Scottsdale Council Votes 5-2 to Limit Budget Review Commission Scope, Chair Selection

Sorry about that. All right. I'd like to call the October 7th, 2025 work study session to order. City clerk Ben Lane, please conduct our roll call. Thank you, Mayor. Mayor Lisa Barowski, present. Vice Vice Mayor Adam Quasman. Council members Jan Deboscus here. Barry Graham here. Kathy Littlefield here. Marian McCallen present. And Solange Whitehead here. City Manager Greg Kaitton here. Interim City Attorney Louis Santea present. City Treasurer Sonia Andrews here.

Acting city auditor Lakeoff here. And the clerk's present. Thank you, mayor. All right. This afternoon we uh begin with a work study session on the tourism event pro event funding program.

Work study sessions provide a less formal setting for the mayor and council to discuss specific topics with each other and city staff and provide staff an opportunity to receive direction from the council to provide an opportunity for public input yet continue to maximize the amount of time available for the council to have focused discussions.

spoken uh public comment uh is limited to a maximum of five speakers and it will be accepted this afternoon on the work study session and I don't do we have any speakers Ben oh there we are right here okay we have for the speakers which I'll take now Bob Pedman French Thompson David Smith and Steve Sutton Bob please approach the podium thank you calling Bob Patchman. I saw him. Let's let's go ahead and move on to French Thompson, but we can circle back with Bob.

Thank you, Madame Mayor, City Council. I've got a little presentation. I've got a little slideshow here. Um, the city of Scottsdale had hired a company to do a uh, Oldtown Scottsdale business engagement study. So, I don't know if you guys have read all of it, but I want to run through a few of the highlights of it. Next slide, please. So, the top survey results were from 150 sta downtown stakeholders.

Um, they'd like to have the city market Oldtown with brand characteristics of upscale, sophisticated, western, and historic. The age group most merchants would like to have this attract would be 41 to 56 years old. And the customer groups that merchants want to attract are Scottsdale residents and luxury tourists. Next slide, please.

So on page six of the report says that arts district stakeholders in particular f voiced frustration that their contributions have been overshadowed by the emphasis on bars, restaurants and bachelorette parties and the marketing materials. Many also pointed to the diminished participation in events like the art walk and a lack of promotional visibility for galleries and studios. So these are 150 real businesses.

This isn't just Bob Pedman and myself and a few other people making these statements. These are people that are taxpaying businesses in your downtown. Um, and in some cases, the city sponsored events were seen as inadvertently harming local businesses such as street closures for events disrupting gallery access and parking availability. Page 10. The next page, please. Page seven. They have a desire for increased transparency and collaboration with the city and these merchants.

A large theme across the interviews and focus groups was a call for improved transparency and collaboration. Business owners expressed a frustration about not being informed or included in the city marketing decisions. Many felt that they had valuable insights and ideas to contribute but were unsure who to contact or whether their voices would be heard. The absence of a designated liaison or central coordinating figure within the city staff was cited as a significant barrier.

All of these businesses that are in the downtown area, they do their own marketing for their businesses. They know what works, they know what doesn't work, and they've been doing it for decades. So, they should be talked to. Next. This. Yes. So, perceptions of marketing and effectiveness were across all respondents. There were a shared uncertainty about the effectiveness of current marketing materials efforts.

When participants were asked to rate their awareness of city-led promotions, responses skewed to either neutral or lower ratings. Further, only a small percentage of participants indicated that current marketing efforts were effective. So, next slide. I request that city council to direct staff just this last page. If you give me just this last page, work with and communicate with the old town businesses that are being marketed.

Have quarterly presentations the city council on how the funding for the department is being spent. market to the desired demographic needed to support the luxury brand of Oldtown Scottsdale and designate a a staff liaison position to stay in in on an ongoing communication with the merchants that they are marketing. Thank you. Thank you. I see Bob Pedman has returned. So, step right on up.

Mayor Barasi, council members, name is Bob Pedesman addresses on record and I thought that the presentation would go first, but um you will find out that uh the overall bet tax money is about 35 million. 5% of that is slated for Oldtown Destination Marketing. That amount is about $1.5 million. So you would figure with that amount of money the stakeholders and general members of the public would know what the plan is and how the money is being spent. Unfortunately, they don't.

What's worse is that you don't know how that money is being spent either. You don't know what the marketing plan is. You don't know how the money is being spent. And I had to do a records request last January to get hundreds of invoices to try to piece it together. And I still don't know how the money will be spent in the future when what the plan is.

Now, I have to say that this must be the result of the previous city manager and its staff that created this kind of behind closed doors planning and the previous councils went along with it. But it's a different story right now. I'm happy to report that our new city manager has made drastic moves number one to put the marketing contract out to bid. We have 10 or 11 bids that they're going to be selecting from.

And I'm hoping that the rest of this process will be made out made transparently and and you know and presented to the council and all that. Now I have to say though that if things are being done behind behind closed doors and non-transparently maybe maybe and just maybe we'd be okay with it if the results were good. But the way I see it and what got me started on this whole thing is that the results don't look good. Let me put this on the projector please. Can you see this? Okay.

This chart was presented at the TDC meeting last year. Nobody raised an eyebrow, by the way. It shows that since 2017, the daytime visitation in Oldtown has plummeted. The midnight hour is booming. And in fact, they they kind of like showed off the fact that the midnight hour is booming. By the way, I love bars and clubs. I I don't care that.

I love that they're booming, but when it comes at the expense of the daytime plummeting, this is not good for our city's brand when you have a, you know, desolate old town during the day. And if you look at the Keen study, which French referenced, 150 stakeholders, they basically said mostly the same thing. The marketing is not targeted. Uh they don't know what's going on.

And one recommendation that I make is that not only should everything be made transparent, approved by the council with presentations and all that. Uh the city should divide up some of this money between the different categories. For example, shopping and dining, arts and culture, bars and clubs. Each should be designated a certain percentage of this because not all these entities can be marketed with the same brush.

they they appeal to different demographics and all that and I think that will also add to the accountability and measuring the effectiveness of the program. Thank you. Thank you very much David Smith. Mayor Councilman Graham. Oh, Mr. Pedman, I just want to Can you put that screen back up on that slide back up on the screen? Am I not allowed to ask questions? We're not as Madame Mr.

Parliamentarian, are we excuse me, Councilman Graham, I will address my point of order to you, which is we're not supposed to have engagement with the speakers at public comment. Now, if you want to challenge that, that was the direction of our city attorney, but go ahead and ask. Okay. Thank you, mayor. Uh, Mr. Parliamentarian for work studies public speeches. Can we ask questions or make comments to the speakers in our rules? Honorable mayor and members of the city council.

Um what I addressed in my previous memo was non-aggendaized public comment. Um this is agenda public comment. Um so I I think Councilman Graham can actually ask a question if he wishes. Go right ahead. Councilman Grant. Thank you, Mayor. It's really not a question. I just wanted to thank Mr. Pedman for bringing the slide to our attention because without Mr. Pedgeman, this slide wouldn't have been um um brought to the public's attention. And you know, I look at this slide right here. I mean, Mr.

I I agree with Mr. Pedman that every every sector cannot win, every cannot grow. And so you inevitably you're going to when you when you move a city's marketing and city's um um brand forward. One is not gonna one area is not going to grow the same as all the others. When I see daytime traffic dropping like a rock and midnight traffic uh you know booming, this does not tell me Scottsdale is for families. This does not scream uh arts and culture in Scottsdale. So I want to thank Mr.

Pedman for bringing this to our the public's attention. Thank you. Thank you Bob Pedman. Appreciate it. David Smith, followed by Steve Sutton will be the last speaker. David, you're up. Yeah. Thank you, mayor, and members of council. Uh I asked to speak to this agenda item uh just to address one aspect of the city's collected bed tax and that's the 5% portion that has been recently reserved for local destination marketing.

If you followed the history of how this reservation developed, you know, it started as a designated allocation in fiscal year 223. And it was carved out from the bed tax dollars that were traditionally directed to experience Scottsdale for the city's national and international destination marketing. At any rate, in that first year, the 5% designated for local destination marketing amounted to $1.8 million, and none of it was spent.

Perhaps because of confusion by staff about the designated purpose of the funds, I don't know, but none of it. Zero. In year two, the 5% again was allocated for local destination marketing, and that year was $1.7 million. And that year, a large share of the allocation went to Glendale, covering the city's share of the final four tournament that was held in Glendale.

Other money was also spent for what I think are dubious purposes, such as paying for economic development initiatives like subscribing to a skybox on the 16th hole of the Waste Management Open. So, it's hard to imagine that some of these expenditures really qualified as local destination marketing expenditures. In the third year, the 5% for local destination marketing was again $1.7 million.

And that year, a large share of the money was spent on a marketing study, plus money to hire a downtown uh worker with business stakeholders. So, I guess it was when in doubt, staff it up and study. But at any rate, that all happened with a different council and a different administration. And here we are now looking at the $5 million at the budget for the uh local destination marketing this year. It's another $1.7 million.

And when you get to slide 14 and 15 in your packet, I would urge you to ask tough questions about whether we can have a credible program for local destination marketing as directed by the Scottsdale voters. And it wouldn't be a bad idea to request quarterly reports from the group on the progress of this program, just as we expect quarterly reports from Experience Scottsdale on how they're spending the larger dollars for national and international spending. Thank you very much.

Thank you, David Smith. Uh, Steve Sutton. Good afternoon, Honorable Lisa Barowski, Mayor of Scottsdale, and other council members. I'll admit I'm a little out of my depth on this subject, but I did look at the uh information that was available online and I understand that uh we're talking about uh money spent to attract attention to our tourist destinations. Uh one area which was pointed out on a slide that French Thompson had was the historic nature of Scottsdale.

And that brings me to the topic of uh making sure that people are aware of one of the most historic things we have in Oldtown. And that would be a structure that represents the history of Scott over the last 90 years in social evolution. a structure that was built by immigrants who were recruited to pick cotton but yet weren't allowed to even live within the town limits of Scottsdale at the time.

I'm talking about the old Adobe mission and how little most people know about it and how it's one of the few things we have that really show the historic nature of Scottsdale and how it's changed. how people who came here and weren't even allowed to live in the town limits eventually became very well respected and earned the appreciation of the Anglo community to the point where a wealthy man bought them land and donated to the to the uh Catholic church in order for them to build the mission.

Another one employed them in an Adobe brick factory where they learned to build bricks which they made the Adobe mission. And from there this structure became a center of culture here in Scottsdale. Not just Catholic culture as the Our Lady of Perpetual Help, but as a place where they had pageantss and other social activities with people of all faiths and ethnicities were involved. And this continued right up to the point of incorporation and for a little while after that.

It slowly faded away at the end of the 20th century and it wasn't until the beginning of the 20st century that people began to realize the historic nature of this uh old church and it was revitalized. They kicked out the Scottsdale Symphony that was leasing it, brought back the altar, brought back a lot of the artwork and made it much as it was when it was first created. And it's a place that I see people visiting all the time.

In fact, uh, in May, I was standing in front of it taking a measurement and a couple of women walked up that obviously appeared to be not American citizens and they weren't. They were from Sweden and they were walking around in 100 degree weather early on Saturday a weekday morning asking about it and I casually mentioned to them about the plan to build a parking garage in front of it and they were stunned. Um, this is something important. We don't have very many places like this anymore.

things that we can point to as as historic areas that we can tell tourists about how we became the Scottsdale we are today. And I think some emphasis should be given in uh promoting that with our tax dollars as a destination as something for people to visit when they come here. Thank you very much for your time, Mayor Barski. Thank you, Steve. And we have a an addition Dan Isaac. Mayor and Council, Dan Isaac, address on record. Sorry for the last minute submission.

Um, I wanted to follow up on a couple things that were said. Uh, for one, I agree with several of the comments that were made. We do need transparency in how we spend our money. Um, and we do need to listen to uh businesses and what some of their concerns are.

So you'll find me interestingly agreeing with Bob in French, but where I would depart is to believe that this council that's responsible for our multi-billion dollar budget should be approving every line item in the expenditure of tax dollars. We have a department of experts that we need to rely on. We also have an outside firm, Experienced Scottsdale, that has proven extraordinary results with regard to how we spend our marketing budget. French's slide talked about perception.

While perception is one thing, reality is another. We have had record tourism figures and record revenues. So apparently perception is not correct. We are effective at marketing. With regard to Bob's slide about increased visits in the evening and nighttime as opposed to during the day, he said it was at the expense. No, there is not a causal relationship between one type of establishment being more popular than another.

