Phoenix Council Approves Master Leasing and Senior Center While Data Center Residents Demand Enforcement Action; Police Records Fee Increase Divides Council

Each person must wear a safety vest at all times. Safety vests along with trash bags will be supplied to you by ADOT. Remember, no children below the age of 12 or pets are permitted in the program or in the work area. For your safety, do not utilize music players. Your ears are often the first thing to warn you of imminent danger. Appoint a lookout for your group, work facing oncoming traffic, and remember to stay at least five feet from the pavement edge.

The fewer distractions for the traveling public and your group, the better. Now, when it comes to trash, know what you're picking up. If you cannot identify it, don't pick it up. This brings us to the topic of hazardous waste. Methamphetamine is the number one drug abused in the United States and Arizona today, The sun is rising! Each pound of meth that is manufactured produces five to six pounds of hazardous materials as waste.

So when you're out here on the roadway, don't pick up things that have tubing that is red, ice chests that are red, or red chemical bottles. Bad guys throw them out here because they don't want to get caught with them. Also, leave those corroded propane bottles alone. Used car batteries, needles, syringes, or anything that you can use to do with the car. Bar batteries, needles, syringes, or anything that you don't know what it is.

The best rule of thumb is if you are uncertain, don't touch it and inform local law enforcement. Remember, be alert. Also, do not enter pipes or culverts. The danger is too high, so let the pros deal with that. You should pick up small items made of paper, cardboard, plastic, styrofoam, wood or rubber. These items in small empty containers are okay if they do not have sharp edges. Tie your bags securely shut and place the filled bags at least 6 feet from the pavement edge.

Do not overfill or overstuff the bags. ADOT workers must lift these bags into their trucks. Place large or heavier items like tire debris or any items that would tear a bag near the filled bags. Remember, don't move anything that could cause you or your team A-DOT will remove your filled trash bags from the roadside after the cleanup is complete. Avoid overexertion and drink plenty of fluids to stay hydrated.

Adopt-a-Highway program encourages recycling, so collect the recyclables and take them with you. Make sure your group has enough water and that on-site first aid is available. Leave snakes alone. People are bitten because they try to kill a snake or get a closer look at it. Keep hands and feet out of areas you cannot see. Don't pick up rocks or firewood. Be cautious and alert at all times. If you or a group member is bitten, wash the bite with soap and water.

Immobilize the bitten area and keep it lower than the heart and get medical help. Remember, you signed a permit to do this. That permit has terms and conditions. It is very important that you read and abide by them. Inform your ADOT Adopt-A-Highway contact at least five days prior to the cleanup effort. We need to make sure your dates don't conflict with other highway uses, so it's very important to know who your Adopt-A-Highway contact is and that they have your contact information.

We need to know as quickly as possible if a new coordinator is appointed or if you change any of your contact information. Make sure everyone in your group fills out a volunteer registration form before each cleanup. The Arizona Department of Transportation wants this to be a rewarding and safe experience for all of you. Volunteers like you make this program successful by giving your time and energy to make a positive impact on the environment.

Your efforts are appreciated, very much so, not only by ADOT, but also by the citizens of Arizona and the visitors who will enjoy a cleaner state because of your hard work. So spread the word, Arizona, keep it grand. Hi, my name is Brian Tice. I'm a water service technician for the City of Phoenix Water Department. My role as a technician is to provide excellent customer service to our residents in the City of Phoenix.

As a water service technician we deal with leaks turn turn of homes with customers moving in and out of their residence replacing meters and replacing stops For me, the most rewarding part, I grew up in the City of Phoenix. I went to grade school, high school, so for me being able to come back and provide the service to the community that I grew up in is very important to me.

I believe the water service technician position is important to our division because we are the first people the customers see. The Moodle Sessions and Education Sources Session 3B The Moves Ase, Concrete of Centre, Inclusion, Centrapeums and Cine Aria, Access Manager, Connection, Access Manager, Co-NS 4B. Seas Aria, a Thess Superior, Exit Asniperer, Inclusion, Seat Emotion Noir. CREATE IN CREDITS Samba.

The City of Phoenix The City of Phoenix The City of Phoenix The City of Phoenix The City of Phoenix Welcome everyone. We are starting the city's celebration of Diana Taurasi. In the City of Phoenix, we celebrate people in many ways and one is with street signs. For nearly a decade, fans coming here have been welcomed with the street sign bearing Diana Taurasi's name. When the sign first went up, Diana had just surpassed the great Tina Thompson to become the WNBA's all-time leading scorer.

Fortunately for Phoenix and for her fans, she kept going. And it is time to update the sign to recognize her incredible record scores in the city of Phoenix and the amount of baskets that she made. She's been a really important part of our city. We are so lucky that the Mercury drafted her number one pick and that she spent 20 seasons with us and the Phoenix Mercury, becoming the most decorated Olympian in women's basketball and remaining the WNBA's all-time leading scorer. Thank you. Thank you.

And she's not content with just greatness on the court. She's also been an important contributor to our community, stepping up for parents and families, fighting for equality and more. We are so grateful to have her commitment to the City of Phoenix, and the City of Phoenix is so pleased that we can honor her with this street sign. Thank you. We're looking forward to unveiling the sign which will show her current total unscoring, more than 10,000 points.

That number will forever mark her place in WNBA history and remind the city of the countless moments she gave us to celebrate. Diana, your legacy is something we are proud of in the city of Phoenix. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Thank you. And now we welcome Josh Barlstein the CEO of the Phoenix Suns and Mercury Thank you at the highest level, and she did for all 20 years in the Valley.

Her loyalty, what she meant to the fans, and her teammates, and her coaches, and what they mean to her is what separates Diana Taurasi. DT, your first basket, you know what it was? There you go. First basket, Sacramento Monarchs, right? Last basket, Minnesota Lynx. There was a little trivia to do this, Minnesota Lynx. But all along the way, the points, the baskets, there were game winners, there were step backs, there were and ones looking at the ref. But those don't capture who DT is.

It's the moments and memories. And you're going to see that on Sunday when you have people flying because they know what she means to them and their family. All 10,646 baskets. So it's a privilege, it's an honor to be of the greatest, a winner, a true champion. So when you mean so much to Phoenix, the one and only Diana Taurasi. I want to thank Mayor Gallego and the city for all they've done for this as well. DT, the floor is yours. Good morning everyone.

First off, I'd like to thank Mayor Gallego and the City of Phoenix. This wouldn't be possible without revision. You know, without her thinking this is really important for the city, for the Phoenix Mercury, and all the Phoenix community. Josh and Matt, thank you guys so much.

Since you guys have really taken over the Phoenix organization, there's been this push to really make sure that the legacy of this city is portrayed and not only the players that have played in this building, but what the city is all about. And, you know, when I think of the 20 years that I spent here, I get really emotional because I came here as a little kid. I was 21. I guess that's not little, but it was in my head. And I'd never been to Phoenix before. I had no clue what the city was about.

And 20 years later, it mirrors all the things that I thought were important in life as a teammate, as a daughter, and now as a mother. A hard-working city, a community that brings everyone together and mirrors all the things that it takes to be a champion in life and on the court. And I just hope when people see that last name, it symbolizes all the things that it takes to really make it. And that's hard work, discipline, consistency, and not only that, a great community.

This wouldn't have been possible without everyone that played at the Phoenix Mercury, worked at the Phoenix Mercury, coached at the Phoenix Mercury, everyone who's been part of the fabric of what this championship community means. It's an amazing thing for not only myself, my family, everyone who loves this team and this city, but for the future generation that can look up there. And with hard work, anything is possible. So I want to thank everyone who's here today. What an amazing weekend.

I'm super thankful and grateful for everyone. I feel like every time I come to one of these I see some faces I haven't seen in a long time and that feels really good. More than any basket, more than any championship, it's really the faces that have made this 20 years so important to me and my family. And I'm really thankful and let's get this sign in built. There you go. Alright, we need Scorch. Yeah, it's countdown time.

Good afternoon Fire Chaplain Tim Martinell will provide an invocation in keeping with the tradition of a legislative prayer for the council Participation is entirely voluntary Anyone wait remain seated or step outside When the Chaplain is done Vice Mayor Hodge Washington will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance Good afternoon. Madam Mayor, I would like to thank you, the city council, and your staff for the opportunity to open this meeting in a prayer. Please bow your heads and pray with me.

Gracious God, we thank you for this day and for the privilege of serving the residents of Phoenix. We are grateful for the members of the city council and for their commitment to our community. As we gather to conduct the city's business, grant them wisdom, discernment, and clarity of thought. Help them work together with respect and understanding as they consider the needs of those that they serve.

We also give thanks for the residents of Phoenix and for all who continue to make this city a vibrant and caring community. May this meeting be productive, thoughtful, and focused on the common good. And I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. I pledge allegiance. Thank you. I'll now call to order the meeting of the Phoenix City Council. Will the clerk please call the roll? Councilwoman Guardado? Here. Councilwoman Hernandez? Here. Councilwoman O'Brien? Here. Councilwoman Pastor? Here.

Councilman Robinson? Here. Councilwoman Stark? Here. Councilman Waring? Here. Vice Mayor Hodge Washington? Here. Mayor Gallego? Here. Mario Barajas is with us to provide Spanish interpretation. Mario, would you introduce your team? Yes, Mayor. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Mario Barajas and today I want to be working with Oscar Monroy as interpreters at for our Spanish speaking community. I'll now take a moment to introduce ourselves to our Spanish speaking community. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you so much. Will the city clerk read the 24-hour paragraph? The titles of the following ordinance and resolution numbers on the agenda- I found this on the web. ...to the public at least 24 hours prior to this council meeting and therefore may be read by title or agenda item only. The comments is numbered S-53185 through 53224. Will the city attorney explain public comment, please? Yes, thank you, Mayor. Members of the public may speak for up to two minutes to comment on agenda items.

Comments must be related to the agenda item and the action being considered by the council. General comments that go beyond the scope of the agenda item should be made during the citizen comment session at the end of the agenda. The city council and staff cannot discuss or comment on matters related to pending investigations, claims, or litigation.

Additionally, any member of the public who appears before the council in their capacity as a lobbyist must, as required by Phoenix City Code, disclose this fact before addressing the council. The city code states that speakers must express their comments respectfully and courteously. Use of profane language, threats, or personal attacks on members of the public, council members, or staff are not allowed. Such comments are disruptive and unrelated to the council's business.

Any person who violates these rules may lose their opportunity to speak further and could be asked to leave. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you so much. We'll next go to item one, Boards and Commissions. Vice Mayor, do you have a motion? I do. Motion to approve the Mayor and City Council's Board and Commission's appointment. Nominations. Second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Ayes carry. The vice mayor will conduct a swearing in ceremony.

