Glendale Moves Forward on $14.4M Data Center Annexation as Service-Line Warranty Co-Branding Partnership Fails to Advance

Good afternoon and welcome to our Glendale City Council workshop. This meeting is for council members to review and discuss important issues, projects, and future council meeting agenda items. It's a work study session only and allows the council to hear input from city staff. No action will be taken at this workshop and there will not be an opportunity for public comment.

This meeting is streaming live on Glendale's Facebook and YouTube pages and the city's cable television station, Glendale channel 11. Thank you for joining us. outreach and selection process will be will be live at during September. Uh we'll refine the programming and the street closure details uh refine the sanitation operations and and identifying our cleanup partners um and continue reviewing lighting features and placement concepts.

So those are the types of items we'll be busy in September and we'll bring you an update on those items uh the second meeting in September. With that, be glad to answer any questions. And Mr. Kennedy, I do have some questions for you. Your maps appear to be older maps, not newer maps of of of the complex after been remodeled. Correct. We've not been able to get the aerial photos that that really quite show the the current conditions, but that is on our to-do list. Okay.

So, with that said, uh um the new gazebo that we have, I'm hoping, really hoping that as the lights go up, that you guys really incorporate that heavily into the lights um with the gazebo. Number one, mayor and counsel, yes, we have plans for the the gazebo that will highlight that structure. Um and it'll be a very it'll be a focal point as well. Okay.

And then uh the second part of that uh I I can't think of a better opportunity uh to kick this off correctly with a new gazebo that if we could on certain weekends uh see if we can't get some acappella or barberhop quartet or something like that doing Christmas carols and things like that. I think it's very fitting and people really like that hometown uh feeling with the gazebo out there with the lights, the Christmas spirit, something like that.

If you could find a way to do that, I think that could be a huge hit. So, question. Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. Um, thank you for the presentation, Mr. Kennedy. What What is the footprint for the lights? Where are the where are the where is the light are the lights going to go? Um well unfortunately mayor council um I don't have that map in this pre in this presentation. We covered it at the last one and I didn't carry it forward. That's my same as it was last time. Yes.

The last presentation showed the activation of where all the lights go and I just did not carry it forward into this presentation but I'll bring it back for the next one. All right. Thank you. And I do have another question.

Um it does the triangle indicate the number of restrooms because I see you know where the park's going to be I would I think pretty activated with lights and with people and it shows one restroom there and then two restrooms which are I think a pretty big distance away from there. So I just want to make sure I understand that that means just restroom location and not just one restroom. Mayor and council, that's a some level of detail and logistics.

I'll get back to you in next months because yeah, that's in that location is going to get the the southern location where the one triangle is um certainly is more more in the middle of the act of the action. So, we'll make sure that uh the the proper numbers are located there and we'll have more specific details on the numbers for the next presentation. Okay. I'd hate to make somebody with kids have to go all the way over there to find a restroom. Okay. Thank you. Right. Uh, thank you, mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Kennedy. Um, questions regarding road closures. Did are those on the weekends only or when will that be? Mayor and council members. Yes, that's correct. That's only during the weekends. The kickoff weekend will have the most number of road closures.

There'll be a little less uh road closures on the subsequent weekends uh with u you know some of the changes in the programming, but that's a detail we're going to work with transportation this in September to come up with the final plan. Um, so does that include Friday night then? Or are you that far down the road yet? As far we're not quite that far down the road, but yes, most more than likely the road closures will start sometime during Friday on the on the on the regular weekends.

The kickoff weekend. It might be sooner than that, but we'll work through those details here this next month. As as I'm sure you realize, the road closures during the daylight hours negatively impact the merchants, but during the nighttime hours, it's a positive and positive, of course, for the attendees as well. Um, on slide nine, for example, though, I have a question. 57th Drive will be closed to left-hand turns at Glen Drive and also be closed to going straight.

Um, it seems like the last couple years This has been the arrangement and there's a lot of foot traffic that ends up at that corner with people turning right and we've had a few accidents or near accidents with pedestrians and and drivers.

Previous to the last year or two, it seemed like the road closures occurred mid block to where the drive-through traffic could still access the banks, both the Chase Bank and the bank, and that it provided an opportunity then for that heavy foot traffic to be safer and in the street on Glen Drive. So you might look at that and see if uh anyone else has noticed that.

Um I'm just concerned with all that just a constant stream of traffic there and especially if the civic center is going to be activated with uh as it has been in years past just creates a lot more foot traffic there than we might anticipate. Uh, one other question. Where will the Christmas tree be located? Uh, mayor and council members, that's part of the final logistics plans uh, where we're going to locate the the Christmas tree. So, we'll have that we for your next update. Okay.