So whereas we should make sure we are supporting all of our businesses, that doesn't mean that we have neglected them because some businesses are less appealing than other businesses. And finally, with respect to Mr. Smith, if one does not believe that major events like the NCAA tournament or the Waste Management Open doesn't provide revenue for our downtown, they are mistaken. people come to Scottsdale.

When we had the Super Bowl, it wasn't in Scottsdale, but we had thousands of people staying and spending money in Scottsdale. So, I'm all for transparency, all for listening to all types of businesses, but let's stick to facts, not perceptions. Thank you. Thank you, Dan Isaac. Uh, that closes public comment. Thank you to all the speakers. Appreciate it.

Next, we have Rachel Smintana who's at the podium uh to present, discuss, and receive possible direction regarding the tourism event funding program and the allocation of tourism development fund dollars, including the 5% destination marketing allocation, uh which is the non-experienced Scottsdale portion, and the 50% tourism development and support allocation, which is part of the city's uh receipts on the bed tax as well as the application recommendation and approval processes.

All right, go right ahead. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mayor Barowski and council. It's wonderful to be here. Thank you for the opportunity to have a work study session. Um, what I'm looking forward to most is hearing your input. As several of our speakers alluded to, we are looking towards the future and ready to do things well and more transparent and uh your input is going to be very valuable.

Greg also has um some ideas going forward with the tourism development fund as well as my boss Judy Doyle who obviously brings her finance and budget acumen to the process. And I'd also like to introduce the chair of our tourism development commission, Anna Maner, who is here. Uh what we'll be discussing today is the bulk of the commission's work. And so we thank her very much for her dedication, as well as my colleague Steve Gigam is here um in case I need to throw a lifeline over there.

But um so I'm I promised Greg I would be under 13 minutes with this presentation and then uh take your direction. But basically what I'm going to do is walk through the allocation of the tourism development fund. Um both the 50% side and uh that is the city's operating capital projects and tourism support and the 5% for the city's destination marketing. Do a deeper dive into the city's destination marketing and the 9% event funding bucket.

So, as you know, but to remind or um educate anyone in the audience, in 2010, the voters approved POP Prop 200. With that, it increased the bed tax, which is the fund we're going to be talking about today, but also delineated that 50% of the funds would be set aside specifically for destination marketing and the other 50% could be used for tourism related support. those um funds are further governed by ordinance and by financial policy 10. Uh here is a snippet of financial policy 10.

Uh it is the actual policy is a lot longer. It's available on our website. You can read the whole thing. But what we're going to talk about here are these different percentage allocations um that you can see here. So this is what it looks like for 2526. um the forecasted revenues and all sources. So I I should have been more precise with this. You'll see that green pie wedge there.

That is 12% I mean I'm sorry 25% of um the destination marketing funds plus the proceeds from the princess lease plus some extra that are interest payments. So, I could have been more specific there, but we are going to focus on um all of these pie wedges, but the destination marketing piece, which you heard about in at length in June when you approved experience Scottsdale's annual business plan.

So, first and and possibly easiest there in the financial policy, there is a 12% transfer to the general fund. Now, this transfer to the general fund um is not earmarked specific to anything. We just city leadership over time is just assume that when you have 11 to 13 million visitors coming to Scottsdale every year, you're going to have increases in public safety costs, um infrastructure costs, maintenance costs, and things like that. So, this year it is it is forecasted to be $4 million.

I have heard some notable voices in the community thinking that we should um earmark that a little more. Um I know we've done a study in the past on the cost of public safety just in Oldtown Scottsdale and it and it was high. Um so it's generally accepted that the four million is supporting tourism uh through this transfer to the general fund. This one is also probably pretty easy to explain. 4% for administration and research. And you can see 2526, those are some of our major expenses there.

New this year, we'll be revisiting experience Scottsdale's ad effectiveness. So, we will be able to um understand more about that, which will be good information. We haven't done that since 2023. And we're also looking closer at the economic impact of spring training. The 25 U% operating expenses. Again, I think this I probably should have done a better job of labeling this. It should have said capital projects and tourism related operating expenses.

So, you can see those are our major expenditures there. Um, debt service for the TPC, Westworld, Museum of the West, the stadium, some capital improvement projects that are tourism related. Museum of the West. That funding is especially high this year because you'll recall you um approved an extra $600,000 this year and another 600,000 for next year to upgrade the existing museum to match the beautiful privately funded expansion they just did. And um some other notable items there.

I also thought it was important to point out there is a tiny bit of bleed. We're going to go into the 9% for events and event development next. We do right now have some events related items in the 25% operating expenses and Judy and I have had extensive conversations about that. um she is also on board wants to clean this up and and make this so that the events piece stays in the 9% as it should. So we just wanted to be very transparent about that and then we'll get into the 9%.

So 9 uh 9% for events and event development equals about just under three million this year. These are some of the events. We have a mix of contractual obligations, internally uh produced events from my department and external event funding programs. So you heard from Steve in July that we do have we actually have four event funding programs. Here are three of them and one is in the next trunch the 5% destination marketing and I'll get to that momentarily.

But I think the original question was wanting some more information on why not all of these event uh funding um contracts go to the full council. And as you can see the two here that don't go to council, the event venue fee, those are for attracting sports um leagues from out of town to have events at city venues. Um, and then also the community event funding and you can see the average funding there. So, it's typically pretty small. And then we also have the event development fund.

All of those go to council.

So it was actually back in 2014 it was decided as an efficiency rather than agendaizing all of these through the clerk's office legal writing a resolution um reports going to the city manager and all that that it would be efficient and um time effective for the event producers as well if these smaller funds that are actually below the procurement level to have to go to council um could just administratively go from the recommendation from the tourism development commission straight to the mayor.

And I want to remind you, I know Steve said this in July, but um the payments are made postevent uh contract fulfillment um once that is all reviewed and and we have and do review that carefully and we have and do reduce the amount of funding beyond what was originally awarded if they don't fulfill all their contract obligations. And this is just I I wanted to show so the um blue bar is the actual total budget for the 9% event development.

The yellow are all all funding uh contracts across all of them. And then you'll see that white line at the bottom. That is the amount in dollars that actually goes straight to the mayor and is not uh doesn't come to the full council. Again, it it was thought to be an efficiency a long time ago. if that's something you want to change, we can certainly look at that. Um, and I So, Judy laughs at me that I included this this I'm not going to go through all this.

I know it's an annoying slide, but I just wanted to show you uh graphically. There's a lot of staff review and um checks and balances that go into an event application before it goes to council or if it's one of those smaller ones is kind of more administratively processed. So unless you want me to go through this, I will uh just go through it.

It really it was just a a visual example of the work that goes in behind the scenes before even the tourism development commission sees sees an event funding request. And finally on the on the events piece, um we do have events that don't fit neat neatly into the application guidelines that you approve each year. Um those always go to council no matter the amount. These are all of them for 2425. Um for one reason or another, they just don't fit in those guidelines.

But the obviously these are things that the community supports, the tourism development commission supports, and the council has historically supported. So we bring all of those um to council for consideration and approval. And I am about to move into the 5%. I've got a couple more slides. I can stop here if you want to talk events or I can keep going. Mayor, I see a question. Councilwoman Mallen. Thank you, Mayor. Uh Rachel, I just wanted to ask a quick question.

You said anything that was below 30,000 did not go to city council goes to the TDC. We do have some that are below 30,000. For example, you'll see on this slide the Arizona Indigenous Culinary Experience, which is a wonderful event, and it's also replicated by Experience Scottsdale in New York City to uh to drive interest to Scottsdale. That's only $21,000. It doesn't fit specifically in an event, one of those event categories. So, it still comes to council.

So, it's really just, let's see, it is really just these two, the community event and the event venue. And that is if they are strictly following the rules that the TDC recommended and the council adopted each year. So if they are out of those uh uh you know out of those rules in any way, we bring them to council anyway, no matter the dollar amount. Thank you for the clarification. Appreciate it. Councilman Graham. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Miss Matana. Quick question.

So um so we're just talking about the non uh destination marketing transfer to transfer to general fund operating expenses capital projects administration research events. Um the only the only section that has that $30,000 threshold is that the events and event development or is that events and event development? The $30,000. So, we do we bring forward a budget and this is maybe something that you want to see different in the future. I apologize Merritt and and Councilwoman Graham.

Um we bring our budget with a lot of detail to the tourism development commission. They make their changes and suggestions um through the budget development process and then so there are elements in there that are rolled into the larger city budget. And so I'm I'm thinking what you're getting at is when you're not seeing more specifically some of these expenditures outside of the events funding. It's through the I'm not talking about the budget. Okay.

Talking about the actual expenditures when the events come up. So if you um maybe go back to one of those one of your slides. Um there's a lot of good slides here. Oh, thank you. Yeah, the Okay, slide slide 11. Well, it's page it's not I don't know if it's slide 11, but it says 11. Um the um you know, let's go to the next page. I'm sorry. So, at the bottom, yeah, there you go. under $30,000 does not go to city council for and that that is for the special events. Is that right? Yes, sir. Okay.

Um and then one other question. I read this down the se the the the bubble the second to bottom bubble agenda for council over 30,000 event development fund. Um is that an eitheror or is that an and how you have bullets there? It is an and every Okay. uh event development fund application comes to council. Everything over 30,000 goes to council and everything that doesn't fit into the event funding guidelines as well goes. Okay.

And then my last question about this section of your presentation is can you give us an example um talking about the same 9% the payments are made to our payes our vendors after the event. Is that correct? Yes sir. In most cases, um I think the artwalk gets half at the beginning and there so there are a few and they're in the contract that you will see. Can you give an can you provide an example of when we didn't cut the full check because of performance from the pay or the vendor? Yes.

Just this mayor uh members of council just in 2425 we had uh the Persian festival who didn't meet all their contractual obligations. So, their original um reward uh award funding award from the TDC and approved by council was I think 49,000. Because they didn't meet all their contractual obligations, that was reduced to 39,000. Can you say a little more about which uh uh provision wasn't was unmet. Uh their days weren't consecutive and I believe they their attendance was low.

Is that correct, Steve? You should have sat closer. Can you speak at that lectern? I can. Thank you. As I recall with the Persian, uh, as Rachel mentioned, uh, there was they actually had a three-day event. They weren't consecutive, but that wasn't a particular issue, but they didn't have one of the events. So, we went back and looked at based on the criteria and reduced it based on a two-day event rather than a three. So, did you reduce it by one/ird?

Uh I have to look back at the funding levels in terms of what was required for three. Yeah, but we reduced it from three to two. They they have different amounts. Okay. It's not a percentage. It's it's a actual amount. Okay. Well, very good. Y thank you Steve. Thank uh Miss Matana.

Thank Those are answered my questions for this and I'm glad that you guys are it feels good to know that you're checking these contract provisions because instead of you know some cities might just cut a check and look the other way and move on to the next but you guys are double-checking. I appreciate that. Thank you, Mayor. Councilwoman Mckllen. Thank you, Mayor.

Um, Rachel uh I believe the reason why we give the art walk their money in two doses is because the art walk is throughout a period of time extended from what I remember reading it's over six to eight months and so they get half and then half as opposed to all these other events are one two days so it's extended a little bit longer and that's why it's half and half. Is that correct? I think that's why mayor and members of council, yes, I they do need some seed money.

A lot of the uh funding, their budget that they send to us is for marketing. Um and so we, you know, we want them to be able to market their event. Well, that is the whole purpose of it. So, it has been for for many years, um the contract has been written. So, um, they get the first half up front and the second half upon a review of them meeting all their contract obligations as well. Thank you.

I I just want to make a comment and I appreciate that your chair is here because I've been to almost all of your meetings, the TDC meetings, and that you guys really do scrutinize and I appreciate that. um when someone comes forward and doesn't have all of their, you know, eggs in their basket, you make them go back and give more information.

And sometimes that's detrimental to because they're depending on this money, but we're not just going to give money to something that doesn't benefit Scottsdale. So, I appreciate your efforts on this. Thank you, Councilwoman Dascus. Thank you. Um I just had a question about that 30,000 that doesn't come to council. You had a list of an average funding was 9,000 in some and 11,000 in others. What's a total annual amount that was paid out under that? Just under those two categories. Yeah. Yeah.

I don't know that I have that calculated. See if I can I want to say that I will get you close here. Um it is uh for last year the actuals I think were just over $400,000. We had 19 events in the community event funding and we had nine in the venue uh event venue program funding. So there are quite a few in there but this the smallest in the community event was uh I think 4500 for a taco fest. The largest in that in that uh trunch was um 27,000 for the Sun Circuit Horse Show.

Then the event venue uh piece um ranges up to $12,000. The highest amount you can get in the event venue is $12,000. And what's the reason for it not coming to council? $400,000 a year that gets spent that council doesn't see is kind of a lot of money. So what's the reason for it to not come to council? Thank you for the question, mayor, members of council.

