Prescott Council Unanimously Approves Rodeo Fairgrounds Master Plan with Lease Contingency and 20-Year Sunset, Ending 25-Year Planning Stalemate

Good afternoon. Today is October 13, 2026 and this is the city of Prescuit City Council voting meeting. Roll call, please. Mayor Rousing, here. Mayor Prom Freeworth, here. Councilwoman Frederickson, here. Councilman Gambboji, I am here. Councilman Garing, I'm here. Councilman Grady, here. And Councilman Ruby, here. All are present. We will have an invocation today from Pastor Dan Hurlebert with Prescuit United Methodist. And then the pledge of allegiance will be led by Councilman Grady.

Let us pray. [snorts] Great and wonderful God, our provider, we give you thanks for the abundant rain that has swollen our creeks, replenishes our groundwater, and is filling our lakes. We pray for those who have suffered damage to their trees, landscape, and property. And we are grateful for our city workers who show up regardless of the weather to keep our city running in our community safe. Today we pray for those in service to our country, especially those who are in harm's way.

Protect them, strengthen them, and encourage their families. We give you thanks for our libraries, for we know that you are the source of all knowledge and wisdom. And we thank you that our libraries enrich our community. We boldly ask for your wisdom and guidance for our mayor and city council. May they discern your will and continue to lead our city with integrity, compassion, and a commitment to the common good. We pray all of this in the name of the one who commands us to love our neighbors.

Amen. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And next, Mayor Rousing will present the proclamation for National Friends of Libraries Week, which is October 18th through the 24th, 2026. I would like to invite the friends to come up here and join me please. Steve, do you want to join us? Oh, okay.

[laughter] Whereas the friends of the Prescuit Public Library play a vital role in strengthening our library by generously raising funds that expand and enhance the services and opportunities available to our community, supporting additional programming, essential equipment, support for children summer reading and special events throughout the year.

Whereas the ongoing work of the friends highlights the vital role our library plays as a cornerstone of the community, providing opportunities for people of all ages to engage in the joy of lifelong learning and connect with the thoughts and ideas of others from ages past to the present.

Whereas the friends understand the critical importance of well-funded libraries and advocate to ensure that our library receives the resources it needs to provide a wide variety of services to all ages including access to print and electronic materials along with expert assistance in research, readers advisory and children's services.

Whereas the friend's generous gift of time, talent, and commitment to the library sets an example for all of us, demonstrating how volunteerism leads to positive civic engagements and contributes to the betterment of our community. Now therefore, I Kathy Rousing, mayor of the city of Prescuit, ex do hereby proclaim October 18th through the 24th as National Friends of the Libraries Week.

I encourage everyone to support the Friends of the Library, express appreciation for their dedicated service, and recognize all they do to strengthen our library and enrich our community. [applause] And we have our president here, Barb. Would you like to say a few words? Thank you. Thanks. Hi, I'm Barb Collins and I'm president of Friends of the Prescuit Public Library. Thank you, Mayor Rusing, city council, city staff for recognizing friends with this proclamation.

Back in 1967, the library director at that time, Alan Rothlessberger Berg, excuse me, saw the need to create a dedicated community that would serve to raise funds to enhance the ever growing Prescuit Public Library. This endeavor would become his greatest lasting legacy as friends expanded literacy and fundraising for pro programs beyond its budget and became a driving force behind the everyday operations of the library.

Friends of the Prescat Public Library grew over the years because the citizens of Prescat saw the importance of offering a library that would be the tra town's greatest asset. Today, the generosity continues and Friends is thriving thanks to our very generous donors. With the monies that are donated to Friends, every dollar is used for the sole purpose of supporting the library.

As the offerings of programs, activities, items, and small renovations continue, it's the projects that are we are looking to do in the future that are most exciting. On behalf of uh our board of directors, I would like to thank you again. It's our pleasure to work closely with the library staff and the city of Prescat in serving the people of Prescat and its visitors. If you haven't been to the library or its website, please do so. It's pretty amazing. Thanks, [applause] Thank you so much.

Thank you. That's right. I should have practiced. [applause] And as mayor makes her way back up to the seat, uh, we'll let Mayor Prom Furworth take over with introductions and announcements. Fabulous. Good afternoon, everyone. We have several things to share with you that are coming up over the course of the next few weeks. Uh, October is breast cancer awareness month and the Prescuit Police Department is participating in its 9th annual pink patch month.

This year's patch features a special design celebrating America America's 250th anniversary. 100% of pink patch sales benefit the Dignity Health Yavapai Regional Medical Center Breast Care Center. Parks and RE Rex master plan survey is underway. The community survey for the city's draft of a parks and recreation plan is available now. And per our meeting just an hour ago, the date is going to be extended. And I know several members of the public asked for that.

I just don't know what the date is going to end. Christy, any thoughts at this point? Not yet. Not yet. Okay. So, keep writing. Um, you can complete the survey and give your input at engage berry dun.mmysopinpoint.com/city-prescuit. Go to our website and you can find a link. I'm going to bet you Willow Lake Management Plan Community Meeting on Wednesday, October 14th.

The city in partnership with South Southwest decision resources and community and stakeholder groups will host a public meeting to provide information and gather community input for the development of a Willow Lake management plan. The meeting takes place from 4 to 6:00 p.m. on October 14th at the Fippen Museum on Highway 89. Community members are welcome to attend at any time during the two hours. Long-term water management plan.

The city will also host a community meeting on Wednesday, October 21st from 1 to 3 PM at the Prescuit Public Library to introduce you to the city's long-term water management plan and the planning process underway. If you are unable to attend in person, you can still get involved by taking a the community survey that is at participate.com. I like those short websites to be able to read them. Um, Talk of the Town with the city council.

Also on Wednesday the 21st, Mayor Rousin and I will host Talk of the Town with City Council on KQNA. Tune in at 4 PM on 99.9 FM for updates and conversations about things happening in the city. And finally, Prescat AirFest. Aviation enthusiasts and families are invited to the Prescuit Regional Airport's second annual Airfest on Saturday, October 24th from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The event is free and familyfriendly and will feature aircraft, military displays, food trucks, and more.

For more information, visit airport.prescadaz.gov. Thank you. We encourage residents to stay engaged and take advantage of all these opportunities to connect in our community. Mayor, and I have uh one more announcement to add on. Um did you know that Prescuit is a college town? We have three facilities here in town that people don't really realize. We have Emery Riddle, we have Yavapai College, and we have our iconic Prescat College.

So, I am pleased to announce that Prescuit College will be marking their 60th anniversary with a 4-day uh celebration starting tomorrow from the 14th through the 17th and they will uh have a on you can go to their website and uh look at what kind of activities they'll be going will be going on so that you can sign up. So, I just want to say congratulations to Prescuit College for their 60th anniversary. Thank you. [applause] All right. Our next item is a new item to our council agendas.

Uh we will be doing department updates on a um quarterly basis for every two departments. Um this will be an agendaized item on every council voting meeting agenda. All of the materials regarding the department updates are included in your packet materials and there will be no public comment or discussion on these items unless the council has a specific question um for the department head regarding the provided reports.

Today's reports were provided by the recreation services department and the library. Um is there anything that council wishes to ask of the department heads? Well, you better believe it. Uh first of all, uh I'd like to comment on the recreation uh department. Um I didn't know this, but the Circle P trail has been completed over there on the west end by uh Streamfield Ranch. So, congratulations. And um are we going to have a ribbon cutting ceremony?

Because it was done back in uh September, August. [snorts] Mayor uh Christy Diaz Tran, your recreation services director, and thank you so much for bringing that up. Yes, our crew is out there hard at work finalizing it, and we're looking at a date likely sometime in November for a celebration of the completion of the Circle Trail. Oh, that will be wonderful.

And then also for our library, uh Melissa O is our wonderful director and I happened to notice that statistically we had an increase of 43,000 visits in the last uh couple of years. So is Melissa still here or did she uh did she leave? I would like to ask uh what brought on that big surge?

Well, I think it's uh more programming, uh more amazing resources that our staff are providing to the community and we've just become more of a hub for activity and uh it happens with our kids, our um all ages are just coming to the library and enjoying uh what we provide. So, um I other than that, I don't know. It's our smiling faces maybe. [laughter] Well, thank you.

It sounds like we might be uh outgrowing our downtown facility and we may need to look at a branch up in the northern part of the community in our uh growth corridor in the future, the near future. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Melissa. Dan, the only thing I wanted to say is amen that we got the materials. I thought it was great updates. I if the unfortunately it's not going to be a presentation on our agendas.

So, if you want to see what's going on, you need to go pull up the package on the website. But short, sweet, to the point, great recap from both departments. So, thank you very much. All right. Our next item is the open call to the public. The city [clears throat] of Prescuit welcomes public engagement. Residents may comment and address the council regarding matters that are not included on the posted agenda during the call to the public.

If you wish to speak, please complete a green speaker card and submit it to me prior to the meeting being convened. As a reminder, speakers are limited to four minutes and the call to the public will be limited to 40 minutes in total with the following stipulations. Citizens will be limited to addressing the council on the same topic, only four times in total. If a topic has been addressed more than five times by different speakers, the mayor may limit future discussion on this topic.

Topics of a primarily national concern may be limited at the discretion of the mayor and the call to the public shall not be used to address the council on current or pending legal matters by a party or their representative. I have four open call cards today and the first one is from Ralph Roardy. She's not here yet. Ralph Rodardi. Good afternoon.

Uh I'm here to talk to you guys about our street Yava uh up here in uh South Mount Vernon and the current uh interim chief uh John Bila has done a marvelous job for us. Uh, I tried the other chief that retired quickly and uh, I never got any answers, never got a response back to anything. But I called Chief Umbilla and he showed up right away and addressed the issue and I'm sure that he will notify you people as to what the issue was. It was fabulous. I invited all of you to my porch.

So you could see all the problems that we have. They don't stop at the stop signs. They speed. They do about everything that you can have that that can pop up on the street. And the thing is that the 200 block and part of the 300 block, we have no alley. So we have to come out to the front. So with that in mind, it caused a big problem with us.

But I think it's slowing it down somewhat now with the visits of the Prescuit Police Department uh with their little red lights on their cars coming after these people. But anyway, uh my talk today is about um Chief Rumbila. He's a longstanding career uh here with the Prescuit Police Department. Starting in 1999, he has moved up the ranks as a lieutenant. 15 years with the SWAT team and commander and deputy chief. He knows the community.

He was born and raised here and his family has big uh ties here. He is invested in this community. Volunteers and service that come the community through YMCA, Prescat Unified School District, Prescuit Little League and etc. He's engaged with the community by returning phone calls and interacting well with the community. And I can verify that and so can a lot of people. We don't feel like he is is ignoring us like Chief Bonnie used to do.

He is excellent at taking actions and working on the issues the community has addressed with him. Promotions within allow space for other officers to move up the ranks. The city spend quite a bit of money training our officers only to have them work for a couple of years and then leave. These needs these incentives need to be for officers to move up to the next step.

The city should have them sign a contract so that uh when they finish their training they must stay in the department for a minimum of five years. bringing somebody in new to be the chief is is adding more training to bring them up to speed as well as to build community connections. So with that, I say please please think of him uh for our chief. I there are so many people out there that are trying to figure out how do we bring it up and they just have to speak out. But uh he's a great guy.

uh he he'll he's a great officer and he's proven it through all the years that he's done here. So, please consider him for the chief which will be coming up I think at the end of the month. So, with that, thank you. Thank you, Ralph. [applause] And uh I'd like to direct the comments to our uh city manager because he's the one that uh makes the decision for the hiring. Thank you, Sanford Cohen. Uh, but this will be a little bit different because Lois Fworth is going to read his comments.

Unfortunately, he couldn't be here today and I certainly don't have his professional voice, so this won't be delivered with the flare that he would do it. But he asked me to read. The Arizona Blues Hall of Fame presents its Northern Arizona Showcase this Saturday, October 17th, at 6 PM at the historic Elks Theater in downtown Prescuit. Headlining the Bill of Three bands is Hall of Fame blues musician Big Pete Pearson. Tickets are available at prescatelkstheater.org.

And that's theater with T R E, not T E R. And he wanted to make sure I spelled it out for everybody. and our very own Sanford Cohen of 93.1 Badass Blues will be the MC, so please come out. Thank you, Lois. Dan Herbert, I feel like I've been here before. Yeah. Uh, madame mayor, members of the city council, city staff, and my fellow Prescatonians, I'm Dan Herbert. I'm the senior pastor at Prescat United Methodist Church which is located at 505 West Gurley.

Uh our church was established here in 1870 and it makes it the oldest church in Prescat. We have a long history of welcoming the community into our buildings and our records show that in the 1800s the congregational, Baptist, Catholic and Presbyterian churches all shared the Methodist building as they began to gather their flocks in the area. In more recent years, Prescuit People Who Care, Habitat for Humanity had offices in our buildings, and we were the first home of CCJ.

Uh that same spirit of cooperation and welcome continues today as the church hosts over 30 community groups every week. Uh these are folks like Boy Scouts, caregivers, support groups, grief groups, and dozens of 12step fellowship meetings daily. uh Lincoln School employees and families use our parking lot. The church has a long history of welcoming the community to our facilities and we also use once in a while our church buildings for worship.

We are aware that our old sanctuary is showing her age. So today I'm here to inform you and the community that the church is beginning a major restoration project. We are currently in permitting and preparing to begin phase one. We do not intend to change the form or look of our buildings.

We believe that the classic lines of our church add to the charm of downtown and our steeple top bell tower is a landmark that is visible from Frontier Village and seen in iconic photos of the downtown area that uh look toward Thumbute. As we complete our permitting and scaffolding goes up and the roof, which is older than me, gets replaced, uh, please know that our goal is preservation of our old buildings. We're not tearing anything down. We are shoring everything up.

So, God has blessed our church with a long history, a great location, a vibrant congregation, and we Methodists believe that we when we are blessed, it's so that we can be a blessing to others. So, we can intend intend to continue to do just that as we have been doing in the last um [clears throat] 150 years. So, mayor and council and staff, I thank you for your good and faithful service to the city and the opportunity to share about the renovation today.

If you have any questions, give us a call. Thank you, Pastor Dan. Yep. Eric Ledwick. Right. Hello, Mayor and Council. Uh, I wanted to come speak about the recreation master plan, mainly because, you know, I feel like comments submitted online can are easily swept under the rug or or maybe not seen because I don't know who is actually looking at the comments.

I'm glad you mentioned that we're actually going to extend the comment period, which was a major concern of mine because I know that the presentation got pushed back by like a month and so Christy had said, "Oh, she's feeling rushed, so it makes sense to push it back by a month so we can get more comments." Uh, I moved my family here. I don't know if you remember my kindergarteners that I brought for the 89 widening.

I moved us here from the coast of Maine for the rock climbing and the mountain biking and the trails. We didn't move here for job. I don't work. My partner doesn't work. We literally moved here for the recreation. Okay. And so there's some gaps in the recreation master plan that really got me thinking. And you need to know that I'm a rock climber first and foremost. I've climbed in Morocco, Cuba, 42 states. I've climbed in the Caymans. Okay? And Prescuit is a truly unique resource.