Are you looking for input? Are you finished? I'm finished. Thank you mayor. Okay, thank thank you, mayor. Um, what can you tell us what locations are being considered for the Christmas tree? Mayor and council members, I'm trying to go off memory here a little bit because it's been we've been focusing on getting ready for vendors and we haven't talked too much about uh the specific locations of various activities.

Uh both the prior location in the uh between bead museum and the annex has been a location. Um, and then there's also considered to bring it putting it back somewhere within Murphy Park as well. So, we're kind of looking at those two locations. Okay. Thank you. And I do have another question I forgot to ask you. Um, the beer the beer vendor. Um, is that going to go through the is that going to Glendale ambassadors? Has that already been is that a done deal?

Are they is that going to be part of the vendor vetting process? How are we handling that? Mayor and council, that's correct. We've been in in communication with the Glendale ambassadors uh to to partner with them as well. Okay. I'm happy to hear that because that's historically been a a way that they've raised funds that they that goes back to the community. So, I'm happy to hear that. Thank you. Okay.

Um I know last year and the prior years because you know the area was closed, we had the Santa Claus and I know you're not you know you're not to that part. I just want to make a suggestion. Last year we had it over here by the annex. I I know that the majority of the people are probably going to be in this area. Um, I would just suggest that you you don't put Santa very far. Mayor and council, yes, we we're going to consider the easy ease of traffic for those main uh attractions for sure.

I guess that's it. Thank you. Thank you. Project Eagle A-273 annexation located west of the northwest corner of Lichfield Road and Olive Avenue. Good afternoon, mayor and council members. My name is Sydney Trella. I'm a senior planner with the development services department and I'm joined by Randy Huggin, our director of development services. This is a presentation requesting consensus for council to proceed with an annexation.

This request before you does not include a consensus or vote on the resoning application. The reszone application is heard separately at planning commission and city council public hearings where public comment may be made on the item. This annexation is located west of the northwest corner of Lichfield Road and Olive Avenue. Within the county, the property is zoned IND3, heavy industrial. Upon annexation, the most compatible city of Glendale zoning is M2, also heavy industrial.

The applicant is proposing to reszone from M2 to P A with the intent of developing a data center campus and natural gas power generation facility. The data centers will be approximately 1.1 million square ft of data center under roof and the power generation facility will include 18 turbines. The site is approximately 11 miles west of city hall. This map shows the annexations currently in Q with the subject annexation highlighted in red.

The site is within the 75 and 80 noise contours of Luke Air Force Base with the majority of the property within the 80 noise contour. The property is boarded to the north and east by Maricopa County and to the west and south by the city of Glendale. The site is anticipated to develop in phases and have three access points. The access point to the west is the main ingress egress point and extends Hatcher Road.

This will be extended directly into the site while the access point on Olive Avenue crosses the BNSF rail and will be for emergency access only. Along this street frontage, Olive Avenue was owned and maintained by Maricopa County. As a part of the last phase of development, the 143rd Avenue alignment will be extended north to Poria Avenue and that intersection is within the city of Surprise. These figures were provided by the third party company Applied Economics.

The onetime fees are anticipated to be $35.8 million. A correction to the slide in front of you that the annual revenue is estimated to be 14.4 million per year and this number is reflected in the fiscal impact analysis in your packet. This is a visual representation of the fees that were previously mentioned. Revenues are estimated at $21.3 million and the $6.8 $8 million in expenditures are subtracted for the net benefit estimated at 14.4 million.

Should council provide consensus to move forward with the annexation, the next step is a blank petition. This blank petition will be heard at a subsequent public hearing. And with that, that concludes staff's presentation. We're looking for consensus to proceed forward with the annexation application. I have a question for you. Uh, I don't know if this is for you or for Randy.

Do we have a a a footprint of the building itself, not including the parking lot on where that's going to be placed on this property? Mayor and council, let me go back to the aerial. Which one is better with this? Mayor and council, the three data center buildings are proposed on the western portion of the site. About twothirds of the site will be made with made up of three data centers each approximately 330,000 square feet under roof. That was my question.

Do we have a footprint of where they're going to go on the property where the buildings would actually go? Mayor, it'll consume approximately twothirds of the propert and it's the west half of the property. So those white buildings that you see adjacent to the build uh the property that's hatched out right? If you mirror that onto their property, it's basically that. All right.

I was just trying to see if there's any way that uh the buildings could be put in that higher decel area, not on the edges. there's any way they could just, you know, we got F-35s blasting off out there and and with the high decel, it's less likely people would notice that the further out you get, the lower it it becomes. Just it for me, it's not a showstopper. It just would make more sense if it was able to stay within those contour lines of the higher dec. Yes, that makes sense.

Okay, good question. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Um, I hadn't considered that, but I think mayor that that's a a good point to consider. I don't know whether that the the transportation plan is the reason why I'm guessing probably why the buildings are being considered placed over on the west side because of the the access point they're going to create. Um, I'm just guessing that that's probably what what the reason is. Um, anyway, my question is I think more for uh Mr.

