share that. I just wanted to number of households that were and that's from the streets. Those um that's tense to keys. Great question. So those are folks who have received permanent housing either um who've gone through our shelters and been moved on to permanent housing either with us or through a community referral through the continuum of care or something like that.

folks that we're providing supportive housing to directly through our supportive housing programs here at the city um or who have gone through our street outreach programs. So it could be post eviction where they went from eviction to shelter and then went. Yes, that is absolutely they also did that. Okay. Um first of all the post eviction piece is actually really cutting edge. Tucson's robust approach to post eviction has really turned some heads.

We have to ask ourselves realistically um how people would respond if we were if they were if we've um how people would react or respond if we asked the question have we responded to this crisis satisfactorily [snorts] and what I'll tell you is is that the work we've done is outstanding um but we're we're underresourced and we are undertaking a herculean task with so many different factors in it. So, I thank you for the presentation, but from a visibility standpoint, we've got a long way to go.

We really do, and we have to think about those things. One of the pieces that we talked about early on in this process was to be able to offer detox to anyone who wants it at an immediate basis. And I think between what we have at CRC and SAPER, we have we're able to do that. But even if we get them through detox, uh the question is is whether they're going we can we have enough time through detox to get them into RTC, which we usually don't. And I think that's where our big gap is.

Uh and then we also have folks that are leaving DTEX on the first day. I mean, let's be honest, we are. I mean, we're we're getting a lot of people who hit that moment of clarity. We get them into detox and they get about 16 hours in. the Joneses are real and we're losing folks and we're not really fighting this unsheltered piece. I mean, we are unsheltered homelessness, housing, we're fighting that, but we're also fighting an addiction crisis that's just it's herculean to think about it.

And when we marry the two, which a lot of people do, um you end up talking about two things that are symbiotic, but they're separate things. Housing is one piece, but addiction is another piece. Um, here's the vision for me. We actually need to operate two programs. We need to operate like two cases for one person. We need to operate on the housing case and we have to operate on the wellness case.

And the wellness case is the wellness case is different for each person whether or not they're within addiction or whether or not they're a trauma victim or whether or not um there are mental health and unmet untreated mental health symptoms that are going on. But if they're poly substance we can probably have we have to have a rapid response for public uh for poly substance where we can go boom boom boom.

Uh but in in line with our housing first values, I'm what we're doing at Desert Cove may get us partly there, but I think we want to get to a point where we have a 100 beds that have a 10-day limit that are low barrier that anybody can get. And the reason it's 10 days is because we know that everybody on day 10 is leaving. And we know that every morning we wake up, we have 10 beds.

And if we have that available, if every worker knows we have 10 beds to work off of every morning, that street referral, those are those street referrals where they're housed, then we can talk to them. Whether or not it's a great discussion or productive discussion shouldn't matter because the people are housed. We house them first. That's the ideal behind it.

And it's at those points that engagement with, hey, maybe we do go to uh maybe you do [clears throat] go to like some type of unsecure version of the mat or some or CRC or some type of detox and then onto and maybe we have time to go through the access channels to get them into RTC. If we don't, we can look at other alternative programs or even standing up our own in-house RTC. But the bottom line is is that post RTC, we have to have a strategy to transition to sober living.

I think it's important that we look at how we can use some of the housing monies we have to fund at least two months of sober living for anybody who completes an RTC program through our homeless program. that extra 60 days in sober living where they're doing their 90 and 90 whether they're working seven challenges whether they're working uh 12 steps whatever they're working is like so vital to that piece of recovery. So those are my thoughts today.

It's incredible how much we're doing and unfortunately we have so many people feeling that we're running to stand still and we just won't we we got we I think there's opportunities to get over the hump and I I'd love to meet offline and talk about them but for now thank you for the update and again congratulations on the post eviction it's really helped a lot um and with the with the house program that we're running.

We're going to be able to rehouse people at a really good rate and hopefully if we can work a another piece to it, we can have some incentives that that keep it affordable as well. So, thank you so much. Thank you team. Really appreciate it. All righty. I feel like clapping right now. Um the item four uh time has been set aside for mayor and council direction regarding approval of an incentive request. Mr. Manager. Thank you honorable mayor and members of the council.

This is another step along the journey for this particular proposal for the Tucson N LLC and located in Ward 6. Joining us here is our chief economic development officer, Mike Chakowski, to take you through today's item, and we do seek your direction to proceed on this item at the conclusion. Correct. Thank you, Mr. Manager. Uh, good afternoon, Mayor Romero, members of council. Uh, thank you for your time today as we consider the sightspecific sales tax incentive with Tucson in LLC.

Uh the general terms of this incentive are reimbursement of city sales tax capped at the 2% rate and hotel tax to offset eligible on or off-site public improvements, permit and impact fees andor workforce training or any combination of these. Today we are reviewing the findings of the third party economic analysis of which you all have a copy of those materials and to determine the projected revenues and impact of this development.

Uh Tucson Inn plans to develop, own, and manage a 125 room hotel at 75 East Broadway, the long vacant site on on Broadway and Scott. There will be 3,920 ft for a restaurant and bar in the lobby. 12,780 ft approximately of a roof uh rooftop deck and restaurant. 4,755 ft for ground floor retail and 11,700 ft for alley retail and public space activating that space there. General terms of this incentive again are reimbursement of city sales tax offset these fees. No reimbursement shall be made.

This is very key. Until they build what they say they're going to build and they do all of the eligible reimbursement items to determine the actual impacts of the the project. final value is obviously the lesser value of all of these numbers. Uh per mayor and council direction June 9th 2026 we did do the third party economic analysis. Um one of the again nice things that I really want to stress about this is the development and activation of that alley space.

Really creating a great public amenity in our downtown community for pedestrian for people for buskers for whatever we may want to see to activate that space. [snorts] Um, over 5 years after opening, the project could generate an estimated $5.9 million in net city sales tax and property tax, $3.6 million to the state, a portion of which would be returned to the city through state shared revenue. Um, $2.9 million to the county and school districts in the form of property taxes.

And in current vacant condition, the property does generate no revenue at is as it is currently owned by Pumac County and exempt from all property taxes. [snorts] Uh projected value of the incentive again $2 million over 5 years capped at 45% of all of those sales tax uh uh actually collected averaging $400,000 per year, not to exceed that amount per year. Um the city would net a projected $15.2 2 million uh over that same time frame. I'm apologize that's an incorrect number.

Ignore that number that I just said to you. The developer has requested the term to go beyond 5 years in the event we have an economic downturn or something happens that impacts uh occupancy over time and we have a healthy conversation determining what the value of that is. and they have requested an additional 3 years of which we are recommending 30% value uh cap on the sales tax over that time frame.

I will stress that the the economic analysis does is very strong and does anticipate hitting that close to $2 million number by year four. So if everything goes as is should be, we should be very strong on this economic analys on this project. Uh direction today as Mr.

manager has suggested is requested to formalize that development agreement and bring that back to fi uh mayor and council for final consideration and the next steps on this just as an FYI would be a notice of intent that would be on a mayor and council meeting uh notice of intent statutoily required that we are entering entering into a sales tax agreement and providing the final findings of that economic analysis and then um presenting that along with a certificate of occupancy determines the final outcome of the project.

Uh, happy to answer any questions you have. I do have Irene Altucker here with OB Companies and Carrie Silvin representing them if there's any questions for the development team. Well, before I send it over to Council Member Schubert because this is in W 6, I just wanted to um talk about how excited I am that this particular piece of property 75 uh what is it?

East Broadway is moving from a vacant county-owned property to a um proposal that converts that vacant property into revenue generating development [snorts] and livens up an area of our downtown that for many years we've seen that particular piece of property vacant. um the incentive is performance-based and generated by the project itself.

So if they're not generating the um enough funds to be able to receive that incentive back, uh then Tucson would um uh not reimburse the eligible eligible uh uh taxes if it's not producing that amount. So very excited, very happy uh that it this will bring a beautiful family-owned lodging experience, restaurants, uh retail, meeting spaces, public spaces into our downtown.

I'm really happy to see that this particular development makes so much economic sense to our community and looking forward to continuing in the process of making sure that this development happens in our city. So, thank you so much. Thank you Irene and to the uh OB family uh for uh really taking uh you know taking this uh project and investing in the city of Tucson. So with that um Council Member Schubert. Thank you Madame Mayor, members of the council. Um and thanks Mike for the presentation.

Um, as I've said previously, I'm generally cautious about using public incentives for private development, and I definitely think it's important that we evaluate each proposal based on the public return it provides. In this case, the economic analysis is encouraging.

We're looking at an estimated 190 direct construction jobs, 163 full-time equivalent jobs once the project is operating, and approximately 5.9 million in direct city revenue over the first 5 years against an estimated 2 million incentive. I'm also encouraged by what this project could bring to this part of downtown. I can see it all in my mind.

It turns a vacant parcel into a mix of lodging, retail, restaurants, and public gathering spaces that can generate pedestrian activity through the day and evening and build on our investments in transit and in a more walkable downtown. I've appreciated our conversations with the development team about incorporating local vendors, community events, and music. The buskers love it. creating strong connections to the street car and surrounding districts and ensuring opportunities for union labor.

I hope those conversations continue as the project moves forward. And with that, I'd like to move that staff return with a development agreement formalizing the sight specific sales tax incentive for the Tucson Inn and Marketplace project. Thank you. So, there's a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this item? Well done. Well done. Um, thank you so much. Really appreciate um this uh project and looking forward to continued partnership.

I do want to give um um kudos where kudos are deserved. Uh Riovo and Puma County are also participating in this work. And you know, for me, the combination of all of our work together to be able to uh bring significant private capital investments, new jobs, economic vitality, activation of a vacant downtown property, um additional support to surrounding businesses is uh something that we can do together. and and this particular project it it is a a combination of the partnership of all of us.

So thanks to Riono and Pima County uh for participating in this development. Thank you all. And we have to do the vote. So uh there's a motion and a second. All those in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying I. I. Any against? Motion carries. Thank you all so much. Thank you, Mike. Thank you. Thank you all so much. All righty. So, we move on to item five.

Item five, time has been set aside for mayor and council to receive an update on fee increases and impacts to affordable housing approved on May 19th, 2026. Mr. Manager, thank you, honorable mayor, and members of the council. Joining us here, our director of de uh transportation and mobility right? That's right. Okay, that's Sam Predio there. And planning and development services department, Corin Manning.

Um, as you know, 90 days is fairly early into a review period, but it's necessary to make sure that we're getting off to the right start, but also setting a good foundation about how this city is taking actions in order to um enhance and preserve affordability in our community. So, with that, I'll turn it over to the team to uh give you the update. Thank you, Mr. Manager, and good afternoon, honorable mayor, members of the council.

Uh, as the mayor mentioned, the mayor and council discussed, reviewed, and approved fee revisions and new fees on May 19th, 2026. At that time, you all directed staff to return in 90 days with an analysis and update on how the new fees and the fee increases might impact our ability to uh develop and build affordable housing in the city of Tucson.

And so with that, I will turn it over to my colleague, uh, Director Kor Manning to provide an update and then she'll turn it back over to me to close things out. And, uh, we will be available for questions. I also want to note that we are not seeking any direction on this item. This is merely just an update. With that, take it away. Thank you, Director KIO, and thank you, Honorable Mayor, members of council.

Um, I'm just going to briefly go over the tools planning and development services currently has um to support affordable housing and reduce the cost and time and sometimes friction associated with developing affordable housing. Um, so when we talk about the impact of fees, the new fees that mayor and council adopted earlier this year, one of the things um we look at in planning and development services is we try to look at the full development process cost.

So um it's important to keep in mind that the cost of a project isn't just those fees themselves. It's also the time um uncertainty in the development process, administrative burden and carrying costs. All of those things affect whether a project pencils out and is feasible or not.

So our approach in planning and development services has been to look at all of those aspects holistically um and to look at where we can provide yes direct financial relief but also where we can make the development process faster and more predictable which provides real value to affordable housing developers and all housing developers. So our goal is not just to reduce fees but really to reduce barriers to providing and producing affordable housing overall.

Uh so planning and development services over the past few years has developed a lot of tools at the direction of mayor and council to support affordable housing. One of those is the affordable housing fasttrack program. This was initiated by mayor and council at the recommendation of the commission on equitable housing and development that we launched about two years ago.

This assigns a dedicated project manager for any qualifying affordable housing project and also reduces our review time in half from 30 to 15 days for any affordable housing project. um and that project manager is assigned to coordinate the development process, help an applicant navigate all of the agencies um that they work with to permit and approve affordable housing, including transportation, water, and fire.

Since launching that program in 2024, we've had 10 projects go through the affordable housing fasttrack program, representing over a thousand units, and we have four additional projects currently in the pipeline. Additionally, we have the affordable housing impact fee subsidy. This provides a city-f funded subsidy of hundred up to $150,000 per project to cover the impact fees for qualifying affordable housing projects.

We also have a number of zoning incentives in place including the recently adopted community corridors tool which may council adopted last year as well as the infill incentive district and sunshine mile district. Those tools offer density bonuses particularly for affordable housing as well as reduced parking requirements and other regulatory flexibility that again provides that flexibility that's often needed to make an affordable housing project feasible.

We also have a model plan library um which is currently a casita model plan library but will be soon expanded to a middle housing uh model plan library as well and this helps bring down the cost and again the time um to develop housing. Um so based on the direction from mayor and council around um permit fee relief, we did look at some permit fee relief programs in other jurisdictions. Um we reviewed some jurisdictions in California, Texas, um and elsewhere.

And we found that there are some jurisdictions that provide dedicated permit fee relief programs for affordable housing. Those tend to vary widely from what we saw in structure, the eligibility in terms of affordable housing eligibility and how those are funded. Um the only example in Arizona that we found is in Flagstaff um where they do have a formal permit fee relief program. However, they are currently restructuring that program um to better align with their affordable housing goals.

What we found is that most of those programs do rely on a general fund reimbursement to reimburse and offset the department for that foregone revenue. um consistent with our impact fee model that's existing so that we are still covering that cost of service for reviewing, permitting and inspecting affordable housing. Um so overall um planning and development services in the city of Tucson has several tools already that are reducing the cost and complexity of affordable housing.

um particularly the affordable housing fasttrack program has shown a lot of success initially and we are continually looking for more opportunities to improve those programs and adopt new tools. So we will continue over the next year to implement um our pro ongoing process improvements, monitor our capacity internally for these programs and then further evaluate the impact of these new fees over a longer time frame and report back to mayor and council in one year. Thank you, K.