So, it was thought uh originally when this process was put into place back in 2014 that it would be we had um for example, the Scottsdale Sports Complex would get a call and say, "Hey, we almost have this lacrosse and is there any sort of funding support for that?" If we the TDC meets monthly and so if we wait for the TDC and then by the time we get it to council it's another month those opportunities might be missed.

Also, it's a big staff investment for something that you know it could be as low as $4,500 to have the um the legal department write a resolution, have the clerk's office, you know, run it through that process and all the staff time. So, at the time it was seen as an efficiency um and also an efficiency for our for our event producers as well for these small dollar items. So, maybe it's time that we take a look at the number 30,000.

Maybe the number should be 15 or 20,000 just so that we have a a little bit more of it running by council. Thank you, Councilwoman Whitehead. So, I guess I have a different approach since I really do like our government staying efficient. Um, so my question is not about getting into the weeds with a 10 $15,000 event, but wondering if instead there's review and it is impressive. Uh, even you know, I've been the TDC's review process is very very impressive and there are experts.

But are are we reviewing because the we have a lot of events that every year go on and on and on. We you know every year we expect those events but perhaps the tastes of our visitors or the desires of our residents are changing. So how are we reviewing um the success of these events rather than necessarily you know these small events small to big events? Do how do we do that? Mayor, members of council, we do postevent um we look at success largely by attendance.

We look at their marketing spend in in a lot of cases. We want folks to we've heard from, you know, not our full service resorts that want to keep their guests on property, but other hotelers um want to have a community where, you know, the first thing you do when you go someplace is um what's going on in, you know, wherever I'm visiting. And so, we want to have a robust calendar. So, these event producers, you know, especially the external ones, they're bringing a lot of vibrancy to the area.

Um, so we measure it like that. We look year overyear at the, you know, return on the investment. There are some that we have counseledled and some that don't apply anymore. Some that they're they could never make their own event pencil out because these are obviously businesses for folks. So, um, we also look at things by our tourism drivers, which are golf, culinary, arts and culture, recreation, those sorts of things. So, we want things western, of course.

We want things that fit into uh fit into those as well. So So do we have Okay. So thank you. And I do think it's true if somebody a lot of these smaller events, these 30,000 under events aren't necessarily going to draw people from across the country, but people who are here for other reasons. It really enhances their experience.

Uh but I but again I just wonder if there are some metrics that um are public that we can review from small to big just um that that track how events are doing and over time too especially if we have events. Thank you. That's great info. We'll work on that. Okay. Thank you so much. I don't see any other comments at this time. So go ahead and finish the presentation. Okay. So the 5% destination marketing, we had a lot of uh speakers here on that today and we don't disagree.

Um we were excited by the results of that business engagement study. Thought it gave us a lot of good direction in the future. So 2526 and again as um as uh former councilman Smith points out we've only had this fund this 5% fund since 22 23 kind of growing into it. It may seem slow but uh it's better than um it being seen as a waste. So in 2526 these are some of the areas that we are definitely uh spending that money in.

There is um there was a question during public comment about the regional event council. This council approved the $225,000 for the women's final four. We have um just as has happened in the past accounted for that out of the 5% because thinking that um these regional events draw people to Scottsdale because Scottsdale is where they want to want to stay. Is that correct? I don't know.

Uh that would be something that Judy is definitely thinking through and it would be wonderful to have your direction on those sorts of things. But um and I also wanted to touch on the RFP process that um Bob and French brought up. We agree with them. We need more business engagement. We need more transparency. We are almost done with the RFP process and look forward to bringing you a contract soon as possible. I promise. I I can't wait to do it.

Um and an annual marketing plan that kind of mirrors the business plan that Experience Scottsdale puts together every year. We want to be transparent. We want to u we want to hear what the businesses have to say. And I don't disagree that the folks that have been down there a long time understand how to market their areas and we could use their help. We have also committed to regular updates to the TDC. I did hear some comments about uh quarterly updates to council.

We can put those updates to the TDC in writing as well and get those to you that way. Um but yes, happy to meet your expectations, exceed your expectations on whatever transparency anyone needs. It is a a decent sum of money. This year we had budgeted 1.3 million because we don't have a new contract in place right now. We probably um will spend much less than that but excited to get a new a new marketing and advertising agency on board to help us uh do this work.

And I wanted to say there was one other funding program that Steve brought forward for forward in July. It also comes out of this 5% piece. Um it's the matching event marketing fund. Not very many events take advantage of this. Barrett Jackson and the Arabians have consistently done it. They do a lot of marketing outside of Maricopa County. I think Barrett Jackson had $120,000 advertising spent outside of Maricopa County last year.

So once postevent they prove that to us um and they're approved ahead of time of course then we will match up to $30,000 um for that through that program. And uh this is just finally we I know that this forecasted ending fund balance doesn't match the budget book.

we're already seeing savings in certain areas and so I think that we will be close to these numbers by the end of the year but uh we do have opportunity in there for um for new things should council agree with any future expenditures and that's really it for me. So thank you mayor and excited to talk about the 5% some more if you like. Uh Councilwoman Whitehead I'll talk about it.

So that was done uh on my watch and we did it to prepare and to pre prevent um the general fund from being impacted should t should tourism dollars plummet. Instead we the economy and tourism roared and so we have uh we should be celebrating the fact that um money so much revenue came in that we weren't prepared for that. So this is definitely a story of success. I appreciate some of the questions that my colleagues asked about how you review those events.

Um you gave the example uh where an event did not get its funding. So I appreciate that. Couple questions. Um kind of ties back to what I said is we have to be what our residents and visitors want. So we have to constantly evolve. I will say that uh I was at the railroad park for 50th uh the 50th year and I I don't know how many thousands of thousands of people were there on Saturday. So and the roundhouse is getting 3,000 a week. I think 3,000 a week. Just amazing. So we are evolving.

We are meeting the needs of what our visitors and residents want. But we can always do better. When we talk about plummeting numbers, daytime numbers, do we divide it by quadrant? because I do spend quite a bit of time downtown and I think some quadrants, you know, I I I think it would be helpful for us to know like how is Fifth Avenue doing during the day versus how is um the northeast quadrant. Do we do that?

Mayor, members of council, Will Smith from the city manager's office, I think they're 2023 numbers, so they're getting dated fast, but he did do it by quadrant at the time. And so I think the slide that Bob Pesman showed was in aggregate. Um I can dig up those 2023 numbers if you like. The TDC did review those. Um Will Smith had a great presentation at the time and the TDC did review those. So yeah, I think by quadrant because they're very very different.

I imagine the northeast quadrant which during the day is just business is going to be it would be helpful for me to evaluate how we're doing and what we need to do uh if it was divided by quadrant and the aggregate doesn't help me that much. Um, also I wanted to the question about or the request about staff getting more involved. It seems like we have a lot of new programs.

We have June days that was you know I don't know and then also the meetings there are meetings I want to say quarterly at the Museum of the West. It'd be good just to know all the different uh opportunities because we don't want to be stepping on each other's toes, but we and people won't be able to attend um lots of meetings. So, we just need to coordinate and make sure I do like the idea of the merchant meetings that happen pretty regularly at Museum of the West. Yeah, accordingly.

Um, mayor, members of council, we have also in in response to that and in response to what we were hearing from the businesses in Oldtown, we've also added in between those quarterly meetings we have at the Museum of the West, we've added a virtual one that has a marketing focus because what we're what we've heard from Bob and French and others is that they weren't aware of what we're doing. I think they wanted to have some input on what we're doing and um we you know love the engagement.

So that next one is November I want to say 7th but I'm not really sure on that. So we are working on that. We will also have KPIs on um with our new contract that includes you know sales tax in Oldtown and and those other measurables just to make sure that we are holding oursel to a high standard with this expenditure as well. And then I want to make one more comment and actually a I just to thank staff.

So the northeast quadrant um Fifth Avenue and Craftsman Court, we had a big construction project for a hotel there and staff was really good at um the contractors would put up barricades and our staff would go in there and pull down barricades and move barricades so that we could make sure that those businesses survived. these small businesses survived this construction and they the business owners are very excited about the new hotel and it's looking good.

So, I just want to commend staff for really reacting to our small businesses when there's temporary problems that could have long-term impacts on their ability to stay in business. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to chime in here because everyone that's on the list here has had a chance to speak so far. I have a couple of questions uh on this 5% destination marketing. It says regular updates to the TDC.

So, does the TDC ever get involved in um voting on those types of uses for the city use portion? We have in the mayor, members of council, we have in the past provided an update, but not really an action item for the TDC. That is definitely something that we could consider as well. But uh like I mentioned, we will be putting in you know performance indicators to make sure that contractually whoever we bring on board is held accountable for what we want to see.

So it's always hard to do marketing by committee, but um we're open to those sorts of changes and looking forward to a new direction for sure. or maybe a um quarterly or you know at least twice a year um burn it before the TDC that would maybe be helpful and then the events that were being questioned about earlier that fall with in the criteria of not going to the full council. Um just to be clear the TDC does or does not vote on those. They do recommend those. They do.

And that's why even though they're below the purchasing threshold for, you know, the $25,000 is a purchasing threshold, but because they come from the TDC and the TDC reports to you, um I think at the time it was felt that there still should be that connection. Okay. Okay.

And then for my my sake, I think it'd be helpful to see quarterly or um bianual uh reports on those uh items that are not coming to council and just to see how they've done and performed and um you know just just get a a read on what those events look like globally uh or individually I should say even better.

And would you say that a lot of uh the smaller events that are starting under that those threshold $30,000 are those events that you see growing in the future generally speaking and is that a criteria for the process before the the ones that don't come to the council? Thank you mayor. That's an excellent question. So the event development fund the ones that always go to council those are where we see the growth potential events.

The ones that you will see that are the community events ones um are for example like the Pony Express, the Sun Circuit, um the Scottsdale Symphonic Orchestra, the Arizona Fall Championship, the Arizona Black Rodeo. So, those are events we see year-over-year. Um, I think they, you know, they're always obviously trying to drive more traffic and and ticket sales for those, but we don't necessarily, you know, hopefully they have potential. Uh, but year-over-year they've been relatively similar.

Terrific. And I think just to air on the side of caution, maybe there's an opportunity to do, you know, maybe a again a um a yearly or kind of quarterly look back. Maybe quarter quarterly is too much, maybe a year is too long, but just a periodic look back to see, you know, a a study session like this that would potentially be helpful. So, thank you, Mayor. Welcome the opportunity. Councilman Graham. Thank you, Mayor. Um, question for the city attorney, the parliamentarian.

This is um this item is described as presentation, discussion, and possible direction to staff. So, can we change can we propose changes up here or do we need to agendaize those if we were going to vote to make changes? Honorable mayor, members of the city council, you can give direction uh to staff on this program. So, as long as what was discussed um is in the scope that that's appropriate direction.

Well, this has been a um an edifying presentation and really what this was about was um this this f so um the bed taxes $35 million a year, 50% to um 50% to the events and other other purposes. And then 50% to destination marketing. And then of that 50% to destination marketing, 5% of the total, so 10% of that, which is about a million and a half dollars give or take, um is retained by the city.

And what um the purpose of this meeting was to um talk about that and kind of understand that process.

And so what I'm getting at this is what I would like to see is that we the city that you know as far as that 5% because like it was said earlier it wasn't that much money a few years ago like former council member David Smith said we really didn't until just recently we hadn't really just been a pot of money that's been sitting there unspent come to council with a marketing plan every year for us to approve um open up the ad agency that we use to competitive bid.

And part of that marketing plan, um, we would divide the funds in a way that makes sense intuitively, whether that's by district or by category, something that promotes parody. Um, and you know something I could see something like arts and culture, shopping and dining, entertainment, but something that these are kind of questions for the experts, but something that it makes intuitive sense. Some sort of grouping system, some sort of taxonomical system that makes sense.

Um, establish a dedicated stakeholder liaison would be nice. Would you understand what I meant by that? Yes. Okay. Um and um council oversight and public uh public transparency. So in addition to each fiscal year, we approve the marketing plan. Um we also approve um expenditures that exceed the uh procurement threshold. So those are kind of some of the reforms that I envision.

Um, and maybe I can get sort of a sense from my colleagues that we might want to sort of go that way if if if that's too nebulous, if there's too much nebulousness to that or, you know, maybe we could have an agenda it and for an up or down vote. But that's kind of how I see some reforms to bring greater transparency. And I mean, it just goes back to we saw the chart earlier. Daytime traffic is down, midnight traffic is up. um doesn't it doesn't engender families and uh family visitors.