Bailey though, a lot of the work um has already been done as far as entitlement um and Luke uh compliance with Luke um has already been done on the front end with by the county who approved basically approved the the zoning they needed for a data center and our policy requires us to follow the zoning when we when we annex something into the city. So Mr. Bailey.

Um, I just want to make sure that I understand and that people listening understand that the the entitlement to develop this data center already exists. Is that correct, mayor and counsel? And and please correct me if I'm incorrect that yes, the project already has received a loop compatibility permit in the county which would allow them to construct and to the extent that they are annexed into the city, state law requires that we give them like zoning.

So it's technically it's the same zoning that they already have. Thank you. Okay. So they they already have it. I'm sorry. Go ahead. I just want to clarify also about a month ago we had a pre-annexation development agreement approved which also enforced that or reinforced that the city would do as much as they can to comply with the existing entitlements in the PAD. Okay. Thank you for that.

So, I just wanted people I know this is this has garnered quite a bit of attention with the general public and I wanted to make sure that people understand is that um they this already exists the certificate of um this already exists as a property right already. Um so whether it's annex into Glendale or not annex into Glendale, this data center is going to get built and developed because they already have um they already have that entitlement.

So I just wanted to make sure that we're on record that um I I mean, I think this is a good thing for the city of Glendel. Why data center is going to be there? Why would we not take advantage of, you know, the revenue that's going to generate um and and you know, through with our staff and how, you know, how good our staff is at working with developers, making sure that we develop the site to cause the least disruption to the surrounding community as possible.

So, just wanted to make sure that I was on record saying that. Thank you, uh, thank you, mayor. I just had a couple of questions in the comment um on the expenditure side for for the fiscal impacts uh the 6.8 million what what is that consist of? Uh uh Vice Mayor Melner the uh there's two reports in here there the first report was a statewide report and the second report is specific to Glendale. So the one you're looking at is the the portion that's specific to Glendale.

Uh we asked the economists to be as conservative as possible. At this point, it appears that they're going to be building a road from the north half of their property up to Poria Avenue. I'm not certain if that's going to be a public road or a driveway or a private road. So, the economist built in all of the road sections that we talked about as part of the expenditure model, but in reality, it'll probably be less than this.

But what we wanted to do is maintain as conservative approach as possible so that we don't come back to you later and say oh actually the expenditures are more than we expected or revenues are less than we expected. So okay so basically this 6.8 million is is is construction and maintenance of that uh infrastructure. uh mayor, vice mayor. Yes, it's anything to do with maintenance, repair of roads into the future, police and fire as well.

Any any cost that the city would incur, but mainly streets. Okay. Uh and then I just wanted to echo what council member Tomachov mentioned. Uh I I did a lot of research um uh on this project. uh watched a lot of videos and there has been a significant amount of uh public input uh in making the decision to move that forward at the county level but also at the corporation commission level regarding the power plant.

And um it appears that they followed some pretty significant uh uh procedural processes to to make sure that the public was informed and knew what was going on with it. And there was a lot of public comment and I'm not going to go into that today, but uh when we get closer to an actual vote if that becomes an concern, um I really feel like the the process is has has been pretty u elaborate, so to say. Thank you. Good. Okay.

Um, I'd also like to um to mention that the videos that uh Vice Mayor Melner watched, I also watched myself. They're from the Arizona Corporation Commission's hearing that they had back in December of last year. I would highly recommend uh anybody that's interested in this project to go back and uh look at those. Uh like vice mayor mentioned, they did a lot of research. They brought in all of the um people that are the experts in every aspect of this project and uh it was quite interesting.

Um there is so much it it's pretty complex how it's all run but uh I think that if you go and you look at those videos you will learn a lot about the project and how it's actually going to be built. Thank you. Anyone else? Mayor. Um, yes, Mayor. Um, some of the concerns that I have uh about this project include air quality.

Um, the Cactus District obviously is from 51st Avenue to 43rd Avenue, but um having these 18 um gas fueled uh turbines producing up to 700 megawatts of energy is very concerning to me. Also, um, in terms of our water usage and and water compatibility, I know that, uh, it's through FCOR, but this water is also for all of Arizonans. Um, there's also, uh, questions about safety, and I know that there's been a lot of reviews and a lot of things that, um, have been said.

I just wanted to make sure that on the record, um, shows that I, um, am opposed to the turbines and and to the, um, to to this project in general, just because I believe that we could be so much more and so much better for our community and I understand that there is a a big fiscal impact of of 14.4 million um net benefit. Um and I I know that we do need revenue here in the city of Glendel to do projects like libraries, parks, fire, police.

