Tempe approves $25 annual business license ordinance 7-0 despite public opposition

Good evening everyone. Welcome to the Tempe City Council regular council meeting. Item number one is called to order. Council meetings can be watched in real time via Coxcable Channel 11 and at temp.gov/temp1. Members of the public may also attend the meeting virtually through Microsoft Teams. Due to limited seating in the council chambers, overflow space is available in the engineering conference room on the ground level of city hall.

Live streaming and additional seating are provided in that location. Those who have signed up to speak will be called in advance to allow them their time to make their way into the council chambers. If you signed up to speak on item 8C7 regarding city code updates to chapters 5 and 23 related to special events and park use permits, please note that public comment will take place after the staff presentation on that item, which appears later in tonight's agenda.

Although just as a note too, since there's so many speakers for that item, I'm going to be moving that item a little further up in the agenda to make sure that you're not here all evening, uh, along with some of the other areas where I know there's some public comment. So, uh, if you wish to speak on a matter not listed on tonight's agenda for discussion or legal action, please visit the public speaker signin table at the back of the room.

Let staff know if you are speaking during public appearances, which is item six, so your name can be added to the speaker list for that section. It's important to understand that if you speak on an agenda item during public appearances, that will be your only opportunity to speak on that topic. You may not also speak again during the scheduled hearing for that item later in the meeting.

If you pre-registered to speak, please check in with staff at the sign-in table to confirm your place in the speaker queue for the item you're addressing. If you have not signed up yet, but wish to speak, you may do so by checking in at the sign-in table now or before the item is called. You will also be assigned a speaker number and added to the appropriate list. I will call names when it is time to speak on that item.

There are some people who have pre-registered also to speak virtually this evening. They are included in tonight's speaker queue. Speakers are called in the order in which they registered. When I announce a group of speaker numbers, such as speakers number five through number 10, those individuals should move towards the front just to make sure that they're ready when they're called. I will call each name in the order listed on the speakers list for that particular item to come to the podium.

Lastly, for those who are here regarding the Marshall on Spence project, which is item 8C2 on this evening's agenda, this applicant has submitted a formal request to continue their application to the August 28th, 2025 regular council meeting. Since the public comment portion of that hearing was previously closed, no public testimony will be taken this evening.

All right, given all of that, I'll now invite everyone who's able and willing to stand to join me in a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Tonight's agenda has a number of items that the city council must consider in order to conduct city business.

Guidelines for conduct of city council meetings are on the table near the entrance for those in attendance at tonight's meeting. We will now play a video with the proper protocol for ensuring the appropriate conduct at city council meetings. The city of Tempe welcomes public comment at this time. Disruptive behavior will not be allowed. Continued disruptive behavior will lead to removal from the council chambers. We need to be able to hear everyone in the room.

Behavior that disrupts, disturbs, or otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of any city council meeting is not helpful and is not permitted. This includes behavior both inside and outside of the council chambers. Should individuals inside the council chambers become disruptive so that city business is not able to be conducted, the mayor will first ask that the individuals allow city business to be completed.

There will be time for public comment during the call to the audience portion of the meeting. If no cooperation, the mayor will issue a verbal warning and let them know that the continued disruptive behavior will lead to removal from the council chambers. If there is still no cooperation, the mayor will issue a second verbal warning and let them know that the continued disruptive behavior will lead to removal from the council chambers.

If there is no cooperation after asking and two verbal warnings, then the mayor will ask security officers to remove only those individuals who are causing the disruption. Security personnel should not engage in any way, but only escort them from the council chambers. If individuals refuse to leave, security personnel shall warn them that they are trespassing and that the next step will be arrest by a Tempe police officer. Tempe officers may have to arrest if individuals refuse to leave.

Charges for trespass and disorderly conduct may apply as well as other charges. Should anyone be asked to be removed, the mayor will recess the meeting. Okay, we will now play a video conveying the city of Tempee's native land acknowledgement statement. We wish to acknowledge that Tempe is the homeland of the native people who have inhabited this landscape since time immemorial.

These ancestral lands of the Aam known as Puma Peiposh known as the Maricopa and their ancestors extend far beyond our city. This land continues to be spiritually connected to the Aam of the Salt River Puma Maricopa Indian Community and Hila River Indian Community. We accept the responsibility of stewarding those places and solemnly pledge to consider this commitment in every action. All right. Next up, item number four, meeting minutes. Tonight, I will be assisted by Council Member Amber.

Council member Amber. Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I move to approve the city council meeting minutes in items 4 A1 through 4 A4. It's been moved by council member Amberg and seconded by council member Keading. My screen is frozen, but please vote. And I vote I council Bramber is your votes not registering. N I vote I Okay, I vote I as well. And that uh item carries seven to zero. Let's see. Just trying to get my computer back up and running here. There we go. Perfect. All right.

Next up, item 4B, acceptance of board, commission, and committee meeting minutes. Council member Amber. I move to accept the board, commission, and meeting minutes in items 4B1 through 4B11. Second. It's been moved by council member and seconded by Council Member Adams. Please vote. And that item also passes 7 to zero. Next up, that brings me to reports and announcements. Uh, let's see. Council, would you like to join me for these down the front?

Just a note too, I know that uh because of the large number of people that not everyone's inside yet. So, if for whatever reason we get to a presentation and those folks haven't got in, I can just push it a little bit further back to give them time to get into the meeting. Uh but the first presentation I have this evening for item 5A1 is for disability pride month for the commission on disability concerns.

And so this proclamation reads, "Whereas disability pride month is observed each July to honor the history, achievements, experiences, and struggles of the disability community and to commemorate the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act in July of 1990. And whereas the city of Tempe is committed to building a more inclusive, accessible, and equitable community where individuals of all abilities are valued and empowered to participate fully in civic life.

And whereas disability pride month is a time to celebrate the diversity and strength of the disability community, recognizing the ongoing work towards equal rights and opportunities and recommmit ourselves to eliminating barriers both physical and societal that impact people with disabilities. And whereas Tempe up proudly uplifts the voices, leadership, and contributions of individuals with disabilities who help shape our city, enrich our neighborhoods, and move us all forward.

Now, therefore, I, Corey Woods, mayor of the city of Tempe, Arizona, do hereby declare July 2025 as disability pride month in Tempe, Arizona. And if there are members of the commission along with Dr. Humes who'd like to join us up front for a photo. Please come on up. I'm going to put this here for the next This is where you go. I think you've done this before. All right, smile everyone. Don'tink. [Applause] All right. Next up here, item 5 A2, Guadalupe Teen Court Program. Let's see.

Can everyone associate with item 5 A2, Guadalupe Teen Court, please come forward as well? All right. Yes. All right. Here we go. I'll come out front here to read. All right. So, this proclamation reads, "Whereas the Guttle Lab Teen Court and the Restorative Justice Advocates have for the past 10 years demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the principles of restorative justice, accountability, and youth empowerment.

And whereas the teen court model provides a working alternative to the tra traditional juvenile justice system by allowing young people to take responsibility for their actions, make amends, and re-engage with their communities in positive ways. And whereas through peer-led hearings, mentoring and community service opportunities, the Guadalupe Teen Court has fostered leadership, empathy, and civic responsibility among hundreds of restorative justice advocates and offenders in Maricopa County.

And whereas this program has served as a transformative force in the vi in the lives of local youth, reducing recidivism, strengthening community ties, and promoting a culture of fairness, growth, and second chances. And whereas this program whereas the success of the Guadalupe Teen Court is a testament to the dedication of its founders, coordinators, volunteers, community partners, and restorative justice advocates who have worked together to build a more just and law-abiding community for all.

And whereas in its 10 years of operation, the Guadalupe Teen Court has not only upheld the values of justice and accountability, but has also become a model of restorative justice practices for youth centered judiciary innovation. Now, therefore, I, Corey Woods, mayor of the city of Tempe, Arizona, do hereby declare June 12th, 2025 as Gualupe Teen Court Program Day in Tempe, Arizona. [Applause] Oh, there we go. Thank you.

And I've got two more here for who uh who are going to claim the other two. One right there. There we go. Anyone else for the third one? Oh, turn it. There you go. You can't see me. I can't see you. One, two, three. Big smile. One more like that. Don't blink. One, two, three. All right. [Applause] All right. [Music] Okay, whoever goes over we got it on. Okay. All right. Next up, I'm going to do actually a little bit out of order here.

Item 5A4, which is the Mark Richardson Lifetime of Service Award, which is uh be going to be received by Mark and his wife Sarah. Are they both here? Ah, there we go. Come on up. Yes. Yes. Yes. Good to see you. All right. All right.

So, this proclamation reads, "Whereas Mark Richardson, founder and executive director of the Arizona Academy for the Performing Arts, has dedicated 25 years of exemplary service to the advancement of the performing arts, fostering artistic growth and educational opportunities for thousands of young people across Arizona.

And whereas through his leadership, the Arizona Academy has served over 500 children annually, ages 4 to 21, helping to fill a vital gap in public arts programming and enriching the lives of countless students with a passion for music and performance. And whereas Mark's outstanding contributions to the arts have earned him numerous accolades, including the Drumcore International Director of the Year Award for Division 2 in 2006 and the prestigious Dr.

Bernard Bags award for outstanding leadership in 2016 as well as serving in various leadership roles on national committees for Drumcore International. And whereas during his career, Mark has directly impacted over 15,000 students and traveled extensively, performing in more than 35 states, reaching audiences of over a 100,000 people annually and creating a lasting legacy of excellence in the performing arts community.

And whereas Mark Richardson's unwavering commitment, vision, and dedication to arts education has had a profound impact on the Arizona Academy of the Performing Arts, its students, and the broader community, leaving behind an extraordinary legacy of leadership, inspiration, and artistic achievement. Now, therefore, I, Corey Woods, mayor of the city of Tempe, Arizona, do hereby declare May 31st, 2025 as Mark Richardson Lifetime of Service Recognition Day in Tempe, Arizona.

[Applause] smiles everyone. Two more like that. I'm not gonna say it. Next up, we go back to item 5 A3, which is the Key Club of Tempee Edward Bush Family Scout. Not here yet. Okay. All right. Well, I guess we're going to wait a little bit. Who's not here? [Applause] All right, take two. Item 5 A3. The Key Club of Tempe Edward Bush Family Scholarship Acknowledgement. The Key Club of Tempe and the Bush Family Foundation understands the importance of investing in our youth's education.

The Bush Family Scholarship is a means of paying it forward and investing in our community's future. This year, they have announced three exceptional scholars. I'd like to ask each recipient to come to the front as I introduce them, and then we're going to take a photo at the end. So, the first student this evening is Olivia Windsor.

[Applause] Okay, so first of all, Olivia Windsor is a standout leader and scholar serving as key club officer for four years, culminating as president in her senior year, all while maintaining a perfect 4.0 GPA. [Applause] Her impressive resume reflects leadership in civic and nonprofit organizations and she has also contributed to the mayor's youth advisory commission as education committee chair.

Olivia is headed to Barrett Honors College at Arizona State University where she plans to pursue a doctorate in physics and ultimately become a researcher in nuclear fusion to provide sustainable energy solutions. Congratulations [Applause] Wow. And mayor, she's a Tempy High graduate. She's a Tempe High graduate. I know Council Member Haj was saying up here. So, I'll make sure to point that out.

Yet again, uh this this award also I want to make make a note to was also sponsored by our good folks in the front row here from the Kuanas Club of Tempe. So, also thank you for joining us. [Applause] Okay. The next person I have here is Raelio Carbajal. He's in Boston. He's in Boston. Okay. Look, we're going to still celebrate him even though he's not here this evening. Is a returning Bush scholar and will be a sophomore at Boston University in the year 2025 26.

He is eager to deepen his studies in physics. Apparently, everyone's doing physics this evening. Uh with hopes of gaining research experience. Raelio also aspires to spend a semester studying abroad at Kiya Pontipical University in Madrid. He shares, "The scholarship will allow me to work fewer hours during the semester and enable me to focus on my studies." So, congratulations to Rael. And the last scholar I have this evening is Benedict Mcuarter. He's in Chile. He's all He's in Chile.

Let's see here. Physics and children. No, not physics. Finally, Benedict Mcwarter as a returning Bush scholar as well and will be a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame. He is pursuing a major in Spanish and minors in sociology and education with a growing passion for teaching. Benedict reflects teaching is not just a profession. It is a calling, one where students truly depend on your guidance and support.

By pursuing this path with a Notre Dame education, I can become the best version of myself and make a meaningful difference in the lives of others. Congratulations to Benedict. So, I'll say before the photo here, congratulations to all of our scholars. We're proud of all that you've accomplished and look forward to seeing more of the great things you will do in this world. Yeah. Can the Quantis members come on up here as well for the photo? I know. I should have worile right here.

One, two, three. One more like that. And remember, don't Congratulations. All right, just a note too, if you are in the back, there are some people who are actually exiting from the presentations. if you're in the back and uh you want to come up and make your way up and kind of claim some of the open seats and we'll keep trying to do that through the evening.

Next up, I'm going to actually I want to go to item 5A5, which is appointments to the Family Justice Commission and Library Advisory Board. I want to congratulate Justine Parnell on her new appointment to the Family Justice Commission, and Katie Boglavitz on her new appointment to the library advisory board is outlined in item 71 on this evening's agenda. With that said, that's all my announcements this evening. On item 5B, our city manager's reports and announcements. Madam city manager.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. No announcements this evening. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. All right, that brings me to item number six, uh, public appearances. But before we get into that, I want to make sure to address campaign related activity, especially as we are now in the 2026 election season. City council meetings are open to the public and a vital forum for civic engagement.

We welcome all individuals, including candidates, to speak on matters of public concern during the public comment portion of the meeting. However, because this is an official city council meeting that is both televised and livereamed using city resources, we ask all candidates, including any current council members, to refrain from electioneering or campaign related activity while participating in this meeting.

That means no discussing your candidacy, asking for votes or signatures, or displaying campaign materials such as signs, t-shirts, or literature while speaking. Thank you for helping us maintain the integrity and neutrality of our public meetings. Which then brings me once again to item number six, public appearances.

According to the to the Arizona Open Meeting Law, the city council may only discuss, respond to, or take action on matters listed elsewhere on this agenda for discussion and legal action. The purpose of the open call to the public is to allow individuals to address the city council on any issue within the jurisdiction of the city council. No person shall speak more than once and there is a limit of three minutes per speaker.

In the interest of allowing all members of the public to have an opportunity to speak, in the case that there are such a large number of persons intending to speak during the meeting that it may deprive other speakers of from of the public other members of the public from the reasonable opportunity to speak, the mayor may limit each speaker to less than three minutes. Speakers present at the podium must state their name and city of residence.

Members of the public shall refrain from making personal, impertinent or slanderous remarks and from becoming boisterous while addressing the city council or while attending the meeting. Speakers will be taken first come first serve in the order in which they signed up to speak. Speakers visual aids and appearances by phone or recordings are not allowed.

The city council is prohibited by state law from discussing, responding to, or taking action on matters raised during the call to the public, even if asked to do so by a member of the public, so long as the subject discussed by the speaker is not listed as a specific agenda item for council's consideration for discussion and legal action. Individual members of the council may respond to criticism made by speakers, ask staff to review a matter, or request a matter be placed on a future agenda.

Once again, this portion of the meeting is reserved for those wishing to speak on matters within the jurisdiction of the city council that are not listed elsewhere on tonight's agenda for legal action. If you speak now about a topic that appears later on the agenda, that will serve as your opportunity to speak on that item. So, you won't be permitted to speak again during the scheduled public hearing.

The special events permits or ordinance is item 8 C7 and will be heard also at that time in the agenda. But as I mentioned earlier, I will be moving that one up whatever to since there's such a large number of people wishing to speak on that item. So with that said, I'm going to go ahead and start with uh folks who are represented here under item number six. And the first person I have here is Carl Strife. Please come forward everyone this evening and state your name and city of residence.

Also, just because of the large number of speakers this evening, I'm going to really have to limit this to three minutes. So please don't think that I'm being rude. I just got to make sure that we get to everyone who wants to speak this evening. So with that said, Mr. Strife, mayor, vice mayor, council members, city manager. Rosa, what's up? Hello, my name is Carl Strife. I live on Fairway Drive in Shalomar. I'm the president of the Shalomar Association and Safe Shalomar Campaign.

I'm a former Evans Eagle, Meer Mustang, Mckame Tiger, and Mcccleintoch Charger. I was also a Tempe Daily newspaper carrier. My route was in the Hughes Acres neighborhood and Daily Park. It's been slightly over a year since we um our campaign began heavy engagement with all the stakeholders in attempt to save this precious community asset and community hub called Shalomar. I hope all of you enjoyed this last year as much as we have.

The voters of of Tempe expect that the city council and leadership will do the right thing. Um and we're looking forward to a resolution soon. Setting Shalomar aside for a minute, I have an idea I want to share with you that I believe could help address the housing crisis we hear so much about. It involves taking just a small corner piece of Kowanas Park and building a 20story multi-ousing tower. The corner I suggest is baseline in Ash. The building would be constructed on top of the dog park.

Yes, I know dogs will be upset. My two dogs, Buddy and Greg, will not be happy. But as a developer told us recently, change is hard and emotional. They'll get through. What do you think? Make sense? Of course not. Can you imagine the outrage? The dogs of Tempe deserve better. The council would fight tooth and nail and paw to save that dog park. The dogs of Tempe need this open space to bark and wag their tails and sniff and smell and do dog things outdoors with other dogs. This cannot happen.

Not in our town, not on our watch. Dog lovers who are a rabid subset of animal lovers who are a subset of nature lovers would pick it, protest, and demand the city council stop this madness. This cannot be allowed to happen to Tempe dogs. The safe shall campaign has heard from many Tempe humans over the past year regarding how the loss of a 60 plus year old 44 acre green space would impact their lives. Thousands have signed petitions in opposition to resoning.

This council has heard and continues to hear from hundreds of Tempe citizens. We've all been witnessing the deliberate destruction of an ecosystem that is older than Kuanas Park. This is occurring because a small group of people want to make a large amount of money at an incredible cost to thousands. This is driven entirely by an entitlement mindset. The owners and developers deserve a reasonzoning. That may be their desired and selfish outcome, but they are not entitled to it.

When you build the 20story complex on top of that dog park, you can have Shalomar. Because if that happens, a collective madness has set in. We will have truly reached a turning point where apathy has given way to acceptance of wrong. Sell yes, reszone. No. We ask the council to please do the right thing. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker I have is Diane Melrose. And she is virtually. She's virtual. Okay. Wonderful. So, hello. Yes. Hi, Miss Melrose.

Can you please state your name and city of residence? Uh, okay. Let me get my thing. Okay. You got three minutes. So, okay. Uh, my name is Diane Melrose. I live in Tempe, uh, mayor and council. Right now, there is a decent chunk of Tempy's populace that is scared for their health, their well-being, and their lives. And there have been some council decisions lately that are causing people to question whether you even care about their existence.

We already know the president of the United States doesn't give a crap about anyone but himself. We can't change that here in Tempe. But when people feel like their own city government also doesn't give a crap about them. That's really scary. I have enough privilege that your lack of concern doesn't directly affect my life. But for those without privilege, that fear is manifesting as anger because anger comes from fear and pain.

An example, you recently completed a council subcommittee regarding heat safety for Tempy's public and contracted workforce. This resulted in a draft for a heat safety ordinance for outdoor workers. And that's really great because we all know how deadly summer heat is here in the valley. However, you seem to be ignoring heat safety for some of our less privileged residents. Not just the homeless population, but those who don't have a car to take them where they want to go.

Public transit stops are woefully inadequate with Shade Canopy. I know Eric's department is working on that, but can you speed up the timeline? Can you put the same energy and tax dollars into Shade Canopy as you've put into revitalizing Mil Avenue? Residents shouldn't have to risk heat exhaustion just because they have to take the bus to work. Another example, you have three new subcommittees, but none of them have anything to do with troubleshooting the biggest community issue North Tempe has.

How to create safe environments for the unhoused population while also accommodating the concerns of neighborhoods. But yes, let's dive deep on revitalizing Tempe Town Lake the way we revitalized Ghost Town Mill. My point with all this is that on the other side of the days from where you sit, a lot of us have a growing and alarming concern that the city council doesn't care about the poor folk. Our concerns stem directly from your behavior.

Perhaps somewhere deep down you do care, but the overall public perception for North Tempians is that you don't. Your decisions tonight will tell us who you are as leaders of our community. Are you worthy of our vote next November, March? After all, we are the cave people and as Dave Liuititz told you last year, we will infect the neutral residents. Thank you. Meow. Thank you. All right. All right. Once again, we we can't have any clapping. We've really got to get through all this.

So, please just bear with me here. Uh, next up, we have Michelle Edgar. Yes. Please come forward. Stateum and city of resident. You have three minutes. Hello, my name is Michelle Agner. I want to thank you for giving me your time and making space for us right now. Um, I reside in Tempee as a homeowner in the Shalomar neighborhood. I work in Tempee at ASU where I received my degrees in geology and there's a lot to love about Shalomar. I'm sure you've heard a lot about it.

It's a place that's got emotional bonds and it's a sense of place for the whole community. For me, I love that we have this little ecosystem existing alongside us. I love seeing the red tail hawks flying around my neighborhood. I can see their nest from my carport. My partner and I take walks and we can see foxes. We can hear owls and we see familiar faces walking around. The other thing that we enjoy are the large old trees of the course. You can see them over the roofs of the houses.

I don't play golf, so I haven't seen them like up close, but they still add the soothing awe of having some harmony with nature in the middle of a busy town. There's a mental health benefit for the whole neighborhood from that green space. Not only that, the green space that is Shalomar provides a larger area for water recharge during the times when we actually have rain, which is probably hard to think about right now, but it gets it back into our precious groundwater table.

When the storms come, that green space helps mitigate flooding. And when we lose that, it's gone and cannot be replaced. When it's covered, once it's covered with asphalt and concrete, there's no way to get that back. So, I ask you to consider voting no when and if the reasonzoning question comes up. Please prioritize the green space. Thank you for your time. Thank you. The next speaker I have this evening is Elaine Joy. Please come forward. state and city of residents.

You have uh three minutes. My name is Elaine Joy. I'm a botnist and an ethnoecologist who's lived in Tempee since 1989. Last week I was one of three people who represented the union of concerned scientists at the extreme weather people's hearing in Phoenix. I spoke for the trees and other green living things. The sonoran desert in which we live is a fragile ecosystem. It being more sensitive than in most biomes and many built environments.

The combined impacts of rapid population growth, urban heat island effects, and global climate change. The growing evidence of urban heat island effects not only increases heat, but dirtier unhe unhealthy air and noise has arrived here in metro Phoenix. Walking in my neighborhood, I'm seeing not only more trees dying, but more structures going up, existing ones being enlarged, trees being removed, often without replacement, and more gravel, pavers, and fake grass going down. What can we do?

Middle found that quote, "An increase in tree canopy cover from the current 10% to a targeted 25% resulted in an average daytime cooling benefit of up to 2° centigrade." 4 degrees Fahrenheit in residential neighborhoods in Phoenix. Translated, municipalities, including the city of Tempee, if they are to increase their shade tree cover, should be wise to begin by maintaining any and all existing green space. If anything, they must increase it. We're going in the wrong direction.

There's an elephant in the room. We're discounting the present value of green open space. and more importantly its future value in maintaining a livable environment for all. Which brings me to the request by the owners of the 44 acre Shalomar Golf Course to reszone it from agricultural to residential. While it is private property, it is also one of the very few green spaces in Tempe north of US60 that we as a community have. That makes it important.

The city must not reszone it for residential housing. It's too valuable as open space and will only become more valuable in the future. While thanking the new high heels for their stewardship of Shalomar for the past 40 years, the sh the city should be clear that the land will not be reszoned to sell it as residential real estate land to be developed into luxury housing at the expense of green open space. No.

Good development, especially in a desert city that purports to focus on developing sustainably, requires that we maintain our green open space, our oasis in the desert. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker I have this evening is Andre Miller. Is is uh Pastor Miller here in person or in the virtual audience? I believe he had signed up to speak here. Well, I can come I can come back then. I'll take So, let me go to I believe the next speaker is Steve Norris. Please come forward.

State your name and city of residents. You have three minutes. Council members. Hello, city council members. My name is Steve Norris. I live in Tempe on hole number two of Shalomore. I'm a real estate uh I was a real residential real estate appraiser for 27 years prior to re retiring recently. I appraised vacant land to m multi-million dollar properties and everything in between all over Maricopa Penel counties. I've been called on several times to be uh expert witness in court.

One assignment was actually a arbitration case between a developer and a builder. Uh I bought my house 27 years ago because of the golf news and privacy it offered. My house is if my house was not on the golf course, I wouldn't have bought it period. Some of the BB living and cashach a representatives are using factoids to mark their product. They're using words like enhance nonsustainable and telling us the red redevelopment will increase our property values.

Fact is I can prove that the exact opposite is true. Fact is I personally stand to lose $135,000 plus or minus if the resoning happens. Using historical appreciation numbers over the last 27 years, it will take approximately 25 years to recoup my losses. Just for my premium views, privacy loss alone. I'm ask to trade 455 yards of greenery views for 35 ft twotory homes 30 foot from my property and lose $135,000 of my property value on top of that.

That's not a good deal for me or anybody else in the media show area. Other homeowners who live in the town homes along Country Club Way and Cairo will experience similar losses. The detached homes along the rest of the golf course will experience significantly larger hits as their lots are much larger and have more golf course frontage. The redevelopment is creating and will continue to create real estate chaos for houses on and near the golf course.

It will affect other properties at least a half a mile or more away as Shmer is the glue that holds a neighborhood together. I have good examples of the real estate caught chaos if anybody wants to hear about them later. Both examples are properties on the Shaomar golf course for which have recently been marketed. I've personally spoke with thousands of people person and found out about 10 which were built for redeveloping Shaomar.

The same shallomar team has worked extremely hard educating people and the results are stunning.

just take a look at the sign petition page on our website ins charomar.com and I've also made copies I gave to the clerk to look at uh I'm only one person but I speak for thousands that want to stop the potential resoling of Shamar and reject the current developmental proposals due to large hits on our home equity significantly higher traffic and suing problems associated along with many other reasons that I don't have time to list. Thank you for your time.