It doesn't make you think about arts and culture. It kind of makes you feel like the whole process is maybe not moving in the direction that some of us thought. Some of us had vision for that part of Scott for that part of Scottdale. So, I'll leave it at that and maybe I can get some nods or some approval from my colleagues and if not then, you know, we can go from there. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Councilwoman Dvasquez. Thank you. Um, thank you for doing the Keen report.

Um, it was a it was a it took some vulnerability to have someone go out there and meet with 150 merchants and ask them for their feedback and to get some of the feedback was um it was a little bit uh um honest, right? There was a lot of really honest feedback in there and it was a very detailed report. Um so appreciate you being open to hearing what they had to say. Um and at the last merchant mixer you w we walked through it.

um and have been very uh transparent with the merchants about that and responsive to the feedback from the merchants that they feel like they need more um some help here. And what I thought was very interesting is the experience that I had at the last merchant mixer um asking folks in the audience how has your summer been got a lot of thumbs down, right? you saw that um a lot of people were expressing that their business is not um what it has been in years past.

Um we had a hotel year um at our last um boards and commission meeting uh appointment come up and say that it's been the worst summer since 2008. And so we are seeing um several restaurants closing in Oldtown, things like that. So something's definitely going on in Oldtown. And so I I really appreciate you being open to hearing the feedback and saying, you know, what is it?

Part of the conversations that I have had with Experience Scottsdale is kind of along these lines of um we don't want to hurt any sector of Oldtown. At the same time, we do have a brand of um arts and culture in Scottsdale that we're known for nationwide. We want to promote that and um experience Scottdale has has done a lovely job of pivoting and really focusing on foodies and golfing and sports and you know luxury travelers things like that.

And so we have a great opportunity here to dovetail with how they are pivoting as well to um bring some of those um additions into Oldtown. And um I think the feedback that we've gotten has been that that they would really like that. So one of the items that we have kind of touched on and I know that we are advertising for uh a liaison with Oldtown is that there seems to be a feeling of we're not really sure what's going on.

And I think from the city perspective we would say there's emails going out. We do the merchant mixer. Um we have all this stuff on the website. What do you mean you don't know what's going on? And so we feel like we're communicating but clearly it's not getting through. So I think the idea of the liaison is is going to be really helpful. um someone who could go to the businesses maybe, right?

And and have some dedicated time to go and talk with them and and instead of hiring Keen, we could have a person who could actually be out there on the ground um and give us immediate feedback and intelligence about what's going on in the community and and so I think um you're already in the process of doing that. So I think that's really good. Um, we also have the opportunity to take a look at if we've got someone on the ground, what are some businesses that are vacant?

Um, maybe we could dovetail with economic development department and work with them to bring in um, you know, the right kinds the restaurants or vendors so that they all have the opportunity for success. So, I think there's some really good opportunities for us to do some really nice work together across the across the city um, and to promote Oldtown. um overall. So, um I just wanted to say thank you. Appreciate the work.

Um and appreciate you being open to the feedback from lots of different sources here. Thank you. I agree wholeheartedly. I look forward to those opportunity. I was hoping not to be chained in my computer so much and I would be the person down there, but that hasn't happened yet. So, thank you very much and thank you for attending our merchant mixer. It means a lot to our Oldtown business owners. Uh, I see city manager would like to speak. Thank you, Madame Mayor.

I just wanted to give some response uh to the uh Councilman Graham and and Councilwoman Dvascus kind of feedback there. I I think what we have is an opportunity with our new RFP on the street, not only to make uh something better, what we have historically done, but really recalibrate uh and working closely with Experian Scottsdale as you referenced and and align our new marketing efforts in a much more transparent way. So, what I might suggest is kind of some next steps.

You know, we're wrapping up uh that process once we get that contractor on board. we really are revamping that mar that marketing program going forward. So, as the mayor referenced, those check-ins are going to be much more frequent uh than they have historically been.

We also wanted to introduce tonight, this is really the 5% but going back to the 50% discussion and I think we have an opportunity I might suggest that we come back uh if you're so willing with some ideas around the budget time to really realign the 50% with how we're spending the dollars and more specifically what I mean by that is modernizing the percentages even more granular on that we have an event funding that is not falling within in the event funding category and therefore is putting some stress on some other areas which I actually think could relieve uh and allocate additional dollars in the 5% and really putting more marketing dollars uh into the marketplace in Oldtown I think could have a significant uh return on investment.

So if you're immenable to that type of discussion then we can do some work in that regard return uh through the budgetary process introduce those concepts and look for implementation in 2627. Um but again coming full circle uh we hear the feedback appreciate the feedback and uh we have very high expectations uh for the new vendor when we get them on board with really a recalibration um and how we see the future. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Littlefield. Thank you, Mayor.

Well, mostly my notes uh have already been spoken, so I'm not going to repeat them. Just know that I also feel the same way that Jan Tobacus, Barry Graham, and Mr.

Kaitton have said, uh, I think we need some more one-on-one discussions with some of the people in Oldtown, the arts district, and I think it needs to come from the owners, from the business people who are actually having to live through some of this reduction in income in people coming into their shops and seeing if they have some ideas that they can give us from from their aspect. um as to how we can help them with their business uh moving forward.

So, my my thoughts were pretty much on the exact same line. I think we need to give some some more attention to the Oldtown area and make sure that uh we do all that we can to keep it uh moving forward. Thank you so much for your presentation. Thank you. I just have a couple of closing thoughts.

Uh to the city manager's point, I would love to get that information as far in advance as the, you know, preliminary budget adoption meetings as possible so that we have a full opportunity to vet those ideas and changes that that you're predicting or working on. Uh and then I'm a big fan of stakeholder involvement. Uh and on that note, what where do the Oldtown or um downtown ambassadors stand? Are that is that a group of people volunteers?

I mean, I know I think I went to the lunch and it um the annual lunch and there were over a hundred downtown ambassadors that are volunteering for uh the health and well-being and prosperity um to contribute to the prosperity in Oldtown and downtown. And I I mean, I think it'd be great and I'm sure they'd be willing to really foster and tap into those resources. I'm not the biggest fan of having um the council micromanage every, you know, little idea that that comes across your desk.

Uh although I do believe in the transparency and the accountability that we entrust you to do, but um I'd love to, you know, have you brainstorm uh with the city manager and see how can we use those volunteers better and and position them as stakeholders with the downtown businesses. I I just see that as kind of a lost opportunity if they're not already dispatched in that reg regard, but maybe we can do that. So, thank you very much, Mayor. And I think we could improve that.

We do right now um they help deliver collateral and and bring messages doortodoor with the Oldtown merchants. They are also great at determining what our visitors want to see as far as guides and things like that. But I think you're right, there are absolutely more opportunities. It's a a huge engaged group. It It sure is. Okay. Thank you very much. I don't have any other questions or comments. Um I don't see anyone else that does. And uh we appreciate your presentation. Thank you for your time.

All right. Look forward to continuing the dialogue. So with that, I'll accept a motion. That was our only item on work study uh to adjourn this special meeting. I move to adjourn special meeting. And now we're going to uh convene our five o'clock meeting that was set to to start 15 minutes ago, 13 minutes ago. So with with that, I'd like to call the uh October 7th, 2025 city council regular meeting to order. City clerk Ben Lane, please conduct a roll call for us.

Thank you, Mayor Mayor Lisa Barowski, present. Vice Mayor Adam Quasman. Council members Jandy Bosquez, here. Barry Graham here, Kathy Littlefield here, Maryann McAllen present, and Solange Whitehead here, city manager Greg Kaitton here, interim city attorney Louis Santea here, city treasurer Sonia Andrews here, acting city otter here, and the croak is present. Thank you, mayor. Thank you very much.

This evening we have Scottsdale police officers uh Sergeant Bull, Sergeant Cllor, Officer Shalllock, and Sergeant Pit, as well as firefighter Hunter Ferguson. If anyone requires their assistance, please let a member of staff know. For the pledge of allegiance, I would like to ask Councilwoman McCallen to lead us. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much.

And for the invocation this evening, Councilman Graham, I will turn it over to you. Thank you, Mayor. I am very honored about or very excited about tonight's invocation. I will go ahead and invite Mr. or Chaplain Ed Hoe down to the lectern right here. And as he's approaching the lectern, I just want to say a few things about uh Chaplain Hoe and um the Scottsdale Fire Department chapency. Ed Ho was one of the chaplain with the Scottsdale Fire Department.

After a 32-year career as a fire captain in Southern Southern California, pardon me. Uh Ed and his wife Laura relocated to Arizona in 2020. During his tenure with Ventura County Fire Department, Ed was the department's critical incident stress and peer support program manager.

After attending Highlands Church up in North Scottdale for several months, Ed and Laura met chaplain, chief chaplain, if I might I might say, top top dog, my boss, your boss, uh, Mark Ule, and Ed uh, and Ed, and asked what he could Ed asked Mark what he could do to be of service to the church, the community, and the Lord. Chaplain Ule said that at the meeting that meeting was a blessing and that he had the perfect calling.

For the past several months, Ed has been going through the onboarding process at Scottsdale Fire Department chaplain and is dedicated to providing compassionate spiritual care, emotional support, and crisis counseling to firefighters, their families, and the community. Ed is grateful for the opportunity to serve our Lord through his dedication to the members of the Scottsdale Fire Department and our community.

And I'll just briefly remark on Friday we um we uh dedicated fire station 612 at Mayo Boulevard in Hayden and uh Mr. Ho was uh kind enough to invocate and uh and uh give a warm welcome and bless the uh fire department up there in North Scott. So he did a fantastic job. I'm honored that he uh accepted my invitation to open tonight's meeting with an invocation. If you may. Thank you, Councilman Graham. Madame Mayor, council members, my extreme gratitude for being here.

I appreciate uh the invitation and it's it's an honor and a duty that I feel that um it's it's a blessing. I also like to thank uh Fire Chief Tom Shannon for his unwavering support and um allowing this to to occur. So, if you wouldn't mind uh bow your heads in prayer. Heavenly Father, we come before you this evening with grateful hearts, seeking your wisdom and guidance in the work set before us. You've entrusted us with the care of this community, its people, its resources, and its future.

Lord, as our mayor and city council members discuss matters of growth, infrastructure, and the stewardship of our city's finances, grant them the wisdom to make decisions that honor you and serve all who call Scottsdale, Arizona home. Bless our department leaders, staff, and citizens with patience, humility, and understanding. Where there is disagreement, so peace. Where there is uncertainty, provide clarity. And where there is ambition, temper it with compassion.

May every decision made tonight contribute not only to a stronger city with infrastructure, roads, buildings, but to a stronger sense of unity, justice, and hope within our within our community. Lord, we ask these things in your glory. Amen. Thank you. As and for the mayor's report, uh Councilman Graham touched on this um event, but it's it's notable and uh it worthy of repeating. Uh last week was a big uh fire fighter fire uh our fire department and also uh police celebration.

We first had the opening uh cut the ribbon, proud to do that at 612, our first four bay engine facility uh up just adjacent to the 101. Um and great location at Hayden and the 101. So, it'll service uh a lot of our northern area much more efficiently uh reducing response times. And as that area continues to grow, uh that's a blessing to the to our community up there and a beautiful station. I I encourage you to go see it. State-of-the-art facility and really a a nice job there.

And I should also mention 2019 bond uh voter approved bond program at work and fulfilled. So check excited about that. Uh then uh that same day we had the the exchange club who hosted the Scottsdale officer and firefighter of the year lunchon. So that was exciting up at the fairway h house at Greyhawk Golf Club and we sure uh appreciate the exchange club for that worthy um event and cause of celebrating our public safety heroes. So that was a wonderful uh that was a wonderful day.

and um moving right along. So uh thank you for all those who participated and attended and look forward to more of the same. So for tonight's presentation we have uh very excited about this our employee recognition program where the council is recognizing employees with 20 years or more service uh as of October 2025. So this is exciting. Madame Mayor, uh, members of the city council, thank you once again for welcoming us.

Uh, I'm Kelly Corsett, the communications and public affairs director, and I am actually going to hand the baton tonight to Holly Peralta, who's our public affairs supervisor, who has been running our years of service recognition program for at least the past 10 years. We were trying to calculate it in our heads, but we're confident with that number. So, I'll hand it over to Holly. Thank you, Mayor Mayor Bowski and city council members.

We have once again gathered and we're pleased to have time this evening to honor city employees who have dedicated 20 or more years to the city of Scottsdale. Colleagues who are reaching those milestone anniversaries as you said this month through our years of service recognition program. Employees reaching milestone anniversaries receive a modest gift of of appreciation, including challenge coins or other items with special significance to Scottsdale.