Since moving here four years ago, I've helped establish almost 400 new routes in the Dells thanks to the acquisition of that Storm Ranch property. There is nothing in the master plan about rock climbing and I would like you to know that it should stay as it is where the Prescuit Climbers Coalition manages the safe upkeep of climbing hardware, trail maintenance, and enforcement of uh raptor closure. That's for the Golden Eagles and the Bald Eagles and the Paragant Falcons.

that needs to be in there that that the fresca climbers coalition can manage that. I also just want to mention that the statistically valid survey which I keep hearing from rec services is about 493 responses. I'm pretty sure that's the number for a city of 50,000. Yavapai County had a really low response rate for their Y plan survey and they counted it as a failed survey.

So now they're going to try again and pursue higher interaction, which I think is nice about extending the comment period because it's kind of like a like a survey 2.0 as long as we have more than just one person overloaded with reading the comments. And um on that note, I do think my kindergarteners would know that if you gave them one M&M from a bowl of a hundred, that's not a really representative percentage.

And if uh if you if you want to just step back for a moment and think about how recreation can really contribute to like a larger societal cause, it's that open space that is the hiking trails, the biking, it encourages active parenting. I'm not sitting there on a bench on my phone while my kids on the playground, right? It helps reverse that sort of digital trend of parenting and screen times acting as the caregiver.

So I want you to think about how important it is to structure the plan to create a society that we want to live in. I want you to put effort and money into the existing park system. Like I know you've built two new playgrounds, one near the dog park and one in Watson Lake. That's great. I would say that the one at Watson Lake could use more shade, either trees or shade structures. Please include shade that is trees or structures.

It has to be in every design going forward because if you go to the splash pad with little kids on a hot day, they will cry. Trust me, it happens. Shade is a big deal. For seniors who go with the children, the grandparents spending time or young kids, they're all very susceptible to the heat. Shade needs a little bit more of a priority.

I wanted to also mention that when I spoke with city staff uh with rec services, it was mentioned that restoring a golf course into a city park in the old job was, you know, sort of a applicable job experience to managing this sort of worldclass recreational resource that we have here in Prescuit. And I disagree. So that's why I would say maybe think about as the council establishing an open space commission that's not something that's dissolved every, you know, by whim by a mayor or whatever.

It's it's more long term and that would be made up of people with a more kind of meta view of the issues and who maybe aren't uh having to stare at all this the fine print all the time and get overloaded. It would be free consulting and it would help kind of catch a lot of issues that could cost the city some money. It's strange to me that we're thinking about building more soccer and baseball fields at the same time that taxpayers are being told to tear up their lawns for zeroscape.

I mean, I am a big fan of zeroscaping and tearing up lawns, but it's in congruous to me. We don't need to degrade the fact that we use baseball fields for soccer in the offseason. I think that's a great thing in the desert. That's what we need to be doing. But when you talk direct services, it comes across as a negative that we're using it as multi-use. Why? I think our town deserves an open space commission.

Businesses in town benefit because so many people get sore legs hiking and biking on the trails, sore fingertips from the granite cliffs. Everywhere USA has soccer fields and we need to focus on what brings people from all over the country and the wider world. Thank you. Thank you. That's all, mayor. Our next item is the consent agenda. I did receive requests to pull items B, C, and D for further discussion.

Um, if there are no other items that a member of council would like to pull, we can take a motion on the balance of the consent agenda. Do I hear a motion? I move to approve consent agenda items 9A through 9G, J excluding B, C, and D. Second. Please vote. passes 70. Okay. I'd like to start the discussion with uh item 9B concerning the Evergreen Solutions uh citywide classification and compensation study.

Um when I was uh reviewing the paperwork, I noticed that this uh company uh did Prescat, it's it did it uh about five years ago. We did this study by Evergreen also and they included they studied Prescat, Prescat Valley and Yavapai County and Flagstaff and I felt that maybe we needed to talk about this because I felt it was a conflict because uh our major competitors for employees are Yavapai County and Prescuit Valley and to have the same company, you know, doing the uh compensation report.

I felt that, you know, would it be better if we had somebody else come in instead that isn't uh doing the same uh competitors over and over. So, I appreciate some input there. All right. Good afternoon, uh Mayor, Council, Brandon Nunees, HR director for the city. All right. I'll start with uh I'll start with how we how we got to you requesting a comm study. Uh really what we're looking for is not a a complete a um [clears throat] complete overhaul of of our class and comp system.

Evergreen actually put together our last class and comp system. And I and I'm not sure if everybody read my proposal of of why why we're looking to do this, but really there's there's five different reasons why we're looking to to tighten or strengthen our current system. And really the first one is we have a lot of difficult to fill positions. there's a a heavy demand for positions like planning, engineering, water, uh police officers, etc.

So, we have a we have a lot of hard hard to fill positions. I'll start with that one. That's that's the layup. Another reason we're looking to do this is really one of our our pet projects here at the city is we want to start growing our own and um because in our in our country, our our labor markets are getting smaller and smaller. I know we've attended multiple um meetings on our economic development plan and things of that nature and looking at workforce analytics and things of that nature.

However, we um in our town especially, we we have a limited labor pool and so our vision is to really uh create better pathways where we hire people on the front line and we give them the tools, resources, incentives and structure to to come into our workforce and thrive and have a long career here. We have over 175 job descriptions. So, we feel like we have careers for everybody. And so, we would like to hire our own folks, grow them, grow our own.

And, um, obviously, we'll have to do some external recruitments, but we do love the idea of growing our own growing our own um employees. And so, this is where I think we need Evergreen because they helped us developed our system. And I think that they're very familiar with with our labor market. They helped us design this.

now um they're they're familiar with our regional partners who are having the same problems and really I'm just looking to to tweak our system um internally and then externally obviously they would do the the compensation piece by evaluating our our market. Okay. Well, thank you very much. I have another comment another question on page 151 of our uh packet.

Um, there's some bullet points and the last bullet point reads, "Conducting reviews centered around gender and racial equity in compensation systems, ensuring their adherence to local, state, and federal laws and regulations." Um, so I'm not an HR person, but I need some translation. I was thinking is this when they mention gender is this to make sure that women are paid the same as men for performing the same task? Yeah, we conduct trainings on this.

So, easiest thing I can say is that we're looking for equal pay for equal work. So, if we have um that's part of a comp study is we will evaluate uh what people are actually making when they were hired. We'll look at um how we're hiring new employees into the organization and we'll break it down by demographic data to make sure that we're paying equal pay for equal work.

And then also uh racial equity um as I understand affirmative action is been kind of gone the way of the buggy whip and is this to uh make sure that uh like you said everyone equal pay for equal work. Um yeah, we um yeah, we'll we'll provide demographic data for every every job class. They al there's also a a look at different relationships on which positions we're paying. Um you know, do we have populations of positions that are are underpaid or undervalued, which could be a a system problem.

And maybe we have populations of minorities in certain um in certain employee classes or grades. And so that is analyzed by an organization. But um you know that that's not a core goal of here, but it it's it's an an audit component of the class. I just want to make sure that we're hiring people based on merit and not because you know they belong to some certain group. I believe that's that's kind of uh against the federal laws. Yeah.

again that you know when I look at a class and comp system uh a study itself you're really looking at internal external there classification is more internal where the kind of a there's an auditory lens we make sure that we're we're doing the right thing um and that we're that we're meeting our state and federal requirements and then compensation is more that the external evaluation so okay thank you does anyone else have any questions okay thank you miss oh Lois I'm so familiar with we did class and comp benchmarking.

We actually had all our competitors in the room in the marketplace and we did it all together. So when we were done with a survey, we all had a survey and so since they're doing work for all our competitors but on different timing, just a thought, we did that every five years. Um and in May, you know, markets like calling on Walmart, everybody was there and we all did it together.

And I thought it was very very helpful to uh break down some of the barriers of how different companies classified jobs. meanwhile the pay was just as good but their title wasn't as good and so we weren't getting employees because our titles weren't as good. So we fixed our titles and suddenly things got better. So just another idea going forward. I'm glad we're doing this after seven years.

Um but just thoughts if if they're going to continue to do business with Yavapai College and Prescuit Valley, maybe we could join forces and divide the cost. Sure. Yeah. Appreciate it. Okay. Thank you. I don't think there's any more comments. And then um moving on, we'll need to take a vote on each of them individually because they were all pulled. I move to approve item 9B. Second. That passes 70. And now we can discuss item C. Okay.

Item C is a contract between the city of Prescuit and Lifeline Ambulance Services, Inc. for ambulance transportation services. Um, as you know, our health care system is uh up here in Prescuit. you know, we're having a lot of serious problems and it's very important that we work with our fire department and our ambulance service companies to keep our response times low and we've had a long-standing uh relationship with Lifeline and they've been doing a very good job in a challenging situation.

So, I would just uh like to ask a few questions. Um, Lifeline is a uh global uh provides global services. It's a big it's a big company. And I was reading the contract and I was kind of concerned that for a town of uh 50,000 people, mostly uh above the age of uh 50. Um you're only planning on having three ambulances available to the public. Good afternoon, Mayor. Mayor Prom, council members, Bill Hickeyi, Prescuit Fire Department, operations chief. Uh, yes, that is the minimum staffing.

Um, and as the call volume dictates, um, in response to that question, mayor, um, I do have the historical data for the last year uh, for uh, Lifeline Ambulance, and the numbers are fantastic.

um three ambulances the minimum staffing and they will up staff during peak hours and as it needed and Dan Thompson and myself are in contact when the call volume does go up um and we talk about okay let's get another ambulance in service and it's been working out fantastic if if you would like I can hand out a a quick handout you guys can read uh the response numbers uh they're impressive the contract is working okay well thank you very much In fact, that was going to be my uh next question.

On page three of the handout, it talks about response times and the geographic boundaries. And there's uh three zones or basically two zones. Zones zone one, the maximum is 10 minutes. Yes, ma'am. And then zone two, you have uh 10 to 15 minutes allowed. And I was concerned because the map that was included in our packet was not very detailed and you did furnish a more detailed uh map to us. And so what is this 20 minutes I see on here? Uh the 20 minutes is in reference to non-emergency calls.

Okay. So, when we're talking emergency calls, all the numbers apply. And when we say non-emergency, uh, somebody has a sprained leg, uh, you know, something that's not critical. Okay. Then the ambulance company does have 20 minutes to respond. So, I imagine you triage your calls. Yes, ma'am. Well, PRCC does that for us. Yeah. Okay. All righty.

And uh so this contract will be for a uh five-year term and then automatically renew an additional two years unless uh we wish to uh renew it or have there's an issue. Yes, ma'am. And either party can cancel within 120 days if things aren't working out. Okay. All righty. Well, thank you very much. And uh Mary has a comment. Um just a question.

It's been a couple of years now, but when I was volunteering at Arizona Crisis Team, I know there was a dust up in relation to um whether there was sufficient ambulance service coverage in our area. And I believe it was priority ambulance that came in and filled some part of the role. Is that still part of the system here? [snorts] Uh that's a great question and really my response is that the contract is working. Uh, we have the ambulances that we need.

The response data shows that we're meeting the benchmarks. Uh, so I'll I'll hand the handout over to Sarah and you can all take a look at it. Um, we are we do have reliable ambulance service in the city of Prescuit. I appreciate that. And the lifeline service is fantastic, frankly. And I was just wondering if Priority was also operating here in the Prescuit area. Yes, ma'am. They do. uh they have a co also.

Um so for example if all three ambulances say there was three in town were busy the next call would go to priority. Yep. Thank you. Yes. And also I think some is this something new where um one of uh Prescuit Fire Department's uh EMS with uh advanced life support training will be able to go along with ride along with lifeline to provide critical care service as they're being transported to the hospital. Uh very infrequently at this point.

uh it was something that we did in the past when there was only uh basic life support on the ambulance u but as the contract is working out so well uh we don't ride in that often anymore because they do have ALS personnel. Okay. All right. Good. I just wanted to clarify that. And uh I just wanted to uh let the people know that uh Deputy Chief uh Hickeyi is standing in for uh Chief Holdier. Yeah. Chief's on vacation. So yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. All righty. Well, thank you very much. Yes, mayor.

Thank you. I move to approve item 9 C. Second passes 70. Okay. And next is item D. Okay. I think several people pulled this. Lois, do you want to start off? Yeah, I I pulled it because um and given all of our friends of the rodeo in the room, um there was a reference to additional rodeo grants as one of these uh transfer to cover. And um given the numbers they gave, the difference was a little over 227,000. Yet the transfer that we're being asked to do was 350,000.

and considering lots of people in the public are tracking every dime of our rodeo expenditures, I wanted to make sure that we were being transparent and forthright with everyone. So that was my question. Yeah, I had a similar question about the uh the rodeo funds that were being transferred. Uh it says grants from grants fund to the grants fund for facilities uh maintenance. So could you please uh enlighten us about that one? Sure. Thank you, Mayor Councel.

My name is Lars Johnson, finance director for the city. I'll just do a very quick uh overview of what this is and then jump specifically into uh the rodeo. So, each year in the budget process, we have departments estimate their spending in the spring. The year is not complete at that point. uh we bring a budget transfer of appropriations to you about the tenative adoption timeline which council did for fiscal year 26 and then we finalize the year. We close out the year with invoices.

We do accounting adjustments. We look again and see if there's any overages. And there are a few here that um are before you today. One of them is the rodeo. Uh we know that the grants came in from the state 15.3 million during fiscal year 26. That wasn't um planned. We didn't budget that expense. So anything we spend there is an appropriation adjustment. We we adjusted the first round uh 1.2 million.

That was the estimated um at that point in the springtime we were able to get more work done there than anticipated. So we spent more than 1.2. So the total spent um of that grant was $1,427,277. Okay. So this was our rodeo appropriation funding and we were um trying to do it before the rodeo started, right? So the the overall grant of the 15.3 isn't changing. We just had timing between fiscal years. So, um the specific question on why the 350 versus um 270,000 we typically add a little buffer.

Now, this one might be a little high and I'm happy if council wants to adjust that low. doesn't matter to me. But we add a buffer because we still have to go through a fiscal audit and there's a potential that the auditors will find um cut off timing things in invoicing or things like that that in order to prevent us to come back again to council we add a little buffer there. Um the year is closed so no future this doesn't allow any uh payments into fiscal year 26 anymore.

So the the the amount we spent fiscal year 26 will remain that the amount I quoted. Okay. Thank you. Mary, do you have a comment? No, I don't. Okay. Anyone else have a comment? All righty. Thank you, Lars, for the clarification. You're welcome. Yeah, this money is under the microscope. All right. I move to approve item 9D. Second. Please vote. That also passes 70.

Next item is public hearing and consideration for an owner transfer series 6 bar liquor license application from Wanita Alicia Esparza, applicant for Jake Ryan's location 114 North Montazuma Street. The application fee has been paid and the sign has been posted for the required 20 days. Staff has reviewed the application and determined that it is in compliance and no public comments have been received. Is the applicant here? Okay. I just wanted to comment.

I believe this is at the location 114 Monizuma is where the point used to be and now it's under a a new owner. Correct. Do I hear a motion? I move to close the public hearing. Second. Please vote. Passes 70. I move to approve liquor license application number 411219 for an owner transfer series 6 bar liquor license for Jake Ryan's second passes 0.