After the ceremony, I recognize Councilwoman Bordato for a comment. Thank you. I state your name, do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution and laws of the state of Arizona. That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and defend them against all enemies foreign and domestic. And I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of name of your board or no commission. According to the best of my ability.

So help me God. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mayor. And I'm truly honored to accept the responsibility of serving as a culture of the Fast Track City Southock committee. I want to thank Councilwoman Debra Stark, Laura Pastor for their leadership and for the important work they have done alongside our community partners.

This committee does incredible work bringing together the people, resources, and expertise we need to prevent new HIV infections, connect people to treatment, and care and confront the stigma that too often keeps people from seeking help. For me, this comes down to something very simple. Where you live, what you earn, what language you speak, and what neighborhood you call home should never determine whether you can get the care you need.

We know there are still communities in Phoenix where people face real barriers to healthcare, testing, treatment, and even basic information. We also know that stigma can be a barrier all by itself. I'm looking forward to bringing people together, listening to the communities most impacted, and making sure we are reaching people where they are. If we do that, we can make a real difference in people's lives and continue moving Phoenix forward, the goal of ending the HIV epidemic.

I'm proud to take on this responsibility and I'm ready to get to work. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilwoman, for stepping up. This is truly life-saving work. We have such important medical advances that can help so much, but not everyone in our community is getting them. Thank you to Councilwoman Stark, Councilwoman Pastor, and our community volunteers. We have gotten international recognition for this effort, but we still got a lot of work to do and grateful that that you are taking it on.

With that, we move on to the liquor license portion of our agenda. We provide an advisory role to the state of Arizona. Vice Mayor, do we have a motion? Motion to approve items 2 through 24. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed nay? Passes. Next, we go to City Clerk.

Are we ready for ordinances, resolutions, new business Planning and zoning Yes Mayor Vice Mayor Motion to approve items 25 through 81 except for the following items 30 44 46 47 and 63 Noting that item 33 is continued to October 7 2026 and item 45 is withdrawn And can the clerk confirm if there are any other items that should be excluded for in public comment Mayor Vice Mayor no other items to exclude Second A motion and a second roll call Guardado Yes Hernandez Yes O Yes Pastor Yes Robinson Yes Stark Yes Waring Yes Hodge Washington Yes Gallego Yes Passes 9 We next go to item 30, which is a proposed 44th Street and Bajada Road annexation.

We'll open the public hearing. We do not have any comments on the public hearing. I will close the public hearing. We'll have a vote at a later day. We next go to item 44. Vice Mayor. Motion to approve item 44. Second. Councilwoman Hernandez. Thank you so much, Mayor. I just have a couple questions on this item for probably David and team. Thank you so much David. I almost called you Jason. I know Jason isn't here so my bad. But thanks for bringing this to the council for consideration.

I think there is a need for for this type of structure in the city. You know, I think I've personally witnessed a few shouting matches amongst the city employees and I'm happy to support this item. Just a couple questions. Can you help me understand how you will identify which 125 city employees get to be part of the training? Yes, thank you. Good afternoon, Mayor, members of council. I have assistant HR Director Karina Ramsey with me who will be able to answer that question.

Mayor, members of council, thank you for the question. This stems from an agreement with Aspetia. During the initial pilot program we will collaborate with Aspetia to establish a committee. That committee will be asked to review data where to determine where in the organization there is most need for conflict resolution. The committee will then select up to 125 participants We have supervisors and managers throughout the organization to participate in the conflict resolution program.

Thank you so much. My next question is, how do we plan to spread out the certified mediator training program? You know, 20 participants for, is a small number of certified mediators for such a big city. Thank you, members of council. Thank you again for that question. Much like the initial selection of the 125 participants for the conflict resolution program, the committee will also select a cohort of 20 participants to become certified mediators.

The cohort, once they select a cohort, they have to fully be committed to not only the initial training, but the continuous education training and a two to three year commitment to be available for mediation throughout the city upon request. Thank you so much. And just my last question, will this conflict resolution opportunities be extended to mayor council and staff on the 11th floor? I'm just asking for a friend. Good afternoon, Mayor, members of council.

Once the certified meetings are in place for this program, they can be utilized citywide. Thank you so much. Okay. Thank you, Mary. Thank you. Roll call. Yes. Hernandez. Yes. O'Brien. Yes. Pastor. Yes. Robinson. Yes. Stark. Yes. Waring. Yes. Hodge Washington. Yes. Diego. Yes. Passes 9-0. Next, we go to item 46. The vice mayor has been working on this one for a while, so I will turn to her. Thank you so much, Mayor. I move to approve item 46. Second. Thank you, Mayor.

If I may continue, I am especially proud to see the master leasing continue to move forward in Phoenix. It is an approach I've advocated for because we need more tools to move people from homelessness into stable housing, and I'm pleased to see that advocacy become real action. Master leasing is an important part of the housing strategy. Today we are taking another step toward creating the capacity to bring properties online.

Connect people to housing and provide the support they need to remain housed I also appreciate that this item gives us flexibility to work with qualified partners as opportunities become available For me this is about taking an idea that we been talking about and turning it into something that will have a real impact on people lives I want to again thank our staff and our community partners for helping us move this forward I am beyond proud that Mass Leasing is now becoming a part of how Phoenix approaches the housing crisis and I look forward to seeing the results for our Thank you Mayor Thank you so much for your work on this item Roll call Mordado?

Yes. I'll do a vote explanation. Hernandez? Mayor, may I explain my vote? Yes. Thank you. I just wanted to say, Vice Mayor, thank Vice Mayor for leading on this. This is one of the important tools that we need as we navigate through our housing shortage. This is the type of creative solutions that cities can do. And so I'm really proud to see this. Happy to support this.

And just really, again, thank you to the vice mayor for leading on this innovative idea and to all the city staff that really helped make this possible. Because this is, like I said, one of the tools that we need in really navigating through the housing shortage we face ourselves. So with that, I vote yes. O'Brien? Yes. Pastor? Yes. Robinson? Yes. Stark? Yes. Waring? Hodge Washington? Yes. Gallego? Yes. Passes 9-0. More good news in District 8. Item 47, Vice Mayor. Motion to approve item 47.

Second. Thank you. Again, I'm very excited about this investment in our Levine neighborhood. Our seniors deserve to be able to be able to support the city of the city council. other spaces where they can stay active, build relationships, access services, and continue to be an active part of our community. Over this past summer, I was able to sponsor senior programming at the Prickley Pier Library, and there was an overwhelming amount of support from the seniors in this area.

I would like to publicly thank the Human Services Department for filling in that gap this summer. This project is particularly meaningful because the general obligation bond is allowing us to make a significant investment in a growing part of District 8. The approximately 12,000 square foot facility will provide space for multi-purpose activities, fitness, meals, and other programming. And I'm looking forward to seeing that vision take shape.

As we move forward through the design process, I want to make sure we continue listening to the seniors and the residents who will actually use this facility. The best community facilities are designed with the community, not simply for the community. I want to thank our residents for supporting the GEO bond and our staff for moving this project forward. I'm excited to see this become a place where Levine seniors can gather, connect, and thrive. Thank you, Mayor. Mayor Mrakas- Thank you so much.

This is a very exciting vote. I have been talking and working on a senior center in Levine for more than a decade and how fabulous to move it forward during September, which is National Senior Center month. So good news for all of Phoenix's seniors, including our Southwest Valley. Roll call. Borgado? Yes. Hernandez? Yes. O'Brien? Yes. Pastor? Yes. Robinson? Yes. Stark? As a senior? Yes. Waring? Hodge Washington? Yes. Gallego? Yes. Passes 9-0. Thank you.

We next move to item 63, police public records, service fees, and increased staffing level. This is a real priority, one I brought up during our budget process. Our backlog is unacceptably long. We want our residents and members of the media to get their records in a timely way. So I'll introduce Lori Bays, who has been working long and hard to address this problem. Lori Bays, Thank you, Mayor. Good afternoon, Mayor, members of the council.

And I will introduce the team that will be coming to the table to provide a short presentation on a proposal to address the backlog the backlog mentioned by the mayor and to discuss the public records and services fee proposal for the police department as well as a request for increased staffing to address the backlog as mentioned.

The team who is joining me as we speak is Assistant Director Court Hood with the police department and Police Administrator Amy Rehnquist and both of them are experts in this field and will be providing a short presentation. And we'll start with Court. Good afternoon, Mayor, members of the council. Thank you for the opportunity to present information about the two items before you today. I'm Assistant Director Cord Hood and I'm joined by my esteemed colleague, Police Administrator Amy Runquist.

During our presentation today, we'll be providing you a broad overview of the Police's Public Records Program and the justifications and support of our proposals. But I'd like to begin with highlighting our why. What are we aiming to achieve by bringing these items?

The first is rebalancing our cost recovery for services provided which directly supports our second goal which is to eliminate the backlog of existing requests within one year And lastly our aim is to maintain pace with the increased volume of requests well into the future So we'll start by providing an operational summary of how the program works. We'll discuss the fluctuating volume of requests we've received over the last five years.

We'll focus on the backlog and the several challenges we face and round that out with a breakdown of our two proposals, which are adjusting the fee schedule and increasing the number of authorized positions. This slide outlines how we interact with requesters and the general public on a daily basis. Where some may assume that our work focuses solely on researching, redacting, and releasing records, there is much more to the work.

The first tile on the left-hand side of the slide represents our Center of Operations, the Public Records Portal, where each one of more than 130,000 requests are managed. But the various ways we serve our customers outside of submissions received online, there are a lot. The Bureau provides service to an estimated 15 to 20,000 walk-in customers each year at our public service counter at 100 West Washington Police Headquarters.

And if submitting your request online or coming in person isn't the preferred option, we staff a call center that fields more than We have more than 68,000 calls every year to answer general questions, and we also offer the ability to schedule over-the-phone appointments or schedule in-person appointments at a time that's convenient for the customer. If none of those options work, we're happy to help via fax, email, and even letters received by mail.

So customer service truly is foundational for the work that we perform. This list is a request type and our full list is extensive, but here are the most commonly requested records we receive.

Incident or department reports, CAD, which stands for Computer Automated Dispatch Reports, which is information stored by our 911 operators and dispatchers, traffic crash reports, requests for videos, which primarily consists of body-worn camera videos, photographs and requests as part of legal proceedings.

All of that work is currently performed by 54 hard-working full-time employees and 14 dedicated part-time employees, which also includes five supervisors and a manager that oversees the program. Our staff is assigned to various teams to ensure an equitable distribution of work and to provide subject matter expertise in areas where appropriate. For example, we have a team dedicated to managing all requests for the Office of Accountability and Transparency.

We have a team that manages the release of records to comply with our transparency protocols during critical incidents, and those require extensive research and expertise in redaction and review. And we also have a team with expertise in being responsive to subpoenas.

