Tucson Advances Landmark Zoning Modernization and Approves Clara Hotel Tax-Incentive Development Agreement

Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey hey hey. Hey, hey hey. Hey, hey hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey hey hey. Hey, hey hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat up here. Number Hey, hey hey. um you being all here today. Today is the study study session of October 20th. And just for the record, I'd like to mention that Councilwoman Lee will be participating electronically with us today. And Vice Mayor Santa Cruz is absent, excused. So our first item is to enter into executive session.

Miss Clerk, item one is notice as an executive session ongoing negotiations with UPR on city projects. May I have a motion to go into executive session? So moved. There's a motion in a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any against? Motion carries. And Mr. Attorney, this will be 30 minutes. 45 minutes. Say 45. All righty. 45 minutes. Uh, thank you so much. We will be right out in 45 minutes. Thank you. Hey hey hey. Heat Hey hey hey.

Hey, hey hey. Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat. I don't Hey. Oh, hey. down. Hey down. Heat. Hey Heat. Hey hey hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey Heat. Hey, hey hey. Hey hey hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey hey hey. Hey, Hey hey hey. Heat. Heat. Hey hey hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Down. Hey baby. Black. Hey. Hey. down. Down. Heat. Heat. Hey hey hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey, hey hey. Happy. Hey. Hey. Hey, hey hey. to return to study session. So moved. There is a motion. Second. There's a motion in a second.

Any further discussion hearing? None. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. Any against? Motion carries. What is the council's pleasure for item two?

Your honor, an appropriate motion would be to proceed as discussed in executive session to direct the city manager and the city attorney to negotiate with and authorize the city attorney to litigate if necessary against uh Union Pacific Railroad to ensure taxpayer resources are protected and city projects can be completed in a timely manner. So moved. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion on the motion hearing? None. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Any against?

Motion carries. Item three. Uh, item three, time has been set aside for the Department of Transportation and Mobility to share information about the upcoming Congress Street closure for Halloween on Saturday, October 31st, 2026. and other related pedestrian focused street closures. Miss Clerk, Mr. Manager, I'm really happy that uh we have this particular item on the agenda.

Um, it seems as a last very important piece of conversation that we've been having, it feels for me that we've been having for more than 20 years regarding uh downtown and and infrastructure has a lot to do with it, right? Uh for me, being able to have the downtown links opened and ready to go to be able to uh move uh traffic outside of Congress Street, outside of downtown and connect to the freeway is was a big piece of the puzzle.

When we originally had conversations about closing up streets for traffic um and leaving them open for pedestrians, it just feels like such a long time. and uh the conversation about down downtown reinvestment and making our downtown for all of us accessible for not just vehicles but pedestrians cyclists and create multimmobility in our downtown um has been a long time coming.

I can remember uh that these conversations were being had with Mayor Walkup at the table and uh when the city of Tucson and mayor and council decided to invest on the 4th Avenue underpass and the conversations were being had about downtown links and how to create that link uh from Broadway to divert you know, semi trucks and other traffic outside of downtown so we can make it more uh pedestrian accessible.

Uh, we also had the conversation with Mayor Walkup and Congressman Grihalva about the street car. like all of this infrastructure investment, 4th Avenue underpass, downtown links, the street car, they all relate to the work that has been done um by the city of Tucson and its mayor and council to be able to create the opportunity that we're today, which is interesting um because it, you know, people are going to be like, well, we're just talking about closing a street, girl.

But it really is more than that, right? It it is really more than um than just closing down a street. It's about creating the infrastructure and the investments that mayor and council and the city of Tucson decided to do to be able to create the opportunity that we're talking about today. um you know as as as a as a person that has been sitting at this table uh for almost 18 years.

Um, and when I first ran even for council in November of 2007 when I won, we were already talking about creating a downtown for all of us and um, you know, the work with the downtown Tucson partnership, creating the bid with uh, my council colleagues at the time.

Um it it really makes uh a difference um in terms of infrastructure investment and the investments that we've chosen as a mayor and council in the city of Tucson to do to to come here um and talk about Halloween and finally being able to have the capacity to close up Congress um and make it a pedestrian bicycle street car friendly pathway. way for our community to be able to enjoy. And so, um, I know that there's dangers that may exist on the night of Halloween.

We've seen it other Halloween nights before where we get 40,000 visitors downtown, but have, you know, 10-ft wide sidewalks where people have to uh walk, where parents, children, and individuals have to figure out, you know, how to keep themselves safe. So, I really want to thank uh Council Member Schubert and Vice Mayor Santa Cruz for bringing this item with me.

Um, we all have a shared responsibility as mayor and council to be able to um respond to the needs of our community and uh for me it was important to respond to the needs of our downtown merchants um and our downtown uh stakeholders so that we can provide a safe place where people feel safe and local businesses can succeed in our community because downtown is an important piece. It's the heart of our city. Uh our community can come visit and bring their children.

I I was talking to Council Member Schubert about how important it was for me to be able to um uh make the closure start at 5:00 p.m. Uh because I want to make sure that children and their parents can come as well as teenagers and um and people of all ages can feel comfortable with. So with that uh just took me down the memory lane of creating the opportunity to be able to um come to today's discussion and open it up for you.

I know that there's a lot of logistics and a lot of coordinating and organizing that is taking place and we want to hear about it so that we can uh continue informing our community as as to what's going to happen Halloween night. Mr. Manager Thank you, honorable mayor and members of the council. Uh you're absolutely right. We have been noodling on this for a number of years on how to safely do a closure uh to vehicle traffic on on Congress or other streets.

And so uh here to talk about the plans for this year, our deputy director of transportation mobility, Jen Toothaker, and we also have Crystal Moore from the Downtown Tucson Partnership uh available in the audience uh to us augment uh the conversation. Uh so with that uh Jen if you'd like to to lead us through. Great. Thank you so much Madame Mayor. Council members.

So um I'll speak momentarily about the Halloween closure specifically and then also in your packets was uh information about pedestrianoriented streets and closures uh per request and we added a little additional information in there. We also have information about a funding opportunity on the horizon. So, I'll share a little bit about that. Mayor, as you mentioned, yes. Uh, this conversation's been happening for many years. In 2014, we did a uh circulation study in the downtown area.

It did indicate that at that time it was a little too early to be looking at closing down Congress completely uh to to vehicle traffic primarily because of the major project downtown links uh which still needed to get completed and that is now open and operating and provides a viable east west uh alternative to Congress. Since the Sunlink Street Car opened in 2014, we've begun to see downtown activity increase.

We're seeing 6 to 8,000 people on a regular in the downtown area, which is a pretty good number. And then uh we start projecting out for special days like Halloween on a Saturday night and that can get up to 30 to 40,000 people projected to be in the downtown area. So to your point, the problem's a physical one. the sidewalks get congested uh particularly at the Congress Tulle and Fourth Avenue intersection as well as Arizona Avenue just south of Ronstat Transit Center.

Those are um two areas that will be covered with the street closure. The street closure is going to start at 5:00 pm as you mentioned. It will last until 3:00 a.m. and we will be hitting parking meters to ensure no cars get blocked in. It'll uh it'll be closed from 4th Avenue to just east of Scott Avenue. that does allow for parking access uh to garages and parking lots. Uh it will also allow uh street car operations. Uh this was really important. It was a requirement as part of our planning.

Uh there has not we have re we have maintained street car operations during special events since it was launched. The only exception is the street fair on 4th Avenue and 4th Avenue Merchants Association pays for a bus bridge for that event. Our out-ofpocket expenditures for this closure, this pilot closure are pretty reasonable, $5,000 uh for contracted barricades, DTM's covering that with our operating budget. Uh DTM and TPD are also contributing equipment to help keep the costs low.

And we are primarily the biggest costs are primarily staffing. We'll have about 40 TPD personnel out that evening. Uh there's also going to be some transit ambassadors coming out and helping along the street car. We also have some staff from Sunlink Park Tucson Streets and DTM helping. Downtown Tucson Partnership will also have about five street ambassadors helping.

And then they've been really helping with the area prep advertising, directional signage, and on-site support for attendees and merchants that night. And we have been talking about this as a pilot.

So, some of the data points that we'll be looking to evaluate uh after we successfully make it through that event uh are the um traffic control and closure points, street car operations and crowd control, parking access and detours and attendance, and then of course our pedestrian and merchants experience uh which we will kind of be picking up anecdotally. the other information that's in your packet. I'll shift into that topic really quickly.

Um, we focused, we have some pictures and we have some description in the materials of Merida, Mexico's CIA 47, which is their gastronomic corridor. They are a sister city of gastronomy just like Tucson is. That one-third mile corridor um gives pedestrians priority through street design and it's a permanent style u street for pedestrians.

There's more um it's a one-way traffic lane built with pavers, no curbs, raised intersections at prominent crossings, and the planters and pedestrian level um ballards with lighting on top create sort of a a boundary to the traffic lane. Slow traffic is acceptable there. Limited parking as well as bicycles. And it's similar to what our complete streets design guide calls a shared street. And um Arizona Avenue is a little bit like that as well.

Cycllovia Tucson on the other side of a sort of scale spectrum is the temporary community run open streets model of a pedestrianoriented closure and they are celebrating their 25th event this Sunday on October 25th. They are closing about three miles of mostly low volume streets. It costs about $100,000 per event for them to run it and it's funded primarily through sponsorships, vendor fees, and donations. I will say DTM provides some staffing support and help with logistics.

TPD is also um provides support at major crossings. Fourth Avenue Street Fair has closed part of 4th Avenue since 1971. Its costs are an estimated $280,000 uh per every three-day event they they hold and that's funded with vendor fees and sponsorships. And then lastly, another example presented was Washington Street between Meyer and Court downtown. It's a full-time closure of a short downtown street segment originally initiated by a neighboring property owner by petition process in 2021.

Funding for the improvements there have been the responsibility of the property owner and grants uh received through Ria Noeo. Ria Noeo also funded the activate El Prescidio placemaking project that added district making asphalt art curb paint and other removable ballards um in 2025. So all of these are presented as just different options of those pedestrianoriented streets enclosures.

the funding that uh we see on the horizon, the bless you board of supervisors approved on September 22nd a federal safe streets for all demonstration grant agreement of more than 2.8 million. One of the grant components includes funding for open streets events and the city of Tucson will be a subreient responsible for managing those funds. The grant becomes effective in August 2027 and could eventually support events at um different scales possibly including downtown.

And I'll go ahead and close my remarks. Uh so in summary, uh Halloween closure is a one night pilot with a modest direct cost, a strong public safety rationale, and street car service maintained. Uh what we learn will help us with future closures. And I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have and also turn it over to Crystal if you would like her to speak. Yeah, I would love to be able to hear from Crystal if you'd like to come up.

Crystal also hand it over to Council Member Schubert. She has been working uh on this item, but also been working uh with um Vice Mayor Santa Cruz and I to make sure that um we're really putting together a strategy on how to get this done. So, Council Member Schubert, I don't know if you want to uh speak first or hand it over to Crystal Moore. All righty. So, um Miss Moore, it's all yours. Um, thank you. You you've been on the ground helping us with with this idea. Yes. Thank you.

Um, good afternoon, mayor and council. I wanted to take a moment to share with you that downtown Tucson has planned an extraordinary Halloween this year, and thank you for your support in making this exciting evening possible. Halloween in downtown Tucson will offer something for everyone, beginning with familyfriendly trick-or-treating at 5:00 pm. We've already confirmed participation for 11 downtown merchants to hand out candy and uh Hub is doing something special as well as La Macaroon.

Um but that list continues to grow. Keep in mind, we just told them about it a couple days ago. Uh and we anticipate that number to continue to grow as more businesses join us in welcoming families downtown.

As the evening progresses, downtown will transition into a full lineup of entertainment, including live music at 191 Tulle, themed celebrations at the Rialto Theater, Art Bar, Playground, Brandandy Lion, and Velvet Cowboy, along with the first of its kind, Treasury 1929, a night of living glam party. Hotel Congress will also host haunted hotel tours during the day, followed by its Halloween celebrations later that evening. And of course, the highlight of the evening, the Congress pilot.

This pilot represents more than a street closure. It's an opportunity to explore how we can improve improve pedestrian mobility, manage transportation during peak activity, and create a more welcoming downtown experience. The experience is key to what we are doing to continue to build our thriving downtown. I especially want to recognize Mayor Romero for her support and leadership, Vice Mayor Santa Cruz and Council Member Schupert for their championship of this pilot. downtown. I'm sorry.

Tucson Police Department has been strong collaborator with us since last Halloween when we had more than 24,000 people downtown. That's up from the 16,700 that were here in 2024. Immediately following the event, we began f I'm sorry. Immediately following last year's event, we began working together to identify opportunities to improve pedestrian safety, traffic flow, and the overall downtown experience during our busiest nighttime hours.

That ongoing collaboration helped lay the groundwork for pedestrian pilot. I also want to thank Department of Transportation and Mobility for working with us to navigate the complexities of bringing this pilot to life. While there have been challenges and differing perspectives along the way, our shared commitment to a safer, more accessible downtown has brought us to this important milestone.

And I certainly want to recognize our downtown business operators who have continued to demonstrate their commitment to working together to create a vibrant, welcoming downtown experience. Downtown Tucson Partnership will support the evening through extensive public communications, merchant coordination, and ambassadors stationed at the four designated ride share zones to help people navigate downtown safely and efficiently.

We're excited to see downtown come alive that evening from families enjoying trick-or-treating and visit and visitors experiencing our vibrant night life. But perhaps the most important is that the pilot gives us an opportunity to learn, evaluate what works, and explore what's possible for the future of downtown. We've spent years talking about it. this pedestrianfriendly congress. This Halloween we have an opportunity to experience it even just for one evening.

I'm really excited for the afteraction meeting to see how we can better improve. Thank you for this opportunity and for having me today. Thank you, Miss Moore. Really appreciate it. Council member Schubert. Thank you, Madame Mayor, members of the council. Thanks, Crystal, and thank you, Jen. So exciting to be here.

Um really excited that we're moving forward with closing Congress Street for Halloween and especially pleased that we're starting early enough in the evening for people of all ages to enjoy the experience. Got to give major kudos to the mayor for making that happen. It's a win for everyone.

Um I want to thank Mayor Romero, Vice Mayor Santa Cruz, our Department of Transportation and Mobility, Tucson Police Department, Downtown Tucson Partnership, downtown merchants, and everyone who has worked to make this possible. I especially want to recognize Downtown Tucson Partnership, which has been working on this concept for more than a year. Their early outreach to businesses, the research, the willingness to work through logistical challenges helped us get to this point.

And their social media promotion of this pilot has been so positively received. And I want to make sure that Halloween is the beginning of this conversation and not the end. Creating more pedestrian-friendly streets was a central priority of both of my campaigns for city council. When I was knocking on doors throughout W 6, I heard overwhelming enthusiasm for the idea of reclaiming some of our public streets as places for people and not just cars. Cities around the world are doing exactly that.

They're moving beyond occasional street closures and temporary experiments to creating permanent pedestrian streets that support local businesses, public life, safer transportation, and more vibrant urban centers. I believe that Tucson is ready for this. And if we want to move from a successful Halloween event to recurring closures and eventually to permanent pedestrianized streets, we need good data to guide our decisions.

The staff memorandum identifies important operational measures including traffic detours, parking access, street car operations, crowd management, and merchant experiences. Those are essential to get right. I would like us to think more broadly about what success looks like. We should be measuring pedestrian counts and how long people spend downtown.

Collect feedback from businesses about customer traffic and sales and from residents about whether they feel safer and more comfortable walking around. We should look at traffic safety, emergency response, transit operations, accessibility for people with disabilities, and the cost of providing these events. And importantly, we should measure things that are harder to quantify.

Whether people feel more connected to their community, whether families and older adults feel welcome, and whether these events bring people downtown who might not otherwise visit. We should also establish baseline measurements so that we can make meaningful comparisons rather than relying solely on anecdotes or impressions. Our W 6 office is already reaching out to researchers at the University of Arizona to explore how we can collect and evaluate this kind of data.

I believe there's a real opportunity to build an evidence-based approach that can help Tucson make informed decisions about the future of our streets. The 2014 Congress Street circulation study suggested that downtown wasn't quite ready for permanent pedestrianization at that time, but it also recommended revisiting the question as downtown developed. More than a decade has passed. Downtown Tucson has changed significantly. And it's time to revisit that possibility.

I don't want us to limit our ambition to figuring out how to close Congress Street a few times a year. I want us to explore a progression. Start with Halloween, expand to recurring temporary closures, and use what we learn to seriously evaluate permanent pedestrianized streets downtown and in other parts of Tucson where it makes sense.

And I look forward to doing that in partnership with Downtown Tucson Partnership, DTM, our businesses, public safety, transit riders, neighborhood residents, people with disabilities, families, and people from all walks of life. I'm really excited for Halloween, but I'm even more excited about what we can build from here. And with that, I'd like to make the following motion.

I move to direct the city manager to come back with a work plan for mayor and council review that identifies stakeholders, community organizations, academic partners, local nonprofits, residents, and a public process to lay out a strategy for developing a phased approach to bringing pedestrian focused street closures downtown and elsewhere in Tucson as appropriate. Thank you. I second that motion. There's a motion and a second. Sorry, there's a motion and a second.

Thank you so much, Council Member Schubert. Super appropriate motion. Um, now that there's a second um a motion, a second, I'm going to open it up for uh input feedback uh from our colleagues on the council. But since the vice mayor also has been a huge supporter of um really promoting bicycle and pedestrian safety in our city, she did have a statement that she wanted me to read.

So, uh, the vice mayor is unable to attend today's meeting because she's in a conference focused on reducing homelessness in their role as the city's representative on the Tucson Puma collaboration to end homelessness and unfortunately couldn't be here today. Uh, but this is her statement.

Thank you, Director Credio, Deputy Director Jen Tutherer, and your entire team at DTM, and all of the city staff uh that are making this happen, including part Tucson, our Tucson Police Department, and its officers who are working that evening to keep our streets safe and car-free for people walking and biking. I'd also thank the mayor, thank you, vice mayor, for always supporting more bike and pedestrian safety, especially in our downtown.

As some of you know, I was hit by a car in a crossrock on Congress Street. I know what it costs when our streets are designed for cars instead of people. This pilot is a chance to show what downtown can feel like when we put safety first for families who walk, bike, and support our homegrown businesses. I'm thank thankful for the collaboration with downtown Tucson Partnership and to my colleague Council Member Schubert for coming to me with the idea of the street closure.

Uh and um to be able to expand the possibility of enjoying our streets without having to worry about car traffic or getting hit by a car. Uh these are the kind of experiments we should be doing more of that help bring our community together and support our small businesses who could use some extra love. I know that for many families they don't think about coming downtown. This is an opportunity to welcome those families.

When I think of cities I've traveled that are the most enjoyable and feel the safest to explore on foot, they all have one thing in common. They prioritize pedestrians and public transit over cars and on street parking. Think Abotaa Colombia, Mexico City, Guadalajara, which close central roads to car tra every single Sunday, allowing people to walk, bike, and skate freely.

or consider San Diego's Gas Lamp Quarter in Santa Barbara, which recently decided to close State Street to car traffic through the end of the year to support outdoor dining. I look forward to seeing the results of the evaluation of this pilot to do this more regularly and eventually expand to other parts of our city.

And I wanted to also add uh I wanted to thank uh Supervisor Andres Cano and the Pima County Board of Supervisors for making sure this is um there is more affordable and available parking downtown. And I know that they also scheduled some funds to be used for investment in our downtown. So, I I do not want to not thank um Supervisor Kano and Puma County um for being part of the solution and investing in the heart of our city and our county.

So, want to open up uh Council Member Baras, Council Member Dal, and then Council Member Rutingham. Thank you, Mayor. Well, I'm so excited for this pilot and all the partners involved. I too want to see downtown um continue to thrive and be active, safe, and welcoming for everyone. I appreciate the city's effort to explore ways to better manage large crowds, support our local businesses, and make downtown more pedestrian friendly.

Um for me, when I used to work in Santa Monica, my favorite street every day was going to Third Street, which was closed off. And I learned a little bit about the history of that street.

Um, according to longtime residents, they had shared that the city had applied for CDBG grants, community development block grants to close down that corridor because there was in the 80s and 90s a lot of gang violence, a lot of um, you know, violent incidences, mostly with young men, but also there was an increase of of blight from a lot of neighbors uh, neighboring businesses that had left that street.

So they use this CDBG grant to bring folks to reinvest in this street and to close it down to create a safe environment. So, if there's a way that we could look at that possible funding um stream and look at that as a another case study because the width of that street is similar to downtown to Congress Street, mixed use um back in the '90s, very similar demographics to Tucson, no longer, but um that would be an interesting um incorporation. Third Street in Santa Monica.

So, I hope too that this is not just a pilot, but something longterm that we could think about here for not just here in T in in downtown Tucson, but other areas, including Ward 5. Thank you, Council Member D. Thank you, Mayor. Just wanted to say this is a great project. My son works downtown on Congress Street and uh I've talked to him about it. I'd like to see this happen more often. Um and anything we can do to make it once a month, twice a month, every day. Um, I'd be supportive of that.

Thank you. Thank you, Council Member. Council member Cunningham. Um, remember that up until two years ago, we still did Second Saturdays, and this is nothing new. I mean, we used to have this 12 days a year. We also right now have the opportunity to do these things during Dusk. I think we should absolutely look at dusk as their next closure um and coordinate with the folks who organize that show.

Uh the other one I'd say is uh during the street car the street car uh the street fair and fall crawl are definitely opportunities to close congress at least on that Saturday. Um we want to be able to make sure it's safe and and all those things but this is actually more common than people think. It isn't like this is the first time we closed off Congress. So it's it's something we can do.

Um the la the other one I'd say and I know it's short notice but I'd love to I'd love to talk to the Arizona Bull folks right now and see kind of what they've got in mind and what they're doing. And in that one I actually you know living with the Snoop Dog theme closing to traffic but maybe doing a low rider parade or something like that I think would be really cool. So I think there's some opportunity there um with with Congress. So that that that's just me thinking out the box there.

Uh, as far as long-term making it a permanent um a permanent pedestrian thoroughfare, I actually think that warrants a lot of discussion, but I think that we need to hedge that discussion with the connectivity factor uh with the freeway and we still need to have that freeway bypass piece. I think that's super important. We've also built a ton of infrastructure along Congress for parking. So now, how are people going to get their car to the parking structure?