If you have any questions, you are welcome to speak with me after the moon. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. The next speaker I have is Matthew Giannis. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. My name is Matthew Yiannes. I'm a resident of Phoenix.

Um, I'm here today to alert your office to inhumane, systematic, and unconstitutional trafficking that victimizes Tempe residents under the false guise of immigration enforcement by ICE and unidentified traffickers. These actions violate Tempee residents of their fourth, fifth, 6th, 8th, and 14th amendment rights under the Constitution. While detained, these people are denied food, sleep, and access to medical treatment in violation of international standards of human rights.

I'm here today to ask you to stop these illegal actions. Tempe residents who are unlawfully detained or deported need to be returned to their home in Tempe immediately. Wherever Tempe residents are lawfully detained, the offices of the Arizona Attorney General, US senators, and US Congresspersons need access to the facilities so that they can provide legally mandated legally mandated oversight and ensure that no more constitutional violations occur.

This is your responsibility as people in this community and this is your job as members of this office. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker, once again, I'm I'm we cannot we cannot have any clapping. We have to get through all this, please. The next speaker I have is J. Mark Randall. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Good evening. My name is J. Mark Randall. I live in the city of Tempee. I'm an 80year native of this city.

So, I've lived here my entire life. A graduate of Tempe High School and of uh Arizona State University. I attended the last month two meetings that were held uh in our neighborhood by the developers who were planning to destroy a beautiful 44 acre green area in our neighborhood. The meeting was attended by not only myself but almost 700 other people standing room only and the crowd was almost unanimously against their proposal of building Cracker Jack Cracker Box I should say.

um homes that are they described as beautiful luxury homes and they are merely tracked style homes on very narrow lots. When we saw their uh view of their homes, the elevation three 23 of the front of the house is a garage. That's not a luxury home. the these homes and apartments do not belong in our neighborhood.

And we uh respectfully request that you do not vote for reszoning our beautiful that beautiful section of land to uh such a development that will bring greater traffic, higher temperatures, more noise, and more congestion and less safety in our neighborhood. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next speaker I have is Paul Couns. Hopefully I pronounced that correctly. If not, please correct me. Um Oh, look at that. Please state your name and city of residence. You have three minutes.

My name is Paul Koozie. I'm a resident of Tempee, a longtime resident and a resident of Shalomar. Um I have roots here and uh I'm going to give a little history lesson. I was a history teacher for many years. So my grandfather oh my grandfather Cornelius Patrick Cronin was a member of the Ruff Riders. You'll see his name on the Bucky O'Neal monument and Prescott in the bottom left corner. Sergeant Khan P Cronin.

He was also the first secretary of the state legislature and uh actually pinned the state constitution as secretary. If you go to the Capitol Rotanda for Arizona, he's uh that document is hanging on the wall in his impeccable script. Later in 1926, he became the first state librarian. And the family lore is that he took a pile of uh books and made it into an organized functioning library. Uh my father was a farmer in Phoenix and he had 168 acre farm on today what is Thomas and 24th Avenue.

He sold in the mid50s and uh became a contractor. He built a number of the entrylevel homes in Tempe starting in 1959 through about 1970. Peterson Park, Palm Croft Man are a couple that come to mind. uh starting in eighth grade, he chain hired me into working and so I got my social security and worked summers and that uh brings me up to 1963. He brought me to said we're going to Tampa.

I'm going to show you the plot where we're building a new house that's at Shalomar and construction started in 1964. I worked there and helped build that house with non-skilled labor. I was doing the dirty work and I feel like I am rooted here. Um, I'm graduated from the first graduating class of Mcccleinto High. I have a degree from ASU and also NAU. Uh, I do remember uh summer of 65 and ' 66 being in the swimming pool.

There was a swimming pool at Shalomar and if you leaned over the south fence, you would see the crop gusters spraying the crops on the south side of baseline. They'd fly right over us. It was uh it was really cool. Although I guess the spray wasn't so good. U let's see. Um in my senior year, uh we had a band play at Shalomar Golf Club house for our graduation at Mcccleintoch. It was the spiders. Quite a ban. Three months later, they moved to California and became Alice Cooper.

I have moved here and moving. Thank you. Appreciate it. The next speaker I have is Shawn Rogers. Please come forward. State your name and city of residents. You have three minutes. Hi, Shawn Rogers. Uh, Tempe resident. Honorable mayor and council members, good evening and thank you for your time and attention tonight. I stand before you as a deeply concerned resident urging you to reject the proposed reszoning of the Shalomar Golf Course property.

Tonight, as we approach our nation's birthday, I am reminded of the Declaration of Independence. That timeless assertion that government's just powers derive from the consent of the governed and that whatever form of government becomes whenever a form of government becomes destructive of the ends of life, liberty in the pursuit of happiness, it is the right and duty of the people to oppose it.

More than 500 neighbors attended the developers meeting a couple of weeks ago and we have gathered thousands of signatures for opposition. Our consent is crystal clear. We do not consent to the sacrificing of the irreplaceable green space, wildlife habitat, and community character that Shalomar has nurtured for decades.

We do not accept the shoehorning of a dense, predominantly rental development into the heart of our neighborhood at the expense of the families and wildlife who call this place home. The developer claims the proposal is unlikely to be a golf course, but that's not for them to decide alone. The general plans housing designation does not give cart blanch to dramatically upzone a property meant for one home per acre into a 244 unit development 75% of which would be rentals.

This is not working with the community. This is disregarding us entirely. Let us not forget that government does not listen a government that does not listen to its people risks becoming exactly what our founders warned us against. If we allow this resoning, we abandon our responsibility to safeguard the natural beauty, open space, and neighborhood fabric that Tempe families present and future depend on for their own pursuit of happiness.

On this July 1st, as we honor the principles our country was founded on, I respectfully urge you to exercise your sworn duty to protect the public interest, listen to your constituents, and require any development here to truly fit the neighborhood and not profit margins. The people of Tempe have spoken and our voices, like our country's founding promise, must not be ignored. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration and for your commitment to defending the people you serve.

May we continue to stand together for a Tempe that values its green spaces, its wildlife, and the re rights of the people above all else. Thank you so much. Thank you. The next speaker I have is Alex Monty. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Alex Monty, a resident of Tempee, actually a fifth generation resident. My grandmother was born at Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix in 1934.

My great great grandmother moved from Bisby to Phoenix in the 50s to be with her family after her husband passed. Um, and I grew up to my listening to my elder stories of World War II, the Great Depression, um, my grandfather's work at ASU as a professor and overseas with us a veterinarian. They also taught me about the character and history of Tempee as its rapid development um, changed the landscape of the valley.

The heart and soul of Tempe is why I chose to move back after college and raise my kids and buy a home here. All that's changing now. I was left in shock and horrified by um recent actions from Tempe Police Department. Um I hate that it our city is becoming a police state. I hate that residents of Tempe are living in a state of fear.

The unhoused and immigrant communities, but also peaceful protesters, journalists, and ICE watchdogs are all living in a state of constant vigilance and self-p protection. This is the not the welcoming and liberal city in which my family raised me. It feels like we're at war, being overpoliced, detained, brutalized, and incarcerated at unprecedented rates by our own government.

At least within my lifetime, I cannot remember a time when so many people were under attack by state forces or their housing threatened by skyrocketing rent or their very existence is now considered illegal. I worry about the rise of fascism.

It's no exaggeration to say that our government federally and locally in temp tempe are creeping faster towards authoritarianism, militarization, racial and ethnic superiority, suppression of opposition, the dismantling of democratic processes, and the dangerous cult of Trump's leadership. These are the telltale signs of the rise of fascism. All these national factors are being replicated at the local level here in Tempb.

our mayor and city council ignore or circumvent democratic processes like when you guys broke the meeting laws during the coyote arena talks or like now when you're trying to push things through without any public comment. The city manager Rosa and Chelsea is running Tempe as a police state increasing surveillance and weaponizing the police force to try to silence opposition.

You can see the case Austin versus City of Tempee, Austin Davis versus City of Tempee, and also Rosa and Chelsea's operational center that has surveillance all over the city um 247. Also, federal enforcement and ICE are now conducting raids in Tempee causing many businesses like the Bertos, restaurants, food city, grocery stores, and Arizona Mills Mall, and whole neighborhoods like Guadalupe to go dark and quiet. This is not the Tempe I grew up in and love.

This is not a country in which I feel safe anymore. I beg elected leaders and public employees in Tempi to choose to not go Nazi as the anti-fascist American journalist Dorothy Thomas warned us in 1941 after meeting Hitler. Her description of a person that's likely to follow. I'm sorry. That's Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Once again, please no clapping. Please, please. I'm asking very nicely. Please. We have to get through all this. Uh the next speaker I have is Dr. Dwayne Macintosh.

Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Thank you, mayor. Uh my name is Dr. Dwayne Macintosh and my city of residence is Gilbert, but I run a business. I own a business here in the city of Tempee. And first of all, I'd like to say thank you to all the council and mayor and uh vice mayor. Uh the reason that I came to speak today is is because, you know, I have a heat relief.

We've been doing this for two years in the city of Tempee as a community service and we're not being paid. We're not being compensated on not not anything. In fact, we're providing all of that. The problem is is that I don't feel like the city is supportive of us enough. We just had today and it brings tears to my eyes a young lady who almost died in our back at our outside of our back door, right? Swollen feet. Uh and she was afraid to go to the hospital.

we had to actually coach her into doing that. By the way, I want to say, Mr. Mayor, thank you for returning my call on Saturday. I know you're a very busy man and a family man, but I want to say that gave me hope. And what I'm asking you all to do is to think about your family that's out there in that heat, sweltering heat with no water, no place to go, right? And I think that we as human beings, I don't care. I live in Gilbert, but you know what? These are human beings. These are lives.

It doesn't matter what city they are in. I think we owe it to them as a community, as human beings to help them in any way that we can. And I would ask that you look at the resources that are already out there. I don't believe that the city, the resources that are available is really being utilized to the fullest extent to serve those who are not being served. So, I'm not here to point fingers. I'm I'm I'm here to plead for help to help those who are less fortunate. I'm a native of Arizona.

I know what it feels like to be unprivileged, unheard, and I'm asking you, let me and let you be the voice of those folks who truly, truly, desperately need us. Now, I looked at the uh the stats and I hope you look at them. Look at how many heat related deaths was in the city of Tippy, not Maricopa. Just look at TP and it's alarming. Even one death is too many.

And I would ask and plead with you to look at how can we make it more accessible and get more people involved in getting the help that they truly need. Thank you and may God bless you. Thank you. The next speaker I have is Nolan Williams. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. We have uh you have three minutes. Hello, my name is Nolan Williams. I am a middle school teacher who lives here in Tempe in Daily Park.

Um, I'm up here today because I want to voice my support for the traffic enforcement cameras. Uh, when I heard that there were over 2,000 red light people running red lights, people going dangerously over the speed limit in the first month that it was implemented, I thought that was shockingly much higher than I expected. Uh, traffic enforcement is difficult and dangerous.

Um, having people speed makes our streets unsafe, but having all enforcement be done by police officers who are unfortunately occasionally prone to prejudice or bad days or conflicts with the people that they're policing that may lead to arrests or altercations or, as we've seen too often, deaths. Um, limiting as much in-person prejuditial or discretionary enforcement of traffic is, I think, the highest priority.

And so I would ask that the city council continue to support the traffic cameras that get red lights and dangerous speeders and to take that money and invest it in better design for our roads because good design makes people drive slower and enforcement is only a band-aid. Um I would also like to ask that you oppose the new permitting rule or at least scale it back so that it's something reasonable. Thank you very much. Thank you. The next speaker I have is Kelly Choyu. Think I just saw her.

Oh, there she is. Yes. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Mayor, council, city manager. Uh my name is Kelly Scher. I am the vice chair of the Desert Conservation Commission. Unfortunately, I could not be present for the work study in April. I want to say thank you to Alex Squared. Hopefully, they're behind me. Uh for the presentation. I just want to give you share my two cents and how other people feel.

I believe over 80 of the respondents support mountain biking and the mountain biking jump area. They also support the rock climbing area. It's good for mental health. It's good for physical health. I also know that the A on Hayden but was discussed as well. I am in support of removing that. I know it's unpopular. I did graduate from ASU, but I just want to put it out there and uh let you know how I feel. Um second part Rosa congratulations on an appointed and raise that is very welld deserved.

Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker I have is Marion Choyu. Is she there? Oh Oh okay. Thank you. All right. She's she's withdrawing. It's going to go really quickly back. Um Madame Clerk, uh do we have we found Pastor Andre Miller? I I have not heard anything from staff at peace here. Okay, sounds good. Okay, just wanted to make sure before I move to the next portion of the meeting. Thank you. All right. Um let's see. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak during public appearances?

Once again, if you're speaking on other items, those will be taken later in the meeting, but uh does anyone else wish to speak during general public appearances? If so, please get my attention now. Oh. Oh, yes. Please come forward. Yes. Yes. Mhm. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Uh hello sir. My name is Alexander. I am in Scottsdale, Southern Scottsdale. But my job and but my job in general life brings me into Tempe constantly.

Also ASU alumni graduate. I I mainly just wanted to voice my worry with a the permit uh the per restructuring for groups which is worrisome direction and secondly sorry no take your time we're good how do I put this I love this city. I truly do. I've gone across country in my job. I've been everywhere. I hate everywhere else and I'm gonna probably die here because I just can't stand anywhere else.

I just worry about the general trend I'm seeing in this well the whole metropolitan area, but Tempe I guess specifically. There was ICE raids last month, like three dozen people to launch a raid, which I would like to see whether or not that would violate this new statute on uh groups being over a certain amount. I'm I love this place and I love the people and I'm just worried in the way things are going. I'm worried things seem to be getting hotter.

The government seems to be coming down harder. I was a part of groups in college that they're currently deporting, Palestinian groups specifically. And I'm just afraid the city wouldn't protect me. And I'm afraid that the people at this little council wouldn't care if I got black uh blackged or my friends got blackged. I'm just worried and I would like not to be anymore about my government and my pe my fellow people and residents. That's all I have to say, sir. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Thank you very much. Is okay. Is there is there anyone else in the audience who wishes to speak on item number six, public appearances? Yes, please. Yes, please come forward and state your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. All right. My name is Robert Bale. I'm from Phoenix. Um the concerns I would share with the council today are regarding uh ordinance 02025.25 specifically pages 3 4 6 10 13 14 and 16.

Uh you would declare unlawful any special event conducted without express permission and you would include among the restricted events entertainment, amusement, festivals and parades. Those are from pages three and four. Uh but according to page three, your definition of a parade is separate from these other restrictable parameters. Uh parades are defined separately from entertainment, festivals, amusements, all that stuff.

And it's so loosely worded that it would include a peaceable assembly on a sidewalk. Unlawful, right? And we got the handout. I got the hand out that said, "Oh, no, that's not the case. They go through the police like normal." What I'm the concern that I'm sharing is the wording of the ordinance itself seems to disagree with the handout that I was given when I walked in to share these concerns.

The wording itself, even though you may not have meant it to be that way, seems like it could be rife for abuse against peaceful, lawful demonstrations of 30 people on a sidewalk. Parades includes public sidewalks. We can't gather on a sidewalk if we're 30 strong without permission. You do not get to act as the arbittors of peaceful assembly. That is the domain of the American public.

You do not get to define peaceful assembly as an unlawful by way of condescendingly relabeling common sense as if your constituents are too stupid to identify the cowardice and the language you use. In short, you do not get to curtail my or any of our First Amendment rights. And should this pass, I promise to be the 31st participant of a peaceful, unlawful assembly against it. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next up. All right. Please, we have we're going to be here all night. Please.

I'm just trying to get us through this. Um, is there anyone else in the audience wishing to address the council under item number six? Please get my attention. Yeah. Yep. Do you want to come? Yes. Mayor Hman. No. You just have to say state your name and city of residence. Sir, just please state your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Hugh Hullman. the city of Tempee, lifelong resident of North Temp, and I think you're doing a great job. So, thank you. I'll start with that.

Um, are there things you have to deal with on a daily basis, problems to solve? Absolutely. But anybody who equates this city council or the police force with Nazis knows not only not you or our police force, but doesn't know who Nazis are. Having spent much of my life in countries that are part of the former Soviet Union and places that have been occupied by Nazis, I do know who they are.

That's the reason I thought I should stand here because Mayor Woods, Vice Mayor Garland, and members of the Tempe City Council, I do appreciate the chance to address you tonight on a very short little bit. I do know that you're not seeking to stop peaceful protests that are protected by the First Amendment. We do understand what the issues are in our public parks.

This evening, I am here actually to sort of pay homage to a first item, item 83, which speaks to a gift by Jerry Brock and the Jerry Brock Foundation. I believe Mr. Brock uh an otherwise very humble man who shies away from public speaking might actually agree to step up here and address you a little later. So I have been asked by him and my family to speak to you on the second item item 8C7 which is the park issue. Mr.

Brock asked me to add and I'm adding for myself that we support what you're doing. Those of us who have worked to improve the lives of others sometimes need to do so with the humility to understand that behavior is very hard to change and bad behavior often is the most difficult to change. As Mr. Brock would tell you, he knows this from personal experience. He drank to excess too often until July 28th, 1978 when he gave up alcohol.

I did the math and your daughter was born a year later and he knows it because it was just before he was born. Mr. Brock addressed this challenge the hard way alone. I, on the other hand, while I am not myself an addict for uh alcohol or drugs, unless you count caffeine, have had family members who have suffered, including committing suicide and on occasion becoming unsheltered.

So, I've spent nearly 30 years working to build workforce and affordable housing to reduce the likelihood that families will lose their homes from unaffordability. And I've worked in drug and alcohol rehabilitation and avoidance efforts the entire time. And because some people like to take my comments and my work out of context, let me assure you all of it has been done without compensation. I'm sorry that's time. Absolutely. I will tell you Mr.

Brock's gift this evening is accompanied by a gift for $2 million to go to TCAA. Thank you for homelessness. All right. Next up here, is there anyone else in the audience wishing to address the council under item number six? Please get my attention. All right, seeing none, I'm going to move to the consent agenda here, which is item number seven. Okay, great. Thank you. Okay. All right. Uh, item number seven, consent agenda.

All items listed on the consent agenda will be considered as a group and will be enacted with one motion by the city council unless an item is removed for separate consideration. Members of the public may remove public hearing items for separate consideration. Public hearing items are designated as public hearing item at the beginning of the item title. Council members may remove any item for separate consideration or to declare a conflict of interest.

If a council member would like to declare a conflict at this time, the city clerk will provide the council member with a disclosure form. Oh, okay. Um, yes. Council. Yes. I need to pull item C I mean seven C10. And that's the IGA with Tempe Union 7C10. Okay. And as a note, I know that item 7C12 is also being removed for separate consideration as well. All right. Just a note here too.

If you wish to speak on a public hearing item, please visit the public hear public speaker signin table at the back of the room. Let staff know which item you would like to speak on so your name can be added to the speaker list and you can receive a speaker number. I will call your name when it is your turn to speak during the public comment portion of that item this evening.

The consent agenda is listed as miscellaneous items 7A1 through 7 A13, awards of bids and contracts items 7B1 through 7B22 and resolutions item 7C1 through 7C15 with the following exceptions. Item 7B10 must be pulled so I can read a correction into the record related to the fiscal impact section. Item 7 C2 is being removed from the consent agenda.

will be considered separately by the city council immediately after the vote on item 8C1 on the non-consent agenda and item 7 C12 as I noted before as a public speaker request and will also be pulled for separate consideration by the city council. Once again, any agenda item designated as public hearing item can be removed by a member of the public for separate consideration. If anyone would like to have a public hearing item removed, please get my attention now.

Okay, seeing none, I'll look to to the council here. Are there any other items that you'd like to have removed from the consent agenda for separate consideration? All right, seeing none, I I will look for a motion to approve the consent agenda as listed with the exceptions of items 7B10. 7B10, 7C2, 7 C10, and 7 C12. So once again with the exception of items 7B10, 7C2, 7C uh 10 and 7 C12. Uh who who moved? You moved. No, he moved. I second. Council member Keading moved. Who was the second?

I second. Oh, seconded by council member Hajj. Okay, please vote. And that item passes 7 to zero. All right. Next up here, we're going to go with the items that were removed for separate consideration. Let's first go to item 7B10. And that item is to approve one-year contract renewals with ACT Towing Incorporated, DVA All City Towing, Apache Sand Service Center Incorporated, and Professional Towing and Recovery LLC for vehicle towing services utilized by the Police and Public Works Department.

There's been a correction, as I noted, to the fiscal impact section for this item. Funds for the payment of these services will come from the general fund cost center 3322, which is fleet service maintenance. I will now read the full corrected fiscal impact statement into the record. The total combined city cost for this one-year contract shall not exceed $100,000.

Costs associated with police initiated toes are the responsibility of the vehicle owner and of a combined annual estimated market value of $1,800,000 for costs incurred by the city. Sufficient funds have been budgeted in the general fund cost center 3322 for the anticipated expenditure in the current fiscal year and future fiscal years contingent upon city council approval of the city's annual budget. Council, any comments or discussion? Okay. Uh that item's been moved by council Hajj.

Do I have a second? Seconded by Vice Mayor Garland. Please vote. And that item is approved seven to zero. All right. Next up here, item 7 C2. Do I have to now wait, I guess, until we get to the non-consent agenda to approve that? Okay, just wanted to make sure. All right. Uh, item 7 C10 was removed by council member Hajj.

And that item is to adopt a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute an intergovernmental agreement between the Tempe Union High School District and the city of Tempe to support an additional three and a half school-based intervention programming positions funded entirely by the district through an alternative funding source. Yes. Um, yeah.

I want to tell the reason why I pulled it is because I am a Tempe Union High School governing board member and that is a conflict of interest for me to vote on it on city council and that's why I will be sustaining tonight. Thank you. Thank you so much. Appreciate that. Does anyone have any comments or questions on item 7 C10? Okay, it's been moved by Vice Mayor Garland and seconded by Council Member Adams. Please vote. And that item passes 6 to zero with council member Hajj abstaining.

Next up, item 7 C12, which is to adopt a resolution approving of and authorizing the mayor to execute the first amendment to the amended and restated agreement between the city of Tempe and the Tempe Coalition for Affordable Housing, revising the relationship, responsibilities, and funding amounts between the city and the coalition for funds related to the city's hometown for all initiative. Uh, I know that we first of all, I'll see if there's any comments by city staff.

I don't think I see any here, but any comments by council members on item 7, C12. Okay. So, I do have one public comment here uh from David Sokowski. Is he in the queue? Yes, he is. And I've enabled his mic so he can unmute himself. Okay. Mr. Solowski. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. Please state your name and city for the record. Uh, you have three minutes. My name is David Sokoski. I live in Tempe.

I wanted to know why the city would cap funding to a nonprofit that is dedicated to the creation of affordable housing at a time when we have a severe housing crisis. Half our city is cost burdened by rent. So why would we want a 2 million limit when we need all the help we can get? Is the city planning to cut funding for affordable housing? And is there an explanation from city staff? Sure. Actually, I can answer that question myself. Mr. Sokoski, appreciate that.

Uh the prime reason is because back in January, so a lot of folks remember that there was a a a bill that was signed into law that basically does not allow the city of Tempe to any longer collect residential rental taxes.

So the city of Tempe as of January 1st of this year lost 20 to$21 million in annual funding and therefore all departments had to take an acrosstheboard cut to ensure that we could still afford to do everything we need to do to pay all of our employees and make sure that no one department took a tremendous hit. So that is the reason for this. At the end of the day, obviously there's a couple of things. won the city of Tempe residents uh by a nearly 70% vote.

Uh approved a $32 million bond question this past November 5th. So we will get $8 million each year for the next four years which will be used to increase the stock of affordable and workforce housing in the community. Uh we also are having some conversations internally as well to see if any of that money can be put into some kind of a permanent endowment to make sure that the money continues to grow.

So it isn't just simply spent at one time it is gone but frankly that that money continues to grow in perpetuity. So we always have a consistent revenue stream but obviously at the point that city that we find a way to kind of replace some of the revenue, but $20 million is clearly not a drop in the bucket. But when we can find a way to replace a lot of that money, uh we obviously as a council can come back and talk about how we can actually add some additional money back in.

But the main issue is losing that $20 million was a tremendous hit to the city and all of the departments across the city agreed to give a little bit to ensure that we could actually still fund each and every department and all of the city employees who work here. So that um quick thing though, this is also I want to make sure too I want to see if there's anyone else in the audience who'd like to address the council on this item. If so, please get my attention.

All right, seeing none, uh is there a motion? Okay, it's been moved by council member Keig and seconded by council member Hajj. Please vote. And that item passes seven to zero. All right, that brings me then, let me give this one back over here. That brings me to the non-consent agenda, which is item number eight. All items listed on the non-consent agenda will be considered separately.

Agenda items scheduled for introduction and first public hearing will be heard, but will not be voted upon at this meeting. Agenda items scheduled for second public hearing and final adoption will be voted upon tonight. Council members who may have a conflict of interest may abstain from voting on a matter and the city clerk will provide the council members with a disclosure form at this time.

Once again, as I mentioned, I'm going to move some of these items uh a little out of order this evening to make sure we can uh if we have outside speakers or a lot of members from the public who are actually going to be speaking, I want to make sure that they have an opportunity. Uh so, first of all, the first item we're going to be taking this evening is item 8A1. Where did that go? Hold on here.

which is to introduce and hold the second and final public hearing to receive public comment on and to approve a resolution to authorize the annual community development block grant action plan for fiscal year 2025 2026 with approval of the funding activities the consolidated plan for fiscal years 2025 through 2029 and the adoption of the 2025 citizen participation plan and request authorization to proceed with all actions necessary or appropriate to implement and administer these plans.

Welcome. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor. I'm Dennis Nuber and I'm the housing services manager with community health and human services. With me is Jessica Gonzalez, neighborhood revitalization coordinator, and we'll be talking about this proposal before you tonight. Oh, now can you hear me? Okay. Yes. Thank you very much.