We're now presented with a visual that shows the total number of requests received for each of the last five years and our current calendar year highlighted in the blue bars in the slide and a snapshot of the number of backlogged requests recorded around the midpoint of each year indicated in the golden yellow bars. I'd like to draw your attention to the first two years, 2021 and 2022. You'll note the request totals are higher than 2023 and 2024, which were measurably lower.

However, one of the most significant changes occurs between 2024 and 2025, where we experienced a 30,000 request increase year over year.

We'll discuss a few of the notable reasons that explain the increase in the coming slides, but I'd like to emphasize that we're on pace to exceed 2025's totals this year, so it is no longer considered a fluke, which we believed it to be at one point, or an outlier year, but truly that if this record holds, it means that this year will be the highest for records requests to receive ever.

Turning our attention to the golden yellow bars, those represent requests that we were unable to immediately triage or fulfill, or as we call it, it constitutes a backlog of requests. And let's focus on that for just a moment. An important part of understanding many of our current challenges is to have an awareness of what began in 2020 that contributed to the explosive growth in the backlog totals. And you'll see the peak that's highlighted there in 2022.

I know the font is a little small, but it's about 73,069 requests in 2022. That's our highest total ever. 2019 to 2020 was transformative for the Bureau. Many manual, non-technical processes were being phased out as we migrated to a new online portal and digital processing of requests. This was a good and necessary change for us.

However, midway through that transformation, the COVID pandemic began and it mandated operational changes that impacted our ability to serve our customers in the most efficient manner possible, such as closing the service counter that allowed customers to come in person, and it also required us to segregate staff in the office and reduce in-office staffing.

While these adjustments, they're necessary to protect the health and safety of the public and our employees at the time, it slowed our rate of fulfillment and, as indicated in 2021 and 2022, the backlog ballooned. At the same time, in the midst of managing through the start of the big pandemic, we received a considerable amount of public records requests related to demonstrations that occurred in the summer of 2020.

Many of those requests were complex and comprised of hundreds of hours of videos and other records that required years of time and labor to collectively resolve. So in recognition of the lost progress and the mounting backlog, the Bureau took steps to pick up where we left off with that change or that continuous improvement process, and that meant committing to picking up where the work began and to improve our operations.

In the following three slides, we'll provide highlights about this initiative to comprehensively evaluate the public records program and police, which included a careful and thorough process to review and modernize our operations and identify opportunities for improvements and increased efficiency. Our first commitment or our first pillar was to process improvements.

We examined every role and every assignment in the Bureau to ensure alignment with our current needs and we eliminated the unnecessary or outdated processes. Remember, a lot of our existing processes at the time were mid-transition from these manual, paper-driven processes to managing to digital. So one example of our improvements in this way was reviewing the makeup of our teams and resources dedicated to them.

Next, we establish goals for every employee and we measure their activities to ensure that the work is complete, that it's accurate, and that it's timely, whether they're conducting research on a request or they're serving an in-person customer. At the same time, we procured several software programs that modernized how redactions were completed. That change reduced friction or the time required to fully process records that were becoming more and more digital.

We also procured a management platform for our service counter that provides It provides real-time metrics on our rate of efficiency and it ensures that customers are served as quickly as possible when they visit us in person. I also wanted to highlight a current project underway. It's not included in the slide here, but it is worth mentioning, and that is a complete overhaul of our online public portal request portal.

Among the many enhancements that will make submitting and monitoring the status of requests easier for customers, We're most excited for a feature that will allow customers seeking traffic crash reports to search, retrieve, and pay for their traffic crash reports, if they must, if they're mandated to, online without the need for any of our staff to be involved in that process.

And that means that the vast majority of the roughly 60,000 public records requests for traffic crash reports may be filled without our direct intervention of staff, And they can be reassigned to other priorities for fulfillment. So we're really proud of that, and that's slated to go live at the end of this year or the beginning of next. The second innovative change that's noted in the slide here involves automating workflows and notifications.

So as a request is moved from one staff to another, prompts are automatically generated, which promotes increased awareness so the fulfillment process is not stalled. Lastly, our third pillar to this process improvement project was a focus on staffing and recruitment.

At the start of this project, we found that higher rates of attrition and vacancies among our police records clerk, that's an entry-level position, but with council's generous support of increasing the starting pay from $17.52 to $22.61 at that time, we experienced an increase in interest in those roles.

So we thankful for council support We also began a partnership with human resources to streamline hiring when vacancies occur And one example of this is our current process held just a few weeks ago when we hosted a one day hiring event to fill 19 positions as part of our efforts to address the backlog which we address in later slides Returning to our annual backlog totals, you'll note the steep decline. You'll see the trend line highlighted in red and yellow and green.

You'll note the steep decline in the backlog of requests between 2022 and 2024 that brought it down to its lowest levels. The hard work of every member in the Bureau, along with support from the department leadership, the city manager's office, and from council helped facilitate the changes and provided much needed momentum to drive the backlog down. However, for the last 18 months, the backlog has incrementally increased to where it now sits, just below 40,000 requests as of now.

So again, I just want to highlight from a low of about 27,000 in 2024, we are currently at this time just below 40,000 requests. This slide shows us a current status and average wait times as of September 1st of this year of most of our most requested records types. So, for incident number, for incident requests, just under 10,000 public records requests, the average wait time is anywhere between 11 days and 6 weeks. For traffic crash reports, about 19 days.

For the 74,000 public records requests, excuse me, 7,400 public records requests for traffic crash reports. For video requests, that's your body-worn camera and other video-related media, just under 13,000 public records requests and the wait is anywhere from 1.7 years to 2.5 years. And for all other requests cumulatively, the wait is anywhere between 17 days and 3 months for the estimated 9,604 requests.

So we'll acknowledge that there are improvements to be made in each one of those categories, but it's clear that the body-worn camera and associated video requests experience the longest delays. Let's explore some of the whys behind the delays. Our findings over the last year as we analyzed the backlog on why we experienced a steep increase in requests over that last year revealed an outsized increase in the number of commercial requests from non-commercial requests.

And so we'll provide a definition that's before you. According to state law, using a state public record for sale, resale, or producing a document containing all or part of the record for sale or solicitation. So essentially that means making money off of the public records requests that you receive. And the greatest impact that we're seeing is to video requests, traffic crash report requests, and incident or department report requests.

Alternatively, here are some examples of non-commercial requests that includes involved parties, victims, representatives of victims, such as their family, their attorneys, their insurance companies. That also includes researchers, and I want to emphasize that media and journalists are not considered commercial requesters. Everyone else is non-commercial requesters.

In review of the makeup of the backlog, we found that commercial requests made up nearly a quarter of all requests last year in 2025, which is up 32 percent over the The last five-year average. Also, in general, overall demand for wreckers has increased nearly 30 percent from 2025 over 2024, which we illustrated in that steep increase, with considerable impacts to traffic crash report requests at 56 percent increase year-over-year and body-worn camera requests, which is 17 percent.

This slide shows us the breakdown between non-commercial and commercial requests of the existing backlog. You'll know commercial requests are highlighted in yellow as part of the bar and non-commercial requests are blue as part of the bar. A moment ago I stated that 24% of annual requests are commercial in nature, but the current makeup of the backlog, 40% of those requests is 40%. Why is the difference there?

Well, the reason why is we reprioritized our work to focus on fulfilling requests for general public ahead of the interests of those who seek to make a profit from these records. So as we began to further analyze and understand the nature of these requests, we found some concerning trends and wanted to highlight one.

On the slide before you on the right side you see a table with 10 requests included It may be hard to see for those in the audience or even from the dais so I summarize it for you There are 10 separate requests for video footage one for 121 hours one for 144 hours one for 136 Excuse me let me go back These are separate videos, not ours. 121 videos, 144 videos, 136 videos, and another for 81 separate video clips. This is all from one requester.

The total amount of video hours requested with standard redactions is almost 150 hours or 600 labor hours to process them with standard redactions. We found that this one requester posts these videos on YouTube for what we assume is a sizable profit based on monetized views. On the left hand side of the slide you'll note screenshots of other videos from other accounts where they're racking up millions of views in a matter of months.

Again, it may be hard to see but the top video on the left hand side there has 8.4 million views in less than two months. It's not just for videos, for video media, but for incident reports and also traffic crash reports as previously mentioned. These commercial requesters are using the public records request process as part of their business model essentially, which ultimately impacts our ability and capacity to serve victims, families and other requesters who have true needs.

So I'll now ask Amy to present our proposed solutions to address what we've discussed and ultimately eliminate the backlog. Mayor and members of the council, these next slides will be a brief overview of the current and proposed fee schedules. The current fee schedule, last updated in 2019, which added a $5 deposit for requests and has some components dating back to 2004, No longer reflects actual processing costs or the complexity of today's modern records environment.

The schedule includes nominal fees such as 24 cents per page for documents and $4 per request for videos and photos. In practice, per request refers to the complete group of records submitted by a requester under a single public records request. A single request may contain one items or numerous items including dozens of videos requiring review and potentially hundreds of hours. hours of staff time to process, as was noted in the slide before. And that's all at the cost of a $4 flat fee.

As a result, the current fee structure does not align with significant time, labor and resources required for modern record processing, particularly for digital media and video read action. Before presenting the itemized breakdown of the proposed fee schedule, it's important to highlight several key elements of the proposal. One of the first things you'll notice is that the is a focused effort to separate commercial and non-commercial requests.

A central goal of this update is to strengthen cost recovery while maintaining accessibility for non-commercial requesters. We're happy to share that most document requests submitted by non-commercial users will be provided at no cost, which reflects our commitment to transparency and public access. I'd also like to emphasize that victims and their families will not be charged for records, ensuring that those directly impacted receive needed information without financial burden.

For commercial requesters, the proposed schedule includes increased fees that more accurately represent the actual time, effort, and complexity involved in fulfilling their requests. These requests often require extensive review and processing, including significant video examination and redaction. Adjusting fees for commercial users allows the city to recover appropriate costs while ensuring that public resources remain focused on serving non-commercial community needs.

Collectively, these changes promote sustainable operations and a fee structure aligned with modern record processing demands. The proposed fee schedule introduces differentiated pricing for non-commercial and commercial requesters while aligning fees with the actual workload required to process modern digital records.

We want to highlight again, under this updated structure, most requests submitted by non-commercial users will be entirely free, Reflecting a strong commitment to public access and transparency. For non-commercial requesters, the only circumstances in which charges would apply are when physical printed copies are requested for in-person pickup or mail delivery and these fees will remain nominal.

Commercial requesters, however, will see a more structured cost framework that reflects the actual time and complexity associated with fulfilling their requests.

Pricing users will pay a flat fee in addition to per page costs for documents This pricing approach recognizes that commercial requests often involve more extensive retrieval review and production needs and it supports the department ability to recover appropriate costs while maintaining equitable access for non users Regarding video requests the current fee schedule charges per video request which as noted may include dozens of videos within a single submission The proposed schedule modernizes this process by allowing requesters to review them video The proposal is to remove the video materials at no charge and identify the specific clips needed for standard read action.