So those are the kind of weird it's a bummer that that that those look, it's not a bad problem to have, but at the same time, it still presents a very pragmatic challenge to some of the things we're thinking about. But, uh, great work by, uh, one and six to get this moving. And, uh, it's it's what community is all about. It's what community building is all about. So, uh, I'm on board. Awesome. Um I guess for me a couple of things.

I know that the city of Tucson Department of Transportation Mobility has been working with Puma County um to apply for the uh safe streets for all grant and that is going to be a $2.8 million grant. Um, I'm interested in how we can use um part of this funding to support future street closures and open streets events. Not just temporary.

I'm just kind of thinking along the lines that council member Schubert is thinking of like how do we graduate from a you know one-time street closure to really taking a look at the data um and the logistics uh to be able to do it in a much more permanent way. So, I guess my question is how could we work with Puma County with a safe streets for all grant, which is $2.8 million, to try and um institutionalize it with some of those grant funds uh to be able to do it in the long term.

And then my second question is, what traffic mitigation and safety plans are in place for surrounding areas like 4th Avenue and neighborhoods that surround downtown, particularly Iron Horse neighborhood and any Armory Park neighborhoods and have we thought about that? Mayor, thank you and council members. um with the uh safe streets for all grant. The conversations are actually going to just start uh around those funds. So, it's a little too early to say.

However, we will do our best to come back uh with some more information to help guide uh how this how those funds can be used and uh perhaps along with the other uh focus on the phased uh plan that you're you're looking for. Additionally, this the second question you have on traffic mitigation. Um, we are looking at circulation uh through not just downtown area but also around it.

And again, I can't underscore enough how important bar the downtown links connection is to really allowing that traffic to just bypass, but also to get around to get up to the Fourth Avenue areas and not require using the the Fourth Avenue to get there. Then of course uh wayward f uh signs to find parking garages. So making sure that we have a way for um uh for vehicles to be able to find their way around uh to find the garages and be able to uh to park in available garages in our downtown.

Wonderful suggestion. Thank you. We are planning on that for the Congress Street closure. I hadn't been thinking about it for the Fourth Avenue. Yes, we'll absolutely look to do that. All righty. Well, um, thank you so much. There is a motion and a second on the table. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I. I. I. Any against? Motion carries. Thank you so much.

really appreciate all the work downtown Tucson partnership is doing and our very own downtown I mean um Department of Transportation and Mobility. I know um TPD plays a big role in keeping us all safe. So appreciate the work that you're all doing together. Thank you Council Member Schubert and to the vice mayor for um all of the work that we're doing on this item. Right in time. I think we had five minutes to go on this item. So, I'm happy to um happy to be keeping us on track. All righty.

So, um the next item is item four, Pima County 2027 bond program. Miss Clerk, time has been set aside to discuss the 17 recommended projects listed in attachment A. Provide direction on any changes and direct staff to finalize the city's submitt to the bond advisory committee. Mr. Manager, thank you honorable mayor and members of the council. I will give some brief opening remarks.

Uh, also joining us online is assistant city manager Liz Morales who has been um leading the charge with our our team u both to solicit ideas from each of your offices and um from our our operating departments and we do have representatives from a number of the departments that have projects represented on our list that has been uh provided to the county.

Um just by way of background um the Puma County is preparing a potential general obligation bond program for the November 2027 election and they have formed a bond advisory committee which will recommend a project list and overall bond amount to the Puma County Board of Supervisors with a target of March of 2027 for that conversation. Um so the conversation has begun with uh the solicitation of projects.

The BAC has been formed and has been meeting and um uh for the city of Tucson, we have one seat that we were able to appoint and uh that is the role I appointed uh Miss Morales into and um so we went through a process of identifying projects. We have existing known needs um and we vetted them as staff and in consultation with you all uh leading up to providing that list as a draft with the caveat that oh by the way our mayor and council has not um reviewed this yet.

So uh they were uh Pima County and the BAC were informed that we were having the conversation today. So you can give us additional feedback and direction. Um, we focused on areas of known long-standing need that had no viable funding source currently. So, we have a number of voter-approved initiatives, sales taxes, bond programs. We are delivering work across the community in fulfillment of those voterapproved promises and yet we still have unmet unfunded needs. So, we focused on need.

We did focus on areas where we have guiding documents that have been developed in consultation with the community with significant community feedback and that have been adopted by the mayor and council. And so that is an expression of your priorities and initiatives.

Examples of those include uh plan Tucson itself which is approved by the voters, move Tucson, the housing affordability strategy for Tucson, Tucson resilient together which is our climate action and adaptation plan and our Somos UNO strategic plan uh for arts heritage and culture. The prosperity initiative which was adopted by both the city and the county.

our safe city initiative which is celebrating one year of being in operation and other uh input that we've collected over time and as you have in all of your interactions with the public. So we that culminated in a a much longer list than what we submitted but um we also weren't given any specific guidance on what's the magnitude of the bond ask yet. So therefore, what would be a reasonable amount of the bond investment that would occur inside the city?

So we did put 17 high priority projects on the table. Each of them is um bolstered by a one to four page uh project description which uh was a format provided by the county but it includes uh information on cost, future operations and maintenance requirements uh public support or evidence thereof um things of that nature and we have um presented that to the BAC in a package and that package package is reflected in your materials. You received our cover letter and the project descriptions.

We also provided to you a spreadsheet of the 17 is sort of an at a glance look at the 17 projects in their entirety. And um the BAC has begun to receive presentations on projects from the county itself and other jurisdictions. Uh as of this date, none of our projects have been presented yet. Uh the next meeting is coming up in about 10 days and that is where we're expecting to be able to start working through our project list with the county.

Um, with that, again, we're seeking your your feedback uh and um either reinforcing what we've presented, challenging what we've presented, um, any tweaks or additions or deletions that we should be considering before we finalize the list. And with that, I would like to turn it over to ACM Morales to see what you would like to add. Um, and which I'm sure will include many thanks to our team who really did a great job of pulling this together. So, Liz, yes. Thank you, Mr. Manager.

Um, thank you for uh your confidence and appointing me to the committee. Um, we have been working uh as a team um and with our mayor and council ward offices very it's always very um inspiring when we get to work together on on shared vision. So, uh, the only the only thing I would add to what the manager has talked about is just what the projects cover and I'm just going to very briefly um go through those. Um, there are four categories.

Um, the first category is public safety and critical facilities. Um, in that in that package is the regional 911 emergency communication center which replaces the 1982 facility which is operating under a code waiver that expires in 2032. Next is the new fire station that we're proposing uh for Tucson Fire which would close a response gap and would be our first infill station in more than 40 years. Next is the city court renovation and modernization.

Um the court is uh the building is in need of a lot of um renovation and and there's some failing systems. We the next category is public health and community facilities. Um we're proposing a regional navigation center which would be a one-stop facility for unsheltered residents which would be a top safe city priority.

Uh we also are proposing a center east mixeduse affordable housing project which would be a city-owned site currently where W 2 office um resides and would leverage about 40 million of other funding for developing the housing. Uh within that package is also the affordable housing site development. It's making approximately five sites shovel ready for affordable housing developers which we would have a 99-year ground lease.

We also want to do uh significant neighborhood investments in high poverty neighborhoods as our prosperity initiative. That is one of our policies. It would focus on transportation and neighborhood safety. And then the Tucson resilience hub which would provide two hubs where residents can be safe during extreme heat and power outages.

The next category is the transportation safety category where we would propose traffic safety infrastructure targeting our highest crash intersection and corridors, an arterial road pavement rehabilitation which would continue investment beyond Proposition 411 and the old veil road widening from Rita to Hton which would leverage approximately 10 million in impact fees and developer contributions. The the final category is the parks and recreation facilities.

Uh we're proposing the Mexican-American Chuco Cultural Center which would implement the Somosuno strategic plan leveraging 7.5 million and other funding. And we have three parks packages. The first package it would uh provide field lighting, court and pool shade and park expansions. The second package is would be a destination park amenities which would include the Rolph Golf Complex. And the third park package would be around reinvestment Reed Park, Balboa Heights Skate Park and historic pools.

And then the Tucson Convention Center enhancements, the Leo Rich Theater and Linda Ronstat Music Hall, Alva uh Torres Plaza and the Central Plant and uh public restrooms and drinking water, which we would target five parks and transit sites um to um provide some portable bathrooms that the public could use and also access to drinking water. Um all of these are projects that um our staff are there ready to provide any background or additional detail.

Um the city manager talked about the the level of bond funding. I do want to add that as we don't know how much um the BAC or the board of supervisors are willing to go today. What property owners pay in Puma County is approximately 8 cents on every $100,000 of assessed property value. that that's approximately per the Pima County uh is about 213 million. So that is would be what's current and what we're uh property owners ex uh experience right now in their annual payments.

So um the proposed projects all the costs are preliminary. they will change with design escalation based on uh based on uh costs uh that might rise and then also just the BAC's decision on the overall size of the program. So I submit that to you for your consideration and thank you for for your time that you've all spent to get us to this point. Okay. I want to reiterate that last sentence that you said uh to Mr.

Tamir, Miss Morales, um, and the entire, um, city manager team, Anna Rosenberry and, uh Christina um, and every single department that submitted information to be able to put this, uh, quickly together.

Um, I know that Puma County is moving very, very quickly and with their bond advisory committee and so I know that many of you had to drop some things and start working on this list and it was uh very important for me to have my colleagues on the council listen to the ideas that you all had, submit their own ideas and those ideas were instituted um uh within the package that you presented to us today.

So, thank you for the incredible work that you all did to make sure that we had a comprehensive list of the needs uh that the city of St uh Tucson has uh that we're submitting to uh Puma County to a possible Puma County bond. Um, the Pima County Board of Supervisors is thinking about putting this uh item, this bond election in 2027. And 2027, as we all know, is an off year for all of all other elections except for City of Tucson Mayoring Council.

Um, so working together is going to be key, I believe, between City of Tucson and Puma County. Frankly, I'm very very excited about the opportunity to think about further collaboration with Puma County and the board of supervisors and other regional partners. Um because this is how we make most significant change. Uh think about the um other opportunities that we've collaborated on. for example, a prosperity initiative that we're working hand inand on.

Most recently, Pima County, the city of Tucson, and the University of Arizona are holding hands and working very collaboratively in economic development and moving uh forward with economic mobility for all. Uh we have seen success um and even ribbon cutings with the RTA next and the uh billions of dollars uh that are going to be invested into our transit and transportation systems. So we need to make sure that we are thinking together about what will benefit all of us.

Our shared priorities are very similar. FEMA County and the city of Tucson, we share priorities in housing affordability, investment in our parks, in climate resiliency efforts, implementing our safe city initiative and the one puma initiative and economic development. Those are just a few of the things that we hold hands and share priorities in. And so, uh, the role that Tucson plays in our region is very significant, right?

The city of Tucson and our residents, um, are the biggest population center of our of our county. Our downtown is a shared downtown for all of us. Um the University of Arizona campus uh is inside the city of Tucson and serves all of us and draw draws uh sports fans and theater enthusiasts and students and residents uh across the region into Tucson. So again, we have an opportunity to work together. There's um the list that you showed us is uh very thorough.

it I can see each of my colleagues thoughts and voices into uh into all of them. Um for me especially are a couple of things that are important um that you know we make sure that we work handinhand with a board of supervisors um to prioritize our list. I know our list is plentiful. Um, I want to know where it is that Pima County is going to land on in terms of the what's the top, right? What is what they want? What's the top of what they want to ask voters to invest in?

Um, and I want to make sure that we're, you know, holding hands with Pima County to uh create recommendations for this bond that invests in our community, invests in ourselves, uh, in meaningful ways so that we can continue moving forward. So, I'll open it up for my colleagues and their input on this. Council member Kane. So, uh there's a few things we need to think about on the bond.

Uh top first is that they're they're we're running under an assumption that they're going to add another 53 cents per 100,000 of assessed value. Uh which rounds them at about a half a billion. It sounds like without raising taxes they can get to 213 million. I think that's we're running off that assumption right now, though I'm not sure if those numbers are correct. We have 431 million in capital needs that we're proposing and 341 million that we want to spend.

Moreover, and I think this is pretty important, we need to consider the idea that uh they only want to give us 40% of the money. So, whatever we whatever whatever comes in on the bond, we're only going to get 40%. And if the bond's only 213 million, that's like $80 million. Couple things about that. Even though we only generate 40% of the property taxes, we're 53% of the population. I don't think it's fair that we only get that one portion.

I think it should be an algorithm that considers uh population as well. So my hard ground to support the bond package is for 47%. If we're not going to get 47%, I'm not going to be really excited about any type of bond package for the city. The other thing is is that there's dual opportunities here. There's situations where there's a city project, but there's also a city project that serves people who live in the county.

And I think that also should be considered when we consider the holisticness of some of these projects. So, a good example is right now W 2 is the only ward that does not have a water slide at any of its parks. If we put a water slide at Jesse Owens, it mostly serves city of Tucson residents. But if it we put one at UD Doll, it would make that park a more regional uh destination.

and I don't think it should count against the city's total because uh it serves quite a few people who live in the county. So, those are some of the things I'm thinking about. I'd really like to see that piece added. Um I think that's really important to uh kind of filling out the vision for what city parks are. I have some questions about the city east, the center east project, uh and the housing piece. I'm not sure that's the full dynamic.

I mean, I think that I think that depends on some of the dynamics that um that we consider for Operation Divisions East. Operations Division East right now is under parked and uh believe it or not, Broadway and Pantan is a much more strategic location in so far as response. Uh we'd also be able to do some things like East Side Court at that that site.

And though we want people to be able to go downtown, I don't think it's I don't think it's unreasonable to expect people who live at Harrison and Broadway or out in Broadway to have to go all the way downtown all the time. I think being having them to be able to go to uh Pantano and and Broadway is a is a fair thing. They're still driving four or five miles. So I I think that there's some I have some questions about that piece.

I know it's only a 10 million and we can leverage it for for 40 million more. I'd like to find another site that we could do that. I'm all on board for finding a way to leverage affordable housing. I have no issues with that, but I think there might be better sites than Center East. Um, finally, Center East isn't near a park or any other city amenity. So, that's kind of one of the pieces to it. uh as far as the 53 cents.

So they're they their current proposal is 53 cents to get them to I believe their half a million uh piece. Look, either you're asking for money or you're not. And then you've got to figure out what's the max you can ask with a straight face and not have people go nuts. I think 53 cents is actually too little.

I think we can say, "Hey, look, 88, 90 cents, 99 99 cents, whatever it is per month, I think we can probably do a little better." And hey, look, if we're able to get 700 million and get 47% of that pie, believe it or not, we can fund everything that's asked for on this list.

And so, I think we want to go to the county with those strategies and say, "Hey, look, one is you got to do better than 40%." And two is if we're going to ask for money, let's ask for money and let's see, you know, where that thing if not if not let's take the 213. I actually think it's way more passable a bond if we do not ask for a property tax increase. The problem is is that that means the most we're going to end up with is like 97 million bucks. That's it.

And that won't cover even one-third of all the things we have on our list. So, those are kind of my reactions off the queue. Uh, the B the team did a great job in putting all this stuff together in a hurry, uh, in being nimble, and trying to get information in a time crunch. So, I'm good with all that, but I just think again, I want to negotiate with this bond advisory committee and go, look, we've got 53% of the population. We're doing a whole bunch of the work to help folks.

We're doing all the buildouts. You got to help us out a little more than that. Uh, finally, I'm all about some of these road projects. We're we've get we keep getting stuck and we have some road stuff that's expiring. So, building this into that bond package is a great idea. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Cunningham. I do see Councilwoman Lee has her hand up, so I'm going to jump into the virtual world so that we can give her some time to speak. Thank you, mayor.

Welcome to the virtual world. Um, no, I also want to thank staff for all of their work and outreach to get a list pulled together in such short amount of time. Um, you already know I am thrilled to see Old Veil Road widening from Rita to Hton on the list, number five on the list. Obviously, critical for the support of the growth that we're experiencing out here um and the jobs and the economic development that come to follow. I also agree with my colleagueu sentiment on getting our fair share.

Similar to RTA conversations, we need to make sure that Tucson is getting a representative share of uh investment in the projects and you know just just thinking about how the list ultimately the consolidated list is going to land with voters. I think we have a really strong project list for the city and hopefully as we refine the list down as things get closer we can put something forward to voters that um is going to land and they're going to be excited to support it.

So, um, thanks again to the team for all of your work to put this together. Thanks for putting Old Veil Road on there. Thank you, Councilwoman, Council Member Vargas. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, staff. Um, I just wanted to share uh something that I would like to see us have a lens on. I believe that we should consider the rodeo grounds as a priority under item 17, park package 3, reinvestment and activation of parks and pools.

This is one of um not just our southside's main destination, but city of Tucson. We have an opportunity to preserve an important part of Tucson's heritage while preparing this facility for future generations. It was established in 1925 and the Tucson Rodeo is approaching its 102nd year here in 2027, representing more than a century of tradition and community pride. Their last master plan occurred in 1995.

So, I would like to see if uh give direction if we could dust that off and and see um revisit that master plan to see what was in there. Also, you know, we host rodeos in the winter. We also have an opportunity to expand the grounds use with additional evening programming because there isn't any lights that can accommodate nighttime programming and year-round community events.

So, investing in upgrading lighting, modernize the infrastructure, add some air conditioning units, weatherization, and improve signage and parking. Public art that celebrates our Tucson history and vetto culture that also in includes our black indigenous Asian culture would help create a safer, more comfortable, and more more versatile venue.

These improvements could support not just rodeos, but cultural celebrations, economic development events such as concerts, and other community events while preserving this historic public asset.

I would like for us to consider directing staff to um just again look at that master plan in 1995 and evaluate these needs, develop cost assess assessments specifically for nightlighting, strategize and up oh go ahead strategize an updated master plan and identify priorities for a future bond so we can truly honor our history here while expanding the rodeo grounds um for future generations. It's really important again to think about this as a long-term investment.

The other thing I want to add when looking at the bond or the list was the LA Transit Center is located in Ward Five and W 5 wasn't listed in item 14 for public restrooms and drinking water um access item along with potentially some W five parks. We only have a couple parks that have working water fountains. So all these public amenities such as our park transit center should have working public restrooms and access to water. So really again tying in W 5 to Laos transit center.

And lastly, I'm super excited to see Sanorita Park skate park listed in item 16 park package 2. This is a key priority for again not just W five but for Tucson and southern Arizona. The buzz and activation following our grand opening of Santaorita Park has not died down. I seen it every day in action at all times of the day. The skate park is active. It's been active for years.

So before the ribbon cutting and I really want to show this community that we're investing in the long haul and also what I've been hearing from a lot of families is a need for a introduction skate park area some amenities for younger children um that are beginning so they're not just watching these professional or more skilled skaters at the skate park. So I'm tr I'm really looking forward to this and and getting some investment done at Sanorita skatepark. Thank you. Council member Doll.

Thank you, Mayor. Thanks to um all the staff who have worked on this. I think it's a balanced um amount of things and I hope we can work with Puma County and I hope it's successful. One thing about pools, since we've mentioned some specific projects, a pool is one of those pools that's towards the boundary of the city of Tucson. It gets a lot of use from um neighborhoods in Puma County that are underserved and it's we don't have to build a new pool.

We just have to um upgrade a pool that can't be opened at this point. So, I hope that will be included as we go through the Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Schubert. Thank you, Mayor. First, I want to thank uh city manager and staff for the additional work that went into this most recent recommendation.

I know you haven't had much time to prepare, but I also want to make sure that we're hearing from our department heads about critical capital needs, and I appreciate the clearer explanation of how these 17 projects were selected. Um the distinction between critical needs and enhancements and the intention to outside funding and long-term operating costs. As we consider the city's $383 million request, I want to reinforce four priorities that I believe should guide our investments.

That would be housing, water security, household affordability, and climate preparedness. On housing, I strongly believe we need to prioritize preserving the public housing that we already own. Properties like Crayfra and Fry Towers, which I recently toured, represent an enormous public investment, and we have an obligation to maintain them and to ensure that residents have safe, healthy, dignified places to live.

I support expanding affordable housing, but I would like to see a serious assessment of our existing public housing capital needs before we finalize our requests. on water. I'm concerned that we still don't have a specific investment in water security on this list, particularly given the serious PAS contamination challenges we're facing.

I appreciate staff's willingness to evaluate treatment infrastructure, and I appreciate that water treatment facilities come with large operations and maintenance expenses not covered by bond funding, but so do many, if not all of the projects on this list. Safe, clean drinking water is a shared priority. On affordability, I support investments in neighborhood safety, public amenities, and essential services, particularly in historically underserved neighborhoods.

I'm pleased to see a request for public health infrastructure in the form of public bathrooms and access to drinking water on this list. And on climate preparedness, I support the proposed resilience hubs, shade investments, and neighborhood improvements. These investments should be integrated whenever possible with storm water harvesting, pedestrian safety, and other improvements that deliver multiple public benefits.

My request is that we continue evaluating the missing investments in housing preservation, water security, and climate resilient infrastructure, and that we prioritize projects addressing the greatest demonstrated needs. I want Tucson to bring forward a thoughtful, defensible bond package that voters can trust and that delivers lasting benefits to the greatest number of people who need it in our community. Thank you. Uh thank you, Council Member Schubert.

Any others input feedback for the city manager to take? Um I'm really happy with the list that we have. Of course, we have so many needs, right? And but for me, one, I'm super excited to work in partnership with Puma County and the board of supervisors uh to make sure that we are investing in the right uh needs, right? And I know we have a billion dollars worth of need or more, but what are the right investments for this particular bond?

Um, and it would be good to know, um, you know, what are our plans for affordable housing? I know that Puma County Board of Supervisors is putting $250 million in affordable housing projects outside of this bond. So, how do we look at the entirety of the pie, not just the bond and what we want to invest here? Um, I think it's fair to ask, do we have um PAS uh concerns in our water system and how are we going to apply for funds to remediate those? Right.

It does the federal government have a responsibility to respond to our PAS needs or is it the bonds um and this opportunity that make more sense? Um, I know I've had this conversation with Tucson Water, with you Mr.

uh even with the EPA about who's responsible for PAS remediation um and are we going to are we willing to wait 20 years or 10 to 20 years let's say uh for the department of defense to pay for our remediation infrastructure and to pay for management and operation of what they've caused in our water facil in our water resources.

So really taking a look at this list, I agree it's going to be have to be cut down, especially because right now we don't know what the Pima County Board of Supervisors is willing to go out to the voters and ask for. Um I know that they haven't done a bond election in almost 20 years and so um I know they want to thread really lightly and and request uh from the voters what they feel will be a successful ask. So again, excited.