Next item, FNP24-003, Final Plat of Paragrin Ridge at Prescat Lakes, P A subdivision, a 48 lot subdivision on a 26.44 acre parcel located east off of Prescat Lakes Parkway via Smoketree Lane Extension. Thank you, mayor and councel. Tammy Dit, planner. I'm here to answer any questions you may have. We have uh the plat up on the screen and we also have the applicant here to answer any questions and I believe we also have a representative from the HOA here if you have any questions.

Thank you Tammy. Um I just wanted to uh comment even though this property is zoned business general in our zoning we have inclusive zoning. It's not exclusive zoning. So, Business General does have a residential uh part to it. And this is for a residential uh plat. Is the uh applicant here? Yes. Uh I have a few questions. Mayor Mayor Prom Luther Kxburgger. uh declarant applicant for this property. Not declarant. Yeah, this is a pretty high-profile property.

It's kind of hard to miss uh up on the ridge like that. And uh it's uh massgraded. And uh I was going to ask, are you going to massrade the open space portion or are you going to leave that natural? Uh as you see it today, that's the way it's going to be graded. So there will be no more grading if that's your question. So it's all graded. You're ma you massgraded all the open space? No, there's open space designated on the plat and it is still open space.

Well, I I know it's still open space, but my question is is it going to be graded or ungraded? It will be not graded the way it is today. So it'll be left natural the way it is. The way it is today. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Is it uh usable open space? Um that's up to uh the club at pres or excuse me the uh Prescuit Lakes Association.

It'll be deeded over to them uh upon completion and if they wanted to do something with it they're more than welcome but there's no plan to put any houses there if that's your question. Okay. Um thank you. Um well this seems uh pretty for um straightforward. Um is uh did you get the approval of uh the Prescuit Lakes HOA as uh required in the master plan? Yes. And they signed the plat. That's included in your packet. Okay. All righty. Thank you. Does anyone else have any comments?

Um is the does is anyone from the Prescuit Lakes HOA here to comment? I thought there was, but I guess he's not here. Oh, okay. There is someone here from Prescal Lakes. I don't know if he wishes to comment or not. Okay. Well, that's up to him. They signed. Yeah, they signed. Okay. All righty. All right. I move to approve FNP 24- Z003 three. [clears throat] Was that a second? I'm good with it. Thank you. I'm seconding it. Councilwoman Frederickson, can you please vote? Thank you. Passes 70.

All right. Our last item, presentation, discussion, and possible action regarding the approval of the final rodeo fairgrounds master plan. Okay, thank you very much. Hope everybody in the room is here for this because this is the last thing we have to talk about. Um, again, Don Kimble, city manager. I'm excited to be bringing this to you today.

Uh the only place I think to start is just to thank everybody who's been part of this, attending public meetings, attending stakeholder meetings, and of course our steering committee who've very regularly um met and gone over the plan and made changes and and given suggestions and and made it better at every step. Um like to start with just providing a little bit of history. I think we all have a lot of rodeo history. Um but um a little bit of history here, just some of the key dates.

We'll talk about what a master plan is. We'll get into the the plan itself. Um and then u at the end there talk about costs and uh some of the public comments that we've received. So again, starting with a little bit of history, I think the the date I want to call out here is 2001 because that's the first time I could find where the city started working on trying to figure out a some kind of a master plan.

And talking to some of the neighbors, they think there were maybe some efforts even before this. Um, but in 2001, the city didn't even own the property yet. Uh but we were very interested in in trying to figure out the future of the plan and or the property um and equestrian activity in the city in general.

Um in about 2005 uh or by 2005 the the council decided uh that they'd like to maintain the current property, focus on optimizing the footprint that's there and you know preserving the the historic elements of that property while mitigating neighborhood impact. Um, since that time there have been Oops. There have been a few different starts and stops on master plans.

Um, but all of them have come back to we should be trying to optimize this site and trying to figure out ways to make it work um, as well as we can for both the tenants of the property and um, and the neighbors around it. This effort started um this current effort that we're talking about today started in January of 2025.

So just shy of almost two years ago when um the the mayor and council supported a plan to to do that to move forward with optimizing the current footprint um and mitigating uh impacts to the surrounding neighborhood.

uh followed by you know within this process then a resoning step and a and a lease step and so we've been working this uh process ever since that time I'll talk about that a little bit more here in a moment um on the slide if you can read it it's a little bit smaller than it is on my monitor on my on my desk I'm sorry about that uh but um some of these things under optimize the current footprint come from the initial mission statement of the steering committee uh when they were first formed just as kind of goals and guidelines that I think help us understand how we've been thinking about this project and about this property.

So ve very strong interest in protecting and enhancing the space, honoring the tradition that is there. Um promoting youth and family education u of the outdoor recreation and and then making sure that it's something that's enjoyable for the community at large and serves everybody that lives in Prescuit and our visitors as well. And then of course mitigating the the impacts there as well. We'll talk about all of that.

Before we get too deep, I do think it's important to talk for just a second about what a master plan is. So, this is it's not a construction document. It's not a design document. It's not that that detailed. It's a higher level look. It's the 30,000 ft look at the property. And uh it's particularly again the space. Where do things go? Um you know, we want we know we we have a historic arena and grandstands. Those are those are there. If we were going to add something, where would we add it?

Um that kind of a a thought process conceptual high level. Um it's advisory. It's not a legal document and but it can be used and this was mentioned earlier in the meeting to apply for future grants to um kind of form our thoughts for lease negotiations to to do those sorts of activities. any of the projects we talk about um within the master plan are not approved with the approval of the master plan.

There's there would have to be separate permitting processes, separate approval processes to move forward with any of the the major changes that are included in the plan. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, as I mentioned, master plan um direction was given in January of 25. Budget was approved in June of 25. We hired an equestrian architect, GH2, in the fall. I want to say it was September uh yeah, September of of 2025 and started doing assessments of the existing facility.

Again, GH2 met with various other stakeholder groups and asked, "What do you want to see?" I keep banging that button. Um and uh um had those visioning meetings and then we got into to uh public comment again. Um first open house in February which was really more blank slate. Here's what the rodeo looks like. What do you think? What do you like? What do you not like? What would you like to see differently? Getting the whole public involved in the conversation.

and then another public meeting in June to show a draft and then in August to show an updated draft all along the way every month steering committee meeting talking about the details talking about the findings sometimes meeting multiple times. Um so fantastic again I really appreciate that that effort and and helping us to get the better product. After public comment closed here in September of this year, uh we made a few more just little tweaks.

Uh things like uh moving the equipment bar over a few feet so that we could access the auto club on the left instead of the right. Um small small details like that. Um and that led us to this final draft of the of the rodeo and fairgrounds master plan. So digging in, it's kind of how we got here. digging in on some of the detail. And again, we started with the idea, we're going to optimize the site. We're going to protect the space. We're going to honor the tradition that's there.

So, the plan is built around the existing arena and grandstands. Those are the the most historic, the most um just culturally recognizable things. It's part of when we talk about the historic rodeo, the world's oldest rodeo, we talk about that arena and those grand stands. So we'll continue to use those and um obviously [snorts] with that there's also just the cost benefit right of those are existing in place.

It helps the community to um preserve the character but also to mitigate additional cost. We can look a little more closely there. So there's in the master plan and the arena is number 11 and just south of that number 28 is those historic grandstands. Within the grandstands um there's currently or within the the grandstands but also around the arena it's 4,454 existing seats.

The um rodeo fairgrounds master plan also contemplates the addition of of box seating adjacent to the announcer stand that could be constructed in the future. Um this it's assigned to uh the rodeo to prescuit Frontier Days for construction. Um, and if those were to be constructed, it would add 546 seats for a total seating target of 5,000 seats in the arena. And that gives you a sense of scale of, you know, the largest event, which would be the rodeo.

So, preserving the space, but also enhancing the space, right?

uh some of the enhancements here starting with a new restroom facility on the east side of the grandstands actually on the site where a restroom facility used to be um it is no longer there um but building that restroom facility again uh the box seating I've talked about uh the uh new equipment barn so I think if somebody leans hard enough on barn B it might just fall over um and the the thought with the equipment barn is maybe somebody had to go ahead and do that.

And uh we'll build a new equipment barn um on the north side of the property. You see they're up by where the auto club is. Uh the the covered pole barn which provides flexibility for um showing livestock for preparing for events. It sun protection. A lot of good flexible um usable space there. And then um this parking area for the contestants of the rodeo and and can be used for other events as well. Um RV hookups, trailer parking, right? Those are very long vehicles.

Um and secure livestock loading with the the realignment. We'll talk about this later, too, but realignment of of Rodeo Drive off of Miller Valley so that those big rigs can stay just completely away from neighborhood roads coming off of Miller Valley and then have a dedicated space that keeps the contestants and the big rigs and the livestock separate from the spectators and um and their vehicles and the way they would walk into the property. [snorts] Okay.

So, here we see um it's a little blurry here, but the bathroom facilities, first floor, second floor, uh women's bathroom, a little bit larger than the men's bathroom on both floors um with a family restroom uh between them on the second floor and some storage available there on the first floor. This is a a possible rendering of the equipment barn that would be up by the auto club. And here's the pole barn.

So, see the pole barn is not a um structure in the sense of [snorts] four walls and a roof and and that sort of a thing. Um it does have um open air access. Again, very good spot for sun protection for showing livestock, etc. And then the parking um just to the north there with the RV hookups. Okay. Also enhancing the space. More more to come here.

So the cooperative extension which hosts our master gardeners and 4 and um I believe we've talked about master food preservers and other programs that they provide. The the possibility of a new facility um they're on the I believe that's the southwest side of the property. A demonstration garden that they can use for community events. uh public park and trail space um which is just right across from the I don't know if this is gonna work for me. Yep. Right here.

So, right in this area, you've got the public park with the trail. Again, this is this is a conceptual document. So, exactly what that trail and park look like are something that we could continue to develop, but that would be the area where we would develop that amenity. Additional paved parking. Uh this is right here um just to the the west of the rodeo entrance.

Uh and with that paved parking and the um the number of spaces available there, we would have the potential of hosting the farmers market on this site, which could be again, it's a that's a new use. We haven't had the farmers market on this property in the past. Um but it would allow for that.

And and then the new multi-purpose building and pavilion, which could host a lot of that's right here, could host a lot of different things, including potentially an indoor market um on a particularly stormy day um or uh fundraisers or other events. Okay. So, this is again these are conceptual renderings, but this is potentially your um U of extension office. And just another closeup there of the park space and the parking. And this would be that multi-purpose building.

And you can see the tents um outside of that building that could be used for vendors during a major event or um or other events, other uses. Okay, so moving kind of quick here, but not seen any questions so far, so I'll just keep going here. Let's talk a little bit about mitigation. So, we talked about optimizing the property, um, preserving what we have and enhancing that property, activating the property, but that has to come with being a good neighbor, right? This is a city-owned property.

Um, the people that are across the street are residents of our city, and we want to be good neighbors. And that includes mitigating uh the impacts, right? the the traffic, the parking, the dust, the smells, the sounds, the lights. And so we we've certainly worked on that as well as part of developing the master plan. Uh the the new sound system um at the the rodeo portion of the property um was installed before the rodeo this year and I heard great things about it mitigating the impact.

um we have not yet had the same results with sound systems coming on the site for events separate from that one. So that's an an item we're still working on. But within the master plan, the let's starting with the traffic. So the the thought with the master plan is that we'd like to get the traffic off of Gail Gardener and leave that as a major arterial for the neighbors to continue to use even during events. Right?

they may just because it's the rodeo doesn't mean they won't need to get to the grocery store or get to hopefully not the hospital but maybe um wherever it is they may need to go and so to in order to push the traffic off of Gailgardner Way and onto Miller Valley um the master plan talks about installing ballards at fair and so there would not be at fair and at fairgrounds so that you would not be able to access the rodeo property, rodeo fairgrounds property from Gilgardner.

You'd have to go around to Miller Valley and then come in through fair as a spectator or come in on Rodeo Drive if you are a contestant with a larger with a larger rig. Um we mentioned the realignment of Rodeo Drive that we're already starting to work that into another project we hope. um layered circulation meaning again the separation. Um spectators are not in the same place as contestants and they're not accessing the property the same way as emergency vehicles or staff.

Um and again that keeps the traffic separate. It keeps people safe. They're not walking through um trailers being unloaded with a bull that's maybe unpredictable um or any other dangerous situation. Keeps the traffic flowing. Um, parking. The site will always, I think, for our our largest events will need off-site parking uh for things like the fair and the rodeo. Uh, the master plan does provide a path to increase just a few spaces from 1,123 to 1,134.

Um, also though creates a dedicated shuttle stop so that all that off-site parking um can be shuttled to the property and those folks have a straight walk um from the the um western boundary of the property right in past the multi-purpose building into the the rodeo or whatever activity they're they're attending. Um again separating the traffic um with the RVs. uh the goal of 5,000 or the the the target the limit there of 5,000.

Um so there's not a huge increase in the the number of attendance attendees um which will help with parking and then again pushing some of that parking to offsite. I mentioned the sound already but also any any lighting moving forward. We're going to focus on dark sky compliant lighting. We want to mitigate lighting crossing the property line. um certainly not wanting that to go through anybody's front window or anything like that.

and then the environmental portion and um you'll see within the master plan and I'll I'll put the picture back up here in a second all along that north side and a little bit on the west side um additional need for biobasins for mitigations but also the on-site manure composting facility and mitigations to um to occur before rain and runoff even get to the biobasins um all included there.

And then again, new trees, um some new vegetation so that it's not just a big open dirty area, but um dirty meaning it has dirt. Um but also there's there's a way to mitigate dust. Um there's a way to mitigate some of the the sun, but also smells and things that might might move through there. Okay. So again, if you look at the the plan, the Ballard to Long Gale Gardener, so if you're trying to get on a fairgrounds or fair during a major event, you're going to have to go around, right?

And we'll have to even, you know, half a mile mile ahead of when uh traffic is trying to get to, you know, say the rodeo or the fair, pushing that traffic to Miller Valley with signage and other things during major events. Um that also means if you're coming down fair during those events, you'll be you'll be directed into the parking lot, right? Okay. Let me ask you a question. Um I'd like to uh interrupt for a minute about the parking.

Um did we you know the county administration building is right immediately adjacent and you know they're open 9 to5 Monday through Friday. Has was there any attempt to ask them if we could use their parking lot during like rodeo and high population activities uh where we could park there since it's basically vacant during off hours? Yeah, we've talked with them. We talked with them a little bit about the project. Um most of their comments had to do with leaving their property alone.

Um, and I don't think that was intended in a mean way, maybe as blunt bluntly as I said it, but for example, the um, access to the auto club currently goes through that parking lot. And they specifically asked that we find a way to make sure we could provide access without going through their parking lot. And so for specific events, we may be able to approach them and get approval.

Um, but as as a sort of blanket normal way of doing business, I don't think they were ready to go there at this point. Well, it sounds like we need to work on them a little bit more. Yeah, they're nice. They they'll talk to us. Okay. Thank you. Okay. And again, Mary, I'm sorry, Don. Just to follow up on that cuz I'm curious.