This change improves efficiency by reducing staff review time and ensures a quick turnaround time on requests for our customers. For more complex reactions requiring detailed work, fees are structured to ensure costs correspond only to the actual workload required. Additionally, the proposal eliminates the existing $5 flat deposit fee.

Removing this charge reduces initial financial barriers, simplifies the request process, and ensures that fees are tied directly to the actual cost of fulfilling the request rather than an upfront administrative payment. Collectively, these modifications create a fee structure that's more accurate, transparent, and aligned with the realities of modern record processing while substantially improving affordability for non-commercial users.

This slide provides a summary of our review comparing Phoenix's proposed fee schedule with those of other police agencies across the state. The updated structure is intentionally designed to clearly differentiate between non-commercial and commercial requesters while fully complying with statutory requirements. Compared with other Arizona agencies, the proposed schedule keeps Phoenix more affordable. Many regional agencies charge between $44 and $46 per hour for video review.

In contrast, Phoenix's model allows requesters to access primary video content at no cost and applies fees only when supplemental redaction work is required. This approach ensures that requesters pay only for the specialized labor actually performed. Document fees also remain lower for non-commercial users compared to other agencies. You'll note that other agencies charge a flat fee plus a per page fee for all requesters.

Under our proposal, digital document copies will be free for non-commercial requesters, making the majority of the document requests cost-free. Charges would only apply to printed physical copies for in-person pickup or mail or delivery. Overall, this proposal maintains Phoenix as one of the most accessible agencies in the state while ensuring fees reflect actual workload and responsible cost management.

In reviewing our second item for consideration, we're requesting authorization for 10 new permanent non-sworn full-time employees dedicated to public records processing. The slide before you outlines the complete staffing plan developed to eliminate the backlog and meet ongoing operational demands. To support this effort, we're supplementing the 10 new positions by reassigning six existing permanent employees from within the department.

In addition, we're actively hiring 19 temporary full-time employees whose sole focus will be reducing the backlog within one year. In total, this staffing plan provides 35 full-time employees committed to improving the timeliness and consistency of our public records processes. This investment represents a necessary and strategic step toward delivering reliable, responsive service to the community.

Adjusted fee revenue will support the ongoing costs associated with the 10 new permanent positions. The projected annual revenue from the revised fee schedule is approximately $789,535,000 with a projection of $779,896,000 to pay for ongoing position costs. It's important to emphasize that this revenue is not focused on profit, rather it's designed almost solely to offset the operational expenses required to process public records in a timely and efficient manner.

The proposed fee adjustments ensure that we can responsibly fund the additional staffing needed to eliminate the backlog and maintain consistent service levels moving forward. In summary, the objectives of this proposal are straightforward. Eliminate the existing backlog within one year and maintain a processing pace that keeps pace with increasing demand. The combined fee schedule adjustments and staffing recommendations directly support these goals.

Collectively, these actions will enable the police department to rebalance cost recovery by using the revenue to fund the costs associated with 10 new positions to stabilize operations, and the cost of the cost of the staff will be able to build the cost of the cost. and to restore timely service to the public. Today we respectfully request council approval for two items.

Approval of the proposed fee schedule, excuse me, and approval to add eight permanent administrative aid and two permanent administrative assistant one positions. Thank you for your time and we welcome any questions. Thank you so much, Councilor Hernandez. Thank you, Mayor. I have a plethora of questions, I think, on this. But I want to start by saying that I fully support the need to reduce our backlog.

I think my disagreement comes in this fee increase maybe being the best path forward for that. I want to first start with, you know, my understanding is that our current policy, and I think it was talked about a little bit in here, is that a victim, the victim's attorney, on behalf of the victim, An immediate family member of the victim, if the victim is killed or incapacitated, can receive one copy of the police report, audio recording, and video recordings at no charge.

That's our current policy, correct? Correct. Okay. So my follow up question is who is defining who is a victim in this policy? Mayor and members of the council, the victim is typically defined in the police report. Okay, well the reason I asked is because even based on the current policy, there's a huge problem with this, with who's accessing the public records, submitting public records, and are they going to have to pay or not.

For example, in officer-involved shootings, the individual is usually listed, and every single case I have seen is listed as a suspect. So if we have a community member that is shot by police, they're going to be listed and usually remain designated as a suspect for the entirety of the case. That is the case in my brother's case where even in the final reporting he remains listed as suspect.

So based off of our current and our proposed policy, would immediate family members of these victims, because to me they're victims, but we have them listed as suspects, now would they have to pay for these increased fees when they submit public records? Mayor and members of the council, no, they don't pay for fees, that's current and that'll continue forward. Okay, and is that reflected in policy?

Mayor, members of the council, Councilwoman Hernandez, our public records staff who process these requests, they go to great lengths if it is not clear who a victim is and their communication with the requester to establish whether or not they're a victim or whether or not they qualify for free copies of records as stated by state law. So you're correct. Victims, the representatives, attorneys, they would all qualify under state law to receive a free copy of all records.

And if we either find in the police report or in our communication with the customer that they would qualify for it, then we will provide that for them. However, taking to your point, one of the enhancements that we can take back in programming this new platform is to ensure that there is a way for folks or customers who are requesting records to identify themselves as a victim or at least communicate with us if they are victims so that they can be provided free copies if they would qualify.

So we can certainly take that back and work that into the new platform that we're developing.

Okay, because I still feel like there's there's gonna be a gap there between the folks that are listed as, I don't know if maybe I'm not stating my question correctly, but if we're using the police reports and that's where they are being identified as either a suspect or a victim, like where in our policy is that going to be designated to make sure that when those record public records requests are submitted that our staff Can properly identify them, right?

Because like it would someone manually have to change the police report to show a victim in a credit and I'm talking like officer involved shootings critical incidents where they are automatically listed as suspects So what I'll say mayor members of council councilman Hernandez in the scenario that you're providing we work with our partners in In Human Services and the Victims Advocates so that families of those involved in a critical incident can receive records So that is already part of our policies and procedures So again specific to your example we provide those records no matter if they considered at one point a victim or if they're considered a suspect, whatever their status is.

If there's a family involved as part of that relationship, we provide those records to them. Okay. And then my next The next question is, you know, within this policy and part of what I read, it says the immediate family of anyone killed or incapacitated. But that leaves an entire amount of folks not identified in that right, in that gap, because there can be a lot that happens in between someone being killed or incapacitated. So how does that play into this proposed increase fee?

Mayor and members of the council, Councilwoman Hernandez. If they're non-commercial, if they are requesting records digitally for all documents, those would be free for our proposals. So I just want to establish that. If they fall somewhere in the gap, again in their communication with us as we are processing their requests, or if there is a financial burden or if there's a need, we invite the communication.

provide that latitude for our staff to evaluate it, to involve supervision so that we are providing service to the community for those who would fall in the gap that you're mentioning. And I hope that answers the questions efficiently. I think so. And maybe I just need to give you, sorry, let me backtrack. There is a video currently circulating through media through ABC15 reporting about Deontay Smith who was pulled from his vehicle. by his hair and repeatedly punched by police officers.

I'm gonna assume, right, without knowing any other things, that he is probably very likely listed as a suspect in our reporting. Under this, what I'm hearing you say is would he have to, he would be provided with copies of his public records for at no cost because it's a critical incident or how would that, how would this scenario, how would this apply here?

Mayor, members of the council, Councilwoman Hernandez, I think I can maybe shed some light on what you're asking by using a little bit different language and this is the policy as I understand it so please correct me if I'm wrong, Director Head, but if any involved party to an incident, no matter how they're listed on a report, if they request a record, they would receive that record free of charge. Okay.

So if they are an involved party, they would receive that record, or if they are a representative of that involved party. So for example, the example that you're using, if the attorney representing the individual was to make that request, that record would be provided free of charge also. Okay, that I think answers what I'm getting at. And so is our policy going to reflect involved party versus victim?

Yes, Mayor and members of the council, Councilman Hernandez, that is what our policy will reflect.

Okay, because I, you know, sometimes policies are left up to interpretation, right, and the way, even now, right, the way that I'm reading it and I interpret it is a little different from how other folks may interpret the policy, so I want to make sure that we're very clear, because I don't feel it is fair if we have folks that are victims of police violence or their families to have to pay for any of the public records. So just wanted some clarity there.

I think my next concern is do we see any, and whoever wants to take this, but do we see any concern or risk with increasing these fees that would deter the public from, you know, not leaning to their first amendment rights by asking for these public records with these increase in fees? Mayor, members of the council, Councilwoman Hernandez, I'll speak to that and then if there's anything that Director Hood or Ms. Rehnquist would like to add, they can do that.

What I would say to that is that this fee schedule should actually, and the staffing level should actually make it easier for people to receive records that would be related to their First Amendment rights. It will make it faster for people to receive records, whether that be documents or videos.

And it will also allow for that video, the first video submission to be the medium blur that allows folks to quickly receive the video, look at it and identify if there's a portion of it that they would like to have not blurred and redacted with standard redactions. That process will be much quicker and will allow for folks to get the information related to their First Amendment rights more quickly than they're able to do today.

Okay thank you for that I think that moves it into my other big concern is this is ultimately like a but I see this as a budget item and it affects our budget You know just this past June for the fiscal the past fiscal year Council approved it within the budget there was million for police to expand the public records department Specifically I believe it was set to address this records request backlog So I trying to understand what happened to that funding and was that not enough and why and is that why we are now hearing increase this request for increased fees?

Mayor, members of the council, Councilwoman Hernandez, you are correct we have been adding funds to the police public records budget as court summarized we've been doing many things over the last few years including this budget year to address the backlog technology enhancements and other things however To your point, that has not been enough to address the increase in demand.

And so in order to address the backlog and sustain the success after we address the backlog within a year, we need to now add positions. The thing that I will note, however, is that the cost of those positions will be covered by the increased revenues and the vast majority of those increased revenues will be paid by commercial users.

Okay, I mean it's still a little concerning because the total the totality of the police budget is about 1.3 billion dollars right between your general funds and your enterprise funds and I think the third fund which or maybe it's just two funds. In totality that's 1.3 billion dollars. This fee is the fees the fee increase is projecting to do revenues about let's run it up to $800,000. So within that $1.3 billion, are we not able to identify $800,000 that would cover these positions?

Because also, and I'll add this, that for the last few years, just our police department overtime alone has went over budget by over $20 million, I think anywhere between $20 and $25 million. So is there not an opportunity to identify money that's already currently in the budget to do this exact same thing that is very needed, right? We all know that this is an issue. Is that not a path? Also, did we explore maybe reassigning other positions to cover the temporary work?