The employees achieving 20 years of service, for example, receive a small but beautiful salary bell. We also thank the mayor and city council for providing a thank you card along with a gift card to each employee who completes their first year of service with the city and every milestone anniversary after that. It's all part of honoring those who answer the call of public service. The outstanding city staff who deliver the city's mission simply better service for a worldclass community.

To the colleagues who are joining us tonight, your service represents more than time. It reflects commitment, leadership, and an enduring impact to our community. The full list of staff reaching these milestone anniversaries is on the screen before you. But tonight, these city staff celebrating 20 or more years of service with the city of Scottsdale are able to join us for this special moment of public recognition. So, I will call those names of those who are here with us tonight.

and please make your way to the front of the KA. Celebrating 20 years of service, Robert Fiser, Michael Hit, Eric Schwarz, Michael Semiller, and Meredith Tessier. Celebrating 25 years of service, Terry Raymond and Stacy Williamson. And we also have an employee celebrating 30 years of service, Terry Wardell. Because of all all of you, Scottsdale is not only a great place to live and visit, but also a great place to work.

And thank you for your dedicate decades of service, your loyalty, and the difference you continue to make every day. I'll ask the mayor and city council to make their way down to the screen for a photograph. And while they do that, I'll ask for a round of applause. And do we have anyone else out there that we didn't name who's here tonight? Okay. together. Perfect. Thank you guys. Next, we have a public exe sorry, possible executive session announcement.

During tonight's meeting, the council may make a motion to recess into executive session to obtain legal advice on any applicable item on the agenda if authorized by the council. The executive session will be held immediately, will not be open to the public, and will resume following the executive session. Next, we have uh I don't see anyone. There's not enough people here to make a motion to journ into executive session, but we don't need to do that anyway. All right.

Um, next we have public comment, which is reserved for Scottsdale citizens, uh, business owners, and our property owners to comment on non-aggendaized items that are within the council's jurisdiction. No official council action can be taken on these items, and speakers are limited to three minutes to address the council. If you wish to speak on non-aggendaized or agendaized topics, please see the city clerk. We'll start with Dan Isaac. I don't know.

U Mayor, since my comments um are directly related to two absent council members, can I wait until they return from their bathroom break? I I don't have any problem with that. if you want to rotate to the back. Uh there's six people speaking. Thank you. Next, we have Susan Wood, who has donated her time to Dan Isaac. Um I don't see Susan in attendance. Peggy Klene, is Peggy here? Okay. like this. Yeah, the video I'm gonna just I I'll introduce myself.

I'm Peggy Klein and I live in zip code 85251. Video please. This is the first day of the meteorological fall. So, we can now put a bow on summer and review these stats. And this summer in Phoenix ranked number four for the hottest summers of all time. Check out the difference. The hottest summer on record for Phoenix in first place last year 2024 with an average temperature of 98.9 sure has increased over the years. When you look at that average from 1896 to 2025 that average was 90.4.

But if you start at 2000 you could see how it's gotten a lot warmer. The average temperature for summer 94.7. But even 2025 is warmer than the new normal. Thank you. Four of the past six summers have been the hottest in valley history. This is why although Scottsdale is our home, we no longer live here near live here year round. In summertime, our sales tax goes to another community and every year we stay away longer. Slide one.

Phoenix is on track to meet the goals outlined in its 2024 action plan to increase tree canopy and build shade. Meanwhile, Scottsdale doesn't even have a plan. Our shade and tree plan was supposed to be completed last December. Where is it? We had a sustainability plan. This council repealed it. I've heard a lot of falsehoods about that plan from some members of this council.

for example, that it would mandate rationing of water and electricity, that it was Scottsdale's Green New Deal, that it contained no actions. Well, these are just three of the actions in that plan related to trees and built shade. I don't see anything terribly radical here. For example, develop partnership with local utilities for tree planting programs, promote shading for the site hardscape on existing commercial and multifamily developments. What?

Who doesn't look for a shaded parking space and wish there was more of them? And lastly, develop educational resources about above and below ground space needs for tree health. Too often, trees are destined to die or be cut down because of how and where they're planted. How sad it is to see an empty bare dirt planter that used to be landscaped. And what a waste of resources. More and more I hear people making plans to leave and not just for the summer but moving away for cooler places.

Extreme heat is a threat to our health, our economy, our property values and our desert. You repeatedly you repeal the sustainability plan. What is your plan to address the root causes of our increasingly hotter city? Thank you. Thank you very much, Steve Sutton. Good evening, Honorable Lisa Morowski, Mayor of Scottdale, and other council members. Last week, you voted to send a resident petition to the city manager for investigation and a report.

The petition specifies what residents are expecting of you and the city manager. Residents expect an investigation to be conducted that will determine if a multi-story garage expansion at the Brown Avenue parking crow is actually needed and is not just something wanted by a small group of people motivated by business and political self-interest.

Residents expect an investigation to be conducted that will determine if alternatives to building a garage are sufficient for current and future parking needs. In conducting these investigations, residents expect the city manager to use all appropriate investigative methods, including an independent parking and traffic study of the southern quadrants of Oldtown.

That includes ride sharing service impact, use of better signs directing drivers to parking areas, electronic monitoring of parking to provide street side real-time information to drivers, and the making of agreements with the owners of privatelyowned parking areas for public use of their facilities.

There are several other factors other than the results of the investigations previously mentioned that the council should consider before signing a construction contract for a garage at the parking corral. Tonight, due to the time constraints, I can only mention one. Scottsdale residents love the farmers market. The farmers market is an institution, a tradition, a memoryfilled destination that Scottsdale residents love.

If the farmers market is moved from the parking corral, many Scottsdale residents will not be happy. Regardless of any investigative results and the best intentions of the city council, if Scottsdale loses its farmers market because the owners refuse to move or closes due to the new location being financially unviable, Scottsdale residents are going to be furious.

Moving the farmers market from the parking corral is not just a simple task of finding an available vacant open space or parking lot for them to set up on. The location must be logistically feasible for setup and operational layout. If it is not, that alone could hinder operation to the point of closure. The location must also be convenient for the farmers market's customers.

Another consideration is the need for the Scottsdale's farmer market to continue to financially benefit the brickandmortar retails in historic Oldtown near its current location.

If the Scottsdale City Council follows through with their intent to relocate the farmers market to the parking lot on the back side of city hall, that may result in the loss of the farmers market and that may cause some members of the city council to be forever forever identified as the people who killed the Scottsdale farmers market. Thank you, Mayor Barroski. Thank you very much.

Now circling back to Dan Isac and I see you have uh donated time from Sue Wood and well four minutes cut up it for you. No, let's do four. Let's do four. Mayor Dan Isaac address on record. Um I had three topics but I'm going to defer one because I haven't heard back from the city attorney regarding a very first very important first amendment case from the ninth circuit that applies to Arizona and I want Mr. Quasma to be in uh be present as well. Um two topics then.

Uh the first has to do with Jan Debascus claiming a potential conflict of interest um over voluntary non-paid non-decisionmaking advisory only board candidate. Um, again, there is no legal justification to have that concern because it is non-decision-making advisory voluntary non-paid. Contrast that Oh, and her concern was because the person had an association with an organization that's suing the city.

I want to contrast that with Kathy Littlefield, who's a member of TAS, who's married to Bob Littlefield, who's the head of TAS, who has filed a lawsuit not just against the state, but also the city of Scottsdale and individual employees of the city of Scottsdale. And she is a paid decision maker for the city of Scottsdale. So I'm wondering why Jan had no issues with Kathy voting on anything Axon unrelated but raised a false issue of somebody who had no decision-making.

Ethics should be applied consistently. Second topic goes to the many misstatements misinformation and omissions regarding the petition by TAS at the last meeting. Kathy started them by saying that we had a statutory requirement. her words to hold it in November. She is incorrect. The city manager, the city clerk, and I assume reviewed by the city attorney advised the entire council that it was not required to be in November of 2026. So, her statement was categorically false.

Barry Graham repeatedly talked about statutory and constitutional um scheduling. He did not use the word required because he knew it wasn't required, but he figured that if he kept saying statutoily and constitutionally scheduled, people would believe that it had to be in uh 2026. That is incorrect. His next comment was that 27,000 people were led to believe that the election would be in November of 2026.

Now, let's start with the preposterous claim that he knows what was in the minds of 27,000 people. Barry, you collected few if any of the actual signatures, so you are not in a position to say what people thought. There are dozens of petition circulators who would contradict Barry's statement and said that the date of the election was not even discussed in the collection of signatures. But let's also talk about 27,000. If I could have the overhead, please.

It's about time that Barry and Ta stop saying that 27,000 people signed. This is an extract of how many signatures were actually subject to validation which was only 23,673 because the other 3,000 didn't meet the basic requirements. And then based on sampling that was further reduced to only 19,000. So let's stop lying about the 27,000. Also, let's talk about what the general election is. The petition language specifically said the next general election or city or town election.

So, the language of the petition does not suggest November 2026. And by the way, if you care about the next general election, most of you have received this that says that we're about to have a general election in 2025 in November. So the next general election is actually next month. Barry also lied about the cost associated with the election. He said it was going to be 700,000 even though the memo from the city clerk said it was only going to be 615.

and he failed to mention that the election in November of 2026 is going to cost 327,000. So it's really only 300,000 incremental cost, not 700,000. That's quite an error for an accountant. And by the way, we could have had it in November of 2025 without any additional cost. I have more misstatements, but I'm limited by time, so I will take my seat. Was that Was that four minutes? That was four minutes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Dan. Appreciate it. Uh, that concludes the public comments.

Councilman Graham. Councilwoman Littlefield. Thank you, Mayor. I just like to make um one correction, Mr. Isac. I am not a member of TAS. I do not go to their meetings. I do not ask what they discussed, and my husband doesn't really tell me unless uh it's something that I overhear on the telephone. That's about it. In which case, I close the door. I am not involved in TAS and my husband is. I didn't even know he was the president until it came out in one of these meetings and he told me he was.

So, that's not uh at all correct. Just for the record. Thank you. Uh pardon me. I'm going to interrupt this because we overlooked one speaker. Brian Scott, are you here? while he makes its his way down. Councilman Graham, go ahead. I'll just respond briefly. Um, a lot of, you know, aspersions cast at my colleagues Dows uh Councilwoman Dowskis and and Littlefield were regretful and inaccurate and mean-spirited. And, um, Mr.

uh Isach he, it should be noted that uh he altered what was the wording in the referendum by omitting the word regular for the next regular uh general election. So that was altered in his presentation and um we the council member Littlefield's affiliation has been looked into and the conflict of interest has been debunked over and over. So, uh, that has been settled and, uh, I don't appreciate the attacks on somebody who I think enjoys widpread resident support. Thank you. All right.

Uh, Brian Scott, thank you. Let's continue. First, I would like to commend the parks and recck department for their awesome Rewind9s night. It was fun and a great use of the civic center. Tonight, I want to talk about Scottsdale's brand. I was surprised to find according to experienced Scottsdale, Scottsdale's brand is effortless revitalization. Not heritage, not horses, not the westmost western town. It's about leaving Scottsdale feeling better than when you arrived.

Sounds more like a day spa than a city. Experienced Scottsdale receives around $15 million per year in public tourism dollars. And the CEO, Rachel Sacko, while maybe not a public employee, pays herself more than $700,000 salary per year, more than the governor of Arizona, more than the president, and double what the city manager earns. At what point do we ask, what exactly are we revitalizing? Meanwhile, Scottdale's western identity is being sidelined for luxury branding and wellness buzzwords.

So, I'm asking a simple question. What oversight exists over experienced Scottsdale? Because 700,000 in public money doesn't feel effortless to many Scottsdale residents. I respectfully request the city manager detail experience Scottsdale's current contract with the city, executive compensation structure, and what accountability metrics are in place. Lastly, I'll leave you with two Google reviews. Quote, "Experience Scottsdale was extraordinarily difficult to find.

They didn't even have staff present, a staff person at their booth. They said they were open from Monday to Friday, one place. Another location said they were open Wednesday to Sunday. Maybe they need to get somebody who understands communications. They were of no help to us in understanding or experiencing Scottsdale. Fortunately, we're pretty good at figuring out stuff on our own. Another review says, quote, "I've called four times within a week and pressed every option there is.

Nobody has returned my calls. I don't think anyone even works there." Thank you. All right. Now, that concludes public comment on non-aggendaized items. So we will move to the approval of the meeting minutes. I would entertain a motion to approve special meeting work study and possible executive session minutes of August 18th, 2025 and regular meeting and work session minutes of August 25th, 2025. So move second. All those in favor, please register your vote. Excellent.

Next, we have consent agenda items 1 through 11B. Uh, do any members of the council have any questions or wish to Yeah, we're going to go to actually uh Councilwoman Littlefield. Um, I think we'll go to public comment first before Okay, thank you so much. And we have public comment first. Let's start with Howard Back. And this is item number four, the 68th Street street storm drain project IG agreement, IGA. Mayor, city councilors, ladies and gentlemen, good evening.