Um on behalf of Community Health and Services Department, I bring to you tonight um a resolution authorizing the city manager to file for funds with the for the federal government, particularly United States Department of Housing Urban Development for community development block grant funds. Every five years, uh we're required to go through a process whereby we take an indepth look at the state of housing in the community that affects persons principally of low to moderate income.

In addition to that, we're required to look at the various funding sources that can be used to help to address the needs of affordable housing under the guise of community development.

Generally speaking, uh this resolution tonight basically sets forth what we've done in terms of a uh review over a period of one year, taking a look at housing and community development needs and trying to figure out the best way of how to fund those needs and how to continue the process of developing affordable housing as well as addressing community development needs in the community.

um the was discussion just a few moments ago and I want to point out the foresight of this council in terms of recognition that with regard to what you've been reading about federal funds lately uh there's some movement and the movement that suggested is largely in a negative sort of matter but the work that you have done collectively over the years and particularly with the bond uh to try to recognize and to try to fund u activities that will address afford affordable housing uh is very much uh appreciated and it will go a long ways towards helping to address the gaps that we think are going to be happening in the next few years.

Uh Jessica will be talking specifically about what's in the consolidated plan, the process that we use to come up with what we're recommending, and then we'll both be available for questions afterwards. Thank you. Are they loading? Oh, we're waiting for the PowerPoint now. Happy holidays. Thank you. Uh, good afternoon, Mayor Woods, Vice Mayor, Council members, and Miss Inchowski. Um, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.

As demonstrated on the screen, our work is deeply connected to your strategic priorities and associated performance measures. Today, I'll be walking you through three important items. Our five-year consolidated plan, this year's annual action plan, and the 2025 citizen participation plan. These are key documents that guide how we use federal funding to support housing services and infrastructure. The public comment period for these plans started on June 7th and will remain open until July 8th.

I'll give a brief overview of each of the plans, highlight some of the key priorities, and discuss our public outreach process. Before we get started, I want to share a few takeaways on the consolidated plan process. Um this plan sets the vision city's vision for improving quality of life in Tempe especially around housing and community development.

It is a requirement from the US department of housing and urban development and as Dennis stated every five years we're asked to take a big picture look at what our community needs are and then lay out how we propose to meet those needs. This plan also identifies federal funding sources that will make this work possible over the next five years.

Before we take a deeper dive, I want to give you a quick overview of the three federal fund sources that support our housing and community development work here in Tempee. All three fund sources are allocated by HUD and are tied to the consolidated plan process. The community development block grant helps us fund a wide range of community needs to include housing repairs, neighborhood improvements, and services that benefit low to moderate income households.

For fiscal year 2526, we expect to receive just over 1.53 million. That's about $87,000 less than we received last fiscal year. The home program focuses specifically on creating affordable housing opportunities. The city is a member of the Maricopa County Consortium and through that partnership, Tempe expects to receive just over $400,000 for fiscal year 2526, representing a reduction of approximately $26,000 from last fiscal year.

The Emergency Solutions Grant is designed to assist individuals and families quickly regain stability in permanent housing after experiencing a housing crisis. In fiscal year 2020 2021, the city qualified for the ESG formula funding allocation for the first time, receiving just over $150,000 last fiscal year. Uh Tempe did not qualify for this funding source in fiscal year 2526, leaving a gap in funding to address these very critical needs.

So each of these fund sources serve a unique purpose, but they're all critical to helping us meet the goals laid out in our plans. Because of the population size of the city of Tempee, the city is considered an entitlement agency. And that means that we receive community development block grant funds directly from HUD, making the city responsible for investing in areas and services that are strategic and align with our community needs.

One very important requirement tied to the administration of these funds is the completion of a five-year strategic plan, also known as the consolidated plan. Through this strategic planning process, we were able to assess city-wide needs, specifically the needs of low and moderate income households and neighborhoods and develop priorities to address those needs. A big part of this process is public involvement, and that's where the citizen participation plan plays a role.

The plan explains how Tempe will engage residents, gather feedback, and involve the community in every step from planning to implementation. It also outlines how we'll handle public input if we need to make changes to the consolidated plan or annual action plan in the future. In the past, we have followed Maricopa County's citizen participation framework, but we're now ready to move forward with a Tempe specific plan, one that reflects our own local needs and voices.

Today we will be asking council to adopt this new draft so it can guide how we include residents and program design and decision-making move moving forward. Our five-year strategic plan or consolidated plan is carried out through annual action plans. Each year we break the larger goals into a one-year roadmap for implementation. The plan we're discussing today, the 2526 annual action plan is the first action plan of this new five-year cycle.

As mentioned, the consolidative plan process is tied to a robust public outreach component. So during the planning process, we placed an emphasis on reaching residents with low and moderate incomes. Outreach was targeted and intentional, making sure we included voices that are traditionally under reppresented by soliciting input from over a thousand housing choice voucher participants through direct email communication.

We hosted a series of four public meetings to create space for open conversation and community input. Uh we also launched a communitywide survey that was promoted on the housing services web page, social media, and direct outreach through community networks. We received in total 30 thoughtful responses reflecting a range of perspectives and community priorities. And to reach as many residents as possible, we published our community meeting notices in the Arizona Republic and Lavos newspapers.

We ran them in both English and Spanish, making sure residents had equal access to the information. We continue to encourage input and feedback relative to these draft plans with public with the public comment period running through July 8th. Public outreach and city council priorities have guided the development of five consolidated plan goals. Sorry.

The housing goal is intended to increase and preserve affordable rental and homeowner housing opportunities for low and moderate income households. My apologies. The public services goal is intended to provide public and community services that support and serve vulnerable residents to include shelter operations. The economic development goal will promote economic growth by supporting low and moderate income small business owners. I'm sorry, this slide keeps advancing on its own. It's okay.

I'm not doing it on purpose. The public facilities goal will upgrade or expand public facilities and infrastructure to enhance community accessibility. And lastly, the community health and human services department is committed to ensuring the appropriate internal controls and systems exist to effectively administer these critical services. Okay.

As previously mentioned, the 2526 annual action plan is the first action plan of this new five-year cycle and will support the goals discussed in the previous slide with the activities listed here. I'm sorry the presentation continues to automatically transition. Sorry about that.

Um, with the 1.53 million that the city is anticipating to receive in community development block grant funds for ne for this fiscal year, we intend to invest in housing rehabilitations, housing rehabilitation and acquisition services, investing in homeless shelter improvements and shelter operations, investing in economic and workforce development opportunities, and allocating admin funds up to the 20% cap to ensure effective and compliant program administration.

Additionally, the city expects to receive just over $400,000 in home funds through the Maricopa County Consortium and will invest those funds in the administration of a tenant-based rental assistance program administered by the Tempee Housing Authority. Next steps in this process include finalizing the public comment period, which ends July 8th, and the submission of the final plans to HUD prior to the August 15th deadline.

Through July 8th, additional input is encouraged and can be submitted in writing at cdbgrograms.gov. I can pause for any questions at this time. Okay. Thank you very much. Uh, anyone on council, any comments or questions on this item? Uh, Vice Mayor Darwin. So, when I was reading through the information, um, so none of these fundings are funds that we're receiving going to be going toward the um the refurbishing of the hotel in North Tempe.

Is that something different that we're going to do the transitional housing for? Um, yes, Vice Mayor, that is something different. CDBG funds will not be used for Okay, so it's different funding. Okay, that's why I was just checking. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Anyone else? Any other uh comments or questions on this item? Good job. Great job. Okay, wonderful. Thank you so much. All right, so let's see here. Are there any registered speakers for this item?

Madame clerk, I've not received any for this particular item. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Uh is there anyone else in the audience on who wishes to address the council on this item on item 81? All right. Seeing that, I'll close the public testimony portion of the public hear. Oh, yes. Yes. on item 881. This one Oh, no. I mean, um, if you want to come on this item that we're that they're speaking about, you can. Yes. Or you are you are you here for item 87?

Well, I just had a quick question for Okay. I don't know if we're allowed to ask question, Mr. City Attorney. Um, mayor, you can entertain public comment from pose a question to council and you can decide if you want to pass that along to staff or not. Okay. Sure. If we want to if you want to come forward, sir. Yes. and please just uh state your name and city of residence if you'd like to ask your question. Yeah, my name is Steven Schaefer, PhD uh resident of Scottsdale.

I was just curious what uh amount of that 20% towards administrative cost goes towards uh uh salaries and how many people is that divided by? Thank you. Please. Thank you, mayor, vice mayor. Under the community development block grant program rules, we are allowed to spend up to 20% of an allocation including program income for the purpose of administration.

Um, generally speaking, uh, managing federal programs, um, most federal programs, I should say, including this one, provide some type of administrative fee. Uh, it is clearly not enough to operate the program, but it does offset a great deal the amount of local tax dollars that are used to fund the program. Okay. Any anyone else? Okay, sounds good. Thank you so much. All right, council members, any further comments or discussion or do I have a motion on item 8A1? All right.

Uh, it's been moved by council member Adams and I'll say seconded by council member Hajj. Please vote. Oh, there we go. And that item passes 7 to zero. All right. The next item I'm going to move around this evening is item 8A3, which is to adopt a resolution to accept and disperse a donation from the Jerry Brock Foundation to the city of Tempe for use by the community services department for rehabilitation and improvements to the Tempe Double Cemetery.

Council members, any comments or discussion on your end? I just have a quick comment. I just want to note because I normally don't write things down, but obviously Jerry is an incredible person with an incredible legacy in the city. So, just want to note that he is really helping to address the unsheltered population by assisting Tempe Community Action Agency or TCAA as we call them uh with its efforts to build their transitional shelter in Tempe which is going to contain 68 transitional beds.

He's also helping those who from the uh the unsheltered uh who suffer from drug addiction, addict, alcoholism, mental health, and other crises uh to get real help. So, I'm really excited that he's going to be doing this. And I want to make sure too to note that Mr. Brock is making an amazing contribution uh of $2 million to fund that shelter project. So, I wanted to thank Mr.

Rock very personally for the work that you're doing here uh and the funding you're providing to Tempe Community Action Agency, but also for the decades of work and philanthropy that you've contributed to the city of Tempe. So, I just wanted to give you a very personal thank you in front of everyone here. Uh is there anything you would like to say this uh this evening?

Mayor Woods, Vice Vice Mayor Garland, and members of the Temp Tempi City Council, I am pleased to to be invited to speak to you for a few moments. I didn't expect to for this matter to be placed in the city agenda. I only thought you would make sure the check got cashed, but as you know, the $15,000 gift already provided is just the first part of a million dollars gift to the city of Tempee to be used restoring the double but cemetery.

My reason for contributing to the to my city is that my city and its people have been very good to me. While I don't attend while I did not attend high school, well, I'll start over with that. While I did attend Tempe High School for three weeks, I dropped out to return to work in the family business. Then I had a chance to start my own business that has grown in our community. The business grew in part due in part due to the help of my friends in the city who supported me.

It didn't matter that I was a high school dropout. What mattered is that while I worked hard, lots of people of Tempe supported me and my family in that effort. That is my reason to give back to its community charities. But the reason I'm providing help to the city of Tempee to restore the double but cemetery is because it is one of the most important historic sites Tempe has. It is the resting place of our city founders and many others who work to build the community.

It is time that we've reinvested in the most historic place and return it to the dignity of those who rest there. Thank you. Appreciate it. Council Adams. Yes. I just want to personally thank uh Mr. Brock also for his um incredible contribution. I mean, it really helps us move in the direction that we're trying to move in in this city. And he I I'm fortunate to have him as a neighbor and a friend. And um I just love you, Jerry. Thank you for everything you do for this community.

It's it's not unnoticed. We're a better place in Tempe because of you. I'm done. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor Garland. I've known about the contributions that you have made in the city of Tempe to many many many different organizations um to that are in Tempe that are helping to make um uh the lives of our residents um better um in many different um ways. And so I just wanted to also say thank you so much for what you've done. When I go for a walk and I walk by your house, it I always smile.

And when I drive down the street and I drive by your business, I smile because I know what you've done and what you've done to contribute. and you are such an incredibly humble person that I'm sure this is just killing you to be up here and hear all this because this is not who you are. You are a caring, giving person and you've got an incredible heart. Thank you so much for being a part of Tempe and sharing that heart with Tempe. Thank you. Thank you, Council Biti. Uh thank you, mayor.

Uh you know, mayor, I thought you um summed it up really well when you spoke of Mr. Brock's contribution as did the vice mayor. But I'll just say, you know, I didn't know uh Jerry Brock during my first campaign for office. And I didn't know him until um it was that Christmas after I had taken office and former mayor Hullman asked me to come meet Mr. Brock at I believe it was Ghost Ranch. And um you know, I didn't know what the purpose of the meeting was.

I I kind of felt like I was being called into the principal's office. says, "Oh man, I I must have messed something up here because I don't even know former mayor Halman really well either." So, uh it was uh I was definitely nervous walking into that meeting, but the purpose of the meeting was to uh so Mr. Brock had asked me what organizations in the city that I felt he should give money to for the holiday season. And I was just blown away by that and it was a sizable uh sum of money.

So, I guess I I I highlight that story to say this is this is a huge gift that he is giving the city and it will do a lot of good with it and we're very appreciative of it. But this is something that's been going on for years and years and years and he's been involving um uh city leaders in those decisions over those years. So, thank you Mr.

Brock for as my colleague said for your contribution to our great city and um you know we it would be impossible to imagine Tempe without um your contribution to it. So, thank you sir. Thank you, council barrage. Well, I'm not going to go behind all that. I'm just going to say I'm just glad that you wear a 10p high buffalo even if it was for three weeks. Thank you so much for what you do, everything that you do. Thank you, Council Chin. Thank you, Mayor. Mr.

Brock, uh, you I it did not surprise me when you said you were surprised that the item was on the agenda because for years now, as several of my colleagues have pointed out, you've quietly quietly and with great strength helped to solidify and contribute to many of our most vulnerable in our community. and you did it without seeking any spotlight over and over again. And this is just another example of your generosity and I am so glad it's on the agenda so that I can publicly thank you loudly.

We appreciate you so much. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Anyone else? Any further comments or questions? All right. Uh, I will look for a motion on item 883. Second. It's been moved by council member Hajj and seconded by council member Adams. Please vote. And that item passes 7 to zero.

Next up here, item 8 C1 to hold the second and final public hearing to adopt an ordinance amending the Tempe City Code by adding a new section chapter 16A creating a requirement for a general business license for the city of Tempi. is are there any comments by city staff on item 8C1? Okay, seeing none, uh I've got speakers here. Thank you, madame clerk. Oh, and that's for the next one. Okay, thank you. Just as a note, item 87 will be next. Just want to let everyone know in the audience.

But I'm going to go ahead and start with the uh public testimony portion of the public hearing. Once again, in the order which the cards I receive them, uh, the first speaker this evening is Joe Forte. Please come forward. State your name and city of residents. You have three minutes. Good evening, Mayor Woods, council members, and Tempe residents. My name is Joe Forte, a Tempe resident and Tempe based small business owner.

I'm here to urge you to reject the proposed Tempe general business license. I run a homebased business to supplement my income. This license offers no support or enhancement for my business. Only unnecessary fees, regulation, and paperwork. Here are three reasons why you should vote against this proposal. First, the proposed fees won't cover the city staff needed to manage this program, which will likely lead to fee increases, further straining our businesses and city budget.

Second, there are little to no benefits for our business and nonprofit community. Third, the city's stated goal of collecting business data can easily be achieved through data brokers or the Arizona Corporation Commission without burdening us. You all claim to support small businesses, but support means more than grabbing a taco at some burrows. It means championing policies that make it easier to do business in Tempe. This proposal does the opposite.

Mayor Woods, you've spoken out against federal uh tariffs with Senator Mark Kelly, calling them taxes on businesses and consumers. This license is essentially a local tariff, a tax you can control. Approving it would hurt small business owners in Tempe scraping by to keep their businesses profitable. I believe this issue is part of a larger problem. This proposal, just like the park ordinance we'll hear later, stems completely from city staff, not any council members directly.

And when I've reached out, some of you said, "I need to see what city staff thinks." With respect, you don't work for city staff. They work for you, and you represent us, the voters, not special interest groups like the Chamber of Commerce. Public input is overwhelmingly against this. 4 to1 in written comments and clear opposition from those emailing and here present tonight. Your vote will show whether you stand with small business owners or special interests. Please reject this proposal.

Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker I have is Cindy Dvaris. Is Cindy Dvaris here? Okay. Then I'm going to move to the next speaker here. Nathan Madden. Is Nathan Madden here? Mr. Mayor, I received a request that Nathan would like to speak virtually. Okay, so I I do see them. Sounds good. Let me unmute. Okay, Nathan, you may unmute your mic. Okay, can you hear me? Yes. Uh, please state your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. My name is Nathan Madden.

I am a uh resident of the city of Buckeye. Uh, Mayorwood council members. Tonight, I'm here speaking today uh representing the many Libertarian Party members residing in your city. Uh the Arizona Libertarian Party strongly opposes the Tempe General Business License Ordinance. This seemingly small fee is likely to increase over time, becoming a growing burden on Tempee's businesses, as has been seen in my neighbor city neighboring city of Goodyear.

In addition, this ordinance creates an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy, punitive late penalties, and a broad new enforcement power structure for the city. All this essentially for a database that duplicates information already available through state registrations and other existing systems. Public input for this ordinance has shown extremely low public support with only four out of 22 respondents in favor.

If Tempe truly wants to improve business communication and support, it should explore voluntary programs or partner with organizations like Goloc Local Arizona, who I believe is present tonight, and not create another mandatory government burden on your local businesses. This ordinance offers vague benefits while imposing clear costs and burdens on Tempe's business community. I strongly urge the council reject this predatory ordinance. Thank you. Thank you.

The next speaker I have is Neil Schneider and I think he's might be virtual. Yes, he is. And he should be able to unmute his mic. Okay. Mr. Schneider, can you hear me? Mr. Schneider, can you hear me? Okay, I'll try one more time here. Uh, Mr. Schneider, can you hear me? If you can, please unmute your microphone. Okay. Um, I I will try to come back, but I'm going to go to the next speaker then. Uh, I have the Honorable Robin Eridando Savage and Tom Bingy. Please come forward.

State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Hello everyone. I am Robin Erdando Savage, president and CEO of the Tempe Chamber of Commerce. Very nice to be with you here, Mayor Woods, Vice Mayor Garland, Council, and Mrs. Enowski. Very nice to see you. So, I am here on behalf of, like I said, the Tempe Chamber of Commerce. And I first want to say this is something that we've been talking about through in the chamber with many of our members for months.

I mean it was one of the first things that uh I actually had a chance to sit down with Lette Kamacho when I first uh came on to the Tempe Chamber of Commerce to talk a little bit about the thoughts of what this might look like in the future and how the Tempe Chamber can get involved in the process.

So I want to say thank you to Lette Kamacho and her team uh to Laura and also to Jonathan Sheffield if he's here too to be able to he's always had the opportunity to talk with us at our public policy committee meetings which we have every single month. We have several members on that call and able to talk about some of the different challenges why would we want to support this type of an ordinance in the city of Tempee.

So like I have said before, I believe first and foremost better data provides better support and we really truly believe that this is a great way that we can create better data so we can understand who is in our community, what our businesses need, where the gaps are, what the trends look like so we can best address them moving forward. I think we discovered this when I was on the other side of the table, what happens in a in a middle of an emergency and how we don't have those connections.

we didn't weren't able to communicate and be able to provide the right resources in the right places. And I think this will definitely change that process moving forward. I understand there's been some concerns about this being a money grab. I can't imagine that a $25 fee is anything that is considered a money grab, but I would say is any dollars that go above the maintenance of this particular ordinance would go back into the community, would go back into our business community.

And I'd love to advocate for it to go back into one of our collaborative programs called career ready temp which to me this program um implementing this business ordinance is a direct reflection on how we can smartly work for the future and one of the things that we need to continue to do is workforce development and as you all know career ready tempe with our collaboration is exactly that.

What it does is work for our young youth future workforce and it partners with our local businesses that are here to be able to lend a hand to get involved and be able to give back their skills to our many youth that um benefit from the program. To be able to have that direct funding source would be fantastic and a great way to put our money right back um into the community too.

So I just like to say this tool definitely helps elevate all businesses from large employers to homebased entrepreneurs. It helps, like I said, identify different gaps, trends, and opportunities in our local community. And it is smart planning for workforce development and entrepreneurship. I know those things that have been on the table for many of us. So, it also allows the Tempe Chamber and the city of Tempe to better advocate more effectively for our business community by having better data.

So, thank you guys very much. Thank you. The next speaker I have is Laura Brisco. Please come forward. State your name city of residents. who have three minutes. Hello, my name is Laura Brisco. I'm actually a resident of Scottsdale, but I have been a very proud business owner in Tempe for 21 years.

Um, I have been in three different locations in Tempe starting before there was a Tempe marketplace right by there and have moved over to Mill and then I was over and now I'm in the maker district which we love that you gave us a name. Um, for those in the audience also, I am now the board uh the chairman of the board of directors for the Tempe Chamber, but I'm here as a business owner. So, I went through the um ordinance as it's been proposed.

I think there is a lot of validity to having something in place like this. We're one of the few cities with the type of growth that we've had that hasn't had a business license, if you will, for the businesses located in Tempee. I do have a couple of questions or things for consideration for um as you go through this process. Uh one is in terms of security. There are quite a few homebased businesses that are minorityowned uh or womenowned that may not want their addresses publicized.

So I would suggest that the database that is collected by the city maintains the privacy of the people who are homebased businesses. Uh secondly, as it pertains to $25 fee, I don't think that is burdensome. Anyone going into business, it wants to be quote unquote verified. uh $25 is a very low cost of entry. Um but with that, I did notice that in the ordinance it does suggest that every location has a fee.

I'm not sure that that is equitable or makes sense because it depends on the size of the location. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that goes into that. So, that's just something I'd like for consideration. Um thirdly, the verification as I mentioned as consumer confidence is threatened in a variety of ways as we are scammed and spammed on a daily basis.

Um, I think it would be great if the license were to or the if the license were to pass that there was an opportunity for some type of verification badge to be awarded to each person so that it would be included in their um in their marketing, their business place of business, their website, whatever to encourage consumer confidence. So that is my take and my feedback. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay, I I found that Mr. Schneider is now available online. Can you hear me, Mr.

Schneider? Okay, Mr. Schneider, can you hear me? Okay, I'm going to have to keep going forward here. Um, the next speaker I have is uh Gina Chone. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Good evening. My name is Gina Chakon and I am a resident of Tempe and I'm here to speak against the proposed general business license.

My husband and I uh live in Tempe with our kids and together we do run a small general contracting company out of our office which is also in Tempee. Um, our business is our family's livelihood and it's built on serving this community with honest, affordable work. When we chose to base our company in Tempe, it was because this city was welcoming to small businesses like ours.

No general business license meant less red tape, letting us focus on what matters, our clients, our projects, and of course, our family. But this proposed license changes that. I see no benefit to it as a business owner. It's just more fees and paperwork piled onto an already heavy load that I myself manage. We operate on tight margins. Every extra cost, whether it's a license fee or time spent on compliance, cuts into our ability to keep our business running and our prices fair.

If this license passes, we'll have no choice but to pass those costs on to our customers. These are hardworking Tempe families, many struggling to afford home repairs or renovations as it is. Raising prices hurts them and it hurts us when they turn elsewhere. I'm asking you to consider small business owners like me raising our kids here, investing in this community. This license doesn't help us grow or serve Tempe. It only adds burdens that make it harder to survive.

Please keep Tempe a place where family businesses like ours can thrive. Vote no on the general business license. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker I have is Vincent Shakone. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Vincent Chone, owner of CMP General Contracting and Complete Maintenance Pros, proudly based in Tempee. I'm here to speak in opposition to proposed general business license.

The proposal is not just about a $25 fee. It represents an additional administr administrative and financial burden placed on small businesses that are already fulfilling numerous obligations. as a business owner, I already contribute significantly to TPT tax, a combined a combined state and county sales tax, annual licensing fees through the Arizona Department of Revenue, and also roughly $400 of payroll taxes, which over annual is $20,000.

Introdu introducing another fee and registry without clearly defined benefits or measurable improvements sends a wrong message to small business owners who invested into Tempee success. Our industry contributes our industry construction and skilled trades plays a vital role in maintaining and improving the infrastructure that supports our city. We are builders and problem solvers who keep Tempe functioning and moving forward.

If the city is looking to support small businesses, I encourage the council to focus on streamlining permit processes, which we have a lot of the issues with here in the city of Tempb. We are already meeting high standards of compliance and and contribution. We should not further burden just for doing business. I respectfully urge you to vote no to the proposed general business license. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker I have is Daniel Mcmanis. Is Mr. McManis here?

Okay, seeing no one, I'm going to move then to Eric Fowler. Is Eric Fowler here? Oh, yes. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Hi, I'm Eric Fowler from Chandler. Uh, good evening, Mayor Woods and Council members. As the chair of the Maricopa County Libertarian Party, I'm back to oppose this new tax scheme pushed by the financial services director.

After reviewing the ordinance text, more than half of it focuses on enforcement mechanism and penalty actions against businesses. This reveals the true intent, creating a punitive revenue stream not supporting public safety. Here's the economic reality. Small businesses are our only job creators. Federal data shows small businesses have created 70% of net new jobs since 2019 and contributed 55% of total net job creation from 2013 to 2023.

Over the past 25 years, small businesses generated 12.9 million net new jobs, accounting for two out of every three jobs added to the economy. You're literally proposing to tax the only sector growing our employment base. The math reveals the program's true purpose. It's not really about revenue. It's about control. $25 a year from the estimated 30,000 businesses equals $750,000. A drop in the bucket for the city budget. But you'll need staff to process those 30,000 applications annually.

Maintain databases, handle renewals, conduct enforcements, process violations, and manage appeals. This creates a massive bureaucratic apparatus whose primary function will be harassing small businesses. When the administrative machinery costs more than the revenue it generates, you're not running a business program. You're running a punishment system. The extensive enforcement provisions in this ordinance prove that it's not about supporting businesses. It's about creating leverage over them.

Phoenix proves the entire apparatus is unnecessary. They maintain excellent public safety without burdens burdening 30,000 businesses with annual paperwork, fees, and compliant threats. This program will consume city resources that could be used for actual public services. All to create a system to designed to extract money from and control our job creators. This will drive away exactly the entrepreneurs that we need.