Because if the goal is to reduce the backlog within a year, did we explore other options before we landed on the fee increase? And I add that specifically because the total police budget is $1.3 billion. Mayor, members of the council, Councillor Hernandez, I don't recall which slide it was on, but there is actually a combination of things that we are doing to address the issue.

The request for 10 new positions is new ongoing funding, which will be covered by the revenues created through the updated fee schedule provided that's approved today. The six additional positions are being added through reallocations of positions from elsewhere in the police department. So we are transferring positions from elsewhere in the department to add to the Public Records and Services Bureau. And then we are adding 19 new temporary employees or FTE to cover that backlog.

And those positions will be funded with the existing police budget. So we are doing a combination of exactly what you suggested between funding positions through the new revenues, transferring positions from elsewhere in the department, and using funds from one-time savings within the police department budget to fund the temporary positions to address the backlog. Okay, I appreciate that, Laura. I think I just still have an issue with just any...

because ultimately what this boils down to is that this is an increase in the police budget, right? Like we are having the department come to us to increase the fees that ultimately will generate $800,000 that goes on top of their already total budget of $1.3 billion. I just think that that's fiscally irresponsible of us to do if we have the pathways to do it.

I already gave one example where if we control our overtime, we had plenty of funds to do this exact same thing without increasing fees to the public, right? Like that's ultimately the baseline issue here. I mean, it's a little concerning because how this could be interpreted right to the public is that we're footing the bill of accountability to the public by increasing these fees.

Not to say that you might, I doubt that any of you would agree with that, but that could be the interpretation and the feelings in the public, right?

We are requesting things we are requesting these reports to ensure that our department is accountable that whatever situation happened to me that I can go get solutions advocate for myself do all the things We saying like hey now you have to pay these higher fees So if I just a resident that how I would take it is that the accountability is being footed on my back And so how do we address that concern with the public and with our community Mayor, members of the council, Councilman Hernandez, I think these are important questions.

I guess I'd offer another way to look at a couple things here. First of all, this is really trying to shift the burden from the non-commercial public, The public who's standing in line today behind people who are trying to use videos to monetize on YouTube is shifting the cost to those commercial users. So I think we'd all agree that if you're making money off of our public records, you should pay more for that than people you mentioned involved parties.

And so that's largely what this is trying to do is to level the playing field for the general public with the commercial users. So that's one thing. You mentioned overtime. I think it's important to note that the overtime is over the budget, but it's really compensating for the fact that we are continuing to be under-resourced in numbers of police officers. So once we are able to get our number of police officers at 3125, we should see our overtime be more in line.

So it's really, we're compensating for less officers available until we can hire that full number. And then the last thing I would just say is we really work hard in the budget and research department through the entire year to ensure that there aren't big pockets of money that are unallocated within all of our department budgets.

So we shouldn't have $800,000 underused in the police department or any other budget because the budget and research department is constantly working with the departmental staff to make sure that the resources are matching the work that the council's authorized to do. So I just wanted to offer that to kind of put some light to the questions you're asking as well. Yeah, and I think, you know, I appreciate it.

I think that is a point of contention and we're going to agree to disagree on the overtime and how that shapes out. You know, I still have, I'm going to continue to have my concerns and, you know, I did, I know in the presentation it was mentioned affordability, right? And based on this new structure that we as Phoenix still remain affordable on these public records. But when we're looking at affordability as a whole, we're talking about either on either side, right?

Commercial or non-commercial users. Everybody's being impacted by so many rising costs and so many things. I think in our CSE subcommittee this morning, I mentioned how gas is over $4.50 a gallon now. So there's a lot of increase in cost to our entire community across the board.

And so in light of that, I'm like, this is just, It's hard to see this and know my understanding of the police budget and be okay with increasing these fees when I know that there's more that we can look at within our police department budget and identify the funds needed to achieve the same goal that would keep us out of increasing fees to commercial and non-commercial, but especially the non-commercial because there's still increase of fees, right, to the non-commercial users.

Mayor, members of the council, Councilman Hernandez, the vast majority of fees for non-commercial users are actually going down. Most documents are available electronically and those documents would be available free of charge to non-commercial users.

The fee that is increasing is the video fee and that is to specifically recover the cost which is very high to redact those body worn camera videos but again, A non-commercial user can receive the medium blur video to be able to identify if there's a portion of that video that they want to have redacted with standard redactions. They would only pay if they request those standard redactions. Thank you. I appreciate that and thank you for answering all my questions.

I still, you know, fundamentally believe that there is a way to identify the funds in the current 1.3 billion dollar total police budget to achieve the same goals. And I think that's just my interpretation of the knowledge that I have on the budget. And because budget and research is so great at what they do and been able to help me and my team understand the budget, there's still a fundamental issue there for me and concern. But thank you for answering my questions. Thank you, Mayor.

Councilman Robinson. Thank you, Mayor. Court and Amy, you guys did an excellent presentation. I know how much work goes into all of this, and I know Court, you and your folks have been meeting with folks from different companies. I know some that I've referred to you who all are working on this backlog issue, because we're not going to be able to do that. not the only ones dealing with it from a law enforcement standpoint.

Every law enforcement agency across the United States is dealing with this. With the advent of technology and body-worn cameras, it's taken a lot. So with regard to that, thank you for all the hard work that you're doing. You're spot on on so many of those things, moving in the right direction. I had a couple comments to make more than anything else, and then, Mr. Zerker, you answered two of them, or you asked and answered, and that was the issue about overtime.

you know, be it controlled or uncontrolled, when you're short about 500 police officers, you're going to have overtime. And as Ed mentioned, when we fill that gap, and Commander Brewer and his folks are in the back of the room, they are working toward doing that, hiring at a pretty good pace, hiring qualified people to be police officers, because there's a lot who want to be police officers. So they're doing a great job in that respect. So we're moving in that direction.

There was also the issue of commercial versus non-commercial and Ed, you hit both of those things. But a couple of other things were mentioned that I think deserves a little bit further explanation or at least something said on my part. We talk about what a victim is. If we look in the Arizona Revised Statute, it's 1344.01. It explains who a victim is.

So I think that might be a starting point for us rather than an interpretation of somebody who believes that because they are in an encounter with a police officer, they are a victim of police violence. That's not always the case. Some people may look at that and as was said, I will respectfully disagree with some people's interpretation of it. But, Arizona Revised Statute, which is the state law, explains what a victim is.

So I think that would be a wonderful place for us to review and to have a knowledge of and helps us move forward there. The last point I'll make, and I kind of hit on it a little bit, victims of police violence. Police work is tough. You know, there's a lot of different things police officers are exposed to. I take exception to, and I understand where people are coming from when they say that, but I take exception to it always being used that people are victims of police violence.

And we have police officers who work very hard and put their life on the line each and every day on, you know, probably most calls that they respond to. And, you know, sometimes, you know, things happen. It is unfortunate. It is truly unfortunate in some cases, but I don't want everyone to think, simply because some people will say police violence, that the police are out there committing violence, doing things that they shouldn't be doing. Now, I'm not saying that hasn't happened.

Clearly, it has. Clearly, it is being dealt with and has been dealt with. But I want us, when it comes to victims, to please understand what a victim is. And again, it's outlined in Arizona Revised Statute, if you're taking notes, 134401. Madam Mayor, thank you very much for the time. Again, Court, Amy did an excellent job on this presentation. Thank you very much. Thank you. We'll go to Councilwoman Gordato and then I'll turn to the Vice Mayor for a motion. Thank you, Mayor.

I just had just some clarifying questions. Thank you so much for the presentation. I know that as a city, it's always hard. I think we're known to be the city that never increases fees, right? And I see that numbers from other cities and the numbers that we have. We're always, you know, one of the most comparable cities, I think. And there are some places where it's great and other places where it doesn't work. But I just have some questions as we move forward with these fees.

If you guys can answer this, that would be great. I guess the question that still comes to mind for me is, what specific benchmarks for response times does the police department intend to set once the additional FTEs are onboarded? What are we thinking about that? Excuse me. Mayor members of the council, Councilwoman Criotto, that's a good question.

We're currently evaluating that now and I guess the simple answer to the question is we want to ensure that when we receive a request we can immediately work on it and pending any evidentiary or investigative value that will prevent us from immediately releasing it, we want to be able to release it even in a matter of days for all records types. That is the ultimate goal.

So as we work on completing this backlog over this next year we will be setting in realistic attainable goals and then holding to that and then setting in place processes to both measure and hold our folks all of us accountable to ensure that we are quickly turning around those requests and delivering them to the customer so that we are not incurring a backlog Great. And then, I know you talked a little bit about separating commercial from non-commercial.

I mean, I would add another layer on top of that. You know, I mean, especially with our officer-involved shootings, you know, when families are needing, are wanting, right, and deserve that information as soon as possible. Is there a way where we can say these are the requests that will be expedited no matter what else is happening, especially with folks that are making money off us, right?

Like how is it that we de-prioritize commercial to making sure that we let families know what's happening with their loved ones that have suffered. You know, I just think it's very difficult. For me, it's really hard when I hear family that they're still probably still even still waiting today for some of this information. And I just hope, you know, that we can create an expedited lane for these type of incidents.

I just think out of respect for the families, no matter whose fault it was, I just think families deserve answers. And I know that we're working really hard to try and get there, but I would just recommend that we, as we're increasing these fees, that we definitely expedite that.

And then being able to give people, I know that we've gotten better about giving folks timelines, but how is it that we can shrink those timelines and being able to give out the information to folks that they're requesting, you know, as soon as possible. Mayor of members of the council, Councilwoman Gradado, all very good questions. To your first question about families that are impacted or involved in a critical incident, be it the victims, their families, their representatives.

We're partnering, we partner with the OEC currently, the Office of Accountability and Transparency, and also with the Family Advocates in Human Services under the Critical Incident Protocol, which I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, is a 10 calendar day protocol that we release all records related to that incident to the family through the Family Advocates. So that's a current policy that has been in place for roughly four or five years, and that's something that we continue to prioritize.

And we have a specialized team that's dedicated solely when there's a critical incident or a deemed critical incident. We make that our number one priority to turn that around in a matter of days, not business days, but calendar days. Can I ask you to repeat the second part of your question? Oh, I'm sorry, for expediting and providing more awareness. Part of the new platform they're developing, it provides status updates to customers.

So when they make the request, it'll tell them what the current status is, whether it's still being worked or whether it's held. So we're increasing communications, communication in that way. But again, our main objective here is to retire the complete backlog so that we are responsive in a matter of days. And then lastly, each of the request type, each request type is a little different.

So for one type of request, like traffic crash reports, it might be a matter of days, but then there are others that we acknowledge take a little more time because of investigations or because of the amount of records involved in that request. So I hope that answers the questions in terms of what we're doing to communicate more effectively with our customers and have an overall plan for expediting requests for requesters. I appreciate that. Thank you for that.