It is almost four years since we approached this council to develop a sidewalk on 68th Street between Camelback and Indian School Road. And regardless of the urgency of the project today, I can still not walk on 68th Street. You cannot walk on 68th Street. And no citizen of the city of Scottsdale can safely walk down that sidewalk. And so today, as you consider this item on the consent agenda, it is the last technical piece ne needed to advance this project.

We're asking you for your support and hope that you can enthusiastically embrace a project that gives us all an opportunity for the city of Scottsdale to have a win for something constructive that advances the community, makes things better, and really does a good job for everybody. It shows that you can work together and shows that you can advance the community for the best interest of the community.

We want to thank you for your support and your ongoing diligence in advancing this project and thank you very much for your time. Good evening. Thank you very much. Next on item number five, Parada Deloul Parade and Trails and Fun Festival uh funding, we have Brian Scott again, followed by Noah James Markham. Council members, I'm here to show my strong support for the Praadelo parade. Frankly, I'm surprised it's not funded even more.

This is Scottsdale's signature event, a celebration of Western heritage, family fun, and civic pride. No other city has anything like it. It's one of the best days of the year. It's part of what makes Scottsdale Scottsdale. January 31st. Don't miss it. Thank you for that advertisement. We appreciate it. Excellent. Well done. Uh next we have Noah James Markham. Alo. A aloha city council and to the rest of the uh I aloha mayor and to the rest of the city council. I am from the great city of Tempi.

I would like to talk about agenda five which I agree. I know we should keep on funding events because we are Arizona and I also if we continue events like these or concerts and any other events in Scottdale that we should always require a sign language interpreter no matter what event is going on. Consent agenda 11.

I agree that we should be spending this especially with people with disabilities and they have the right accommodations so they can succeed successfully at school education system that maybe people that are in the schools that they can teach police officers how to have better education with people with disabilities. So yes, I agree that we need fund education. As a Democrat myself, information from Donald Trump saying that stop taking Tylenol because it causing oism is not education.

I also agree that women can understand other women that they have the right to choose if they want to have an abortion and it's their body choice. And educating other people about women having miscarriages is another thing. And all about the doctor and the woman. I love women in Excuse me. Excuse me, sir. This public comment is reserved for the agenda items only. So if you could keep your comments to that, we ask the same of every speaker. Uh we would sure appreciate it.

and um an education system especially democratic women. I hopefully we can have more education with DEI with education. Mahalo and thank you for listening to me today. Thank you for coming to join us. Appreciate it. Uh that concludes all the public speakers on the uh consent agenda item. So, circling back to I think we left off with Councilwoman Littlefield. So, I'll start with you. I just had a quick question for the city manager, please.

On um item uh number seven on consent, it has to do with 160 temporary horse stall panels to be put up at Westworld. um in our continuing efforts to up upgrade Westworld and keep it going. I had thought um during some previous conversations that some of the increases in the number of stalls that would go up there would be permanent. Are they all going to be temporary so they can be removed or are we planning on increasing the number of permanent stalls as well?

Madame Mayor and uh Councilwoman Littlefield, I'll call a colleague here as he uh approaches the podium to explain the detail. I'll stretch time a little bit and say this item is a followup to our discussion uh several months ago about some short-term items and specifically the stalls. We have temporary stalls that have fallen in disrepair and uh this is meant to address that.

We also have a bond project that over years uh brings some permanent stalls but uh my colleague here will can speak in greater detail to uh your question. Thank you for the mayor and the counselor. Uh yes indeed we are are as as the city manager has has indicated we have both temporary stalls and permanent stalls and we are in the process of replacing the permanent stalls too.

was a project that's been going on for the last few years so that we always have good permanent stalls, but our temporary stalls are in need of replacement and that is why item number seven is is before you today. Thank you very much. I just wanted to make sure we were keeping up with the need for the permanent stalls as well. Thank you very much. Thank you, Councilwoman Whitehead. Thank you, Mayor. Oh, I have couple a couple items I want to comment on.

Uh first of all, the sidewalk, 68th Street sidewalk. thrilled to see that moving forward with the drainage project. We certainly are efficient. I um also uh commend staff. We talked about the public address system. It's already on the agenda. Good job, city manager. And I want to call out um our solid waste folks. I don't know if they're still here or if they're hiding, but yay. We just got two grants for uh recycling. We generate so much car. There they are. I see them in the back.

We got grants. Um they got grants and we have so much cardboard at Westworld and now the city will be able to recycle that and then the food waste diversion grant. So congratulations to all staff involved in these items. Councilman Graham. Thank you, Mayor. I wanted to call out funding for Prodal Soul, which was already funded. I'm not wearing a cool hat uh and celebrating it as enthused as other people. But um I think this is going to be well it's the 75th year of I don't know what year.

What was the first year? Does anybody know of Prodal Soul? I wonder if this was a this was a landmark year or not. A benchmark year. We have an expert. Oh, do we have an expert in the house? Dennis Robbins the char executive director. It's 75 years, isn't it? Is that the just the rodeo? I don't think the part prod has been going on as long as the city's been around. Yeah, this the rodeo started before. I think we were mayor, members of the c mayor, members of the council.

I was afraid you would see me back there. No, I think the the prada is two years younger than the actual city is. So, I think it started in in 53. So, this will be the 73rd Prada, but we're celebrating the 75th anniversary of the city at the Prada. We should recognize two-term uh former councilman uh Dennis Robbins who's also leads the Charles. Anything else we can say about you to No, I wish I had a cool hat, too. But I love this guy. He says we should get more money. No.

Um but we really thank you very much for everything you do for the products. We're happy to be a part of it. We um up here uh these members, my colleagues, we trust this year will be bigger um and better than ever. Absolutely 100%. Very good. And you all will be in it. Can't wait. calendars are marked. Hey, Dennis, stay up there for one minute. Sure. And I want to take at this um this opportunity to uh sing the accolades of the Charles who took this event over fully over the last three years.

Um I've been I was a proud member of the foundation board of the Charles for six years and during my term and your tenure um we the charos stepped back in and took this event over and it's been exceedingly successful and growing year-over-year. So great job on that. Really appreciate it. Looking forward to this year. Yeah. Thank you for all of your support. I didn't want I knew about that. I didn't want to bring it up to add pressure. Yeah. So but now the pressure is on. Thank you.

No, pressure is on you to vote correctly. Well, yeah, we we'll uh we'll share the credit. Who gets the blame? Yeah, right. Thank you, Dennis. Thank you very much. And then um I have one more comment on um the item that my colleague Councilwoman Littlefield brought up u number five. This is I'm sorry, number seven, bond 2019 project. We another box checked off 58 project list. We are working as a city to get those done.

We um fell behind and got bitten by the u inflation got bitten by the teeth of inflation. Uh but we're playing catchup now and uh we're happy to check another one of those lines off the list and I'm seeing nods from our city treasurer and our city manager. So, thank you for your collaboration and executing this. Thank you mayor. Thank you. Okay. So, seeing no more comments, uh, now I'd like to entertain a motion to approve consent agenda items 1 through 11B. So moved. Second.

All those in favor, please indicate your vote. All right, moving on to regular agenda item number tw uh regular agenda items. Actually, we'll start with item number 12. And I uh this is a staff request to adopt ordinance 4693 amending uh our revised code chapter 2 article 5 division 17 relating to the budget review commission.

And I am going to uh make a motion to continue this item because uh uh the chair of this commission who is my appointee uh resigned before he got started and I've selected a uh a new chair as a result who is going through the process of getting um credentialed and uh situated as the chair of the commission. So, I would like to include uh that person's input in this process. And as a result, I'd uh ask the council, I'm going to make a motion to continue this to the next regular agenda.

Uh he's through the part way through the process from what I understand. So, there won't be any significant delay. Second. I go ahead. I just second it. Councilwoman Whitehead. Yeah, I have a question. Um, so I have heard from some BRC members a desire to like the other commissions to be able to vote and choose their own chair.

And there's some confusion about whether that has to be done before the current well it it should be done before the current the newest member is appointed chair and I wonder if I I mean I support um a continuence but I don't want to miss an opportunity to make that slight change to the commission and uh have the members have have the new person brought on but have the members have the opportunity to vote on their own chair.

Is that agreeable to my colleagues, city attorney, mayor and members of the council, I wasn't sure if um Councilwoman Whitehead was posing a question. Um if so, I I I can answer that question. Yeah, of course it's a question. Can we? So, I don't mind continuing till the entire BRC is seated, but I know that I would prefer to see the members get together, pick a chair, and move on. But I don't know if we preclude that opportunity if we don't make that change tonight.

So, the council could vote to make that change tonight. Um if it doesn't make that change, the mayor's pick will be the chair of the um budget review commission. However, if the council later makes that change at a later date, um it would not preclude the um commission from adopting its own rules and um changing how the chair is selected. Okay. Thank you, mayor. May I make an alternate motion? Five to four. I would like to unless other people want to speak first.

Okay, I will just go ahead and make an alternate motion just to continue with the exception of changing the policy on the chair tonight, but I will wait and hear what my colleagues have to say. Councilwoman Littlefield. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilwoman. I do have an alternate motion that I would like to make. I would like to adopt ordinance number 4693 relating to the budget review commission as presented in the following amendments.

The language of and I quote with the mayor appointing one member who shall serve as chair of the commission unquote being deleted and repealed under section 2-381 subsection B. A new subsection C is added to section 2-382 to read as follows. Establish the procedure for selecting a chair and a vice chair of the commission. Thank you. And I think that's basically what you had in mind so much. Yeah, actually I was envisioning other changes too. Okay. Um, I will second that. Councilman Graham. Yeah.

So, um, did you I I'm I'm confused up here. We didn't have a presentation. I thought we would have a presentation. We have a public speaker on this item. um or well we had a motion to continue which got turned into an alternative motion. So we I think what happened was we had a motion to continue.

We had a couple alternate motions, one of them being to approve the item, which is was a good motion that I support, but I I I I oppose continuing this any part of it personally, but I thought we should carry maybe we just address the motion to continue and then we hear the public speaker, we hear the presentation, then we vote on the item. Uh, council member Whitehead, you made the motion, so is that satisfactory? Yeah, actually I think that is a good point.

We don't I would like the presentation and the public remarks and then so I'm going to retract even my second and my motion until that and is there a prepared presentation if I if I may interrupt. Uh I'll withdraw my motion to continue pending the pre the presentation. How's that? So now there's no motion on the table. if you'll do the same, Councilwoman Littlefield. Okay, we'll hear the presentation. Thank you. Okay. Um, next slide.

So, just some background about the budget review commission or BRC for the larger audience. The budget review commission was established this year in January. The purpose of the BRC is to review and advise council on the proposed budget, major revenue forecast and budget policies. And the uh work of the BRC does not replace the responsibilities of the city council. City council remains fully responsible for the city budget uh assessment of any taxes and fees and setting uh budget policies.

Next slide. The budget review commission conducted a series of meetings between February and April this year to review budget topics and the proposed budget for the fiscal year. After the series of meetings, we received very positive feedback from the budget review commission members, staff and council for the work that they did. We also received feedback from the BRC members themselves to provide additional clarity on their work and also to simplify their process.

The main interest of the budget review commission members is to make sure that they have clear direction from council on review of budget topics and also that they don't want to place undue burden on staff time and resources. With the feedback that we received and the interest of the BRC members and staff, we are proposing several code amendments for the BRC. Next page, please. The first amendment is to clarify the work of the BRC.

The primary purpose of the BRC is to review the proposed budget the staff has developed before it goes to council. That involves reviewing the operating and capital budget appropriations that are proposed, including any new requests, new appropriations, um revenue projections and such. Next slide. The next uh proposed amendment is to simplify the recommendation process.

Currently, the existing ordinance requires the BRC to provide recommendations in a written report, which adds significant commission time and staff resources. The proposed change would allow the recommendations to be either in a written report to be presented to council or in a public presentation to council. This would cut down on commission and staff time. And the proposed change would also require that recommendations be reviewed, discussed, and approved by a quorum of the BRC. Next slide.

This next proposed amendment is to add a section to allow the BRC members to do some in-depth reviews at the direction of council. The BRC is currently not specifically authorized by their ordinance to do any in-depth reviews or audits of that nature of operations. If council would like them to do some in-depth examination and analysis of topics or areas, here's what it could look like in practice.

Annually, the BRC would identify some focus areas, develop a work plan for council consideration and approval. BRC members may examine detailed records with department staff based on this work plan. There are some concerns with this approach. These indepth reviews or deep dives as we call them could take up significant staff time. It could be duplicative of what the city manager or city auditor is doing.