When small firms accounted for 28.5% of net job increases in the past recent quarters, every regulatory barrier that we create attacks employment growth. Phoenix focuses on core services rather than harassing job creators. To the council members who recognize the proposal's flaws, your constituents will remember your courage over conformity. This is an opportunity to stand with Tempy's job creators instead of against them.

Don't let the financial services department revenue schemes force you into supporting something that will harm the very people that are driving our local economy. I urge you to reject this unnecessary, privacy invasive, punitive, and economically harmful proposal. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker I have is Hunter Anderson. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Good evening, mayor, me, members of the city council. My name is Hunter Anderson.

I'm a proud resident of Tempi, Arizona, and I'm here today to express my opposition to the proposed general business license. It is my belief that this body should be focused on finding ways to eliminate taxes, regulations, and fees for the businesses that truly serve as a backbone for our community instead of adding yet another barrier between them and success. I've heard some of my neighbors here tonight state that it's only $25 a year.

And while that may be true, I think it sends a message to the community that our bloated city government knows how to put business owners on a path to success better than they do. Uh basic economics shows us that the cost of doing business is passed on to the consumers, many of many of whom are your constituents that are already facing uh out of control prices as it is.

local business owners that I speak to aren't waiting around uh for better communication from their city government or more city services or any of the other supposed benefits of this license. They're focused on growing their businesses in the best way that they know how. Like all of you, I want Tempe to be the best place to achieve the American dream. I believe this legislation is a misguided way to achieve that and should be voted against by my elected officials. Thank you. Thank you.

The next speaker I have is uh Kelly Show. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. My name is Kelly Scholier. Good evening, mayor, council members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I'm here to express my concern about the proposed general business license and more specifically how it would apply to nonprofit organizations. At its core, I understand the city's goal wanting to streamline communications and improve regulatory compliance.

I know one of the main points being raised in support of this proposal is that it would make it easier for the city to track who is operating in Tempe. I agree that accountability is important, but I also believe there are other ways to achieve this without adding an unnecessary burden to nonprofits and businesses. The city already has tools at its disposal to communicate with organizations through existing permitting processes. Grant records and state federal databases.

A blanket license isn't the only path forward. Many of these organizations operate on small budgets, relying on donations and volunteers. Even a small licensing fee isn't just another box to check. It's a real cost that could have gone towards operations. I also want to point out that these organizations already comply with multi- layers of regulation from the IRS to the state of Arizona um to target to targeted city licenses and permits when necessary.

Adding a general business license on top of that feels duplicative and burdensome. It risks discouraging grassroot efforts and volunteer-led initiatives that don't have the time or resources to deal with additional red tape. I urge the council to reconsider this proposal or at the very least to carve out a clear exemption for 501c3 organizations and other nonprofits. Thank you. Thank you very much. That's all the speakers I have on that item this evening.

Is there anyone else wishing to address the council on the general business license item? Yes, please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Hi there. My name is Amanda Reef. I am a resident of Tempee and I'm not actually here today for this, but I'm glad that I happen to be here for this ordinance because I am also a small business owner myself and I opened my home bakery. I'm a cake decorator.

So, I opened my home bakery out of my own home in Tempe back in 2022. And let me tell you, it's just me. It is hard to keep up with all of the little registrations and fees and yearly things that come up just to keep my small business running. I'm not an accountant. I'm a creative. That's why I am doing cake decorating and trying to do that. But just having one more little fee to keep track of, it really just makes things so much harder.

And let me tell you, when I did my taxes this year, I just about cried. Um, I know it seems that like if you have a small business or any business that you should be able to handle just a $25 fee, but it isn't just really about $25. and it really just is one more little drop in the bucket that I can't do or pay for or provide for myself when I'm already struggling as a small business owner.

So, I just want to express that concern as someone who's really just trying to do it all on my own that this would just be a hindrance and another legal or like legality and paperwork thing to just keep track of that just makes it harder for small businesses to get going and get their foot off the ground in the first place. So, thank you for hearing me. Have a good day. Thank you. Is there anyone else in the audience wishing? Yes, please come forward. State your name and city of residence.

You have three minutes. Sorry. Oh, sure. Hello, council. Jason Turnquist. Um, I'm a Tempe city resident over uh southern Tempi like rural and what is that? B uh southern southern and rural. Sorry. Uh, so I am up here because I strongly oppose the the uh licensing of any small business. I don't think it's fair. This young lady up here, she she had some very good input that I thought was very helpful uh for you guys. But when I started my business, it was very much a similar situation.

I was an ASU student. I had recently graduated. I was living in an apartment in South Tempi. And I started my business with $250. And when you're starting a business, when once you've been in business for 15 years like myself, like it doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but when you're just starting and it's just you, um there's so many different things that you're trying to think about and you're trying to navigate all that.

And so I think adding the additional burden of a license, it's just it's really unnecessary. And I see Tempe as kind of like the rising startup capital of the valley. And I think that's very important. And I think ultimately sending a message that oh you have to have this license which can affect nonprofits. It can uh solopreneurs all these different groups.

Um and it really doesn't benefit them at all unless there was some kind of marketing component that helps them get business then maybe there could be some benefit but it doesn't do any of that. So um I know you have a lot of other speakers so I'm not going to take any more time but thank you. Thank you so much. Yes please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Howdy y'all.

I'm really glad I came here tonight because I did not know about this business ordinance and I'm a small business owner that's based out of Tempi. So, this is great because this will affect me. Um, not that it's all about me, but um I strongly oppose this. This is a terrible idea. Um, the real reason you guys have issues communicating with small businesses is because your website is terrible. I have tried to file my TPT taxes on there.

It took me 5 hours to figure out how to even do that, how to pay. I know there's videos online. I saw the Facebook posts. They're very hard to find. There is misleading language on all of your FAQ pages about when to pay the TPT renewal license. I was fined a $100 late fee for not filing it because it says you need to file it between before January 1st, but it doesn't say it's actually between December 15th and January 1st of the previous year.

So, I thought I had a full year annual license for the TPT, and I actually didn't. I had to renew it and I ended up paying a $100 late fee. All this to say, this $25 additional fee to start a small business when I'm already trying to figure out how to do that is very frustrating. It's not helpful. It makes me dislike the city of Tempe. It makes me not want to open a business here. In fact, I am moving my small business to Mesa for many reasons.

But I would not want to open a small business here if there is a $25 fee in addition to the $60 TPT license for every single location, including if I do a market in Scottsdale, I have to pay an additional fee to do that, I believe. I don't know. It was hard to figure out. So, um, that is all I wanted to say. Sorry this is impulsive. I'm glad I came here tonight, though, because I found out about it. So, thank you so much. Thank you. Is there anyone else? Oh, yes.

Miss Justice, please come forward and state your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Hi, I'm Darlene Justice. I live in North Tempee. I did not plan on speaking on this, but I will tell you Tempe is the friendly business city. We are also the home of ASU. innovative people come out of ASU and are starting small businesses. I'm concerned they talked the chamber talked about gathering data. What about having a voluntary program? What will be offered from them having this license?

You know, what are they going to get back? What type of help will they get in that? Uh if you're just making a database, I I have concerns with that. Um, I do not think it should be mandatory when Tempe is doing so well and small businesses are thriving here. I can see that it's another thing to do. I the $25, but when you start getting into these fees, you know, a lot of places don't send you letters anymore that you have to do something by certain date.

they sending emails and not everyone gets their email and all of a sudden you have a big fine on top of that. I don't think Tempi needs to impose that on small businesses. If there are complaints and things like that, hopefully that could go through Chamber of Commerce or to the city if someone's really being bad. Are is there going to be watching these businesses that apply? I think Tempi should really think this over again.

It's a great place to live and a great place to start out for a lot of young people and older people that need help again. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone? Yes, please come forward. Stateram and city of residents. You have three minutes. Thank you. Um my name is Katherine Wright. I live in Tempe. I am co-founder and president of a small nonprofit, Women for Women Tempe. And we provide pads and tampons to women who can't afford them. And I'm telling you, $25 is a lot of money to us.

I was just notified that our rental and one of our storage units is going up $30. We have we're all volunteers. So, all of our money goes into two two storage units and everything that we provide for women. And so I'm telling you I would I'm opposed to this just because financially small nonprofits $25 is a bunch of money. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else in the audience? Yes. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Hello.

Uh my name is Steven Schaefer, PhD uh resident of Scottdale. I would just like to uh ask the council to consider that uh you said that it's just $25 to apply for it. Um $25 seems to be the magic number for a lot of these things, but what is the cost for non-compliance? What kinds of fees and such do you impose? I'm not familiar with it because I wasn't planning on speaking it tonight, but you know, everybody that has has spoken about how the $25 is kind of a burden.

Um but what does it cost for if you forget? Thank you. Thank you. We can definitely bring staff up to answer that. Uh, is there anyone else in the audience wishing to address the council on this item? If so, please get my attention. All right. Seeing none, I'll close the public testimony portion of the public hearing. I know there were a couple of questions here. Can I have a member of staff who might want to join us here? I want to ask Eric before you get Oh, yes. Um, sure. Council Hajj. Yes.

Um, Eric, can you um It was a question about the nonprofits and the fact of the fees. uh the business fee. Can you explain that more in depth? Thank you. Uh Mayor, Council Member Hods, there is an exemption under the code section that provides an exemption for religious veteran or civic service organizations that are on four or fewer occurrences during calendar year conduct business in the city for a bonafide nonprofit purpose and maintain an exempt session under 501c3.

So that would likely exempt a lot of nonprofits. You know, if there's more than that, it's not for certain. Um, and I'll point out that the conducting business means that you're engaging activity that's uh subject to transaction privilege tax. For example, the uh person who mentioned donating things that wouldn't be something subject to the transaction privilege tax. So that would not be considered conducting business. So Okay. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. It's important clarification.

Thank you so much. Um, I guess the question I I I had was to the last gentleman who spoke regarding uh the sort of uh penalties. Um, so what would that look like whenever if someone did not comply with the general business license? Yeah, excuse me. Thank you, mayor, members of the council. Uh, we currently right now have a 50% license fee penalty built in for any um licenses that are not renewed timely. So, it would be a $12.50 penalty in addition to the $25 license fee.

That's what's in our ordinance. Okay. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Anyone else have any other Yes, Council Adams. Yes. Um, is there any way we could have it where like the first year of the business that they don't have to pay it just because they're getting started and we really want to encourage new businesses to Tempe and let them get their, you know, the feet on the ground and then and then move forward after that.

We do have a uh what we're administratively including is like a sign up period for free. So, the first five months of the um license beginning October 1, August 1st to the end of this calendar year, if they a business signs up, there will be no fee at all. If they choose to sign up after the first of the year, then they will be responsible for the 20 $25 fee. But if again, if they sign up for the within the first five months, they essentially get about 17 months for free and no cost. 17 months.

Yeah. they would not they would not have to pay for 2025 or 2026 calendar year if they sign up before December 31st of this calendar year. Got it. So, that's really important for people to know that there's a delay and that you have time to get on your feet as a new business. Thank you very much for the clarification. Thank you, Council Adams.

Uh Vice Mayor Garland, so I asked um my staff um assistant to help me get a draft of the um the application um because I somebody had said, gosh, it's probably going to take me hours to get this done. And it's just it took me less than five minutes to do um because I owned a small business in Gilbert at one time. Did not make a lot of money, but I owned a small business and I had to fill out that same application um for business license uh in Gilbert.

Um but um so my question to you is um when somebody else had mentioned earlier um that the businesses um we'll be getting personal information from them. um on that application there's a there's a um a spot where you can opt out of having your address published or can you just give me some more information about that so we can share that? Yeah, absolutely. So, we actually have two places where businesses can choose to opt out of their information being shared publicly.

The first is we had some questions about homebased businesses earlier. The safety and and privacy of of people's homes and residences is our concern. So specifically when they answer what type of uh location they are operating out of, if they select homebased business, they will be able to opt out of sharing their address. That's first.

Second, at the very end, businesses will be able to opt out also of any type of business will be able to opt out of sharing any of their information on any public uh lists or mapping that we do put out. Thank you for the clarification. Thank you. Anyone else? Any further questions? Okay, sounds good. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right, I'll look to the uh comments or discussion portion of this. So for me, I'll just say this very quickly.

Couple of reasons why I support this policy and it's it's two things actually that really kind of move me over into that column.

So one was regarding sometimes we I I would have questions from people about as an example Mill Avenue and people would say why is it that we have so many businesses that are basically kind of doing the same thing on Mill uh they thought sometimes that things were very very barheavy and at times also uh many times they were serving the same kind of food and I would say you know well one of the challenges is that we don't many times know exactly which businesses are signing up and how many folks are on Mill and what they're doing I would many times talked to a lot of the property owners who would tell me many of the same things.

Uh, a lot of the property owners, there are some who actually still do live in the city of Tempe. I know quite a few of them, but I also know quite a few who no longer live in Tempe and live in other parts of the country or frankly even internationally.

And one of the things they would say many times is if we actually also knew what markets were not being fulfilled in the city of Tempe, that would greater help us to curate an experience that might bring more people not only frankly to downtown Mill, but frankly all over the community.

So I that's one of the big things that I really care about is frankly being able to curate experiences not just in downtown but all through our 40 plus square miles uh that everyone frankly could enjoy and having a general sense as to who's operating in the city of Tempe and what businesses that they have and what functions they're providing and services they're providing is incredibly helpful.

I know not just simply to the council uh but it's frankly helpful to all of our residents that we could provide a wide variety and diversity of options and opportunities within the city. The second thing though is something I know that uh Vice Mayor Garland and I believe probably someone else on council has worked on. So I apologize if I'm accidentally omitting you, but we had a big discussion over the last 12 to 18 months regarding sober living facilities.

Uh and there was there was a real challenge for quite some time with sober living facilities that were frankly unlicensed and operating in parts of the city and we had no idea they were operating. We would only know because we began to get calls from neighbors in those areas saying there's something going on at the house next door or across the street or down the street and we can't quite figure out what it is, but it seems a little odd.

We then began to sort of notice that there were a lot of sober living facilities in the community that were either operating without a license or we frankly didn't even know that they were there.

And when I think about the ability to know about a lot of those, you know, b a business such as that one, which many times for people, a lot of them, some of them might be nonprofits, but a lot of them frankly are for-profit entities to have the ability to know where they are to make sure that they are properly licensed and regulated.

It would be a tremendous tool for the city of Tempi to ensure the sanctity of our neighborhoods and they're not businesses like those that are operating in an unlicensed capacity and therefore causing the degradation of the neighborhood around it.

And so from my perspective, I do see a license such as this one to be very helpful and really addressing that because once again, we would have a greater ability to know what businesses are here in the city of Tempee and how they're operating and what the services they're providing to our residents or others frankly might be.

And so from my perspective, um, and I also appreciate just really quickly too, uh, the comments regarding the sort of 17 months free when you first start if you, uh, sign up within the first five months of the program. Uh, but also quite candidly, the the, uh, exemption for nonprofits. We do recognize that nonprofits are exactly that. They're operating off of much thinner margins potentially than a small business is actually for profit. And so I appreciate Mr.

Anderson uh you know answering that and council member Hajj for asking that question just to provide more clarity for our nonprofits and 501c3s that are in this room or frankly watching this meeting right now. Anyone else? Vice Mayor Garland. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for bringing up the sober living facilities. I was not that wasn't even part of my note. So, I'm glad that you mentioned that. Excuse me. I'm sorry.

I will say that again I I owned a small business so I understand what it's like to fill out paperwork and to do that annual thing. And I will tell you that having my business in the um in the town of Gilbert, um when I had it at the time, it feels like a hundred million years ago, um they did reach out to our businesses. We I was in business for probably three or four months and they're reaching out to see how I'm doing. How are you doing? Do you need help with this?

Have you looked on, you know, looked for this paperwork? Have you done this? I I appreciated that. And I think that's one of the things that I appreciate and think about with this business license that we're looking at doing is the opportunity for us to be able to reach out and communicate with the businesses that we have here and do what we can to help support them and to do the best that they can in the community.

The other one is I think about is um is uh uh uh Robin Erdanto Savage was just up here talking about career ready. We also have um Tempe Works program where we try to help um get our unsheltered people working in businesses and help to get them someplace to live and and uniforms and get them um alchemy, get them a job.

We It's hard for us to be able to go knock on doors of businesses and say, "Hey, do you want to participate in this program?" I'd love to have this huge list of businesses to be able to send a a note out to them and talk to them about these opportunities we have where where some of the businesses could take in somebody that's in our Tempe Works program or could take in a student in our career ready program.

We don't have the opportunity to do that unless we literally go and knock on the doors um of these businesses. This will just make things easier. data tells a story and the data that we I think that we can gather is going to help us tell us this incredible story about these wonderful businesses that we have in SE inside the city of Tempee that we can highlight and really do our best to go out and support as much as we can.

Um I also think it's another way of really being able to streamline um our communication is going to be real that's going to be really helpful. Somebody mentioned Mesa and Scottdale. Mesa has a $25 um business license. Scottsdale has a $50. Um there's some other cities around us that have 65 um 68 $100 business license. We have a $25 business license here that we're looking at doing. And I I think it's the right thing for us to do.

It's amazing when I had mentioned this to a couple people that um business owners this past week um and I said, "Yeah, our ch matter of fact, it was a TV station that asked me um and I said, "Yeah, our chamber supports it." like chambers supporting something that the city's doing that's like not very hurt well heard of or well known around the communities where that we work so well together and that they support what we're looking at doing.

So um I am supportive in support of moving this forward. Thank you council Haj. Thank you mayor. Um I I just want to say that I do own a nonprofit business in the city of Phoenix. I own the the long longest running Head Start Booker T. Washington in in Phoenix and it would be we don't have that process in Phoenix. I don't think Phoenix has it because it would be it would it would actually fundamentally help us because we can't figure out where everybody's at.

what nonprofits is, it's a large fetus is a large city to maneuver around and we don't have that that that that help that Tempee does that. It's kind of like a a big hug they put around you so you everybody knows you know you can get data points and the part that had concerned me which they cleared it up is the fact that some people do not want their information out there and we they have a way of making sure that their information is covered.

they don't have to worry about, you know, you can opt out of having your your address being shown and that's that's because I think that um that part is very important to me because I I wouldn't want my information to be sewn if I had a small business out there. But I think that um it's a it is no matter what you think, it's a great it's a great opportunity for us to know what's our businesses. And it's not just just small businesses. It's also in the schools, the education department.

We can share this with our schools. Our schools work well handinhand with businesses. And there's a lot of them. We they we always ask the same question. Where are all the businesses? What are they doing? And we have no idea. But this is a way that we'll be able to find that out. And um vice mayor said a great thing that you know we're very lucky in the city of Tempee that we have such a strong chamber that works well with the city and that makes our community stronger.

So as of that I will be supporting it too tonight. So thank you. Thank you uh Council Member Amber. Mr. Mayor, thank you. Um sorry for my voice not feeling too hot today.

I'll I will say one of the reasons that I'm supporting this is something for me uh I wasn't on council but going back during COVID um for birthday presents for Christmas presents what I did I went out and bought gift cards to all of the locallyowned businesses but you know I'm going to use the young lady that came up and talked about her cake decorating class uh decorating business like I had no idea I would have no idea that you were here that you would have abs I would have no and I don't understand how I don't know how other people in the City of Tempe would know that you were here.

But if we were to have something, a database, something like this, we would have a place where we could actually go and say, "Hey, you know, I want to support Tempi owned businesses, businesses that are here, people that live here. If you Google it, it will say that's Tempe." You figure out where they are. They're actually in Chandler, they're in Mesa, they're in Phoenix, they're in Scottsdale. They aren't in Tempee.

This is going to be a much easier way for us as a community to be able to um to be able to support our local businesses. Thank you. Yes, Council Member Adams. I just want to say that I I thank the Chamber of Commerce for for their support and for doing your homework and uh bringing this forward for us. Thank you. I'll be supporting this tonight. Thank you. Uh anyone else any further comments or questions? All right. Um so I will look for a motion on item 8 C1. So moved.

It's been moved by Council Member Adams and seconded by Council Member Hajj. Please vote. And that item passes 7 to zero. All right. So with the adoption of item 8 C1, we're now going to move to consider item 7C2, which was previously pulled from the consent agenda. It is related to the general business license program that was just approved.

So item 7 C2 is to adopt a resolution amending Tempe City Code appendix A schedule of fees and charges by adding fees and charges for the short-term rental license, the tobacco sales license, and the general business license. Any comments or questions from staff? Okay, doesn't look like it. Uh council members, any comments or discussion? Okay, it's been moved by Vice Mayor Garland and the second was from Council Member Adams. Please vote. And that item also passes 7 to zero. All right.

The next item we're going to be taking is item 8 C7, which is to hold the second and final public hearing to adopt an ordinance amending the Tempe City Code Chapter 5 amusements article 1 related to in general by amending section 5-2 special events and amending chapter 23 parks and recreation to update rules related to parks and recreation. Uh before we start the public hearing portion, we're going to bring up staff to give a presentation on this item.

I see Shawn Wagner, our deputy community services director for parks and recreation, as well as Eric Anderson, our city attorney. Gentlemen, thank you, mayor. I'll start this off if it's okay with you. Just a brief introduction. I'll turn it over to Mr. Wagner to kind of go through the uh presentation of some of the highlights of the ordinance. I just want to give you a little background as to how this came into being. Uh I joined the city uh about a year ago, a little over that.

One of the things that became apparent is a lot of the ordinances needed some updating. Um they weren't ready and they weren't conducive to the modern city that Tempy's become with the density and things. So particularly in this case, the special event ordinance. Um so it was actually my personal request from a legal standpoint that we start an ordinance. this occurred. This was almost a year ago now that this process kind of started. Uh I asked staff in response to that.

What we did, we formed a group uh Mr. Wagner here, his parks and w group, this uh community services group, PD, multiple departments involved.

And what we did is we went through and we we went through scenarios and we looked at the ordinance and we realized what's working, what's it and staff did a lot of work in terms of looking at, okay, here's here's the users of the park, here's the problems we're having, how are we going to solve them, here's the users of the park that we really don't need to have any form of permitting process.

So that came about we started actually drafting uh this ordinance back in uh the September time frame over 6 months ago. Um now one of the reasons this was kind of an internal process. This again was that uh legals request and one of the reasons for that is because there's a lot of legal issues that surround this.

So, in order to be able to draft this, we need to be able to have a process where the staff could get, you know, confidential legal guidance as to what we're and you'll see that from the public comments, a lot of legal concerns, but those have all been part of the the process that's going on through that. So, we were working on this effort. Um, legal all the time was pushing this forward.

We came to a point where we had uh we're pretty close and then um there was a we had three let me back up a little bit. There was a few goals that we had. One was to improve clarity, provide better management tools for the city, but we also one of the big goals was to avoid unnecessary regulatory burden. Um that was one of the complaints that was going on in terms of special events ordinance that oh this is too burdensome. It's not clear what.

So those are the things that we wanted to address through this process. And then the other thing that was always in the back of the mind is we want to be able to preserve first amendment free speech issues. So that's where the a big of the legal component came in was the free speech aspects. So to do that effectively from a legal standpoint, we needed to have meetings with staff.

Now I will tell you that mayor that I I've read and looked at all the comments that have come in over the um probably what close to 20 days or so since the first introductionist ordinance. Virtually every scenario in there is something in some form or another that had been already discussed through these meetings and contemplated. What are the users of the park? Where are we seeing problems? One of our concerns from a manage standpoint is what the courts often refer to as secondary effects.

Um somebody has an event and when that event is over, what are the effects? Um is there trash left behind during the event? Is there traffic? Is there parking issues? What are these things? What we also learned and just from general experience is that the bigger the number of people, the more likely there is to be secondary effects.

It's kind of that group situation that if you don't have somebody that's accountable a group, the larger the group, the more likely they are to leave, you know, evidence of their presence behind.

So we worked on that with the idea of what's where do we get to a point where what does the city need to be able to manage through a permitting process and what is you know it's so small that it's not so when we came to that we were close and then we had a lawsuit filed so when we had a lawsuit filed I and staff we looked at that from a legal standpoint we value the lawsuit and I personally asked that this uh process be expedited and the reason for that is you know the court process in This is the plaintiffs in this case, they ask for a preliminary injunction.

So when they do that, it's an expedited court process and we're in the precarious position of um debating over an ordinance that we fully intend or hope to ask this council to change. So at my recommendation, this ordinance is moving forward at this time because of the legal issues that are in in large part because of legal issues. So with that in mind, that's why we're here today.

A couple other things I want to say what we did and some of the things you'll see in the proposed ordinance is is criteria and then we asked for this council to give staff the authority to apply those criteria. One of the reasons for that is so that there's some flexibility to fulfill those goals of minimizing the burden and still being able to staff. So, and I I want to address one thing to a city manager or designate, that's something you'll see. That's just a common drafting deck technique.

And that's not because a city manager is asking us. That's because I'm I'm I'm forcing that on the city manager because city manager runs the city and then we add the design because you typically don't delegate upwards, you delegate downwards. So where you see city manager or designate in this ordinance, what that means generally is that is going to happen that city manager is going to delegate somebody to be in charge of that.

But just from an authority and uh management structure, that's how that works. So I just wanted to tell you how we got here today, give you a little explanation on that and then I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Wagner. I'll stay here if there's any questions or if I'm happy to entertain any questions there. I I've got I've got a couple of quick things. Um just one, Mr. Serson, you talked about the city manager or her designate portion. And I guess my question then comes down to Mr. Wagner.

Who historically has been the person to approve parks permits? If a person is approving a permit for a Roma because they want to have a birthday party for their seven-year-old, you know, I would assume that's obviously not the city manager who's doing something like that. So, is it someone in your division who's actually giving a rubber st a stamp of approval to that kind of permit of some sort? Mr. Mayor, thank you for that opportunity to address that. And yes, it's it's a staff person.

We have we've actually um recently opened up the way in which folks can uh request those types of reservations at any of our community centers. Typically, somebody can walk through the doors as long as it's available and they fill out the appropriate information. We can process process that within a couple of days uh if not sooner. Sounds good. Thank you. And Mr.