I guess the only other last thing that I would request is that as you guys are working through your backlog, you know, for us, you know, it could be either in a briefing or what have you, just letting us know how that backlog is going and how we're getting through it and what other support you might need from us to be able to get through that backlog. I think that's important. Like for me, you know, every time we do an increase, it's never easy, but I know that it's necessary.

And so I think it's also important for us to be able to respond to the public and be able to respond to folks on how is it that we're doing, one, when it comes to response times, two, how far are we on the backlog, you know, and how are we moving that forward?

And then lastly once the backlog once we done with the backlog you know what are the new timelines and how is it that we going to respond better and faster to folks as we continue to move forward But again thank you guys all for all of your hard work I know these are not easy conversations and easy things to do but are necessary So thank you everyone for everything you guys do Thank you Mayor Thank you, Councilwoman.

We'll go to the vice mayor for comments and emotion and then Councilwoman Pastor and then Councilwoman O'Brien. Thank you, Mayor. I actually had a question before I make the motion. I just want to make sure I clarify on this. One of the stats that stood out to me was on slide 13 was the current backlog status for body worn cameras being 1.7 to 2.4 years. And then when you pair that with slide 17, it says 40% of the existing backlog are commercial requests.

If I had to interpret that, that would say 60% of the backlog are non-commercial or general public requests, correct? Mayor, members of the council, Vice Mayor Washington, correct? I would love to hear specifically what are we trying to do because I find, I know we're here to talk about the fee, but I find that backlog to be the most troubling of the group, to think that someone has to wait almost two and a half years to get a copy of the body-worn camera footage.

I would love to hear specifically what we plan to do because I don't see a slide that explains our projected timeframes for these. I just want to hear a little bit more on this one. Yes. Mayor members of the council, Councilman Hodge, Washington, great question. The chart on slide 13 that gives our request time, those are averages and it encompasses whether you're commercial or non-commercial. It is just a general average.

But I'll refer back to something that we mentioned in the presentation, and that is that we are prioritizing non-commercial requests ahead of all commercial requests. So I would like to say, I don't have the information to present, but I'd like to say that for non-commercial requesters, we are getting to your requests quicker. But as part of this process and part of this project to retire the backlog, we are currently in the process of hiring 19 additional staff now.

and with approval, that is a total of 35 additional positions that will be focused solely on the backlog so we can get those wait times down within one year. So did I hear you correctly that the intent or the goal is with this additional staffing that this would be reduced from 1.7 to 2.4 years down to a hope of within one year? Mayor, members of the council, Councilwoman, Vice Mayor Hodge Washington, no. Our intent is that the average wait time is a matter of days. Okay.

That's very helpful to hear because, like I said, I find that to be a little troubling. My next question is, I guess slide 22 is probably the best way to look at this. With respect to the video under the proposed, it says the primary is free. How long does it take to get the primary action done and out to a resident or a requester?

Mayor, members of the council, Vice Mayor Hodge Washington, now admittedly we have that backlog and so we're addressing, we're working on video requests specifically, I think the staff that we talked about are working as quickly as possible to work through the existing backlog, so we can get to a point where, for at least the primary, that initial request, we can turn that around. We can very quickly take it. It's about 75% faster to do the primary request and get those out of the door.

So that is a tool that we're leveraging and we're finding success with the customers that we're serving, providing that to them quickly for their review so that if they in turn have additional needs, they can come back and we can address them. I just want to make clear that that primary medium blur reduction change that we initiated a year ago is showing success. And our goal is to be able to provide that within a matter of days.

Once we get caught up with the backlog, the expectations with a matter of days when we receive the request, we can quickly turn that video around and engage in the customer on any additional needs they have. So I guess maybe it could be just kind of forthright with my question. I'm trying to get us some clear parameters so we can determine expectations for our residents. Is it going to be – because I think your last comments would throw me off.

And that comment said we hope to have it within days after rectifying the backlog or something similar to that And my question is the primary for example someone wants a primary video How long can the average Phoenix resident not for commercial use a general non user how long can they expect to receive one of these primary videos with the medium blur Mayor, members of the council, Vice Mayor Hodge Washington, our current wait time is years for customers.

The parameters that we are aiming to set when we get caught up with backlog is to, again, turn that around in a matter of days. Right now, if you were to submit a public records request, it can take us up to a year and a half, two years to provide that primary record.

But with the addition of the staff that we're bringing in, our objective is to quickly get caught up with the current backlog that's there so that the customers who are submitting requests in real time can get those initial requests or initial primary records within a matter of days. I hope that provides clarity. No? Not necessarily. So let me ask it this way.

If we're funding these additional staffing through increased fees, how will we measure whether or not these new positions are actually improving access for residents? Mayor and members of the council, Vice Mayor Hodge Washington, the number of requests go down. That's how we're measuring it. The number of requests? Yes, the backlog requests.

I'm sorry, not submitting requests, but the backlog requests, because right now the number of public records requests for video on, I believe, slide 16, we've got about 8,000, excuse me, we've got about 12,000 public records requests for video. And so part of the project, and my answer is geared towards, we're trying to work through the existing backlog now so that there is none, so that when a request is submitted, we can get that turned around. Mayor. Go ahead. Let me say this one more way.

If we were to approve the fees that has been requested, this fee schedule proposed changes, You were able to get the additional positions that have been requested. At what juncture do you expect that we will be caught up on this backlog in order to have a more shorter timeframe for responding to these outstanding, not just outstanding, all public records requests from police department? Mayor, members of the council, Vice Mayor Hodge Washington, one year. Thank you for that.

Vice Mayor, if I may add to your question and also to Councilwoman Guardado's question, the way that we can keep the council informed and the public informed of our progress on this initiative is the Public Records and Services Bureau does produce a report that identifies where we are at as far as the number of backlogged requests, the number of current requests coming in and the types of those requests, in addition to the turnaround times on each of those types of requests.

There are nuances within each type of request. It will depend on if it's a non-commercial versus commercial request. It'll depend on if it's an involved party or an uninvolved party, but there are at least ranges of average turnaround times for each of those requests. We can provide that to the council and to the public in a gen-infill packet on a regular basis so that you and the members of the public can track the progress that we're making on this initiative, if that would be helpful.

Thank you so much for that. That is helpful. And I want to just make sure clarification. So within one year of the positions being filled or one year from approving this additional fee structure?

Mayor and members of the council, Vice Mayor Hodge Washington, within one year of them being hired, so our plan with approval of the council is to have all 35 positions filled by the beginning of 2027 in January, have them all trained specifically in body-worn cameras, Just a couple minutes before the event I will as we'll introduce it to P-1-per-a-point line in four and then I will extend it. I would like to say the court of staff to attend the program.

And I will be aware that if it's not on the court of the UR line, then I would continue going forward the meeting, with no part of your district or other, then I will talk to the T-1. It's kind of on. I just think an S-1-en-Pastor because when we have a plan for in-waring the school, I think it's important to think about that. Thank you. We'll go to Councilwoman Pestor and then Councilwoman O'Brien. Councilwoman Pestor- Thank you. Thank you, Mayor.

I I have a question and I'm looking at slide 12 and I'm looking at the backlog totals of where we started, where we really peaked, how we started and then it peaked again. I want to thank the mayor for finding or charging for a solution for this because I recall sitting in 2020-2021 when community was coming and discussing about the backlog and wanting public records. And they continued year after year. So I want to thank the mayor for getting to this point.

It states, though, why the backlog increased on 16 was because commercial requests, and it's up 24% in 2025. Yet in 2022, at that time, we didn't have, or I'm assuming that we didn't have commercial requests. And so I'm trying to figure out that at this point, we decided because of the commercial requests, we were going to then handle the backlog issue. And it troubles me because I've always wanted the backlog issue or the backlogs to be handled due to community requests.

And the community requested a lot throughout the years for this. And I'm troubled at the fact that we're saying, well, we're going to increase and we're going to have this fee because we have a high demand on commercial requests. And I just want to get clarity on this. We're doing this because we want to get rid of the backlog. And we now see an increase in the commercial's request, but in all reality we want to get rid of the backlog.

And the way we're going to get rid of the backlog is through hiring or putting more staff onto the backlog piece because we need, there's more demand and we need people. I think that's really what we're getting to in the sense of this is the need. We have a need. This is how we're going to solve the need. And we are hoping to get rid of the backlog in a timely manner. Most importantly, I think what the council would like to see and what community would like to see is a timeline.

And I know we've been going back and forth and back and forth, but I think it behooves us to create a timeline and buffer, because we're always going to have pieces where it doesn't go as planned, but at least a general sense of how community will be able to get the information that they need in order to move forward in whatever they need the information for.

So I want to thank you for doing this because I know this is a tedious piece and going through records and looking at details and coming up with a solution. So I commend you for taking this on and getting us to where we are today. Thank you again. Thank you. Thanks for your words. Councilman O'Brien. Thank you so much, Mayor. Thank you for this presentation and for the work that you've put in to get us here. I want to ask a couple of questions related to the data.

You've shown in the presentation how many requests we've gotten. In the future, I would love for those requests to be broken down by commercial versus non-commercial to start with. I appreciate that the backlog is broken down that way, but it would also be helpful to see it in that beginning request, what it is. Generally speaking, are commercial requests more or less time consuming, or is it just kind of depends? Mayor, members of the council, Councilman O'Brien, thank you for the question.

It depends. The largest issue that we're seeing with commercial requesters The volume of requests overall.

So for instance, with traffic crash reports, we have commercial requesters that in a single day will request 100 I just throwing a number out there but many much more than your average citizen or customer non requesters just asking for their traffic crash report We seeing requesters that will submit dozens in one single day So from a volume perspective they requesting more And then similar to the example that we showed on the slide about the video requests, They were getting commercial customers that are asking for all records, so they're asking for videos, they're asking for the NC over there.

It just runs a gamut, so the complexity of even those requests is outsized than the average request that we receive. Okay, I appreciate that. Another data point when you start providing us how we're catching up on this backlog, I think that will be important additionally, is staffing. I know the hope is to be fully staffed by the end of January and to be fully trained.

In a perfect world, we'd always have all of our positions filled, so I think it'll be important to know where we're at in staffing as we go through this process, so if we backslide or jump ahead, we can understand that aspect of it as well. And then I appreciate that you've been asked a lot of questions about different types of situations. And I think what's really important to remember is that every request is not exactly the same.

So it's not easy to say, yep, we can handle this in two days or it's always going to be 10 days. So I appreciate you looking at it on each individual case and being able to be nuanced in how we get that and providing it to our public, our non-commercial requesters, as free as possible. So I appreciate you doing that. I want to reiterate, I think, what some of my other colleagues said.