Um but I just wanted to state on the record that I do have some concerns about this project and I'm glad that we're just in the consensus um part of this so that I can um watch those videos that um the council members are are talking about and become more informed uh about this project. Thank you. No. Okay. Anything else? Do we have consensus to move forward? Yes. Here you go. Thank you. Council item of special interest service line warranty program update. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

Um, we're here to talk about a council item of special interest that was brought forward by uh, Council Member Turner. This item is to consider partnering with private entities that provide water and sewer service line warranties. This item was brought to council and there was consensus to move forward to gather more information and present that to council. So, so to bring those details to you, I will hand it over to Deputy Director John Henny. Thank you, Mr. Serio.

Good afternoon, mayor, members of the council. Um, so before we dive into the actual um presentation, I do want to say we are looking for a consensus whether or not there is a desire to move forward with the next process at the end. And then also during that March council meeting that Mr. Serio mentioned, we did document and hopefully answered a lot of the questions that you had during that time.

So, as we go through it, um I'm hoping that again we answered your questions, but if we didn't, there'll be an opportunity at the end. So, basically, um service line warranty programs, it's a voluntary city endorsed program. It's a home protection plan that ultimately protects homeowners against unforeseen out-of- pocket expenses for private water and sewer line repairs outside the city's area of responsibility.

I do want to mention that on the water side, the customer does have responsibility from the discharge side of the meter to the house or to the foundation. On the sewer side, the customer has a responsibility from the sewer main to the foundation and to the house. However, one caveat to that would be if there there's an issue in the city's rightway and the customer has a plumber and they can prove that through close caption television, whatever means, they turn it over to the city, we review it.

If there is an issue in the rightway, we currently would fix that just due to the extreme expenses that it would take to dig up a street and restore the street. So, a couple examples here in Arizona, there's two companies that we looked at. um Homes Serve and Encore Solutions uh known as American Water Resources. So, Home Serve currently serves about approximately 30 plus Arizona municipalities and they're a member of ICMA.

Um you can see on the slide there, Tucson Mesa Aenddale Tempe and Scottsdale are all current members of that. Encourse is um the provider for ICMA. uh and they provide strictly to city of Phoenix residents and so we spoke with them as well to get some of the data and some of the information that will come forward. They currently do operate in 43 states and 1.5 million homeowners um and growing as far as their participation. Next slide. Okay, quick program overview. So what's required?

So basically the city would approve a logo for co-branded marketing materials to the customers. One of the questions that came up was do we have to require customer data and the answer is no. No city customer data is required. The vendor bills to customers directly. There are opportunities for royalty and campaign and license fees are available. We'll talk in a couple slides a little bit more um about that. Vendor handles all customer inquiries and disputes.

Um, so you know, should a customer call in and and have a question about something related to their policy, then our customer service team would refer them over to the 1-800 number? And then one of the questions that came up is, can customers obtain similar coverage on the open market? And the answer is yes. Um, one caveat is if you purchase a uh say with your homeowners insurance or something like that, you purchase um the policy through them, I believe you would be subject to deductible.

So, if you had a $500 deductible, you would have a deductible. With these plans, there are no deductibles. Next slide, please. So, some of the benefits to homeowners is basically, you know, you're going to educate the homeowners about their their area of responsibility, some of the things I just mentioned. Um, it offers a lowcost water and sewer line plans, protecting homeowners against those unforeseen um events. It really supports conservation.

um it it excels um emergency response times and by lowering financial burdens for the repair so customers don't put those repairs off.

It is an optional revenue stream and again we'll talk um the numbers here but basically a city council can elect to receive a share of the program and we'll get into the few more details of that in a couple slides um which council could reinvest that into community initiatives or underserved communities or ultimately the council could elect not to to receive any revenue which which would lower the cost of the premiums to all the homeowners.

And then it would support local economy by hiring licensed vetted contractors here within Glendel. And then there's no city funds required to participate. There is a minimal time investment you know to go through the procurement processes to manage the contract and to uh you know with our communications department to go through the co-branded material. So these are just examples um just to kind of give you an idea of what a plan cost.

So if you just selected a waterline plan, you're looking about $4.99 to 650 and that's with a revenue share. For sewer, it' be 749 to 1050 with revenue share. And if you can combine them, you can save a little money if the if um a customer bought both. So you're looking at somewhere between 1150 and 1350. The coverage per call is approximately 12,000 to 30,000, but there's no annual limit. So if a customer has multiple calls um within a year then they would be they would be covered.

Each one's looked looked at separately. And then um optional additional optional coverage is available should the customer decide that hey I'd like to you know have interior plumbing, HVAC appliances and other things available. So both these companies u did say that they do offer that. So revenue opportunity.

So here's where you know again until you get into the actual negotiations of a of a plan um you're probably home serve you know mentioned that you probably somewhere around $100,000 and that would be paid out over three years. So, and if I remember right, it's they pay it out over, you know, six 40 to 60% over the first year and then the other two years um during a three-year contract would be over the remainder two years. Um 15%'s license fee on the enrollment.