Anderson, to the point that you made previously regarding the uh the lawsuit that was filed, to your point that basically before that you've been working on this ordinance internally with staff since about September of 2024, but obviously with sort of the presence of the pending litigation, you had a need to expedite this because at some point we're no longer on the city of Tempe's time, but we're on the court's time because I got that that sort of feedback from some folks in the community saying, well, typically there are sort of more neighborhood in uh neighborhood hood meetings or sort of public inputs.

But you're saying because of that situation and once again that's not any judgment on people people are allowed to use the legal system. Um but but but because of that you felt the need to expedite this because once again we had to be on the court's time. That's mayor that's exactly correct.

uh we were essentially on the courts and I mentioned the preliminary injunction process because if you file an ordinary lawsuit in the court you may not go to actual court with a you know hearing and stuff for for several months if not years or more. In this context, uh, we had to appear in court for a preliminary junction hearing within roughly just a little over 30 days from the time that we were filed with the lawsuit. The time we were filed, we had already we were close to a final product.

We were still working out some final details and stuff, but and ready to kind of bring it forward to the public. at that point in time um with a lawsuit pending. We had to tell explain to the court that you know we have this existing ordinance but court there's no sense in you taking up judicial resources to fight about this when we are hoping that the council and we're going to recommend to council that a new ordinance.

Of course, you know, the court understands that this court this council has to approve it, but that's the way we approach it with a court is look, we're we're proposing a new ordinance. Let's take a wait andsee approach. Okay, sounds good. Thank you, Mr. Wagner. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And good evening, Mayor Woods, Vice Mayor Garland, City Manager, and Chowy, and members of the public.

My name is Sean Wagner, and I'm here on behalf of Eric mentioned, a multi-dep departmental team that's been working on these ordinance updates uh for a little over five, six months now. Tonight, I'll be providing an overview of the proposed changes to the special events and park use permits, focusing strictly on chapters 5 and 23. In addition to outlining what's changing and why, I'd also like time to address some of the common questions and concerns we've heard from our community.

Our goal is to ensure the ordinance is clear, practical, and responsive to our evolving community. These updates are focused on three main goals. First, enhancing public safety, making sure events and activities are well coordinated and so that everyone can enjoy the park safely. Second, promoting responsible use of public spaces so that our parks and facilities remain accessible and enjoyable.

And third, providing clear guidance, helping people understand when a permit is needed, what the process is involved, and what's expected from both the organizers and the city. These changes are meant to support everyday park users as well as larger community events in a consistent and transparent way. Now that we've talked about the updates, why the updates are happening, let's take a look at where they show up in the city code. First, chapter 5.

That's where our special events and their guidance lies. Things like festivals, concerts, uh extensions of premise, competitive runs, whether on public or private property. This is the ordinance that helps sets the rules for how these events are permitted and what's required to keep them safe and well organized. Chapter 23 is all about parks and recreation.

So, this is where we talk about the everyday use of parks, Romano reservations, um reserving other spaces, and making sure making sure parks stay accessible. A key update in both chapters is the introduction of the 30 person threshold. If you're planning a gathering of 30 or more, you're going to need a permit, but it's either a special event or a park use permit. You don't need both.

This helps the city to provide appropriate support, avoid scheduling conflicts, and ensure positive experiences for all park users. We've also heard some concerns that the updates mean that you're going to need a 60-day notice and a $500 fee for a picnic or a small gathering in a park. That's simply not the case. In reality, for most small gatherings like birthday parties, yoga meetups, or a casual community gettogethers, all you need is a park use permit.

For example, we have Romano reservations that are available for residents for $25, non-residents for $50, and that those can typically be approved within a few days or maybe at most a couple of weeks. The 60-day timeline and higher fee only applies to special events. I'll walk you through some different park type or park use permits later in this presentation so you'll have a clearer picture of what's needed based on the type of gathering you're going to plan.

The idea is to keep things clear and manageable. so the city can help you find the right space, avoid those scheduling conflicts, and make sure the park stays safe and enjoyable. The updates to both chapters are designed to work together, so whether someone is planning a large public event or a neighborhood gathering in a park, the process remains clear and consistent. Let's start with chapter 5.

This section includes some important updates like adding clear definitions, for example, setting that 30 person threshold for when a permit is needed and including um accommodations for a spontaneous first amendment events so those are clearly protected. We've also added more detail around when a permit can be denied and how the organizer can go about appealing that decision if they'd like.

On the next slide, I'm going to walk you through some activities that make it a or some activities that um make up a special event and when a permit is needed so you can see how this this criteria will be applied. And finally, this ordinance now clarifies violations can be civil or criminal depending on the situation. A civil violation happens when someone doesn't follow a city rule or a regulation. These are typically not crimes, but they can cause problems and impacts in public spaces.

Examples: hosting a large gathering in a park without a permit or not even cleaning up after that gathering. What are we going to do? You're probably going to get a warning, maybe a fine, or simply be asked just to clean up after yourself. What happens? Or I'm sorry, um, criminal violations, on the other hand, typically are more serious and usually means someone broke the law meant to protect the people's safety or the public property.

Examples here, damaging park property, threatening others, or refusing to leave when asked by law enforcement, or repeated civil violations. What happens? Well, these violations can potentially lead to arrest, criminal charges, or court appearances. Tempe uses both civil and criminal enforcement tools to keep our parks and public spaces and events safe, welcoming, and well organized. Most issues are handled as civil violations.

We want to give people the opportunity, the chance to fix the problem. If criminal charges are needed, it is a last resort and it's only when safety is at risk. So, as I mentioned, a special event permit. So, here's what it is. Generally, if your event is open to the public or publicly promoted and it includes things like stages, built infrastructure such as tents, amplified sound, alcohol, food trucks, or it changes how the space is typically used, it's going to fall into this category.

These types of events are reviewed by multiple departments to make sure they're safe, coordinated, and don't conflict with other things going on in that area. Some examples include public concerts, festivals, competitive runs, and community celebrations with that built infrastructure or the temporary infrastructure I'd mentioned earlier.

As for fees, there is a $50 application fee, a $100 uh daily permit fee and space rental fees, which vary depending on the size and the location that you want to host your event. If additional city services are needed, like public safety or emergency medical services, the event promoter will will be responsible for those fees. as well.

So, this permit really applies to activities and events that require additional city review beyond that of a park use permit, not your average field reservation or Roma reservation. So, chapter 23, let's get into parks and recreation. Just like with special events, these are bring to uh to bring things to make things more clear and consistent, they include that same 30 person threshold that I just mentioned in chapter 5.

So, if a gathering hits that number, a permit is going to uh be needed to help uh in managing that space and avoiding other conflicts in the area. There's also new language about what can and can't happen in parks, like not leaving behind items and setting up for extended periods of time without approval. We've added more structure to when and why a park permit might be denied and again how people can appeal that.

And finally, we've clarified how education and enforcement work, starting with a conversation or a warning, but with the possibility of a citation if needed. Again, the goal here is to res to support responsible use, not penalize people who are just trying to enjoy using public spaces. So, here are some types of park permits. Now, let's let's dive in here. First, we have the existing designated park use permit. This is the one most people are probably already familiar with familiar with.

It provides exclusive use of a specific park amenity like a Roma sport field or even a sand volleyball court. And this is for individuals, groups, and organizations whether you're a Tempe resident or not. Currently, Tempe has 21 parks with amenities that are designated for reservation. So, if you want to make sure you've got that guaranteed space for that party, that game, or that group event, this is your permit.

Fees for these reservations typically range $8 up to $50 um depending on the amenity and larger spaces like corporate picnic areas obviously cost a little more. Next, we have a new permit. This is our neighborhood organization park activation permit. Quite a mouthful, I understand, but I couldn't shrink it down even though I tried. Uh this one is a new and it's meant for registered neighborhood associations.

It's a great option for things like block block parties or other neighborhood gatherings in your local park. Typically no fees with this type of permit. And finally, we have the limited park use permit. This one is also new and it allows a temp resident to reserve a part of a park or reserve a park which is typically not available for reservation like a shaded lawn area, an open field or picnic tables for a gathering.

It can also be used by meetup groups, walking, biking clubs, as long as those exclusive use of the trail or the path is not required. Uh fees for this permit range anywhere from 0 to to $25 just depending on the activity. Overall, the goal here is to give people more flexible options whether you're planning a birthday party, a fitness meetup, or a neighborhood celebration. So, what I'd like to do is just bring it back to where I started, the reasons for these updates.

At the core, it's about enhancing public safety, making sure our parks and public spaces are used responsibly, and giving everyone clearer guidance on when permits are needed and what the process looks like. We're not trying to create more red tape. We're trying to make things easier to understand and more consistent.

Whether you're planning a large-scale national event or reserving that ramada for a family gathering, these updates are intended to make the process smoother for everyone, residents, neighborhood groups, event organizers, and staff alike. So, that wraps up this presentation. I appreciate you sticking with me through it.

Um, we know this brings up a lot of great questions and we've heard from many people across the community, those residents, event organizers, neighborhood leaders, and and casual park users users. The goal with these upstate updates is to be clear, fair, and more manageable for both people planning activities as well as the city teams working to support them. So, now I'd love to open it up to questions, hear your thoughts, and talk through anything else you'd like additional information on.

Sounds good. Thank you so much. So, a couple of questions. When you talk, Sean, about the um larger scale events for special event permits, you're talking about things like the two art festivals that we have in downtown that basically close off streets for the better part of three or four days. I know this because I live in downtown and one of the streets that I drive on every day is closed for about four solid days.

And so you're talking about events like that, the Fourth of July event that will be at Tempe Diablo Stadium or, you know, a rock and roll marathon or something of that nature, festival, Iron Man. And so that's when you require the 60-day advanced notice and the $50 application fee and the fee can get up to $500 perhaps for a permit, but it's only for events of that sort of size and magnitude where people need to close off streets or proof of insurance or things of that nature.

the special event process.

You're correct, mayor, but it also includes extensions of premise requests that will sometimes come from our bars and restaurants when they want to extend out uh for a tailgate party uh you know onto onto a side street or something that also goes through the fees are not as high uh they're they're not as much but that does require that multi-ep departmental coordination um and so that's why that goes through that u review and and just my other question too so you made a comment I think at one point about family reunions I'm going to my family reunion in Virginia uh this coming July actually in a couple of weeks.

And so, as a note, if I wanted to, let's say, bring 30 to 40 people, uh, the closest park to where I live is JC Park over on Fifth Street. So, if I wanted to bring 30 or 40 people to JC Park and I wanted to reserve a Roma for my family if that event was happening here, how much would you charge me for that permit for you, mayor? $25. Okay. $25. So, Okay. And so, and once again, $25 for that fee. Um, if I if I was actually to book that Roma for $25, how long would I have the Romada for?

You know, is it an hour or two hours? How long do I actually have it? That's there for your daily. It would be there for the entire day. So, I could frankly have it for the entire hours as long as the park is actually open to the public. Correct, sir. Okay. So, um, and so there's no $50 application fee for that park permit. Um, if for whatever reason, let's say I pay the $25, that is that's only due upon you actually reserving that space. It's not like an application fee.

You would only charge the 25 bucks if you actually have the space available that day and I actually secure that space. Yes, sir. And if we didn't, sir, we'd look for an alternate park to help you out with your family reunion. Okay.

So, just Yeah, I just wanted I just wanted to point that out because I just wanted to make sure because I've also received a lot of questions that I know uh everyone on council has as well as staff to sort of note that and that sort of and just the last thing I should note is that applies to any and all groups that would want to rent a Roma in the city of Tempe. Correct.

So, at those 21 parks where we had those designated ones, any group, resident, non-resident, those are those are open for general public uh request and reservations uh provided. We've got the space available. And once again, just the last thing I'm going to council Haj, a $25 ceiling for residents on a $50 ceiling for non-residents for the neighborhood for the neighborhood park.

If it's a larger corporate area, it's going it's going to cost more, but we can accommodate upwards of 800 to a,000 folks in those areas. And that's typically, you know, obviously more. It'd be about $700 in those cases, but you're obviously inviting more folks. It's a large corporate event. Okay. Correct. Sounds good, Mr. Anderson.

So, so mayor, as an added bonus, what we're also going to give you under the new is we're going to give an exemption from the special event permit with your Ramada permit.

So, I just want to point that out that when you do get a Ramada permit or one of U Sean's other park permits, then under the terms of the new ordinance that would exempt you from the special event ordinance, even if you did technically meet this uh so your family gathering of 50 people at the Ramada, the fact that you got the Ramada permit and reserved to Ramada, you don't have to do a special events process in that situation. And I'm sorry, one last question. I apologize.

um regarding the uh first amendment. So, you know, I know like probably within the last I would say three or so weeks ago, we had a you know, we had a bunch of protests around the country that were the no kings protests. Were the people who were organizing those events, were they required to get a permit or were they required to pay any fee to actually do those kinds of events in Tempe? So, no. No. Go ahead. No, sir. They weren't the legal definition.

So, I'll clarify, mayor, that this ordinance is obviously not effective yet. So, right. So under the new ordinance talking about kind of you know past being kind of you know indicative of what the future might look like in terms of how we've treated those events up to this point in time.

So one of the key sections going back to the exemption is that it's not just a remoder permit is is if you the way we structured this was was intentionally that if you have a permit from the city for any other for your activity be it a ramada permit or anything you will be unless there's a very limited exceptions you will be exempt from a special events requirement.

So in the case of a spontaneous type protest like the one you described that's just structured so you go to the police department you notify the community service department and they can give you oral okay which we would interpret as a permit from the thing now. So that's that was the the key thing we did one of the key changes with that was uh making making it clear that you know these other city permitting processes will take you outside of any of the special event permit.

that was intentional on our part. And I'll add just to back up to what I talked about earlier, that was why we brought forth the parks and wreck stuff at the same time was to this work together so we could minimize that process to address some of those concerns about a uh burdenome 60-day process or excessive fees. We made it clear that, you know, if you get some of these other permits, you're outside the special events permit. Makes it a lot simpler.

So, and the last thing I just you said about the police department and the reason for the contact with the police department because I know previous organizers have had direct contact to the police department for their events.

It's largely to make sure that the for the folks that are protesting that day that they can do so safely because obviously sometimes when you're advertising a protest, you end up drawing in counterprotesters sometimes who try to antagonize people who are just sort of exercising their freedom of speech. And so it's to ensure not that the police needs to track that group that's protesting, but it's to ensure that they can do so safely. That's correct, mayor, as well.

The other the other aspect to keep in mind is um well, you know, you certainly have the first amendment protest, you still have to obey traffic laws and things like that. That allows the police to make sure that um everybody's educated about the importance of maintaining the safety of those protests for the safety of not just the uh the public but the protesters as well in terms of traffic management and that kind of issues. Thank you, Council Member Hodgej and Council Adams.

Yeah, I have a couple of questions. So, um what was asked of me is say kids they get they go and they decide to all get a a basketball game going. Is that a permit that needs to be if there's 10 on 10 on 10 or you know whatever whatever they are there is a some basketball meeting at the park of the kids is that something they need a special permit for not not for 10 on 10. I mean again we're the threshold's 30.

So if you're getting something that's going to be over 30, you could be or even if it's even if it's I mean what my question is if they're playing basketball, do they need to have a special permit to play basketball regard you know if they're not going to rem they're not going to reserve a romada they're at the courts is that something because I was told they were like if the kids want to go even to play at the parks they would have to get a special permit.

That's a question I was asked in my one of my emails. So go ahead. I'll kind of try to generally you know first of all there's a in that scenario it's a 30 person threshold. Um so until you get that now it's also is organized activities. So if it just happens that a group of 10 go to play a game and there's another group of 10 that are on the court next door whatever you know 10 guys show up and we got next or 10 whatever. Um those aren't an organized activity.

So really it's it's addressed to the organized activity. um if there's a happen stance that there's more than 30 people that doesn't automatically make a permitting requirements when it's an organized activity. Also, if um like a a lot of people meet for campaign reasons and they go to the park and they have uh a you know they do their send off to go knock doors.

Sometimes it's more than 30 people, but they're just standing right there meeting and then they go off and then you know they meet at a park and then they give like paperwork and then they go off. Is that something that needs a permit? And it's usually they're not eat they're not they're not eating. They're not it's not a food thing. It's just okay. Let's meet at JC Park to give out the the information to go knock doors. I think that would fall under our meet and go.

That's what I the loosely phrase, you know, at this point. I think it was also on the handout. So, no, I mean some notification if you want to give us a heads up that it's going on. So, for example, that heads up allows us to let you know, hey, we've got some construction going on or there may be some maintenance things going on or there could be another activity going on um in which you may want to reconsider uh meeting at a different spot.

But no, it's it's more of a a notification so that we can work with you and just let you know about things that are going on. Okay. And like and another thing is if they are I know a lot of our uh bicyclists has been talking about this too like that we know that they have like the the African-American bicyclic on Sundays. They meet at right at Tempetown Lake. It's and they're they meet there and they just ride on. Is that something they need to go and get a permit for?

Now, that would be similar to what we had just talked about if they're not requiring exclusive use of the like the trail or the pathway or something along those lines. No, again, some notifications so we can coordinate and let you know if hey, is there an event that weekend at Beach Park that may interrupt the ride? So, they want to choose a different route.

Again, this is about coordination and working together uh so that we can make sure everybody has a good experience while they're in our parks. Well, the reason why I'm I'm saying these is because these are things that's been brought to me and attention because um as as I think people are giving misinformation about the fact that if you walk into the park and it's more than 20 people that you're you have to go get a special permit which is not true.

But that's why I want to make sure that it's out there and you know that we're expressing this out. Appreciate those questions council member Hodge. All right. Thank you so much council rabbits. Yes. uh like for example, no kings day at Cole Park that takes place uh every Saturday, otherwise known as NY's Park. Um that uh we um that they don't have to get a special permit, but they will just uh work with the police department just to let them know that that's what's happening.

Um but there will be no special requirements, special event requirements as far as financial. Correct. So I'll handle that one. Mayor, Council Member Adams, that's a tricky one because the the the exception is for spontaneous. Um, so that's in response to events of the day. So there's a bit of a gray area.

What we're doing is treating that the notification to the police department and and the community service director is um for the spontaneous at some point if they you know it's a planned protest where they have the ability to notify parks and recreation get the appropriate permit at some point they would you know the police department would tell them okay you're now a planned event you're no longer spontaneous.

Well, it's been going really well because uh they've been working they've been pl working with the police department to let them know that that that's those are events and and sometimes there's not more 30 more than 30 people there. And we've discussed that with chief chief McCoy and the police department and that would be there would be a point where the police department failed. It's no longer spontaneous.

They would they could say, "Okay, you need to be talking to the community services department about but really it's a freedom of speech." Uh isn't it? Well, it's a freedom of speech, but the city's allowed to put reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions on that. So, yeah, [Applause] was that Sorry. Hold on, hold on, hold on. What? Hold on. Hold on. So, I guess I'm a little bit confused. Um, which isn't the first time, uh, just for the record.

Uh, but like the No Kings Day, it's not really a protest. It's a It's a Well, it is a protest, I guess, but it's not like a rowdy protest like, you know, everybody goes crazy. It's just marching across a bridge. It's very peaceful. Um, and and so I don't I mean, I'm concerned about people's first amendment rights on that that they would be able to exercise crossing the bridge, you having their signs, coming back. It's peaceful. um that and they're working with the police department.

It's working great. Um and the communication's awesome. Nancy has a personal relationship with the police department and and it's going well. So, my concern is I don't think that that would be something that would um be need a special permit. Well, it wouldn't need a special event permit. That's why we had the exe. So, they're working with the police department. Correct.

And the police department is saying, "Yeah, you're you're good." But they still need to be respectful of traffic um and things like that. And they are I guess I'm I'm just saying I don't want to fix something that's not broken and they are responsible with with traffic and it's it's it's over a bridge at a park so there's no traffic really involved. Right. Right. So thank you. Thank you. All right. Anyone else? All right.

Hearing none, I'm going to move forward here to the public comment portion here and I'm going to go in the items uh once again in the order which the cars were received this evening. So, first of all, I know uh virtual is David Solowski. Hello. Can you hear me? Okay. Yes. Uh please state your name and city of resident. You have three minutes. My name is David Sokowski. I live in Tempe. I'm here to tell you to vote no on the event permit changes so the city can gather community input.

When was this presented at a work study session? I know the standard way of operating is for the city staff to get consensus. When was this presented to the neighborhood advisory commission? How many responses did the city get during the online survey? How many people joined the online meeting at noon? What day was the 6 p.m. meeting at the library? How many were there? I can tell you the exact time and location the meetings would have happened.

And if the public was included, where is the evidence? This will be the first time any of you will vote on a change that didn't include an explanation of the public process. We need more public meetings because there are too many questions and the city isn't explaining the changes, or at least you weren't. The press release was after the first public hearing, and none of that information was presented to the community.

If you had followed the proper procedure, you wouldn't need to make changes between meetings. Who in the city allowed this change to proceed without public input? If you approve this change now, we have no choice but to hold council members responsible. Many of us feel we can't vote for someone who doesn't value the public process. I know how hard it is to plan for events, especially when you live in a one-bedroom apartment. Most people in the city are having a difficult time paying bills.

Do we really have to pay a fee to use a public space? It might not seem like a lot of money to you, but there's no doubt the fees will harm low-income residents. If people wanted to have a peaceful militia meeting, they would have a right. But all people want is to feed the homeless and have yoga in the park. I think this permit will infringe on our rights. Many of the homeless in the city don't have money for a permit.

It's not fair to live in a city where there is a fee to organize an event and gather and associate in a public space. If the city were to charge me with the crime for gathering in public space, my public defender would be free. The city needs to uphold my rights and wave the application and permit fees. Otherwise, I won't have fair and equal access to public spaces to use my rights. I think I deserve answers from the city.

Mayor, is the city going to protect our rights and to participate in public spaces? The answer to that question is yes. Um, and and I I'm sorry. I I don't know if I was supposed to answer. Uh, the other quick thing though I want to note just before I go to the next speaker is, and I actually asked staff to pull this. Um, this was actually a resolution 2010.75, which is I think has been in existence for about probably well over 10 years now.

I think I was still on the council when this was approved. So, it goes back almost a decade. And I was actually looking through it to see what we previously charged for some of these spaces. And I'm looking here and so like um Clark Park as an example, Picnic Roma West, $25 per resident. Uh volleyball court east, $7 per resident. Daily Park, North Picnic Romada, $25. Uh South Picnic Roma, $25, $50 for a non-resident.

My point of reading some of this and I I asked I wanted to see kind of what historically we've done with relation to a lot of these park spaces of romadas. These are actually the same fee charges for these ramadas that we've been charging for well over 10 years. So even though as we all know unfortunately the cost of sort of everything in this world has increased.

The park fees that we're actually charging for these ramadas are what are being proposed are exactly the same as they were well over a decade ago. So we're probably continuing to lose even more money when it comes to cost recovery. But the whole point is trying to keep these things as close to free as possible while still making sure that we can obviously afford to take care of the public spaces and pay the employees who do take care of those public spaces.

Um, next speaker I'm going to go to is Robert Nichols. Mr. Mayor, they are virtual. Oh, yes, yes, yes. I'm sorry I missed that. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Hello, mayor and city council members. Thank you for your time and attention this evening. My name's Robert Nichols and my family, friends, colleagues, and comrades all call me Bobby. I've lived in Tempee since I was six years old. I graduated from high school in Tempe. I attended Arizona State University for my undergraduate degree.

I spoke on various policy issues with Mayor Woods and Council Member Keading, and I knocked doors for Mayor Woods election campaign. Today, I'm speaking in my capacity as a private resident of Tempee, the co-founder and director of Arizona Works Together, and the founder and co-chair of Phoenix GSA's electoral committee.

But I should note that in my professional life, I serve the people of Arizona as a government attorney who represents our state in matters involving the abuse, neglect, and exploitation of children and vulnerable adults. I only mention this because that work is exhausting and I need all the rest I can get. Unfortunately, I find myself calling into this meeting from vacation at a time when I should be relaxing with family because this special events ordinance is completely unconscionable.

This ordinance will without question and by its actual language unreasonably and unfairly prohibit Tempe residents from using the public parks that our taxes fund. Any attempts to downplay or deflect from the actual language of this ordinance by implying that unelected officials can subjectively approve or deny limits or limit permits or talking about the previous laws that would be replaced by this one is frankly unhelpful.

We are being told that these proposed changes are being made for the sake of clarity. But the ordinance is a confusing mess due to the fasttracking and admitted lack of community involvement. So what does this ordinance mean for residents of Tempe? In practice and based on its actual language, this ordinance creates attacks on our use of parks and creates a new set of excuses for the city to infringe upon first amendment rights.

If you are planning a birthday party, a family reunion, a church picnic, a corporate team building exercise, a walk, a bike ride, a march, or any other event or activity in a Tempe Park that could potentially include 30 people or that is open to the public, or that the city manager or designate subjectively dislikes, you will need to pay the city for the pleasure and hope that the city manager or design grants your request, which they are not required to do, even if you've done everything right under this proposed special events ordinance.

The same applies if you were a kid running a group chat with 30 plus classmates for the purpose of playing basketball at the park. As a taxpaying resident of Tempe of 25 years, I'm legitimately stunned that this council is actually considering an ordinance that would require Tempe's businesses, churches, nonprofits, and residents to pay a special tax on top of the taxes we already pay to build and maintain our parks, our streets, and our public properties.

I ask that the council vote against this ordinance and instead consider how the city code can be amended such that it no longer infringes upon the first amendment rights of county residents to care for our less fortunate neighbors. I also ask that this council ignore and push back against every malicious and bad faith attempt to paint our unhoused neighbors as anything less than deserving of dignity and respect.

At the last meeting on this issue, I was very disappointed to see so many speakers disparaging our unhoused residents. Thank you. Is that the end? Yes. Yes, the timer. So, I'm sorry. Thank you. I didn't hear the timer. No, no worries. No worries. Thank you for your time. Appreciate it. Uh, the next speaker is Gary Ringler. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Gary Wringler, resident of Tempe. Uh, Mr.