I believe firmly that um the priorities we've listed from traffic safety infrastructure to Old Veil Road to our regional navigation center to our Tucson resilience hubs to investments in the TCC from you know um Leo Rich to Linda Ronstad to the investment in Hakome Plaza and our uh library which could become a Mexican-American Chico Cultural Center.

All of those spaces and investments are important to reinvest in and um I don't think any anything on this list doesn't make any sense, but we're going to have to work with the board of supervisors, work with the bond advisory committee, and between all of us to try and make sure that we're asking for the right things uh for this particular package. So, thank you all for your incredible work. I don't know if that helps you uh to hear about our thoughts, Mr. Manager, in terms of our priorities.

Um, but I'm pretty sure that we're going to continue uh working on the priorities and then once we know the number from Puma County, we will have to do a lot of really hard work together to get to a number that makes sense. Uh, thank you, honorable mayor, and members of the council. Yes, this dialogue is incredibly helpful to us. Um, couple of the key takeaways I have is one, what we've expressed as priorities seem to resonate and then there's more, right?

So, there's definitely um needs beyond this. What I what I I think is really tactical things I can take away is one, let's be in the discussion and have our list and get it vetted with the bond advisory committee and look for opportunities to get these needs whether they stand alone or whether they're bundled together.

If we have a parkslike approach and there's city priorities and similar county priorities or other jurisdictions, maybe that becomes one bigger thing that we that we put forward as a region. Um we've heard some specifics uh wide and w too heard um um consideration of the rodeo grounds which we've discussed before and and that's certainly in our in our thoughts.

Um we will uh also look at where we have ex on the restrooms and and drinking fountains and you brought up LA Transit Center heard but also um there might be areas where we actually have existing facilities that we can make sure we're prioritizing as well.

So I don't I just want to make sure you know you heard uh with regard to uh Council Member Schubert and your discussion the four priority areas some of which are reflected here but you've identified um either real uh gaps either in this package or do we have an answer for it? So the affordable housing as you indicated mayor we have a number of strategies there.

So, as part of a next step as we go and and do battle on behalf of the people of Tucson, I think there's a few of these things I would be following up with. Okay, here's our strategy around craycraft towers as an example.

It's one we just talked about yesterday, but it also is one that has big needs, but in talking with um our housing uh community development department, there's actually a bundle of of of funding that we have assembled for craycraftoft towers, which includes some of the uh uh funding from the county through the affordable housing allocation. So let's uh when when something is absent but expressed as a priority, we'll do our best to uh fill in that gap or that uh explain what the strategy is.

Um so hopefully that'll be helpful in this style of moving forward. And we do expect it to be iterative as we go. So I think we have sufficient direction to keep plugging away and moving. Um and uh again, thank you all for your support um and your reflections on on what was put together here. Thank you, Mr. manager and thank you everyone Liz um and the entire team for putting this list together and and sitting at the bond advisory committee. All righty.

So with that we're going to move on to item six. Item five, time has been set aside at the request of Mayor Romero to provide an update the efforts to support unsheltered homeless unsheltered persons and how the city is addressing the concerns expressed by residents and business owners in Tucson. So, I just wanted to open this come on come on up and join us. Um I wanted to open this item um just to remind uh the public and mayor and council about.

We've had this item as a monthly update for three years. Three years. And uh this is something that we have been discussing mayor and council in front of the public on how to best serve our community both housed and unhoused. Uh there are concerns from neighborhoods. Um, but we also have a responsibility as as a city to make sure that we are also offering evidence-based solutions for um our unhoused residents and and we have created programs that never existed before in the city of Tucson.

Um, and that are working. Um, I think one of the biggest things that I've been able to um see firsthand is the unsiloing of how Tucson Police Department, housing, community development, even code enforcement, environmental services, parks and recreation, all of these departments have been able to unsilo because of the work that mayor and council have been insistent upon.

We are coming up actually I think we just um uh you know celebrated the one-year anniversary of creating the safe city initiative which really was created out a bit of desperation uh to continue the innovative solutions um being put together by all of us um to break down the silos to see tangible results um And we wanted to make sure that we also brought to the table our city court systems, our nonprofit partners, uh Tucson Police Department, taught us a lot of things and how to work together hand in hand to offer our unsheltered um neighbors as well as our neighborhoods solutions that make sense.

So, um, thank you so much, uh, um, to all of the team, Mr. Tamir from TPD to housing first to housing community development, our parks and recreation partners, our city courts for creating community courts for envisioning a video alternative to jail um option uh where we could put it all together, work hand in hand. Much more work to be done. uh we cannot sing hurrah right now but we have shown evidence that the work that we are doing is important and it is a good return on investment.

We have 1,230 people in our shelters that would otherwise because of the safe city initiative and the work that we're doing in the last year alone, 1,230 people in our city shelters and off the streets. Um, our balance of compassion and accountability has improved our acceptance rate of service. um from 10% to 58%. Um it has always been important to me that our safe city initiative uh not be a program uh where we incarcerate.

On the absolute contrary, um finding the right resources for the individuals, um our unsheltered individuals is the goal. Incarceration is not. And so, um I'm seeing a lot of really good work because of the further work that we're doing, uh with our safe city initiative and our community partners.

So, I want to thank very especially our Tucson Police Department core team and our officers, community safety, health and wellness, Puma County Justice Services and the public defenders office, our multidisciplinary outreach teams, and every volunteer uh who is working on the ground every day to talk to people and get them the help they need. Over the past 12 months, we have built trust and relationships with every contact.

um someone might not say yes to services the first or even the second or even the 10th time they are offered help but when people are ready to say yes we are ready to help them start their journey and stay in recovery.

So um our investments in low barrier shelters like save safer which is an investment done with opioid settlement funds desert cove which is a longerterm recovery option that we're putting together pace which is connecting people in our city parks are helping more people get off the streets and ensuring that everyone can enjoy our public spaces. So thank you all so much.

Um, I'm going to leave leave it up to you to give us the report on this, but um I'm really excited about the um the progress that we are making together and the innovation that is being used um by all of us at mayor and council, but very specifically uh to our team uh that is working on the ground and really thinking creatively on how um how we continue with the services. So, that's my soap box. Uh, Mr. Mr. Manager, help us introduce the item. Okay.

Thank you, honorable mayor, and members of the council. Uh, I really don't have much to add because, uh, you did a fantastic job of giving the overview and the background and the purpose and need of what we're doing here. So, I'll step out of the way and and turn it over to Brandy and Allison here who are prepared to give you this uh, update for the month. Honorable mayor, members of the council, I'm happy to provide an update today.

I'm going to start with the federal funding because it's one of the biggest factors that affect our regional homelessness response. Um, at the moment, um, the continuum of care or COC is HUD's main funding source for local homelessness programs here. That funding is coordinated through our Tucson Puma Collaboration to end homelessness or TPCH as you often hear. On June 1st, HUD released this year's COC funding notice, which made about $4 billion available nationally.

Um, it was a major shift though because it moved away from the housing first model and would have required people to take part in supportive services and substance use treatment in order to receive even the smallest services. Um, the city joined other jurisdictions and national organizations in a lawsuit uh challenging those conditions. Um on August 7th, a federal court in Rhode Island ruled in our favor and threw out the notice. Um the appeals court then allowed the competition to move forward.

HUD re-released the notice on September 18th with applications due September 30th. So that only gave our local providers 12 days to prepare um their submissions. Um so we're continuing to work through TPCH to support our providers and protect our regional systems through this uncertainty. We're also waiting on two federal youth homelessness awards. HUD planned to announce them by midepptember and I was just informed um by Jason Thorp that that still has not been announced.

Um if if they're funded, the city Catholic community services youth on their own in United Way will partner to address youth homelessness. our our youth action committee made up of young people with lived experience helped review those applications and made funding recommendations to the TPCH board. On to our next it's our safe city deployments. Um these bring together city departments as you were talking about madame mayor.

Um Puma County law enforcement the courts and service providers to address locations with serious public safety, health and environmental concerns. the 22nd Street and I 10 star and starass corridor was one of the ones that we've completed um since July. We also completed another one that was in WS one and six. Um and the other one that we've completed since July is Speedway and Broadway between Wilmont and Co in Ward 2.

Teams made 36 contacts and 15 people accepted services or completed intakes. These included shelter, detox, medication assisted treatment, and coordinated entry, which is a means to get going into the housing process, right? Um, these deployments are also also removed a significant amount of narcotics and weapons from our streets. Uh, there is a deployment scheduled for October 28th.

Currently, looking at the full year from October 2025 through September of 2026, partners carried out 22 deployments. Over that period, we recorded 346 contacts, 202 service acceptances or intakes. And that's nearly as you mentioned, Madame Mayor, 60% of the people that we engaged. So, um that included 60 shelter acceptances, 65 detox acceptances, 51 medication assisted treatment acceptances, 26 coordinated entry intakes, which as I said start the housing assessment process.

The deployments also supported 157 virtual court appearances. 157, that's pretty incredible. Removed 43 tons of debris and cleared city 62 encampments. Um, these numbers don't reflect the number of people that were detained or went in on felony warrants and and TPD can provide that update at another time. The key point is that we're pairing accountability and cleaner public spaces with real connections to services as as you mentioned.

Um, as we move into the winter months, we'll adjust our approach and we'll keep everyone informed on what those approaches are. We're also strengthening our response in city parks through our parks assistance and community engagement team. In August, PACE completed 37 park assessments. Um, these are usually triggered by 311 or online or by park staff who notice safety concerns during routine maintenance checks.

The team made 13 outreach referrals to community safety, health, and wellness and posted 25 no camping notices um near encampments that were active. Uh PACE also took part in a coordinated cleanup with environmental and general services, community safety and TPD and led cleanups with TPD's core team at Kennedy Park and Anza Park. One important new step that Pace is taking is that they've started a weekly census.

Um, and it counts people using the park spaces such as the ramadas, the open areas, the restrooms. Um, and that data will help us measure whether our cleanups, outreach, and enforcement are making a difference park by park. Finally, I want to highlight our new community storage program, which launched September 21st at Tucson City Court. Um the program provides eight secure lockers where people experiencing homelessness can store their belongings up to 24 hours.

Um these are so that they can go to appointments, essential appointments, um go to court. Um the lockers are available weekdays 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Court security cha staff check those people in and handle the lockers. Um and any items left longer than 24 hours um gets picked up by Community Safety, Health, and Wellness, and we store those in another program that we have. Um the program is funded by Arizona Complete Health and people are already utilizing that um program.

Um the program I said that uh having to carry everything can sometimes keep a person from from meeting their appointments and their obligations in court. Um this small but practical step removes any barriers and gives people a more dignified way uh to take care of their important matters. And with that uh that covers our federal funding piece um outreach and access work. Now I'll turn it over to Allison who will walk you through our shelter update including Star Village. Thank you Brandy.

Honorable mayor and members of the council. Good afternoon. I am the housing first program director and I've been in this role for just about a year. Thank you for the opportunity, my first time to share with you the update on our city-owned shelters and the one-year report for Star Village. The city owns and partners in operating several low barrier emergency shelters along with Star Village, which is an safe outdoor space.

These sites connect people to behavioral health stabilization, housing navigation, and transitional housing support. Right now, 234 people, including families with children, are staying across six sites. Wild Cut In has 78 adults and children. Desert Cove, which is operated by Community Bridges, has 19 adults. Craftoft shelter which is operated by Puma County has 65 adults.

They are undergoing some construction having a fire suppression system involved fencing with motorized gates as well as other minor improvements. Ampi Housing Resource Center which is operated by Old PBLO Community Services has 49 adults. Bred and Roses transitional housing, also operated by Old PBLO Community Services, is servicing eight adults. Star Village last reported having 15 individuals at their site. Star Village started as a pilot project one year ago on October 15, 2025.

It provides safe outdoor sleeping site for women and non-binary individuals. In its first year, there were critical partners who made Star Village possible. The Prima Vera Foundation staffed the site 247. Old PBLO Community Services provided case management to all Star Village clients on site.

The city's MDOT team provided outreach in a onem radius to the site and placed clients into the program, as well as connected those unsheltered to other shelters in the city and resources within our community. City staff help with maintenance of the site and any other needs as they came up. The site has showers, cooling and warming areas, shared gathering spaces, a community garden, a dog run, and it's near Donna Ligins Recreation Center, which has been utilized.

Services on site include case management and housing support, health care and screenings, behavioral health and recovery support, meals and hygiene, life skills, work opportunities through Prima Vera Works and the OPCS homeless work program, which is a lottery, and 24-hour safety support. But staff also listened to the residents. The residents asked for gardening seeds, tools, phone charging, Wi-Fi for job applications, and a space to cook. and Prima Vera was able to meet those requests.

Now, let's talk about the numbers. These numbers cover October 1st, 2025 through September 30th, 2026. The number that I think matters most is Star Village provided 7,212 nights of safe sleep. When residents were asked what they valued most, they kept saying the same thing. They felt safe and they could finally rest. Over the year, Star Village served 138 people over 152 stays. Those also they also served 17 pets. 14 people came back after leaving.

As Madame Mayor said, sometimes people aren't ready the first time. However, they trusted STAR enough to return and try again. That trust is a big part of how this work succeeds. There were 122 exits during the year. 22% went to permanent or temporary housing, 14% went to emergency shelter, 6% to an institutional setting, 36% returned to places not meant for people to live, and 22% to unknown locations. These numbers both show the progress we've made and how much work remains.

Outreach teams from Prima Vera, OPCS, and the city's MDOT team provided 4,284 outreach encounters. 284 encounters or 49% did take place in Ward 3, 10, 101 encounters in Ward 6, 775 encounters in Ward 1, 237 encounters in Ward 5, 105 encounters in Ward 4, 60 of these encounters were outside city limits, and 22 encounters in W 2. Star Village is also about community and empowerment.

Residents have an advisory council, hold regular house meetings, and share responsibility for the site and garden together. They also have a place where they can express themselves and be heard. For many residents, STAR is a chance to rebuild confidence and a sense of belonging. STAR was also supported by the great people of our city. We had 19 volunteers provide 194 hours of service. We also collected $40,11368 in donations.

None of this happens without our partners and several of them are here with us today. I'd like to thank Eively Bonia, CEO of Prima Vera Foundation and her team, Raina Leon, Anna Riviera, Christopher Dalt, Margarita Baoza, and Christina Abbril. Thank you for building Star Village from the ground up and for the care you gave the residents this first year. I'd also like to thank thank Tom Litwiki and the staff of Old PBLO Community Services.

Thank you for your case management work over the past year and for stepping in to lead the site going forward. Thank you mayor and council for approving funding for Star Village for year two. Old Public Community Services has now taken over operations at Star. Our commitment to the neighborhood stays the same. We will keep the closed campus approach, hold oursel accountable to our good neighbor agreement, and continue with the neighborhood cleanups. This concludes my update.

Thank you for your time. Brandy and I are happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you, Brandy. Thank you, Allison. Really appreciate the incredible work that you all do. We'll open it up for my colleagues on the council. Council member Cunningham, congratulations on all the encounters and also outstanding job with the star report. And this is why I appreciate the honesty on it. You had 58% of people where it wasn't necessarily a good output, but that doesn't matter.

At least you're telling us what's going on. We have way too many social services agencies are like, "Oh, we have 99% uh success rate." And then you say, "Well, did you count this guy?" "Well, he left early, so it didn't count, and this one didn't count." No, no, no. We want to know the raw numbers. And this is what's concerning is that we're making a lot of these encounters, and we're not moving things forward. We're making the same encounter, the same person seven times on the streets.

For our social workers, that's for our street level engagement people. That's got to be rough. We've got to figure out, hey, wait a minute. How do we find these high need individuals and get them to that point? Give them a little bit of more of a nudge, right? Well, we don't really know how to do that. And actually, I think that's where this discussion meets. So, despite today's outstanding report and where we are with our housing, I want to challenge you guys a little bit.

I think we need to bring at this item to this table some people from courts. Not just city court, but county court, justice court, probation, pre-trial. What happened? We get folks in the system, they get a warrant, it gets dismissed. What happens later? What's going on? I think we're we're I I met with some of our court workers and they're having a tough time keeping up with how to make ATJ work. They don't really see a model where we can get 7-day ATJ happening. And we need that 7-day ATJ.

We can't just there's no there's no schedule. If a person's ready, a person's ready. Or if a person's become a high need individual to the point that they the situation can't be managed anymore, we've got to make a decision. We can't say, "Okay, well, we'll see you on Tuesday." I mean, that that just doesn't work. So, for me, I want to see how can we take this envelope and fold courts into it.

and what resources do courts have where we can engage folks in a meaningful way to say, "All right, what you're choosing isn't acceptable. How can we get you to the place where we need you to go?" And that's I think it's I think that's the challenge we've had, I think a lot I think a lot of our street engagement that we've been involved on. Also, W 2 has way more than 22 encounters because you guys know that I'm doing like 15 or 16 encounters every two weeks myself.

So, um, I want us to start counting Marcus and I encounters. So, let's figure out if we can get that going. Anyway, the point is is that with I think if we can get courts and educate ourselves a little bit on how we can fold the court system into this a little more proactively, we may get some results and we may get some when we're making multiple contacts on the same person, we may get some movement. And I think that's kind of what we've all been looking for.

It's kind of in the holy grail of what we're all about. So that's the challenge. Understand I'm saying that and it sounds so easy. I know there's like 99 things more to it and I understand that. But Council Member Cunningham, I just absolutely hear you and that is something that we started doing with the Metro Justice Working Group. Um, Supervisor Scott, myself, Puma County, and and the entire city team. And so I guess and and by the way uh Mr.

Lusk is part of that conversation as well and he can help us through any advancement work that you're all done but I don't know if you wanted to jump in um Mr. Lusk to this conversation. Sure. Thank you honor and council member Cunningham. Your point's well taken and and that's a conversation we've been having for some time now. Um I've been having some regular conversations with Kate Vesley from Pum County uh and the and the safer center.

Um, and we're really looking towards uh trying to understand what that continued contact looks like and how we can have both uh services and accountability. And we're really working hard on that, especially with our our our community court and and other facilities. And that's what I'm coming off of. I know you guys are starting this process, but we have community court, we have veterans court, we have homeless court, and really I I think maybe we're oversp specializing.

We we really have high need individual court and I don't know what else to call it but we we have to take a look at how that would work. I look there's a lot more to it. We got to get the county attorney in that in that discussion a couple of the presiding judges. There's a lot to it. I get it. But we I'm really challenging to push the envelope here. That's all. Absolutely. Council member Kenne will do that. Um we do have other council colleagues that want to jump in.

Council member uh Schubert and then Council Member Vahas. Thanks, Mayor. Thank you, staff, Brandy, Allison. Um really appreciate this update and for the difficult work being done every day to address unsheltered homelessness. Um I want to return to a number I raised during our last discussion, 1,269 people living unsheltered in Tucson according to the 2026 point in time count.

Um, I think of this as our placement gap, the number of people we need to find appropriate shelter and housing options for. We currently have 234 people in six city operated shelters and Star Village's recent storm damage reminds us of how fragile some of our existing infrastructure is. My first question, how is our current zoning code limiting our ability to expand safe, sustainable shelter options, and what specific changes would help us close this placement gap?

I also encourage residents to participate in the shelter code amendment survey on the planning and development services website before it closes on October 25th. They did extend it. We've heard considerable misinformation about this process and informed community participation is essential. Second, I appreciate the updates on safe city deployments. Um, however, a 58.4% acceptance rate doesn't tell us whether people are actually staying housed.

Can future reports include information about how many individuals enter shelter, transition to permanent housing, and remain housed? And are we evaluating how increasing staffing, such as with our community safety, health and wellness, or adjusting our referral processes could improve these outcomes? Third, I'm encouraged by the PACE team's efforts to collect weekly census data in our parks. Parks must remain safe and accessible for everyone, including people experiencing homelessness.

How will we measure whether park interventions actually connect people to services and housing rather than simply displacing them from one public space to another? I want to acknowledge I'm asking super difficult questions and I'm not expecting that that's going to be solved by any one department. I feel like these are our questions as a collective community. Finally, I'd appreciate utilization data for the new community storage program, which is such an exciting effort.

This is a practical intervention that can help people retain their belongings while accessing services, and we should understand its reach. Ultimately, I want us to have conversations that move beyond tracked contacts, cleanups, and enforcement actions and toward measuring actual reductions in unsheltered homelessness. My understanding is that we along with our continuum of care partners are already tracking this kind of data um in our bimonthly reports here.

I would love to see some of that information, particularly how many people we're helping get into stable housing, how long it takes, and what investments are needed to close the gap. And again, I acknowledge that these are hard questions without easy answers, but these are the kinds of questions that people are asking me and our office. and I I value being responsive and elevating what I'm hearing. So given all that, that's the information and accountability we'd like to see in future reports.

Thank you so much for all you do. And I think those questions are valid also for our federal partners, right? Like what what is it that the state is doing for unsheltered homelessness? What is it that the federal government is doing for unsheltered homelessness? Because to be honest with you, the federal government is making it harder to provide the housing first services that we prefer, right?

And so my question is, how is it that the federal HUD guidelines changing the priorities from housing first to treatment first? How is it going to affect our budget and our bottom line? And I think that we have to make sure that as a city we are bringing our federal partners to the table and not just asking for the resources that we need but that they rely on evidence-based programs like housing first is we have proven that it works right.

Um, a lot of people because they have lack of information and knowledge, they think that it's only housing as opposed to housing individuals and wrapping them around with the services that they need. And so, we are fighting, I don't know about you, council member, but I am fighting a lot of misinformation out there that people use are using against me and against the city. uh because we use a program, housing first, that is an evidence-based program. They don't understand how it works.

They don't care about finding out about the numbers that we're sharing monthly. We have been sharing these numbers monthly for the last 3 years and they don't care. Facts don't matter sometimes. And so, yes, your questions are good and should be asked of of our team, but they should also be asked of the federal government. What is it that the federal government is doing to help an issue that shouldn't rest on the shoulders of cities?

Unsheltered homelessness should rest on the shoulders of all of us. every layer layer of government, federal, state, county, and city. All of us should be finding solutions for this. So, appreciate your questions and we should return those questions to the federal government and the state government and say, what is it exactly that you're doing to help us? Um, I want to thank our partners that are in the audience. Tom Litwiki is here with O PBLO Community Services.

I know that um the team here is here from uh Primaba Foundation. Thank you so much for helping us with Star Village for being part of the solution. And I hear that we also have our transit ambassadors in the audience here. So I really want to uh ask our transit ambassadors, newly hired transit ambassadors to stand up, please. Thank you so much. We are very appreciative of you all. I just want to call them out by name.