And on the Department of Transportation and Mobility side, as you recall, the uh rightaway fees were increased uh in concert with the cost of service study that was included um with that process. We also introduced two new fees, a loss of use fee and loss of value fees. Uh as a reminder, those are being phased in with the first year being 33% of the full cost.

Um, we are waving those fees for city projects and also want to remind you that we uh did commit to providing a full one-year update to the mayor and council uh after fee implementation. So, you will be hearing from us again after that first year so we can report back on uh the performance of those particularly those two new fees.

And lastly, I'll just mention that uh we also committed to um using the loss of use fee revenue to fund a new small business support program and we'll be returning back to you in September to talk more about that program. And uh with that, mayor, we are happy to answer any questions. We're also joined by our colleagues uh director Anne Chenka and Deputy Director Jen Toother if uh if they need to assist with question answering. Thank you very much. Thank you, Sam.

Thank you, Corin, for the update. Um I really appreciate and commend um both planning and development services and department of transportation and mobility. I know that we have an as well housing community development for really bringing down the silos and working with each other on the issue of affordable housing. I know that you recognize that this particular mayor and council has been focused on creating affordability um for our community, I would say since 2020.

Um and we have fasttracked um much of the incentives and uh the work to invest in affordability. I think that this particular mayor and council and our teams, which are you guys, you're the ones that actually bring back uh the policy requests that we have and, you know, bring them into fruition and put them to to work. So, I really want to appreciate your work and your belief in uh the policies that mayor and council create.

Um, you know, I I want to make sure that we are working together to make sure that what are the areas where we continue working where we can continue to lead in the state because many times Tucson is leading in the state on affordable housing and um what's the next step that we need to take to make sure that we are better marketing the tools and programs that we currently have, right?

We have the sunshine mile and the incentives of density on the sunshine mile that we have to make sure that developers understand what the opportunities bring. We have the community corridors tool. Um that's something that we've pushed and and want to make sure that we are attracting the developers that do that type of development in our community. So, we need to market Tucson beyond our region.

I know that there are developers that are creating density um in other areas of our state and in other states that we need to help attract. Um so, thank you so much. I'm looking forward to hearing much more about the um what did we call it? Smart. We're we're still workshopping. We're workshopping the name but uh the program that will help uh small businesses when they do have closures on their road and we are building and developing.

So start thinking about how we call that um that program because it should be part of the small business program that we currently have uh to support those businesses. Uh, I've said it before. I my heart hurts every time I see a small business close because one of our economy, right? Um, the economy that we have right now is a very difficult one. Uh, the tariffs, the inflation that are contributing significantly to um, small businesses getting less and less revenue in is real.

And so anything that the city of Tucson can do to help is important. So I'll open it up for questions, comments, and input. Uh, Council Member Schubert. Thank you. Uh, thanks, Madame Mayor, members of the council. Um, I want to thank PDSD, HCD, and DTM staff for taking the time to comb through our existing plans and policies and put together this comprehensive overview of existing city efforts all in one place.

We were just discussing the prosperity initiative during our joint meeting with the board of supervisors last week and one of my takeaways was that affordable housing development policy is a strongly shared focus area between both of us. This research further highlights how many large and small improvements we've taken as a city to operationalize and refine our commitment to affordable housing development.

I found it especially helpful to review the example project that HCD offered up in attachment B to see how permit costs and fees break down. So, thank you so much for that. Super helpful. Um, and thank you uh and seeing how other communities, especially the Arizona jurisdictions, um the examples from those other communities was also very very helpful.

I'm not recommending any immediate changes to our current trajectory today, but if we want to consider adjustments in the future, this research offers some actionable informed examples that could be worth trying. I'll also add that with the substantial construction in a ward six right now. Uh I and many of our constituents look forward to the DTM update in September to learn more about the plan to reinvest loss of use fee revenue. Maybe another acronym in our future. I'm kind of scared.

[laughter] Those are my comments. Thank you so much. Thank you, Council Member um Council Member Cunningham and then Vice Mayor. My focus on uh [sighs] lowering our cost for long for housing is adding flexibility and incentivizing adaptive reuse. Um I think it's probably the most overlooked piece of what we have. And it's not because we're not trying to do it. It's because nobody really thinks about it. I mean, they do, but they don't.

We're So, we have a We have a development community that has been doing the same thing for 60 years, and now all of a sudden, we're coming to them and saying, "Hey, wait, we got this whole new thing." And adaptive reuse, it's becoming evident that when we're thinking about soft cost and design and cost cost per square foot and demo, uh, we need opportunities to save money. Um, right now we have a really interesting housing market.

We have over um I want to say over,00 properties in the city limits that are selling for under 150 bucks a square foot residential and you can't build anything for under 300 a square foot. This creates quite the conundrum for what kind of housing market we have and the realistic approach we're going to have to it. So, the challenge I want to put down is how do we get folks where they need to be uh if they're going to go to adaptive reuse, especially in a corridor?

And how do we format our land use? And I think we're still I I've said it 15 times, I'm going to say it another time. How do we format our land use to go vertical um on specific corridors, specifically the bookends from Broadway from the Santa Cruz River to the Sienna Creek, which is the Pantana Wash for those of you who aren't following along uh on Broadway. What kind of density are we going to have up and down that corridor?

And what kind of transit corridor can we build over the next 40 years? And and so that's the challenge is how do we integrate adaptive use and going vertical uh for those pieces on the uh business side. Again, this has been my experience. We've all as council members and you guys who who who came on this year have now already experienced it where someone calls up and says, "Well, you know, I applied to get my CFO and such and such happened." We want to reduce those cases.

To be fair to our team, a lot of times things are getting lost in translation. We have situations where the owner of the business is calling the council office and the contractor's relaying information to the owner of the business and the inspector is giving the information to the contractor, to the architect or draftsman or whoever it is. And by the time you go from the council office to what the inspector said, a lot of things are lost in translation.

We've got to figure out a way in which the ward office and the inspector are speaking before. Even if we can set up a system in where we have an inspe if we have an inspector going out to a site that's new, a new a new one, at least the word office is somehow in the loop. So, we're not getting into those discussions.

I think that's one of the pieces that's it's been going on for 10 or 12 years, but I didn't figure out about the loss and translation piece until we talked last year about when we had that kid at the card store. And he got recommendations from his contractor, which weren't necessarily what the inspector said.

He didn't necessarily need an entire brand new air conditioning system, but we got into that that and this this like deeq issue we had, which was consistent uh on the air quality issue that we had where everyone was being told we need you need an entire new air system because of a 1D EQ change. So, I'm looking at those details and saying this is where we can go. And anyway, thanks for letting me ramble a little bit.

I just wanted to make sure we think about that CFO process and trying to get people moved in. I think it was 90 days or 60 days when we first started. We want to keep that standard. Vice Mayor. Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. I also can't believe it's been 90 days already. So, um time's moving really quickly. Um, I'm I'm glad to see this um framed beyond the fee relief, but as a process improvement and reducing permitting timelines um because we know all those costs add up over time.

Um I am looking uh forward to um the small business relief fund that's being developed. Um, I know that's one of the the biggest um complaints and strains that our our small businesses are feeling right now during any kind of construction. Um, so looking forward to that. And yeah, just going back to our prosperity initiative that housing stability is one of the four pillars um for people trying to break the cycle of generational poverty.

Um, so thank you so much for um taking this work seriously and continuing to keep us informed. Thank you, Vice Mayor, Council Member Radakas. Thank you, Mayor. Well, thank you all for that presentation, PDSD, HCD, and DTM. Um, to piggyback on the loss and translation piece, I I'm very intrigued to see how we're going to engage with the property owners, tenant owned, and the the folks leasing the actual building.

Um, it's been really eye opening for us at W 5 when we're doing our lunch meetups and connecting with a lot of these business owners. Some own their property, some don't. But um they've been around for many generations. They're considered legacy business owners. But I had mentioned this last week at the joint session that a lot of them might not be able to navigate technology as swiftly.

So, I do want to make sure that we're thinking about that when we do lay out this small business relief fund and um you know getting folks in the room to do more I guess office hour type engagement really robust engagement and thinking of um you know Spanish language as well with a lot of these business owners.

And then, you know, I think this could also because we are still relatively new um almost like an opportunity to relaunch and reintroduce a lot of these amazing programs that the city offers that you know that's been in in around prior to us being on council. um and an opportunity opportunity to engage with residents, business owners, developers because um yeah, this this would be a good opportunity to reintroduce all these programs and how we could um also better serve. So, thank you.

Any others? I just wanted to have some parting words. um amazing work that our departments are doing, planning, development services, department of transportation, mobility, our housing community development. I think we there's a list of all of the policy work that we've done um together on affordability and affordable housing.

And it's just pretty amazing to see all in one page um you know program after program after program that really has been put to work and we are seeing results and benefits to the community. Uh for me, I would love to see I know 90 days came and went really quickly and I would like to see, you know, another year update to just see how how is everything working together um and how is it impacting either in a positive or negative um way affordable housing.

For me, the the the new fees that we added are necessary. Most importantly, I think, and I I've said this before to Director Manning, the city of Tucson needs to be the planning and development services department that is the fastest in the region.

And so um I think as important is how are we improving in how we expedite those permits and certificates of occupancy and help uh the development community especially the small businesses that really are not experts in development and how to get things done.

So um small business program is an important piece of uh how we work with the small business community and planning and development services but speed is a very I I've heard many times people say it's okay I can pay the permits as long as I get my doors open so that I can start selling my product um as soon as possible that that helps. So speed to me is equally important. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Looking forward to talking about the however we're gonna name impact uh program.

[laughter] We we were like uh workshopping some names but um looking forward to hearing about that. Thank you. We move on to item six. Time has been set aside for discussion direction relating to matters pending in front of the Pima County Board of Supervisors and other regional jurisdictions. Um, Mr. Manager, thank you honorable mayor and members of the council. For this particular item, we do have Stephanie Zamora here to talk about Pimac County and other jurisdictions.

And then we'll reset as we go into the state and national update here in just a moment. But without further ado, Stephanie, please take uh take us through. Thank you, Mr. Manager. Good afternoon, honorable mayor and members of the council. The report submitted to the record highlighted recent um actions by the Pimac County Board of Supervisors.

This would include direction to develop a three-year plan to address the PEEP's early education weight list, a restructuring of the count uh county's industrial development authority, and continued investment in behavioral health and re-entry services. Included in the report is also an update from Rio Noeo. Um they discussed several downtown initiatives including potential safety and activation strategies and a proposed 1.2 million expansion of the PBLO Vita Brewing Company.

And with that, that concludes that portion of the report. Mayor, thank you.

I wanted to add um that last week we had a city of mayor and council, city of Tucson mayor and council and a Puma County Board of Supervisors uh meeting and um I wanted to thank Chair Allen um all of the board members, my colleagues on the council, our city, county and um community coalition for prosperity teams um and all of the work that our clerk's offices do to make sure that we have a wellorganized meeting and a productive conversation.

So as you all are aware the the discussion uh focused on the prosperity initiative um why um our joint efforts matter in breaking the cycles of poverty in our uh community. We I think we heard strong alignment.

Maybe you guys heard something different, but I think we heard a strong alignment around investing upstream in young people and families, strengthening early childhood education, after school programming, youth employment opportunities, housing and economic opportunity and small business investments.

Um at the city we have been working to put that approach into practice uh by bringing our economic development, climate action, equity, cultural affairs and prosperity efforts together into one office of community and economic impact while advancing investments in housing, transit and climate resilience that support families and economic mobility. Uh most importantly, we identified opportunities to turn that shared vision into action.

Uh that includes exploring continued investments in um afterchool programming. Uh bringing school districts into the conversation of the prosperity initiative, small businesses and other regional partners to work directly with the prosperity initiative and continuing to use the community coalition for prosperity to connect our efforts to the rest of the region.

So it also includes um investments that support workers and working families, transit investments, options for shelter treatment in affordable housing um and other items. So, uh, we gave the homework of, um, both Jan Leer, the county administrator, Tim Tamur, our city manager, to put these thoughts together. And we did talk about what we're doing and what are the gaps.

And I think we identified some pieces that we definitely can work together, youth employment and youth investment and prevention, crime prevention, intervention. And then we also talked about small business and how we could hold hands between the county and the city and not replicating but actually working together in the small business space to help our small businesses here in our region.

I look forward to continuing uh this partnership and building uh continuous momentum on the prosperity initiative and on the work that we have been doing with opioid settlement funds as well as unsheltered homelessness uh and behavioral health issues in our community. So, uh, some of you were there, uh, and if you want to add anything to that, I would be more than happy to oblige sometime. Okay, go ahead, Stephanie.

Honorable mayor, as we transition into item seven and the state and national updates, um, you'll note uh that Laura Dent is not with us today. that's uh because of illness. But there's also news about Laura Dent that I think you're all becoming aware of. So um before we turn to the legislative update, we want to acknowledge that Laura Dent, our federal and state relations manager, has accepted to move on to another opportunity. Uh so we're actually really happy for her.

This is a great fit with her um and her um and her personal goals. um and in this not quite a year, she actually did quite a bit for us and she served us exceptionally well um in this past year. So um while she's not um able to be here today, um we do expect her to make the journey up north and join us at the League of Arizona Cities and Towns. So we'll have a chance to to have a a victory lap with her up there. Um and thank her very deeply for her connection to Tucson and her service to us.

She's made an impact and we wish her very well. Laura's last day with the city will be August 28th. Um so this would have been her last meeting. Um but we'll we'll see her again. Um so with that, I have asked Stephanie to not just give today's update, but I've asked Stephanie to um fulfill the role um indefinitely as we as we transition uh from Laura's tenure uh into what lies next for intergovernmental relations. So um congratulations. Thank you. And and it's up to you now. Great.

Thank you, Mr. Manager, honorable mayor, and members of the council. I'd also like to take the time to thank LA for her leadership. I learned so much from her. She is such an accomplished uh professional, and she will definitely be missed here as a colleague. Um, but turning to the federal legislative update, uh, Congress remains in uh, August recess and will return in September with a short window before the midterm elections.

The most immediate issue will be keeping the federal government funded beyond September 30th. The Senate passed a bipartisan continuing resolution through December 11, but the House still needs to act when it returns. Importantly for Tucson, the Senate passed uh CR would also temporarily block the Office of Management and Budgets proposed changes to federal grant rules and extend federal highway and transit programs through December 11.