Mayor, council, staff, um, I didn't want to be here tonight. Uh, Mr. Mr. Mayor, a little less than three little less than four years ago, um you were at a a memorial service for my late wife Sue Ringler and presented her with uh or presented a proclamation naming Sue Wringler Day. Um, just a couple of years ago, I was in front of this council thanking you for uh establishing uh a transitional housing housing uh thing in my in my wife's name and and honoring her work with the homeless.

Many of you are familiar with her work with the homeless. Many of you helped it. The city of Tempee has been, I think, outstanding in its work in trying to coordinate neighborhoods and homelessness. That did not happen with this ordinance. This ordinance is an aberration. It's a uh it's a back back uh what do you call it? Um God, I'm losing my time. Anyway, it it's backsliding from the city of Tempee's previous positions. It's not clear. I'm a lawyer. I've been a resident for 40 years.

My daughter resides in uh the Daily Park area. Uh I go to church at Community Christian. Uh we're very familiar with the with the issues that are going on there. And this ordinance and because it's because of the speed with which it has had to be done, it just does not uh comply with uh the past practices. It it's not clear. It vests too much discretion in in certain people.

uh you know I I think it's probably not not uh by random means that the slide in the presentation uh on the action plan kept going back to the homeless slide uh you know it's just woowoo type of stuff. Um how does this apply to private property? I I mean, I'm I'm really concerned about the the being able to regulate what's happening on private property. If we as a church decide to have a rally at the church across from Daily Park, do we have to have a special use permit for that?

Can somebody give me an example, a concrete example of when this ordinance would apply to private property? I I would have to I would have to ask our city attorney that question. So, uh, mayor, yeah, one example that if you look at the ordinance, there are several things that apply only to city property. One example for the special event ordinance would be if there's a deviation of use.

For example, if you have a business that has a big parking lot and you decide to have a carnival in that parking lot, you're changing the use from what's set forth in the zoning code. So, that would be an example of a a private. Another one would be example that um Mr. Wagner gave of the bars an extension of premises that they want like uh if an Irish bar was having a St. Patrick's Day an event and they wanted to put a big fence around uh property and and extend their premises.

That would be an example of a private property event. So just one brief comment to that. We're talking about how you intend to apply it versus the language of the ordinance itself. And I think that is a very big problem. This should be tabled. You can handle it in the uh in in the litigation. you can come to some sort of consent decree like they did with our paio and stuff. It it does not have to be rushed. Thank you. All right. The next speaker I have is McGregor Crowley.

Yes, please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Yes. Hello, Mayor and uh council members. Uh my name is Mard Cwley. I'm a resident of uh Scottville, but I've lived in Tempe on and off uh throughout the years in my time in Arizona, including attending ASU.

worked in the city as well both as a uh server and as a research assistant at ASU though I do not currently uh work there but I am involved in community uh outreach uh programs with the DSA uh mutual aid programs as well as uh providing uh community support to people out uh in the community here in uh Tempe. Um, I'm coming uh in opposition to the uh apologies coming in opposition to the or proposed ordinance here at uh gatherings.

Um what I um have concerns with is um how it will be applied as the previous speaker mentioned and it applying to private uh events as well. Let's say a church wanted to have a car wash, they'd have to plan two months in advance for a charity car wash. Um, I don't see anything on the uh event listing that kind of calls out any charity events as maybe being specially exempted or having lower fees.

Um, it does seem a bit of a bite out of charity events and mutual aid and other support generating events that aren't trying to get revenue, but trying to help people. Um, they're just kind of eating into that. and I we don't have clear guidance on how that's going to be working and we don't know if it's going to change as the ordinance gets enforced. Uh thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Just a just a note and once again we have to please please please we have to finish this.

Just as a note too though on the 60-day I believe Mr. I I think we've always had that 60-day notice for special events. That's not a new portion of this of this ordinance. That's already an existing policy. Correct. Uh, mayor, the it's actually changed. So, we did one thing that the 60 days is in the current ordinance. We changed it. So, um, it made it more flexible. So, um, yes, 60 days is ideal for staff, but that's not a it won't mean an automatic denial. Okay.

The way it says is that it'll only be denied if you don't give staff enough time to reasonably process the permit. Okay. So, again, that to Mr. Wagner's presentation. That'll depend largely on what you know something like the Innings Festival, the Arts Festival where you're talking about street closures and traffic control and things like that. That's a much more extensive process.

Um, so it it's designed to make it so staff only gets what time is reasonably necessary rather than just presumptively 60 days. Okay. Thank you. Next speaker I have is Dave Wells. Please come forward and state your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. I get to see my bald spot there. Okay. Um I have the same issue. Don't worry. Okay. Pause my Okay. Uh I'm Dave Wells.

Um I live in Mesa, although I did live in Tempe for 15 years and my uh two of my kids graduated from Tempe high schools. Um, and I've been uh an attender and part of the Tempe monthly meeting of the Religious Society of Friends for 27 years. I'm also the co-founder and designer of the New Deal Meal uh which was designed to be consistent with the existing special event um ordinance uh as a private event uh with membership cards that have information on the back.

Uh signins uh we have about 60 to 80 people each Sunday in Moore Park. And uh we thoroughly clean up afterwards including taking garbage bags and so forth away and use the ramada for no more than about ramadas for no more than about 3 hours. Um you should pause the process to open a more inclusive consultive process and not allow this to go forward tonight.

It is evident from the presentation there was no consult consultation with the community in the process of developing this ordinance and no one has reached out to us since June 5th to provide any clarity about how it might affect us. Now earlier I also asked Reverend Dr. Tom Martinez of Tempe Interfaith Fellowship to reach out to the city to discuss our use of more park back in September. The same time the city was looking into at this proposal before you tonight.

Despite the those meetings and despite our work to be in compliance, Ron Tapscott of the New Deal Mill was still cited on January 26 for violating the special event ordinance. So why you were sued is the city's fault, not ours. The reason you were asked to expedite this even though in May in the interest of justice the city asked the charges against Ron to be dropped. Now in your presentation there was no mention of our weekly picnic for a group that includes people who are unhoused.

So what kind of permit are we going to be required to get? Will it cost us $1,000 for the year or will it be more than that? Uh more park is first come first serve because it's an underutilized park. Uh we are fully run by volunteers donating our time for and food. Uh will we be able to continue doing our membership meetings each week at Mort Park? We don't have food handler cards for our group. Many of our members are unhoused.

There's lots of language in the proposed ordinance designed to potentially close us down presumably in the name of safety or frequency or the redefinition of public in the ordinance. I know you're familiar with us. So, I would like answers to exactly what kind of permit we're going to be receiving or not receiving. Thank you. Anybody have an answer for that for me, please? Thank you. Uh, I could ask I could ask Mr. Wagner um based on the number of people that you talked about, Mr.

Wells, um, if you wouldn't mind coming forward. Yeah. So based on the um number of people that are attending, which would be well over the 30 threshold, it would be a park use uh park use permit of some sort, a limited park use permit is kind of where I would see it going. I've yet I haven't received an application. Our department hasn't received an application for it's really difficult for me to determine exactly which permit that would be, but it would be one of those.

Not a special event permit. Okay. So not a special event permit. Okay. So the park permit, which normally is about $25. Yes. Yes. For Tempe Res. Yes. Okay. Okay. Thank you. A year. Appreciate it. Okay. The next speaker I have is State Senator Lauren QB and I who I believe is virtual this even. Hello. Yes. Uh thank you so much from Tempee as well. And um Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, and council members.

While I understand the goal of managing parks and public events, this proposal as drafted raises red flags under both the US and Arizona constitutions. Reading the actual code changes, what's in the ordinance, my first concern is about the first amendment, our right to free speech, assembly, and expression. This ordinance would require a permit for any public event with 30 plus people, or even a mobile shower trailer on private property.

It could include spontaneous gatherings, faith services, food for the poor events. If you don't get that permit, well, you're committing a misdemeanor. That's textbook prior restraint. government blocking free expression before it even happens. Courts have long ruled that time, place, and manner rules must be narrowly tailored and contentneutral. This isn't. But it gets worse.

The ordinance delegates broad powers to unelected staff to deny, revoke, or restrict permits based on vague terms such as adverse impacts or duplication of services. That's just that's not just unclear. That's a recipe for arbitrary or discriminatory enforcement. and it raises equal protection concerns under the 14th amendment. Yes, there is a carveout for spontaneous events, but it still requires quote as much notice as reasonably possible unquote.

In practice, that becomes a barrier to protests, especially when timing is urgent, as it is in Trump's America. And if a permit is denied, who is the appeal to? What's the standard of review? Is there independent review? That's a due process problem. Finally, please note that the Arizona Constitution, Article 2, Section 5, notes that the right of the people to peacefully assemble for the common good, shall never be abridged.

This ordinance, which redefineses our public spaces at the constitutional minefield. Please don't rush this through. engage with our neighborhoods like the city has done on far less controversial topics and help ensure that this new policy protects the rights of all Tempe residents to gather, speak, worship, and participate in civic life and charitable endeavors freely without fear of running a foul of murky and confusing rules. Thank you so much for letting me speak. Thank you. All right.

Next up, I have Paul Joseph Sako. Please come forward. State your name and city of residents. We have three minutes. Your honor, city council. My name is Paul Sacko. Um I'm also known as the Gatorade guy up on top the hill. Um I'm a Tempe resident and a Tempe business owner and Arizona native.

I believe I have a little bit more of an up uh beat message, but first I want to make it clear that Austin Davis and Ron Troskat were both persec or prosecuted under the special use event portion of the ordinance. So when the city says no, that's not going to apply to you anymore, it's a little hard to trust because that's the ordinance that was used to charge him 30 times. I'm talking about Austin Davis, but let's go beyond that. You know, I think this is a really bad amendment.

I believe the ordinance is unconstitutional even with the 30 people on it. And I think that there will be lawsuits. I know there'll be a referendum um effort. Um potentially there'll even be a recall effort. Those will be well well organized and they'll be expensive, but they'll be adequately funded. But all of that sort of misses the point here. The real point is look behind me. All of these people and it's a small army. They want to help the homeless.

I would ask you and I actually brought an olive branch. I would ask you to vote this down. Don't go down that road. Join with us. Help us. Send city staff out. send well-qualified people to talk with the people we're servicing about getting into placement.

Can you imagine like if you even came out, can you imagine what that would do to one of our participants to have a city council member sit down and talk with them as though what they had to say was important and there was some care and concern. What would it tell the group that helps helps these people? Please come on out. That's the invitation. The people behind me are the people who feed and care. Can we please stop clapping so he can finish please?

These pe these people are the people that care for these people all the time. And I'm not talking just once once in a while. It's every day out there. It's every week. It doesn't matter how hot it is. It doesn't matter what the weather is. They're going to be there day in day out. They make it happen. when they speak to the unhoused, they are heard. And they're heard because they're trusted. This is a gigantic resource for the city as far as getting people into services.

Shouldn't we be on the same side? Shouldn't we be working together? Shouldn't we all just kind of drop the attitude and get to work? We need to talk. We need to compromise. and we need to cooperate and jamming down this amendment that is obviously aimed at this group is poison. Thank you. The next speaker I have is All right, people. Please, please, could we just I I've said it 15 times. Can we just stop the clapping and the cheering?

We've got a lot of speakers and we've got to get through this. I'm assuming we all we all want to go to bed at some point. So, all right. Next up, uh is Finn How. Please come forward. Straight city of residents, you have three minutes. Uh hello, Mayor Corey Woods. Uh members of the Tempe City Council. Uh my name is uh Finn How and I'm a resident of Tempee. I just got my bachelor's in computer science from Arizona State University this spring. And uh I actually think this is a real opportunity.

Uh I agree with the city attorney when he said that we can uh re look at some of these and we can I think reconsider what the purpose of the permit system is in the first place. And I think to start we can use as our northstar the constitution of the United States and specifically the first amendment which says congress shall make no law abridging the right of people peacefully to assemble.

Now, for the past year at ASU, I've been the president of AMP, Art, Music, Poetry, where we bring uh local bands from across uh Arizona to do concerts at ASU and places off campus. And one thing we're trying to plan for November is a uh concert at a city park in city of Phoenix. And for the past month or two, the organization's had a very hard time actually reaching um someone to uh get a permit for this event.

Um of course, something playing long in advance, but even though we're going through official channels, we have to run around and try and find someone who uh can take care of this permit. And one thing that this uh what it says on the uh agenda is that this has no fiscal impact.

And what that tells me is that this staffer who currently does all the permits is also now going to have all of these new permits from this system all going to them, which will then put a huge amount of pressure on them, plenty of, you know, whether it's emails or letters trying to reserve this. They're now going to be inundated with them and it's going to take longer and for anyone to get a response and make it harder for everyone to plan things at the city parks.

And so I also want to address this other thing from the ordinance announcement that says spontaneous first amendment protests and demonstrations events that are based on current events of the day should coordinate with Tempe police as they always have. And I think everyone in this room can tell you that protesters and the police have not always worked together and we see that in the news every day.

I'm sure you can remember uh in 2020 with the Black Lives Matter protests oftentimes came into conflict with the police and uh to expect them to always go through the police. I think uh you know we can we can all say it here and you know perhaps you know we support the police uh you know on this uh city council but the reality is that there's going to be groups who uh do not support the police and would wish not to work with them for a permit.

So when they show up to a park and the police are telling them that you can't be here, what it's going to lead is actually a reduction in safety because now you're forcing the police to get in the way of protesters who want to uh protest. I'm sorry and that's time. So yeah, and I'll just leave with one quote from I can't we we've got to we've got to keep going. I'm sorry. Like we've got a lot of other speakers. Please oppose. Thank you. The next speaker I have is uh Rajat Aurora.

Please come forward. State your name and city of resident. You have three minutes. Hello city councilors uh mayor, vice mayor, and city officials. Uh good evening to you all uh and to good evening to all the community leaders and organizers who are here in solidarity uh to object to this ordinance. Uh my name is Reit theora. Uh I'm a member uh of Phoenix Metro DSA, a former and future ASU student. Um and I live in Phoenix.

Um I have spent the better part of a decade living in Tempe, dining in Tempee, shopping in Tempee, and doing recreation in the city of Tempee. And more recently, I've had a chance to talk to renters and residents in the city of Tempi as part of Protect Tempe tenants. I speak to as a concerned citizen and an organizer in a time when we see greater and larger threats to from the federal government.

I'm frankly disappointed that the city is choosing to fracture the one thing that we should be relying on and that's our communities. We should be relying on one another, protecting each other, defending one another, but instead the concerning nature surrounding this ordinance and the language of the ordinance itself seems to be stripping power from the people into the hands of the city.

I fell in love with the city for how many parks were accessible to the public, uh the excellent condition they were in, uh and how the residents and the people of Tempe kept them clean. Um you know, using the city, uh library or the Escalante Community Center to play pickup basketball was always great. And it's always great to connect to fellow Tempe residents, even though they scored a lot on me.

But seeing as how this ordinance um places severe restrictions on the ability for events to be organized in our parks is heartbreaking. This is not a clarity of how parks will be applied. It is a clear expansion of when a permit is required. The clarifications you gave are not written in the language of the ordinance. It's a promise. It's a promise with how you say you will utilize this broad expansion of power.

While we have assurances that the city promises not to go after recreation, I don't see that reflected in the language of the ordinance and the language that was claimed to be meticulously crafted. This ordinance comp contains several points that expand the power of the city to shut down events for arbitrary reasons such as to maintain the health, safety, and welfare of the space and its running area.

We've seen historically how this language is applied and how it's used to restrict attempts to do charity for the most vulnerable in our society. We know the largest driver of people experiencing houselessness is the cost of housing, the price of rent, but rather than address the root cause of this cost of living crisis that we're living in. This ordinance decides to target the activity such as leaving items intended for distribution or donation in the city grounds that are left unattended.

The language would give the city explicit power to shut this an event down that leaves, for example, a water station that is left for the most vulnerable. We know as Arizonans, access to that water means saving lives. Um, please do the right thing for your city, for your neighborhoods, your Tempe community. Vote no in this ordinance. Thank you. The next speaker is John Elvis Taska. Please come forward. State your neighbor David City of residents. You have three minutes.

Mayor Woods, Vice Mayor Garland, and the rest of the city council. My name is John Elvis Taska. I live here in Tempe. Thank you for the opportunity to come before you and speak on this matter. I want to begin by acknowledging the pressure you are all under. I believe that some of you don't want to vote for this, but feel boxed in. That makes this even more important to ask. In a time when rights are being eroded at breakneck speed, is this something that we can table?

Will Tempe crumble if we take a small step back, assemble a coalition for a deeper dive, and maybe to listen a little bit more widely. Because tonight I come not just as a resident, but as a witness to a shift away from liberty, away from community, and away from the values that have long defined the Tempe that I know. We have before us a set of proposals that read like policy but move a lot like punishment.

Rules that claim to protect the public, but in truth make the simple act of gathering threatening. If I want to gather in a park with 29 of my friends to hand out pizza, protest, ride our bikes, or do some yoga, we need a permit. The Tempe I know doesn't always have time to file a permit, but it does show up for community. It's what makes our town special. I urge you, please do not make it harder for Tempe residents to gather.

I've read every word of this proposal and I see the line that says no fiscal impact. Yet there's a real cost. A cost to trust, a cost to rights, and and a cost to compassion. So I ask you, is it too late to put this on pause? Will Tempe criminalize connection on short notice, or will you choose another path, one of local democracy? Let us not become a place where the right to gather something sacred enough to be enshrined in the first amendment is reduced to red tape. Look around.

There's about a hundred people waiting for hours to see what happens tonight. Let's postpone the vote and bring them into the conversation. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker I have is virtual Diane Melrose. Hello. Yes. Uh, please state your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Uh, Diane Melrose, Tempe. Um, I was surprised to hear that this ordinance change didn't require a public info session like the nuisance ordinance because staff worked on it instead of council.

It's still the government making changes to an ordinance, right? There was no mention of this on social media or in the water bill newsletter. I'm having trouble finding a justification for why these proposed changes were not delivered to the public with more transparency. The perspective I'm left with and the perspective that many people have is that you wanted this to fly under the radar and that's very icky. Are you guys trying to rile up the citizenry? Because if you did, good job.

Seriously, golf clap or sorry, no clapping. But if you're not, y'all need to take some time over summer break and give serious thought and consideration to what your goals are as council members. For some reason, it's important to you to present a united front, even though anyone well-versed in civic discourse knows that disagreements are what propel us in a forward direction. If you guys are always going to vote the same on hot button agenda items, it's time for new faces on city council.

A united front is a good tactic when you're trying to overcome a common enemy, but that's definitely not who we, the people, are. This ordinance is poorly written in its vagueness and needs more work with collaborative input from residents and neighborhoods. I hope to see some of you voting against passing this ordinance tonight.

It's obvious you've received ample push back from multiple community groups, but typically you all vote the same, like a family of Septuplets, all wearing matching dinosaur onesies. A septuplet is the term given to a group of seven children born at the same time. Very rare. And no, council, I'm not using that term to refer to you as children, only to illustrate your boring uniformity when a motion is called for a vote. It's becoming pretty tiresome.

Just as a septup birth has low viability, so too does a council that never varies in how it represents its constituency. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Merrick Al. Please come forward. State your David City of Residents. You have three minutes. Hello. My name is Eric Alum. I apologize in advance if I over project. I'm a I have a theater background, so I I promise it's not me trying to to yell or anything like that.

I technically live in Chandler, but uh since I moved to Arizona, Tempe has been like a second home to me. I work here. I relax here. I spend a lot of my time here. And today, I'm here to urge all of you to vote no on this ordinance. I don't think it's very controversial to say that I'm pro birthday party. and pro- family reunion, pro- openhouse.

And this ordinance is a clear and fundamental walled garden on not just the concept of going to a park with your friends and family, but on birthday parties, open houses, reunions, and more troubling than that, whether intentional or not, an erosion of the First Amendment rights of Tempe residents. All the examples listed in any social gathering over 30 people could fall under this new definition of special event with this ordinance because that definition has been edited to be extremely broad.

Even tonight when trying to provide clarification on this uh I heard the terms gray area probably uh multiple times. Additionally, the wording of this ordinance would not only lead room for vast gulfs of interpretation in how it's applied, allowing law enforcement of the city to unilaterally decide when, for instance, a family's Fourth of July cookout in a public park is suddenly a dangerous unlawful gathering of kids playing in splash pads and people cooking hot dogs.

But moreover, this ordinance turns access to our public parks into a pay-to-play institution, only giving space to those who can already afford it. The idea that some of these events will be subject to different rules, different tiers of pricing, or even the wholesale rejection of an application based off of ephemeral, vague feelings based criteria only adds insult to injury.

Tempy Tempe residents seemingly have no recourse in this space or even assurance that their application is being seen under this new ordinance. Not that that should necessarily be required in the first place. And simultaneously by broadening this this definition, it creates an incentive to put limits on the number of these newly defined events again barring access from the public to make use of public space.

And I don't think, for example, a really popular weekly chess club in the park or a candlelight vigil should have to pay anything or require months of advanced notice to use a space meant for anyone.

Not only is the wording on this ordinance overly broad, allowing the city law enforcement to effectively pick and choose how, when, and who they enforce it against, it is also my belief that it violates the first amendment rights of the citizens of Tempe and is patently unconstitutional decimation of the right to assembly. This is a textbook example of overreach and I urge you to vote no on this ordinance. Thank you for your time. Thank you. The next speaker I have is Leah Davis.

Is Leah Davis here? Okay. All right, then I'll move to the next person. Uh, Alex Schaield. Is Alex Schaeffield here? Okay, I'm going to move next to Andrew Hudson. Is Andrew Hudson here? Okay. Uh, let's go next to Tina Jabilian. Tina Jabilian. Okay. Uh, next up, uh, Arnob Kabir. Okay. Thank you. Uh, next up, Sarah Kovi. Yes, please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Hello. Uh my name is Sarah Kobe.

I am a Tempe resident and the uh mutual aid chair in Phoenix. Oh, that's I'll start over. Uh my name is Sarah. I'm a Tempe resident and I'm one of the co-chairs for mutual aid uh in DSA. Um, I spoke to the city council last time about this ordinance and it is still my belief that uh the council should vote no on it because I believe it harms the public charity and the um freedom of speech.

In 2018, an 11th circuit court ruled that sharing food is an expression protected by the first amendment as a form of protest against poverty and hunger. As you can tell from the crowded hall and those sounded in behind me, the people of Tempe are opposed this ordinance, especially those who have served the unhoused and the um housing insecure for years like I have. Um I am a workingclass person. I make maybe $20 an hour. Um permits are expensive at $150 per event per day.

Um, charity and mutual aid groups typically operate on a shoestring budget because they are made up of people like me who take money out of our limited income to help people on the street. Um, how are folks who are who want to hand out water once a week supposed to afford $150 every single time? Um, also a cap of 30 people is the same number of beds that I saw Tempe had available for the unhoused.

Um, and even if there are more beds, um, the people I've served have told me that their waiting lists are months long, uh, to get into shelter. And I do not think that as great as 68 beds sounds, it's going to exactly cut it. Um, the same with rental assistance as when I was looking online, it ran out early this year, I think in March. Um, in short, I think that Tempe should welcome the help of good Samaritans.

One event I do to help those in need is the really really free market held at Daily Park or it was held at Daily Park until March of this year. It began in 2021 from sustainability students at ASU. Um but in March um police were waiting for us saying that we needed a special events permit. Um and to give clarity for what the really really free market is, it is a bunch of neighbors coming together with items that they no longer need to give others for free.

There is no money exchanged at this event. Um, and it took until May this year to get it going again and get it going inside. And the insurance for it is very expensive for someone like me and other people that volunteer there. Um, to give a perspective of the community that it serves, I can speak about volunteering at Aerys. Today, 130 people showed up for AIS' assistance. It's a mutual aid event that happens up the street from Daily Park.

Um, they typically serve 150 to 200 people, but had to move locations. Um, and I'm thinking that given all those people out there that need help, um, even people that are on the verge of becoming homeless when it's blisteringly hot outside and it's going to get worse, no rental assistance, um, and shutdown of events like ours, rent at an all-time high. What are we going to do with these people? In short, parks are for people, not permits. Thank you. Okay, quick thing.

Um, uh, can I have if you have numbers 20 through 25, can you begin to kind of make your way forward? So, those are the next folks. If you have numbers 20 through 25, which means that uh, person number 20 here is Haley Brown. Please state your name. City of resident. You have three minutes. Hi. Uh, my name is Haley Brown and I am a resident of North Tempi and I am here today to urge you to vote no on this ordinance.

This proposal is a sweeping expansion of city power that threatens free assembly, charity work, and the basic right to exist in public space together. The ordinance targets people helping people who need help. It subjects charity groups offering support to unhoused neighbors, the same neighbors who've already been displaced or criminalized under previous sitting actions, to a burdensome permit process. The ordinance also sets an arbitrary threshold.

Any event with more than 30 people, even if it's an informal or posted online, now requires a permit. That includes vigils, protests, and community gatherings. Organizers face vague standards about what constitutes an adverse impact or a duplication of services, giving the city broad discretion to deny or revoke permits based on subjective judgments.

Despite assertions to the contouring, there's also no meaningful protection in the ordinance itself for spontaneous protests or responses to breaking events cases where it would be impossible to both give quote adequate notice and to meet the moment. Violations of the proposed ordinance can lead to misdemeanor charges, bans on future applications, and financial liability. That's a huge burden, especially for working-class organizers and volunteers simply trying to care for their communities.

All of this rests on the idea that public space should be tightly controlled, that it belongs to the city first and the people second. But our parks are not just places for corporate festivals or city sponsored events, and they're not just places uh for afterchool activities that are carefully planned. They're where we come together to grieve, to organize, and to care for one another. That's not a nuisance, but it's a sign of a thriving community.

Please stop doubling down on bad policy because you were rightfully sued. I urge you to vote no on this ordinance and instead work with the people who actually use public space to craft policies rooted in justice, compassion, and true public access. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker I have is Dylan Wild. Please state your name and city of resident. You have three minutes. Hello, council. My name is Dylan Wild. Um, I'm here to urge you all to vote no on this bad ordinance.