Rian Scott, um Harvey Thompson, Ethan Van Aller, Cass Ariel Romero, and Ralph Barber. Thank you and welcome to the City of Tucson team. We are very happy to have you and are looking forward to um the continued work that we're all going to do together to keep our community safe. In your in your case, our transit system uh well informed, our residents well informed that use our transit system and your help being extra eyes and ears to connect people to the resources that they need.

So, thank you so much. Any other questions, comments? Council member Vahas, I just have a couple questions, but I could email them to you, but I want to thank you both and thank you both for taking our team on a site visit site tour a few weeks ago. It was very informative and we were able to ask a lot of questions at that time. But um my only question really was the results for the weekly park census.

when are they going to when will we have that information and will we be able to um dig a little deeper on on the outreach and and who we need to bring in for partners and then actually I have another question um how are we tracking whether individuals contacted through the safe city deployments are successfully transitioning into shelter treatment permanent housing what is that follow-up process look like and what gaps are we seeing thank you both and what resources we need to cover those gaps.

Um, so very similar questions as council member Schubert. Any others? Okay. Also, one thing that I really am getting on um trying to repeat um how does how do we involve our community in in participating in the safety of our city? Like you know, our community, they have eyes and ears. They they know their neighborhood. They know their needs. It's not just about reporting, but how is it that we urge how can we urge residents to get involved in our safe city initiative, right?

How do we urge our residents to show up to team up to cleanup events?

Um there also there's research that proves that you know keeping a clean neighborhood is part of creating safety uh in our so how do we how do we ask our community to participate and volunteer and team up to clean up and I know that our multidisciplinary outreach team is really good about working with churches um that go out and put together heat relief kits and go out into the community and do, you know, distribution of of um uh safety kits as well.

How do they donate to our nonprofit organizations so that we can provide more beds? So, I would also ask that we think about like how do we involve our residents in being part of the solution as we move forward. So, um, that's my feedback and, um, and if there's no others, thank you, Brandon, Allison, and all of our transit ambassadors, everyone involved in, um, keeping our community safe and and doing the incredible work that you all do. Mr. Manager, did you want to add anything else?

No, mayor. Just adding my thanks to them. All righty. Move on to item six, Miss Clerk. Item six. Time has been set aside to receive direction from mayor and council regarding approval of the incentive request provided by Benson Hospitality Manager LLC for hotel development, the independent economic analysis for the project has been completed. Mr. Manager. Thank you, honorable mayor and members of the council.

Joining us here at the table is Mike Chakowski to uh present and discuss the results of this particular assessment and uh request your direction for next steps. Mike, thank you Mr. Tamir. Uh good afternoon, Mayor Romero, members of the council. Uh thank you again for your time consideration of the item of the Clara Remodeling Hotel done by Benson Hospitality Manager LLC.

Uh developers proposing renov renovation and modernization of existing hotel located at 755 East Benson Highway formerly known as the Minsk to be renamed the Clara. Uh site has been vacant for several years as we're all aware in considerable disrepair. I do want to say on a personal note uh this project brings me full circle in my career with the city. Uh it's one of my first projects with housing way back when was South Park revitalization corridor over there.

So, this is really cool to be seeing this happening over there. Um, just as a reminder, general terms of this incentive are reimbursement of city sales tax and hotel tax to offset eligible on or off-site public improvements, permit and impact fees, workforce training, or any combination of those. No reimbursement, as always, shall be made until all completion of the project, verification of all costs and taxes collected.

And the final value again is the lesser of all these numbers, actual numbers. Uh per mayor and council direction, we did uh initiate an economic analysis which you have in your packet. Um coming up very strong for actually the size of this project over five years. Project would generate direct city sales tax a net of $1.3 million. Uh the boutique hotel, so a little bit of a smaller kind of infill hotel. Very cool. Will create 17 construction jobs, five full-time jobs, and four part-time jobs.

And it's obviously in its current vacant, neglected condition. It is not generating any any revenue, but actually a blight on the community and costing us significant time and tax dollars in maintaining it. Um the red development will have significant positive impacts in the area. As mentioned, the project could generate a total economic impact of $2 million, $9.9 million over 5 years in direct and indirect revenues.

Um, projected value of the incentive is $500,000 over those five years, capped again at that 45% rate of the all city sales tax actually collected, not to exceed $100,000 per year. Well, the city would net projected $1.3 million over those five years, significantly exceeding and meeting the requirements for our benefits test for the incentives. So, as mentioned, direction today is requested to formalize development agreement, bringing it back to mayor and council for final consideration.

Next steps, we would bring back as required a legal notice of intent on that on a subsequent uh council meeting followed by that consideration of that development agreement. I'm happy to answer any questions. I do have Connor Blunt here representing developer if you have any questions for him. I know council member Baras, you have met with her team and toured the site and we've also had TPD and everybody meeting with the site as well as looking at other opportunities in the area.

So, very exciting opportunity. Thank you. It is very exciting. Council member Vadas, do you have a motion? I just wanted to say I'm just encouraged and looking forward to this opportunity with you all here at the Clara Hotel and I just want to make sure that we're looking beyond the numbers and focusing on what this investment truly means for our residents and the surrounding area.

That means creating local opportunities, jobs, supporting economic activity, and ensuring the community truly sees those tangible um benefits. So, thank you. I'm I move second. So, there's a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this item? Council member Cunningham, just remember, it's way better to get part of something than all of nothing. And every single time we talk about these incentives, some folks are very quick to misrepresent them as some type of cash giveaway.

And the bottom line is that the opposite is true. Uh we won't even get the investment unless we do things like things. Again, we're getting part of something instead of all of nothing. This is a really good investment for the southside. Anybody um anybody familiar with the Benson Highway corridor and where this is realizes how excellent it is. Thanks for taking this risk on Tucson. Um I too just want to say how exciting this is.

This is such a positive investment in an area of our city that highly needs the investment, but it's also popping. it's, you know, moving forward and uh being able to have a reinvestment strategy in this area is um is something that I'm happy about. I know that we're including this area in our opportunity zone program and um again, I agree with Council Member Cunningham that that getting a percentage of something is better than getting nothing of nothing.

Um and this area deserves this investment and the people and neighborhoods that surrounding this area uh will see a big difference. So uh happy to move this forward. There's a motion and a second on the floor. If there's no further discussion, all those in favor, please signify by saying I I I. Any against? Motion carries. Thank you all. Thank you so much. Thank you, Council Member Barahas. And thank you, Mike. We move on to item seven.

Time has been set aside for Marian Council to provide an update on the proposed community ordinances and development enhancements code Tucson 26 code update package which contains amendments to the unified development code UDC and Tucson city code. Mr. Manager. Thank you honorable mayor and members of the council.

Joining me here is our director of planning and development services, Corin Manning, who will be uh giving you an overview of what this is, maybe even mention a couple of things that it is not. And um really we're seeking your feedback as we go along. Um and uh we'll be uh also covering a bit of what this next steps look like moving forward. Um we don't need any particular direction at this point, but we're just seeking your feedback uh on our process so far.

With that, I give it to Korn Manning. Thank you, city manager, and good afternoon, honorable mayor Romero, council members. This is an update, as a city manager mentioned, on the community ordinances and development enhancements or code Tucson 26 code amendment package. This package is really intended to modernize, clarify, and streamline our zoning code and review processes. Um, so I want to clarify that PDSD is engaged in a number of code initiatives at the moment.

So I want to clarify that this package does not include amendments related to shelter care or commercial rainwater harvesting. Those are separate items that we are currently working on and we will have an update on commercial rainwater harvesting code amendments at the next mayor and council study session and then on shelter care at a future date. So this package is really um geared towards as I mentioned streamlining and modernizing our code.

It was initiated by mayor and council in December of last year. It actually includes 78 amendments related to development review, sign code, parking, housing, and adaptive reuse. Planning commission has reviewed this amendment and recommends approval with three conditions that we will cover um in a moment. I also want to note that this package previously included standards for battery energy storage systems, also known as BES.

um that component has been removed from this package to allow for additional stakeholder discussion, technical analysis so we can really craft the appropriate standards around that use as a separate code amendment. Uh so pending feedback from mayor and council today, we do intend to schedule this proposal for a public hearing on November 17th. Um Alisa Hamlin has also joined us, our deputy director. Thanks, Alisa.

Um, and Alisa is going to cover more of the outreach process and um, some of the key components of this package. Honorable mayor, members of the council, it's a pleasure to be with you here this afternoon. Excuse my tardiness. Um, I'm excited to talk to you about Code Tucson because this is something I'm really passionate about. I'm really am invested in being able to propose some changes that I think are going to make our zoning code better.

Um this has been a long process over the last uh you know several months but we have been able to get feedback from a lot of those in the community regarding improving our development codes and improving our zoning code. Um for community engagement we first started this process by reaching out to those in the community with an open-ended question of what they wanted to see improved in our codes. And the feedback from that really shaped the central themes that are part of this package.

And once we had a handle on what we thought were kind of the priorities that we heard and things we knew were going to be um able to improve the code overall, we held a series of public meetings in June this year where we talked through the themes and also the proposals that were on the table to improve the code. Um, we had around 60 people that attended the two meetings and we were able to garner some good feedback from that.

We did get a lot of comments that were related to process changes, um, the need to remove barriers to housing and parking standards, common topics. And then we did provide a follow-up community survey after those public meetings as well. And that gave us some good things to work towards. So for code Tucson we were able to develop eight themes and I have kind of portioned them into two different buckets.

Uh four of the eight themes are really about clarifying simplifying or modernizing the code some you know normal improvement kind of things. The other four items are related to policy areas that we know have been important to the community and to the mayor and council, including parking improvements, adaptive reuse, emerging land uses, housing, and modernizing and reauthorizing our sign code.

So today, I'd just like to focus on the four that I would clarify as kind of policy areas because I think that's where there's been a lot of interest. Uh the first being clarifying parking standards. There is um seven items in this category and we know that there's been comments from the community not only about the amount of parking that's out there, but the design of our parking areas and how it relates to our public places.

So this is some incremental items that we're proposing as part of code Tucson. It's not a complete overhaul, but we think it makes some very meaningful improvements, especially things that we know have been barriers to development in the past and to improving our built environment. So, those items include allowing parking, temporary parking for special events, um clarifying for the standards for shared parking situations, including for in mixeduse developments and as part of shopping centers.

uh clarifying parking for recreational uses and self-service uses and also removing a barrier that we've heard time and again about calculating outdoor seating areas as part of your parking requirement. Um kind of disincentivizes creation of those spaces. And then the last item and perhaps the most meaningful is to simplify our process for an individual parking plan. This is our primary tool for which we can give parking reductions through the zoning code.

And based on feedback from the community and also the planning commission, we added this to the package to be able to open up the opportunity to do an IP in more locations throughout the city and provide more developments, the opportunity to make that argument for why an IP would be appropriate for their location. Um, this does still allow for a review process and for the PDSD director to impose conditions when they're appropriate in those scenarios.

The se second policy area that I want to mention is emerging land uses and adaptive reuse. Uh, we know that we have a lot of uh vacant structures or underutilized structures in our city.

So, we've tried to respond to that by um streamlining the opportunities to use our primary adaptive reuse tool, opening that up to use for restaurants and bars, which were not previously allowed to use it in the same way, and also creating more opportunities for services to be located in commercial, office, and industrial areas.

our office zoning has typically not allowed for certain um uses that an office employee might need on their everyday and so trying to create more opportunities for that and for accessory and mixed use. So really um limiting some of the things that have been holding back reuse of our existing developed areas.

Originally, as Korin mentioned, we did include a proposal for battery energy storage systems as part of this topic area, but that has since been pulled, but that would have fit into our emerging land use categories. We did also make some other small minor improvements to other use categories that represent the evolution of things over time. The third area that I'll mention is removing barriers to housing.

Um, housing is something in the forefront of much of the community's mind and affordability and being able to find adequate housing. So, one of the things that we're proposing as part of this package is to create an opportunity for middle housing subdivisions. And this is feeding off of prior direction from the mayor and council when we adopted the middle housing code update to really think about then how to create ownership opportunities for those middle housing units.

So the subdivision option would do that allow for smaller lot sizes to be created and sold and therefore creating more affordable options and that would apply citywide to the locations that allow middle housing. We also have a couple items in that housing topic area allowing for easier conversion of existing structures to ADUs or cassitas and then clarifying some standards also related to our new threshold with middle housing the five unit threshold. So cleaning that up.

And then the last topic Ariel mentioned today is our sign code reauthorization. That was originally set the sign code was originally set to sunset in um August. We did previously ask the mayor and council to extend that for 6 months while we worked through this project. And so it is now set to expire in February, but we're hoping we're going to get through code Tucson before then and um be able to remove the the requirement for a sunset date. Our sign code has been in place for several years.

We've seen it be successful. We're also proposing some minor updates to some design um standards related to the sign code as part of that topic area. So uh as I mentioned there was a few items that obviously we made some adjustments as we kind of went through the last few stages with the planning commission. We did meet with them in two study sessions because of the quantity of the information that we had in this code package. Um a total of 78 I believe different area items.

Um, and that is very large and we were really lucky to be able to have fruitful conversation with them about some adjustments we could make along that way. But we held a public hearing with them on October 7th and they did move forward with a recommendation to the mayor and council to adopt the code amendments as part of code Tucson with a few um conditions which we've already mentioned the battery storage to remove that.

They also recommended we change some items related to substation um upgrades and we had proposed as part of the package that very minor upgrades i.e. like replacing equipment wouldn't trigger a zoning examiner special exception. We've since revised that to be a PDSD director special exception. So more administrative but very in very limited circumstances. So, we're refining that language based on um direction from the planning commission.

And they also um revised a wall height associated with that. And then the final item I'll mention is that they did want to see further work done on parking standard reform as we've mentioned and we're tenatively hoping that we can move this forward to public hearing with the mayor and council assuming we have some direction from you today. So that is the items that I was hoping to summarize and I think Korin do you have any closing? Yes, thank you Alisa.

Um so we think Code Tucson is a very significant reform and will really um improve how we review and regulate development Tucson but of course that work is never done as you heard from Alisa. Um some of the community priorities we really heard through this process were housing and parking reform. How can we make further um advance those issues further? So, I just wanted to highlight that to mayor and council, those are items definitely on our radar that we're taking away from this process.

Um, on parking, as Lisa mentioned, there are a number of very targeted reforms in this package, but um really a further effort would need to be kind of a dedicated um project related to parking um in partnership with Department of Transportation Mobility and other partners. Um and on housing, again, that really emerged as a key priority. Again, many items in here that will make significant changes, including that subdivision option.

Um, but this is something that is already on PDSD's agenda and work plan for the coming years. We received a pro housing grant from HUD in partnership with HCD. So, that is something we're starting to put together a larger residential reform package and will be returning to Mayor and Council in the near future for more in-depth discussion of that item.

Um, so with that, um, again, pending the outcome of today's discussion, we will be bringing this back to mayor and council for a public hearing and consideration on November 17th. Well, thank you so much, Corin and Elisa, for your incredible work, and thank you for bringing us a a package that had so much community input and feedback.

I know that you did surveys, you did meetings, you did very specific uh stakeholder group engagement meetings, and so I appreciate all of the work that you're doing. It makes my heart happy that um you know, in in the feedback that you received. I did read the uh feedback. What is it? The overview of code Tucson survey results and hearing from the general community and development professionals and neighborhood advocates and special interest groups.

Uh many of them talked about uh parking requirements um you know to reook at the parking requirements infill housing density um you know all of the issues that we've been working on and that we know we need to work on. Uh so the the survey results I think really um bring to light what we have been talking about for the last I would say six to 12 20 years around here.

Um, so I did see that your recommendation is to come back for future unified development code amendments um to look at the parking which the planning commission recommended that parking overall should be looked at uh throughout the city of Tucson. And then of course the housing reforms that you recommend that you come back with um for doing larger residential code reform uh supported by the pro uh housing grant that we applied for and success successfully brought to Tucson.

So uh people have very similar things issues on their minds about housing affordability. How do we how do we do infill development? Um how do we protect sensitive the sensitive outskirts of our city in terms of um you know keeping buffers to natural open spaces uh parking and what's working what's not working. So, I'm I'm really happy with the package that you bring forward and I know that my colleagues have have some additional input on the same note.

So, open it up for my colleagues on the council. Um, Council Member Cunningham and then Council Member Schubert. We start with the easy ones. Battery storage use, please be liberal. Um, I like the idea of being able to storage batteries as long as they meet the safety requirements, but I want I'm thinking about allowing neighbors to put it in easements. Uh, people can be encouraged to get off-rid. I mean, there's just all kinds of things.

So, battery storage is a thing where at first sight you're thinking, oh, battery storage i3. Well, what we really have to do is say battery storage can be all zones, but you can't store an entire battery farm on an R1. You can have like this much square foot on R1. It has to be, you know what I mean? So, it has to be a moving target where if you're going to do a battery farm, that's an I or a C.

But if you're going to do some type of modest battery storage, it can be a proportion of your lot or it can be that's kind of where I'm going on that. Um, also if it's underground, I think all bets are off. Whatever. Somebody wants to build a giant, you know, basement underneath their land so they can storage batteries. Okay. I mean, I don't know. Um, all right. The second one is the setback relief for ADUs. I think you guys got it covered. Um, we've run into a few of those things.

I just want to make sure we're going to add some provisions like if there's a physical barrier, if it's out of line of sight, then that ADU setback relief can even go farther. I just think it's I think it's a good move. I mean, sometimes it it defeats the purpose and getting an In other words, we'll put an ADU on one part of the property or we'll ask them to put it on one part of the property when it makes way more sense to be somewhere else even though the setback isn't violated.

So, we've got to like be we have to have some nimleness with people's site plans. Um, okay. On the middle housing piece, our affordability piece for me isn't just um our zoning and our parking requirements. And so, I'm glad we're going to do those things. It's great. But the biggest piece is the construction defect. I brought it up at this table for our state agenda and and we've talked about construction defect insurance and how it affects middle housing and the cost to build it.

In other words, right now if I want to build a three-bedroom, two bath town home, it's the same amount of money to build a single family residence, which is crazy, right? It isn't actually the same amount of money, but the insurance premiums are just way higher.

So, I'm going to challenge you guys a little bit to get with the with the great Roy here and see if we can come up with a plan that doesn't violate the gift clause and allows people to purchase bridge insurance from the city at a very low rate for a two-year self- insurance construction defect instead of the seven-year self- insurance construction defect.

I think what we'll see is a very good drive to lower middle housing costs and it will pencil out to take a larger residential lot midtown go vertical and do three or four town homes or condos. So those are the ones off the top of my head. I also think if we get some stuff where we get big time resistance will slow down.

We could break this into two or three sections for the non-controversial, the couple people need a couple tweaks and then the stuff where one person points out says, "Oh my god, and 80 people are at our office yelling and screaming." So, you know, if we we need to have a torch and pitchfork provision where if we get one that's just unforeseen, we can pull it off the package. That's all. Thanks for listening. Thank you, Council Member Schubert.

Thanks, Mayor, and thank you, PDSD staff, for the tremendous amount of work that has gone into Code Tucson 2026, and to the hundreds of residents who took the time to provide thoughtful feedback. I appreciate that these amendments are focused on making our development code more practical, flexible, and responsive to our community's needs. This is always a work in progress, and we're really lucky to have such a talented team leading the work.

Changes like eliminating unnecessary parking requirements, making it easier to convert existing structures into ADUs, and establishing clearer middle housing standards are exactly the kinds of reforms we need to reduce barriers to housing in neighborhood serving businesses. I also appreciate the attention to rainwater harvesting, although um I remain concerned that the proposed six-foot height threshold for sistern setback exemptions may unnecessarily limit larger, more effective systems.

I hope that we can revisit that provision. I also want to acknowledge concerns raised by residents about the potential weaponization of code enforcement. While I understand that changes to the neighborhood preservation ordinance fall outside of this process, I do believe we should examine whether some of our enforcement standards create unnecessary burdens without meaningfully improving public health or safety.

Our development code has an enormous influence on housing affordability, transportation choices, neighborhood design, economic growth, and our ability to meet our climate goals. Parking requirements are a particularly important piece of that equation. Requiring more parking than a development actually needs, drives up construction costs, consumes valuable land, and reinforces car dependency.

We should be evaluating whether our standards reflect the transportation system and housing options that we want Tucson to have in the future. And with the support of the ProHousing Grant, we have an opportunity to continue removing regulatory barriers and expanding the types of homes that can be built in our city. With that, I'd like to affirm that I'm pleased to see this package of updates move to public hearing. And I offer the following motion.

Request PDSD to return to Marin Council in early 2027 with a work plan for the next phase of unified development code amendments. That plan should include a review of parking standards as recommended by the planning commission, including parking minimums and related access and parking design standards. The work plan should also include residential code reforms supported by the pro housing grant with the goal of expanding housing options and reducing unnecessary barriers to development.

Thank you. So there's a motion on the floor. May I have a second? I second. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this? This is basically a motion as I understand it. Council member Schubert basically giving direction on what um our mayor and council memorandum is suggesting, right, that um planning and development services will come back and put together a package for parking reform as well as housing reforms. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

Just want to make sure that you know we're clarifying. Any others? Council member do. Thank Thank you, Mayor. Uh congratulations and thanks to the team and a special thanks to the planning commission doing an extra meeting. Um and I'm going to support their recommendations because of that.

I'm going to support this motion too because I understand that um it's been made in consultation with you all because when I think of all the things you're doing um composting toilets um new landscape stuff etc etc um doing a lot of work. Appreciate it. Um, thank you, mayor. Of course. Any others? Okay, hearing none. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying, "I I." Any against? Motion carries. Thank you, Corin Lisa.

Thank you so much for all of the work that you and your teams do. Well done. All righty. We move on to item eight. Item eight. Time has been set aside to approve an authorized execution of an intergovernmental agreement between the city of Tucson and the state of Arizona's Department of Public Safety to continue TPD's participation in the Arizona Vehicle Theft Task Force. Mr. Manager, honorable mayor, members of the council, and apologies for making you nervous.

Council member Dah with having TPD at the table here. Uh like to welcome TPD. uh this is uh at your request on an item that was brought to you in a previous council meeting and you wanted some further discussion and uh better understanding of the item uh before taking action on it. So uh assistant chief Duffy is here uh to uh guide us through this discussion. I turn it to you. Right. Thank you honorable mayor and council members.

I just want to give a brief I know you get a lot of information before you so I'm going to briefly talk about uh the IG um some of the questions that we've answered but I think there's some additional questions that uh will be asked. So this item was brought to before mayor and council in August regarding TPD's involvement with the department of public safety autotheft task force. Follow-up items were requested and I just want to re recap what the task force is.