Did the county whoever you spoke to there give a reason why well in particular I mean I'm not talking about people coming to the rodeo using their parking lot because that's a bigger ask. But specifically the auto club coming and going through their parking lot. Did they say what their complaint was about that? I don't know that they had a specific complaint, per se. Um, but they I think it was more on principle.

They felt like something that was on our property should be able to be accessed through our property. I don't think that they would they didn't tell us that they intended to close the gate and, you know, forever block off that way of getting into the property. Um but they did ask us to just find a way uh to to access from our property.

Uh we also for a while considered an exit um on the if you look at the kind of the top of the parking area to the right there, a possible exit going through their property. And they again they asked us to please not do that. um to focus on um self-contained property where all access could be made directly to and from our own property.

So again on the on the map um some additional um environmental obviously we need to get more into details there as as we move towards in construction of a project um additional parking some of that comes um there on the southeast side of the property where it currently is and um executing the master plan would involve olve at some point in the future finding a new office for it. Um they do have the best office in the city because they are the only office with swing sets.

Um because it used to be a head start building. So they they may miss the swing sets. Um but we we probably already need to find a more professional location for them where we can put equipment in appropriate facilities and temperatures etc. Um this this thinks about that as um future parking uh that will benefit the property. Um and then again the the trees and additional um spots there for the farmers market. Okay.

So talking about costs, I think the first thing to know in the master plan, it itemizes the projects that could be completed as part of the master plan. um or consistent with the master plan. As we've talked about this with our steering committee, we've talked about that in terms of each group working to fund the projects that they would use or that they they would be um yeah that they would use.

So the cooperative extension would be working to fund raise their own facility um the new building and the demonstration garden. uh the rodeo would work on enhancements to the the rodeo, the additional seating and those kinds of things. Each group focusing on um on their own projects.

If every project is completed, which um is a significant if because it depends on that funding coming through from some source, um then the total cost um in today's dollars is $48.2 million to do all of the projects on the property. of that amount. The um the amount that could be assigned to the city or that is assign you has the city's name next to it on that list of projects. There's $5.4 million um that is that is assigned to the city. And again, that's things like moving it.

That's things like common areas like parking um and um and I included a list which is super helpful. Look at that. um the park area, the biobasin, those kinds of again common use areas. I want to distinguish a little bit that is not that 5.4 million does not include projects that are already thought to be or potentially be funded through the state allocation. The 15.3 million, the council will manage that separately.

Um, and we've already identified a number of the projects that we'd like to move forward on and that update is coming forward here soon. Um, but we've we've done five of the nine projects council previously approved or previously directed that we look at. Um, so another conversation is coming there. This 5.4 million would be in addition to that 15.3. It it'll that money Excuse me. Patrick has a comment. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, thank you.

Um so with respect to the state funding and the potential city projects when you actually get into the preservation plan itself uh where the 48 million is also identified on page 22 um it has a figure of 8.6 million for site areas green space environmental and parking. Um where's the utility upgrading number captured? Correct. that is in the state funding allocation but it's not listed in the master plan. So it's not listed as a potential expense then either.

So that utility is beyond no the that project is already like in design right it's already in the works for the utility upgrading. Right. So that that project again this is okay um a topic we need to have another conversation with council about but that is the water utility the sewer utility it includes some drainage and some environmental and that's not in the 48 million that's that's that's not in the 48 million that's an additional project.

Okay Dalen isn't that part of the 15.3 correct the water and sewer right drainage infrastructure. Thank you. Anyone else? Uh, Mary, did you have a comment? Jay. Okay. All righty. Let's roll. Okay. Um, I I'll just make one more note for the city. Um, it's the $5.4 million. Some of that is dependent upon how others are operating on the property, right?

We want if their projects are moving forward, we might need to move forward with a parking project or we might need to accelerate an IT move or something like that. But it may also be that we are able to wait and um get grant funding and do that sort of thing. It's there's not a an urgent this all has to be done in the next year. It's we can look for opportunities. We can look for funding and uh and complete those projects. Okay.

So as mentioned before um the city has uh done significant public outreach. Our first public openhouse there February 2nd, second in June. The third public openhouse was in August. Then we had the public comment period from August 5th to September 22nd with a public hearing on August 25th and one on September 22nd. In that public comment period, we received the August to September period. We received 133 comments from 105 individuals. Um, some of them are repetitive comments.

69 of those were supportive, 29 of those were opposed, and seven were neutral. Uh, those comments have all been provided um to the council. If you do the the math on percentages, that's about 65% uh supportive. Okay. And I think with that, um, I think if we go and we talk to the different groups involved with this pro project and the property, I don't know that any of them would say that they absolutely love it.

I think most of them will say uh that they can live with it, that it's better than where we are today. Um, it it it's a step forward. It's a step in the right direction. It's something again we've been trying to do for 25 years. And this is us actually taking the step, which is which is an outstanding step to be able to take.

Um, given that staff is recommending that we approve the master plan, that the council approved the master plan, but I wanted to also highlight some other potential actions that could go with that. Um, so obviously if there's something glaring in the master plan that the council would like to talk about and and agree upon in terms of amending something, we could certainly do that.

Um, also if some of the concerns that we're trying to mitigate in terms of impact to the neighboring community aren't just about land use and they're not just about space, right? So it might be timing and frequency of events, for example. And there's not a way in a master plan um for us to regulate that, but that could come out in a lease discussion. And there may be other impacts that could come out in a lease discussion.

And so one of the options the council could think about is approval of the master plan contingent upon approval of the lease. And what that does is say that the lease and the master plan are effectively are effective at the same time. The master plan isn't really in effect until the the lease is approved. It makes them a package deal.

And hopefully we can mitigate that way the physical um space use and impact that we can address in the master plan and those elements uh that could be included in a lease.

Another thing we see sometimes with master plans is they get approved and then you know 40 years later um we get public comment about hey 40 years ago there was a master plan that said you were going to do this and the world has changed and things are different and it's hard to really go back and address a 40-year-old master plan.

So another option might be to say you know picking a some number of years between 10 and 30 that the master plan is approved but there's basically an expiration date um so that x number of years in the future to continue to execute the master plan. Uh there needs to be another public conversation and another um discussion with the public and the council about is this still appropriate? Is this still what we want to do?

um are there changes we'd like to make before we continue to implement effectively. That also means for organizations that are raising funds to complete projects that under the current master plan, they have a number of years to complete that project. And if the project isn't completed, there's again an opportunity for the council and the public um to have a discussion about if that's still what we want. Again, that's, you know, years in the future.

Um, and then of course, there is always an option for the council to decide not to approve uh the master plan. In that event, we'll just need direction on on what it is you'd like us to do or how you'd like us to move forward. Um, with that, that will conclude my presentation, but I'm happy to answer any questions you have. Uh, I'd like to hear um Legal's opinion about uh applying a couple of uh conditions to the master plan if we decide to approve it today.

The the master plan is, as the city manager said, a plan of what it may look like, of what the city envisions that property to look like over the next 20 years or so forth. Sort of independent but tied up in it is the lease. Um, and I've heard from council members about an a condition where the lease or the excuse me, the master plan does not become effective until the lease is completed. And I think that makes a lot of sense. And you're talking about the Prescuit Frontier Days lease.

The Prescuit Frontier Days lease. There are other leases out there, but quite frankly, they're sort of not the main issue that we're going to be dealing with. Um the uh Prescuit Antique Auto Club. I think eventually we have to address that lease. There's the UVA Cooperative Extension, which I think that lease is legal and conforms in in all ways. We might want to readress that when we're discussing building of uh different um improvements.

But as of now, I think the only lease we're really talking about is the lease with PFD. I think the condition that I just mentioned and that's been brought up is a is a good one. And what about having a term an expiration date on the master plan? On the master plan. I I don't think that's a legal concern. I think that is it's legal to do so, but I don't necessarily have any issues from that from a legal concern other than we have seen where we have master plans that become dated.

it becomes we're we're still bound by those terms or by that vision unless we have a sunset date. So, I generally like sunset dates. I would keep them. I would have it longer uh I don't know 30 years or whatever council wants. Um but I think some sort of sunset date on I've sort of mentioned this in the context of resolutions. I think it makes sense for resolutions for plans to have end dates. Did I answer your question? Yes. Thank you.

And uh Dalon, what was your third suggestion for a condition? Just the two possible condition term and the lease. Okay. Um one is to have the the approval contingent upon approval of the lease. Um and the second is um the possible expiration date, a sunset date of maybe 20 years, do you think? I mean, it's really up to the council. You could pick any you could say 50 years. You could say whatever number you'd like to say.

When you look at master plans generally um when you get beyond about years, you're things have changed, right? And you're into a territory where you probably are really due for a conversation. Um if the council wanted to make it a different time frame, that's certainly up to the council. Mr. Gambboji, did you have any comments? I didn't, but since I was invited, I would uh I would agree on 20 years. I know you're surprised, Patrick. Yeah, Don.

Um, going back to that program summary and preliminary budget on page 22. So, when we approve the master plan, and I guess maybe this might be to the city attorney, too. When we approve the master plan, what's the implication that we're approving a $ 48 million project? It's obviously silent on who's paying for X, Y, and Z. Is there do we have to have a caveats written in there somewhere? This is not necessarily an obligation of the city of Prescuit.

Well, so the plan identifies who's responsible for each project. Um, but approval of the master plan doesn't say we're going to do all $48 million. It says if we're going to do stuff, it's going to look like this. And there will be little pieces we do and it's, you know, going to be a little bit at a time over an extended period of time. So that's not and with additional approval and permitting processes.

So there's not an obligation to execute it, but it says if we are going to do projects, this is what they'll look like. And having said that, we have current leases that state specifically that future construction would be subject to the master plan, but still needs approval of the city in in terms of what the design looks like. So the approval of a master plan, the number is just sort of for your understanding, but it's not approving any of those numbers. Another related question.

Um on page 10 it talks about facility assessment and um also refers to utility systems and the like. So is there a report um available to us on the assessment of the facilities and the infrastructure? I'm not sure on that one. Um, I can look and see what we got from GH2. Um, because they did those analyses. Um, and I can look for that in a I'm trying to remember if that's in an um appendix or something, but if there's a an a document available, I'm happy to provide it.

And there I understand that we have had um an engineer looking at the grandstands. Um, have they completed their work yet? They have not yet completed. So, um, we a few weeks ago got kind of a verbal that from looking at it, they thought it was, um, structurally sound in that there may be some repairs, but it wasn't going to be a major overhaul. uh we've been pressuring them and and and asking them for something written and a stamp and uh like let's let's do this the engineering way.

And um in that in that conversation, they've decided that they feel like they need to do one more test before they're willing to put a stamp on things. And um fair enough, we'd rather it be accurate information. So um they are working on getting that test completed and then we will we'll get the results for the purpose of the master plan. What we need to know is where do the where do the grandstands go? Right?

And they go there and if if there were and I don't expect this excuse me I don't expect this at all. If there were some kind of a finding that you know we need to do some work more significant work here. All the master plan says is you put the seating here. Um and so we we have from a master plan perspective, the plan is complete. From a like actual life on the ground or or feet on the ground um perspective, we need to get more information about whether that project needs to become a priority.

Okay, Lois. Um I like the um the the master plan overall. Um but one of the things I worry about is the amount of funds that are going to be needed to be raised by some of these various organizations. So for that reason um two two thoughts.

one um I do think 20 years as an expiration date is great because if someone can't raise the funds and do what they want to do or need to do I think that gives us an opportunity for some other lees or current lees actually to be able to maybe get some more space for plans they've cooked up over the next 20 years. So, I don't want to go out 50 years or something crazy. Um, because I think it's going to be dynamic and I don't know that anyone knows, you know, exactly that.

Yes, I've got all the funds I need and I'll start building next year. Um, so that was just, you know, my input. I align with Ted on on the number. The other one was, um, again, because this master plan is is just a vision and a plan. Um, and then people are going to start, you know, following the leases. Then things are going to start getting more concrete.

Um, and people are going to want, you know, permits and building and one lease could affect another's event while roads are being torn up or the city's plowing water and sewer in.

And so I do think it's really important that we put together um a master plan governance model with meetings where all the leies in the city meet regularly and ensure that you know that we're moving along that we're making progress that we're not harming each other as we're making construction just to keep things um continuing to be neighborly and friendly with each other versus us sitting back like we used to do and let let people go at it. we need to have some responsibility to stay involved.

So that's my only other thought um as we move for through the next five to 10 years which will be pretty dynamic. Yeah, and that's a great thought. I really appreciate it.

at our last steering committee meeting um understanding there's been some conflict between some of the groups especially between Prescuit Frontier Days and and some of the neighbors that there was conversation about hey we we like working together we'd like to continue working together and maybe there needs to be some kind of um like you you called them steering committee uh meetings whatever the meetings are called um some kind of regular opportunity to meet together and talk about how things are going and and what's coming up in the future and um that was I thought a really positive uh a positive step.

Felt good. Mr. Garing, do you have any comments? Oh, thank you, Mayor. Um, I guess what I would say to the public is that my sense is that the council as a whole is acutely aware of your concerns about traffic, noise, event frequency, um, and that sort of thing, but that the master plan is not the correct way to address those in full and that the lease process is. Thank you. Thank you, uh, Patrick. Yes. Thank you.

Um, following up on what Lois said, I think that that governing piece is really important to keep stakeholders engaged, but speaking from [snorts] a city council perspective, we also have a a number of action steps that need to occur, you know, perhaps more after the lease is approved. but with survey environmental issues of great concern to a number of us if not the entire city council as well as the neighborhood and other citizens.

Um the other lists on page 36 and 37, flood planning investigation, utility studies, geotech, archaeological, I'm I'm thinking out loud that it's important for city council to have regular updates, too. And I think we need to figure out how that process is going to work. Yeah, and that's a good comment. I'll I'll mention again as part of the 15.3 million, there is an inclusion for some environmental drainage work um that will do this.

Some of this work will be done project by project like archaeological for example will happen as part of your environmental impact um be before a project. Others may need a more broad um view um when we talk about traffic ongoing traffic study, right? That kind of thing. Um and uh so on the on the state allocation um I've already said you know we're working on an update for you um in the very near future so you can get that information.

Um but absolutely other updates as um as projects are progressing make a lot of sense. Okay. Thank you. Uh I'd like to move on. It's almost uh five o'clock. I'd like to move on to uh public comments if there's no more comments from u city council. Thank you. Okay, we do have 25 public comment cards. So, I am going to take them in the order that I received them um with the exception of a couple that asked to be at the end.

Um and I would like to remind everybody that you have three minutes to address the council. Um, I'd like the audience to be respectful to everybody that is addressing the council, respectful to the council, respectful to staff. Um, and uh, we will get started with Tammy Bates. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Proim, and council members. My name is Tammy Campbell. I'm speaking on behalf of Lorie Stoz Eller.

She's a third generation Arizona Prescat native and um I decided that it would be prudent to use my time today to offer you her perspective on this.

Um, Lori is a former Prescuit Frontier Days Rodeo Queen, barrel racing competitor, PRCA, former Miss Rodeo Arizona, runner up to Miss Rodeo America, breakaway roper, team roper, American quarter horse competitor, former 4, and she is um took her her career took her out of state to Washington DC where she worked in agricultural organizations for over the last 30 years.