We are also closely following negotiations on the Water Resources Development Act and the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Bill. And at the state level, as the manager mentioned, the League of Arizona Cities and Towns Conference is this week. It will be hosted in Phoenix uh Phoenix at the Arizona Builtmore.

And I want to acknowledge Mayor Romero, Council Member Cunningham, Council Member Barakas, Council Member Schubert, and Manager Tomier uh for attending the conference and for representing the city of Tucson. And I we would also like to thank several staff uh leaders for contributing to the conference.

Tucson Fire Chief uh Sharon Mcdana, PDSD Director Corin Manning, and Tucson Water Director John Kamik will all serve on panels to educate cities across the state on how Tucson is leading um on public safety call dispatching, innovative uh housing and zoning tools, and diversifying our water resources. And with that, honorable mayor, that concludes the report. Thank you. Any questions, comments, observations? All righty. Well, thank you so much, Stephanie. really appreciate it. Thank you.

You're going too, right? Righty. So, that was item seven. We move on to item eight. Does anyone have any items to remove from the consent agenda for today's regular meeting? Council member Schubert. Yes, Madame Mayor. I would like to remove items 7 I and 7N from consent. Councilwoman Lee. Yeah, Mayor. Uh item N as well. I will be abstaining from that vote and recused myself from all of the conversations around this topic. Item okay. Um that's item N M N. Okay.

And then uh Vice Mayor, I'd like to um also remove consent agenda item L. And then Council Member Cunningham, L and N. I and N were removed and then we've added L. So I, N, and L. Nancy, see you're pulling M. I think you wanted to speak about Ridgeide. No, I mean what we [clears throat] done any anything else? All righty. Um, we got it though, right? Thanks. So, I have um I LMN. Okay, perfect. And so we move on to item nine. Does anyone have any items for future agendas?

Seeing none, study session is adjourned. And since we are adjourning at 4, we can see each other here at right at 5:30 when we are supposed to start [laughter] council meeting. Thank you so much. We'll see you in a bit. I do [music] Hey, hey hey. [music] Hey, hey, hey. [music] Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey hey hey hey. [music] Hey, hey, hey. [music] Hey hey hey. [music] Hey. [music] Hey, hey, hey. [music] [music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [music] Heat. Heat. N. [music] Heat. [music] Heat.

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Hey, Heat. [music] Hey, hey, hey. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] the board of commissioners meeting to the Tucson Public Housing Authority Board meeting to order. Um we will stand in session and the first item is roll call. Commissioner Santa Cruz here. Commissioner Cunningham here. Commissioner Dah here. Commissioner Lee here. Commissioner Barahas here. Commissioner Schubert here. Commissioner Hawking here. Mayor Romero chair here. All righty.

We move on to item two, public hearing and approval of significant amendment to the 2026 PHA annual plan and the 2025 through 2029 PHA 5-year plan. City manager PHA communication number 13 dated August 18th is received into and made part of the record.

This is the time and place legally advertised for a public hearing to approve from the board of commissioners to amend the PHA annual plan and PHA 5-year plan to formally indicate the PHA's intent to non-competitively select elible eligible PHAowned units within the El Portal housing portfolio for the issuance of projectbased vouchers under the housing choice voucher program consistent consistent with HUD regulations. This public hearing is scheduled to last for no more than one hour.

Speakers are limited to fivem minute presentation. Madame clerk, do we have any requests to speak? No, we do not. All righty. I do know that Jason Thorp has um a couple of a presentation. Not a presentation. um Chair Romero, a simple update and request in the vote um for a modification to the resolution. And so I apologize for the um for the surprise nature of that.

In our um public engagement process for this plan amendment, we we included um allowance for allocation non-competitively to any PHA owned unit. In our um memo to you, we spoke specifically about Elportal units, the city's affordable housing portfolio.

um our actual public engagement process related to this and the HUD process allows for us to include other units outside of Elportal in the same process and so we'd like to include sort of maximum flexibility um including units that may be operated by our nonprofit subsidiary El PBLO Housing Development. Um there is no change to the plan amendments that were proposed uh and but there is a modification to the resolution specifically in the preamble um that Mr. Lusk can read into the record.

Before that, I did want to let you know, however, that through public engagement, 37 current public housing authority residents participated in consultation um on this process and were overwhelmingly supportive of the this proposal. Uh and the voucher holders in particular continued to speak to the challenges that they're experiencing renting in the market um and saw the project basing of units in city-owned property as an opportunity for folks have easier access to affordable housing.

With that, I'll give it to Mr. Lusk to read the preamble change into the record. Uh Madame Mayor, uh members of the board, um the language uh is related to the whereas clauses where is related to um the uh adoption of the policy and the policy would change from excuse me to allow non-competitive ALO allocation of project based vouchers for units allowed owned by the PHA and its subsidiary nonprofit El Publo Housing Development instead of relating to Elportal. Thank you so much.

Anything in addition? That is it. Thank you. Thank you so much. So, if we do not have any requests to speak, is there um anyone in the audience wishing to be heard on this item? All right, JP just come up to the U microphone. Thank you, Madame Mayor. JP Salveter, Tucson native real estate broker. Um, anytime the the the word housing comes up, I I think of home ownership, not rentals, not leasing.

And this is a a huge primary thing that our XYZ genen need to support themselves through the next few decades so that they have a legacy and their children stay with us in Tucson and they don't uh disappear because there's nothing for them.

Um, every there's some incredible housing projects that have come up uh through uh the Tucson House that is just been waiting too long and uh and now it's it's in construction and it will be a very valued asset for the city and and for uh public and private investment. Uh there are so many things that we can do to help uh support the under served here in Tucson. uh these uh opportunities don't have to uh create situations that uh are not taken an advantage of.

And then these individuals never have that unique opportunity at that particular time in their lives to benefit from getting support income and creating a retirement and showing their children that they can own a home and live in a home as they go to school in a local neighborhood for most of their lives and feel a part of than apart from uh the situation when when uh a rental situation becomes like a transient situation and people move move about and they're displaced and they never lock in.

So, uh, I'd like like for the entire, uh, mayor and council to keep that in mind because, uh, they're all we have, our children, you know, and, uh, we we look forward to supporting their their benefit and, uh, the unique opportunities that we have here with the Industrial Development Authority and private funding uh, projects uh, uh, that that may even come out from the, uh, the old school for the deaf and blind Ed.

Uh that's a beautiful opportunity to create uh a resurgence of since it's a state property, it could be something that actually supports uh social programs, the 11 or,200 un homeless uh parents with children uh that need to get a foot start and uh a nice secure environment like that. uh might be an opportunity for that. Doesn't always have to be a new corporate entity and and uh you know a new uh resort. Uh we we need to think on on a foundation for our city. So I appreciate your time.

Thank you JP. Anyone else wishing to be heard on this item? [applause] Seeing none, may I have a motion to close the public hearing? So moved. Second. There's a motion in a second to close the public hearing. Um, all those in favor, please indicate by saying I. I. Any against? Motion carries. The public hearing is closed. Madame clerk, you are requested to read resolution PHA 2026-56 by number and title only.

Resolution number PHA 2026-56 relating to public housing, approval and adoption by the board of commissioners of the city of Tucson public housing authorities. updates to the 2026 public housing authority annual plan and the 2025 through 2029 public housing authority 5-year plan and declaring an emergency. What is the board's pleasure? May I move to pass and adopt PHA 2026-56. Uh with the amendments with the amendments. Second. There is a motion in a second.

Any further discussion on this motion? [snorts] All righty hearing none. Uh let's go to roll call. Commissioner Barahas. Hi. Commissioner Dah. I. Commissioner Cunningham. Hi. Commissioner Schubert. I. Commissioner Hawking. I. Commissioner Lee. I. Commissioner Santa Cruz. I. Chair Romero. I. Resolution PHA 2026-56 passes by a vote of 80. Item three, public housing authority write off and on collectible tenant account receivable approval.

City managers PHA communication number 14 dated August 18th is received into part of the record. Madame clerk, you are requested to read resolution PHA 2026-57 by number and title only. Resolution number PHA226-57 relating to public housing authority, authorizing the write off of $42,87.70 of certain uncollectible tenant accounts receivable and declaring an emergency. What is the board's pleasure? Mayor, I move to pass and adopt PHA 2026-57. Second. There's a motion in a second.

Any further discussion? Hearing none, let's go to roll call. Commissioner Lee. I. Commissioner Cunningham. Hi. Commissioner Dah. I. Commissioner Barahas. I. Commissioner Schubert. I. Commissioner Santa Cruz. I. Commissioner Hawkins. I. Chair Romero. I. The motion to approve resolution PHA 2026-57 passes by a vote of 80. Item four, approval of minutes. City Manager's PHA communication number 15 dated August 18th is received into and made part of the record.

Is there [clears throat] a motion to approve the minutes of the February 18th, 2026 meeting? So move your honor. Second. There's a a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please indicate by saying I. I. I. Any against? Motion carries. Item five, adjournment. The meeting of the board of commissioners is adjourned. The mayor and council will now convene our regular meeting. Uh please be patient and give us about 2 minutes. Thank you. Thank you.

council will stand in session. Uh let's go to roll call. Thank you. Council member Cunningham here. Council member Dah here. Councilwoman Lee here. Council member Barahas here. Council member Schubert here. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz here. Mayor Romero here. [snorts] Uh before we go to item two, the city attorney will go over the rules of decorum for mayor and council meetings. Mr. Attorney. Thank you, honorable mayor.

Arizona's open meeting laws provide that members of the public may attend and listen to the proceedings during tonight's public meeting of the mayor and council. Arizona law also allows the mayor and council to enforce rules and procedures for public attendance of the meeting to ensure orderly behavior and to prevent unnecessary interference with the public meeting. Here are the rules that apply. The rules require to quorum and orderly conduct by the members of the audience.

No person attending the meeting shall engage in conduct that disrupts or otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of the meeting, including any statements or conduct that interrupts the persons who might be addressing the mayor and counsel or that disrupts the discussions of the mayor and counsel. The mayor has the authority to ensure compliance with the rules of orderly conduct.

If disorderly 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. Item two, invocation, pledge of allegiance, appointment to boards, committees, and commissions. We will start with the land acknowledgement. Let us begin by grounding ourselves and acknowledging these lands.

The city of Tucson is on the lands that have been stewarded by the Tono Otam since time immemorial and the Basuayaki people who have lived in the Sonoron Desert for thousands of years. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance of America to the reps nationisible andice for all. Thank you so much. Today I have the honor and pleasure to have two presentations. Our first presentation would be to Amistades. They are celebrating their 20th anniversary and we're going to gather up there.

I know that we have Claudia Hasso, president and CEO of Amistades and Ularios, director of strategic development and Isabel Bovert. [laughter] Um, congratulations to Amistades for 20 years of providing vital services and strengthening our our community. Our second presentation will be for um supporting and recognizing the American Federation of Musicians Local 33.

And uh we're going to have Sarah Bramberg, Ellen Anie, Elana Wazing, and members of the Tucson Federation of Musicians Local 33 American Federations of Musicians. The first one we'll do is Amistades. And so we'll meet we'll meet up there. Please join me up here. Anyone that would want to um come up and and uh receive the um proclamation. Here you go. Congratulations on 20 years. That's pretty amazing. such an important organization that delivers so many quality services to our community.

Um, on behalf of the city of Tucson and the office of the mayor, I'd like to recognize the 20th anniversary of Amistades. And whereas Amistades will celebrate its 20th anniversary on August 20th, 2026.

And whereas Amistades was founded in 2006 with a commitment to advancing racial equity and strengthening southern Arizona through culturally responsive programs, community empowerment, and to advance an advocacy that uplifts the voices and lived experiences of historically underserved communities in Tucson and the greater area.

And whereas Amistades prioritizes addressing immediate issues uh and leads efforts that eliminate false narratives about Latinos and has developed system focused strategies that change the conditions that perpetuate inequities. And whereas 20 years ago, Amistades began with one program in one neighborhood in Tucson, built on the idea that culture is not only something to preserve, but a foundation for healing, belonging, and what a community can become.

And whereas since then, Amistas has grown into a collaborative network that reaches across Arizona, health promotion, workforce development, civic engagement, higher education, behavioral health services, community research, youth empowerment, climate action, and so on and so on and so on. Uh each one builds because a community asked for it. And whereas 20 years have established deep roots of trust, partnership, and community leadership.

As Amistades looks to the future, those roots will continue to sustain innovation, inspire collaboration, and strengthen communities across southern Arizona for generations to come. Now therefore, I, Raa Romero, mayor of the city of Tucson, along with the members of the Tucson City Council, am delighted to recognize and celebrate the 20th anniversary of an A amistades.

We offer our heartfelt congratulations and deep deepest appreciation for all of your contributions to our city and we look forward to many more inspiring years. and witness whereof I have here unto set my hand and cost the seal of the city of Tucson, Arizona to be affixed this 18th day of August, 2026. Congratulations. I'm sorry. I put her on the spot. It's okay. It's fine. Mayor Romeo, thank you. Council members, thank you.

Amistades started 20 years ago with uh a very bold dream and a lot of talent and we have centered community voice in all of the work we've done over the last two decades. We stand strong and ready for the next 20 years and we've done it undoubtedly we've done it with the support of this community, many of you in the room today and with a lot of hard work. So thank you very much. Can we get a picture with you guys all together? Beautiful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Last but not least, um I'd like to welcome any of the members of the Tucson Federation of Musicians Local 33. I believe we have Sarah Bramberg, Ellen Eny, Alana Weissing, and other members of Tucson Federation of Musicians, Local 33, American Federation of Musicians. Hi, how are you? Good to see you. Good to see you. Thank you so much. I am so happy to be here. So, we have two extras if you'd like to take one. And then, there you go. If you want to join her over here. All righty.

So, um, is Marta Reyes with Jobs with Justice here? I don't know if she was going to be here. Okay. Um, whereas the city of Tucson recognizes the need to strategically create community wealth by addressing generational poverty and improving job opportunity through the availability and retention of local stable jobs that will economically support a household. And whereas we recognize the role of organized labor in securing self- sustaining wages and benefits for worker workers.