I am the co-chair of the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. Whereas some or DSA organizations across the country have been working hard to elect people to city office like Zoron Manni, Phoenix DSA has been quietly but effectively at work in Tempee feeding, watering, and clothing the unhoused population. The woman who's been leading those efforts in our chapter is the beautiful Sarah Kovi, my girlfriend, who spoke before you a moment ago.

And let me tell you a little bit about the stress that she goes through when she comes back home at night after spending time with the unhoused population. More than once, she has broken down into tears, wondering what will become of these people if there are not folks like her to take care of them. She has cried because there are not enough beds for the homeless in the city of Tempe.

and she is frustrated that she's no longer able to put on events like the really really free market in public parks because the police came and told them that it is not legal. Besides the, you know, moral cost, besides the emotional cost of an ordinance like this and pushing care for the homeless out of public parks, I agree with what people have said before me that this appears to be unconstitutional.

The Arizona State Constitution says that the people of Arizona's right to come together in peaceful assembly to pursue the common good shall not be abridged. An expensive $150 to $500 a pop ordinance absolutely abridges that right. Look, those of us in DSA are not here tonight because we want to fight the city. We're here because we want to feed the homeless.

We're here because we're working with organizations, the organizations that stand behind me that have been doing this work since before we were here and have reached out and armed to us to show us how to do it, too. To show us how to be effective and to show us how to care. Our organization is largely young. We're not exclusively an organization for young people, but that is how it turns out.

And we have shown up in numbers because an issue has come before the council that resonates with us that we care about. You know, I see incredible diversity on this council, but I don't see diversity of opinion. It has been shocking to me to see the council lean on the opinions of paid staff who work directly for this government and act as if opinions of that paid staff is the same thing as public opinion. It is not public opinion.

Public opinion is standing behind me and urging this council to vote no on this bad ordinance. Finally, I would say that if something like this must come to pass in Tempee, that there should clearly be a carveout for organizations like Phoenix DSA and others who provide the services to the to our unhoused population that the city should be providing. Um, I think it's possible.

I think it could be good that there might be $25 small event permits for large organizations, but when somebody like Sarah Kovi steps up into this community to feed the unhoused, then there should no be no excessive fee. She should be congratulated. Vote no. Okay. The next speaker I have is Daniel Oori. Is Daniel Leori here? Okay. Uh, next up, uh, Adrien Munoz. Oh, he's coming. Oh, yeah. Oh, you Yes, please come forward. I'm sorry. To state your name and city of residence.

You have three minutes. Um, hi. Yeah. My name is Daniel Erie. Uh, I'm currently a resident of Gilbert, but I have family and friends in Tempe. I'm often in Tempe doing uh work and patronizing the businesses and all that. Um I'm just here uh standing in solidarity with the uh Phoenix DSA chapter and to urge you to vote no on this ordinance. I too have looked over it. The language does not increase clarity in any sense that I can understand.

I'm not a lawyer, but it seems like a uh more or less blank check to loosely interpret things as needed, as many people have said, to arbitrarily decide when and where certain things should apply. And given the track record that the city of Tempe has had with specifically targeting groups that are doing things like mutual aid, trying to help out the less fortunate people because there aren't services that have enough resources to deliver that, you know, at the point that it's needed.

Um it yeah again like many other people have said that there is an opportunity to work with these people to increase the service that is rendered to the people who need it. they there should not be, you know, a conflict here. It doesn't make any sense. Um these people are using their own money, their own time, coming out here to make a difference, to help people and to penalize that and to try to dress it up as if you're not doing that. It's it's disingenuous.

It's in bad faith and uh it should be voted no on. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Munoz, you are next. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Um, hello. My name is Adrien Munoz, a resident of Mesa, but I work here in Tempe, commute to Tempe every day. Um, and I do a lot of community outreach, a lot of volunteer work with a lot of the unhoused population here in Tempe as well.

Um I'm here to urge the the you know mayor, vice mayor, and other members of the council to uh vote no on this ordinance because um we originally talked about the secondary effects of uh these gatherings being you know trash being left at the parks, traffic buildup, congestion. Um something we haven't discussed though is the secondary effect of this ordinance getting passed which would be the uh asymmetric damaging of a of a a very um unfortunate population here in Tempe.

the unhoused population. Uh this ordinance causes undue roadblocks, more red tape to that that limits our ability to my ability in the DSA with, you know, mutual aid and my friends behind me and other um community outreach programs here tonight as well. Our ability to be able to be out here to help these people who desperately need it, especially in these summer months where it's just going to keep getting hotter. Um sorry. Um, secondly, I would also like to discuss I am so nervous. It's okay.

Take your day. Good. What was it? Okay. Um, this might seem like a bit of a bit of a crazy hypothetical, but we were talking about earlier the deviation of use. Uh, the the example being used like a parking lot carnival. Um, this might be like out there, but considering the the advancement of, you know, President 47's big beautiful bill, we're seeing that uh ICE might become one of the most well-unded uh law enforcement agencies in the country.

Um, I would sure love to see if this 30 30 person limit and deviation of use would also apply if there just happened to be, I don't know, 30 40 ICE agents in a parking lot of a restaurant conducting a raid. That's uh I think all I have for today. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um, the next speaker I have is Nathan Landis. Please state your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Well, my name is Nathan Landis. I am a resident of Scottsdale.

However, I spend much of my time and money here in Tempe. Uh, as a member of Phoenix Metro DSA, I also volunteer frequently with groups uh providing aid uh to those who need some help here in Tempe. I've seen firsthand how important access to parks is for building communities and how difficult it is to simply help those who need some help when access to parks or apparently private property is removed or restricted, which this ordinance clearly can do.

This ordinance will make it significantly more expensive in time, planning, and resources to provide aid that the city is simply not providing and which they can choose to outright deny us the ability to provide. Meanwhile, it will also restrict park access from other gatherings such as family reunions, birthday parties, sporting events that might be 15 versus uh birthday parties and forcing them to go through expensive permitting processes that could take a couple days or weeks or months.

It kind of depends on how long you're all able to process that. We don't know. So for that re those reasons and many others, I and everyone who has spoken here so far today strongly urge this council to vote no on this ordinance. Thank you. Thank you. Quick thing uh just if you're I'm going to go to uh speaker number 25, but if you are speakers 26 through 30, if you could please make your way down as well. And yep, I'm sorry. Uh so Mr. Dugan. Yes, please state your name and city of residence.

You have three minutes. Uh hello. Uh I am Dylan Dugan. I am a uh resident of the unincorporated county lands outside of Maricopa, Arizona, but I am a former resident of Tempee and an ASU graduate. And I spend m many a lot of time up here uh uh uh with my friends helping out the unhoused folks. I'm also one of the original organizers uh involved with the really free market.

Um, all that to say, I want to agree with all of the things that my friends have said so far, but I most more importantly I want to uh take a take an opportunity to take this opportunity to uh uh view this from a lens of somebody who uh is running for election or is currently uh holding a elected uh position. Is this the um is this the optics that you want? Right. So far, we have an a bill or an ordinance that is uh uh that is pretty poorly crafted or at least is perceived as as such.

Um it it looks like it's being jammed down our necks um by the the rushed fashion of this. It's being uh uh pushed along in a in a fashion that doesn't seem to include anybody's opinion who's actually in the community doing the work.

Um, and if this is if this is the way that you want to approach this, then I would just say maybe look for other employment soon because I I think that the wave of of politics that's moving forward is as evidenced by the uh uh um recent Democratic primary win by Zoran Mandani is that listening to the constituents is the way that you need to move forward in order to win elections. And I think that is becoming something that is relevant now more than ever.

And so uh uh with that I I'll yield the rest of my time, but just consider that. Thank you. The next speaker is Joseph Amscua. Please state your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Hi, I'm Joseph from town of Gilbert. So I lived in Arizona for almost 20 years now and most of my good time was in Tempe in Phoenix. It uh breaks my heart to see that the city council wants to move in with this resolution to demonize the the homeless and those who can't help afford it, find housing.

Mutual aid is trying to help everybody out right now, but this resolution is disgusting. And you want to do this in the summertime where people do not have the luxury as most of us to find shelter and get any any water and you're trying to tell people they cannot bathe or drink. Are are you guys this lost right now? Like, come on. Are you gonna let freak one and freak two over here say it's okay to pass a resolution to demonize people? Please don't. Nope. We don't need any personal.

Please stick to the policy. Please. But ridiculous how this policy is. Do not pass this because it's going to find its way to Mesa, Chandler, and Gilbert. And I hate to have this conversation with the city councils there as well. I'll take my leave. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker I have is Morning Star Bloom. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Hello, mayor and council. My name is Morning Star Bloom.

I'm a resident of Phoenix, Arizona, and I'm the secretary of the Phoenix Metro chapter of DSA. Uh Tempies Parks aren't just places for recreation. They're where we build community. Whether it's neighborhood potlucks, mutual aid distributions, public forums, these spaces allow residents to come together in ways that are informal, spontaneous, and deeply meaningful.

For our chapter in particular, the really really free market at Daily Park served that and it has helped us develop our organization, but it has also been an important way for people to feel that they can give back to those. What exactly counts as an event in this has been hotly debated over the course of this evening and I understand at the previous meeting as well.

The reason that we are particularly opposed is the concern that we may be denied a permit and then we may then be faced with not getting another permit another year. The cost is also a significant contributing concern for us. As an org, we are able to do a lot, but we do it on a tiny tiny budget. We used to donate a portion of our funds as a chapter to uh formula and diapers that would be given out at really really free market.

And now we spend a significant chunk of our funds, money that otherwise would be going to more that that kind of activity to just pay for the insurance since we had to move our event to a church. We would like to be able to return to Daily Park and to be able to serve the community. I know that your intentions with this were to provide clarity on the parks and recreation ordinance as it is.

I am unclear why there's such urgency to shove this through now without the public engagement since you are democrat democratically elected officials and I know that listening to constituents is at the heart of your job. I urge you to vote no on this ordinance. I think it is time to bring the community in to discuss this in a more serious and intentional way and we are so excited to step up should you give us the opportunity to engage. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Samuel Titlebomb.

Please come forward. State your name city of residence. You have three minutes. Uh hello. My name is Samuel Titlebomb. I'm a resident of North Tempy Tempe and I'm also employed uh at Arizona State University. Um, I love the city parks here and uh what Tempe has done with your civic spaces. I think that parks and public spaces are what can transform a collection of people into a community. And I understand that being a local elected official is tough. You know, the budget is tight.

Um, you spend a lot of time at 10 p.m. uh getting yelled at by a lot of people. Um, but I'm here to say that I think that passing this ordinance is going to make your lives more difficult, not less difficult. A vague and poorly structured ordinance is right for um situations like um not just it doesn't matter sometimes what your lawyers understand the ordinance to mean.

It's about what the neighbors who might call the police on a gathering in the park to mean and what those law enforcement officers think the ordinance means. At every stage in this sort of process, if you don't have absolute clarity, that leads to a breakdown in civ in civic engagement.

It leads to law enforcement or uh law enforcement officers who might have better things to do with their time than breaking up a basketball game among a bunch of teenagers trying to just play and engage with themselves in the park.

Um, I I say this because I want to appreciate the uh questions by uh council member Hajj um about a basketball game because while I received assurances from the city that uh this ordinance would not apply to such an event, that's not what it says in the handout that I was handed at the beginning of this event here. And it's also not what it says in the ordinance. So, I'm not really sure what to believe.

And that means I'm not really sure what anyone else is going to believe um if this ordinance passes. And so for that reason, I would urge you all to uh vote no on this ordinance and come up with at least clarifying language that can help us understand what exactly will enforcement look like. Thank you. You the rest of my time. Thank you. Really quickly here too, um I'm going to go to speaker 29, but I need to bring up speakers 3235. Next speaker I have is Amanda Everett.

Uh please state your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. All right. Hi. Uh my name is Mandy Everett. Uh I was born and raised here in the valley and I'm a Tempe resident. Um I'm here to oppose these new restrictions on special events. I've lived in Tempe for eight years and I hope to spend many more years here in the city I've grown to love.

Um, I spend my weekdays working here and when the sun isn't trying to turn me into a crisp, uh, I enjoy my evenings uh, strolling through Kiwanis. It's one of my favorite parks of all time. Um, or along the canal path to some of get some groceries or something, you know. I like to spend my mornings at Brick Road or Tuesdays at Dark Side. Some weeks you'll find me at the library. Um, and sometimes you'll even find me busking in the street. others.

You'll find me joining my fellow uh Democratic Socialist of America members at a mutual aid event, one of which was sadly shut down by the city. I say this all to make it clear that I'm deeply invested in the city and its future, as I'm sure all of you are. And as your handout explains, this was all sort of kicked off by what I see as the unnecessary crackdown on mutual aid events and the lawsuit that resulted from this crackdown.

I personally tend to agree with the 11 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals decision which ruled that feeding the homeless is expressive conduct protected by the first amendment. The Arizona Constitution also guarantees me the right to assemble for the public good and I can think of no nothing more beneficial to the public good than mutual aid.

But what happens when the city manager or their designate disagrees and infringes on that right at is as it has shown it's willing to do with the previously mentioned instances. What if that overreach continues to go unchecked and an unelected city official designated by the city manager arbitrarily decides the protest I'm at is a threat to public safety.

I feel we should be passing ordinances to strengthen our right to peacefully assemble and support each other, especially when ICE agents are invading our city and kidnapping our neighbors and everything is becoming less and less affordable. It's a dangerous precedent to set and I'm honestly disappointed that leaders of what I know to be a beautiful and diverse city are even considering this ordinance. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker I have is Meredith Stamper.

Please state your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Hi. Uh my name is Meredith Stamper. I live in Phoenix. Uh I am not in Democratic Socialist of America, but I have had the pleasure of organizing with a good chunk of them. Um and I can say that they do uh great work and are very passionate about just helping other people. Um, based on that, I understand that there is a concern for public safety, a concern for clean parks, but what I'm asking you is look around.

Who here isn't willing to pick up some extra trash? Who here isn't willing to go those lengths to make sure that our neighbors are fed? And when we talk about community, um, I ask, who are we including in that community? Are we including everybody? Are we just including those that are able to pay?

Um, community to me uh is not just our um paid neighbors that have housing, but community is also those who are just looking for a free place to go in an economy in which as a 26 year old 27year-old um I can't really go to very many free spaces and I don't have a lot of money. So doing fun things is hard.

Um, I do find it ironic that a city council that just declared um pride month for disability or for a disability pride month um that you could potentially grow block a group of people um who are most disadvantaged and that is um disabled h unhoused people um and many of the unhoused are disabled. So I ask that you also consider that moving forward and making sure that you are listening to all disabled voices.

Um, and while I do appreciate the $2 million contribution that, um, the man gave earlier. I think that is wonderful. I don't have $2 million. Um, everyone in this room doesn't have $2 million. Most likely I could be, you know, speaking for someone. Um, but I do have two hands and I know how to make bread and I know how to clean up trash and I know how to feed my neighbors. I know how to have conversations with them. Um, so I cannot give money. I can give my time.

Uh, and so I am asking you to vote no on this so I can continue to give my time. Um, that is my right to do so. I yield the rest of my time. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. The next speaker I have is Ben Abberrombie. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Hi, my name is Ben Abberrombie. Uh, I am a Phoenix resident. Uh, but I recently graduated with my undergrad from ASU and I'm working on my graduate degree currently.

Um, just want to say that our our parks are spaces for everyone and to pass this legislation would mean that unelected officials get to exclude people at their discretion. In other words, if this law is passed, everyone becomes conditional and if this law is passed, freedom of speech and assembly become conditional. I want to emphasize when council member Adams uh asked for clarity on what defined spontaneous events, no definitive answer was given.

The constitutional right to speech cannot be handed over to the whims of unelected bureaucrats. I also want to emphasize that what the DSA and these groups are doing is helping people who desperately need it, please let us continue helping these people. So I would say if you value human rights to free speech and assembly and you value helping people who need it, vote no on this. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker I have is Holly Robertson. Please state your name of city residence.

You have three minutes. Hi, I'm Holly Robertson. I live in Mesa, Arizona. I own a small business in Tempi and I'm here representing local run groups like Soul Sports Aravipa, Latinas Run, and many other running groups. For the past two years, my local run group has vastly improved my physical and mental health. I love using Tempee's beautiful parks and appreciate the new bridge running path that was recently approved. Good job. In my group, I have made over 31 new friends.

I have successfully helped manage my mental health and trained to run my first two marathons. None of this would have been possible without support from my free local running group. Your presentation that you gave to me today claims that only charity runs will require a permit. However, the language in your ordinance in section 1B clearly states walks, runs, or bicycle rides that are open to the public. This ordinance is incredibly vague and open to interpretation.

Your presentation also claimed that this ordinance is to promote health health and public safety. With the rising obesity rate in the US, access to free places to exercise is incredibly important. If this ordinance passes and it's currently written, my group could be required to pay $6,000 a month to continue to meet and the group would likely have to disband. We meet three times a week. Thank you.

Furthermore, our run group leader was assured by a city council member that this would only be selectively enforced. Who will determine that? Which groups will be this used to be enforced against? How will it be enforced? Will it only be used to hurt homeless people? Because it sure seems that way. This ordinance threatens our community and the physical and mental health of myself and countless other peoples in Tempi.

This ordinance is also a violation of our right to assembly granted to us by the First Amendment or at worst, that's at worst, or a blatant cash grab by the city of Tempe at best. Furthermore, it's essentially uninforcable as you would have to prove that the people were meeting as a group and not individually choosing to run or walk at the same time. Also, you will have to catch us all. Okay. Earlier tonight, we celebrated designating July as disability pride month.

I find this very unfortunate as this ordinance would make it more difficult for the charity event hosted by Together We Live, a local run group using in Tempi that supports children with cerebral palsy. We can't push them around Tempytown Lake anymore without getting a permit. So, that would be really cool. It seems as if someone that's mean and I'll leave it out. It seems as if someone typed in make a cartoonishly evil set of ordinances into chat GPT and just ran with it.

But don't worry, if this ordinance passes, I promise you that I will dutifully fulfill request permits for every single run I walk or do. And I'll be sure to submit it for the coming year. Doing some math, that will roughly be 156 permit requests just from my run group alone. I hope you are ready to do some paperwork, council members. Thank you. Thank you. Um the next speaker is uh Andrea Luna Cervantes. Please state your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Yeah. Good evening.

My name is Andrea Luna Cervantes. I'm a Tempe resident. I'm an organizer with Organized Power and Numbers. Um, we've been organizing for housing justice and have successfully worked with this council in the past to pass good housing policy and I'm here today to strongly oppose this proposed ordinance. This policy is not about public safety. It's about control.

Requiring permits and fees for any gathering of over 30 people, including things like mutual aid, events, bikes, or neighborhood parties only creates an unnecessary barriers for workingclass communities trying to care for one another. Let's be honest, this will disproportionately impact efforts to support unhoused people, whether it's distributing water, food, or basic survival supplies. As we've heard, we are in the middle of a housing and heat crisis.

And instead of helping people most at risk, the city is choosing to punish those trying to meet basic needs. Worst, this ordinance would hand broad powers to unelected city staff to decide what kinds of speech and gatherings are allowed. That opens the door to discrimination, censorship, and selective enforcement. This is a direct attack on our right to assemble and build community. We should be making it easier, not harder, for people to gather, organize, and care for each other in spaces.

Um, please vote no. Thank you. Thank you. All right. The uh actually let me just I make a quick note too. If you are numbers 36 through 40, can you please begin to come forward? Um the next speaker I have is John Bush. Please state your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Thank you. My name is John Bush. I live in West Mesa and I work in Tempi on Nova Place. Sure. I live in West Mesa and I work in Tempee on Nova Place.

In my spare time, I help with homeless outreach programs and advocating for more protections, more tenant protections in Tempe. I've been disappointed over the last few years uh reading news stories of ugly fights with the city of Tempe going after good Samaritans p providing for those left underserved by official outreach programs. I've been disappointed by what seems to be the city capitulating to the extreme views of those that think drug addicts are less deserving of shelter and food.

And I'm disappointed in this in their city's ability to keep people from ending up homeless in the first place. At a time when funding is drying up, our communities should be partnering with those who are able to do more with less, not finding and arresting them. At a time when we see more attacks on working people, we should be implementing more protections to keep people in their homes.

And this further restriction on our parks with ridiculous permitting limitations is not the way to build resilient communities. Drop these proposed changes to the city code and come back with plans to build better relationships with the compassionate people of Tempe. Thank you for your time. Thank you. All right. The next speaker I have is Jesse Dwire. Please come forward. State your name and city of residents. You have three minutes. Hello, council. My name is Jesse Dwire.

I'm a resident of Scottsdale. Um, but I have been in the valley for my entire life, born and raised, and uh, spent a lot of work and time and recreation in the city of Tempe, as well as an undergraduate and graduate degree from ASU. So, I really care about this, um, the city and this community that we're building. Um, and really, I'll keep it very simple today. Um, I'm urging you to vote no on this ordinance.

Um, I think it is infringement on people's right to exist in public spaces and our right to um help unhoused folks or gather for whatever kind of uh thing we need to gather for. So, that's really all I want to say. Thank you for your time. Thank you. The next speaker I have is Paulina Milligan. Is Paulina Milligan here? Okay. Uh, the next speaker I then have is Stevie Con. left. Okay, thank you. Um, no should be here in person. Okay, so Stevie Cohen's gone. Okay.

Uh, then let me just also note that I need two speakers 40 through 45 to also begin to come forward as well. 40 through 45. Uh, the next speaker I have is Nancy Baker. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Good evening, Mayor Woods. Vice Mayor Garland, Council Members, and City Manager Inci. My name is Nancy Baker. I'm a North Tempy resident.

I'm also a city of Tempe Town Lake rower and I am here to articulate my point of view for you to consider a yes vote on the code changes to safeguard our neighborhoods and our community. I want to share a little bit of background. Our hope 7 team has done an incredible amount of impact in our community and by your support have increased the size of the team for community outreach. Our TCA has served our community for years and I was thrilled thrilled to meet ever briefly Jerry Brack.

his contribution of $2 million is is heartening. Our one in 10 team Aerys Foundation have been huge partners in support of our community efforts. Having said that, I am here as a resident and not as a corporate community member. I think broadening the definition allows and permits for community goodwill. I believe there are opportunities to share execution considerations in our resident and vendor community in terms of communication strategy.

I would be happy to follow up with Chris on that specifically. I'd like to share just two points. I think it's critical to call out that in the code it specifically articulates that 501c3s may qualify and do qualify for fee reimbursement. That's a huge opportunity for our 501c3s, many of whom I have heard speak this evening. I also think that posting hours in each of the parks is really critical. I think the city's done a really good job doing that.

However, with the park versus parking versus grassy areas, that may be an area of opportunity. I also think that consideration on denials that a time frame window prior to a new application could be useful. And finally, I think a time frame for activation on the changes proposed and city readiness to implement would take some consideration given the amount of work that it may take even though the fees are already in place.

So with that again I urge you to vote yes and I appreciate your time and consideration. Thank you. The next speaker is Kim Gap Loza. Please come forward. statement city of residents. You have three minutes. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, and city council. Um, I'm speaking for myself and my experience. Um, I'm speaking in support of the event regulations. Hopefully, this will help the damage and violations that are occurring in our parks and preserves.

I was taken aback last council meeting when a gentleman spoke in favor of feedings in more park. He stated that it was a good location because it was just surrounded by desert. Obviously, he does not understand how fragile the desert ecosystem is. Our small part of the desert was valued enough by the majority of Tempe citizens that they overwhelmingly voted our part of Papago Park a preserve. I happened to clean up around Moore Park Ramadas a couple of times after large feedings.

Water bottles, plastic cutlery, styrofoam plates were strewn everywhere in the surrounding area. Hundreds of cigarette butts littered the ground. I called in graffiti that was on tables, posts, concrete slabs, and surrounding walls. Keep in mind, these ramadas were just renovated a couple of years ago. I do not see the proper respect being shown for our park assets which include the ecosystems we are trying to protect.

Throughout the preserves, we have had fires, tons of trash, including human excrement, drug paraphernalia, discarded personal items, broken off tree branches, and spider trails that destroy the desert crust and help in the spread of damaging invasive plant seeds. You've heard me speak about this topic often.

When the service resistant are enabled to stay camping out on the streets, in the parks and preserves, I can imagine it can be difficult for our hope team to convince them to use the services that our city provides and we pay for. I would love to know how much we contribute per capita for homeless services compared to other Maricopa County cities. I would also want to know how many feedings are done in other cities surrounding us the sta that stage the same sort of gatherings.

I believe if you feed them they will come no matter where it's taking place and that is my point. There has to be better places to feed people in need and offer them real help. No one wants to see people go hungry be but there has to be better solutions than giving service resistance um people a way to stay living in unhealthy and destructive ways on our streets in our parks and in our preserves. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker I have is Selia Wagger. Hope I got that right.

Wagger, you got it. Uh please state your name and city of resident. You have three minutes. Yes. Hi, I am Celia Wagger. I live here in Tempe and I am here representing Arizona Trans together. We host meetups twice a week with the transgender population of Tempe and the surrounding area and we always have more than 30 people in attendance. Our organization has upwards of 600 members and there's an incredibly large transgender population in the Phoenix metro area and especially Tempe.

As a community, we do not want our First Amendment right to assemble infringed on in any way. The language of the ordinance grants incredibly broad discretion to break up almost any kind of public meeting, even those on private property, which the ordinance ex ordinance explicitly mentions. The first amendment grants us uh freedom of assembly. This ordinance allows the city of Tempe to arbitrarily restrict this right.

If your plan was to specifically limit the to was to limit this code specifically to specific types of public gatherings, the language proposed in the ordinance should have been much more specific and restrictive instead of granting the city broad discretion to disperse any public gathering that takes place in public or which may require city resources in some vague undefined way.

The handout that I and everyone else here were handed when we walked in downplays the impact of this ordinance and does not match the actual legal language used in the ordinance itself. It claims that the ordinance will be laxed and restrained in its application. While the ordinance itself has no such carveouts for spontaneous protest or special events, only a broad mandate to shut down any gathering in excess of 30 people.

I object to all attempts to limit freedom of speech and assembly, especially in the current political climate where many of us already feel threatened and unsafe. This ordinance does not make anyone more safe. Th it is just creating more grounds to charge people with siminal with civil and criminal penalties. Police should not have the ability to determine what is a lawful or unlawful gathering.