Um, and I know a lot of items come your way, so I'm going to give some uh historical. The Arizona DPS task force is a regional partnership for stolen vehicle investigations and recovery. The IGA primarily supports TPD participation and cost sharing. It does not itself authorize new ALPRs, cameras, or bulk record sharing systems. Uh, we have been part of this task force for about 28 years now. TPD's role in mission.

TPD assigns one sergeant who's seated next to me, Sergeant Kutias, um and one detective to the Southern Arizona task force. Uh the ATF initiates vehicle theft investigations. Related cases may uncover firearms, narcotics, or organized vehicle theft activity. Regional coordination helps recover vehicles crossing city, county, state, and international boundaries. Uh just a little bit of the value of it. Uh so far through September of this year, they've recovered 195 vehicles.

136 of those, so 70% of them were TPD related. 68% of the total arrests are TPD related and 3,585,316 recovered property value. Uh just for clarification, TPD related means linked to TPD, not necessarily that a TPD personnel individually recovered them. Um but it is related to a TPD case. Um I must really stress that with our current staffing and all of other the other responsibilities, we would not have been able to recover this number without the task force designated to this effort.

Oftentimes, stolen vehicles are used in violent and egregious crimes. One recent example is the gun store burglaries. a stolen vehicle was used in those burglaries. Um, oftentimes they'll tell you in hopes of not uh being caught. So, this task force was able to recover the recover the vehicle that led to some of the arrest of those responsible.

Uh, I think it's also important to note that some of these vehicles are often stolen from apartment complexes with victims who only carry li carry liability insurance, which means that if we don't recover their vehicle, they're at a total loss. They don't get reimbursed from their insurance company. DPS does reimburse 75% of the compensation for our two assigned task force members. Um, which ultimately reimbures the city 440 800 440,800 annually.

As requested in the August meeting, TPD provided a briefing to every council member or their aids. It was also requested that TPD present this to the APC committee. Um this has been done and at the end of the presentation to IAPC the committee had no objections. The committee was satisfied with a statutory framing and rationale but I want to mention something that was mentioned in that meeting um which was similar to the concerns here of mayor and council.

Um the border strike force was mentioned which is a department of public safety program. It does not exist anymore. when Government Hobbs was elected, that strike force was rebranded, renamed, and some units were removed. Um, so it doesn't exist anymore. And for mission clarification is that it's not an immigration enforcement effort.

There's a squad that is positioned in Ngalas, which is close to the border, but they are working primarily to bring back vehicles that are stolen and taken into Mexico. They bring them back to the US in hopes to reite them, reunite them with the victim of that crime. Um I also have a set of questions um I think we received 16 questions that were brought forward since our briefings um which took place the beginning of September.

All of the questions and answers have been provided to each council office and the mayor's office. I can go over them if you'd like or we can just leave it uh to specific questions. I'd like to uh leave it to specific questions. If any of the colleagues on the on the council have those questions they and they want some answers for, let's since you have the answers, let's make sure that we just focus on the ones that that there's qu still questions on. Absolutely. All righty.

Are you done with your presentation? Okay. Thank you so much. Really appreciate your update. Um I just want to make sure that I open it up. I know council member Schubert has some questions and requested that we have this item in front of us. So, Council Member Schubert, if you want to jump right in. Thank you so much, Mayor, and thank you for being here. Really appreciate it.

Um, I appreciate that Council Member Lee moved to continue this item back in August to allow us to have more discussion on this item as we hear from constituents who are concerned about data sharing, surveillance technologies, and government accountability. In our briefings with TPD, we were able to learn more about the intricacies of this program. And I just want to express my appreciation for the responsiveness um and the openness to just hearing from us.

It's one city, one team, but we always want to make sure that we can turn around and provide specifics to our constituents. Um so I'm going to raise a few questions here just for public transparency. Um, while the IGA contains no reference to ALPRs or license plate reader technologies and the statewide task force does not have direct access to TPD's ALPRS are ALPRs used in the strategies of this task force.

Uh, so TPD officers assigned to the task force uh do have access to TPD ALPRS and the Seaart cameras. The officers are allowed to share information with ATF members only in further ends of the active investigations, but they do not have access to our ALPRS. Thank you so much. Um, so that explains a little bit of the guard rails that you all use. Um, is there anything else besides ensuring that the information is tied to a specific case?

Yes, actually, uh, we have a general order that governs that. Um, every Q requires a case event number, um, and documented justification. Um, so you have to have a criminal nexus in order to check the ALPR um, information or any of the SEARC's cameras. Thank you. There are two major databases used in this program. The National Crime Information Center or the NCIC as well as the Arizona Crime Information Center, the ACIC.

According to the briefing from TPD, um, the information put into the system is not personally identifiable information, PII. Can you explain what data does go into these databases? Yes. So the APL ALPR data does not contain uh the PII ACIC and NCIC can sometimes contain bolo or flyers. Um but that is any um autotheft that's uploaded. It's a state requirement and so only law enforcement that has access to it for a criminal reason can get that.

But for ALPR that's normally license plate information. So it'll say this vehicle stolen. You would have to go in and normally check the report. Sometimes um attached to NCIC or ACIC it will say if the vehicle is located it will tell you who to get a hold of victim wise to give that back to but that would be it. So just to confirm um no information like specific names of people, immigration status or biometric data? No.

Um, in our research, we found the AVTF newsletters, which do share overarching information like hotspot data and the makes and models of vehicles stolen. Can you share what data metrics are used internally within TPD to measure the success of the AVTTF, TFF program? Um, what are these metrics and uh what of these metrics are shared with the Arizona Department of Public Safety?

Yeah, the key metrics for our success honestly are the total number of recovered vehicles, total value dollar of the recovered vehicles, the percentage of su successfully prosecuted cases, uh which is about 85% for us and justice for community members and that is what we share with DPS. Thank you. Final question.

I'm curious if the materials shared with mayor and council on this item are the same materials that were shared with the independent audit and performance commission or if they're different. Uh yes. So very similar. The IGA was shared. Um similar questions were asked and responded to. They had a few additional questions uh mainly related to victim. So they were victim centered and so those were also answered but um I was not part of that meeting.

Sergeant Gutierrez was and from what I understand it was almost exact questions that came up here that were asked and answered um and then some additional ones. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions and to address the concerns of council on this matter. I think it's imperative that when we have IGAS or contracts with outside agencies or private companies that we thoroughly review what we're sharing, how data is managed in how we're measuring success.

And the goal of discussions like this are to ensure you know Marin Council and the public have full transparency and measurable evidence of success in data sharing and surveillance technology programs.

I recognize that specialized tools in national and state databases can assist in property recovery and solving crimes, but I think if we're going to use them, we have to pair detailed police department briefings with objective data reports to build public trust as well as ensure targeted enforcement while protecting civil rights. I really appreciate the time taken for this discussion. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much, uh, Council Member Schubert, and I appreciate you, um, really bringing this item, um, removing it from consent agenda, having a conversation, and I want to also give some appreciation to Councilwoman Lee, uh, for requesting that we have a study session item on this. Um, also council uh woman Lee has been for many years leading on making sure that there is clarity, transparency and protection of our residents in the strategies that we used at TPD.

Um, I also want to thank the independent honor and performance commission for reviewing the IGA and making sure that they felt comfortable with the work that we're doing. and of course TPD um and all of its members working on this item for really giving us the opportunity uh as mayor and council to have this discussion.

And I I'll I want to reiterate something that I had a conversation with Chief Prito and her team when we were discussing some of the on our updates because we all receive updates from our chief. Um and one of the things that we talked about was, you know, how are people feeling? How are residents feeling in our community? and and um I understand that there's mistrust in government. Um there's a lot of crazy stuff happening right now in government at all levels of government, right?

And what we see of importance um in both from people mistrusting government in terms of corruption and what we're seeing in terms of corruption in in in the top echelons of government in uh in our country we haven't seen before.

and what the federal priorities in terms of weaponizing data and I think people are feeling that and so it's important that we have these conversations not that we are distrustful of Tucson Police Department and the work that you're doing and that you have been doing for decades with IGA such as this one but what is happening at other levels of government to weaponize data and for us to be able to show our community this is what we do.

This is what we've done before and this is why we here in the city of Tucson and with Tucson Police Department, this is how we're going to protect your data um and provide the services to keep our community safe as we always have done. So I totally understand um having this conversation and being able to provide the transparency and accountability and clarity that we have providing uh have been providing for decades. Having these conversations at this moment in time is uh equally important.

So I see Councilwoman Lee's hand up. Councilwoman Lee um the floor is yours. Thank you, mayor, and thank you for the acknowledgement of all the work that we have been doing the past several years with transparency, disclosing policies, how we're collecting, protecting, auditing, all of those things because it is absolutely critical.

And I really appreciate you pointing out how, you know, we're dealing with the the trickle down impacts of of distrust at other levels of government and other levels of um corporate America really. So, um, thank you for that, mayor. you you stated it perfectly and thanks to TPD for all the extra time that you spent to help educate us and the community about this particular IGA.

Um I think overall as some of my colleagues have already said it's critical to helping to maintain and build trust at the local level where we do have control. Um and I really appreciate the APC chiming in. And I did connect with my appointee as well to see what her thoughts were after this. And I think absolutely critical that we have that citizen oversight on this and anything that we're doing that has anything to do with data, AI, emerging technology.

Um that was really instrumental to the work that we've done. So I just want to thank everyone for their their attention on this, for their time on this. Um, I'm going to, you know, fully support the IG moving forward, but just wanted to share my gratitude um for this process and let's keep doing more of this because I think it's going to be even more important as the years go by. Thanks, Mayor. Thank you so much, Councilwoman. Any other comments, questions? I I don't see anything.

Thank you so much. Appreciate your work and um information. Item nine. Time has been set aside for discussion and direction relating to matters pending in front of the Puma County Board of Supervisors and other regional jurisdictions. All righty, Mr. Manager, do we have any updates on this item? Honorable mayor, members of the council, joining us remotely is Stephanie Zamora, uh, who's probably two doors down from ACM Morales right now.

So, uh, Stephanie, I know you have some brief updates for us. Thank you, Mr. Manager, uh, and honorable members and uh, honorable mayor and members of the council. I am uh joining you live from Long Beach, California at the ICMA and I'm really um happy and proud to be representing Tucson in our profession um here. And um on the regional fronts, Puma County selected three finalists for the county administrator role.

Uh the board is interviewing those candidates today and they will potentially select a person today or by October 27th. Uh the board also approved its updated funding priorities um including an additional $1 million over two years for the health department to support residents uh losing access and SNAP benefits as we've been seeing in across our community. Um and this would be particularly through food assistance, legal advocacy, and healthcare.

Um I want to thank Mayor Romero and Council Member Barahas for raising the issue of school closures for this item. And so on this front um TUSD announced its first proposed consolidation uh yesterday recommending that Hudllo Elementary merge into SU elementary beginning in the 202728 school year. Additional school recommend uh school closure recommendations are expected throughout this week with up to 10 schools potentially affected over the next two years.

Um a 31 member advisory committee including representatives from city council wards and puma county districts are helping inform um the process. Uh and following this uh TUSD will hold a governing board meeting on October 27th at 5:30 at Paulovery High School for public comments followed by a public hearing on November 17th and a final board vote on December 8th. And for further regional context on this matter, um, Amphitheater Public Schools went through a similar process earlier this year.

In January, its governing board unanimously approved closing Copper Creek, Donaldson, Holloway, and Nash elementary schools with students um consolidated into other campuses beginning in the current school year. uh TUSD cites declining enrollment driven by lower birth rates, families moving to private schools or homeschooling through Arizona's ESA program as some of the primary reasons for um these consolidations.

The district is also facing um reduced state funding and rising costs to maintain um under underutilized campuses. So again, honorable mayor and members of the council, thank you for raising this issue. Um we are continuing to track that as as more developments um arise. Thank you so much for the update. Are there any questions on this? Um, okay. So, we're going to move to item 10, which is um um state and national legislation and regional committees.

I'm just going to start off just by um talking about um what our neighbors, the Otam Nation, are facing. The federal government is accepting comments on proposed border wall construction and the city of Tucson is weighing in. Um the Trump administration is pricing ahead despite the nation's opposition. We've done a resolution in support of the Dhonautam nation on this and um you know if we all feel comfortable we're going to continue uh expressing our support for that nation.

Um, also, uh, the city will be joining partners in submitting comments, uh, by October 29th on that particular issue. I did want to hand over um the mic to our city attorney, Roy Lus, because he did want to talk about an amicus brief that the public rights project is asking us to jump into. Mr. Lusk. Thank you, honorable mayor, members of council.

Um, we were uh just informed that uh from our litigation partners uh that there is a uh amicus brief being circulated to various cities related to the assault weapons ordinance of Cook County. Um it's it's a a sort of regulatory um ordinance that uh reasonably restricts uh weapons like AR-15s and those sorts of platform weapons and and uh I would ask for your direction on whe whether or not we would sign on uh for the city.

Um I'd like to move that we um add the city of Tucson and Amicus, please. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion on adding Tucson to this hearing? None. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. Thank you. Any against? All righty. You've got your direction, Mr. Attorney. Thank you, mayor. I also wanted to make sure that um I informed you that I am sending a letter of support um to support Sherikawa National Park Act.

Congress passed the Sherikawa National Park Act uh which would make Sherikawa National Monument in Coochis County um Arizona's fourth national park. So, um, the bill was presented to President Trump for action late last week. Uh, he has 10 days excluding Sundays to sign on or veto it. If he takes no action, it becomes law. Um, and it just is very exciting to make Sherikawa um, a national park in the state. So, I just wanted to make sure that I informed you.

I'm sending a letter of support uh on behalf of the city of Tucson for Sherikawa National Park. Mayor, I sent an individual one as well. That's great. Thank you for doing that's wonderful. All righty. Any other questions, comments on this particular item, Mr. Manager? Honorable mayor, just a quick uh on the federal front, we're still awaiting uh budget information and on the state front, we know there's u federal and state elections pending.

So we are prepared for uh safe and secure elections in uh Tucson and working closely with Puma County. So that's all I I'm so glad that you brought that up u Mr. Tamir because um I know that Tucson Police Department, Mr. Lusk, Laura Conover, uh the recorders office, the elections department, we're all working together to make sure that our elections are safe and secure and that people's votes are protected.

So, um we do have a plan as a city and county um to help make sure that we have a safe election day even though election is happening right now. Um, we want to make sure that we, um, let our community know we, you know, our police department, our county attorney, our city attorney, we're all working together to make sure that people feel safe and secure when voting. Honorable mayor, I do have uh, one quick final update from Stephanie on an act that was signed. Oh. Um, thank you, Mr.

Manager and Honorable Mayor. I just want to state for the record that President Trump just signed that uh the Cherikawa National Park Act into law this afternoon. So, just want to um for continuity and for the record. Thank you. That's great. Perfect. Thank you so much, Stephanie. I really appreciate it. Anything else on this item? Item 11. Does anyone have any items to remove from the consent agenda at today's regular meeting? Yes, Madame Mayor. I want to remove items um 7E and 7D. 7E and 7D.

7D and 7E. Any others? All righty. Item 12. Does anyone have any items for future agendas? Seeing none, the study session is adjourned. The regular session will begin at 5:40. We'll see you in an hour. Thank you all so much. Hey, hey hey. Nat. baby. Hey Hey hey hey. Hey, hey hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Happy birthday. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey, hey hey. hey down hey Heat up. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey hey hey. Hey, hey, hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey hey hey. Hey, hey hey. Hey, hey hey.

Come. Hey, hey hey. Hey hey hey. Heat. Heat. N. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Good evening. Thank you all so much to everyone that is here with us today. We will start with um the public housing authority meeting first and then go into regular meetings. So um for the record, Councilwoman Lee will be participating electronically through Microsoft Teams and Vice Mayor Santa Cruz is absent excused.

The board of commissioners of the city of Tucson public housing authority will stand in session. Uh, Miss Clerk, can you call roll call? Commissioner Santa Cruz. Excused. Commissioner Cunningham here. Commissioner Dah here. Commissioner Lee here. Here. Commissioner Barahus here. Commissioner Schubert here. Commissioner Hawkins here. Chair Romero here. We have a quorum. Item two, FY2027 Housing Choice Voucher payment standards.

City manager PHA communication number 17 dated October 20th is received into t and make part of the record. Madame clerk, you are requested to read resolution PHA 2026-58 by number and title only. Resolution number PHA 202658 relating to housing and community development, approving the proposed fiscal year 27 payment standards as required by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and setting an effective date. What is the board's pleasure? So move your honor. Second.

There is a motion and a second to pass and adopt resolution PHA 2026-58. Um, any discussion at this time on this motion? Seeing none, we do need to go to roll call. Commissioner Cunningham, I. Commissioner D. I. Commissioner Lee. I. Commissioner Barahas. I. Commissioner Schubert. I. Chair Romero. I think Commissioner Hawking. and Commissioner Hawkins. Commissioner Hawkins. I All righty. Um I think Commissioner Hawkins has a question. Did you want to ask a question Commissioner?

I wasn't sure if Jason Thorp went to speak on this this particular item. Yes. On this particular item. Thank you. Okay. All righty. Thank you. There's another question. Uh Commissioner Vahas. Thank you, Mayor. No, I just wanted to recognize Jason for your leadership and guidance of the, you know, PHA. The progress made including all PHA programs returning to HUD's standard performance status is an important accomplishment.

And just on behalf of our W5 team, we want to wish you the very best moving forward. Thank you, Commissioner, and thank you, Commissioner Hawkins. Really appreciate you asking that. All righty. So, um, we have everyone that's voted, correct? All right. So, the motion to approve resolution PHA 2026-58 passes by a vote of 70. Item three, access to the HCD main office. City manager PHA communication number 18 dated October 20th is received into and made part of the record.

Time has been set aside for review of the access to the main office of the housing community development department. Uh what is the or you need to read the resolution? No. What is the council's uh the board's pleasure on this item? Commissioner Hawkins. Yes. Um this is um Okay. So, I'm excited because I'm speaking on this item today. Um, and the subject is access to the HCD main office citywide and outside. See, the United States has the words in God we trust stamped on its currency.

And I believe that the great I am hears our voices that go unheard and watches over us all. Today, I'd like to acknowledge the people in the room that understand this meeting behind the words and give them an opportunity to speak on this manner. I would like to recognize council member uh Schubert um Miranda Schubert W 6 city of Tucson for her efforts to seek available funding towards access to the HCD main office at 310 North Commerce Park uh loop endeavor.

I'd also like to personally thank uh Jason Thorp, deputy director of the housing authority community development department in the city of Tucson who always listens to me. um never ignores my concerns and helping ensure the voices of my constituents in need are not overlooked. Um people need means and resources to meet requirements.

We must also listen to their concerns so that we can better understand their circumstances and work toward re towards real solutions that give them a fair opportunity to succeed. I need to be transparent with my constituents. I urge you as you pursue your opportunities, plan ahead, take charge of your life, and please speak up respectfully. Do everything you can to succeed no matter what the outcome.

Uh, I'd like to invite Anchanette Good, the uh, AICP director housing uh, director of housing and community to speak on this item. Thank you, Commissioner Hawkins, Chair Romero, um, board of commissioners. So, I really want to thank Commissioner Hawkins for bringing this item forward.

This came up at a recent resident advisory board meeting where some of our public housing residents and housing choice voucher residents mentioned that there used to be the fixed route service to um Sunran bus service to housing community development. There is no longer that fixed route, but there is Sun on demand. And so thanks to Commissioner Hawkins, we are currently working with Department of Transportation to try to better at least communicate what exists today.

I did invite Department of Transportation Mobility um transit administrator Ian Sansom here. he can answer questions about the sun ondemand system, but Commissioner Hawkins bringing this forward is allowing us to at least communicate on what what exists today to better explain to residents and participants how to access campus. Um Ian, do you mind just sharing very briefly how how Sun on Demand works? Yes, thank you. Good evening, honorable mayor, council, and commissioner Hawkins.

Thanks for having me. Um, yeah, I just want to touch on a few points um, quickly with Sun on Demand. Um, so this is, as it uh, name implies an ondemand service offered by the city of Tucson. Um, within this Tucson city limits, there are actually three Sunon demand zones.

Um, zone one, which was the first established on demand zone, um, is on the west side, and it's bounded by Silverbell Road on the west, Grant Road on the north, uh, Cushing Street on the south, and then Oracle on the east, northeast. Um, and there's also a section of Sun on Demand zone one that's uh that covers the Ronstat Transit Center. So, anywhere within this zone one, you can pick up uh you can request, I'm sorry, um curb to curb transit service um for free.

It's free just like the rest of our transit service. Um so, you can pick up, request a ride um within that zone one area um and be dropped off within that zone one. You can also request a ride within zone one or zone two and be dropped off within either zone one or zone two. So, you can go between those two zones. Um, I'll also mention, uh, the service, uh, runs pretty similar to regular Sunran service. So, 6:00 am to 8:00 PM on weekdays. Um, and then, uh, goes until 5 I'm sorry, 7:00 p.m.

on Saturdays and 5:00 p.m. on Sundays. And on demand, Ian, is um, do constituents have to call to make an appointment to take the Yes, honorable mayor. Yes. Um you do have to either call or use the Sunran app to I'm sorry on demand app um which is separate to request a ride. Um and you do have to request a ride 1 to 7 days in advance to be assured of a ride time. You can request for same day service. However, you will not be assured of getting a ride that same day. Do you have the number? Yes.

And it's in the it's also on the they have a book that came out. Do you want to provide the number if there's a number that people can call? Yes. So, I actually I brought pamphlets. Um, and if anybody wants to grab a pamphlet with more information, I'll have them on the chair over here next to me. I can also answer any questions afterwards. Um, the number is 520-7981000. Oh, easy enough. Um, Commissioner Hawkins, did you have any questions or followup?

Yeah, I just wanted to add to what you said, uh, what you were saying, Ian, about requesting a ride just to let my constituents know. Um, a lot of times, um, before I got a car, I had to arrive early. Um, and I would arrive the bus before just in case. Sometimes the buses leave early. Uh, so you want to make sure that you're there well before your time so that you don't miss your appointments. Thank you. Thank you, Ann. All right. Thank you so much. All righty.

Anything else that you needed on this particular item, Commissioner? Excellent. Any other questions from you, Commissioner Schubert? Thank you so much, honorable mayor, um members of the um commission, and thank you to Commissioner Hawkins for bringing this up. Um it's definitely important that we are constantly working toward making Tucson a city that's accessible to everybody and especially people who are guests of the HCD office. So, I really appreciate you bringing this up.