And whereas we further recognize the role of organized labor in guaranteeing safe working conditions and workplaces. And whereas workers represented by unions on average earn higher wages and receive more comprehensive benefits including health care and retirement that non-UN workers. And whereas the city of Tucson recognizes the fundamental human right of all workers to join a union and to collectively bargain as a cornerstone of democracy. And whereas Martin Luther King Jr.

recognized the importance of labor movement and the critical importance of collective bargainings for the strength of the nation stating everyone knows that the labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it and whereas the American Federation of Musicians Local 33 has been engaged in a multi-year effort to secure union recognition and good faith bargaining with True Concord Voices and Orchestra and has received an order of election from the National Labor Relations Board.

And whereas a strong majority of true conquered musicians upon whose talent and labor the organization is built have voted to unionize. And whereas the orchestral musicians of true conquer seek reasonable industry standard working conditions including fair hiring practices, appropriate compensation and royalties, stable scheduling, and adequate hearing protection.

And whereas the city of Tucson recognizes that it its community is rich in culture, art, and music, that it must support the artists and musicians whose work sustain and enhance Tucson and southern Arizona's reputation as a premier cultural designation. Now therefore be it resolved.

The city of Tucson stands in solidarity with the orchestral musicians of the American Federation of Musicians Local 33 and urges true conquered voices and orchestra to respect the results of the union election and to engage in good faith collective bargaining. And be it further resolved that the city of Tucson affirms its support for all unorganized workers and upholds the democratic and human right of all workers to collectively bargain the terms and conditions of their employment.

And be it further resolved, the city of Tucson recognizes that organizing the unorganized is essential to creating and sustaining stable local jobs that support households, strengthen the local economy, and contribute to long-term community prosperity. Um, in witness where whereof, I have here unto set set the seal of the city of Tucson um this 18th day of August, 2026. Congratulations. Thank you all so much.

[laughter] Um I will make this brief, but um first I just want to say thank you to um to our honorable mayor and council. Um thank you to all present for um witnessing this special moment for us. One update, we did win our election with 84% of vote voters um voting yes. I'm very happy about that.

[applause] Um, one thing to know about organized labor is that when a when a workplace is newly unionized, only about half of those workplaces are able to achieve a collective bargaining agreement within a year of being certified by the National Labor Relations Board. And so this really matters to us when our community is loud for us.

it really helps us bring the employer to the table and make sure that we can get the fair conditions and um respect also the rights and the needs of the employer as well to make sure it's fair for everybody involved. So, thank you. I would love to Hi everybody. Um thank you Mayor Romero, Vice Mayor, and members of the council for having us here today. Um my name is Alana Whising. I live here in the city of Tucson.

I'm proud to serve as the president of the Tucson Federation of Musicians, the American Federation of Musicians Local 33, and I'm not a retained speaker. On behalf of our local and the musicians of the True Concord Orchestra, I want to express our deepest and most heartfelt gratitude for this proclamation and for your unwavering support. This proclamation is about far more than one orchestra or one organizing campaign.

It recognizes that musicians are workers, that the arts are an essential part of Tucson's identity, and that every worker deserves dignity, fairness, and the fundamental right to organize and collectively bargain. It also affirms Tucson's long-standing commitment to organized labor and to supporting the artists whose work enriches our community. Those values are deeply meaningful to us, and we're sincerely honored that you've chosen to recognize them today.

Um Sarah had just mentioned that since this proclamation was drafted, we had won our election, which is huge. And that decision represents another important step toward ensuring that our professional musicians in Tucson are treated with the fairness and respect that they deserve. Throughout this journey, we've been inspired by the incredible solidarity shown by our community, our fellow unions, and by each of you.

Your willingness to stand with Tucson's musicians has reminded us that this city believes in both artistic excellence and economic justice. So, thank you for recognizing the indispensable contributions musicians make to the cultural, educational, and economic life of Tucson. Thank you for standing up for the rights of working people, and thank you for helping to make Tucson a city where the arts and the people who create them can flourish.

We're profoundly grateful for your leadership, your partnership, and this tremendous honor. Thank you so much. Take your picture. [clears throat] Oh, beautiful. Ready? One, two, three. Beautiful. Thank you. Thank you so much. [applause] All righty. City manager communication. This is 2D. Yes. All right. Item 2D, appointments to boards, committees, and commissions. City managers communication number 233 dated August 18th is received into part of the record.

Um may I have a motion to approve the appointments of the agenda? So move your second. There is a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor please indicate by saying I. I. Any against? Motion carries. Um all righty. So, I'd like to thank those willing to serve the city of Tucson in this capacity as volunteer appointees to our boards, committees, and commissions. Are there any personal appointments to be made at this time? I don't see any.

Item three, mayor and council report, summary of current events. City manager communication number 235 dated August 18th is received into part of the record. This time has been scheduled to allow members of the mayor and council to report on current events. These are to be current event events of activities within the community, not position statements on policy issues. Does any council member have anything to report at this time? I see some yeses. All righty.

Let's start with council member Schubert and then go down the the deas. Thank you, Madame Mayor, members of the council, and to everybody who's taken the time to attend the meeting tonight. Um, I'm going to open my current event report with a traffic violence update. I am giving these every time I give a current event update in order to keep it at the forefront of our minds as we continue to work on solutions and just keeping on top of what the trends are and what's happening in our communities.

On August 5th, very early in the morning, like around 4:30 a.m., a pedestrian was pronounced dead at the scene after a collision. Later that evening, around 8 11:30 p.m., a car crash left one pedestrian dead and another one in the hospital with life-threatening injuries. That was both on August 5th. On August 8th, there was a crash involving two vehicles. One driver had minor injuries and the other went to the hospital with serious but at the time non-lifethreatening injuries.

Um, but on August 13th, TPD was notified that that driver who had gone to the hospital had passed away from her injuries. On August 17th, and this was just confirmed very early this morning, there was a fatality after a two vehicle crash in Midtown. And pedestrian deaths are double what they were this time last year. So, we're at 22 so far compared to 11 this time last year. in more optimistic and current events. Two new stamps were released this week as part of our summer stampede program.

The W six office has been running um it's like a scavenger hunt with stamps at different locations and then you have a little passport book where you can put your stamps. We added two new stamps at Skate Park and the Loft Cinema. You don't have to buy anything. These are both publicly accessible. Also, a lot of people didn't know there was a Randolph skate park.

So, um, keep in mind that these stamps are not just for your collection, but they can also increase your raffle options during our summer stampede celebration, which is scheduled for Saturday, September 26, at the W 6 office. We'd love to see you there. You have until September 20th to collect stamps in your passport. Um, and then join us the following weekend to celebrate with a party, prizes, and ice cream.

RSVP link for the event will be will continue to be shared in our newsletter that comes out every Friday. Please sign up for that if you aren't already. We put a lot of information in it. And be sure to collect as many stamps as you can before the deadline. And then my final note, just want to welcome back to the tracks um Sunlink Street Car 105, which has been out of commission for a year. Um back in service officially today. Very exciting. Um this is going to improve frequency for the Sunlink.

So, excellent news. Thank you so much. Thank you, Council Member. Council member Barahas. Thank you, Mayor. Well, last Saturday I had the privilege of attending the second annual MD dot volunteer appreciation lunchon at Al PBLO center and there was so many volunteers and staff and I would like to thank you all for being kind to our neighbors and all the work that you're doing. If you would like to volunteer, please reach out to the um multi- uh disciplinary outreach team MDOT or our office.

I would like to thank all of our neighbors and community members who took the time to attend last week's community meetings on the safe city connect transit meetings. Our office in Ward 1 had a meeting at the Al PBLO activity center last Monday. I truly appreciate everybody's time, the fact that you all are listening, asking questions, and willingness to share your thoughts and experiences. Your engagement is important and it helps us better understand the needs and priorities of our community.

Next Wednesday, August 26th, at 5:30 p.m., I invite you all to join us alongside Suntran to learn more about the public transportation services available in our community and how you can stay connected. This will be a great opportunity to learn about how to ride the bus, what services are available, to ask questions, and to better understand the resources available to get us around town. And that will be at our office, 4,300 South Park Avenue.

Our office has been very busy preparing for the reopening of Santaorita Park. And I'm excited to share that we now have some dates of uh our ribbon cutting. So, if you're around town, I would love to invite you all on Friday, October 2nd for the ribbon cutting ceremony. There's going to be activities starting at 5:00 p.m. So, bring your lawn chairs, splash pad gear, skateboards, come enjoy these special events with our family, friends, and neighbors.

and I look forward to seeing you all at Sanorita Park. The fun continues with our Movies in the Park series. I'm excited to announce that we will have three evenings for movies, family fun, and time under the stars. Starting Saturday, September 19th, Silver Lake at Silverlake Park, we're going to be showing Goat. Saturday, October 3rd. The next day after we cut the ribbon at Sanorita Park, the Super Mario Galaxy movie. and Saturday, October 24th at Gunni Bareras Memorial Park.

We're going to be showing Coco. So, more details to come. Activities begin at 6 p.m. for the movies. So, come with again your lawn chairs, blanket, and some good times. Um, I also want to provide my condolences to the family, friends, and loved ones of Jalisa Julie Salasad, 19-year-old UVA student who was found dead last week by police um who was [clears throat] killed by her boyfriend due to domestic violence. I pray for healing in our community and more accountability.

Lastly, I want to take a moment to wish a very happy birthday to my chief of staff, Manisha BHA, who I don't know she's in the room today. Banisha, stand up. Today is her birthday and she is spending her birthday with you all. So, let's make sure that we congrat or wish her a happy birthday. I'm so fortunate to have you, Manisha, as by my side as our chief of staff and grateful for all the work you do in our office and in our community.

And I would like to wish a very early birthday to our family and civic engagement advisor, Elma Alvarez, who's probably watching on YouTube right now. Um, I wish you a happy early birthday, Elma. Oo, August 26. Elma brings so much heart, dedication, and energy to our team. [sighs] And [gasps] with that, I just thank you all for your continued involvement, partnership, and commitment to our community. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member. Councilman Lee, no announcements, Mayor. Council member D.

No announcements, Mayor. Council member Cunningham, just a couple. First of all, uh, Maestro Lwell has announced another series of concerts at UD Doll Park with the Arizona Symphonic Winds. The Symphonic Winds were established in 1986 as a all volunteer community concert band performing a very variety of music for all ages including overtures like classics, marches, Broadway show tunes, and even popular music. Um LLO was the longtime conductor and band director at Tucson High School.

He retired several years ago and has become full-time in this op um effort. As a matter of fact, the amphitheater at UD Doll Park is named after Lasveris. Uh, its music in the park series resumes September 12th, 2026 at the Llover Amphitheater near the north end of UD Doll Park. Concerts begin at 7:00 p.m. Bl bring long chairs, blankets, picnic baskets, and enjoy a great evening of entertainment for the whole family. All concerts are free to the public.

Also want a big shout out to the friends of Fort LOL. Want to thank them for their work event on August 8th. volunteers cleaned up debris out of the pond, fence repair, trash pickup, refilling dispensers, and of course photographing the wildlife in the part of the in that part of the park where Liabl Flores. Uh thank you to Larry, Kirby, Sarah, Sandy Stewart, Tom, Carol, and Redflower for keeping Fort LOL Park beautiful. A lot of good things going on at Fort LOL.

We have two different projects going on and uh thanks to the efforts of city parks, the pool remained open all summer. So, thank you, Vice Mayor. All right, mayor. Thank you. I got a couple of things. Um I wanted to start off with our back to school transit safety initiative. I know you spoke about it earlier during our study session, but the first two weeks of school, we launched our inaugural back to school transit safety initiative.

Um I had the opportunity to spend several mornings at the Ronstat Transit Center connecting with students and uh the Sunran staff and had the opportunity to ride the bus with students on their way to Choya High School. We got to hear directly from students and operators about how they navigate transit and their experiences on the bus. Um was the highlight of my week.

Um this effort grew out of a July um memo that Mayor Romero and myself submitted asking staff to develop a safe rights to school initiative for the start of the school year. With about three days of planning, city staff mobilized more than 100 volunteers and staff from across departments to provide additional presence and support for students and families using transit. This effort is also serving as a pilot [clears throat] for the city's future transit ambassador program.

Um, so what we learn from this experience will help shape that moving forward. Um, I believe that safety is something we practice every day. It's something we do with and for one another, not something that simply happens to us. Part of our role in elected office is to create opportunities or entry points for community members to participate in that work.

Building a safer transit system requires all of us, city staff, operators writers students families community members playing a role, big and small.

And I'm super grateful to Mayor Romero, the city manager, Tim Tamir in his office, especially Liz Morales, Randy Champion, Stephanie Samura, Justin Hamilton, Ian Sansim, um, MueL uh Aglasby um, John Zukas, Allison Chapel, and all the staff from the Department of Transportation and Mobility, Sunran Housing and Community Develop, and our Tucson Police Department, along with the 100 volunteers who made our back to school effort possible.

and I'm looking forward to continuing this iterative work um learning from this pilot and being proactive about safety and care across our public transit system. So again, thank you to everyone. Um, I also mentioned earlier during the study session that I had the opportunity to travel to Houston um, last week and I'm grateful to Mayor Prom and District K, Council Member Martha Castex Tatum for being an incredible host for the 2026 large city council principles convening in Houston last week.

One of the things I value most about these convenings is the opportunity to learn directly from other large cities, what they're building, how they're responding to challenges that we share, and what ideas we can bring um back home to Tucson. I had the opportunity to visit the Edison Arts Foundation where the Carter family walked us through the transformation of an abandoned, dilapidated grocery store plaza into a beautiful multi-use community space rooted in arts and and family.

The property now brings together affordable housing, state-of-the-art theaters, afterchool and summer programming, and a food court and retail space for local small businesses all in one place. We also toured a 419 Emancipation, which is Houston's new 222 bed homeless services and treatment hub. Residents can access shelter alongside medical and behavioral health care and employment services and other supports during their 30 to 90day stay.

The facility opened earlier this year and quickly filled every available bed. I also had the opportunity to travel to the Ismali Center, one of only seven Ismile centers in the world and the first of its kind in the US. It was an incredible and serene space and grateful for the opportunity to visit the prayer hall and learn about their work in trying to uh create more uh pluralism within our our communities during um during these times.

I want to thank the entire National League of Cities team for all the planning and labor that goes into bringing legislative leaders across the country. Um I'm looking forward to continuing sharing um this work and working together on these challenges that our communities are facing. Uh moving on to events that we're having uh this upcoming week. Tomorrow, Wednesday, August 19th, um our office will be hosting a community conversation on park and monument namings.