In the last two years, she has moved back to Prescat for the reason of the western heritage that she loves here, which involves the rodeo, involves the agricultural that the fairgrounds and rodeo um offers to many organizations. And her parents have lived here for over 40 years. Again, um they're from here, they moved away, they moved back. she chose to move back and many of her friends um from college have chosen to move back due to this western heritage which involves the rodeo.

All that to be said, she's asking that um you move to approve this master plan, keep the grounds um where the world's oldest rodeo exists, which is part of our heritage in Prescuit, and um to move forward with um the economy, the tourism that the rodeo brings, and the other um events that happen at the fairgrounds as you move forward looking into these options. of um what would produce the best perspective for the city and the rodeo. Thank you. Thank you, Kristen Van Hook. Good afternoon.

My name is Chris Van Hook, but they made me put my full name on there. [laughter] Nice to be with you all and thank you for allowing us to speak. And I want to say first of all, thank you to all the people that have put so much work into this master plan. Uh I think we all know that we could go another 10 years going through different ways of putting this together and still not come to complete agreement. But I'm speaking on behalf of those who have moved here to Prescat in the past few years.

I have been here now a little over seven years. And one of the biggest reasons my wife and I came to Prescat was the Prescat frontier days and world's oldest rodeo along with all the other western heritage traditions that we have here and all the other equestrian events um that we have at the rodeo grounds. So from our perspective and by the way I'm the senior pastor at Living Truth Christian Fellowship here in Prescat.

Our church is young as well about 6 years old and many of my congregants uh I am speaking for today because they came uh partially for the same reason the western heritage the traditions we have there here in Prescuit and we have many traditions here including the uh courthouse lighting which so many people have come to be a part of as well but the western heritage tradition and the rodeo itself is really in my opinion the heart and soul of this town.

When we say we're everybody's hometown, if we don't continue to upgrade and and uh make sure that we keep the Prescat uh Frontier Days and World's Oldest Rodeo here, we have have lost something extremely important that many people have come to this town for. So, along with my good friend Tammy here, we would recommend approval of some form here. And I like that you have uh options on here.

But the one thing, the most important thing to many many of us who have come here in the recent years is that we continue to have this great event here in Prescuit and we support it 100%. Thank you. Thank you, Chris [applause] Carter Labarge. Mayor, Council, I'm Carter Learge, Prescuit resident. The staff has identified on multiple occasions this afternoon how iconic the grandstands are and how key they are to this entire program.

Well, the staff in GH2 had an a year to do an analysis of the grant stands. And why is it that we only started this analysis 36 days ago? So during the September 22 council meeting, this is moving to another side side of this. During the September 22 council meeting, 1 hour and 41 minutes and 5 seconds into the meeting, Councilman Ruby asked who would hold liability if there was an incident on the grounds. The city attorney confirmed that PFD and the city would be liable.

To expand on this statement, section 19 of the PFD lease requires a $2 million of insurance. Period. Full stop. After 2 million, the lawyers move to the deep pockets of the city. The real liability if anything happens in on those rodeo grounds rest with the city.

Immediately after the city attorney, the city manager Kimble spoke up and he said, and I quote, "Yeah, if I can jump in, uh, there's something we're already working on." So, we had a structural engineer on site a couple of weeks ago, looking and I'm looking forward to getting that analysis. The, um, at the time of review, uh, they indicated there might be some small fixes, but not a major thing. and we'll get a full report and we'll make sure that we're solid on that before we move forward.

It took a year to start it and that's the most iconic component of the rodeo grounds. So, this council should not commit to this master plan without this analysis and a detailed structural review by a PE based on structural analysis. Yet there's been no information of any of the scope of work for the information that's being reviewed by whoever is doing it, if they are doing it. There's no contract. There's no report from any structural engineer.

And the city's response to record request says that none exists. Have you seen any reports or even know who this structural engineer is? And since there's no report, I'd like to know where the at the 11th hour, the $6 million for grandstand upgrades, which suddenly appeared on page 12 of the master plan, the most the last one that you just received. And what is that based on? And who's paying for this? And staff doesn't include it in the 5.4 million cost. They say the city is responsible.

So the 153 million 15.3 million has been allocated and that's long committed. So what happens to the other 6 million that we're now looking at for more costs. So while we're being told that tenants will pay for their own improvements, page nine of the master plan says something completely different. It's calling for bonds, public private partnerships, and using lodging taxes as possible funding sources. This is more taxpayer money for a private entity that shows a net loss each year.

And that is not acceptable. So if we approve this master plan today without any inclusion of what's going on with the grandstands, this is what comes next. If something happens, then we go the way of the Toyota Center over in PV and the taxpayers holding the bag. So the bottom line is you don't have the facts that you need to commit to the master plan as it is written.

So you should very well take that into consideration and put that in your thoughts because it's only after you know what the true risks and costs will be that this council can be fiscally responsible in a position to bind the taxpayers for some possible cost in the future. Point of order, madam mayor, lights red. Oh, thank you. Um, Carter, would you like to uh conclude? Goodbye. Okay. Thank you, [laughter] Debbalce. Ted, you watching the light? My name's Deb Thaletus.

I'm not here to convince you of anything today, but I want this on the record. This may be a concept plan, but there's huge gaping financial holes. As Carter just mentioned, this version of the master plan adds 6 million for grandstand structural repairs, which is a good thing, except it says you're going to pay for it out of the 15.3 million, which is already committed. So, who's paying for these improvements?

On top of that, the master plan shows no costs for three projects that are slated to be spent out of the 15.3 million, but for some reason are not on the 15.3 million list. And I'm going to give you guys the list that we all got knock in August. Point of order, madame mayor, you don't have your timer light on. Thank you, Ted. Thank you, Ted. It's nice to know you're not texting and you're watching us over here. He just doesn't want to hear what I have to say. But it's just for the record.

[snorts] Um, three more projects just evaporated from the master plan. The spectator entrance, the contestant entrance, and the rodeo drive realignment, which I guess is being paid for out of some other project, which is paid for by taxpayers. And then you get to the big ticket items. The master plan omits costs for design fees, ADA compliance, archaeological, hazmat remediation, furniture fixtures equipment audiovisisuals, cost escalation, and the big one.

There is no cost despite what you heard today for moving city it. There's only a cost for demolishing the building. That's going to cost the taxpayers a lot whether it happens five years or 10 years from now. So the 5.4 4 million number is a fantasy. It's easily five times that amount and the total cost is way more than 48 million. If you look between pages 22 and 26 or 27, there's zeros [laughter] for costs of a lot of these things. That's how you get to 48 million.

We're looking at 70 million in PAS remediation, 130 million in wastewater centralization, and millions in police and fire facilities. And yes, I know that those come from different funds for you, but for citizens, we have a bank account. That's where it comes from us. And this is already a lot. You didn't cause any of these problems. You aren't going to solve them today.

But I'm questioning if this is the time to approve a large discretionary project, even if it's only conceptual, when you don't even know how the 15.3 million is to be spent. I hope that you will think about a decision of this magnitude and not only include contingent contingent upon the lease, but that you delay approval of this until you've at least seen the complete list for of the 15.3 million.

And I'm going to give the clerk the list I have from August, which is the last list anybody's ever seen. Thank you, Deb. Sue Manuel. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Sue Manuel Prescott. You know my history.

I'm here to fight for my family's heritage, my legacy, for my right of the right of my family and my neighbors to live in a peaceful, safe environment that we have chosen not by an invent center with weekly happenings, uncontrolled noise, large amounts of traffic, glaring lights, and parking issues. Unlike most of Prescuit Frontier Day's boards, we have all chosen to live, shop, and pay taxes in Prescuit for many years, 365 days a year. You all know property taxes just came out.

I do not support this master plan and hope that you will not approve it. PFD stated during during committee meetings that they did not want concerts on the property yet. Yavapai County Fair had concerts during the fair. The Arizona Buzz Club just a few weekends ago had concerts. PFD also advertises on its website that prospective events can hold concerts in their arena. This tells me PFD cannot be taken at their word.

Based on records request, PFD has shown it cannot be trusted to request building permits, submit plans as it is required in their current lease. Nor can the city be trusted to enforce any of this lease. Further, PFD should not be managing this property. They do not have the legal qualifications to be a property manager as specified in Arizona state law.

As for leases, there should be no approval of this master plan or anything until there are new leases renegotiated and signed with all users of this property. There are many still many unanswered questions from both public and yourselves from the last council meeting.

As staff has stated, we are in the very beginnings of this process when it comes to the environmental questions space required to take care of the runoff of this property and there's no clear indication in this master plan what additional stresses on city sewer, water and road systems there will be at a cost to taxpayers.

There is no cost listed for demolition, design, environmental remediation, the Rodeo Drive intersection improvements, and there's no documentation supporting the $6 million in structural improvements of the grandstand. All this for a private business is losing hundreds of thousands of dollars yearly, even with her corrected tax forms. Presca taxpayers have many large dollar needs needs. This master plan is a want. Take care of what there is.

fix and update the buildings, the grandstand, concrete, asphalt with the 15.3 and be glad that they have what they have. Taxpayers are being asked for additional monies for schools, courts, water, sewer, trash. We approved money for police and fire. And now we hear most likely it's going to need 70 million more to clean up PIFA. Be a be the shining example that processes must be followed. Questions must be answered before anything is approved.

Laws and codes must be followed by all, even the city. Show the people, the citizens of Prescuit, the people who voted for you, that you are that they are important to you and that you respect us and our quality of life. Thank you, Sue. Michael Olsen, [clears throat] Mayor Rene and Council. Um, my name is Mike Olsen. I was born and raised in Prescuit and my family and I have been in business since 1979 um around the Tri City area as well as all of Northern Arizona.

Our business has been [sighs] promoting agriculture and livestock um the equin industry. um as most of you may know we sell pet food and livestock feed and um our big pro big supporters of the rodeo. Um many many years ago JC Dillo came to me and asked if we would partner with them on sponsoring the rodeo and we've continued to do that for for many many years. Um it's not about just the world's oldest rodeo. It's about everything else that goes on in that facility.

Um, I've been in um involved with youth agriculture ever since we've been in business here and and really all my life. Um, so all the other events that take place here are impacted by what you're talking about doing. And this master plan addresses not only the rodeo but all kinds of other equin events as well as the Abai County Fair.

Um if any of you have ever taken part or or looked at the Junior Livestock Show and the support that Junior livestock show has here in Yavapai County as well as statewide, it is like booming. And so we need to provide for that and we need to expand the facility to help do that. Um, rodeo in itself has gotten very very very popular nationwide.

And if we're going to keep up with the sport of rodeo in Prescuit, Arizona, and keep this world oldest rodeo as viable as it has been, we have got to come up with come up with the times, come up with what it's going to take to promote this rodeo in the future because rodeo fans um are expanding tremendously and it impacts the whole community as the fan base grows. So, and I really believe that one thing that gets missed and the the gentleman was up here earlier talked about Western heritage.

That's what Prescuit's about is Western Heritage. And I I really believe that the the popularity of rodeo is because people are beginning to believe in the values of the western heritage of life. And therefore, I urge you strongly to support this master plan and get it passed so that we can move forward. Thank you. Thank you, Mike. Rex Henshaw. Good afternoon. I'm Rex Henshaw, a longtime resident and vice president of Prescuit Frontier Days. Um, mayor, mayor Porto, council, and staff.

I'd like to give you a short list of words and phrases. Please consider what they mean to you and to our community. And I'm talking about our entire community, western heritage, prescuit history, local tradition, ranching and cowboy culture, economic engine, millions to this community, internationally known, world's oldest. Professional rodeo 4th of July 1888. Same location since 1913. Nonprofit, thousands to charity, 600 volunteers.

All these words and phrases refer to and describe Prescat Frontier Days, the world's oldest rodeo. Our organization supporters, including the business community, have been fairly quiet concerning the issue before you. We do not bombard you with constant email complaints and demands. If we were forced to move to a new location, we would lose our PRCA sanctioned designation as the world's oldest rodeo and we would we would become simply the newest.

That would be a huge tragic loss for our community. The master plan steering committee created a vehicle for dialogue between stakeholders, users, and the public. After over a year's work, the master plan provides a vision of what could be. It is a conceptual document as mentioned before, not a construction document. Yes, there are physical, logistical and financial challenges. But this master plan provides a roadmap, a guideline towards the in incremental development of these goals.

We at Prescat Frontier Days urge you to do what's best for the community as a whole, not the two 2% vocal minority. Vote to accept this master plan without conditions and let's start working together towards another 140 years of the world's oldest rodeo. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Rex. [applause] Lenora Bennett Baitman. Hello, Mayor. City Council. It's been a long time since I've been at a city meeting.

Um, when I I believe I was in fourth grade, my dad, Roy Bennett, was on the city council and many years later, my my brother Ken Bennett. Um, but what a beautiful building we have right here to be in and meet today. Uh, thank you for the opportunity to speak in support of the rodeo's master plan. I'm an owner of Bennett Oil, a local family business started right here in Bennett or in Prescuit in 1938 by my grandfather.

As a third generation member of this business community, now raising the fourth generation, I understand the importance of preserving the traditions, heritage, and small town pulse that makes Prescuit such a special place to live, work, and raise a family. Businesses like ours are part of the Prescat story. We contribute to the local economy, support families and livelihoods, and help preserve the character of the community we call home.

And we recognize that the strength of Prescat depends not only on the businesses we build, but also on the traditions and institutions that bring people here and give our community its identity. The world's oldest rodeo is exactly that kind of legacy. The rodeo is so much more than a week of events. It is woven into the identity of this community. It is part of our history, our western heritage, and the character that makes Prescuit special. It brings visitors to our city.

It fills our hotels and restaurants, supports our retailers and local businesses, and creates economic activity that reaches far beyond the rodeo grounds. For many people, the rodeo is the reason they come to Prescat in the first place. That includes some of my own children who no longer live here. While I cannot get them home for Thanksgiving or Christmas, I know that when the rodeo starts every summer, and if they know I have tickets, they show up and they're here.

They're here all weekend long. It is a tradition that connects generations and gives people a reason to return to this community year after year. We should not take that for granted. We should plan to preserve it. That is why I believe adopting this master plan is so important. This is a long range framework, not a fi a final construction document. It provides direction, establishes goals, and creates a thoughtful foundation for future decisions.

It allows us to look beyond today and consider how the rodeo can remain a vibrant and valued part of prescuit for decades to come. I also recognize that living next to the rodeo grounds can present real challenges. Our neighbors concerns matter and they deserve to be heard. In fact, improving operations and reducing impacts on the neighborhoods directly adjacent to the grounds are stated goals of this planning process. Those commitments should remain an important part of the work ahead.

Even though my home is not directly adjacent to the rodeo ground, I can hear and enjoy the sounds and excitement of the rodeo events each night. But I can I believe we can respect our neighbors while also protecting a community treasure. Those goals are not mutually exclusive. A thoughtful master plan gives us a framework to work towards both. Prescuit has a responsibility to preserve the things that make this city distinctive.