Um the W 6 office is happy to support anybody who needs help with planning their ride to HCD and troubleshooting. Um, we're happy to walk people through the transit app, um, and help help you all connect to whatever you need. Um, and in the meantime, continuing to advocate for increased and sustainable funding for transit so we can have routes for everything we could possibly need. Thank you so much. Thank you. All righty.

We move on to item four, quarterly public housing authority update and fiscal year 26 public housing authority impact report. City managers PHA communication number 19 dated October 20th is received into and made part of the record. Is there a motion to approve the quart quarterly update? So moved. There's a motion. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this item? Seeing none. Um all those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I. Any against?

Motion carries. Item five, approval of minutes. City managers communication number 16 dated October 20th is received into and made part of the record. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the April 7th, 2026? So moved and June 9th, 2026 meeting. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this hearing? None. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. I. Any against? Motion carries. Item six. Adjournment. The meeting of the board of commissioners is adjourned.

The mayor and council will now convene our regular meeting. Thank you so much, commissioner. Really appreciate you. Thank you so much. Um, all righty. We are going to take one moment so that we can uh reconvene at a regular council meeting. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you. Yes. No, it can't be. I'm done. Like that's it. just threw it like a 2-year-old child. Oh yeah, I love to throw across the room. There's none. There's no It's very good. All righty.

Now we will reconvene for a regular mayor and council meeting. Again, for the record, Councilman Lee will be participating electronically through Microsoft Teams and Vice Mayor Santa Cruz is absent. Excused. Council will stand in session and we do need to go to roll call. Council member Cunningham here. Council member Doll here. Councilwoman Lee here. Council member Brahas here. Council member Schubert here. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz absent excused. Mayor Romero here.

Before we go to item two, the city attorney will go over the rules of decorum for mayor and council meetings. Mr. Attorney. Thank you, honorable mayor and members of council. Arizona's open meeting laws provide that members of the public may attend and listen to the proceedings during tonight's public meeting of the mayor and council.

Arizona law also allows the mayor and council to enforce rules and procedures for public attendance of the meeting to ensure orderly behavior and to prevent unnecessary interference with the public meeting. Here are the rules that apply. The rules require to quarum and orderly conduct by the members of the audience.

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

If disorderly or disruptive conduct continues after warning, and this is that first warning, the mayor may direct the removal of persons from the chambers and or recess the meeting itself. If disruptive behavior makes it necessary to clear the chambers, the persons who disrupted the meeting will not be allowed to return to the chambers for the remainder of tonight's meeting.

As a final note, please be aware that interfering with or preventing this lawful public meeting from being carried out in an orderly manner not only violates the rules of participation, but also violates Title 13 of the Arizona Revised Statutes. Um, all righty. Thank you so much. Item two, invocation, pledge of allegiance, and appointment to boards, committees, and commissions. All righty. We will start with item two which is the uh invocations and pledge of allegiance.

Uh we'll start with the land acknowledgement. Let us begin by grounding ourselves and acknowledging these lands. The city of Tucson is on the lands that have been stewarded by the tonoatam since time in memorial and the Basuyaki people who have lived in the Sonoran desert for thousands of years. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. One nation under God indivisible. All righty. Thank you. Item 2 C1.

Um, I would like to proclaim October 20th, 2026 to be honoring blackowned businesses on South Park Avenue Day. And our second proclamation, our second proclamation, which is item 2C2, is um to present city of Tucson and Pima County Children's Outdoor Rights. So, we will uh go with our first proclamation and our esteemed guest who will join us tonight at at the front uh honoring historic blackowned businesses on South Park Avenue. Um Mr.

Walter Hopkins, uh, Gwen Pierce, Shondaanda Shondaanda Pierce, Becky Hopkins, Tracy Hockett, Shirley Hockett, Barbara Hopkins, Bertha Hopkins, Victor Bolleg, Rhonda Kendrick Monise, Ray Kendrick, Mr. Charles Kendrick, Kendra Kendrick, uh, Donna Walls, Mr. Jimmy Hill, Mr. James Christopher, Willie Blake, and lovely Ganther. Please join me at the front. And to my colleagues, please join us as well. All righty. So, who wants to hold this? I would love for you. All righty.

You look so beautiful, everyone. Really appreciate you. All righty. So, on behalf of the city of Tucson and the office of the mayor, I would like to proclaim uh October 20th, 2026 to be a day of honoring historic blackowned businesses on South Park Avenue. So whereas we honor the history, resilience, and contributions of the black community in Tucson, whose pioneers, entrepreneurs, and visionaries have profoundly shaped the fabric of our city, particularly along South Park Avenue in Ward 5.

And whereas at the height of the civil rights movement, when racial barriers limited the opportunities available to black Americans, the blackowned businesses on South Park Avenue stood as pillars of the community and as unapologetic architects of Tucson history. And whereas Walter Thomas Hopkins, barber, living community historian and owner of the historic blackowned business Hopkins Fashions and Sounds, refused to let rejection or discrimination determine his future.

He built his own opportunities and created opportunities for others. and whereas with his then wife Lula Hunter, co-owner of Hopkins Fashions and Sounds created a special place where a haircut, the latest records, and the latest fashions came with conversation and inspired social change.

And whereas Charles Kendrick, a history maker in his own right, built the very building that housed Hopkins Fashions and Sounds and his work to help lay the foundation for a business that grew into far more than a barber shop, malt shop, and record and clothing store. Mr. Kendrick was also an entrepreneur and community builder who owned several businesses along South Park Avenue, including Ken's Market, the Black History Museum, and Mr.

K's Barbecue, which is delicious, providing neighbors with essential goods, nourishment, and a place to preserve and celebrated their own history. And whereas Hopkins Fashions and Sounds became a community cornerstone. It provided jobs for youth, instilled a sense of self-ride, and offered a safe space for expression, intellectual and creative freedom, and self-confidence, and most importantly allowed one of the most powerful forms of resistance to thrive, the power of joy.

And whereas Walter Hopkins played an important role in Tucson's community and cultural life in the 1960s, including his involvement in the afroamerican coordinating committee, the Miss Tan Beauty pageant, and the black the Tucson Black Expo 1968 events that celebrated black American beauty, talent, fashion, and achievement.

Whereas the documentary 2032 South Park Avenue created by filmmakers Shandra Pierce and Gwen Hopkins Pierce preserves and shares this important chapter of Tucson's history with current and future generations. And whereas we celebrate the enduring legacy of these blackowned businesses and honor those who came before who laid the groundwork and built community in South Park. And whereas to know where we are going, we must first know where we come from.

The story of South Park Avenue's blackowned businesses and the people behind them remind us that when a community creates its own opportunities and uplifts one another, its impact lasts for generations. Now therefore, I, Rahina Romero, mayor of the city of Tucson, Arizona, do hereby proclaim October 20th, 2026 to be a day of honoring blackowned businesses on South Park Avenue in the city of Tucson.

And I recognize Walter Thomas Hopkins, Lula Hunter, and Charles Kendrick for their enduring contributions to our community. And I encourage all residents to learn about and celebrate this history, resilience, and achievements of the black American community in Tucson and specifically in W 5. In witness whereof, I have here unto set my hand and cost the seal of the city of Tucson, Arizona to be affixed this 20th day of October, 2026. Congratulations, And it would be our honor if Mr.

Hopkins, you can say a couple of words um just to continue inspiring us. Should I hold it? No, no, no. Uh thank you, uh Mayor Romero. It's a privilege and an opportunity to be here to uh represent those who went on before me and and uh to be able to and I know they would be proud, you know, to uh know that you proclaim this day, October 25th, will be um black business um remembrance on South Park Avenue. And I thank you. It's a privilege and opportunity to have the opportunity to be here.

Thank you. Okay. sit down. Before that, yeah, you guys have to turn around. Before Before we take the picture, I want to allow for two other people to say a couple of words. So, uh, Shondaanda Pierce, who's our documentary filmmaker, if you'd like to say something. and and then also on behalf of Mr. K uh we have his son here to represent him and say a couple of words. So where is Shondaanda? Okay, believe it or not, I'm actually shy.

That's why I'm always behind the camera, but I just want to say thank you to everyone. Thank you for making this happen. um he really is a living legend and you know this is it's an honor and I also you know my grandmother who is now in heaven I hope she's looking down on us and she's also proud as well. So that's all I got to say. Thank you guys. Hi I'm Pio. I um first walked into Mr. K's museum 17 years ago and being of Hawaiian descent um instantly I saw a lot of cool stuff.

I saw a lot of cool stuff but over the past years um Mr. K has put a story behind each of those items. And then you learn that everything has a story that needs to be told. Everything has a history. And unfortunately, he can't be with us tonight because he's at the VA um having health issues. But this proclamation and people like Mr. Hopkins are very important because they tell the stories and we need to honor them and appreciate them while they're still here and not when they're gone.

That's right. All righty. And uh we had a little bit of a preview of the um so stay here before we take the picture. Right. So, we're going to play the preview. We're going to actually show you the preview. It's a It's a one and a half minute preview of the documentary. So, please enjoy. 2032. It's 2032 2032 South Park Avenue. On the corner of a busy street in Tucson, Arizona, sits an unsuspecting building that has shaped countless lives within Tucson's black community.

It created jobs, offered refuge, sparked creativity, and nurtured connection. It was a heartbeat, a haven, a space where people could simply be. From the 60s to the 80s, it was Hopkins Fashions and Sounds. A place where you could sit for a fresh cut of the barber shop, pick up some afroentric styles, grab a malt, and spin the newest hit record. But above all, it was where you could find family and a place to belong. How do I know this? Because I'm the granddaughter of the founders of the shop.

Everybody felt welcome and everybody felt um safe at home kind of like you're in a house full of people that you know of pride um black power. There was lively because there was music playing. I can picture the community involvement with the Hopkins barber shop. Okay, now the kids call it vibe. Welcome. 80% of them came to get their haircut and the 80 other 20% came because it's a good place to be. We're going to have some interesting conversations in here.

The conversations that were going on in the department. Yeah, man. That's outstanding. Yes. Like I think because I saw my parents do it, I never thought of anything being impossible. Over the course of four years, I spent time with close friends, loved ones, and family, each with a personal connection to Hopkins Fashions and Sounds. And this is the story of that very special place. Located at 2032 South Park, Avenue. All right. Now, we can take a picture. Mr. H. Stay close to him. There you go.

If you want to squish in together or it's okay if you want to come up front. We need a few. So we can even it out. Getting close. Okay, we're gonna take a Where are we watching? Where's Where's the Oh, you take one. One, two, three. At least there's no flash. Ready? Oh, good. Okay. At the count of three. One, two, three. South Park. This is the most cameras we've had in documentary. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, that was so lovely. Thank you so much. That was lovely.

Take do a selfie real quick. Thank you. Thank you so much. Really fast. Ready? Oh, shoot. Yeah. Yeah. I have to edit my Thank you. All righty. Our uh next beautiful and amazing proclamation as well is we have some distinguished guests as well as I call your name. Please join us uh for the children and nature week proclamation uh here representing uh supervisor Jen Allen as Bonnie Bazada.

Uh Monica Brinkerhoff United Way of Greater Tucson Associate Vice President for Charlie early childhood education. Lara Hamway of the city of Tucson Parks and Wreck. Soil Coronado Vargas, Tucson Water and Storm Touch Shade. Hillary Van Alsburg of the Children's Museum. Kate Hiller, Puma Connecting Children to Nature Coalition and members of the Puma County Connecting Children to Nature Coalition. Anyone that wants to join us up here, we would be more than happy.

And so I'm gonna give this to you all. So you can hold it. Yes. Join us. Join us. Join us. Join us. Hand your camera to someone so that they can take a picture of you all. All righty. So, um, on behalf of the city of Tucson and the office of the mayor, uh, we hereby proclaim with the Pima County Board of Supervisors the third week of October as children and nature week in Tucson and in Puma County.

So whereas uh Puma connecting children to nature coalition through a process shaped by local youth, caregivers families teachers and community leaders created the children's outdoor rights to advance equitable access to nature and connection to our unique sonoran desert ecosystem.

Whereas children's outdoor rides represent the intersection of city of Tucson legacy programs, plan Tucson 2025, move Tucson, One Water 2100, parks and recreation master plan, prosperity initiative, and the safe city initiative by recognizing that access to nature is an essential component of child development, community health, and equitable opportunity.

And whereas the children's outdoor rides provide a child- centered framework that advances the goals of the prosperity initiative by expanding access to natural spaces in early childhood settings, supporting naturerich community spaces in historically underinvested neighborhoods and promoting a multi-generational approach grounded in environmental justice.

And whereas multiple city of Tucson departments steward and provide access to outdoor spaces, support environmental education, childhood programs, and youth workforce development, including the cities of Tucson's parks and recreation department, Tucson storm to shade program, Tucson water, Tucson million trees initiative, and so many others. Whereas the benefits of natural spaces in both urban and rural areas are essential to fostering healthy communities, improving quality of life.

Now therefore, be it resolved that I, Mayor Rahina Romero, mayor of the city of Tucson, Arizona, in partnership with a Puma County Board of Supervisors, hereby proclaim the third week of October as Children and Nature Week.

And be it further resolved, the city of Tucson and Puma County commit to incorporating concepts of children's outdoor rides into policies, resource allocations, and infrastructure, recognizing that every child, youth, and family should have the opportunity to connect with nature, observe wildlife, play outside, breathe clean air, experience dark skies, and care for the sonor and desert.

In witness whereof, I have here unto set my hand and cost the seal of the city of Tucson, Arizona to be affixed this 20th day of October, 2026. Congratulations. All righty. I would love to invite any of you would like to add some words uh to make sure that you explain to the community what you're all doing. That would be great. Okay, let's start with Bunny over here. Okay, Mayor Romero, council members, first Supervisor Allen sense her regrets for not able to be here tonight.

She is stuck in a meeting that's still going on, but I have the privilege of representing her and of celebrating another wonderful joint city county initiative celebrating the children's outdoor rights proclamation. So these are her words. Puma County has a proud legacy of protecting the sonor and desert through the sonor and desert conservation plan, a communitydriven commitment to preserving our region's natural and cultural heritage. But conservation is about more than protecting the land.

It's also about connecting people to that land and inspiring generations to care for it. When children discover a cactus ren, explore a wash, or walk beneath a mosqu tree, they begin to understand their place in our natural world. Our conservation legacy will be the strongest when every child has the opportunity to experience what we what we are working so hard to preserve. Monica Thank you honorable mayor and council. Uh we are absolutely thrilled.

Today is a culmination of years of work of this coalition and many more working together because we believe that children's equitable access to nature in our community matters. We know that children who have access to nature are healthier, they're smarter, and they're happier. and every child in our community should access nature no matter where their zip code is. So, thank you so much for for making this proclamation.

Thanks to all of the uh coalition members and um let's let's grow a whole new generation of stewards of our environment in the future. Thank you. So, I'm Hillilary Vanlberg, executive director at Children's Museum Tucson, and I just want to thank you, mayor and council, especially council person Barahas, for recognizing the importance of children's outdoor rights. At Children's Museum Tucson, we believe children learn through play, exploration, and discovery.

Through our nature ninos program at Tohonul, we bring children and parents together to explore the Sonoran Desert and appreciate its plants and animals. But not every family has easy access to natural areas, transportation to trails, or shaded places to play. Accessible parks, gardens, and outdoor learning opportunities matter. Making nature accessible benefits not only children, but families and our entire community. Thank you.

So, I'm humbled to be here on behalf of the city of Tucson, but also parks and wreck and all that we bring to the community and be a gathering space for kids and their family. And I have to do a shout out to Jasmine Chan, who sits on the coalition. She's not here today because she is literally expecting a baby any day now.

So she is she is the future generation, but she's a huge advocate and has really led the charge for us on incorporating nature play into a lot of our parks and we'll continue to be committed to that because we we feel passionate about it. So thank you. Hi, I'm Kate Hiller and I'm a community member and part of this coalition and um I started this work when I worked at the county and now I'm a volunteer with the coalition who I really appreciate. Thank you to um I call everybody their first name.

I guess that's wrong. Council person uh Barahas and especially Mayor Romero, thank you very much and the entire council for doing this and Supervisor Allen, I'm sorry she's not here joining us today. We have specific things that we believe in. We believe that children need the opportunity to play outside, breathe clean air, and explore nature, and connect with the place they call home. Our coalition believes that every child deserves that opportunity.

And a few years ago, I had the opportunity of taking a group of third and fourth graders from Monzo Elementary School up to Catalina State Park on bikes. It It was a hall. They did it. It was very impressive. And this amazing thing happened is that when we after we got there, I found the kids that we brought up laying on the mosquite trees cuz there's those giant mosquite trees and they were laying across them as if it was home. It was beautiful.

And the moment has stayed with me a number of years. And those children didn't need a lesson about why nature matters. They needed the opportunity to experience it. So makes it moves me highly. Um, children thrive and surprise us surprise us when we give access to nature. And today's proclamation affirms that as we move forward both as a city and county. There's so much that the departments do.

There's so much that happens at the elected officials level and we just want to go further because they're our future and we always say it, but now we're advocating to include them in all of that. And thank you very much for everything you do to help us do this and in the future. Thank you. Love you. three. One more. One, two, three. One two three four five six. Oh yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Great. Whatever your name is. Okay. That was all righty.

Well, that was beautiful and thank you so much for letting us do that. Uh, and appreciate everyone that came specifically for those proclamations. Item 2D, appointments to boards, committees, and commissions, city managers communication number 297, dated October 20th, is received into and made part of the record. May I have a motion to approve the appointments in the report? So moved. Second.

There is a motion and a second to approve appointments of Carrie Foot to the Puma County Tucson Women's Commission. reappointments of Anna Rosemary to the Tucson Fire Public Safety Personal Retirement System Board and the Tucson Police Public Safety Personal Retirement System Boards. I would like to thank you um both for your willingness to serve the city of Tucson in this capacity. Is there any discussion on the motion in the second?

Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I. I. Any against? Motion carries. Are there any personal appointments to be made at this time? All righty. I see none. We move on to item three. Mayor and council report summary of current events. City managers communication number 294 dated October 20th is received into and made part of the record. This is the time that has been scheduled to allow members of the mayor and council to report on current events.

These are to be current events of activities within the community, not position statements on policy issues. Does any council member have any reports at this time? We're going to start over here in W six with council member Schubert. Thank you, honorable mayor, members of the council. I'm going to start my current event report with my traffic violence update.

So each meeting I give an update about um the crashes and uh whether pedestrian or vehicle related that have occurred since the last meeting. So since the last mayor and council meeting on October 15th, there was a fatal escooter crash in which a 30-year-old was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital. On October 17th, a 31-year-old motorcyclist died after running a red light and hitting a car.

Uh, and then yesterday, October 19th, a 60-year-old driver passed away from injuries sustained from a an October 13th crash. Anybody who's interested in um learning more and giving input about how we invest in road safety um should save the date for the streets equation. The W 3 and six sessions will happen on Tuesday, November 10th, 5:30 to 7:30 at El Rio Neighborhood Center. and we'll include that information in our newsletter.

There's also um a virtual option citywide and that is going to be on Monday, November 9th from noon to 2 p.m. Upcoming current events tomorrow uh Wednesday, October 21st at 8 a.m. I will join the morning scoop with Arizona Capital Times to participate in a panel discussion titled The Cost of Deportation: Economic Impacts on Arizona.

The conversation will examine new data, real world perspectives, and the economic impacts and trade-offs associated with deportation, and how those costs affect Arizona communities, businesses, and taxpayers. Uh, the event is free to attend and virtual. Link to register is in our latest W 6 newsletter, or we can send it to you if you reach out to us. The Big Gay 5K is happening on Saturday, October 24th at 9:00 a.m. and this is uh happening in the downtown area.

Streets will be reopened as quickly and safely as possible. The event organizers have committed to leaving the streets clean, keeping event noise as reasonable as possible, and will provide access lanes to help residents safely leave the neighborhood while the event is underway. the Big Gay 5K. Again, that's October 24th and it's primarily going to impact Armory Park. All right, next update. The shelter care zoning survey has been extended.

Many neighbors have reached out to the Ward 6 office recently to provide feedback about shelter care and where we're going to put shelters. Currently, the city is in the early stages of a public process to collect community input before proposing any new or updated code amendments. For those interested in this topic, we recommend completing the planning and development services survey about community priorities. The deadline has been extended to this Sunday, October 25th.

In the coming months, um city staff will be reviewing survey results and community feedback in order to develop what they want to do with the city's code to allow for more shelter. Additional community meetings, discussions, and public hearings are set for early 2027. Also, this Sunday, Tucson's 25th Clovia Tucson event is happening. All are invited to join me at the W 6 office at 9:00 a.m.

Um, this is a great opportunity for anybody who's been curious about biking on Tucson Streets and is maybe feeling a bit intimidated. We'll go together as a group and it'll be slow. Um, so again, meet me at the W 6 office October 25th to ride, scoot, and roll um to the Rose and Colin Forbes Armory Park Activity Hub. So, we're going to take a low stress way the whole way to get there. At the W 6 office, we're going to have coffee and fresh fresh pan doulce.

Um, and we're going to use the Third Street, University Bike Boulevard. We're going to check out the North Sixth Avenue protected bike lanes. It's going to be great. All right, next up, Recycling 101 W 6 info session is happening on Thursday, October 28th from 5:30 to 7:00 and that's hybrid. So, you could attend in person at the W 6 office or virtually. Um, it's going to be an hour long and we have information in our latest newsletter. And then just a reminder that voting is happening right now.

We have a lot of information and resources in our latest newsletter. The last day you can request a ballot is October 23rd. The last day to mail it is October 27th. And then election day is November 3rd. You can vote or drop your ballot off at any vote center. And then finally, um want to announce the 4th Avenue cleanup with the office of Mayor Rao Romero. Um that's going to be Friday, October 23rd from 9 to 11:00 a.m. We're going to meet at Hagerty Plaza on 4th Avenue at 9:00 a.m.

So we hope to see you there. And then please save the date. meet us at Speedway and Alveron for a cleanup on November 5th. And that concludes my current event report. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Schubert. Council member Barakas. Thank you, Mayor. First, I would like to con first I would like to invite everyone of all ages to join us at our final Movies in the Park series. We will be meeting at Gunni Baras Memorial Park right next to Sunnyside High School. The event starts at 6:00 p.m.

and Coco will begin at dusk. Bring your family, bring a blanket, maybe a jacket, and enjoy an e enjoy an evening together with our community. A special thank you to our sponsor TE and our community partners, Tucson Parks and Recreation, Tucson Police Department, Mini Ponder Rosas, and Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona for helping make this series free series possible.