It's very important to me that the commercial requests are at the bottom of the list, that we are prioritizing our non-commercial stuff, even in the backlog. So there's a lot, as one of them pointed out, 60% of our backlog is non-commercial. So I know we've talked about that before, but I just want to make sure I put it on the record. And I also want to touch on the overtime a little bit.

It is important that our citizens feel safe in their city, and we are short 500 to 600 officers, so ensuring that we are able to fill that time, those spaces, those people with overtime is imperative. And so I'm very appreciative of all of our officers and work they do. And thank you all to the administration who is answering these requests and supporting our officers every day. Thank you for your presentation today. Thank you so much. Ma'am, roll a call. Guadalupe? Yes. Hernandez? Yes. Oh, no.

Sorry. O'Brien? Yes. Pastor? Yes. Robinson? Yes. Thank you. Stark? Yes. Waring? Yes. Hodge Washington? Yes. Vallejo? Yes. Passes 8-1. I'll now turn to our city attorney to explain our final portion of the meeting. Thank you, Mayor. During citizen comment, members of the public may speak to the city council for up to three minutes on issues of interest or concern. However, the matters addressed must be within the jurisdiction of the Phoenix City Council and the City Council.

and on which the council has the authority to act. The citizen comment session is limited to 30 minutes. The Arizona Open Meeting Law allows the city council to listen to comments, but prohibits council members from discussing or acting on the issues presented. However, council members may . Thank you, Mayor. Thank you so much. We'll begin with Shannon Brown, followed by Chris Miller. Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and City Council. My name is Shannon Brown.

I'm a member of the Ahwatukee Community Alliance. I live about one mile from the data center project at 48th Street and Thistle Landing. I wanted to share some notes with you from an interview with Trevor Nielsen. He's the president at Prometheus Hyperscale. It's a company that builds AI data centers across America.

Nielsen said the following about data centers of this scale Hyperscale data centers are very large industrial projects They are very large energy projects ACA own meetings with SRP revealed that the Thistle landing project will draw as much energy as 257 Walmart super centers They are one megawatt and this project will use 257 megawatt And this is in a 40 acre area right surrounded by residential homes They create pollution They should not be near neighborhoods No neighborhood should be within miles of these projects This is an admission from a person who builds these things.

They should not be in rural areas. They should not be near schools. Tudor time, a preschool, is within a stone's throw away from this build site. They're going to produce pollution, and that pollution needs to be managed. Old data centers Consume massive amounts of water for evaporative cooling. New data centers are using closed-loop liquid cooling using less water, but the water gets released periodically to prevent buildup in pipes and it contains heavy metals and forever chemicals.

So I want to know how that's going to be mitigated. The industry has done a very poor job explaining itself. This is from a person who builds these. This has created distrust. The industry needs to answer the concerns and not act as if those concerns do not matter. Municipals, cities, are focused on impacts of property taxes and job creation.

The Thistle project is already dimensioning property values of homes in the area, which is a benefit to large developers that have plans to change the 48th Street corridor. Trevor Nielsen, the developer, has a little boy and he does not want one of these near his school. During an ACA meeting in August with Councilman Robinson and Joshua Bednarik, Councilman Robinson even admitted he would not want Menlo's Data Center across from his home.

The national security China concerns are not compelling to people that Nielsen meets with that are near these projects. You have to go through the proper permitting process. The democratic process needs to be followed. In the case of the thistle landing project, permit by inspection circumvents this process. Permit by inspection is going on. There's a lot of secrecy around these projects.

An example given by Nielsen is that government officials signing Nielsen feels that this is outrageous and should never occur. If you are not being open about what you're doing, you are not a good neighbor. The backroom deals are creating mistrust and it feels wrong. Like when Menlo's attorney, Snell and Wilmer submitted a stipulation modification in December of 2023 to- Thank you. Chris Miller, Good afternoon, Mayor, Council.

My name is Chris Miller and I'm here on public comment because automated license plate readers must be abolished. The City of Phoenix has avoided much of the backlash in recent months as they don't use flock safety, but the City Council was still tricked into signing contracts with organizations like Vigilant and Motorola Solutions. For thousands of years, people have debated how much authority the state should have over its citizens.

ALPR companies say communities should not have to choose between safety and privacy. That slogan only works that the cameras deliver the safety they sell while not infringing on the liberties we are told we are to uphold. In business school, the case study is your best friend. And the city of Atlanta is one of the best case studies as Atlanta was an early adopter and has a large local concentration of this technology.

Data from 21 to 25 while cameras grew exponentially to a homicide clearance, meaning solving the crime, fell from 53.4 to 48 percent. Robbery decreased by 0.1%, Motor Vehicle Theft rose only 0.3%, Assault only rose 0.2%. These are clearly not the crime deterrence or crime-solving systems they are promised to be. Nationally, these systems often make two main claims, with the first relating to missing persons and the second relating to stolen vehicles.

While delving into the data from the missing persons system, it shows no significant difference in overall missing persons. Also, data on missing persons time to recovery scores seem to have not drastically changed. On auto theft, these organizations often count at 11%, sometimes even greater drop in motor vehicle thefts after cameras went live. These numbers fail to realize that motor vehicle theft has been decreasing from their COVID highs.

And we have a new administration that targeted crime at higher levels with various executive orders. Proponents say there is no privacy in public. A single officer seeing a plate on the street is not the issue. A network system that logs everywhere a person goes is persistent tracking.

I am no legal scholar, but I would suspect if I followed a stranger for weeks on end and recorded every stop to understand that individual's personal life, I would have a harassment charge and restraining order on me. The phone as a tracker analogy fails as well. The Supreme Court already held that the government requires a warrant for a historical cell site location.

Also, if anyone on this city council or on the police force ever say, what's the matter with these since there are already cameras in public, those individuals should be forced to reread 1984 and take a class on the rise of the surveillance state in places like China.

My ask of you is to have the courage to say no to these organizations that present flawed data and false promises A city or police force that says they need these plate readers to do their job is like a doctor that says they need AI to read medical forms or a teacher that says they need AI to teach their classes To the outside observer it makes it seem like you don have the skills or knowledge to do your job I am pleading with each of you to understand the role of the state the rise of the surveillance state and not to go not to forgo liberty for a false sense of security Thank you Thank you so much.

We'll next go to Jenny Pelner followed by Kathryn Monk followed by Bill Monk. Jenny Pelner, I'm Jenny Pelner. I also live about a quarter mile from the data center that's being built. Since 1996, the regulatory path for data center cooling has shifted drastically.

Historically treated as by right general industrial uses requiring standard commercial building permits, data centers are now subject to rigorous special use permits, conditional use permits, water use agreements and air quality permits that directly look at the cooling architecture. In fact, modern code overhauls across the Phoenix area often favor or mandate closed loop liquid systems over traditional high consumption evaporative systems to protect the desert water supply.

From 96 to 24, the state of Arizona has never had a uniform statewide zoning or specialized permitting framework for data center technology or its internal mechanics. Cooling loops fell under standard state building and mechanical codes. Modern interventions, while there is still no statewide zoning, the Arizona Department of Water Resources closely monitors and regulates active management areas.

As of mid-26, emergency groundwater limits have been enacted for industrial users in the Phoenix area. If a closed loop system requires chemicals, standard environmental discharge or chemical storage compliance rules from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality apply. Zoning overhaul by Maricopa County December 25. For decades, data centers defaulted to standard industrial zoning metrics.

However, Maricopa County modernized its zoning ordinance introducing explicit data center definitions. Data centers and unincorporated areas are restricted to specific industrial zones or often require special use permits permitting triggers. While the cold loop itself doesn't require a dedicated county license, the county strictly reviews a project's full footprint.

If the cooling architecture depends on secondary dry cooler fans or associated backup diesel generators to maintain the loop during power outages, it triggers Maricopa County Air Quality Department general permits for stationary internal combustion engines. July 25, the City of Phoenix adopted Ordinance G7396, which officially eliminated the by-right approach for data centers. Siting of facility now triggers a comprehensive special permit process governed by the Phoenix PDD.

The cooling strategy impact Phoenix requires dedicated water, sewer, and power line studies at the time of application. While a closed-loop system is highly favorable because it minimizes municipal water drawdown, Any cooling infrastructure must meet strict city noise mitigation standards and aesthetic common camouflage requirements. Under city ordinances, Phoenix requires a special use permit, strict zoning reviews for new data centers.

The City of Phoenix PDD evaluates infrastructure burdens on a case-by-case basis, directly looking at grid reliability and utility impact. It is time that the city discusses matter with its citizens, since Menlo's response now states a closed-loop system and not a forced air system that their attorney stated. Thank you. Thank you. Catherine is next, followed by Bill, followed by James. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

My name is Cathy Monk and I live half a mile from the East Thistle data center construction site in Ahwatukee. City Council, we have serious concerns. Maricopa County has adopted an hours of construction ordinance named P-22, which regulates the hours of construction and related activities. This ordinance is designed to ensure that construction activity doesn't harm the enjoyment and use of nearby property.

Neighbors have documented via video recordings and photos that construction has been starting as early as 3 a.m. The City of Phoenix has the interviews, the videos, and the photos. Please take the time to review them because you have had them for months. From April 15th to October 15th, construction work cannot begin prior to 5 a.m. and must end by 7 p.m. Section 104 concerns stop orders.

Whenever work on a construction project is in violation of the provisions of ordinance P-22, The construction can be stopped by a notice in writing. This should be done. This needs to be done. Section 105 states that permits may be revoked upon determination of Ordinance P-22. Multiple complaints to the City of Phoenix have been ignored. Emails have not been answered. Phone calls have not been returned. A neighbor was told that the City was too busy to take complaints.

Another neighbor was told that construction complaints would not be taken regarding the East Thistle data center. That is unacceptable. In addition, decibel levels of construction noise have exceeded 93 decibels. We are monitoring construction hours and decibel levels all the time. Please follow up on our concerns and contact the Ahwatukee Community Alliance with your findings. Our enjoyment and use of our property has been taken away from me, my husband, my family, and my neighbors.

Thank you for your time. Thank you. Bill is next, followed by James. Aloha, Mayor Kate Gallego and to the rest of the city council. It's nice. It's been a minute since we've seen each other. But I have a huge concern about the heat. This should be common sense to people. But it's not. And shade is not going to combat the heat. And we need like sprinklers or something else while we are walking on the sidewalks to businesses. C, I knew we should have never elected the chief police officer.

To Phoenix, there's been too many incidents since he's been in office. That's crazy. But I do support my police force. We need it. We don't need to defund it, but you guys should do your jobs and keep us safe. And we need to make sure your police cars are new and updated with technology. Embody cameras should not take that long to request the camera footage. Tempe can get it in days, not years. But we should have block cameras and license plate readers. I want to be safe.