And the anticipated enrollment rate is roughly 15 to 30%. You'll probably see lower numbers at the beginning just because you're educating homeowners that the city has negotiated um with a company that provides these types of plans, but um statistics show that 15 to 30% would be the average um campaign. Um as far as Encourse American Water, their campaign fees, they're mentioning somewhere around 70 50 to 75,000. However, those are paid out annually.

So that would be you know, would be a condition of the contract, but that would be paid out over that time. Exactly. What do you mean campaign fee paid out? So, campaign fee is basically um statistics show that when a municipality stands behind one of these a warranty provider, they get a better penetration rate. So, they're willing to upfront or frontload money to be part of the program.

Basically, they're buying our branding rights because they want to use the city's logo on their letter head, their envelopes in conjunction with their logo. So if they if they want to use that logo, you're basically paying you the right to solicit your c your customers and use our logo on their letter head. However, we do have the final say. So everything gets, you know, goes through a whole process where you approve the layouts, you approve the envelopes, you approve all the letterhead.

So they basically pay you to offer this program to your customers. So, mayor, let me just add one thing. So, the campaign fee, it's just a lump sum that you get up front and then the the license fee, it's a percentage of the number of plans that they sell. So, so you get a percentage of that and that that's what that is. Yep. So, yeah. And like Mr.

said the you know the actual license fee is 15% is what seems to be the um the average 10 to 15% for encourse and then you know if you have enrollment rates of you know running some quick quick math probably be approximately $175,000 a year for if you had you know based upon your enrollment rate of 15% with a license fee. So you probably looking somewhere in the neighborhood of $175,000 a year. And again, those funds can be allocated, you know, however the council pleases. Yeah.

Hold on a second. Um, I don't know how many years ago it's been, but we discussed this five years ago. Longer. Mayor, we 2015. Yes. 15. Yes. Okay. I was close. Yesterday. Uh what's the difference between 11 years ago and today? Honestly, not a whole lot has different as far as their methodology. Um but you know, 11 years ago, if I'm if I remember correctly, because I'm the one that presented it.

So, you know, council just at that point didn't come to a consensus to move forward to op to brand one company. Right. Well, and I still have the very same concerns. Uh number one concern that I have is I think that There will be some confusion when people see our brand, our logo on somebody else's bill and then they send us her. And one of the things you'd said is is it helps entice the local bill. That doesn't change. I don't believe that changes at all.

People are going to come out and fix it. Whether this company's paying for it or the people are paying for it theelves, that that doesn't go away. But if they get bad service, they still remember the Glendel's logo. I think that that could be detrimental to the city. We've worked really really hard for the last since I've been here 14 years to try to to get good quality service. Uh I'm not a I'm just not a big fan of of getting tied in where we're handling the paperwork.

We're letting them use our ID and then they're going to give us back some of our customers money, which I still think a customer should have kept the money, kept their bills as low as possible.

we have a an occasion where we raise the water bill that 10 or 15% all of a sudden starts making a big difference especially on retired people uh people on fixed incomes they and I'm using my mother for example uh she's scared to death something's going to go wrong so she keeps buying insurance on everything insurance is only sold to people because the insurance companies are gambling that you're not going to use it and that they probably won't have to do the service. That's insurance.

And insurance companies typically always win. Typically, um I'm I'm not a fan of it. I I just um I I think that I think if people have the opportunity to buy it through their homeowners insurance that we should maybe educate them on, you have that opportunity. Don't get caught with with something going wrong and then you're stuck. But I'm just not a fan of of of getting in bed with with a company like this that potentially could be great for us or could really hurt. You had a question.

Um, it wasn't really a question. It was a statement. Um, I agree with you, mayor, that I don't I don't think it's a good idea for the city to get in bed with this type of a program only because I mean, I have a homeowners policy uh warranty for my appliances and things like that. It's kind of the same. concept. You don't know who they're, you know, when you call because you need a repair, they send a contractor. You don't know if they're going to be any good, if you're going to get bad service.

Um, let's say several customers get bad service. It looks bad on the city. So, I I'm I'm not in support of this. Couple of questions. Um, it says here that the vendors bill the customer directly so that it does not show up on the water bill. Is that correct, mayor, council members? That's correct. Does not show up on the water. Okay.

Um on another point when you were going through the coverages um can you tell me uh like if somebody's uh large tree roots get into their sewer system and they have to dig it all up and replace it to the to the main what does that typically cost? I mean is this this coverage of 12 to 30,000 is that is that going to cover that kind of cost? mayor, council members, you know, based upon what I've seen. Yes. Um, you know, and again, you know, it's all dependent, right?