Thank you as well to everyone who has donated non-p perishable food items to support the community food bank and our neighbors this holiday season. You all are making a difference. I would like to congratulate our PBLO Gardens neighborhood who they're meeting right now actually. Um I want to share some good news with you all. We received a Tona Atam gaming grant and PBLO Gardens Neighborhood will be receiving a basketball shade structure at their park.

So congratulations to PBLO Gardens Neighborhood. I also want to recognize and share some more good news. Miss Cynthia Lopez, a science teacher at Desert View High School for her national recognition with the 2026 American Chemical Society High School Teacher Award. This is a national recog recognition. Congratulations to Miss Lopez on this wonderful accomplishment.

We are so proud of you and we see you local educator doing some big things and making moves here in our SUSD district in our neighborhoods. I also want to invite you to join us on Friday, October 30th from 12 to 1:30 p.m. for our next W 5 lunch meetup at Sunny Day's Cafe on Campbell and Irvington. These meetups are a great opportunity to connect, reconnect, eat a good meal, share ideas, and have conversations about the issues and opportunities that matter most to our community.

So, I hope to see you all there. Lastly, I want to recognize and congratulate Raal Hayne as she moves on to a new opportunity. She'll be working with our senator, Mark Kelly. Raal has served on our team as our scheduling and digital communications adviser, and we are so proud of her. We are grateful for her hard work, dedication, and contributions to our office, to our W5 community, to Tucson, and the residents we serve.

While we will certainly miss her, we wish her the be the very best as she begins this exciting new chapter. And finally, I too want to remind you all registered voters that election day is Tuesday, November 3rd. Please make a plan to vote. Know where you're going to vote. Have a game plan. If you have a ballot by mail, please make sure to return it early and follow the official instructions for submitting your ballot.

Your voice matters and engaging in our elections is one important way to help shape our future of our community. Thank you all for staying engaged, supporting one another, and continuing to make our W 5 a special place to live, work, and play. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Vahas. Councilman Lee, do you have any uh summary of current events? Not tonight, Mayor. Thanks for asking. Thank you, Council Member Doll. Not tonight. Thank you, Council Member Cunningham. Couple things.

Um, so this is a weird one. About 3 weeks ago, we had a we had people playing pickle ball at at UD Doll Park. We have this piloted program where Tucson area pickle ball volunteer basically maintain this asset for the park for us. It's really been good for the budget. There's people using it. It's citizenbased. It's this awesome program except one of the players had a heart incident and collapsed.

And amazingly, Rob Rob Whitner, an ER doctor, retired, who was playing with him, and an EMT Tucson firefighter named Matt Smith were there playing pickle ball. And about four years ago, the mayor and I worked on this thing to get every single park an AED, which is one of those paddle things. We have one at every park. And someone went out and brought the paddle and the guy got revived like right there on scene. And one of the doctors told me it's like a one in 5,000 chance that that happened.

So this Friday morning, we're going to recognize Matt Smith, the parks and recck workers, and Dr. Whitmer, at UD Doll, at Tucson area pickle ball because that's I mean I'm glad the guy's okay and everything, but it's amazing that the precautionary things that we put in work. And so I wanted to thank Matt Smith and Rob Whitner for for basically saving that guy's life. That's awesome. Um and then on Saturday morning, we're cleaning up the wash um at 7820 East Broadway. There's a wash.

you know, you this is too that unfortunately right now we have folks that end up using washes to set up a temporary residence and they leave behind quite a bit of stuff. So, my team and we're inviting neighbors to come out and clean up the wash. We're meeting at 8:30 a.m. at 7 8 7820 East uh Speedway um this Saturday at 8:30 a.m. And then about 11:00 I'm leaving and I'm going to get cleaned up. I'm going to go to my son's basketball game and then I'm headed to homecoming.

And this is what's crazy is that we're ranked at homecoming for the first time in a long time. And we'd really like to see us fill the stadium. Um they the u the UVA athletic department to their credit reduced prices to $10 and coach uh Brandon brought bought a,000 tickets for kids in Tucson. In fact, he gave 22 tickets to uh one of the our girls flag football programs on the east side. and uh I'm probably going to hit them up for more if there's there's more available.

Um so please support our Wildcats for homecoming this year. Um I also wanted to invite everybody to the division advisory committee town hall. So that's operation divisions east. Um and that's going to be this Thursday at 6 p.m. at our office 7820 East Broadway. And that's an opportunity to talk to our captain, our deputy chief and basically interact with some of the things that our police folks are doing. Uh, I also want to congratulate the Elks Lodge. They did a trunk or treat, 2,200 kids.

Man, it was unbelievable. It was one of the largest trunker treats I've ever seen. Uh, Mr. Botkin out there, Rich Botkin, his all of his uh relatives worked with Saro High School in the east side. And so, it was just this amazing thing at at Elks Lodge. And we had actually had a trunk or treat earlier that that day at Camp Bow for kids and pets and dogs.

And so we had a a a kids trunk or treat and we were like like 300 people showed up and we're thinking, "Oh man, this is so great." And then we went to Elks Lodge and they had 2,200 people. So congrat congratulations to them. Uh and then finally, this one isn't really in Wii, but it's two W residents, and that's the husband and wife founders and directors of of uh Dancing in the Streets, uh Joey Rogers and Celeste Lupu. And they started Dancing in the Streets 19 years ago, and it's free.

anyone can show up and any kid if they can't afford it can go take ballet and every year they do a production of the Nutcracker. It's their number one uh fundraiser. They get grants from my office from uh Angel Charity. So se Saturday the 28th and Sunday the 29th at the Leo Rich Center right across at Tucson Convention Center. You can get tickets for the annual Dancing in the Streets production of the Nutcracker. And that is all I got to say. Thank you so much, council member.

I too attended this past Saturday uh the Boo Bash at Lincoln Park in Ward 4, and I'm going to up you I'm going to up you on the attendance. There was more than 4,000 families and their kids. I'm sorry, but Quincy Douglas, I heard had over 5,000. So, shout out to Mr. Jerry over there, Quincy Douglas. It was so wonderful. and talking about the Boo Bash and you know and Halloween and and dressing up which it was so wonderful to watch all the kids and the and the families uh dressed up.

Um this uh Saturday the 31st uh for the first time the city of Tucson will be closing Congress Street and um it will be closed uh from 5:00 p.m. to 3:00 in the morning. And one of the reasons that we all decided we wanted it uh closed at 5 is because we wanted young families um children, teenagers to feel comfortable in coming downtown to trickor treat and enjoy the festivities of Halloween downtown. So that um is happening on the 31st.

There's going to be a lot of activities for families and children. Please make sure that you remain safe, that you uh are well lit, that an adult is with children uh at all times, and make sure that um that you you know that people are driving safely uh because there's a lot of pedestrians the night of Halloween. So, let's keep each other safe and have a happy Halloween, everyone. With that, we move on to item four. City manager report summary of current events.

City manager communication number 295 dated October 20th is received into and made part of the record. This time has been scheduled to allow the city manager to rec report report on current events. Mr. Manager, thank you honorable mayor and members of the council. Uh, one thing for tonight is a reminder about the Tucson Youth Climate Action Fund. Um, this fund has actually been doubled to a total of $100,000. um through a matching investment from the Arizona Community Foundation.

So that has expanded opportunities for young people to turn their climate ideas into action um and to uh give folks the opportunity to participate. Uh we have extended the application deadline to Friday, October 30th. So get your application in and then head to Congress Street the next night um without cars. Uh the ACF is matching the city of Tucson support dollar for dollar and support is coming from Bloomberg Philanthropies through the participation in the Tucson Youth Climate Action Fund.

Um this will expand resources for young people ages 15 to 24 to develop and lead projects that help make Tucson a more sustainable, resilient, and climate ready community. To learn more and apply for a $1,000 to $5,000 in funding, um visit our website um and or uh follow our newset uh for more um information. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Manager. Item five, liquor license applications. City managers, communication number 296 dated October 20th is received into and made part of the record.

Madame Clerk, please read the liquor license agenda. Your honor, on the evening's agenda, we have two applications for new licenses, one application for person and location transfer, eight applications for special events, and 20 applications for agent change acquisition of control. All applications are in compliance with city requirements. An appropriate motion would be to forward items 5B 1-3, 5C 1-8, and 5D 1-20 to the state liquor board with a recommendation of approval. So moved. Second.

There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion on the motion hearing? None. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Any against? Motion carries. Item six. Call to the audience. All righty. Um, Madame Clerk, please read the announcement. At this time, any member of the public is allowed to address the mayor and city council on any issue except for items scheduled for a public hearing at the meeting.

Call to the audience will last for 30 minutes and speakers are limited to three minute presentations. The green light will turn on when you're called to speak. It will turn yellow when you have 30 seconds remaining. And it will turn red and beep when your time is up. At that time, please conclude your comments. We are going to start with Johnny Ray. This is um in particular, uh Commissioner Hawkins really wanted to um make sure that we called them first. So, Johnny Ray is our first speaker.

Thank you, your honor. Um, I'm speaking for a great many people in my building against my my regional or directional manager. Uh, let me calm down. We have great difficulties with her with repairs. Our AC was down for 44 days. uh after one month or excuse me 20 days she had several companies come down for an appraisal she did nothing. I personally called section 8 after 30 days. Uh they forced her to comply to have it repaired. It only lasted 5 days. That was three weeks ago.

They're still not repaired again. that includes in the heating. This is one of many issues with this manager. There's safety issues with lighting on the roof which I repaired. There's issues with obstacles in the dark up there that I personally had to move after many days of reporting things. She uh the leases, she's been signing all new leases for a new building, but is neglecting the referral the renewing old leases.

Many people come to me and told me that, including myself, that their leases are not being renewed. There are many issues as far as uh I'm helping the maintenance man fix everything. The man has been lying to us, telling us the parts are in or it's leaky lines. I spoke to the engineers of the air conditioning companies and as this moment, nothing's being done. I don't think she's has any intentions of getting it fixed because the weather's cooling down.

So, the AC is not needing, but we still need heating. There's issues with her taking packages in to her office and leaving them there and not handing them to the people. A lot of times, this is medicine that people need. She is uh has no regard for veterans. She definitely does not she addresses us as those people. She's very aggressive. She combatant. She's argumentative. She has a demeanor about her that's very unpleasant. I've buted heads with her many times.

Many times she's very sweet and nice with me because I won't put up with her. I had an issue with my carpet where there was a ripple and needed to be stretched. Should have been replaced in the first place. She demanded me, told me, ordered me to move my furniture out of the way. I'm 100% disabled veteran. It's not possible. I eventually had somebody move it through uh the services at our building. There are three buildings owned by Laughara. I personally have been dealing with the owners.

They're trying to get rid of her. They're trying to get rid of entire uh cornstone management. This individual, her name is Rhonda uh I can't remember her last name. It's in my notes. She has to be replaced. Mr. uh we've you know we we've heard heard you loud and clear.

Um, what I'm going to do is I'm going to give your number, if that's okay, to our city manager, uh, so that we can get, um, our housing community development department to follow up with you in terms of your needs and see what type of support the city of Tucson can be um, for uh, what you're seeing with LaRonta Management. I I definitely hear you. We hear you. We have your number and we will absolutely call you. Well, it is health and safety issues. I ended up 5 days in a hospital. It is.

All right. Thank you very much for listening to me. Yes. Thank you, sir. We will absolutely follow up. Thank you. Our next speaker, I believe, is Betty. I think it's B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B Betty. Okay. Um after that we have Marina Reese. Hello. Okay. Um hello, mayor and council. Um my name is Marina Reese. I am um sorry. I am a city of Tucson resident and a supervisor for TND distribution metering at Tucson Electric Power.

Um, I have worked at TP for the past six years and I have called Tucson home since 2002. In my role, I lead teams responsible for metering operations and customerf facing work that helps ensure reliable electric service for our community. One of the things I value most about working at TE is the opportunity to to develop employees, support customers, and help solve problems that directly impact the people we serve.

Recently, I had the opportunity to collaborate with the W 5 office alongside representatives from customer service and customer advocacy. Together, we shared information about customer assistance programs, energy resources, and how customers can better understand their electric bills. Experiences like this reinforce the importance of strong partnership between TE and the city of Tucson.

Maintaining a positive working relationship with the city of Tucson is important because the service provided every day supports homes, schools, businesses, and critical community needs. When T and the city of Tucson work together, we are better able to serve the customers, support economic growth, and maintain reli reliable electric services that our community depends on. As both a Tucson resident and T employee, I take pride in serving the community that my family and I call home.

The neighbors, the friends, family rely on the same electric service that our employees work hard to support daily. Thank you, mayor and council, for the opportunity to speak today um and for your continued partnership with Tucson Electric Power as we work together to serve the community. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Reese. Our next speaker is JP Salvater. Madame Mayor, Council, City Attorney Lusk, I appreciate the opportunity to come before you today. Um, yay.

It's more than just a token gesture to our indigenous heritage. It's not an invocation and that needs to be restored. Madame Mayor, but as we are, we share our love and our concern for this community with one another. City of Tucson props. I was very happy to read u a summary uh of the props uh through luminaria.org. lu m i n a r i a.org. That's very simple and clear-cut. They don't create more verbage than is necessary. Several items that I see that are very significant are Prop 144, voter ID.

It's another form of discrimination that allows the Arizona legislature to to create its own little new direction for us over the federal government. I think this is really cruel. So when in doubt, consider the pack money behind something and just say no. Uh Prop 310, the photo camera. Oh, hello. Yes, we don't want photo camera stuff and we don't want, you know, uh to be violated uh without uh due course, due recourse.

Uh and the little loophole is that December if the if any jurisdiction decides to use that uh in invoke something by December of this year then it's a it's a buy. So just say no. TEP Foris city through their contract that that TE is um created this multi- multi-year contract 25 years has disguised it in so many different fashions that it's it's beyond belief.

It's simply that this this foreign proxy wants to dictate to the city of Tucson and the state of Arizona how it can take 1.4 to 2 point two billion dollars from our citizens. Thank you. Thank you JP. Really appreciate it. Your time is up. Appreciate you. Thank you for coming. Shana West. Does it start when I start? Okay. Um, hello.

Um, I believe that PDSD has been neglecting to enforce regulations explicitly called out in our Arizona Revised Statutes regarding the regulatory nature of our area plans. Over the last several months, I've been trying to understand how their interpretation of the code isn't in conflict with the ARS. PDSD and the city attorney have been doing everything in their power, though, to avoid answering me on the topic, going as far as to violate UDC procedure so they don't have to comment on the topic.

Back in June, I submitted a zoning determination for a development in my area that I thought failed to comply with the UDC requirement to conform to an area plan. I cited prior zoning determinations, the ARS language on which aspects of the area plan are allowed to be regulatory and superior court cases that I was given by PDSD in my rationale for the determination. PDSD refuses to fulfill that determination. They state that it is already answered in previous determinations.

Um, even though I argue that it's fundamentally a different request, but regardless, the UDC states that a zoning administrator shall deliver within 30 days. Uh, there's no option for denial or assessment of the determination. It's just a requirement to deliver within 30 days. I've said multiple times, well, if this is the same, uh, then it should be a simple turnaround and I'll pay the $200. Um, and I'm willing to pay for that. My risk incurred.

And they are still refusing over and over to fulfill it. never responding to my questions about conflict with the Arizona Revised Statutes, always saying that it's a retunded determination. Then um their excuse changed. They said, "No, this is actually a legal interpretation and that's why we can't fulfill it." I mentioned this was uh my interpretation of a violation of the UDC that my personal rationale referenced the ARS um court cases again sent to me by PDSD. It's not a legal interpretation.

It's a UDC determination. Uh the city attorney got involved in the email chain still refusing to answer any questions about the ARS which I put in every single email and they didn't answer it. Um they cited more court cases. I pointed out that these court cases weren't applicable to specific plans. If you read it, they're all talking about the general plan regulatory nature of the general plan.

Um I also say that other cities in Arizona, if you look at their general plans, they state that area plans can be regulatory and that is how you execute on the general plan. Um, the whole email chain has ghosted me after that. It's been almost two months. Uh, the city manager was on the email chain, several directors in PDSD, my ward one infrastructure rep, um, they haven't responded to me. Uh, this impacts every single ward here.

You all have areas in your ward that are mostly guidelines for development, but contain two to three regulations, um, shall statements that are meant to preserve the character and the unique nature of your areas. Um, and for the last 10 years at least, PDSD has not been enforcing those. Thank you, Miss West. I will follow up, make sure that the city manager follows up with you and try and figure out. I'm I I'm not familiar with the case, but we will absolutely follow up. Absolutely.

Thank you very much. Thank you so much. All righty. Our next speaker is um Wooden Wooden Manuel Woody Woody Woody I'm sorry good evening my name is Woody Emanuel I'm a Puma County resident and I'm a singlephase metering technician at Tucson Electric Power for 12 ers. Working at T is important because we provide an essential service that powers our community. Having a strong relationship with the city of Tucson is essential for our customers and the public.

Being a trusted energy partner is vital and extremely meaningful because TP's service territory lies directly on the ancestral lands of my people. The very name Tucson comes from the autumn words, an area our people have inhabited for generations. While T has been providing electricity to the region for over 100 years, I feel at home because my ancestors have called this place home for thousands of years. This is a deep sense of pride in working at Tucson Electric Power.

And it's more than a job to me. It's an opportunity to serve the public, contribute to a respected company, and inherently honors the legacy of my ancestors. Every day, I take pride in helping deliver a service that supports our community while remaining connected to a place that has been home to my people since time at memorial. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Manuel, April Putney. And what's extra ridiculous is that they like them in the order that they do. Hi, my name is April Pney.

I live in W one. I am not a retained speaker. I am not a retained speaker or being paid to be here. Hi, Mayor Romero and city council members. I am here today to demand that the city of Tucson pass a resolution to prohibit future contracts and cancel current contracts with businesses or contractors who are engaged in building or supporting the border wall in Arizona or any other state.

This border wall project destroys not only our environment but also human lives that make our city and state a thriving and beautiful place. The border is designed explicitly to cause suffering and death through the bipartisan prevention through deterrence policy and has resulted in more than 4,500 deaths since 1981 and 73 deaths in Arizona alone this year.

We cannot allow our businesses to profit off of the construction of a corrupt and damaging border wall designed to further this inhumane and devastating project. As a Tonin living in Ward One, I cannot abide my local tax dollars being funneled to border wall profitering by my city government.

Companies like Sunk Construction, Standback Sanitation, Southlands Engineering, and Made in the Shade are Tucson companies that are profiting off of environmental destruction and human suffering alike along the borderlands. Specifically regarding Standback, I see their purple portaotties at most public parks and servicing events like Tucson Meet Yourself just this last weekend. There were dozens of them.

It's crushing to see so much financial support for Standback, the sanitation company complicit with border wall construction for my city, especially when we have so many residents hurt by the inhumane border wall and the policies that it actualizes and especially when there are so many other options. A quick browser search revealed several options the city can explore when switching from standback. Ace pumping and portables. I have personal experience with them.

I've been very happy with their service. Tucson Portaotties, Dumpster Guys portaotty and dumpster rental, Brightley portaotty rental, portaotty dogs, central portaotti rental, the list goes on. You don't have to use standback. There's plenty of other options. We are a city that takes pride in our community, diversity, and openness to all people.

And we demand that action is taken to ensure that Tucson companies like Sunt, Standback, Southland's Engineering, and Made in the Shade and all others that intend to profit off of this immoral and unnecessary border wall do no business with the city of Tucson. Bob Yos Yosi. Bob Yosi. Yosi, I think it is. I'm sorry if I massacred your last name. You did great. Mayor Romano, council people, um my name is Bob Yosley. I'm a Pima County resident. I'm here to talk to you about dark skies.

And it was very gratifying to hear the the proclamation for the uh children's connection to nature and mentioning dark skies in the sonor and desert. 60 years ago I was 10 years old and I got my first look at the Milky Way. I grew up in the Bay Area of California and it was impossible to see. It was a religious experience.

And now I'm living in the headquarters, the world center of astronomical research here in southern Arizona where there are over 50 telescopes dedicated to research as well as generating a tremendous amount of economic impact for the area. Astronomy creates 252 $252 million annually and employs over 300 3,300 people in Arizona. In this part of Arizona, it's estimated that $5.9 billion will be spent on astroourism and astronomical related uh promotion by 2029.

Unfortunately, and if you look at this document I just handed to you on page two, the ordinances, the codes that you have for protecting the night sky in Puma County and Tucson are greatly outdated and it's been since 2018 that the revision process has been in in place and is progressing unfortunately kind of slowly. In the meantime, the lighting technology has moved from high pressure sodium and low pressure sodium to LED lighting, which is two to three times more polluting to the night sky.

And if you look at the bottom picture, you can see that with only a.7% increase in population, the light pollution in Tucson last year increased 9.5%. This is a disaster. This is a hair on fire, all hands on deck moment. If you're truly intending to protect the night sky, these ordinances have been in place since 1972 to recognize the importance of protecting the night sky. One of the things I've noticed is that enforcement is woefully underfunded and understaffed.

I'm standing here today to announce that I will do everything possible to create a group of people of volunteers who can help with that situation. And I'll just say that you don't have to have this. If you look on uh page the last page six, you'll see what the city and county of Flagstaff and Cookanino have done. They are decreasing their light pollution by having state-of-the-art ordinances and state-of-the-art enforcement. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Hosley.

Really appreciate you. All righty. Our next speaker is Jessica Allen. Good evening, Mayor and Council. As we come close to elections, I want to take the time to reflect on the leadership that's continued to fail the citizens of Tucson. You come up with program after program after program, yet the success rate is still very low. We have an open air drug use being ignored by police and the city council. And we have elderly residents terrified in their homes because the police never show up.

Citizens are being told that it is their responsibility to report open air drug use while businesses like La Frontara are left with no responsibility. I know Mayor and Kevin Dollah's office are very aware of this issue with La Fonta because I've included you both in all of the emails. Why is it that the mayor and the council are against doing anything that might actually help the citizens of Tucson? The free buses have continued to be a problem.

Yet you refuse to consider charging even a small fair. A small fair wouldn't be an issue for working people, but taxpayers continue to fund free transportation that can be used by people committing crimes, dealing drugs, or leaving the scene of a crime, which I've seen myself happen. Have you ever actually looked into the statistics on how criminals are using the Sunran bus that you're giving away for free? You set up programs like Star Village and then tell everybody that everything is fine.