And I might be the only Democrat talking about how safe it is for us. Dress. Just don't be a perv, please. Officers in Phoenix, congratulations to Pierce Park. That opened a few weekends ago. I was going, but it was too hot. But let's get into the parks, girl. When I play tennis on these courts, I'm looking around, we need to make sure these bathrooms are clean. And they're soaping so I can wash my hands. We need to renovate these parks that I'm going to talk about.

And maybe we should have one tennis park for indoor tennis courts to combat this heat. Encanto Park District 4, Laura Pasteur, GR Herbert Park District 6, Kevin Robinson. And also please put something attractive not ugly at 10 831 South 51st Fenix AZ 85044. Road Runner Park is located in District 3. Debra Stark, I have a concern about this park. We need to move the tennis courts another way or put more tennis courts 2 in District 3, but someone hit a ball over the fence.

These tennis cards are literally facing the street and every ball that goes over that fence, it could hit a car while driving. So that's my concern and please do not make these ghetto parks. I care about my homeless people, but some have mental health issues and they will lash out on you for no reason. So we need to make sure please we are taking care of our streets in Phoenix.

Keep downtown clean, safe, because I know there's Democrats like me that like things clean in our cities and we don't like ugly things. And, you know, there are some Democrats that don't like it. Mahalo and thank you so much. Thank you. And we actually did not go in the order I had intended, so I may actually ask the vice mayor to call the name so that she can help me with that. I meant to have next Bill Monk followed by James Pelner and then Noah James Markham.

So Bill, thank you for your patience. Bill Monk, City Council, Speaking today about the East Data Center and District 6, I'm very concerned that the city use administrative maneuvers instead of a PUD review to allow such a heavy industrial data center to be built in a residential neighborhood.

I also concerned that NDAs are obviously signed by leaders which mask what really going on here Proper was never to be utilized for heavy industrial business A recent meeting in SRP confirmed this is a heavy industrial project 257 megawatts of power does not belong in a neighborhood A putter review would have at least been the more correct and transparent way for this project to be considered We the citizens of Ahwatukee should have had a voice in our future City bureaucratics unfortunately took our voices away Eventually governments need to learn how to work with businesses for the best interest of their citizens, not what the business expects you to do for them.

Menlo and the city have not been good neighbors from the start. Menlo's attorney and a village planning committee indicated that they were going to use a forced air project in order to cool the servers. We received a brochure last Sunday night in a meeting that was submitted by Menlo to our city Council member, Mr. Robertson, and in it it says, oh, they're going to use a cool loop liquid system. Those systems require humongous amounts of large water storage.

Condenser water tanks, buffer tanks, and many other tanks to hold at least 12 million gallons of water at a time. They also hold many chemicals, a lot of them forever, biosates, corrosive emitters, scale emitters, as well as very large amounts of wastewater. Brings up many things that could be underground we don't know because none of these buildings that have to secure this are even showing on anything that we've been told or even been seen.

We don't know if this is a mistake or not, but this was presented to us as from MENLO. If this is true, The City of Phoenix and this site are not ready to process this type of wastewater by any means. All the EPA rules have to check in. You can need a variable sites and everything else. It's time for everybody involved to take some action and take a look at this. Couple of other things.

Just found out that during the permit review, they're now asking for three additional feet to be added to the height of the building. That's a total of eight feet above the max and three more feet above what you guys have already stipulated they can go to. It's in review. How can we continue to justify this? Seems like the tail's wagging the dog in this project. Permits keep changing. The fees on these permits keep changing. So he's making more money. But you cannot allow permit by inspection.

That is not how you're supposed to be doing business. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is James Pelner. James Pelner Thank you everyone. My name is James Pelner. I am a district 6 resident right across the street from the data center. In 1996, the property located at 4801-4811 East Thistle Landing Drive in Phoenix was governed under a localized zoning case designated as Z1096-6.

This application established its underlying zoning as Commerce Park with the General Commerce Park option, structured under Section 626 of the Phoenix Zoning Ordinance. The Commerce Park District with General Commerce Park option was specifically designed to blend light industrial corporate office and ancillary commercial activities.

Primary uses allow professional corporate offices, regional administrative clerical centers, research and development laboratories, medical and dental facilities, wholesaling, and light manufacturing assembly operations provided they are—they occurred within fully enclosed buildings.

Supportive and retail services are permitted, which includes standard office park services, including commercial schools, daycares, pharmacies, and employee dining facilities, with strict rules against external building signs, or direct exterior access to protect the corporate campus aesthetic.

Prohibited uses of this space strictly banned our heavy industrial processing, raw food compounding, open air outside storage materials, large scale standalone commercial retail developments, and dead vehicle or freight trucking depots. Developments in this district were required to follow specific performance and design criteria. All operations, excluding parking structures, loading zones, and temporary construction storage, had to be entirely self-contained within closed structures.

Noise, order, and vibrational outputs could not exceed standard ambient baseline levels when measured at the property line boundary. Parking fields visible from any public street required a three-foot visual screening barrier, landscape hedge, wall, or berm.

The original 1996 stipulations heavily restricted the site to standard corporate office use leading to the development of the multi office park However significant modern zoning modifications altered the trajectory of this parcel In early 2024 the developer Menlo Equity sought a formal modification of stipulations through the Phoenix Planning Hearing Officer The Ahatukee Foothills Village Planning Committee and the Phoenix City Council ratified changes to allow the conversion of the low office buildings into a massive 1 million square foot high data center campus The approved modifications cleared the way for a five technology to A dedicated two-acre community park and an on-site electric power substation.

Under section 626 of the Phoenix Zoning Ordinance for the Commerce Park District with a GCP option, the following space requirements were enforced in 1996. Building cannot be any higher than four stories or 56 feet, whichever is less. Front yard setback, a minimum of 25 feet from the public street property line. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speakers are Richard Veneck and Elisa Greer-Arado. Hi, I'm here to talk to you about cash for cots.

Okay, everyone's sitting there talking about But it doesn't exist. You want to sit down with me for an hour? I can give you details of what's going on over at Justice Center with Rudy, the guy that's running it. He stole my phone. I have a police report of it. I was homeless for seven months out in front of that place. Cass refused me twice on intake. You guys are talking about homelessness? You're talking about crime? What do you guys want me to do? You want me to be a drug addict?

I'm asking literally what do you guys want? You want me to become a thug? I'm a Christian, alright? I was the first person in the United States to go see Donald Trump when he came here in 2016. What he was saying about, uh, I'm so angry about this stuff right here. Basically he said on September 30th last year he said we are being invaded from within. Who's he talking about? Well if you go to Galatians 5.1, okay?

I don't have it on here unfortunately, but basically what it is, you're talking about Galatians 2.4. False brother, the unaware came in privately who came in to steal our liberty which we have in Jesus Christ. Okay, now who's that? Well, if you go and look at Ephesians 2.20, and they built upon the foundation, apostles, the prophets, Jesus Christ themselves being. Now if you go and look at it, the cornerstone, the builders, who's that? The masons.

You go to Acts 6.9, the story of Stephen, it literally goes and says, The Masons. Now I have two Masons, Jeff Hock over at Traffic Designs and also at Dealey. Both of them work for an internet reputation repair company. Now if you go on one of their websites, I'm a dangerous individual, serious situations, apply, proceed with caution. I've never once gotten in a fight. I do know how to fight real well. Took five years with Taekwondo from McNewton over on 32nd and McDowell.

He's my old teacher from in Chicago. Now what I'm trying to get across to you people is I'm just still homeless because of your guys' system. I'm watching you guys up here sitting here talk this way, talk that way. Come with me, any one of you, and I will show you the people that are causing homelessness over there. There's a Cash for Cots program going on. I can't get help. I was told literally that they don't have any program for me.

A 34-year marriage was dissolved because of Mike Faith of the Peoria the cop shop. He's on the Brady list. He's a liar. He should not have a badge. Let him face me man-to-man, face-to-face. Now, when Vance was here in Peoria, I went up there in one of my outfits because I was starting a YouTube channel. The fact of the matter is, all right, 15 cops were there and I was like, you get this man over here facing me! Because he ruined my life. Okay?

Sorry for the attitude, man, but attitudes are formed, not given. I'll be back with more on this, alright? Trust me. Thank you. Our next speaker is Elisa Greer-Garrado. I'm going home now, to the streets somewhere, because I can't get a house with a wrong cover on the lights. I know what I'm talking about, forensics. or by professionals that are psychologists. And then after that will be Craig Weaver. Thank you.

Staff and Mayor, I just wanted to tell you again, thank you for the bathrooms over there at SOS and showers, but if you could help me out with getting cleaning supplies for those of us who are in the ex Can you come to the mic please for this to go inside Is it possible to reset her time and let her start over so I could make sure we can hear her Okay. Thank you. Start over? Yes, please. Okay. I wanted to tell you, thank you for the 88 backrooms that you guys have put in.

Those are greatly appreciated. But if I could ask you to please help with the situation of getting cleaning supplies for the people who have the X-means that you guys call X-means because water doesn't disinfect anything. I mean only water. And also ADA ramps to go into the X-means so that this doesn't have to sit outside all night. And that's it. Thank you so much. And then our final speaker will be Craig Weaver. Craig Weaver. Craig Weaver. Hello.

It's nice to see some of you who were at the recent Synergy conference. My name is Craig Weaver and I'm here today like I was 10 years ago this month when Phoenix avoided a huge mistake and the city council voted 9-0 in favor of light emitting diode street lights rated at 2700 Kelvin, much like these up here. In 2016, a group of Phoenicians educated the city council and staff as to why specifying 2700 Kelvin LED was needed, and that decision still remains the best choice today.

This choice avoided the horrible blue-white LED that the American Medical Association 10-year study showed then, that LED above 3000 Kelvin mimics daylight all night long and are bad for our health. Currently in my neighborhood we have bad 5000 Kelvin blue white LED popping up everywhere, and I would bet that you have got some in your neighborhood as well.

However, today the city environmental program department deserves a recognition in educating Phoenicians regarding smart LED lighting and the beauty of our night sky. Also, the Planning and Development Department deserves a thank you for using a simple recommendation on the proposed 6,500 acre development, which resulted in a commitment from the company to 2700 Kelvin LED for all of the community's outdoor lighting fixtures.

Recently, I found 24 cities and towns in Arizona that have already updated their lighting code to include LED. Planning and Development Outdoor Lighting's recommendation is sensible, timely, and it should continue on all other developments. But this also demonstrates that now is when LED should be addressed by updating the city's lighting code, which should be done as soon as possible.

I'm hoping that our community, our communities will be as nice as the new community and will be a key part as Phoenix continues the path to being a great city. I'd be glad to answer any questions. Please contact me on the address on the handout. Thank you for your time. Have a good evening. Thank you. Thank you for this important update, Vice Mayor. Thank you.

We did not have time for everyone who had signed up for public comment, so if you did not get your slot today, we will take you at the beginning of public comment at the next formal meeting of the Phoenix City Council. We are adjourned. Thank you.