Not simply for those of us who live here today, but for the generations who will inherit it. The rodeo is one of those things. Once a tradition and a legacy like this are lost, they cannot simply be recreated. You are not being asked to approve every future building improvement or operational decision. You are being asked to support a plan for the future to give this historic institution a responsible path forward. This has not been an overnight conversation.

The vision for improving the world's oldest rodeo ground and fairgrounds has been before our community and city council for years. Today is an opportunity to bring that work to a meaningful milestone. The master plan is a long-term planning framework. It establishes a vision and direction for the property. I respectfully urge you to adopt the Prescuit Rodeo master plan today. We cannot steer a parked car. Thank you for your support in the rodeo and your diligent efforts of the master plan.

Thank you, Lenora. [applause] Summer Logan. Good afternoon, Mayor and members of the city council. My name is Summer Logan, and today I stand before you not only as a employee of the Prescuit Frontier Days, I am also a PRCA member, and I have been a part of this rodeo for over 18 years. For 18 years, I have watched this rodeo grow. I have watched generations of families come through our gates.

And I have seen the dedication, sacrifice, countless volunteer hours, and tremendous amount of work that goes into preserving something that is much bigger than any one person. To me, this rodeo has never been just a job. It's a family. It's history. It's a tradition. And it's part of who I am. But I'm not standing here for just myself. I'm speaking on behalf of the 836 contestants who competed on our grounds in 2006 and chose to attend our rodeo and not others.

Cowboys and cowg girls traveled thousands of miles and dedicated their lives to this sport. I'm also speaking on the visitors who traveled from 19 countries and 41 different states this year to experience our rodeo and something that cannot be replicated anywhere else.

And I'm speaking for the junk younger generations of Prescuit, the hardworking people in my age bracket who care deeply about this community, its future, and its traditions, but who can't take time away from their jobs to sit in a city council meeting that takes place during normal work hours. Their absence from these seats does not mean their voices do not matter, and it certainly does not mean that they don't care.

I respectfully ask the council to remember that the people who are able to attend these meetings are not necessarily representative of the entire community. There are thousands of working families, young professionals, business owners, rodeo supporters, and future generations whose voices deserve equal consideration. The world's oldest rodeo is not simply a week of entertainment. It's an economic engine, as we've seen.

It supports hotels, restaurants, gas stations, retail stores, businesses, and countless individuals whose livelihoods benefit from the visitors who come to Prescuit for our rodeo. Our rodeo generates an estimated 33 million in economic impact and that extends well beyond our city and to the state of Arizona. We are part of a professional rodeo organization that sanctions more than 700 rodeos in one calendar year.

And our rodeo has earned its reputation as one of the most recognized and respected rodeos in the professional rodeo out of 700. But what makes us special is not simply our size. It's the fact that we have something the rest of the world cannot comp not claim. We are the world's oldest rodeo. That title holds responsibility. It holds history. It carries an obligation to protect what generate what generations before us worked so hard to build.

I understand that the city has responsibilities to taxpayers, neighbors, and many different users of these grounds. I understand that improvements require planning, accountability, and careful consideration. But I also struggle to understand why there is hesitation moving forward with a plan to improve an aging city-owned facility, especially when substantial funding has been secured for much needed improvements. That without these funds, as a property owner, those would fall onto the city.

At what point do we stop discussing the importance of preserving our history and actually take the steps to preserve it? These improvements are not about making our rodeo bigger or better. They are about safety. They are about accessibility. They are about infrastructure that can support our contestants livestocks volunteers and generations to come.

I have given 18 years of my life to this rodeo, and I can tell you that the people behind it are not simply trying to preserve an event on a calendar. We are preserving a way of life. We are preserving stories who come before us and protecting the opportunity for future generations to make their own. Over the last several years, I have watched how others spent their time building opposition and rallying a small army against us and what we're trying to do.

While we the rodeo and our over 80,000 attendees a year have remained focused on what matters most, putting on the world's oldest rodeo and continuing this history and bringing millions of dollars into our community. So today, I ask that the council consider the full weight of the decisions before you.

I ask that you support moving the master plan forward and ensure the future lease negotiations are fair, transparent, and consistent with the long-term operation of the world's oldest rodeo and its historic grounds. And to recognize that preserving this tradition is an investment in Prescuit's future. Because progress should never come at the expense of the very history that made the community what it is. Once a piece of history is lost, no amount of money can buy it back.

I hope that from years now when the next generation stands where I am, they can look back at the decisions made by this council that you chose to protect our heritage. Summer, um, could you please come to a conclusion? Thank you. I'm not asking you to choose between Prescuit's future and Prescuit's past. We are not We are asking you to recognize that in this case, they belong together.

And I know the thousands of people who can't be here today to voice this would agree that this master plan needs to be approved. Thank you, Summer. [applause] Joe Baines, Rosalie Derby. Rosé Darby, general manager of the Yavapai County Fair. I come before you today and ask you to approve the master plan. Even though not all the pieces are maybe that we all agree on, I'm going to tell you it comes about growth and development.

The Aapai County Fair is the longest running fair in the state of Arizona. And I'm going to tell you, the Aapai County Fair is something to be proud of. This year, our youth livestock auction was over $652,000. This year is one time that I stood at two different county fairs helping them run their fair and we were well over 200,000 higher than them. When in previous years I've stood there going, "If only my kids could get that much money." And that's something for this county to be proud of.

But without a fairgrounds, we can't do that for our children. And it's not about the money, but our fair is about something of about a man who brings me a painting that his wife, who passed away a month prior, had painted so she could get a blue ribbon.

[snorts] Or it's about a nice little lady who brings me her crocheted bonnet who wanted to display it because she got a blue ribbon at the state fair the year before and wanted to display it along with her state fair blue ribbon because she thought she was a champion, but it was just simply a blue ribbon. But I would never tell you that she wasn't a champion. It's about the little boy that stood there on the side of the ring and got to be a cowboy because he got to chase a grease pig.

[snorts] It's about the little kids who got to run and chase and gather all the candy that they could. It's about the kids that got to come and get a piece of ca cotton candy or touch an animal for the first time.

It's about those people that come to the gate as a family and could afford one ticket and wanted to know what day their family could come in free and I escorted them through the grounds and took them and bought their family hot dogs for the entire family and took them to the petting zoo and let them enjoy a day at the fair. This is what the county fair brings to our community. It's about providing that back to our people.

It's about putting animals into hands of people who never get that opportunity. It's about sending kids to college and being able to give them a college education because they got that opportunity to learn about livestock and agriculture because they thought they were Hispanic and they would never have the opportunity to go to college. And without this master plan, you take away those opportunities.

I might not agree with every piece of this puzzle and things are not all roses and rainbows, but we need to approve this because this Prescuit heritage is important and working together and putting all of the things that matter most and putting it in front of everybody because we need this master plan and we need to work together and not sit at home and worry about how many seats are in the grand stands or how loud the one concert was that by the way turned off at 10:00 at night was, but worrying about what we're teaching our youth and what we're providing them [clears throat] is what matters most.

Thank you. [applause] Thank you, Rose. Sher Heiny. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council members and team. Um, first of all, I got a Did you know? Did you know that all of Arizona's Christmas City uh decorations are stored in Barn B? I'll just leave it at that. [laughter] Well, I didn't know that. We've been looking for them. [gasps] U My name is Sher Heiny and I'm here today to speak in support of the Rodeo Master Plan.

For the past seven years, I've had the incredible honor to ride in the rodeo, participating in the grand entry. And I can't tell you what riding in the rodeo meant for me. Um, going into that arena and just hearing the cheers, hearing people call out your name. Um, and feeling that pride and tradition that makes Prescuit so special. For me, the rodeo isn't just an event. It's an experience, tradition, and a piece of Prescuit's heart.

Each year I get to see firsthand what the rodeo means to the contestants, the volunteers, the families, the generations of the people who made this a part of their life. When we talk about economic importance of the rodeo, I think we need to look beyond tourism. It's also about our ranching and equestrian communities, the cattle ranchers, horse owners, trainers, friers, veterinarians, feed stores, and so many other local businesses that are a part of this western life.

These are real businesses, real families, and an important part of our regional economy. The rodeo doesn't just celebrate our western heritage, it helps keep it alive. And I believe that we have the responsibility to preserve that tradition while planning for the future. The master plan is a road map, not a construction document.

There's going to be a lot of work in beyond it, but it's an important look ahead as Don pointed out um planned responsibly, improve the facilities, and ensure that our history will continue and thrive. I do recognize that the neighborhoods are an important part of the conversation. Their concerns deserve to be heard and addressed by planning the process and moving it forward. But I believe we can do that together.

We can be good neighbors while protecting and investing in one of Prescat's greatest traditions. For seven years of riding in that arena, I know how special this rodeo is, and I want future generations to have the same opportunity to experience it. I respectfully encourage the council to adopt the ro the rodeo master plan and continue moving this important effort forward. And I want to thank you all for the time that you've put in and the considerations that you've taken.

We appreciate you very much and I hope that you support this plan. Thank you. Thank you, Sherry. [applause] Tony Hamr, good evening. Um it's great to be able to stand here and just make a few remarks today. Um we're really looking at the wild west of planning and this is the biggest ED project in this city. It's a huge opportunity. Home of the world's ro oldest rodeo where cowboy hats are huge.

The history and manure is rich and deep and the local city council meetings have officially taken over from bull riding as the western sport. Here are some of the key features of this m master plan, the massive master plan that we need to address.

Turn the rustic fairgrounds into a high-tech multi-use yearround mega complex complete with multi-use pavilions, an equipment barn, a fancy 10story, excuses, matt, 10story University of Arizona extension building, and shiny new porcelain commodes to replace the less desirable city or standing of today. The reality of where we are um we've hired consultants, architects form steering committees and are promising strategically located removable traffic barriers.

Nothing screams wild untamed western frontier spirit quite like the highly organized and layered traffic circulation. By the way, this isn't the first rodeo strategic plan. We've kicked this down the road several times before. A vocal group who live near the fairgrounds are absolutely terrified of their impending doom. More traffic, no parking, terrible noise, dust everywhere, and the terrifying prospect of the year round farmers market expansion.

And master gardeners wandering around talking about values of N, K, and P. Terrible. The neighborhood noise complaints have really reached legendary status. Some residents claim they haven't slept since 1913. They bought a house directly next to the century old stadium where balls scream and pirate technics explode every July. And now shock horror to find that the 1000 p.m. city noise ordinance isn't being strictly followed. And it gets worse.

Local social media have degenerated into digital demolition derbies or derbies if you prefer. The discourse essentially boils down to two types of our favorite keyboard warriors. If you don't like the sound of a 1,400B farm animal and blaring country music at midnight, pack your bags and move back to California, Texas, Oregon, Montana, Boston. Don't care. Just move back. This city council is driven by Replacing the historic arena dirt with rainbow GT DG. I don't think we should.

But now is the time to get real. Don't kick it down the road again and end up enriching the swarming legal and vultural community. Be entrepreneurial. Get partnerships with local businesses and with businesses who want to come here. We have this great opportunity to move forward from an economic development standpoint with this and turn this into a foundational opportunity for all in our city. Thank you, [applause] Rebecca Ruffner. Sarah, you said we had 25. Where are we at now? 14. Thank you.

Good evening, U Madame Mayor and members of the council. I'm Becky Ruffner. I've lived in this community all my life, which now totals close to 80 years. Um, my family story is intertwined with that of the rodeo's history. My great uncle was present and part of the committee that organized the cowboy tournament in 1888.

My grandfather was a rea director of the world's oldest rodeo for many years and worked with Doc Party and Grace Sparks in developing what are called the Prescuit rules for rodeo [snorts] and the rodeo over its 139 years has existed and scrapped and yet come along every single year through post-war times when there was no money and through many other challenges. It's a it's a history that our community is proud of and we own it and many families have contributed to it over the years.

As a child, uh my 4 club met at the rodeo grounds regularly every month. We had horse shows, pretty good quadrill team. And I also competed in the rodeo um one July myself in the 60s. and my family never missed the weekend horse races. So that place has great meaning to the history of my family in this community and I'm sure many other families as well.

The master plan represents the generations who have contributed to the rodeo through their volunteer work, through their community leadership, through their sponsorships, and through their work. And the master plan is the next phase of that kind of support from the community to um lead the rodeo forward. We'll soon be celebrating our 150th anniversary as the world's oldest rodeo and I hope over the next 10 years a good portion of the rodeo master plan can be completed.

One area of the master plan that's extremely important to me is the proposed rodeo museum. The world's oldest rodeo has a tremendous amount of archives. These archives are not currently adequately stored. They're not protected. They're not categorized in any way and they're uh very vulnerable to uh what time does to photographs and historical records.

And I'd like very much to see this master plan implemented with attention to a rodeo museum that can be a focal point where people enter the rodeo grounds to see the competition. They learn about the rodeo and they're may become part of why we care about it as a community. Thank you very much for your time and I urge you to support the master plan and let's get to work. Thank you, Becky. [applause] Heather seats. Good afternoon, Mayor Rousing and council members.

Thank you for allowing me to to come here today. Uh my name is Heather Seats and I'm the public affairs director for the Prescat Area Association of Realtors. Um, as a Prescuit native, the world's oldest rodeo holds a special place in my heart, um, and in my family's history. Um, from a cousin who competed for Rodeo Queen to another cousin who advanced to the National High School Rodeo in, uh, Shaunie, Oklahoma. Uh, it's been a proud seats tradition um, for generations.

I'm here today to express par support of the Prescuit Rodeo and the Rodeo Fairgrounds master plan. The rodeo is much more than just one week of events. It's part of our history, our identity, our western heritage, and it brings residents and visitors together to support local businesses, um contribute to the visitor economy, and it helps our community thrive. It's part of what makes Prescuit such a special place to live, work, and to raise a family.

At PAR, we understand that a strong community is more uh than just about homes and property values. It's about preserving the traditions, experiences, and the quality of life that make people proud to call Prescuit home. We also recognize that neighborhood concerns are important, and they deserve thoughtful consideration. Improving operations and reducing impacts on surrounding neighborhoods are important goals of this master plan.

The master plan provides a long-term vision and direction for the property. The specific details of the individual projects we still will need to have addressed as we move forward. Adopting this plan is an opportunity to preserve our heritage while thoughtfully planning for the future. On behalf of PAR, I support the rodeo and the fairgrounds and the master plan and I respectfully ask that the council adopt the plan today.

Thank you for your continued support of the Prescat Rodeo, for your diligent work uh to develop a plan that honors our traditions while considering the needs of our community. Thank you so much. Thank you, Heather. [applause] Irene Winter not tall. Good afternoon, mayor and council. I am an 80-year resident of Prescuit, Arizona. I'm a 39year member of Prescat Frontier Days. I've seen us when we were growing up. As a minor's child, there was never enough money to go to a rodeo.

So when I was told that I could go and volunteer, that was the greatest thing going. My first rodeo was 75 years ago when my brother was born. But after that, we never went to rodeo. So this has been an experience for me. I've seen us grow. I've been on the board when we hired JC Truhill. I've been on the board when we hired Jim Dewey Brown. Both of those men have been the greatest asset that this rodeo has ever had.