This community plata will bring residents together to help shape a shared framework for how Tucson names and renames parks and public monuments. The conversation will focus on ensuring our public spaces reflect community values and creating a thoughtful process for responding when we learn difficult truths about the people our city has chosen to honor. Um this comes in response to um our Cesad Chavez holiday and also um uh public spaces named after him.

Um, if you want um to participate, you can register online to receive the location. The doors open at 5 and dinner will be served between 5 and 5:30. Also, tomorrow, Wednesday, August 19th, um, help shape the future of affordable housing uh, ownership in Menllo Park in Dumbar Springs. Um, we're selecting a team to design and build new homes. At this meeting, potential teams will present their early design ideas for the sites.

Please join us to see the concept plans and share your feedback and inform the team selection. This will be at from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the Sentinel Building of the Housing and Community Development Campus at 320 North Commerce Park Loop. That's all. Mayor, thank you so much, Vice Mayor. Um, well, I have a little bit of a invitation for our community. I really want to challenge our residents to become master recyclers.

Um, I am am often told, especially in family parties, that I am obsessive about recycling because I'm like cleaning and taking things out the trash that we can recycle. So, I join me in being a master recycler, uh, the fall cohort for the 2026 master recycler program.

Um, this year we're partnering with Tucson Clean and Beautiful and the City of Tucson Environmental Services for a 4 session workshop designed to help you better understand recycling, waste reduction, waste diversion, and sustainable living and give you the knowledge to share with others in your community. Join in on Wednesdays, September 9th, 16th, 23rd, and 30th from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Thomas O' Prize Service Center located at 404 South Park Avenue.

Um, and that's my um summary of current event. I hope that you all have a wonderful week. There's always things to do in Tucson, Arizona. So, please pay attention to uh our newsletters and emails that we put out as mayor and council and the activities that our departments within the city of Tucson share on social media and other sources. So, with that, we move on to item four, city manager report, summary of current events.

City Manager's communication number 236 dated August 18th 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 honorable mayor and members of the council. Just one uh kudos for tonight and this came in from a resident Meg Johnson from the Garden District Neighborhood Association. She wanted to be complimentary toward one of our environmental services drivers.

Uh yesterday afternoon, an elderly resident in the 4100 block of Leicester fell and was laying in the street outside of his room, outside of his home in the heat. A young woman driving by noticed him on the ground and tried to help him up, but was unable to do so by herself. She flagged down our refuge truck driver, James Moore, who stopped and helped her get the resident up and basically carried him over to the sit in the doorway of of the home.

After they got the resident to the stoop, James called his supervisor to make sure he could stay there and that he would be tained for a bit. Good job, James. Uh, but you're doing the right thing. Uh, and tried to shade the resident as he sat on the doorstep. Um, it was a potentially deadly situation. Um the and the resident was definitely in distress. Um Meg wanted to compliment him on going above the call of duty to help our community and make sure they received an acknowledgement.

Um and so I'm sharing that here publicly with all of you. Um to thank James for doing the right thing and um probably saving a life uh just yesterday. Thank you, Mayor. Item five, liquor license applications. City managers communication number 237 dated August 18th is received into and may be made part of the record. Madame clerk, please read the liquor license agenda.

Your honor, on the evening's agenda, we have two applications for new licenses, four applications for a special event, and two applications for an agent change acquisition of control. All applications are in compliance with city requirements. An appropriate motion would be to forward items 5B 1-2, 5C 1-4, and 5D 1-2 to the state liquor board with a recommendation of approval. May I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none.

Uh, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Any against? Motion carries. Item six, call the audience. Madame Clerk, um please read the announcement. At this time, me any member of the public is allowed to address the mayor and city council on any issue except for items scheduled for a public hearing at the meeting. Call the audience will last for 30 minutes and speakers are limited to three minute presentations. The green light will turn on when you're called to speak.

It will turn yellow when you have 30 seconds remaining and it will turn red and beep when your time is up. At that time, please conclude your comments. Our first speaker will be J. D. Wallace. Hello, Mayor and Council. My name is J. D Wallace. I'm a Tucson resident and retained speaker on behalf of Tucson Electric Power at 8880s Broadway downtown with an update on how TE continues to work to remain a trusted energy provider.

During the hottest days so far this summer, energy demand has yet to top last summer's record of 252 megawws, which was reached on August 6th, 2025, when the temperature was 111°. That was a weak day. We've seen customers energy demand reach above 2430 megawws. And since last summer, as I've mentioned before, we have far more battery storage and solar to help satisfy customer energy needs.

Uh just last week we held a ribbon cutting cut cutting ceremony for our Roadrunner Reserve battery expansion that added 200 megawws to that facility doubling its size. The expanded facility can power 84,000 homes for uh 4 hours. We also have incentivized customers to help reduce demand during high peak times.

Our smart rewards program provides a one-time enrollment incentive and a yearly incentive to customers who allow us to remotely make small temporary adjustments to their smart thermostats on high demand days. We alert them of the upcoming event and then the event may be paired with pre-cooling their home uh up to 3° and then adjusting the thermostat uh to four degrees from that original setting during those times of high demand.

Uh customers always maintain control of their service and if the temperature is too uncomfortable they can opt out of the event. Uh if the the smart rewards participation is saving energy by tens of megawatts during these peak periods from June through September and there can be up to 20 events per season. We really want to emphasize help for your constituents who are struggling to pay their utility bills.

Power A assistance, which is administered by the Department of Economic Security, uh remains available for qualifying households, but is scheduled to end on September 30th, 2026, unless funds are depleted sooner. With summer energy bills placing pressure on many families, there are only a few weeks left to encourage constituents to explore their eligibility and apply.

We continue to support education through donations from corporate resources, not rateayer funds, and uh through volunteers volunteerism. Earlier this year, TE donated $50,000 to Tucson Values teachers to fund Lumia, an online support platform for teachers. We also volunteered in the classroom earlier this year with Junior Achievement.

And we've donated $10,000 each to seven education foundations across the county to support classroom mini grants for teachers and are also ready to support PEEPS, which is Puma Early Education Program scholarships as conversations about strengthening its future continue. As always, constituents seeking uh assistance with their bills are encouraged to contact our customer service representatives or re research a variety of options at te.com. Thank you. Thank you, April Putney.

Hi, Mayor and Council. [clears throat] Um, I'm here to speak about the consent agenda, item 7N. I'm sure one of you will have the cojones to pull out that item. I think it deserves to be put in the public light uh when we're giving away our land for free to the Air Force so that Rathon can use it. I haven't been able to find any real detailed explanation of why this is occurring or how the 1995 contract went down.

I have been able to find things, news articles on the internet that say how many tax breaks we've given to Rathon. I don't love it. Oh yeah. I mean, I guess I should mention Rathon who came from Hughes Aircraft who did the TCE spill as I'm sure all of you know. the one that ended up with a super fun site and giving a bunch of cancer to a bunch of people on the south side and killing the community that Rathon.

So, you have a choice to make today when somebody pulls that out of the consent agenda about how we want to live in the world and how you want to show up for your constituents. I spoke to one council member who said that probably mayor and council was afraid because they didn't want to get sued by Rathon and they didn't want to run into any trouble. Well, I do not think that this is the time for leadership that comes from a place of fear.

This is a time for leadership that comes from a place of bravery. We are facing a climate collapse in very real time in front of us that will affect the people younger than all of you a lot more than what will affect you or me standing here today. Um the US military which Rathon supports is the largest CO2 emitter. Hard to find those numbers but the estimates exist. The US military is not required to report on CO2 or other carbon emissions.

I ask that you please at least study the contract that you think is forcing you to give away over 200 acres of city-owned land to the federal government during this time of austerity and we don't have any money for anything for free for military profitering. You could at least have a study session about it probably. And then from that point on, who here wants that? Who here wants us to give away our land to the air force so Rathon can use it? Rathon. Yeah, Rathon.

By the way, do you remember the Iranian girls school that got blown up? That was their missile. And we have a responsibility to each other here, not to live on the sweat and the death of other people's backs in other places. Rodriguez, VA Rodriguez. I want to thank uh Lane Santa Cruz for your words sharing about your experience in Houston. That aligns very much with what I'm about to say. Thank you uh Mayor Romero Lane Santa Cruz and the council. My name is Vita Rodriguez.

are using him his pronouns. And I'm here tonight because I'm honestly tired of hearing that the solutions our communities are asking for are too much because they are not too much. We can be innovative and other cities already are. So I have two proposals for you all tonight. Let's start with the transgender and gender expansive community. The data is not ambiguous.

In 2022, the US transgender survey found that 30% of gender expansive respondents had experienced homelessness homelessness in their lifetime. That's eight times the rate of the general population. And among those who experienced homelessness, 58% were denied access to shelter because of their identity. And 27% left the shelter because of poor treatment.

So when I asked Tucson to explore a dedicated shelter and resource program for transgender and expansive people, I'm not asking for some impossible luxury program. I'm I'm responding to a documented problem. I want to acknowledge the mutual aid groups and community organizers who have been filling those gaps. I am incredibly grateful for them. But it is heartbreaking that we have to depend on mutual aid to fill systemic gaps in services for our own community.

Mutual aid should not should be a part of a healthy community. It shouldn't have to be the thing holding the entire system together. We've already seen cities create specialized shelters, shelter models. Los Angeles, for example, has operated Kasa de Lazuma, a shelter specifically serving transgender women. So why can't Tucson be innovative too? My second proposal is about how we use the resources we already have. Tucson has underutilized commercial spaces. So let's think differently.

What is an abandoned mall? What if an abandoned mall became a one-stop community resource like L Santa Cruz had mentioned? Seems logical, right? I'm not making this up or reinventing the wheel. In California, Riverside has a centralized homeless service campus where people can access housing placement, employment services, benefits, healthcare, mental health services, legal assistance, transportation, and other resources all in one place.

Albuquerquekey's Gateway Center similarly brings multiple services together under one roof. This is already be being done. So why are we still making someone without a car take three buses across Tucson just to find out they need to go somewhere else? Why are we asking people to navigate 10 different doors when we could build one that actually opens? So when So then on top of just worrying about how to get there, everything closes at 5. That's not a system. That's a scavenger hunt.

I want Tucson to invest in centralized resource centers where organizations collaborate instead of competing. I want paid peer support positions where people with lived expertise aren't just invited to tell their stories. We're hired, we're trained, and we're trusted to build the solutions because we've already been doing the impossible with with almost nothing. So, I cannot say all of this at once. So, I'm just my final statement is I'm a young person.

I'm a trans young person who overcame my homelessness and my story didn't end when I found stability. That's where my responsibility to my community began. Thank you. Thank you, VA. [applause] Thank you so much. Really appreciate the ideas. And I think that we were going to appoint you the housing equitable housing commission. There you are. There you go. Uh thank you for being my appointee and serving on that commission. Um Amy Hartman Gordon. Uh honorable mayor and council members.

Uh my name is Amy Hartman Gordon. I am the director of the Tucson Prescidio Trust which runs two uh museum assets here in Tucson, the Prescidio Museum right down the street. And uh recently we've now been honored to also uh manage Port L Museum. Uh it's my understanding that when you look at your agenda tonight, you'll find that you are approving our operating contract tonight. Um so I figured this was an opportunity to just come in and give you all a few little updates.

So, first of all, I just wanted to um recognize that we are about to celebrate our community's milestone anniversary date again. Uh as you all know, last August 20th was the 250 plus uh celebration for Tucson and it was a huge success and I want to thank uh city manager Tamure and mayor and council for all of your support and partnership in that event.

After that big milestone, we really weren't sure what was going to happen next or how the community would feel and we were quite surprised to get really overwhelming demand to keep it going. So this Thursday, August 20th, we will be celebrating the 251st plus community event. And as you all know, what's important about that is the recognition of our community and our history and our multicultural success that we've had here.

Um, I also just want to let you know that we present that as a free event to the community and we present it as in partly sponsored by the city of Tucson. We consider that part of the work we do in terms of the operating agreement we get with you all. The second update I wanted to let you know about was the 20th anniversary of the turquoise trail uh which was last April and we had a really wonderful event uh recognizing those 20 years.

Uh some of you may know that the the two people who created that uh trail are close to my heart and to Councilman Cunningham's heart. Uh those would be our two mothers who uh originally created the content for the history and public art information that we now use as a downtown trail in Tucson, which is right outside this building.

Um, so we had a great time with several hundred people walking through downtown back in April with Councilman Cunningham and celebrating the 20th anniversary of the trail. Um, lastly, I just want to also acknowledge that we are about to start in on our second full season managing Fort LOL. Um, we're thrilled to be partnering with the city and with city parks uh to manage Fort LOL Museum.

We're working very hard to develop the programming out there and to invest in that site and we're also of course really excited to see the openings of the additional historic assets that we're expecting in the fall. So those are just three of many uh things happening at both of our museums. Uh we reopen next Thursday, August 27th after being closed for two months. Thank you so much, Amy. I appreciate it. [applause] JP Salvateran.

[snorts] Madame Mayor, Council, um I come before you on a number of occasions and made uh an adamant request that you take the the general public into consideration in creating revenue stream that recirculates within Arizona. That means a utility commonwealth that includes the state level that trans transmits and transforms the uh the grid uh for distributing uh energy and each municipality that is affected that creates its own bond measures to support that same opportunity.

When we have such an a tremendously growing state, we cannot afford to have 1.6 billion dollars a year just disappear from this realm. And that's literally what's happening year after year after year. Now, this new Prop 421, what's it going to do? Oh gosh. Um, are we giving away all our easements? Are we going to turn into another uh Ngala Sonora with all the all the the internet lines and the and the telephone poles uh hanging uh so low that it it it looks like it it's just obscene.

Um, every week we have these TE poles destroyed because of tornatic events. Uh, over the board of board of supervisors meeting, uh, a neighborhood uh, was asking that they not have this huge monstrosity uh, 150 foot uh, uh, tower put in place near their neighborhood. And at the same time, this three points area had at least a dozen telephone poles knocked down by these tornatic storms. It's not going to end. Is this the way we support TEP?

We can underground it and make it look like the city that we really appreciate and deserve. we can turn Huckleberry Loop into a beautiful scenic corridor that tourists can access uh with a a tram and and then the 161 KV twin KV running all the way around the city and to make it something unique and and pleasurable. And [snorts] all that money that we're paying TEP to re reposition these poles, we're also paying them a 12% dividend on top of that. And it goes on and on and on.