It may not necessarily yield any benefit to the city and it may also potentially or inadvertently vi violate open meeting laws. The BRC members are fully aware of these concerns and they have no desire to be burdensome to the staff or to violate any open meeting laws. So, I wanted the council to understand that we are fully aware of these concerns and there's no desire to to to do um these.

This section being proposed is written to allow the BRC to identify some focus areas for these deep dives for council approval. Um the council may want to change that to where council is identifying the focus areas for the BRC instead of the BRC identifying the focus areas. And if council would like to do that, you can make a floor amendment to change this section or keep it as is. Or if you do not want them to do any deep dives, you can make a floor amendment to remove it all together.

And next slide. And the last proposed amendment just adds language to clarify that the work of the BRC, especially with if the work plan is approved, is not intended to replace or conflict the uh city manager or city treasurer's responsibilities under the city charter. And with that, I can answer any questions. And the motion basically is um to adopt the ordinance 4693 to amend the code related to the budget review commission. So, I'll skip the motion to continue.

I don't g gauge much support for that. Uh, would you like to restate your motion, Councilwoman Littlefield? Speaker, Councilwoman McCallen, public speaker. Oh, thank you. Thank you. I don't see David Smith. I think he left. Oh, there you are. You're hiding. Are you hiding from us? Oh, okay. Well, you're up. I'm sorry. I can just hear better back there where the speaker is. So, um, good evening, Mayor Broski and members of council.

Again, uh, as each of you know, I served as the chairman of the 2025 budget review commission earlier this year, and I chaired our joint meeting with you folks on April 22 when the commission uh, gave you our findings. Um, and our written report, I think, described 75 or 80 different items for council's consideration related to the current budget as well as future budgets.

And I've now handed off the baton of the chairman, but I want to talk about these proposed changes that staff is asking you to approve tonight for the next commission. They're supporting uh the city treasures report supporting this uh council report dated October 1 describes these proposed changes as quote several enhancements to the duties of the commission that would help make the work of the commission more efficient and effective. And I personally don't agree with that prediction.

Frankly, the most substantive change that is being made in ordinance 4660 appears in paragraph D, which is in fact limiting the scope and authority of the commission. If you read the first part of that paragraph D, the first few lines, it describes what we all understand to be the scope of the commission when it was created earlier this year.

Specifically, it begins, it says, "Each fiscal year, the commission may conduct in-depth examinations and analyses of specific budget topics or review additional matters related to the city revenues and expenditures for the purpose of making recommendations for council. And that's what your commission did earlier this year in the process of developing those 75 or 80 different items for your consideration.

But now the provision will be that if staff wants to do this they have to propose before they do this review they have to propose prepare a work plan number one then submit that work plan to council for your review and approval in whole or in part. Then number three, if you approve the work plan, then it comes back to the commission and then they can begin their review. And after that, perhaps they can develop recommendations to submit to council.

And then finally, as uh the city treasurer indicated, there's an item paragraph E that uh she would propose that just states the obvious that nothing is intended to conflict with the charter responsibilities of the city manager or the treasurer. I frankly recommend that these so-called enhancements um be struck. Item D does nothing more to add to efficiency of what we did or could do in the future and item E is redundant language. Thank you very much. Thank you, David. Appreciate that.

That's very helpful. Uh Councilwoman Mckllen. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I just want to clarify that we have a standing audit committee for the city and deep dives are done through the audit department and with experts. And so I just want to clarify with our city treasurer that the job of the BRC is not to audit but to make recommendations and make sure that the city's using its money wisely. Mayor and council member, councilwoman McAllen, that is correct.

That is the understanding of the staff of city manager and myself that the budget review commission is to review the budget and they are asking us detailed questions with respect to the budget but these deep dives are a little bit beyond the scope of what we believe is the budget review commission task.

they are looking into operational processes or uh trying to understand specific um detail work that the staff does and um so those are the things that or specific topics that may not so for example I can give you an example there may be an interest in doing a deep dive into impact fees and the impact fees we do have a consultant producing the studies we do have um council O thoroughly reviewing and approving impact fees.

So doing a deep dive into how impact fees are developed, how impact fee laws govern our use and calculation of impact fees isn't directly necessarily related to the review of the budget. But if council would like them to do a deep dive into impact fees, then we propose that that be put in a work plan for council to uh provide direction and um approval. Mayor, can I comment on that?

So, you're suggesting that if something like that does come up, then that would be a directive to the city auditor, not to the BRC. That's correct. So, if council was concerned with whether we are applying impact fees correctly or calculating impacts fees correctly, that could be directed to the city auditor to look into that and audit our, you know, um, uh, calculating, assessment, and use of impact fees. Thank you. Council Councilman Graham. Thank you, Mayor.

The um I'm okay with most of these changes. Um I guess I kind of want to get a sense from my colleagues. It's I I am sympathetic to former council member and former budget review commission chair um section 2-383 point D. Um before initiating such reviews, the commission shall prepare a work plan and submit it to the city council for approval. upon receiving direction from the city council and approval of the work plan.

Um, I guess I kind of wanted to get a sense from my colleagues if if they would be okay with changing approval to consideration. And the reason why I asked that, um, I don't feel that strongly about it, but um, I hear what he's saying.

And I guess the the one the one thought that I have is that like um David Smith told us, they go and put a work plan together and then they draft it and then they go and take it to their commission and then they approve it and then they send it to the city council and then we look at it and then we approve it and then weeks later they want to look at something else and um this will this will prevent that. this will prohibit anything else.

So if one of us up here says well what happened with that or this has come up or there's you know um um attention over here or like there was a poor performance we can't do anything with it until um we approve in a work plan. So um Mr. Parliamentarian, how do I I want to just Can I like Can I make a motion with my colleagues to consider that without making a motion about the overall thing? Can I parliamentarian parliamentarian wise do that? I kind of want to throw that out there.

Mayor and members of the council, um before I answer Councilman Graham's question, I do want to make a statement regarding that particular work plan issue. I think the intent behind it is to make sure that the budget commission um follows your direction and doesn't exceed their authority. I think that's the the idea. But in terms of your question, um, Councilman Graham, what you're asking is whether you could make an a motion to amend that particular provision.

No, just I I just want to make I want to I I kind of want to do a I kind of want to count the votes here if anybody would be okay. Um, I'm kind of getting some push back on that, but um, that would be my desire when somebody finally does make a motion to consider making that consider as opposed to approved. Now, if I want to say a few more things about that, I agree with I nobody is a bigger advocate for, you know, scope limiting than me.

You know, rabbit holeing um you know, getting off course and and we saw it with the budget review commission happened all the time and then staff is being whipsawed and has whiplash from every different direction. I don't want that. Um I think that the budget review commission is um is uh will only succeed uh during the period of time that it's operating if it has a limited scope.

Um so I don't I just don't want to I don't want to handcuff them and put too many guard rails and I because I kind of want to leave enough flexibility for our budget review commissioners um in their proceedings. So, I'll pause my qu my comments uh for now and let my other colleagues speak. Councilwoman Whitehead. So, I think we tried the first year we it was wide open and I'd be all for um really focusing in on just the budget.

So, I would support this item, but I with the exception of section 2- uh 383. So I I don't agree with this year having these deep dives because of the for anybody I I watched every single BRC meeting and they were hours and hours long with all of our staff um many of our directors and charter officers in these meetings.

So for the sake of efficiency, you know, every year these things aren't etched in stone, I would like to see um as proposed the focus just on the budget with the uh removal of section 2-383 and then um that's where I stand and then I will support doing that tonight and of course the u business with the chair. Councilwoman Littlefield, I didn't follow that. Um, actually I agree with uh Councilwoman Whitehead on that. I think that those are good ideas. Thank you. No, I don't need a motion.

City attorney. Um, mayor and members of the council, just to clarify, I I think we're talking about um section 2383, subsection D, not the entire section. Sorry. Okay. Um, Councilwoman Whitehead, I didn't quite understand your point. Could you could you clarify? How about if I uh Now I'm going to have to pull up the item. I'd like to move to adopt.

I would like to uh vote on the tonight's item with the except um with the removal of section 2-383D and a requirement that or a change that the chair because I don't think that's in here unless I missed it. It is. I didn't see that. No, it's not in here. I'm okay. Yeah. Okay. So my motion would be to adopt this item with the deletion of section 2-383D and the addition additional change that the BRC commissioners in their first full meeting uh vote and appoint a chair. I will second that.

That is exactly what my motion was. Thank you. Um okay. Um, city attorney, if we could have the council woman state the ordinance number. Here we go. Sorry, I didn't have it printed in front of me. All right.

I move to adopt item 12, budget review commission code amendment um ordinance number 4693 amending Scottell revised code chapter 2 article 5 division 17 relating to the budget review commission with the deletion of section 2-383D and the addition of a uh a requirement that the budget review commission when um full well in their first meeting appoint a chair from within.

Councilwoman, would you consider adding to your motion that um you authorize the city attorney and other charter officers to make conforming changes to the ordinance for that purpose? Yes. All right. I haven't spoke at all. So before I move on, um I'm completely opposed to all of this. I mean our first year with the budget review commission was completely and artifically condensed because of the timing with which they took they were seated. Okay.

So this is this will be the first real opportunity for the budget review commission to actually work together with the city staff throughout the entire process. And now the council's trying to tie their hands about how where they can go with respect to scope without coming back asking permission coming back to the council get approval um which could be a four-week time frame.

So I think this is a real setback and completely undermines the spirit and the uh potential benefits of the budget review commission. So because it was laborious and timeconuming to staff and to participants. So we should check their reigns already when they had a mere two months really to get this get into the meat of this and do their work. and now we are starting eight months in advance on this process and we're gonna check their reigns and and tie their hands behind their back.

I don't agree with that at all. I completely oppose it. I think that just doing this year to check their reigns and tying their hands behind their back and listening politely is not the way we should be going on this. I mean, um, a rotation of chair and depriving my me as the mayor of appointing the chair is just another swipe at undermining, uh, the responsibilities and, uh, inherent um, direction of the mayor of Scottsdale, Arizona. And I think that's the wrong direction.

This will be the first full year of having a chair, having direct appointments. Direct appointments are just that they are a direct appointment of the mayor. As a result, the chair that would be the chair. So, I would be in favor of waiting a year and if the process did not work um revisiting this, but I'm completely opposed to everything that's being discussed. Councilman Graham. Thank you, Mayor. I want to clarify uh the motion on the floor. Councilwoman Whitehead removed um section 2-383D.

You struck that entire Okay. Um maybe we can have a little bit of a dialogue. I was I still Okay. So, the the mayor um showed some indignation about limiting the scope, but the but Councilwoman Whitehead's motion does the exact opposite. It keeps the scope completely wide open. Um are you okay that this doesn't seem to sort of rein that in a little bit?

I mean, I I I kind of wanted to find sort of a a a middle a midpoint between letting them veer in any direction and um letting them, you know, we kind of we kind of funnel them to certain directions. So, I'm just Can you just explain a little bit why about the deletion of that paragraph? Yes, mayor. May I have the floor? Of course. Thank you, Councilman Graham. And I do perhaps this is some an item that needs clarification.

My goal in making in this deletion is to um to limit deep dives and to have the full focus on the budget itself. Did I misunderstand? Uh yeah, Sonia, could you? Yeah. So um just to clarify these are some of the areas that the uh commission uh would like to deep dive into based on their prior year at current year recommendation considering removal of the food tax. Deep dive into unfilled positions which the city manager is already doing. Uh so that would be duplicative.

Deep dive into impact fees which I've already explained that that might not yield any benefit. Um consideration of eliminations of certain programs. So these are just an example of some of the deep dives. Thank you. So, so yes, what I and I first of all I want to address um the mayor's comment. This BRC is in existence because of our mayor and I'm very pleased about that and I in no way shape or form am trying to undermine the mayor's authority on this commission.

However, I've heard and it makes sense people like to self-govern that uh some commission members would like to choose their own chair. So, and also I want to specify that I think the focus on the budget by limiting the focus we're actually helping uh the second year succeed better than the first year. And so that's the intent of my motion, but uh not in any way to limit to to limit, but we don't expect the preserve commission to be marching into parks and etc.

So I want the budget review commissioners to focus strictly on the budget and not have these deep dives this year. That is my my goal. But to make and and I think these other modifications we learned a lot. I agree with the mayor. That was that commission worked hard. So did staff because of the short time frame. I just want to get it right this year. And if we swing a little too far in narrowing that focus, we can always adjust it later. So I hope that helps.