Meanwhile, the people living in those neighborhoods are the ones suffering while the public is told everything's fine according to statistics. That may not reflect any of the residents, what any of the residents are actually experiencing. Now, you want to vote on reszoning to place shelters all over Tucson. Yet, you can't even manage what you've already created. How many more citizens are going to be left dealing with the consequences of these decisions?

And how can you get accurate statistics when the police don't answer the phone or even show up? I spent 10 minutes waiting on the phone for an answer from 911. I got no answer. I got no call back. Just last night, two intoxicated individuals broke into my elderly neighbor's rental property and tried to get inside to sleep in there. This is the same property where squatters had already been found that they were living there for 2 months without her knowledge.

This is just feet away from the property she lives in. I called the police. After 3 minutes, I finally got an answer. But I was told by the dispatcher, "Don't follow them. Don't chase them." I was told this is a high priority call. Yet the police never showed up. And still the previous two times they haven't showed up. And to this point at this council meeting, I've yet to receive anything from the police but a survey, which is insane.

What are citizens supposed to do when we're told not to take action ourselves, but the police don't respond? At what point are you going to stop take making the citizens suffer? Charge for the buses. Do something about the open air drug use. Hold people accountable. Your housing first approach will never work if you refuse to hold people accountable. You're enabling a cycle that continues while law-abiding citizens are left to suffer the Thank you, Miss Allen. really appreciate it. All righty.

We have Veronica Hanley. Veronica Hanley. Hello. Um, my name is Veronica. I am a business owner. I'm just representing myself. I'm not a retained speaker and I'm just representing my employees. I own two business locations in Ward 5 and Ward uh three or two, excuse me. And um I just wanted to use the opportunity to address everybody and say thank you.

Um I've seen an improvement in going on eight years in uh sorry Ward 5 um where my breadand butter business location is and uh I've seen the improvements um very gradual. I know the mayor and council gets a lot of uh complaints. I was one of those complaints actually like three times. But I felt heard among the other business owners in Ward 5. Um and I felt like there was actual improvement. The roads are much better actually.

Um I know there's the we're on park in 22nd, so there's that bridge, but it actually didn't impact us all that much. maybe a little bit, but um I just wanted to take an opportunity like to see talk to everyone as a group and just say thank you for all the improvements in W 5 and the I I was a recipient of a couple of grants and it really helped my business um actually thrive. So, um yeah, so thank you for everything that's been done in W five. Uh W, you know, two is fine or W three is fine.

Um, but I just really wanted to say thank you for everything that's been done to W five and all the improvements and my employees and I can see the improvements. Um, we're across the street from uh Borton Magnet School. They've seen the improvements. Um, and the other businesses that we've shared, we've just seen all I know there are complaints about homeless people and drug use, but we we have seen the improvements and we do think that TPD has stepped it up.

Um, so yeah, I just want to take the opportunity to address everyone and say there are businesses. were just quiet that see the improvements. We've complained. We see the improvements and we we really want to thank you so much. So, thank you. Thank you, Miss Henley. Appreciate it. All righty. Um, our next speaker is Jackie Riddle. Well, Regina, you get to meet me again.

The fallen the the guardian angel lady that gives out guardian angels to the police department, fire department, some of your constables and you. But I'm here again and I don't usually come downtown unless I take a Sundan because of the fear of the violence in Tucson. I got attacked the first two weeks I came in from Kentucky on Pantano on my wheelchair. But thanks to my father that was a military officer that trained me since 14 to be like a Navy Seal.

I was able to protect myself and use a pepper spray stun gun and a little hammer hit him in the middle and I tasered him and got him down and then he took off real quick. But I'm here dressed in a Celtic Scottish outfit today for you because I'm representing my history, Scottish history where they stood up for their integrity. They stood up for their belief in being a team members and standing up for each other in battle. And that's my Ukrainian family, too.

So, but I'm standing up today because I'm tired of going every week I go down to the police department and I got a friend named U Sergeant Leon and I take uh gratefulness gifts every Monday for the police department and fire departments to show gratefulness which is my tradition also. But I see a lot of policemen that their morale has gone down because they don't feel appreciative. They don't feel supportive being support.

And when you don't feel when you don't feel uh supported and someone appreciate you, your morale goes down. When your morale goes down, then your self-esteem go down. So, I'm I'm advocating for the Tucson Police Department, and they are very hard workers, and they going through a lot of emotional like stress, uh, PTSD problems, and it has to do with the shortage of staff and not feeling appreciated.

So, you can go ahead and take all the pictures you want with the police department, but show appreciation and support them, please. Thank you, Miss Riddle. Really appreciate it. Um, Robert Royce. I'm Robert Royce. First, let me remind you that the section 8 housing, three doors down from me, has been vacant for three months. Uh, this same house where former tenants stole all the copper wiring and plumbing several years ago.

If you're going to be placing poor people into a middle class neighborhood, it would it's your obligation to maintain the property and keep it occupied. Um, Mayor Romero, my patience with you has run out. When you threw that despicably dirty look at me at your first meeting, I just, you know, considered the fact that your patron whose specialty was throwing dirty looks around. I received a couple myself.

when you stated a couple years ago that you you'd read all the cards and hurt everybody, but clearly not mine. Once again, I let it roll off my back. But at the last meeting when you told me and the public that you are not a ceremonial mayor and did it in your best demeaning school marm tone, that was the end of my patience. There are two forms of city government. There are mayor or council governments where the mayor administers the city.

There are manager director governments where the mayor is a ceremonial mayor and the city manager administers the city. You just gave the manager an obscene $60,000 raise to $375 uh,000 a year. And clearly we you are a ceremonial mayor. If you don't like that fact, my automatic initiative is on file in the clerk's office.

Just pull it up, remove the pay raises, which would actually be a demotion and pay at this point and ask your fellow council members, board of directors members to put it to a vote. Now, I'm asking the voters to replace this one party government with a new Jeffersonian party. I'm collecting signatures. I'm cranking it up now because you made so much adrenaline at the last meeting after your comments that I'm just going to go ahead and crank everything up.

Our new Jeffersonian party, a better future for Tucson. End one party rule in Tucson. Implement financial responsibility in our city.

asked the voters if they want to reorganize our city to the more Jeffersonsonian mayor council almatic form of government a countywide sales tax to replace the Tucson sales tax in the interest of fairness unleash the genius of our city's people currently restricted by the machine government in our city thank you all righty our next speaker is Riley Oet IET I'm sorry. No worries. It's a tricky one. Uh, hello, Mayor Romero and city council members. My name is Riley Yoska and I'm a resident of W 6.

I wasn't even close. I'm sorry. No, that's okay. No worries. I am here today to request that the city of Tucson pass a resolution to cancel current contracts with any entity that is engaged in construction of the border wall. This border wall project destroys our environment and kills human beings. The US Mexico border wall is explicitly designed to be deadly as detailed in the bipartisan prevention through deterrence policy.

The border wall has been implicated in more than 4,500 deaths since 1981. This year alone, it has been implicated in 73 deaths. I feel strongly that it is unethical and unconscionable to allow businesses to profit off the construction of this inhumane, deadly, and environmentally destructive project. I cannot abide by my tax dollars being funneled in being funneled to border wall profitering by my city government.

Companies like Sun Construction, Standback Sanitation, Southland's Engineering, and Made in the Shade are Tucson companies that are profiting off environmental destruction and human suffering along the borderlands. I'm here tonight to urge you to ensure that these companies and all others that intend to profit off this immoral and unnecessary border wall do no business with the city of Tucson. I want to acknowledge that you've already heard a similar message today.

I hope you will consider this a testament to just how many people in our community share this perspective. Thank you for your consideration on this matter. And um I just also wanted to say that I think free buses are a gift to many people in need of reliable transportation and housing first models are successful in several other cities. So I applaud that approach. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Our last speaker will be JD Wallace. Good evening, mayor and council. My name is JD Wallace.

I'm a Tucson resident and also a retained speaker for Tucson Electric Power at 88 East Broadway downtown with updates on how we're working to remain a trusted energy partner. Last week, TE produ presented United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona with a $100,000 check to support Puma early education scholarships program scholarships known as PEEPs for early childhood education in Puma County.

13,000 preschool age students are in families that meet the income eligibility requirements for these programs, but fewer than 5,000 are receiving it. The donation from corporate resources and not rateayer funds will support an additional classroom and is hoped to supercharge peeps by attracting additional corporate sponsorships.

Our neighborto neighbor program has four more events this month where customers can receive in-person guidance on discount program enrollment, referrals to community agencies, and weatherization kit assistance. Just a over a year ago, TEP participated in its first neighborto neighbor event, and since then, representatives at these events have provided more than 3,000 discount enrollments and dist distributed 1,400 weatherization kits.

The total benefit to customers over the year is more than $860,000. We'll have two events Friday morning, one at Unleashed Christian Church and the other at Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona. We'll also be at Movies in the Park Saturday night at uh Gunny Barreris Park. And then next week on Friday morning, representatives will be again at the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona.

The times and locations are under our neighbor connect page on te.com and customers can also ask for assistance on that page if they can't be at these events. Thank you for your time and please send any constituents seeking assistance to these resources to our customer service representatives or to te.com. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Wallace. All righty. That was our last speaker and we're moving on to item seven, consent agenda.

Reports from the city manager on the consent agenda received into and made part of the record. Madame clerk, you are requested to read the consent agenda. Uh three unanimous consent items 7D and 7E were removed from the consent agenda. Uh current consent agenda is 7A approval of minutes. 7B establishment of the second 2 sec 22nd street improvement project. I 10 to Kino Parkway citizens corridor planning task force. Item 7 C victim's rights program grant award.

Item 7F, lease agreement with PTI US Acquisitions LLC for the telecommunications facility at 1400 North Silverbell Road, Walke Marietta Marietta Park. Item 7G, lease agreement with the new Singular Wireless PCS LLC, DBA AT&T for the telecommunications facility at 4159 South Elizabeth, Lamar Park.

Item 7H, amendment five to the IGA awarding the city's community safety health and wellness program funding from the Arizona Healthc Care Cost containment system state opioid response for fiscal year 27 grant program contract number YH25-0055 CTR065754. What is the council's pleasure? Your honor, I move that we pass uh the non removed items on the consent agenda. Second. So there's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. Let's go to roll call. Council member Cunningham. Hi.

Council member Barahas. I. Council member Schubert. I. Councilwoman Lee. I. Council member Dah. Hi. Mayor Romero. I. The items on the consent agenda are approved by a vote of 6. There are two items that were requested to be considered separately. That's item D and E.

Item 7D, approval of updated memorandum of understanding between the Tucson Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives regarding TPD participation in the National Integrated Ballistic Ballistic Information Network. All righty. Um, these were requested uh to be considered separately. Can you accept the communication and ask me to read the resolution? Oh, I will accept the communication and ask you to read the resolution.

Resolution number 24196 relating to law enforcement approving a memorandum of understanding between the Tucson Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives regarding the Tucson Police Department's participation in the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, authorizing the Chief of Police to execute a memorandum of understanding on behalf of the Tucson Police Department and declaring an emergency. All righty.

Now we can go to council um member Schubert who requested these items be approved separately. Council member Schubert. Thank you mayor, members of the council. Um so I understand uh the request of this item and I understand its utility in investigating gun crimes. However, there are a few areas of the contract that I'm unclear on and would like to direct some questions to city attorney.

I'm also doing this for the benefit of public transparency so that our constituents can hear um what we're considering before we consider this item and take a take a vote. Um okay.

So, um, section two of the resolution document reads, "The chief of police is authorized and directed to execute the memorandum of understanding on behalf of the Tucson Police Department and to execute any other documents, certifications, or related agreements either with ATF or other law enforcement agencies necessary or desirable to give effect to this resolution, theou or the proper sharing of law enforcement information under the opices of and in compliance with ATF's NIBIN program.

So my question, what is within the scope of additional agreements that would be allow allowable under section two? Honorable mayor, um council member Schubert, uh that that's a good question. The uh proper sharing or excuse me, the um information related to this particular um program.

So it would be something like an amendment to theou or an additional agreement if there was another participant in the NYBEN program and and I'll I'll point the effect of the resolution is for participation in the NIBN program. The NBEN program is only for sharing of ballistic information. So information related to guns used in crime uh and their uh casings slugs or other information information related to that. the identification of those firearms. Thank you.

Um could for example an agreement be signed which could expand um other agencies who this data could be shared with like ICE, Homeland Security, the FBI or Border Patrol? Uh no, because that's not part of the NIBN program. Thank you. Um what's the full scope of data collected in ATF's um NBA program? I know you mentioned a little bit of that. Is there any reason that ALPRs or audio surveillance such as um that accompanying Shot Spotter could be used under this agreement? No.

And I I can point you to the actual language in the agreement. Uh it doesn't uh there's no information related to firearm owners or registrations. It's only for uh image ballistic evidence and test fires of firearms illegally possessed, used in a crime, or suspect suspected by law enforcement officials of having been used in a crime. Thank you. And one final question.

If a departmental director, in this case the chief of police, does move forward to execute any additional documents, certifications or related agreements, um either with ATF or other law enforcement agencies as allowed under section two of the resolution. How can those documents or agreements be reviewed by myself as a council member with my colleagues on the council and also the general public? Sure.

Um, council member, you can re you can always reach out for information to directly to the the um department director as can the city manager or the full council if they wish to. Thanks so much for answering these questions. I appreciate the transparency and information shared. Um, and if there's no additional questions from my colleagues, I am ready to vote on this item. I move that we pass and adopt the item. Okay. I second the motion. All righty.

So, there's a motion to adopt and pass the item. There's a second. Any further discussion on this item? Hearing none. Uh, we do need to go to roll call. Council member Cunningham. Hi. Council member Baras. I. Council member Dah. I. Council member Schubert. I. Councilwoman Lee. I. Mayor Romero. I. Item passes by a vote of 6. All righty. The the next item is item B, also considered separately by council member Schubert. E, I'm sorry. E as an excellent. There you go.

Item 7E, intergovernmental agreement between the city of Tucson on behalf of the Tucson Police Department, the state of Arizona on behalf of the Arizona Department of Public Safety for the Tucson Police Department's participation in the Arizona Vehicle Theft Task Force. All righty. Uh, Council Member Schubert. Accept the communication. Oh, accept the communication. I'm sorry. And read the resolution.

Resolution number 24202 relating to the Tucson Police Department and intergovernmental agreements approving and authorizing the chief of police's execution of an intergovernment agreement between the city of Tucson on behalf of the Tucson Police Department, the state of Arizona on behalf of the Arizona Department of Public Safety for the Tucson Police Department's continued participation in the Arizona Vehicle Thft Task Force and declaring an emergency.

Thank you, honorable mayor, members of the council. While we have significant data that shows that both violent and property crime are trending downward in Tucson and across the country, there's still a narrative in our community that crime is on the rise.

While we must address that misinformation, I want to be sure that we do not invalidate the real lived experiences of residents who have fallen victim to crime, especially when it results in personal harm, severe financial loss, or long-term trauma. The Arizona Vehicle Theft Task Force, AVTTF, program that we discussed earlier today in study session is a statewide program that allows collaboration and funding to aid in recovering stolen vehicles.

Having your car stolen can have a devastating um impact. Um it impacts employment, insurance premiums, and financial loss. Being able to have it recovered is important to the people or business impacted by vehicle theft.

Nevertheless, when we accept funds that require tracking people, sharing data, and/or surveillance technology, we need to be cognizant of the potential misuse, civil liberties concerns, or potential for federal overreach that could conflict with our values here in the Tucson community. With the rapid evolution of new technologies and data concerns being at the forefront of many conversations about safety, it is critical to have ongoing discussions and reporting to ensure transparency and trust.

TPD maintains thorough and thoughtful department policies on use of technology which are publicly available on their website and as elected uh leaders it is our responsibility to proactively address constituent concerns. Review of IGAs and their programs is essential to maintain transparency build public trust and ensure the safety privacy and civil rights of all tonins.

As we discussed during study session, the AVTTF program does use statewide and national databases to collect and distribute information and also uses ALPR tools um to aid in vehicle recovery. So, while it can be an important strategy for addressing property recovery and victim settlements, we need to ensure responsibility and transparency within the program.

Therefore, in tandem with the extremely helpful briefings that the department um has provided as well as oversight by the IAPC, it would be beneficial to provide um regular data and statistical reports when programs are active. I'd like to make a motion to approve the IGA with the addition of a six and 12-month report back to Marin Council from TPD um using the following metrics.

number of cases that were supported using ALPR searches, number of queries using ALPR data, um by AVTF assigned staff, um patrol division, investigative unit, and CESARC, identified hotspots of vehicle theft locations, identified hotspots of recovery locations, and any complaints reported to the independent police auditor of TPD related to this program.

My goal of this reporting request is to transparency transparency accountability, and measurable evidence of success in data sharing in this program so Tucson residents feel safe and trusting of the work in our departments. Thank you so much. All righty. There's a motion. And again, that motion was to approve the IGA with the addition of six and 12 month reports back to the mayor and council. There's a motion on the floor. Can I ask a question before? Absolutely. Secondying.

Um, is this acceptable to TPD? Sure. Okay. I think that's the the I don't know if that I I don't know if that's the right question. I think do we do do we do this type of reporting already? That I think that would be the question. Uh, Mr. Mr. Manager or Mr. Attorney, honorable mayor, members of the council, I'll start and city attorney might add. Um, I think it's very reasonable to require six and 12 month reports.

Um, I think we would have to look through the specifics of those data and see what is, you know, what's sharable, what's not, you know, not to push back on any of it until we know the details of the specifics of it. But I I think the spirit as written and as explained with the six and 12 month report is something we can comply with. Okay. Great. Second. Okay. So there's a motion and a second and further discussion.

We had this conversation at study session and and we talked about concerns that people have with data sharing. it, you know, it it's um concerning to some that the data will be shared um with other uh federal agencies or others uh other agencies that will uh weaponize that information. So, I absolutely understand where that uh feeling is coming from.

And so it just wanted to make sure that we were not just piling on additional responsibilities um that would take away from the focus of the work that we're doing day in day out. Um Mr. Lusk, you had a comment. Thank you, members of council. Um council member Shou, I just want to clarify you're asking for that information related to AVTTF only. Correct. Thank you. I just wanted to clarify that for the motion. Thank you.

I like the idea of hotspots just to know like where it's happening and what we can do to prevent. Council member Vakas. Sorry. And do we currently I thought I remember seeing a map already with the hotspot area. We have that already, right? Yeah. Assistant Chief Duffy, please, if you wouldn't mind. We do track hotspots on a number of different uh enforcement activities, but specific to this program um no not to this program.

We track um autothefts and recoveries overall um but Sergeant Gutierrez tracks them um for this program. So that's how I was able to provide you the data here tonight. But the hot spots in terms of like where autothefts are happening within the city of Tucson, I I thought we had that. We do. We do have that for overall for the hotspots. Okay, perfect. Okay, I think that was the question. Uh any other questions? All righty. Thank you so much. Um Assistant Chief Duffy, any any other questions?

If not, I think we need to go to roll call. There is a motion and a second. I have one other question. Sorry, Council Member K. Here's my issue. is that we're asking them to report on this and sometimes when we release information to the public it can jeopardize an investigation and I don't want to do that. So I want to make sure that's not going to happen here. That's all. Go ahead. Yes.

Uh, honorable mayor and council member Cunningham, I I do not think that we would um by giving overall stats jeopardize any specific investigation. Um, but if we did, we would of course uh say that when we when we came back that we wouldn't be able to do that. So, I think we should be good and we already track that data. All righty. We wouldn't want to do that. Councilwoman Lee, thank you, Mayor. I just want to confirm the intention of the return at six month and 12 month.

Can that be an offag agenda memo? Because assistant chief Jeffy just mentioned coming back and um I would hate for extra overhead if this could be a report that's sent out to us versus an an additional conversation at the table twice a year. I don't members of the council that would be our preference. Um but we can always be asked to bring it back in a study session item. We also could be if there's interest, we can layer it into the safe city updates that happen on a monthly basis.

So there's a lot of vehicles we could use, but an off agenda memo is a great place to start. Yeah, I think that's acceptable for all of us. All righty. Um, everything good. Good. Okay, let's go to roll call. Council member Schubert. Hi. Council member Dah. I. Councilwoman Lee, I. Council member Barahas, I. Council member Cunningham, I. Mayor Romero, I. The item on the consent agenda is approved by a vote of 6. Thank you all. Item eight, reconsideration.

Motion to reconsider recommendation of denial of a new series 12 liquor license adopted August 5th, 2026 relating to applicant Tortillas Gas located at 914 North Grande Avenue. All righty. I'm going to read the communication number and then ask our um city clerk to walk us through what we need to do because this is a consideration. So, it's a two-step process. So, bear with me. City manager's communication number 293 dated October 20th is received into and made part of the record.

Time has been set aside to reconsider the recommendation of denial of a new series 12 liquor license adopted August 5th, 2026 relating to applicant Tortillas Giwwest located at 914 North Grande Avenue in Ward 1. So, um, Miss Clerk, please help us uh with the first step of reconsideration.

and vice mayor was really sad that she couldn't be here today uh because she's very very excited to welcome tortilla chias to what used to be grande tortilla factory which is a very historic space in ward one and in the west side. So, um she wants to make sure that the series 12 liquor license is adopted tonight with um motion to approve, but help me through this.

Uh so, yes, I'm happy to provide any background um if anyone needs it, but uh what we're looking for at the moment is a motion to reconsider this item, which was previously denied um because at the time they did not have uh a couple of the approvals. They have since now fixed those problems and got an extension from the state which allows us to reconsider it so that we can give um an approval to the state if that's what's desired by mayor and council.

So um all of you voted on the prevailing side. So anyone could make a motion to reconsider this item and vote to reconsider. I'm going to move to reconsider. I second the motion. So there's a motion and a second to reconsider. We're going to vote on the reconsideration and then go on to that can be a um voice vote. Okay. So, all those in favor of reconsidering, please indicate by saying I I. Anyone against? Motion carries. Second step would be a motion to approve the license.

Your honor, I'd like to make the motion. Your honor, I'd like to make the motion to approve the liquor license that now is in compliance that wasn't in compliance before when we voted. Second. There's a motion and a second. It is a voice vote. All righty. There's a motion, a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor of approving the liquor license to tortillas cha signify by saying I I. Anyone against? Motion carries. Thank you so much. Item nine, adjournment.

Council will stand adjourned. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be on Wednesday, November 4th at or after 5:30 p.m. Thank you all so very much. Really appreciate it.