Undergrounding is the right thing to do and we can do it. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you, JP, [applause] Kimberly Fitch, and Lucy Howell. Good evening, Mayor Romero, and members of the Tucson City Council. My name is Kimberly Fitch, and I am honored to be the chair of the Puma County Tucson Women's Commission. I'm joined this evening by fellow Commissioner Lucy Howell. We wanted to come before you tonight for one simple but important reason. We are here to serve you.

For nearly 50 years, the Pimac County Tucson Women's Commission has been here to serve the women and girls of Pumac County, Tucson, and Southern Arizona through advocacy, education, empowerment, and collaboration. And next week we reach an extraordin extraordinary milestone. On August 26th, the women's equality day, we will celebrate our 50th anniversary of the Puma County Tucson Women's Commission. in partnership with the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame.

As we honor the women who helped build this commission and those who have carried this work forward over five decades, we also recognize that our mission is as relevant today as it was 50 years ago. And that is why we are here tonight, not only to celebrate where we have been, but to talk about where we go next. And 50 years certainly isn't is something to celebrate, but it's also an opportunity to recommmit.

Mayor and council, we want you to know that your Tucson Women's Commission is here as a resource for you. So when you hear concerns affecting women and girls in your community, please bring them to us. When there are voices that aren't being heard, please help us bring them to the table. And when there are opportunities to educate, advocate, collaborate, and empower, invite us to be part of the solution.

And as we celebrate this milestone on Women's Equality Day, we invite you and our entire community to join us in recognizing not only the women who helped shape Southern Arizona, but also the girls and young women who are the future and will shape the future. So, our 50th anniversary isn't the finish line. It's just the starting line looking back to propel forward. We're here. We're ready to serve. We're ready to listen. And most importantly, we're ready for you guys.

And we are looking forward for Mayor Romero and um Jen Allen, Jen Allen to read the proclamation at our uh celebration next Wednesday, August 26th at the YW.CA from 5:30 to 8:00. So looking forward to seeing you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for your work. [applause] TLC Hi. Hi. Hi, everyone. Um, I go by TLC. I get really nervous talking, so um, please forgive me if I stumble. Um, happy birthday, Manisha. In early 2025, I knew nothing about surveillance.

I helped some friends make a banner that said, "Mass surveillance does not equal safety." And tomorrow will work mark one year ago that we stood at the UVA campus with our banner and handed out information. At the same time, a female freshman was stabbed at the university library just hundreds of feet from where we stood. In the following weeks and months, I started researching and sending public records requests out.

I was denied at first by UA, but ultimately had some success by contacting the Arizona Board of Regents for intervention. For the past year, I've been trying to get copies of contracts, purchase information, and audit lo logs from the University of Arizona, Morirana, DPS, Oral Valley, and many other agencies. Since the beginning of this year, I've been waiting for the city of Tucson to respond. I've been stonewalled. I've contacted the state budsman's office with no response.

I emailed mayors, council members, board members. I've spoken at many council meetings with no response. I even had to file a lawsuit. Still with no response. What have I have learned about the tech that cops use makes me want to go back to last year when I was naive and wasn't aware of how heavily we are being surveiled. Cops collect location data on us from license plate readers, which are motion activated cameras that take hundreds of pictures of your car when you drive by.

Pan tilt zoom cameras take videos of every moving object. These cameras are installed throughout Tucson in places like outside the VA, Himl Park, East Point High School, places of worship, cemeteries, medical facilities, and even outside this building.

AI vendors like Flock, Axon, Verata, Vigilant, and Bosch scan every photo and video and create a massive searchable database based on what can be described in the image, which creates a fingerprint of your car, you as an individual, and who you associate with. All this data and more is uploaded into a server where it can be easily shared with or accessed by any agency across the United States. No formal memorandum of understanding agreement or warrant is required.

And at the back end are private companies with unfettered access to our locations and biometric data with dates and times. This is drag net surveillance. This is predictive policing. This is guilty until proven innocent. These million and billion-dollar companies whine and dine our cops and sell products based on lies and inflated facts.

And the people who are impacted the most and who are paying for this technology can't even get documentation that's legally required to be disclosed by the Arizona statutes. This is no transparency. People across the nation are upset because they're not being heard. We have 2,831 signatures on our change.org petition as of right now. We got two while I was sitting here. We live in an oligarchy and none of us have a say in what our our government is doing.

We cannot compete with the money being thrown around by these companies. These cameras don't make me feel safe and they're not preventing crimes. The vendors are not in the business. You have to come to a conclusion. We have a couple of additional money. Thank you so much, [applause] Gerald. Gerald Montag Gerald Montag. We only have a couple of speakers. So, Gerald and then uh Drew Heaton. Uh hello, my name is Gerald Montag. I live in W 3. Um I'm here to speak in opposition item 7n.

Um, I'm not anti-military. Quite the opposite. I joined the Marine Corps at age 18. Had my 19th birthday in boot camp, my 21st in Rammani, Iraq. My 22nd, 23rd, 24th, and 25th birthdays were spent in Afghanistan. Like any Marine would say, the greatest honor of my life was to serve alongside my fellow Marines. Um, so don't think for a second that I'm anti-military, even though I I do think that we can sometimes be far too eager to use our military.

Um, what I am is I'm anti-waste and I'm pro community. Time and time again, homeless advocates have stood at this very podium and asked for resources only to be told, "We don't have the money." My very first mayor and council meeting I attended, a 911 dispatcher stood at this podium and begged for help. And you guys told her there was no money. People's cars get damaged on our roads. No money. April of this year, this very council considered closing two fire stations because there's no money.

50 pedestrians die every year in our city because we don't have the money for measures to keep them safe. 22 this year. A month ago, the city raised parking meter rates by 50%. A year ago, the meter the city expanded meter hours. The list goes on and on, raising fees on pond loans, a measure that impacted the people with the least amount of money to give away.

A half a half cent sales tax increase was sent to the people in 2025 and rejected because the people standing in front of me, sitting in front of me, said it was necessary for services they claimed were essential. So, why on earth would our city be giving land away for free when just a few years ago they purchased it? I understand the federal government wants their land. They're going to they're going to take it.

But the federal government that has slashed funds for community aid programs and allocated hundreds of billions of dollars to wars nobody wants can afford to give us a fair price. They even built an extremely wellunded secret police force that is accountable to no one and is active in our community. This isn't about supporting the troops. None of that money Tucson spent on that land will be used to make their lives better. It's about being responsible with our money. Keep Tucson money in Tucson.

We cannot afford to keep giving it away. And then I heard about an agreement with Hughes back in 1995. I believe your constituents deserve to know why the details of a 31-year-old agreement with a company that does not exist anymore requires us to give millions of dollars of land away. Thank you. [applause] All righty. We have time for one additional speaker. Sean Frasier, I believe. Hello, mayor and council.

My name is Drew Heaton and I have been a resident here in Tucson, Pima County for 29 years. My husband and I pulled into Tucson thinking we would live here for maybe two years. Instead, we fell in love with the sonor and desert and decided to settle, build a business, and raise our children. My grandchildren live here now, and I am concerned for their future.

I became a reluctant activist 10 years ago, frequently speaking before the board of sup supervisors and occasionally the city council, where I witnessed elected officials violate the true health, true safety, and true security of the residents here. I continue to watch elected officials violate basic human rights and dignity while professing it to be civilized because they speak in bureaucratic terms and quiet voices.

There is nothing civilized about predatory financing, predatory philanthropy, or predatory surveillance. It's just predatory. My absence from the public comment for the most recent past is not due to a lack of interest in the prevailing problems bodies like this create and then solve. I have turned inward to help and support people in our community directly. However, there are times when a reminder is in order.

Truly important and accurate information has been presented in these councils regarding the absolute abhorance and ineffectiveness of mass surveillance. 10 years ago, I suggested to the board of supervisors that we are on the cusp of a revolution for human rights in this country, advising they not miss it. I do not know if you share a belief in the great mystery some call God or if any of you are a Christian as I am. CS Lewis stated, "God's purposes will be accomplished no matter what you do.

But it makes a difference to you whether or not you serve like Judas or like John. But even if you are an atheist, history will have a say. Whether you fall on the side of humanity or take the predatory stance, people in your position will be judged either in the next life or this one. Like you, I did swear an oath to protect the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of Arizona against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

We are on the cusp of a revolution for human rights in this community. Don't miss it. [applause] Thank you. That was our last speaker. Are you Sean? Okay, you're going to be our last speaker. Thank you. Hello, my name is Sean Glazer. Um, I've lived in the greater Tucson area uh my entire life. Um, I'm just here to speak today about the ricotta cameras. Um, I live in Oro Valley, but I was born over at TMC and I've just kind of migrated.

Um, I did eight years in the Marine Corps and, um, I guess that's a little bit about me. So, the Institute for Justice is a public liberty interest law firm much like the ACLU. Um, and there's a a link that most I guess anybody can go to. There's the just Google the the Institute for Justice database of ALPR abuse. Uh just just this year alone there have been about I think 80 or 90 different instances where ALPR data um has been used to stalk women to harass people.

Um I want to read a little bit from that um from that article I mentioned in Florida. A woman was stalked and pulled over by a sheriff's deputy who saw her at a TV shoot. He used the ALPR database to look up where she was at. He was cat calling her. She was I think an extra on Bad Monkey. I think it's an an Apple TV show. Um, in Texas, there was a sheriff's deputy who used 83,000 flock cameras uh to find a woman who had self-administered an abortion.

Um, so if you think that you're safe because you choose to be private about your healthcare, think again. Um, and in Georgia, um, there was a police chief who tracked his ex-girlfriend and her teenage daughter roughly 600 times. Um, this is a very novel, uh, it's a novel solution to a very age-old problem, which is crime. Um, I'm very pro law enforcement. I think, you know, public safety is a very fundamental right, but I don't think it should come at the cost of our civil liberties.

Like Benjamin Franklin said, you know, those who would give up a little temporary safety, a little temporary liberty to purchase temporary safety deserve neither. Um, and again, please just look at cancing the Vicotta contract or look at cancelling uh the Motorola contract or whatever contracts the city of Tucson has. Thank you for your time. Thank you. [applause] Righty. That was our last speaker for item six. Item seven, consent agenda. You you can give them to the city clerk staff. Thank you.

Thank you. Um reports from the city manager on the consent agenda received into and made part of the record. Madame clerk, you are requested to read the consent agenda. Upon no objection from mayor and council, items I, L, M, and N will be removed from the consent agenda and addressed separately as discussed during today's study session. Item 7 A, approval of minutes.

Item 7B, elections amending the Tucson code, sections 1239, 1294, and 1295 relating to updates to align to state election and campaign finance requirements. Item 7 C, elections, amendment to campaign finance administration rules and regulations for the public matching funds program for candidates for city office. Item 7 D, intergovernmental agreement between Puma County and the city of Tucson for heat relief 2026 heat season.

Item 7E, pursuant to Tucson Code section 20-179, which governs oneway streets and alleys, adopting a new designating ordinance to convert two portions of Washington Street to oneway eastbound traffic and to provide a complete up-to-date list of all one-way designations. Item 7F, approving the expenditure of budget mayor budgeted mayor and ward office funds for various programs and projects. Item 7G, Habitat for Humanity Casites on Park impact fee subsidy request.

Item 7H, intergovernmental agreement to provide facilities and services between the city of Tucson and Department of Arizona Department of Child Safety.

Item 7J amend second amendment to the lease agreement between Rio Noeo multi-purpose facilities district Tucson Presidio Trust DBA Presidio Museum and City of Tucson for property located at 133 West Washington Street 196 North Court Avenue Tucson A LF782 RP2777 R 2025 through 262 item 7K second amendment to the agreement for operation and maintenance of the precidio San Augustine del Tucson 133 West Washington Street 196 North Court Avenue Tucson ARP2777 R2026-326 may I have a motion to approve the items mentioned in the consent agenda so move mayor there's a motion second motion in a second any further discussions on the items okay we need to go to roll Council member Barahas.

Hi. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. I. Councilwoman Lee. I. Council member Cunningham. Hi. Council member Schubert. I. Council member Dah. I. Mayor Romero. I. Uh. The items on the consent agenda are approved by a vote of 70. And then we are going to take one by one the items considered separately. Can you read the ones that we're considering separately? Yes.

Item I, intergovernmental agreement between the city of Tucson on behalf of the Tucson Police Department and the state of Arizona on behalf of the Arizona Department of Public Safety for the Tucson Police Department's participation in the Arizona Vehicle Theft Task Force. All righty. I believe this was removed by council member Schubert. Council member, you can open the item. Thanks so much, Madame Mayor and members of the council.

[clears throat] I'm pulling this item because the W 6 office has gotten a lot of emails and calls around surveillance technology contracts with tech companies and data sharing. Since this program is an IGA between TPD and the Arizona Department of Public Safety, I am not clear on the strategies used, if the TPD internal use of technology policies apply here, and what the policies for data sharing and retention are under the AVTF program.

[snorts] There are too many things our office and my community need to understand about this program for us to responsibly move forward without a deeper dive into how this program has been deployed in Tucson and how it might continue than the consent agenda allows. So, we're here to have a full discussion. I'll pull a quote from the AVTTF January 2026 newsletter that shared a story about this program and raised questions about surveillance technology use in data sharing.

For me, the investigation involved hundreds of hours of surveillance, suspect network identification, vehicle tracking, and evidence collection to document the organization's operations and the movement of stolen vehicles. In further research, I found that the AVTTF task force is part of Arizona's border strike force created by Governor Doug Ducey and reorganized in Operation Desert Guardian by Governor Katie Hobbes with with an explicit mandate to coordinate with DHS and other federal agencies.

So, I would like more information to ensure transparency on this, especially as we are hearing from constituents about their concerns on surveillance, data collection, and data sharing. The attached materials did not provide enough information for me to feel comfortable passing it on the consent agenda, and I want to ensure accountability to my constituents who are reaching out on this issue.

My staff spoke with TPD this morning to address questions regarding this item that arose from constituent concerns about surveillance technology. And I want to say that I really truly appreciate TPD leadership taking the time to answer those questions with my staff. It is my understanding that additional details are forthcoming. At this time though, I still have lingering questions and concerns.

While I trust that TPD is not collaborating or sharing information with ICE or other federal agencies, once data is shared in statewide and or national databases, we don't know who can access it. That concerns me. So, without more information, I am a no vote on this tonight. Thank you. Do you um council member, besides your statement, do you have a particular motion to this? I do not. Okay.