In 2015, I was honored to be chosen as president of Prescuit Frontier Days, but I'm going to bring back a little bit. You know, in 1913 when we came to our current location from Forbine Park was the start of Prescuit of Prescuit Rodeo. I'm not going to say Prescuit Frontier Days, but Prescuit Rodeo. Um, what happened then is it went different ways. We had the fair there. We had horse racing. I actually sold tickets at a paramutual window. And we had the smokey people.

I don't know if any of you have ever heard of the Smoke eye people. I was honored to be their last chieftess. We dance there every August. It was wonderful. One of the things that folks don't understand about Fresco Frontier Days is yes, we rodeo, but we also give. We give to children. Have you ever seen a challenged child or young adult, steer rope, piece of horns, go and pet a horse, go take a ribbon off a goat, and then go in and have pizza and coke and see the look on their face.

That's part of what we do in Presca Frontier Days. We give college scholarships to young adults. We call them ambassadors. At the end of their year, we give them a a um college uh what do you call it? Whatever. Thank you. But you know, Rodeo has been a part of Prescuit. Yes, I understand because I know some of the people that live on the other side of Gail Gardener. We can be dirty, we can be noisy, we can be all that, but we also are Prescat Rodeo and Prescat Frontier Days.

We bring in a lot of money for this city, but we also bring in a lot of love from people. Why would I go 20 thou 20,000 miles away to see a rodeo from another country? Why would I do this? It's because people love what we do. Yes, we need to improve our grounds, but the master plan is the step first step in what we do. I learned lot years ago, don't keep your red light on. You need to go to the green light and see where how far the green light will take you.

So, in approving this master plan, you're going to give the city of Prescat a lot more income. You're going to give the families that work the rodeo a lot more love of what they do. Out of six members of my family, I dragged five of them in. The other one would wouldn't come no matter what you did. But, you know, you have to learn what you're doing. I We also give a lunchon to our past rodeo queens, our past contestants, and some of them are in their 90s. They love to come to lunch.

They love to talk to the people around them and they go from there. And I have to say this last week, our last year queen and junior queen were voted Miss Frodo Arizona and Miss Teen Arizona. So, you know, Prescuit does an awful lot for helping other people go. But getting back to the master plan, master plan is a guide and we need to follow the guide, but you need to start small and work your way up.

And I understand, like I said, the frustration for the people living on the side, but I think the master plan will help put together a lot of things that will be better for them than it is now. So, I hope you gentlemen and ladies and gentlemen will really think of the master plan and see what you can do to help not only the rodeo but to help Prescuit and to help the people that live around here. Thank you. [applause] Thank you, Irene. Dane Beach or Beck, I'm not sure. Sorry.

Good evening, mayor and council. How are you today? Uh come before you. I've been Move your microphone up. Thank you, Ted. Uh come before you as a longtime uh resident of Prescuit. Grew up going to the rodeo when I was a child. Uh one one probably my first cotton candy betting $2 bets on the horse races back back in probably 81 or two. Uh when my dad was the physician for the horse track. Um, it's been an institution in our family and our town for many years.

I believe the town needs to continue working with economic development and the rodeo and the fairgrounds provides that for for the city of Prescuit. I encourage you to improve the master plan as is so that we can move forward to to cement the long-term future of it in our town. Thank you very much. Thanks, Dane. [applause] Don Beal. Madame Mayor, members of council, my name is Don Beal. I live at 951 Norris Road, one block from the rodeo grounds.

Believe I was asked to speak because I being a resident in the neighborhood, I could share with you some thoughts that I have. Um, frankly, I haven't really been following the the progress of the renovations simply because I think it's a a no-brainer. Um, yeah, other than when I heard a couple of guys tried to have our $15 million confiscated, I did get terribly upset.

You know, reality being that, you know, if we had done some of these renovations years ago, uh, we might still have horse racing. And [laughter] if you think about it, that you know, frankly, that that was a blunderous mistake for both the city and the county. It's cost us millions. [cough] My point being simply we would not want to make that same mistake again. Um I do understand some of the concerns uh being traffic uh and uh and noise.

Uh the traffic issue, you know, frankly that's an issue in town. It's not unique unto the rodeo grounds. Every time the city has a major event, we have a traffic problem. But frankly, uh our problems are going to pale in comparison to about what we're going to have when we close the Dells. I would since I'm here, I would strongly recommend the council reconsider that decision. Um, and as far as as far as the noise goes, it's not like we live by an airport.

Uh, I don't have a problem listening to kids play and scream and have fun few times a year. Frankly, I'm a little more annoyed at the hos or the uh helicopters going overhead from the hospital every day. Uh, but the kids having fun. Uh, oh, I I've got to back up because I do have a problem with the uh the new speaker system that was put in. You know, I used to sit on my back patio, drink a beer, smoke a cigar, and listen to the rodeo.

[laughter] And now with a new sound system, I can't hear a dogone thing. Very disappointing. [snorts] So reality is um you know we live in an area and we're very fortunate. We're privileged to live where we where we live. Uh we are just blocks from grocery store, drugstore, the hospital, walking distance to the uh courthouse square, and we even have a a cigar shop just down the street.

Uh point being, um we're very fortunate where we live and I would ask anybody who's complaining if they'd want to move. Seriously, anybody who complain, where would you rather go or do you want to live where you live? I guarantee they're going to want to stay where they're at. So, I'd say let's get her done. Sooner the better. Thank you. [applause] Thank you, Don. Steve Sishka, Karen Van. Thank you, Mayor Council. A lot of good speakers here today already. As stated, 1888, world's oldest rodeo.

This is what Prescat is all about. It has been in this location for over a hundred years. Hundred years. Think about that. In this same location and yeah, we grow. Towns have grown. Things have grown up around it. But around all of us, no matter where we live. Now, I am asking you to please adopt the master plan because the 15 million 15.3 million was tied to a master plan. We've been continuing and continuing for almost two years now since we started with this 15.3 million.

The rodeo brings in over $30 million worth of economic development. The rodeo brings in over an extra $7 million in sales tax revenue just during rodeo week. That's a lot of money to pay for public safety and police and parks and everything else. As I said, I'm asking for you to please adopt the road, this master plan, but a lot of it is because it is like a general plan. It gives us some direction. A general plan doesn't identify we're going to get the money for a road, a new road in 10 years.

It doesn't identify anything else funding because that's what some of these folks are doing. They're throwing every hurdle in front of us instead of sticking to what the issue is. This is a plan. This is a vision. Just like a general plan which always gets adopted and gets changed at some point as we move forward. And if things go the way we thought they were at this time, it stays on that path. If it doesn't, we rotate that path. So, it's a very simple thing.

And I'd like to suggest that the handful of naysayers that you're hearing from, I'm betting that they haven't lived there a hundred years. But remember, they started arguing against us. They started fighting against us when it started with the $15.3 million. Not with the master plan. They didn't want us to have the $15.3 million. Now, ironically, some of the same people that are involved with these groups are the same people with Save the Dales and everything else.

They were in my office as Senate President six, seven, and eight years ago asking for money, grant money appropriations for the Peine Trail, for the Save the Dales, for the trails over to uh Glassford Hill. They were the same people in my office asking for money to be put on public property. Yet, they don't want the 15 $15.3 million spent. They have sued you. They've tried to sue us. They're doing everything.

So I I tell you this is not this is about their own agenda, not what's good for Prescuit. I don't think they care whether the rodeo continues. I think they'd like to see it gone. I don't think they care about our local businesses that survive the year round on the rodeo. I don't think they care about all the tax revenue that we will lose if this rodeo is not here. Remember this is city of Prescat property. The biggest chunk of this $15.3 million is going to infrastructure.

Almost $10 million goes back into your property, our property. We have another 15-16 years left on our lease. And our lease says that you guys are supposed to be taking care of the infrastructure underneath. And that infrastructure runs not only under the fairgrounds property, but it runs and connects Miller Valley Road, Garden, Gail Gardener Road, and it does need to be fixed.

Now, we have great legislators who got $15 million for us, for us taxpayers to pay for this infrastructure instead of it coming out of our B budget that we have now, instead of taking it away from our police departments or our parks or anybody else. We should be thanking them.

And for this handful of people that don't seem to like Prescuit, don't le seem to like our rodeo, don't seem to like our businesses and our economic development, I ask you please listen to the rest of us, the other 98 99% of us who love this community, who want to see us grow and get together because that's what this is about. Thank you. [applause] I'd uh just like to clarify a few things.

The city of Prescuit was not involved in the uh lawsuit over the uh state appropriation that was between uh the state of Arizona and two private citizens. And also uh Save the Dells uh has never sued the city of Prescuit and uh I don't think we've ever heard anything from him pro or con about the rodeo. Thank you, Kim Lopez. Mayor Rousing, members of council, good afternoon. My name is Kimberly Lopez, president of Prescuit Frontier Day's World's Oldest Rodeo. I am I stand here today.

I am not going to talk about buildings, parking lots, master plans. I'm going to talk about something far more important. I'm going to ask each of you to think five simple letters, five simple questions, and five principles that are Prescuit Frontier Days. T is it true? Prescuit Frontier Days. Our word means something to us. When we shake your hand, when we look at you in the eye, and when we make a commitment, you can take that to the bank. 33 million of it. We've worked to open.

We have worked to be open and transparent throughout this process. In fact, sometimes I like to joke that we are so transparent that I am practically translucent. Um, we aren't perfect, but we stand behind our word and our history and our commitments. H, is it helpful? Absolutely. Ask the merchants, the restaurants, the hotels, the ranchers, the farmers, and the families whose livelihoods are connected to our rodeo. Rodeo isn't something that Arizona celebrates.

Ranching, livestock, cowboy, the way of life. It built Arizona. You can't deny that. And Prescuit Frontier Days helps keep the heritage alive while contributing to the economic vitality of this community. How could we possibly turn our backs on something that helped make Prescat what it is? I is it inspiring? This one is my favorite. I want you to picture, close your eyes if you want, a boy and a girl standing in line for mutton busting. They're nervous. They're excited.

They are gripping the wool of that sheep with everything they have. The gates open. They ride out into the arena. And for a few glorious seconds, they are the biggest cowboy and cowgirl in the in the world. And when they come out of the arena and their jeans are covered with dirt and their smiles are huge and they shout, "I want to be a cowboy. I want to be a cowgirl." Ladies and gentlemen, that is inspiration. That child is discovering courage.

That's tradition being passed from one generation to another. And that is something worth protecting. And is it necessary without question? Necessary to our economy, necessary to our tourism, necessary to our tax base, and necessary to preserving your identity, everybody's hometown. But necessary doesn't mean that we refuse to change. We know we have improvements to make. We know that we must grow, adapt, and be responsible neighbors.

That is precisely why we are standing here with this master plan. Not to abandon our history, but to ensure its future. K is it kind? I've met some of the finest people in my entire life standing in that arena. Real cowboys and cowg girls who have shook my hand and said, "Thank you, ma'am, for having us. Thank you for putting on this rodeo. Thank you for everything you do." Two simple words, thank you.

Words, words that sometimes seem to get lost in the discouragement become louder than [snorts] respect. And I believe that we could all use a little more kindness. Now, I want [snorts] to speak directly to each one of you as a council. Councilman Ruby, you understand the theater and the arts. You understand that it what it takes to bring a production to life. [snorts] Well, our rodeo is one of the greatest live productions of the West.

Every performance has a cast, a crew, a stage, an audience, and every performance tells a story. Councilman Garing, you're an engineer and a marine. [snorts] You understand the precision, discipline, and courage. Think about the extraordinary balance, physics, timing, and strength involved in staying on a bucking bronco, a bucking bron or a bull for [snorts] eight seconds. Just eight.

Councilwoman Frederickson, your legal background speaks to the importance and the facts and the fairness of keeping one's word. Mayor Prom Fworth, your business experience, it speaks to the value in the sound planning and the economic sustainability. Councilman Gimboji, you are one of my favorite. Your engineering background speaks to the importance of building something that lasts.

Councilman Grady, your career in public service requires listening, weighing difficult choices, and considering what we leave to the future generations. And last, but definitely not least, Mayor Rousing, your background in nursing reminds us that caring for the community means protecting its health and its people and its future. Every one of you brings something of value to the table. And every one of those experiences has a place in the story of the rodeo.

Theodore Roosevelt once spoke about the man in the arena. He reminded us that the credit belongs not to the critics standing on the sidelines, but to the person willing to step into the arena to work, to struggle, to sometimes fall short while daring to accomplish something worthwhile. Well, we are in the arena. Our volunteers are in the arena. Our cont our contestants, our ranching families, and generations of Prescuit residents are in that arena.

[sighs and gasps] We have listened to criticism. We have faced challenges. And we are still standing here willing to do the work. [snorts] We aren't asking you to ignore the concerns. We're asking you not to let the criticism drown out the commitment. I believe that every with every fiber in my being that the world's oldest radio belongs here in Prescuit. I am willing to continue to fight for the future as long as I have breath in my body.

So today, before you cast your vote, I ask you to look at your hearts. I a ask yourselves what is true, what is helpful, what is inspiring, and what is necessary, and what is kind. [snorts] And let God's grace do what is right for this community. Approve the master plan. give us the opportunity to show who we are and what we stand for [snorts] and what we can accomplish together because Prescuit Frontier Days isn't simply a rodeo that we put on.

It is a legacy that we have been entrusted to protect. Thank you. [applause] Thank you, Kim. Jim Dwey Brown. Good evening, mayor, members, council. Uh, I've condensed mine. We've been here long enough. [laughter] [gasps] Uh, everybody knows that almost everybody in this room knows that I do not love public speaking. So, I just want you to hear the what, not the how.

[laughter] Uh as someone whose livelihood is connected to the rodeo and its success, it is imperative to look beyond the rhetoric and recognize the extraordinary value this institution brings to prescuit and understand what a master plan is and what it is not. A master plan is a road map, not a definitive blueprint. The distinction is essential.

Approving a master plan doesn't mean approving every proposed improvement, authoriz authorizing every expenditure or giving PFD cooperative extension, the auto, the uh compost doesn't give us a blank check to start doing construction without y'all's further review. A master plan establishes a long-term vision, identifies priority, explores possibilities, and provides framework for future decisions.

Specific projects must still be evaluated, engineered, costed, funded, and approved through the appropriate processes. We should absolutely expect reasonable reasonable planning, sound financial decisions, compliance with building and fire codes, accessibility, public safety, and environmental stewardship. Those are expect those expectations are not arguments against a master plan. Those are reasons to have one.

[snorts] [laughter] The existing facilities have maintenance needs and operational limitations. The city itself has identified the need to improve infrastructure, event operations, visitor experience, and the relationship between the grounds and the surrounding neighborhood. A thought thoughtful plan gives us a way to address these needs systematically rather than continuing to react to the problems one at a time.

We do not need every construction detail resolved before we can agree on a long-term direction. We need a sensible framework that allows the details to be resolved in the proper sequence with appropriate prof professional review, public accountability, and council oversight. Consider what the rodeo means to prescuit, its businesses, and most importantly to the people whose livelihood depends on it. So, everybody before me has talked about the economic and cultural identity.