So, if you have a long sewer lateral and and size of pipe and and things like that. So again, if it the city currently in our ordinance, if the customer televises their line, finds out there's roots in their line or there's some sort of a defect on their line within the city's rightway, the city will step in and take care of it.

So we'll dig it up, we'll replace it, and there's no cost to the customer except for them to call a plumber out to say, "Hey, we can verify that this is in the city's right away." So the customer bears that cost, which is usually anywhere probably to $500 and then they prove it to us it's there so we would fix it. If it's outside the city's right away then you know yes those cost can I've seen you know estimates as little as $4,000 to $17,000. Okay. Uh thank you for that.

Um and it looks like you evaluated two different companies at what I got from this mayor council member. That's correct. Um, basically Homes Serve and Encourse are the two in Arizona that most mis municipalities that do business with, you know, that's who that's who they are. There there could be others out there.

I'm not familiar with others who would make I do know that the city of Tempee actually just did an RFP and but they haven't released the results yet of the RFP, so I'm not sure how many responders they had on that. Okay. Uh, another question having to do with uh reasonable causes for denial. Um, I had some conversations with some folks that uh indicated that that they can be denied. In other words, you can have coverage and there's reasons why you could be denied to not get it fixed.

Did you look into that at all? and is did you have a ratio or an example from these companies of how many they deny versus accept and what the reasons for the denials are? So, mayor, council member had a brief conversation about it and it seemed like a very low percentage offhand. I don't remember the exact percentage. However, both companies basically ensured me that, you know, they want the partnerships with municipalities.

So they go to the extra lengths to make sure that the customers are happy and that they resolve any issues quickly and Okay. So if if our residents were unhappy with that service, can can this be severed at at a at an moment's notice or is it are we locked in for many years? Mayor, council member, I would imagine all of our contracts we have termination for cause. So I would imagine that would be part of the contract.

So we that would be one condition that you could sever it if you had a a high rate of of customer unsatisfaction. Okay. And regarding the uh revenue opportunities, I would not be in favor of revenue sharing. I think that just adds costs to our residents that we don't need. Um uh what guarantees do we have that if we don't do revenue sharing that that cost savings will be passed on to the residents? Mayor, council members.

So they do a financial analysis on your city and number of accounts and and they do all the data. Then they would present they would present both. So basically a financial analysis would be ran um during a solicitation process and then during that process they would present that if you took revenue you would get x amount. If you didn't take any revenue share it would be this amount. And then you could look at the delta to see what the actual savings is.

Based on what I if I remember right, it's probably 50 cents to a dollar per month. Okay. Thank you. Uh do you have any statistics uh for our city both in the older areas of the city and the newer areas how often this uh is needed? Uh mayor, council member, I don't have specific statistics, but I do know that if your house was built in the 70s60s7s, the 80s. You know, there's old galvanized lines.

There's things that we run into doing our daily business that um that a customer could potentially benefit from having a plan like this, you know, regardless where they get it from, but have a, you know, a plan like this, especially with um galvanized. And then over the years, the plumbing codes have changed and the pipe material has changed.

So, I would imagine if you're, you know, if you're looking at somewhere, if your house was built prior to 85, those are probably higher problematic areas for situations like this. Okay. Well, I know I've had two water leaks in my line to my house that I've had to repair over the last 15, 20 years. Um I didn't run into galvanized pipe, but uh it had to do with PVC connections I guess were not very well done or something.

Um anyway, um I I just I have some concerns about uh moving forward with with a plan. I do see some benefit. Uh that's why I really would like to kind of know statistically what how often does this happen? Are people going to be buying insurance that really doesn't pay for itself over time? Uh, obviously if you don't want to spend $15,000 on a sewer, and that would be my concern if I were to buy it. That's the main reason I would buy it.

I've already fixed the water line twice, and so I don't think that's uh it wasn't that big a deal. Uh, but the sewer line, I can understand if you had to dig up my whole front yard to get to the sewer line and replace it, uh, that's a pretty big deal. Uh, and so I'm kind of, I guess, on the fence on this a little bit. U I'd like to know what next steps would be and then go from there. Thank you, mayor.

Um do we have any data available that shows like what the customer satisfaction is with either or both of these companies? Like are there were there you know rated or reviewed or I mean every everything gets reviewed these days. So do we do we know that the you know the the customers that have been using both of these companies have been satisfied with their service. Mayor, Council Member Tomachop, I would imagine I don't have it.

I don't know it off hand, but I would imagine that's something we could get from two vendors. Okay. And I do want to emphasize that, you know, we looked at two just because there were, you know, provide some examples, right? There could be many, many others out there that we did not could If I could add on to what council member Tomachov just asked you, but compare with like cities, comparing with u shreport is not going to even be even close to what we have here. The grounds different.

Uh California, they have ground movement. You know, find something similar if you're going to compare it. Yeah. Thank you, mayor. Um and then I So is is this available? Are these these companies exclusively with only with a city partnership offering this service or could anybody contact either of these companies and and buy coverage? Mayor, council member. So, you can buy it directly with them.