Um, Councilman Lee, is it possible to continue this so that we can have a thorough conversation because as someone who also has helped ensure that there's transparency and citizen oversight with the use of technology, can we have more of a robust conversation and honorable mayor, members of the council, it's perfectly fine to continue this item to a future meeting and request any additional information that you'd like that you think is helpful.

Well, I would like to move that we continue the item and bring it back in a study session. Is there a second to that motion? I'll second that. Could we um could we also add that our council offices be briefed? Yeah. Um on this before we bring it back to Marian Council so we're better prepared. Honorable vice mayor that we will provide those briefings in advance. Yes.

So there's a motion and a second to continue the item with the request uh to um inform the council the mayor and council offices uh about this particular item and the details about information sharing data sharing and then further information about what the specifics of the program are.

Um I think that it's important to um very specifically when we are hearing uh information being used inappropriately uh that we be as careful and transparent as we possibly can for the community is very specifically on issues such as this. Mayor and council have been given very explicit direction before on uh having staff being sensitive to this type of um agreements with either the federal government or state government on issues of um data sharing.

I know that Roy, you have your mic up, so did you want to add? Uh thank you honorable mayor, members of council. We just wanted to get a a specific date. Uh when you wanted to bring it back, I think we're talking 60 days. Does that does that work for the mayor and council? That's okay. I mean that if that's appropriate for for our staff to be able to bring it back.

And I think it's important for council offices and the mayor's office to be able to give input and feedback on any time that we're signing an agreement for either a grant um or an intergovernmental agreement with another um state or federal agency. All righty. Any further discussion? Mayor, I would just question is this something that the APC, the committee, the citizen oversight committee could take a look at this agreement as well?

Honorable mayor, members of the council, that is one of the primary functions of the IAPC. Okay. So, the citizens of the community can take a look at it. Okay. All righty. Any other questions, comments? Uh, we need to read the resolution number.

Resolution number 24161 relating to Tucson Police Department intergovernmental agreements approving and authorizing the chief of police execution of an intergovernmental agreement between the city of Tucson on behalf of the Tucson Police Department and the state of Arizona. on behalf of the Arizona Department of Public Safety for the Tucson Police Department's continued participation in the Arizona Vehicle Theft Task Force. Okay. And declaring an emergency.

There is a motion and a second to uh postpone for 60 days and also um um brief and to brief council mayor and council offices and then um send this to our citizens um accountability commission. Okay. Good. Yes. Thank you. Do we need a roll call? Um, yes, please. Okay. Um, there is a motion in a second. Let's go to roll call. Councilwoman Lee, I. Council member Dall, I. Council member Barahas, I. Council member Schubert, I. Council member Cunningham, I. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz, I. Mayor Romero, I.

Motion passes on a vote of 70. Okay. Now we move on to the um additional item. Item L. Lease agreement with Tucson School for the Blind LLC TSFB to occupy the third floor at 149 North South A Stone Avenue consisting of approximately 4,000 rentable square feet. Real estate service request number RP22000. Vice Mayor, you're the one that removed this from the consent agenda. Uh yes. Thank you, Mayor.

I just wanted to take an opportunity [clears throat] to uplift the work of executive director Kate Skellyy and her team and congratulate them on opening um of the Tucson School for the Blind. When the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind announced earlier this year that they would be closing the historic campus, she immediately um leapt into action and to create a new school right here in our downtown.

we know that our blind students would no longer be served um for the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind and she wanted to make sure that we continue to um serve our our Tucson residents and so I'm really proud and appreciative of all their work and um honored to have them continue in W. So with that, mayor, I move that we um pass and adopt. There's a motion. There's a motion in a second. Any further discussion on this item? Uh, Council Member Cunningham, I pulled this one, too.

Uh, I want to thank my team, Chris Desbro and, uh, Director Scalley for getting this all done. Uh, this was really important. I was actually at the graduation, the last graduation for the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind this year, and it was a bittersweet moment. So, the fact that we get to continue a a school for the Blind here in Tucson is pretty special. Thanks to Ward One for getting it all done. All righty. Any others? Okay. Hearing none, let's read the resolution and then roll up.

Ordinance number 12270 relating to real property authorizing approving the lease agreement between the Tucson School for the Blind LLC, TSFB, and the city of Tucson to occupy the third floor at 149 Northstone Avenue and declaring an emergency. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz, I. Council member Cunningham, I. Council member Barahas, I. Council member Schubert, I. Council member Dah I. Councilwoman Lee I. Mayor Merrell I. Uh. Item passes by a vote of 70. And the next item. Item M.

Purchase of approximately 10 acres of vacant land from Tucson Unified School District for future Redside Park. Council member Cunningham. This is your item. Our office has referred to this um these 10 acres as the Ridge parcel for many years. I'm I'm happy to that the city of Tucson will now own it in order to preserve it as open space and a natural resource park. This goes back to the Maritage uh zoning agreement from about 5 years ago.

Uh the Hton reserve agreement and it was set up with collaboration with all the surrounding neighborhoods. Um it's an example of how cluster development and uh use of of open space can be preserved. Um, not only that, the money that we're purchasing with it is was paid for by one fraction of the impact fees it generated and moreover to USD is uh reinvesting those impact fees into uh school improvements on the east side. So, it was a win for everybody.

I'm happy that this per this uh this purchase will increase the city park total acreage and my thanks go out to some of the HOAs nearby. Silverado Hills, High 40, Hen Reserve, all of them had advocacy in the city and parks team who made it all happen. I really want to recognize Natalie Luna Rose who pretty much helped make this all work. So, I'm really excited to have a new natural resource park on the east side. And with that, I move that we pass and adopt resolution 24171. Second.

Okay, there's a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this hearing? None. Um, let's go to roll call. Read the resolution and then roll. Resolution number 24171 relating to real property authorizing the acquisition of approximately 10 acres of vacant land from Tucson Unified School District for future Redside Park and declaring an emergency. Council member Cunningham. I. Council member Doll. Hi. Councilwoman Lee. Hi. Council member Schubert.

I, Council Member Barahas, I, Vice Mayor Santa Cruz, I, Mayor Romero, I, item passes by a vote of 70. And our next item, item N, conveyance of city on property to the United States Air Force, RP 3489. All righty. And this item was removed uh, from the consent agenda by council member Schubert. Thank you, Madame Mayor, members of the council, everybody who's here tonight.

I wanted to pull this item because I think there is a larger question here that deserves acknowledgement before we treat this simply as a routine property conveyance. Rathon is enormously important to Tucson's economy. It provides thousands of goodaying jobs, supports families throughout the region, and has been part of Tucson's economic landscape for generations. The people who work there are our constituents, our neighbors and our family members.

Their livelihoods and their economic security matter. And at the same time, I think we should be willing to acknowledge the cognitive dissonance inherent in describing the expansion of the defense industry solely through the language of economic development. What is produced at Rathon is not an ordinary consumer product. It includes weapons designed for warfare.

Those [snorts] weapons become part of American foreign policy and some are ultimately used in conflicts where civilians experience tremendous suffering even in what can be described as acts of defense. Both of those realities can be true at the same time. Tucson can benefit enormously from Rathon's presence and we can also wrestle honestly with what it means for our community to benefit economically from the production of weapons.

I don't think that acknowledging the contradiction is an indictment of the people who work at Rathon. Individual workers are no more responsible for American foreign policy than the rest of us. But as elected officials, when we are asked to use the power of local government to facilitate potential expansion, I think we have an obligation to understand exactly what we're approving.

This property was acquired years ago specifically to provide a buffer and accommodate the possibility of future expansion. So I also recognize that today's council inherited decisions and commitments made long before this item appeared on our agenda. That is why I want to understand whether the action before us today is simply fulfilling an existing city obligation or whether Maring Council is being asked to make a new discretionary decision to facilitate additional expansion.

Because if we believe the consequences of American military power deserve moral scrutiny abroad, then we should at least be willing to apply some of that same scrutiny when the infrastructure supporting that system appears on our own consent agenda at home. That doesn't give us an easy answer. But I don't think our responsibility as elected officials is always to find an easy answer. Sometimes it is simply to see the contradiction clearly.

ask what power we actually have in this moment and make our decision with our eyes open. Uh, Madame Mayor and members of the council, I also have some questions that I would want to ask before we go to a vote. Absolutely. Um, do you have a motion though? Do you want to start discussion? Um, I can read the resolution if you'd like. Or can you read the resolution? And I just want to make sure that we have an opportunity to ask questions.

Uh so read the resolution and um it and then we can go and then we can go to questions. I I I have a point of procedure that I'd like to make. Is it possible that we can make a motion and open the debate? Make the motion to open the debate. Let's make the motion to open the debate. I don't want to have this discussion. That's the procedure that we need to follow. So but we need to read the resolution number.

Resolution number 24165 relating to real property approving the conveyance of property to the United States acting through the department of the air force to prevent encroachment upon the incur and encourage further development of the air force plant. All righty. So resolutions read and is there a motion on the floor? I move that we open the debate for this dis and discussion for this specific resolution. Okay, that is not um that's not a motion. Uh so uh I we have two options, right?

We h we can have questions uh to our city manager and city staff and then we can go into a motion in a second and then further discussion. Uh we did this the last time. So let's do it the same again. So uh we can open up with questions and then move a motion if we need to. So Council Member Schuber, you want to start with your questions? Thank you. And sorry to make things confusing. That's okay. What discretion does mayor and council actually have today?

Does the 2016 agreement obligate us as the city to convey parcel H upon request or do we retain the legal authority to decline? Should [snorts] I answer should I ask all of them first or wait after each one? No, I think it's it's important to get an answer. Thank you, honorable mayor. U me member Schubert. Um council member Schubert. Um the agreement contemplates the uh and I think it's appropriate to give just a little bit of history.

So the 1995 uh pre-anexation agreement uh had some uh relatively neutral language about uh Hughes and and bringing the uh Hughes property into the city. Uh that amendment that was amended in 2009. uh the 2009 amendment is the is where we developed the the incentive agreement that sort of is is the fund for this acquisition that we're talking about today.

In that particular amendment, um, in 2009, uh, the city agreed with Rathon that they would take the fees from their use taxes and their the difference between their use taxes if they weren't annexed and the and their use taxes as annexed and put that along with their different differential um, electricity taxes as well into a specific fund to acquire this parcel. Um that fund is what c what we used to pay for the parcel when we acquired it.

Um the so in any case I would always say the mayor and council has discretion but in this particular case the funds that we used were tied to that parcel. So if we did not uh acqu provide that parcel to Rathon we would have to pay that money back. So the if I can jump in because I want to follow on that same uh thread of questioning. Um, so did that did those funds come from the general fund or were they produced by Rathon?

No, they were produced by that differential tax rate that I just described. Uh, and those are not general funds. That's a spe special fund coming out of that annex annexation agreement that only applies for that particular p purchase. Okay. Go ahead. And sorry, uh, how how much how much was that? program. [snorts] Honorable mayor, members of the council, this particular transaction was 6.47 million. Okay. So, so we might potentially have to give back 6.47 million if we don't approve today.

Correct. Okay. Uh my second question was answered. What would happen if we didn't approve the conveyance? And and is that a sure thing that we'd have to pay that back because of the way the agreement was written concerning the annexation funds? Sure. your honorable mayor. Um, council member Schubert. Uh, I'm not a I'm an attorney, so I don't really say sure things like yes. Okay. Most likely. Okay. Science point to yes. Okay. Um, why is the Air Force requesting the property now?

Is there a specific expansion contemplated or is this simply preserving the possibility of a future expansion? Go ahead. Honorable mayor, members of the council, we'll we'll maybe tag team this one. This this originally was supposed to happen several years ago. It just didn't happen uh pre- pandemic and now it has come back. Having said that, there is um potential expansion activity for the site that this site would be used for.

And and I if I don't if I can jump in um just for specifics um the original uh amendment or the original um contemplation of the purchase of this land happened occurred in 2016. Um and in uh at the time it was intended that that parcel would come become available in 3 years from that point. So it'd be 2019 2019 it didn't happen obvious for some obvious reasons. Uh and then uh the as the manager said now it's become available again. Thank you.

Um what does potential operational growth mean in practical terms? Does the city know what facilities, production, employment or activities might eventually occupy this land if we complete the conveyance and no longer have control over it? Honorable mayor, members of the council, we know that any expansion would be related to the business of RTXON. We I will answer the question you haven't asked yet, but maybe you're planning to ask is is this a data center? The answer to that is no.

U because that's some of the question that's in the community and that I'm aware of, but this this should be related to their current current types of products and production that they do. Thank you. A follow-up question about potentially paying back 6.47 million. Would that get paid to Rathon or would it be returned to the annexation fund?

Honorable mayor, um members of council, council member Schubert, um it's a little bit complicated just because it goes into that fund and so that fund will continue until we complete this transaction. So one of the things to uh recall uh is that in the agreement uh the acquisition of this property actually terminates that differential tax rate that goes into that fund.

So once that t once that once this transaction is completed that fund no longer exists uh and then we begin to to collect our full tax amount from Rathon at that point. Right. Because there wouldn't be a differential anymore. Okay. Correct. Um, city manager kind of answered this already, but is the anticipated growth specifically connected to weapons or missile production? If so, does the city know which programs or production activities?

The staff memo doesn't provide that information, and there was an article on the front page of the Daily Star today that references Rathon receiving a $23 billion contract for tomahawk missile production from the federal government. Honorable mayor, members of the council, we do not know this the city what product lines are associated with that expansion. Thank you.

Um, how much property is actually being conveyed and why is ownership being transferred now rather than the city continuing to hold the land as a buffer? Honorable mayor, members of council, council member Schubert, uh, my recollection is the amount conveyed is 212 acres. Um, I I don't know the timing. Uh my guess is that the timing is just related to the availability of the property. Is there any monetary consideration or community benefit associated with the transfer?

The memo says the property is expected to be conveyed for no additional monetary consideration. Honorable mayor, members of the council, probably a two-part answer to that. There's no monetary consideration directly because the funds were derived from the recipient in the first place, but an expansion at that site is is expected to generate a large number of high-paying jobs in our community. Thank you.

And then and if I can add to that, uh, Council Member Schuber, mayor, members of council, the uh, additionally the I would refer back to that differential rate no longer applies. So, additional use taxes, additional electricity use taxes as well would would occur. That makes sense. And then my final question, um, can we attach conditions to our vote today like environmental protections, workforce commitments, local hiring, apprenticeship opportunities, or other community benefits?