Councilman Graham, Councilwoman Debas. Oh mayor. Councilman Graham. Do you mind if I because I I asked Councilwoman Whitehead a question. I kind of still had the floor if you don't mind. Thank you, Councilwoman Dowskis. That makes sense to me. Um, so we're deleting paragraph D. Um, we're also deleting a lot of this operating budget, capital budget. I am concerned that we are narrowing the scope.

Um some of the some of the things uh city treasurer said about duplicativeness, um open meeting law violations, um um wrong department, not my department. Um if if this were a movie like and we were another city, that's what the malevolent, you know, city worker would say to cover up the tracks their their tracks. So thankfully we have higher integrity, honest employees. Um but we're but we're but we're looking we're thinking about the system and the incentives are in the system.

So I have some reservations that we're narrowing the scope too much this year. However, um as Councilwoman Whitehead said, we can always broaden it later. So I don't want to hamstring our commissioners. I want this commission to succeed.

I think one of the problems was that was this just the careening into you know new topics that were unrelated and oh what about this and what about that and we'd offramp before and then before we knew it we never we don't know how we got back we can't we don't know how to get back to where we started we don't want that we want them to succeed which means we want a nice you know we want a backyard with a playground and the fences we have boundaries um I'm not trying to infantalize them or anything um but Um, I appreciate the my my colleague explaining that to me and I will be supporting the motion on the floor.

Councilwoman Dascus, ask you um with the deletion of D, you did express some concern about um unbounded. Uh do you feel that there has been enough discussion from council members tonight? uh Councilwoman McCallen saying we're not intending this to be an audit. We do have an audit committee. Uh you know, Councilman Graham and Council Whitehead's kind of comments.

Do you think that's um helpful so that if we have deleted that the commission will have enough direction from council to be able to proceed? Um and then also maybe this does address the issue of if a work plan were developed but then a really good idea came along a couple months later um the lack of flexibility maybe this would give that flexibility if necessary. So are you comfortable um with D being removed and having sufficient uh direction for the BRC?

Yes, mayor, council members, councilwoman Dasquez. Um absolutely. And I wanted to also, yes, that gives us clarity. And um I also wanted to comment on council member Graham's comments. Uh we as staff do not want to hamstring the budget review commission either. Uh we don't want them to go off in totally different directions and that was the intent of D.

And um honestly the budget review commission members are really wanting direction from council because without direction from council they really don't know what council is interested uh would like them to look into. So they really would like direction from council really and we can um by them reviewing the proposed budget which we intend for them to do they are absolutely free to ask for detailed explanations detail analysis and followup for them to understand the budget.

The purpose of D was so that they don't branch into areas that the city manager is already doing or the city auditor is already looking into or that could be completely unrelated to the review of the budget or maybe major policy decisions that really should be uh left to the council. Councilwoman Littlefield. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I agree with what's been said. I agree with uh Councilwoman Whitehead's uh motion.

I just want to ensure that uh going forward since we are making amendments and and moving forward for this next year that uh my idea of having the chair being chosen by the members of the commission would be appropriate. That's how it's done in the other boards and commission areas and I think that that needs to be included in this one also. Thank you. I understood that to be included in the first one. So I think we're good. So uh I again this entire conversation is premature.

I don't know what the goal is here other than to de deprive the volunteers of the budget review commission most of which worked really hard last year. Um we have a uh there's a joint meeting coming up between the budget review commission and the council which is designed to give direction and have an open dialogue between us and them. So trying to manipulate or narrow or expand or you know no one understands it doesn't sound like to me what that really is going to look like.

I again would urge the council to push this to a until after the discussion or at the point in time when we're meeting with the budget review commission so that we can actually hear feedback. We heard from David Smith just serendipitously because he's here tonight for open public comment. It'd be great to hear from our budget review commissioners that were in place last year and so see how they feel about these changes and get direction from us based on th those that input.

So, I'm completely opposed to this with that um I'm I'm going to make an alternate motion to continue this until our joint meeting. We can take these issues up then. I mean, let's hear how the budget review commissioners feel about appointing the chair and the vice chair. Maybe they don't want to do that. So, does anyone have a second to continue this to the joint meeting? Seeing none, I I'll call the question. All those in favor of the very um detailed motion, please indicate your vote.

Thank you. Moving right along, we now turn to There is no there are no citizens petitions. There are no additional uh public comments with respect to non-aggendaized items. Uh therefore, we move on to mayor and council items, which starts with item number 14, boards and commissions task force nominations. per the city council rules. Uh I I'm going to turn it over.

I see you're here to to go through the process from the uh the lectern there, but uh council vice mayorwoman is not available for tonight's meeting. So I hear that he's appointing appointed councilwoman Dasquez asked her to fill the role. So councilwoman Dascis. Thank you mayor. This evening, the city council will be nominating Scottsdale residents interested in serving on citizen advisory boards, commissions, and committees.

The Scottsdale City Council is responsible for establishing city policies and enacting laws in support of those policies. The council relies on volunteer citizen-based boards and commissions to research issues and make recommendations in support of the council's mission and goals. The information and recommendations provided by council appointed advisory boards is a valuable tool in helping council members in their deliberations.

Appointments for these positions will be made at a special city council meeting on October 21st. As we begin our process this evening, I'd like to note to my colleagues that an applicant only needs to receive one nomination in order to advance to interview before the council. When I call on you, if your chosen applicant or applicants have already been nominated by a council member, please state no additional and we will move on in the process. Thank you. And now let's get started.

The airport advisory commission. There are two openings. The airport advisory commission advises the city council on policy matters relating to the operation of the airport, proposals for development, airport area land use, fees and safety concerns. Michael Good is concluding his third term and he is ineligible for reappoint as commission members can serve a maximum of three terms. John Spall's term is expiring. He is eligible for reappointment and has submitted an application for consideration.

There are two vacancies and nine applicants. The applicants are Craig Bennett, David Gans, Michael Gonzalez, Steven Crrestler, Adam Quam, John Sloan, John Spalls, Carl Stein, and Mark Unterbach. I will now entertain nominations for the airport advisory commission. Each council member can nominate two applicants. Councilwoman McCallen, Carl Stein, and Mark Underbach. Councilwoman Whitehead, John Spall, I'm saying that right. And um Michael Gonzalez. John Spall and John Sloan. No additional.

I apologize. Mayor, would you mind repeating that? Sorry, we had a little glitch. So, I have Mark Unterbach, Carl Stein, and then Councilwoman Whitehead. I apologize. You had John Spalge and who was your second? Michael. Michael Gonzalez. Michael Gonzalez. And then Mayor John Spalge and John Sloan. Thank you. No additional only uh like to add Mr. Bennett. No additional. So Craig Bennett, Michael Gonzalez, John Sloan, John Spall, Carl Stein, and Mark Unterbach have been nominated.

The building advisory board of appeals, there are two openings. The building advisory board of appeals has the jurisdiction to recommend that minor variances in the electrical, plumbing, and mechanical application of the building code be granted and that alternative construction methods or materials be allowed. The board also recommends amendments to the code. Julian Anderson's second term is expiring and he is ineligible for reappointment at this time.

There are two vacancies and two applicants. The applicants are David Brotman and Tim Castlebury. I will now entertain nominations for the building advisory board of appeals. Each council member can nominate two applicants. Councilwoman Whitehead. David Broman. I need to put my glasses on. And Tim Castleberry. Wonderful. Uh David Broman and Tim Castleberry have been nominated. Human Relations Commission. There is one opening.

The Human Relations Commission advocates and promotes all dimensions of diversity. The commun the commission acts as an advisory board to the mayor, city council, and staff to make recommendations on ways to encourage mutual respect and understanding among people to discourage prejudice and discrimination and to work toward cultural awareness and unity. Tina Drew's first term is expiring and she did not submit an application for consideration. There is one vacancy and seven applicants.

The applicants are Alexandra Blansky, Paul Epstein, Jacqueline Fiad, Katie McGinty, Chess Enst, Jill Pearlstein, Andy Ricky. I will now entertain nominations for the human relations commission. Each council member can nominate one applicant. Mayor Barowski, Chaz Ast, Paul Epstein. None additional. Counciloman McAllen, Katie McGinty, no addition. And I have no additional Paul Epstein, Katie McGinty, and Chash Enst have been nominated. The Industrial Development Authority, there is one opening.

The Industrial Development Authority's main function is to issue taxexempt bonds for certain types of private developments for the purpose of attracting new economic activity to the community. special qualifications. There are no formal requirements, but given the nature of the work that the industrial development authority conducts, it is suggested members be comfortable working with detailed financial proforma, feasibility studies, and financial projections. Ethan Nolan has resigned.

There is one vacancy and four applicants. The applicants are Michelle Garner, Michael Roland, Dean Sims, Elias, and Carter Stout. I will now entertain nominations for the Industrial Development Authority. Each council member can nominate one applicant. Councilwoman Littlefield, Michael Roland, no additional council. Oh, sorry. Uh Michelle Gardner, uh Dean Sims Ellas, no additional. Uh and I have no additional. So we have nominated Michelle Garner, Michael Roland, and Dean Simmons.

Elias Transportation Commission. There are two openings. The transportation commission advises the city council on matters relating to the safe and efficient movement of vehicles, transit, pedestrians, and bicycles. The commission provides a public forum to hear citizen complaints and requests regarding the transportation matters. Mary Anne Miller's second term is expiring and she is ineligible for reappoint at this time. Emmy Cardella's term is expiring.

She is eligible for reappoint and has submitted an application for consideration. There are two vacancies and 10 applicants. The applicants are Bob Baker, Emmy Cardella, Kelly Christensen, Gerald Conover, Carrie Cox, Zahira Dagdon, Robert Maddingley, Jeremy Schlasher, Muhammad Shawander, and Emily West Lensco. I will now entertain nominations for the transportation commission. Each council member can nominate two applicants. Councilman Graham. Thank you. I'll do Mr. Baker and uh Miss Cox.

Counciloman Mallen, Emmy Cardella, and Kelly Christensen. No additional. Uh I'll just add Gerald Conover. Emmy Cardella. Gerald Conover. And I have no additional. We have nominated Bob Baker, Emmy Cardella, Kelly Christensen, Gerald Conover, and Carrie Cox. Veterans Advisory Commission. There are two openings. The Veterans Advisory Commission consists of seven members, at least five of whom shall be either military veterans or work for organizations supporting veterans.

The commission advises the city council on veteran programs, policies, and practices and serves as a community connection point for veterans and the community where they live. Peter Palmer's second term is expiring and he is ineligible for reappointment at this time. Patrick Maserella's first term is expiring and he did not submit an application for consideration. There are two vacancies and six applicants.

The applicants are Scott Burke, Lynn Gallagher, Robert Galb, Marcy Costa, Christy Sleggers, Mike Smothersman. I will now entertain nominations for the Veterans Advisory Commission. Each council member can nominate two applicants. Councilwoman Mallen, Lynn Gallagher, and Marsty Castiawa. Um, I'll add Christy Swaggers. Mike Smotherman and that's it. Um Christy Seagars and Mike Smotherland. No additional. I have no additional.

We have nominated Lynn Gallagher, Marcy Costa, Christy Sleggers, and Mike Smotherman. This concludes our nomination process this evening. Individuals nominated will be contacted by city staff with additional information. I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all who applied to serve on a citizen advisory board or commission. Even if you were not nominated, your application will remain on file for one year for consideration at a future date if there are additional vacancies.

Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes item number 14. Item 15 is to agendaize a presentation at the request of Councilman Graham uh direct the city council or the city clerk to agendaize a presentation for a future council meeting by Dr. Chad Wilson related to the EBIT programs in Scottsdale. The council has three options in terms of making a motion uh which are displayed well they're usually displayed. Direct the city manager there they are.

So Councilman Graham, do you want to speak to this? Thank you mayor. Uh Dr. Chad Wilson. We got to meet him. Uh many of us were in attendance to the uh firefighters behind the flames event, which was a good event, record-breaking event as far as charity and me and and attendance. Um I'm off topic though. Um the um Mr.

Wilson was uh seemed like a very astute and uh knowledgeable person and I was didn't know about the EVIT program at Coronado High School um in our own city and so I just wanted to kindly ask my colleagues to hear from him. He could come talk to the council and kind of share publicly the things that they do. Um I was thinking a five or 10 minute presentation, no action items. So I would humbly ask my colleagues to uh approve this. I'll second. May I speak to my second?

We've done a lot up here even though we don't uh education's not under our purview, but uh Evette is very very important and indeed he is an impressive leader of this school. So I uh enthusiastically support a presentation to the council. I'll third that. Seeing no other comments, all those in favor, please indicate your vote. Thank you. That passes unanimously. And with that, that concludes our general our regular meeting, excuse me, tonight. I'll move to adjourn. Second. We're adjourned.