However, um they get a better rate on their policies from what I understand if they partner with the city. Okay. Because I do have concerns. concern. I mean, you know, I've been in realtor now for 22 years, and there's good home warranty companies and there's bad home and sometimes even the good companies, it's it's a battle to get them to make a expensive repair. Um, they don't, you know, and these could be expensive repairs.

However, I think um it's a good thing for people to know that if it's in the right of way, which is when it gets really expensive that we we have an ordinance that we will take care of it because we don't want just anybody digging in the street and and that's I think that's a good thing. So, you're really only responsible out to the end of your property line and once you get into the ride ofway if you have an issue then then we're we're going to take care of it anyway.

So, um I I really to let some let somebody use our brand. Um just because you never know, you know, I mean, they're dealing with their their employees, their staff that we don't know. Um I really hesitate that. I mean, I'm sure they're both very good companies, but when you're dealing with people, you never know where there may be an interaction that somebody found unpleasant customer.

So, I really I mean, our brand is really important to the city and I hesitate to do that, but potentially could we how you know I know each of us get an opportunity to put uh something in the on the water bill and we could let people know that these services are available. Here's a list of companies that provide these services and you can go and get the service if you want to go and get it. And so it's offering it and but not putting our brand on it.

I'm just really not comfortable in putting our I think it I think we should inform people that this insurance is available, but I don't I'm not really comfortable in in co-branding um with outside companies. I mean, we we've worked really hard to turn the reputation of the city of Glendel around. Um and I I'm not really comfortable sharing our brand with an outside company. Thank you. I have a followup question and as she talks, I'm thinking of other things.

Uh the question was asked earlier, what would be a reason that they would turn down um service? Would it be something as silly as somebody decided to pitch a tent and they they poke a water line that because it was done not naturally by rust or corrosion or land shift or something, somebody actually did it? Would that be one of the reasons why they might turn that down?

Mayor, that's I didn't have that specific conversation with them, but I did, you know, if if you know that's something we could definitely check on because I don't I don't want to say yes or no to that. I do I do know that if there's an issue with the water line and that pretty much they'll come in and take care of them, but we can double check if it you're talking about something with intent like or accidentally poked a hole in the water line or something like that. Okay.

Well, and and you know the thing that you said and the thing I've always been cautious on is somebody selling you something always says well hey if something happens we'll take care of it but I don't know that and I don't know that the person telling you that is going to be the same person that's doing it a year from now or two years from now if it's not in writing to me it's not there it's just you know intent is wonderful but example is is what we look at um anybody else want to speak on this question Go ahead.

Thank you, mayor. Um, thank you to the my fellow council members for your questions and understand it's apparent that you have really thought about this issue and done some research and I'm very encouraged by that. Um, I support us offering this to our residents. It's an optional program for them.

uh they're not required to take it, of course, but uh these are two these two are certainly vetted uh companies that are doing this as opposed to who they might get a piece of mail from um otherwise that maybe aren't so well vetted and would not be so dependable and reliable and have so much at stake if they were um working with the entire city or in this case, you know, being endorsed by the international National City Managers Association and the National League of Cities.

I really kind of doubt that the City Managers Association would be endorsing companies that are going to create more headaches instead of fewer headaches. Um, typically city managers don't like headaches. Um, so it I'm encouraged that ICMA and the National League of Cities have uh vetted companies and are endorsing them.

the cities and many of them are mentioned here uh the local cities Tucson Mesa Aenddale Tempe Scottdale Phoenix they basically have done the pilot program work for us they've been out there doing this some of these cities for many years and they wouldn't still be doing it if it was more trouble than it was worth uh or if it was hurting their reputations or images um encourse it looks like as as in 43 states. So, they're a sizable organization.

I don't know much about Home Serve, but I trust that they're reputable as well. The um particularly sewer line repairs can be quite expensive, and while it's great that the city will handle what occurs in the rightway, I don't think it starts in the rightway typically. Um, if you're going to have tree root issues or caved in lines from the old clay pipe or the asphalt that is the pipes that are in much of my district, much of the southern part of the city.

Um, that can be real expensive and it can it start can start right at the foundation of the house or perhaps even underneath it long before it reaches the the property line and the city's rightway. Um, I do believe that there's an advantage to to local companies for this.

And I think that it just seems intuitive to me that a a homeowner that has insurance and the insurance plan is going to be utilizing licensed bonded uh plumbing contractors to do this work is a plus for all of us in the community.