And that's my last question. Uh, honorable member members of council, council member Schubert. Um, that would require some negotiation with our partners at Rathon. Um my sense is they would deem that as an amendment to the agreement and then we'd sort of be back in square one with what we're sort of doing here.

Honorable mayor, if and members of the council, if I could add, often the type of conditions you're talking about are associated with a development agreement or a community benefits agreement associated with an incentive being provided by the city. In this case, there is no incentive being provided by the city. Any other questions? Vice Mayor and then council member Cunningham. Right. I um have a clarifying question for this differential utility tax this fund.

Had they been not putting it in this separate pot of money? Would that have been going to the general fund? Uh vice mayor members council mayor. Um, if I understand the question correctly, if that if the fund didn't exist, would the money be coming into the general fund? Yes. Okay. So, but it wouldn't be in the city at that point because we haven't annexed it yet. Okay. Um, do does Rathon pay property taxes?

Honorable mayor, um members of council, vice mayor, um the property that is contain, there are multiple levels of property that are related to Rathon. Um the federal property does not pay property taxes because it's federal property. It's same with Puma County property. They don't pay us uh property taxes. There is a small portion of of the area, I believe, is still within city control, and that does that doesn't pay us property tax because it's ours.

So this uh this section that we would be um kind of passing on to them, would that also like not generate property taxes for us? Once it goes to them and it's owned by a private entity and it's not owned by the federal government, it would pay property taxes. All right.

Um, I I'm curious too with with these agreements like this pre-anexation agreement from 2009 and then this conversation again in 2016 if there can be time limits when we go into these agreements because over time the governing bodies change and the priorities change because I would like when we had this discussion last year and we're talking about data centers like how do we have an economic development strategy that's moving away from like the business of war and extraction and um bringing bringing in more life affirming industries into the city of Tucson.

So, it would just be helpful that we don't have these long-term agreements that we don't get to really um have much of a say. Uh, honorable mayor, u members of council, vice mayor, uh I agree that these long-term agreements are are um uh not as useful as they used to be. Um and and I I'm sure our office will take that advice. Any other questions? Council member Cunningham and then Council Member D. just um I guess my question is um how can we get key people more informed?

Uh this this went on consent, but it probably at least warranted a study session and I want to know what the thinking was to not go there. It's interesting to me that we're doing this deal and this is a big deal for Rathon 2 and their representatives haven't come into the chambers to kind of let us know what they're up to at least to some degree. I mean, I don't want to hear the whole it's a matter of national security thing.

I just want them to say, "Hey, we have a deal for a long time." And in other words, we had to do this whole back and forth tonight. We could have done this back and forth three or four weeks ago. So, we're weren't we weren't taking people by surprise. So that's kind of my question on how we got to that point and I'll let you guys answer. Honorable mayor, members of the council, how we got to this point is we were following a process that was laid out in those prior agreements.

And it is a very fair criticism to say that often items that are on consent aren't briefed as thoroughly as others. We are going to make that adjustment moving forward to make sure that nothing hits your agenda that you don't know is coming. And I think I might have sent that in all caps to my team earlier tonight.

Uh having said that, um the whether uh Rathon was present or not tonight, um I don't know that they had the full knowledge of the connection between this land purchase and their other activities. No, and I understand that. I'm just saying that we probably this warranted a a discussion two weeks ago, at least at the study session table. So, we're good. I I just wanted to make that point. heard. Council member Dopp. Thank you, Mayor.

I want to thank Council Member Schubert for these in-depth questions. I had a completely different understanding of it reading the materials and I didn't read carefully enough. This was an annexation agreement, which is a whole different ball of wax. And um it seems like we're pretty wedded to to what it is and it actually benefits us and that we'll be making more money um with the taxes that we'll get from Rathon for this and we don't have to pay back $6 million.

Um uh but the points about where we are in the war economy and how Tucson can start uh encouraging businesses that are more regenerative, sustainable, more part of our values um I think is a discussion that we've had before and I think we should continue to have it. Um and I was going to make the same point that my colleague um council member um Cunningham made. Uh there's item this item and that other item um we need to be briefed. uh the police didn't brief us on on on that.

Um and in discussions earlier, we thought the agenda committee is a place to maybe highlight these and then uh indicate that we need more time for this if more time is available. I know some things are on a time basis, but um appreciate the work that you've done it and the the careful explanations again, especially council member Schubert for for digging into it deep. Thank you. Um council member Barahas, this is question time still. Yes. and then we're going to move into motion and discussion.

Well, I know Rathon is a is Tucson's largest employer and has strong connections with the University of Arizona being the largest lease holder at the UVA tech parks and along with the UVA's College of Engineering. Are there any other workforce development programs connected to Rathon? Honorable mayor, members of the council, in my discussions with Rathon um which are infrequent uh but we have talked about um workforce um they are a company that does um use union contracts.

They are a company that has invested in engineer development at the university and they are a company that does support the advanced manufacturing of Puma Community College. All righty. So for me um my questions are um where is this piece of the process? So in other words, what's next after this?

Um, and where can the mayor and council make sure that we do have um any agreements that we can add living wages, union labor, and making sure that um the that Rathon is a responsible corporate partner for our adjacent school districts and investments in the community. So where exactly are we in the process? What what is this what is this part of the process?

Honorable members of uh council um the as I mentioned before once this if this um acquisition is approved uh then the the incentive portion of the agreement is now at an end. So we no longer have to provide them additional tax benefits. they no longer uh we don't we no longer acrew that amount for their for those mutual benefits.

Uh so it would be uh really it it'd be we'd sort of be starting that negotiation again um where we discuss with them how they exist in our community and we and how we can mutually benefit. All righty. I do have additional comments, but I know that if there's no additional questions, then uh what's the pleasure of the council in terms of direction? Madame Mayor, I move to approve item 7n. Second, there's a motion in a second. Further discussion is at this moment. Counciloman Lee.

Thank you, mayor. I just wanted to make sure I could state for the record as I did during study session today that um I did also request to pull this item so that I could share that I declared a family conflict of interest and I have recused myself from any and all conversations around this item and I will be abstaining from the vote tonight. Any other additional um discussion points?

So, I I too want to uh reiterate how important it is to uh give the mayor and council an opportunity to have a study session and further discussion for the community for the benefit of the community to understand. I know that uh council member Schubert uh flagged it because a uh resident flagged it for us concerned about the possibility of this being a data center. Um, and so, uh, there were some questions asked about data centers and what this could possibly be or mean.

Um, but, uh, since, uh, this land is annexed into the city of Tucson, um, I guess the question, uh, does our land use codes, uh, in terms of data centers and large water users apply? Honorable mayor, members of the council, yes, this is still land that would be in the city of Tucson, just not no longer owned by the city of Tucson. Um, it's zoned I2, which is an industrial zone.

But because of the land use code changes that you adopted at the most recent meeting, uh, we have made it very clear that a data center hyperscale data center is not a buy in any zone including I2. So if there were a data center associated with this, which there's not, but if there was, it would be subject to your data center lands use zoning and code.

It would also be subject and whether it's a data center or not, subject to any requirements of the large water users ordinance, which you've also adopted. So you do have the large water users on the books and you do have the data center um guide rails on the books. So those would apply to this uh site. I just wanted to um make a note and commentary about um the concerns that council member Schubert addressed as well as Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. I too share in that.

Um last year was very clear a year ago when we had a discussion about Project Blue at um at um our table. We talked about moving in the direction of economic development that matched the um um the policies um and um priorities of not just mayor and counsel but this community. Um we on the mayor and council have taken a position against many extractive um corporations like mining. We took a position against uh project blue.

And as a mayor, I also have the responsibility as council member Schubert mentioned to balance the needs in terms of job creation in our community. And there is a way to move in the direction of um sustainable long-term highwage jobs that are necessary to continue prosperity in our community. We cannot just continue saying no. um we've got to be able to find uh with the input of of the community um the ability to create high wage long-term jobs with sustainability in mind.

We embarked on that effort um with the Bloomberg Harvard initiative. We um held hands in our work with the urban institute. We've done stakeholder interviews, input sessions, um, and worked internally and with other partners in the community to really land at even creating a new office on how we see uh, community and economic impact.

And in that office because of the work and the input from the community, we have our sustainability office as well as our equity office and our economic initiatives uh office. All of it, even our cultural heritage um officer is part of that office.

We need to look at all of it holistically to make sure that we're moving in a direction as a city to both fulfill the priorities of mayor and council in terms of sustainability um and equity and prosperity in our community as well as our responsibility to worry about the economic mobility of our residents. And so, um, it feels conflicting for me, uh, to, um, have this in front of us because of the, um, what it means to expand Rathon. These are weapons of war.

And, um, again, it doesn't mean that the employees that work for Rathon um, you know, are to be blamed. Um, and I'm pretty sure that there are people out there in our community that are being trained at Puma right now, uh, that are going through an apprentice show, uh, program with a machinist, uh, that are looking forward to an opportunity at a better life through a job that pays them well.

So, um we are going to continue working on um economic development strategy that connects all of the priorities that we have and that this has been said uh is the long-term annexation agreement that the city of Tucson at that time in 1995 came to agreement with. And so, um, there's not a lot of, um, possibilities of changing an agreement that is a legally binding agreement.

So, I just wanted to make sure that I I said that because it's not um the end in terms of how we uh approach uh job creation and economic opportunity in our city. So, with that, uh, do we need to go to roll call? because there is a motion and there's a second. Do we have a we read a resolution? Okay. Council member Cunningham. Hi. Council member Barahas. I. Council member Dah. I. Councilwoman Lee recused. Recused. Council member Schubert. Nay. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. Nay. Mayor Romero.

I the item on the consent agenda is approved by a vote of 42 with one abstension, right? One recusal. Okay. You can't. Okay. One recusal. All righty. Thank you. Thank you. Anything else? Okay. All righty. So, we move on to item eight. Item eight, public hearing SD TCR0426 33 0 South 3rd Avenue proposed demolition of historic residential garage with attached carport and construction of new accessory structure Armory Park historic preservation zone.

City manager communication number 232 dated August 18th is received into and made part of the record. This is a time and place legally advertised for a public hearing to obtain approval to demolish a historic residential garage with attached carport located at the rear of the lot at 3030 South 3rd Avenue for the purposes of constructing a new accessory structure with attached carport at the rear of the lot.

This public hearing is scheduled to last for no more than an hour and speakers are limited to 5minute presentations. Are there any requests to speak? No, your honor. Okay. If there's no request to speak, is there anyone in the audience wishing to be heard on this item? Seeing none, um is I move we close the public hearing. Second. There is a motion to move the public hearing and a second. Um all those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I. Any against? Motion carries.

Madame clerk, you are requested to read resolution 24163 by number and title only. Resolution number 24163 relating to planning and zoning approving the application for demolition of a historic contributing structure in the proposed replacement plan for a new accessory drilling structure and attached carport at 330 South 3rd Avenue historic preservation zone HPZ SD05260071 TC 04261972 and setting an effective date. What is the council's pleasure?

Madame Mayor, I move that we adopt resolution number 24163 allowing the demolition and replacement plans to move forward for 330 North Thirdrd Avenue and for PDSD to issue approval letters for the proposed work that includes the conditions recommended by the advisory groups. Sorry. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this hearing? None. Let's go to roll call. Council member Schubert. I. Council member Dah. I. Councilwoman Lee.

I, Council Member Barahas, I, Council Member Cunningham. I, Vice Mayor Santa Cruz, I, Mayor Romero, I, Resolution 24163, passes by a vote of 70. Item nine, public hearing SD112500180 TCR 0925 04525 4 24 East 16th Street. Demolition of historical residential garage and construction of new accessory drilling Armory Park historic preservation zone. City managers communication number 234 dated August 18th is received into and made part of the record.

This is the time and place legally advertised for a public hearing to obtain approval post hog to demolish an original residential garage carport at 424 East 16th Street and replace it with a new accessory building constructed in 2023. This public hearing is scheduled to last for no more than an hour. Speakers are limited to 5minute presentations. Um, are there any requests to speak on this item? No, your honor. All righty. May I have a motion to close the public hearing? So moved, your honor.

Uh there's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor of closing the public hearing signify by saying I. I. Um any against? Motion passes. Madame clerk, you are requested to read resolution 24164 by number and title only.

Resolution number 24164 relating to planning and zoning approving the application for demolition of a historic contributing structure in the proposed replacement plan for a new accessory dwelling structure at 424 E16th Street his historic preservation zone SD112500180TC res254525 and setting an effective date. What is the council's pleasure?

Madame Mayor, I move that we approve resolution number allowing the demolition and replacement plans to move forward for 424 East 16th Street and for PDSD to issue approval letters for the proposed work that includes the conditions recommended by the advisory groups. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, let's go to roll call. Council member Schubert, I. Councilwoman Lee, I. Council member Cunningham, hi. Council member Dah. I. Council member Barahas. I.

Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. I. Mayor Romero. I. Resolution 24164 passes by a vote of 70. Item 10. Reszoning city manager report. T NT03260000005 Monsoon Land Holdings in North Pantano Road C1 to C2. City manager communication number 228 dated August 18th is received into part of the record. This is a request to reszone 1.11 acre parcel from C1 to C2 for the expanded development of an existing legal non-conforming automotive major service and repair facility.

The resoning will bring the site into compliance with the applicable unified development code standards. The zoning examiner recommends authorization of zoning subject to certain conditions. Is the applicant or representative of the applicant present? Mayor, members of the council, Carrie Silvin with Lazarus and Silvin representing the property owner and Mr. Becker is here with us as well.

His wife, Lisa Becker, couldn't be here because their daughter was playing in a volleyball tournament tonight and won both their games. So, congratulations. Is the applicant agreeable to the proposed requirements? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Thank you so much. Carrie, what is the council pleasure on this item? Your honor, believe it or not, we are minusing a car wash. Um really great work by everybody involved.

This actually moves a out outdoor ser um car service facility to an indoor car service facility. It expands the number of services involved. There's only three parcels um attached. I mean there's a really good amount of setback and the uh the business owner is a very responsible business owner to the east side. So with that I move the item second. All righty. Is there a second to the motion? All right. Second. So, um, any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none.

All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I. I. Any against? Motion carries. Item 11. Adjournment. Council will stand adjourned. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be on Wednesday, September 9th, at or after 5:30 p.m. Have a wonderful rest of your week, everyone. [music]