I'm going to skip to for you to consider something a little more personal. For those of us that are actually employed by the rodeo, this is not an abstract debate about land use or a conceptual drawing on a planning document. It's our work. It's my work. It's my income. It's our income. It's our professional future. It's the opportunity to continue doing something meaningful while contributing to an institution that has helped define this community for generations. [snorts] [laughter] Sorry.

[gasps] When the rodeo succeeds, the benefits reach the people who work behind the scenes as well as the people in the stands, the city, uh, all over the country. When the facilities and the rodeo stumbles, the people who depend on this operation are the among the mo are the ones that feel it. They feel the consequences. We have a respons responsibility to preserve this institution. But preservation does not mean freezing it in time.

It means maintaining the facilities, improving safety and accessibility, adapting to operational needs, and making responsible decisions that allow future generations to carry this tradition forward. Doing nothing is not a neutral decision. Deferred maintenance, outdated facilities, and unresolved operational challenges do not simply disappear because the plan is rejected.

They remain problems that will that someone will eventually have to address potentially at a greater cost with fewer options. [snorts] I respectfully ask you guys to improve approve the Prescuit Rodeo Grounds master plan. Do so because the world's oldest rodeo is an extraordinary community asset. Do so because Prescuit deserves a thoughtful plan for preserving and improving an important part of history.

Do so because local businesses employees volunteers and future generations have a stake in the continued success of this institution. And do so with the understanding that approval is the beginning of a disciplined process, not the end. Please vote. Thank you. Thank you. Jim Dwey Brown, [applause] Howard Mechanic, Mayor and Council, I I didn't come here to defend my protection of the Arizona Constitution. How many of you know that I sued twice the state of Arizona?

You know about one lawsuit to protect the Arizona gift clause of the Constitution. The next year, I sued the state of Arizona because of a gift to Turf Paradise, a racetrack in Phoenix that was getting subsidies for 5 years from the state of Arizona for nothing. I will continue to protect the Arizona Constitution. I don't have a problem with the rodeo. I never have said I had a problem with the rodeo. I have concerns about the way the actions have been taken over the last six years.

I assume you're going to pass this today. And actually, I don't have a problem as long as it's contingent upon a new lease. It makes no sense to have a master plan without a tenant. Who wants to put on a rodeo? You have a willing tenant. You need a lease, a market rate lease, a lease that is negotiated with an asbuilt appraisal ahead of time. So there is no public subsidy, no public gift. They want to have a rodeo. They have a lot of emotional feelings about the rodeo.

Do they want to pay for the rodeo or do they want me to pay for the rodeo? That's the real question that we're going to have to deal with over the next few months. As you know, there are a lot of steps that need to be taken over the next 90 days. I'm asking council to have a meeting very soon, maybe the next meeting if possible, to discuss what steps will be taken over the next 90 days so the public understands the process.

So there isn't just lease negotiations in a in a a method that does not disclose what's going on. I know a lot of you are open to transparency. We need to continue the transparency here. We need to determine what part of the property the rodeo will be using. Then we have to determine what expenditures will go to those parts of the property instead of the other parts of the property. Then we have to determine the estimated costs of those expenditures that are going to their part of the property.

Then we have to obtain the asbuilt appraisal which will consider those expenditures. Then we'll have to negotiate a lease only after those things are done. Then the pro the lease has to be presented to the governing bodies and we need to allow time for public comment and then the lease can be approved. So what I'm asking this is seven steps. I don't think we should wait to the end to disclose what's going on here to the council or the public.

I know what one council member says, you should be informed about the process. I think you need to be more than informed. You need to take a hands-on approach here, step by step. My understanding from what the city manager said is this, and other people are saying this is just a vision. This is just a a a plan. My understanding is this does not authorize any city expenditures until the lease is signed.

So I'm hoping that uh if there if there are any other expenditures certainly they can come to council at any time but this does not authorize any expenditure. I think there should be it should be brought to council any expenditure that would be needed to do a independent asbuilt appraisal that needs to come to council soon. Any other expenses need to come soon. So I think you need to you you need to tie this to uh the lease and it'll be contingent upon the lease.

And uh I I think you during this time period you can expend funds for environmental Mr. Mechanic uh your time is up so uh please come to a conclusion. Okay. Thank you. I I would support you spending money for environmental studies and engineering studies but they need to come to council for appropriation. Thank you. Thank you Howard Levi Derby. No, I'm not going to try to make it memorable for you tonight. I I won't be cutting you off, that's for sure.

Well, I'll make sure I just shut up and sit down then. You got all kinds of stuff you heard tonight. You've heard personal all kinds of stuff. If I've written down more stuff than I can shake a stick at, and plain and simple, the city needs to come to an agreement on the lease. The master plan is good and bad. Am I happy with some of it? Yes, I am. I'm not. You can't make everybody happy. Is what I've said in many meetings.

The city needs to get a lease taken care of because you got one organization that has to have a $2 million insurance policy and you have another organization that has to have a $10 million policy. So, city, you need to figure out what you're going to do. Is it going to be a $2 million policy or a $10 million policy? If we're all leasing the same grounds, shouldn't we all be paying about the same amount of insurance? That needs to be taken care of. That's a lease problem. That's a city problem.

The other problem you have is you guys are wanting to go in 10, 20, 30 years. I'm still going to be here in 30 years because the Lord sent me down here because he got tired of me. The devil knows I'm going to take over, but a lot of these other people are going to be gone. So, I think we need to have a closing date within 10 years. If you don't have the funds within 10 years, you're not getting your building. Let's be realistic. The UFA wants a building perfect.

Matt's probably going to hate me, but is the UFA going to let put the money up to build a building on a piece of property they do not own? Because if I let the UFA build something on my piece of property and they pissed me off as the city, I'd say, "Guess what? Thanks for the building. Get the hell off the property. They just paid for a $10 million building. Do you think the UFA is going to do that? No.

I hate to be rude to Matt, but if I was the U of A and you said, "I want $10 million to build a piece of property or a building on a piece of property that I don't own, I'm not going to give you the funding." So, the city needs to look at that. Those are the things that irritate me about this whole thing. leasing timestamp. This needs to be a time stamp of 10 years because in 10 years, is Jim Dewey Brown gonna be here? Maybe, maybe not. Is Kim Lopez going to be here in 5 years?

Will she be the next president of the PFD? We don't know. Are you guys going to be here on city council in 5 to 10 years? Yes. Maybe not. You're shaking your head of nope. Nope. Nope. Ted over there, he's he needs a new pair of sunglasses because I haven't seen him put his sunglasses on today. So, that's something we guys need to think of as the city. The lease needs to be taken care of. The insurance needs to be across the board. 2 million or 10 million. Make up your mind. One of the two.

But you can't charge one organization $2 million and have the other organization a $10 million insurance policy. The closing date of all this stuff happening at the rodeo grounds needs to be 10 years. That's my personal feeling. What needs to happen? Yes. What needs to happen? Sewer, electrical water. Barn Bings, they need to be adjusted. Those items, sewer, water, electrical needs to be taken care of before anything else.

In the master planning, I put in that lighting for the rodeo grounds along Fair Street, the county building. I don't want lighting to light up all the time. We need to use our brains and say we need lighting during a function. Turn the switch on, we got lighting during the function. Turn the switch off. The other 360 days of the year, we don't use those lights.

But that saves money to the city, saves money to the rodeo, to the fair, to the organizations using them, and it protects the neighborhood that they don't have a street light that's on 360 days out of the year when it's not needed. Those kind of things need to be looked at. As a city, I feel sorry for you guys having to make this. You're probably going to approve this tonight and I do appreciate it, but there's more things in here that needs to be protected.

Leasing, insurance, time stamp of when it needs to be done. What needs to happen first? Sewer, electrical, water. When those three things are done, then we start with buildings. Then we start with infrastructure. Those three items need to be done first. And I was going to ask you if you guys had any questions to ask them, but I'm probably out of time. So if you have a question, ask me a question. I'll answer as best I can. That's up. Yes. Uh Levi, I have a question.

Are you going to purposely uh turn the speakers towards the uh offending neighborhood? No. During the I was going to send you guys an [laughter] email or I was going to give you a written thing of the neighbor that I talked to during the rodeo or during the fair. She got so pissed off that she just threw a fit that I was calling her a liar and everything else. And I just said, "You know what? It ain't worth it." Cuz I did. She called me at le somewhere around 9:00.

By 9:30, I got up to the stage, started talking to the neighbor in a text message because there was no sense of trying to call her when I'm standing at the stage working on the base. And she wasn't happy with anything I did. So, I don't know what to tell you on that. I was willing to sit there at the base, talk to her from her house on text messages and adjust the base to where she was happy, but she just got pissed off and called me a liar and everything else.

So, I said, "Well, oh well." And I was going to give you the text message because I was not here for the last city council meeting to defend myself. I was actually tearing down the tents. But, thank you. Thank you, Levi. City, thank you for putting up with me all these years or all these weeks. Thank you guys. Have a good one. Okay. Good night. That's all. Okay. I'm ready to move that we approve. Are we going to have discussion? No. I think we've had enough. I'm ready to vote.

[gasps] I move that we approve the master plan. I think we should allow for some discussion. I'd have to go on for another hour. [snorts] Okay, we'll have another brief discussion. Thank you. Patrick. Oh, thank you. So, I just wanted to stay say that um the western heritage I'm my wife and I moved here 10 years ago from dare I say the Phoenix area and yeah, I really value the western heritage.

We lived for about uh eight years in Cave Creek uh right along the horse trail leading back to Spur Cross Ranch. Um so yeah, it's really I think really important to this community and I appreciate the citizen comments about that tonight. And then also as Kim alluded to, I have a background in public service. It was primarily in economic development. You can't deny the economic benefit of what's going on um at the rodeo and what that means to our community.

Um I also like what several citizens said this evening about being a road mapap and not being the end and being a milestone. And I think that's really important and I'm I'm glad that there are citizenry that recognize that this is just a roadmap. So, um I think that approving the master plan is the right thing to do and I believe this city council will continue to be a vigilant stewardship of city city services and city resources as we continue on down the path and lease negotiations. Mr.

Gambboji. I have said many times that the rodeo was the crown jewel of Prescuit, but it seems like every time we mention Rodeo, this town goes Hatfields and McCoys. So, I want to first credit Don Kimble, you know, the city's been jerking around for what, 25 years, and finally we got to the point where we're looking at approving a a master plan. Now, you've also heard me say before that the perfect is the enemy of the good. Why do I say that?

Well, I'm six sigma trained, so I know Deming, I know Durand, and I've put together more ish Chicago fishbone diagrams than Tony Himer has hair on his head, which is not a lot. I also know a little bit about selling and one of the Sandler selling system has a BS rule. So, I'm calling BS. Why? [sighs] Because those of you who continue to struggle with this master plan know that it's a plan. It's an architectural rendering.

It is not an electrical schematic or a plumbing schematic that comes later. You may believe that you're on a righteous cause, but all I see is a delay, an unnecessary delay, because we can't get the master plan started. So, I say, let's find a way to come together. Let's pass the master plan. If the mayor would be so kind as allow me to make a motion. I think we need to discuss two contingencies in that motion. At this point, I'd like to ask Joe a question.

Joe, um I am of the understanding that um the that we start negotiations 90 days after passing of the master plan for the lease. Is that correct? No. The agreement is that within 90 days we present a renegotiated lease to the governing bodies. That means we would present a draft to you and a draft to PFD's uh board. Okay. So, we could make a motion that says contingent upon the approval of the lease. Yes, you can do that. Thank you, Joe. Uh that's all, Madame Mayor.

And let's see, next we have Jay Ruby. Just want to say it is apparent and tangible how the rodeo functions as a critical part of Prescuit's identity and the way that it brings people together. I've been over there and seen the volunteers. There is a lot of heartfelt action that takes place inside the rodeo and I think that's recognized by everybody on city council.

I think that I also I just want to also say for there were two people that spoke that I remember uh Lenora Baitman and Heather Seats. I really appreciated your comment because I felt like you carried that spirit of coming together in your comments and that there was concern also for the neighborhood. And so I really appreciate it when people are always trying to create a bridge between the the different elements in this process.

And this is a transformational process for the city because as has been said, it's been 25 years of trying to get a plan together. And I do think we have to keep our eyes going forward to make this work. And that means taking into consideration the different factors that are there. There's a lot to be thankful for all the people who've contributed to this on the steering committee. I also want to recognize Don Kimble who did some critical facilitation in the process.

And I'm going to recognize where the 15 million came from. That was from the COVID money from the Biden administration that went to Ducy. And Ducy, it stayed around. It got divided by the state legislature. That money is to help make America a better place and I think it can be used that way. But we have to keep that consideration in mind that this is to make all of us better. As such, I think moving forward right now really requires connecting it to what uh Mr.

Darby identified as the next step, the lease. So I what I heard there about connecting the uh approval of the plan to the lease that keeps us moving forward and I think it keeps us all vigilant and engaged because we're not done yet. This is just this is just the first gate to pass through. Thank you, Lois. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I've been hearing from the community back from earlier than in 23 when I was running for this office.

And in fact, those of us that were running in 23 all got asked by the Daily Courier what we thought about the rodeo. And at the time, it wasn't under the city process. It was under the PFD master plan. And I said it was good. It was exciting, but it needed more enhancement with public and stakeholder input. We've done that. We've had lots of stakeholder input. We've had lots of public comments and this master plan is good. Is it perfect? No.

I appreciated everyone who said it's not perfect, but you know, we need to get this done. The community wants us to save this this institution, this facility, and the heart of our culture. And uh frankly, tonight it was my honor to see and hear all your hearts. It was very loud. So, I'm ready to get going. We have a lot of work to do in the next 90 days and let's get let's get it going. Okay, Mr. Garing. Oh, thank you, Mayor.

Yeah, I would I would recommend approving the uh master plan, but I do think that that approval needs to be contingent in well, not the approval of the master plan, but expenditures of major master plan items should be contingent upon approval of the lease first. And then I'm wondering whether I didn't hear that. Was it contingent upon what? Approval of the lease. Oh, and then uh the other thing is I'm wondering about a sunset date. I've heard several. I've heard 25, 20, and 10.

And the 10 sounds kind of attractive to me because it comes from somebody who seems to know what he's doing. So, I would think maybe we could attach a 10-year sunset date. Thank you. I uh move that we approve mayor the master plan. I'm sorry. If I can just add my two Oh, thank you, Mary. Thank you. I didn't see you up on the board. And just to uh just to say something, I will just say yes, I'm I think the master plan should go forward.

I think there should be the two conditions that have been discussed significantly. One being uh not enacted until leases have names on the line that is executed, not just negotiated, not presented, just presented to boards or the council, but executed. Um, and the timeline, a time frame, a sunset. I'm I'm not at 10 years. I think that is goes by in a heartbeat, but I think 20 years would be um a good time frame for a sunset. Other than that, move away. Okay.

I move that we approve the master plan with two contingent contingencies conditions. Number one, that there's a sunset date or a term of 20 years. And number two, the master plan is effective upon completion of a lease with Prescat Frontier Days Rodeo. Do I hear a second? Second. Please vote. Pass the 70. [applause] Let's rodeo. Mayor, you have to adjourn the meeting. Mayor, you have to adjourn the meeting. The meeting's adjourned.