Um whereas a an uninsured uh homeowner is more likely just at least to some degree more likely to try to do the work themselves or have their buddy's uncle who operates a backhoe at work come and dig up the yard or uh utilize a handyman that doesn't have the experience. So through this program, we're guaranteed that the work is going to be done by licensed bonded contractors. And I think that's a real plus for for our community.

um it's lower cost to our residents um if we provide it through the city and uh I am perfectly I I agree that we don't need to take be in a participation program with them so that uh we can pass off all of this pass on all of the savings to our customers. um if we end up in a situation where it's detrimental, we have the opportunity to change and get out of it.

But um there's a lot of cities all across the country and plenty right here in Arizona that offer this program to their residents and they see it as a benefit. And when it's all said and done, I see it as a benefit as well. Thank you. Okay. I have one more question. Mayor, uh thank you. Is anything to prevent these companies from soliciting Glendale residents anyway?

I mean, mayor, council members, no, there's nothing that I can think of that why they wouldn't want to solicit, you know, customers directly through direct mailing. I think, you know, based on my conversations, they just get a lot better results when they partner have a partnership with the Minnesota because because people trust our brand. And I'm not disparaging the company the companies.

I I agree that the ICMA and the NLC wouldn't, but you're still dealing with people and we don't know, you know, I mean, you're dealing with people, somebody who may be having a bad day or it's just one layer of removal from our City of Glendale employees dealing with our residents. It's not our employees dealing with their residents. And so, I just wanted to make it clear, I wasn't saying that I didn't think the companies were solid.

I'm sure they probably are very solid, but we're a little bit too far removed from their staff for me to be comfortable with it. That was the point I was trying to make. Um, and I guess if we what would be the difference if we signed on with them and then they solicit our customers or if we say, well, we didn't have a consensus to co-brand with you, but you know, feel free to offer the service to our customers.

They would just maybe be a little bit higher premium, but they would still be free to we don't pay for them to solicit people even if we co-branded with them, right? They do that, mayor, council member. Yes, that's correct. Right. So, this service would still be available to our residents whether they co-brand with them or not.

So, for me, for my position anyway, um not not that I don't think they're good companies, it's just it's one step removed from the standards that we have for our employees here at the city of Glendel. um that would make me uncomfortable. Thank you, mayor. Thank you. All right. So, I'm not hearing it, but I'm going to ask is is there a consensus to move forward with this? I I would be a no. I'm a no. I'm a yes. Uh what would be the next steps if I may ask?

Mayor, council members, the next steps to to go to a through a procurement process and develop some requirements and then go out for a solicitation. Uh, mayor, I'm a I'm a no, but I would not have any reservations about them soliciting um, city of Glendale residents, water customers to offer their services to our customers. I would be in favor of moving forward. Okay.

Mayor, I I would say yes because um of the re of the revenue up to $98,000 of campaign fees and then 15,000 license fee and unenrollment revenue. So, if these um companies go out without the branding of the city of Glendel, then we would re receive no revenue whatsoever. So, I would say yes. Thank you. Yeah. With that said, because we do not have seven people, a tie vote is a no move forward vote. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Next on our agenda, figure out where I put it. Mr.

Bar, I think you were finished, weren't you? City manager report. Thank you, mayor, members of the council. A few updates for you today. First, we want to start with congratulations to Oakland Construction for winning the best government public building award in the regional competition from the prestigious engineering news record organization. This is for the city's downtown campus project. Also representing the work of contributors Holly Sweet, Holly Street, and Light Fox.

It's now a finalist for project of the year will be announced later this fall. Moving on to emergency management awareness month. Our city great emergency management team is made up of three people and we'd like to thank them for the work they do to keep Glendale prepared for those difficult days we hope never come and a special congratulations to director Nicole Mson for recently graduating from an executive program at the National Emergency University in Maryland.

Nicole is just one of four people in Arizona to complete that course. Moving on, you've probably heard or you will be hearing a lot more about Colorado River and the conditions. Last week, the federal government finalized a framework for managing water shortages on the Colorado River that will impact Arizona. Bottom line is that Glendale's been preparing for a shortage and has built a robust water system to meet the long-term needs of the community.

And staff from water services will be providing a water resources update to the council in an upcoming workshop session. And as always, we encourage everyone to use water wisely. And then finally, we had an employee back to school drive. Our employees helped send hundreds of Glendale kids back to school with backpacks full of school supplies. Thanks to our employee giving community, it's the fifth year in a row that the committee has collected and delivered backpacks for students.

This year, 600 backpacks went to students at Glendale American Elementary and Harold W. Smith Elementary. And we want to thank everyone who donated, volunteered, and helped them make this year's drive a great success. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Bailey. Anything? Uh, nothing today. Thank you. Thank you. Council item of special interest. Mr. Conscious, none today, sir. Miss Guzman, none today, sir. Mr. Tomachop, nothing today. Mayor, Mr. Turner, vice mayor, nothing today. And I have nothing.

Can I get a motion to go into exec? I have a motion in a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. I. Any oppose? Say n have do have it. We are an exec.