There is an incredible potential for abuse of this ordinance to disrupt and arrest whatever groups the city or police don't like. We should not have to pay fees and submit notice in 60 days advance to maybe assemble at some point in the future. Whatever language is being offered about spontaneous first amendment protests is spurious and ultimately defined at the discretion of those enforcing this ordinance.

There is no legal definition of spontaneous and it is absurd that the legality of a protest should be determined by how much planning went into it like whether it was planned a few days ahead or a month or whatever. We have a first amendment right to peaceibly to peacefully assemble and this right should not be subject to the whims of unelected officials. Remember your oath to protect the constitution. Do not pass this ordinance. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

The next speaker is Tony Powell. Please come forward. State your name and city of residents. You have three minutes. Uh good evening. My name is Tony Powell and I live in Tempee. Um good evening mayor, vice mayor, and council members. Uh we all care about the well-being of everyone in our community, especially those that are unsheltered.

However, summer temperatures in the park can quickly become dangerous and large gatherings without proper resources can unintentionally put those that are already vulnerable at greater risk. For everyone's safety, I recommend connecting with local shelters and support organiz organizations that can provide nourishment and care in a safer and more controlled environment, specifically those that provide cooling options.

I'm in support of the city working with all of these groups that have spoken here today um to help find a better solution. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker I have is Dave Powell. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Thank you. My name is Dave Powell. I live in North Tempee. Uh I've been a resident of Tempe over 30 years. Um I'm not opposed to programs or activities that help those in need.

Uh what I am opposed to is the impact that these activities can have on my neighborhood in North Tempee. Uh I've seen firsthand the increased volume of people in the neighborhood following large group feedings. I've seen the human waste and garbage left behind by those individuals while in my neighborhood. I've obser observed drug use in the alley behind my house as well as dumpster diving and the trash that's left in the alley.

Uh and because of this, I would ask that the city council impose higher controls, regulations, and alter alter alternate options for these events. Thank you. Thank you. Um, just a note too, can we make sure to have uh speakers 45 to 50 begin to come down to the front? And with that said, uh, next speaker is Kathy Brand. Kathy Brand left. Okay. All right. The next speaker is Georgia Kohler. Please state your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Okay. Good evening.

My name is Georgia Kohler and I am in North Tempee, been there for 40 plus years and uh I've had the privilege of participating in many events and organized events within various locations in the city that have been well-run events under the city's ordinances and expectations. However, times change. The city's population has increased and changed as well. So, with that, I have reviewed the proposed revisions um for this ordinance.

I am in support of the proposed changes and would like to provide following feedback. The scale of the events at 30 before a permit is required. I I totally agree with. I don't think we can go any lower than that. Um and could speak to a event that happened uh spontaneously um in I believe it was Surprise or Glendale, I can't remember, where all of a sudden 50 kids just descended upon um an area and that becomes a problem.

So 30 is a pretty good limit for um a spontaneous event allowing assembly, free speech in that. Um one of my concerns with more than 30 people in a gathering without having the proper permitting and the proper steps taken is definitely public safety and welfare.

Um, I've worked in inner cities and inner city hospitals for many years and I've seen some of the things that can happen um when things are not managed well and I think this ordinance really helps provide some of that management that's needed for these events. I appreciate the good hearts of the people that want to feed but with that I think duplication of services is something that's very very important to look at.

I think there's too many duplications of services and um we in Tempe I think have some admirable um programs. I really do. And I know there's never enough to go around for everybody. But with that, I think if we could quit duplicating services and get together, we could quit diluting those services and really strengthen everything that's being offered and that people want to offer to the homeless. And with that said, people offered to pick up trash so they can bake bread. I appreciate that.

However, to Powell's point, come into my neighborhood and see what's left in the alleys and see what's left on the streets sometimes after these events because once they leave those parks, they're coming into our neighborhoods and it becomes a trash heap sometimes and becomes too many people in one area. And these are not unhoused. These are folks that are on drugs.

I've seen them saw a gentleman loose use that loosely walking across uh Scottsdale Road kitty corner not in the crosswalk and just totally walked across bus almost hit him and I'd seen him in the neighborhood with two other people. I kept an eye on them and they left the neighborhood. They weren't doing anything but walking so I couldn't say anything. But these are the people that end up in our neighborhood after feeding in the park.

You can laugh all you want, but if you don't leave there, you don't know. Let's show respect to all the speakers, please. So, spontaneous events, you have an ordinance of of section in the ordinance for spontaneous events, which I think is admirable. It allows assembly. It allows you to articulate and vocalize your thoughts and your feelings, which does protect your freedom of speech, right? So, there is an an allowance in there for that. So with that, please I ask that you pass this ordinance.

Thank you. Okay. The next speaker I have is Lane Carowway. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Good evening, Mayor Council. My name is Lane Carowway. I've been a 33-year resident of North Tempy north of the lake. I have been part of feedings in the park at Tempe Beach Park a few years back. Uh I encouraged G4S, the police department to be there because every time we had an issue.

Uh but over the last several years, Papago Park became a and I'm going to say a hole. We nobody could go there. You had And they're not homeless. That's what needs to be driven home here. These are drug addicts. They are service resistance. Some of these people have probably been encountered by the police hundreds of times and refuse services. You feed them in the park. You say you clean them up, but 30 minutes later, you're in your air conditioned car or you're in your air conditioned home.

These people are still there in the parks and they were continuing where they're doing drugs, having sex, trashing the place out. Then they get bored. Then they come over to our neighborhood. They do whatever. I just had to clean up on my sidewalk for the second time in less than a week and a half. These individuals come in, they make encampments, they throw stuff, they steal stuff. But yet I hear nothing but from these people, we left it better than what the we found it. That's that's a lie.

You're not around till every one of those individuals leaves. That is the problem with feeding in the parks. Nobody can use the parks afterwards. More your park. It's never used. Oh, really? Go there. See the feedings. You people pack up. They're still there. Guess what happens? They come over the hill, go to QT, do a little grocery shopping or go to Circle K, little grocery shopping, then come in our neighborhoods and trash it out, leave the garbage.

I would like these individuals to come to my house on a daily basis and clean my neighborhood and the businesses would appreciate it too. It is nonstop with these individuals. And we wouldn't have this problem if there wasn't feeding. Most of these people that have spoken tonight don't even live in Tempe, which I am amazed. You live in Phoenix, Mesa, South Scottsdale, wherever. How about feeding your own neighborhoods if they would allow it? but they don't.

My problem that I see is this ordinance would help control some of that and we need to do that. Otherwise, we're going to have more of the same stuff. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker I have is Robert Thornton. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Uh Robert Thornton, Phoenix. Uh thank you, council. I'm the executive director of Cloud Covered Streets. We are a 501c3 nonprofit since 2016 uh focused on helping those experiencing homelessness.

We do this with our mobile laundry and shower trailers. Since our inception in 2020 with taking trailers, we've had a really hard time finding a good place in Tempee to bring our trailers. Uh about a month and a half, two months ago, we began teaming up with the uh Native Action Project and they are located in Kings Plaza right there on 1300 Mcccleintoch. Our last trip there was June 13th and we provided services to over 50 people in 50 individuals experiencing homelessness.

We were supposed to be there again this last Monday, but on Friday we were contacted by the Native Action Project saying that the city of Tempe told them that if we were there providing services, they would receive a $1,500 fine because we do not have a special event permit. Um I I wish that the person that contacted them had done a little bit of due diligence and come down and look the services we provide because nothing that we do is listed on the special event permit.

Um, we we like I said, we saw 50 people, but since we are at the respit center, they're all inside, so they're not gathering outside. The only people outside in the heat are myself and my team. Our trailer is parked in the far northwest corner of King's Plaza. Anybody that drives into King's Plaza is not affected by our services. We're completely out of the way. When we leave Kings Plaza, it's cleaner than when we arrived. So, our next time we're supposed to be there is July 14th.

But I'm just trying to get some sort of justification from the council exactly what we're doing that requires a special event permit since we're not doing anything on your list. Mr. City, just a quick thing. I know this is under item 8 C7, but I know it might be a different issue. Am I allowed to comment on this or I want to make sure before I start talking. Uh, thank you, Mayor. Yeah, that is a separate issue to the extent it relates to special events ordinance.

Um, I can clarify that it sounds like there's a deviation of use that we discussed, uh, trailers parked and services being offered in a parking lot rather than that. So, I think that's about as far as we can go. Rather than where I think that's about as fair as I was going to ask Mr. Thornton if it's possible uh Jeff Timmy Levich is the director of the community development department and also his division uh overseas code enforcement.

If it's possible that you could talk to him because he's the person who oversees that entire division, that's probably the best I could do tonight. And I know I earlier uh talked to Dr. Macintosh before as well, so we had some conversation. But if you could speak to Jeff, that would actually be the best thing. You right there. Yeah. See, thank you so much. Appreciate you coming. Thank you. Um the next speaker I have is Michelle Brown. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence.

You have three minutes. Good evening everyone. Can you hear me? Yes. Absolutely. Because I'm deaf. So good evening. My name is Michelle Brown. I'm a resident of North Tempee for 55 years. Like other residents, I too am very distressed over the ordinance as it applies to city parks. But I've been hearing and have read that many people complain about safety in the parks and state that the homeless population is the cause. I would like to address the safety issue tonight.

I am a frequent user of many parks in this city and have been for years. I frequent Indian Bend, Papiggo, Mure, Tempe Women's Club, Evelyn Halman, the Tempe Preserve, Tempe Town Lake, and occasionally Kowanas daily. I walk, I hike, I bicycle, and I kayak. I applaud the city for our parks. They are clean, well-maintained, well-lit, and safe. City employees in the parks are always courteous. And I want you to know I usually exercise. I'm out alone. I always feel safe in our parks.

Sometimes alone in the dark in the parks and I still feel safe. I think it's important the council hears that because I hear think they hear things from other people about them being very unsafe. Please. I can't help but believe that the homeless are being discriminated against in Tempee and that this ordinance targets them and other groups that serve vulnerable populations, the nonprofits, the interfaith community, and others. I have many more points to make. I know our time is very limited.

I won't go over them. They've been stated well before, but I I will ask that you vote no on this ordinance tonight. Don't punish the homeless anymore. and let's go back to the drawing board as a community and work on it together. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, the next speaker uh I've got actually um if I can bring up the next block of people that would be uh folks 50 through 55. So 50 through 55 could begin to make their way forward. Uh that brings me to my next speaker which is Hillary Folk.

Please come forward. State your name David City of residents, you have three minutes. My name is Hillary. I am a resident of Tempi and I have been for the last seven years and I'm also a proud member of Thursday Papepigo Jam and also a facilitator and jam ambassador.

Thursday Papepico Jam is a 10-year standing free community-based gathering that happens every Thursday where community members share movement like yoga, circus, acro, slacklining, juggling, and offer and other offerings such as meditation, ceremony, art, music, and other various flow arts. Thursday, Papico Jam is a free outdoor community held at Papago Park where turnouts can range anywhere between seven up to 80 people.

I, like many others, have found Papago to be a place that I am guaranteed to make and meet a new friend or neighbor. I personally found my love for the community and yoga at Papago Jam. I was amazed at the group of community members that volunteered on a weekly basis to hold space for free. This anomaly of a group has brought me so much inspiration that I myself became a yoga instructor to be able to give back to my community just as others have done before me.

The word yoga means to union or yoke. I consider Papiggo to be the perfect place to yoke community. The jam is a space where anyone can join without judgment of age, size, color, financial status, or skill level. Papico has always been a place for me to step out of my comfort zone, meet new people, and try new things. I've been able to network with likeminded people and continue friendships that go beyond the park and have lasted me through various chapters in my life.

Because Papepiggo is a community- based space, the jams are also donationbased. There's never an expectation to give money um to the facilitator. The best donation for me as a facilitator is just getting people to show up and to be a part of the community outside. Sharing space is a priceless donation in itself. Just getting outside and grounding in nature isn't something that most people do on a regular basis. But Papagok Park gives the people an opportunity to do it do it for free.

Rather than doom scrolling and brain rotting at home, I invite the city council members to take a cleansing breath with me now. I ask you to set your intentions before voting on what the community of Tempe really needs in their parks. people or permits. Namaste. Thank you. The next speaker I have is I believe it's Stephen Schaefer. Yes. Please state your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Hello. I'm Steven Schaefer, PhD.

I've been a resident of uh Scottdale in the Tempe area since 2006. Um uh for the last 10 years, I've been attending uh Papago Park, Thursday Papago Jam. And last seven years I've been helping facilitate and organize uh put together the Facebook and Instagram accounts for it. Um but and they have you know about 3,000 to 2,000 followers on Instagram over the last couple years and uh this community has impacted many thousands of people in the Phoenix metropolitan area but also globally.

Um the recurrence of having it weekly at the same location allows for predictive uh attendance so that people that travel can by word of mouth spread about what is taking place here and frankly I feel that the city should be sponsoring this activity and in a way you have you've appropriated it because in February of 22 um we had a special event where uh Vera for his MFA grad graduation organized a special permit to use the east lawn of the Tempe Center for the Arts, the only time that we've changed location.

And we expanded into a mini yoga festival for an all day afternoon event before his performance to draw in more people. We had about 300 in attendance. And um since then, you've taken the language that I provided for that event and you've formulated Tempe Jam. You've probably heard of it. and you've increased the production quality of it because you have resources to do so. But basically, it's a strip down.

Everybody come with a carload of whatever you want to provide for the community for the evening. Um, and we're we can't predict in advance how many people are going to show up. We just put out who's going to be leading a movement class at the beginning of it. Um, it's not always yoga. and we encourage people to stay and Skillshare afterwards. You can do and share whatever you want with community afterwards.

Um, I'd like to point out that the park is open until midnight, but you have sprinklers that come on at 10:00 and 11:00 and douse the grills. So, anybody that is having a a barbecue in the park paying for your $25 permit, they're going to have a a sorry night of it. We uh have a good leave no trace ethic uh where we leave it cleaner than we found it, including debris from previous users of of the space.

Um I'd like to mention that uh in terms of uh the permitting addressing uh homelessness and some of these other things, you're not addressing root cause of what's going on. A lot of the homeless people I've observed over the years came to the Papago Park after the zone in Phoenix was cleared. I'm sorry that's time. I'll submit email comments. Got it. Thank you. Appreciate that. Okay. The next speaker I have is Darlene Justice. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence.

You have three minutes. And once again, I just should note too, if you are, let's say now, uh, speakers 52 through 57, please begin to come forward. 52 through 57. Yes, Miss Justice. My name is Darling Justice. I've lived in Tempi since 1965. And Mr. Mayor, assistant mayor, vice mayor, I'm sorry, and all the council members. Um over the years we've had a lot of events in Papico Park. We've had picnic in the park. We've had small groups to giant groups. We always got permits.

We always knew we had to do that. It lets the city know what's coming along. The police know what's happening and that. And uh I think the permitting is really important. Uh I don't remember there being that you the 30 people in that but you you're trying to set a goal at some point that people know that the city needs to know what's happening so that if if they need special help they can do that.

Um we one of the problems we're talking about feeding people that really need to be fed but one of the things that happened is when there are recurring feedings in the same place with no regulation. Our grassy paple park be became inundated with people. We had a large ramada that people were living in 24 hours a day. The whole ramada. People were around the lake. They were camping.

Uh there's even an inlet where the water came in and it wasn't coming in, but people were sleeping in there, but there were lots of people. The alleys were full of people that were hanging around. Um and there were lots of issues. So, there has to be some guidance with it. and Tempe, uh, the rangers and the police and the Tempy Care and Hope, you guys do a really good job. Look at the money that Tempe has put into TCAA over the years to help with homeless.

You have so many people in the hope program that have helped with homeless. We have places where people can go for transitional housing. We have more and more investments that are being made. And so Timi is not turning their back, but there are people that when they they have a feeding and people just hang around and go up and down the alleys and have other we have other problems, it's a hard thing to to manage.

And I know that in some cases that there have been groups that come out and offered services and that and most people just deny it. Um, I think you're doing a good job. We have to have order and we and North Tempi is a lot better than it used to be in our parks. You couldn't even take children there for a while. But I thank you for all you're doing. Hang in there. It's a tough situation. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um, really quickly too, um, is Paulina Milligan still here? Yes. Okay.

I think I called you ear, but but if you're still here, you can come forward now like you were earlier, but someone noted that you were still in the audience. Sure, please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Hi, my name is Paulina Milligan. I'm a resident of Tempe and I've lived most of my life in Tempe. Um, now uh, oh, and I've also been an avid user of public spaces like Tempe Parks for most of my life.

I hosted community meetups in the past and still attend others till this day. I believe the specifications regarding permits will have an overall negative effect on Tempes residents, including the dozen different activity- based groups that utilize Tempe parks and public spaces on a weekly basis. These groups are autonomous and host meetups in currently established public spaces with no extra cost to the city.

They provide meaningful ways for Tempe residents and tourists to connect with other like-minded individuals and keep up healthy habits on a weekly basis. They are valuable to they are valuable to the city as they don't require infrastructure like pickle ball or volleyball courts and provide a larger sense of community for residents, newcomers, and even tourists. Um I believe this type of communal leadership is a signifier of a thriving city and should be supported by Tempe city code.

If we want an engaged and supportive community, then we need city code that reflects that. I do believe that if this ordinance goes through as it is, then we will not only see a decrease in these free opportunities, but um we not only see a decrease in these free opportunities, but the very essence of them will change. Um now, this is talking on activity based groups. This isn't even talking about the communal efforts um that a lot of people have spoken on.

So, um I agree that I believe those should be supported as well, but I really urge the council to just take a pause, work with the community leaders that are here. Um I started, uh when Stephen Steven spoke on that yoga event, me and my friends started that back in 2014. I took a lot of time to make sure that the park was cleaned up at the at the end of the night, that people were acting appropriately, that we were really serving the community, and it's for the community by the community.

Um, so if we could do that to take the if we could really support these groups, take the burden off of the city budget, um, and if you could work with, uh, the community leaders that are here today, um, and maybe just set aside some time so we could figure out a better way to go about this. Um, it's not that I'm against permitting.

I just think that the language is a little loose and I would really love the time to just take a seat with you guys because I've been tracking these groups for the past decade. These are run, you know, you know about the different clubs that are out there. Um, but it is a resource and very valuable to to Tempe that we support that and support these commun communal leadership efforts. Um, so I think I think that is it. Wait, um, give me one second.

Um, yeah, if we could just take some time, sit together, that's really all that I want. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, the next speaker I have is Khloe Kansas. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Hello, my name is Khloe Kansas. I'm an ASU alum and now childcare worker. I read and watch the news every day and I sit and wish how I had more power to change this country and help it.

Which is why it makes me so angry to watch you guys who have been gifted these seats by the people of Tempe who not only have the responsibility but also the power to help the citizens of Tempe. almost 200,000 people uh to help them stay safe from the increasing pressures of fascist forces on this country. And you squander and waste that power on something absurd and frankly evil like privatizing our public parks.

This ordinance not only states it will site groups of 30 or more people for gathering in public parks, but charge someone among them $1,500 for or site them uh in charge of $1,500 with their only recourse at the mercy of the city manager, an unelected official uh instead of going through our judicial system. Seriously, that alone should just disqualify this from passing. And that's ridiculous.

Um, on top of that though, the maintenance and upkeep of our parks are paid by our taxes and the public should be allowed to use them without an application fee or fear of a $1,500 charge. As an example, for a group like New Meal Deal, each of their weekly of meetings would cost them $25 for the application fee. But over the course of a year, that would add up to $1,300 just on administrative fees.

A group like that made of volunteers and people just giving out of their goodness of their hearts for the community does not have $1,300 for administrative fees a year. That's money better spent on resources and food for their membership. Find another way to cover your operating costs. I'll put this another way. Imagine if I took a class of 32 kids on a field trip to the Tempe Library and when we went to go check out our books, the city kicked us out and finded me $1,500.

That would be ridiculous. And that's what we're doing with our parks with this ordinance. If you care about this city, you will vote against this ordinance. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker I have is Dom Carter. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Hello, my name is Dominique Carter and I'm a resident of Tempee. these changes to and oh first of all I sumearily reject the changes to these ordinance that you guys are proposing that you make.

Um these changes to the ordinance are specifically designed to be ambiguous. The ambiguity allows this ordinance to be applied selectively. The language of this ordinance was specifically engineered to target mutual aid associations in Tempe. The city council wants to criminalize feeding the homeless. This is not compassion. This is not how I was raised. I was taught that we should help those less fortunate. Instead, the council wants to punish those who help.

You should all be ashamed of your attempts to ram through this these ordinance changes. I astonishingly oppose the changes to this ordinance for all the reasons that many people have said tonight. The ordinance as a whole and the free speech exception in particular clearly violate the Arizona state constitution which says in article 2 section 5, the right of petition and of the people peacefully to assemble for the common good shall never be abridged.

And just to be very clear here, never be abridged means to never be shortened, reduced, or made more concise. The exemptions proposed attempt to make our right to assembly more concise, which is therefore in direct violation of that definition, which means that this ordinance is in direct violation of the Arizona State Constitution. Arizonans should be ashamed and appalled that this Tempe City Council is ignoring the right guaranteed by our own state constitution.

In fact, we had a state senator earlier call. They took time out of their own day to call and make sure that this city council knew that this particular ordinance and the language that is in the ordinance is a constitutional landmine. That's what they said. Their words exactly, a constitutional landmine. Let that sink in. This is serious what we're talking about here.

The language in this ordinance is so ambiguous that it gives the Tempe City Council and its city manager the ability to enforce whatever they deem appropriate according to what is in the language in the ordinance. This is wrong. Additionally, the council plans to introduce a new type of permit, a limited park use activity permit.

If this has been added to the ordinance, I would argue that we should restart the public hearing process because as far as I can see, that was not in the original language of the ordinance, and I don't think the public's had enough time to actually really consider these changes. You should not be able to vote on this tonight. And I believe that you guys will be violating our rights as constituents and as citizens of this country if you decide to pass this ordinance.

And furthermore, as hard as I try, I cannot find the change in language that would that these two updates I mentioned before would require. Thank you. Okay, next up. Okay, once again, please stop clapping. Please, please stop clapping. It's not funny. It's not funny. It's really not. All right. Now, let let's let me bring up uh folks 55 through 60. 55 through 60. Uh but next up, Madison Lord is the next person. Please come forward. State your name and city of residents. You have three minutes.

Hello, Mayor Woods and other council people. Um, my name is Madison Lord and I'm a resident of South South Tempe. I've lived in Tempe for over a year now. Um, I am not a public speaker so I'm going to try my best here. Um, I believe um, having more permits like more processes is more is arduous and will waste a lot of your time.

Um, I believe that people crave community and having like these weird arduous rules in place will discourage and even like cause people to have fear of gathering in a community and it would look bad. Um, like it's a bad look for Tempe really. It's a place that we want to be proud of and encouraging people to gather and use these beautiful parks like Papago. I was there recently. It's so gorgeous. The ducks are adorable and you know it's it's not a cesspool. It's gorgeous.

Um we don't want to discourage people from getting together and using what our tax dollars have been used for, you know. Um and then as for um people who are unhoused, um yes, there are things in place to help them out that the council has created and um our local government has created. Um, however, like there are people that fall through the cracks and there's like just um I don't know.

I just see that like these people are going out and like spending their own time, their own money to like fill in the gaps that exist because there are plenty of people out there that like they're on their last leg. They have mental health issues, disabilities, and they need help right now. And so like sometimes you you can't just wait like a long time to get a permit to get a a large gathering of people to help out these people. You know, it's it's a situation that needs help right now.

And there it seems like there's a lot of lovely people that are willing to go out and feed these people and then give them help, maybe um offer Narcan or whatever, you know. And um to say that like um these people are drug addicts um disqualifies them as like human or in need of help is so wrong, you know, and it's it's not fair. And I it's, you know, it's addiction is a disease. We shouldn't discount that at all. Um and then I guess um what else should I say? Um, yeah.

No, I believe it's a little weird that there um is a mysterious staff that'll be deciding whether or not um people um can be like whether or not people of groups of 30 or more can join um together. Um you know, who are these people? Um it seems they weren't elected and um yeah, like they can decide anything. But yeah, thank you for your time. Thank you. Next up here, let's go to Julie Tang. Please come forward. State your name and city of resident. You have three minutes. Thank you.

That just moved my PDF all the way down. I'm Julie Tang and I am a resident of North Temp. Thank you. I'm Julie Tang and I'm a resident of North Tempee. Much like some other folks who have spoken here, I'm also a Tempe Town Lake volleyball player. I walk around Popco Park almost every day for the last nine years. I literally live right there. Please vote no on this ordinance. Papico Park has been beautiful this whole time. I enjoy the amazing yoga in the park community that is there.

Uh the report from the ground is that it is not ugly. I actually haven't seen that man pick up any trash by the way while I've been walking around. Um by day I'm a Medicaid actuary. I care deeply about our vulnerable populations from my work with state governments and communications.

When laws are vague and when data is not transparent and the public has not had a chance to feel heard and they're been able to collaborate with their elected officials, that can erode their trust and that breaks down relationships with I don't know there are folks of the city council who are going up for reelection that should be considered in your vote tonight. The language of the ordinance is apparently a public secret. There is nothing online.

We had to rely on bootleg PDFs and nothing that I read and I read that thing is consistent with some of the uh swaging comments spoken here tonight. And you have to understand many of us in this room do not just want to take the words at face value of some older white men in business suits with smirks. A lot of what was spoken wasn't in the flyer that was handed out to us.

A lot of what's in the hand in the emails that were provided for folks who emailed city council members ahead of this meeting is also inconsistent with the flyer inconsistent with each other. And we're supposed to just trust that these uh exemptions for meet up and walk aways, all of that will be equitably upheld for all community members when the language in the ordinance is very very cut and clear.

Anything over 30 uh sound, amplified sound, food truck, all of that would need like the full $400 and up type of special events ordinance. Mayor Woods, your 2024 pledge that Tempe would measure success by resident trust rings hollow when this ordinance has not been posted online.

We've been betrayed on Tempee's uh strategic priorities of strong community connections, quality of life, safe and secure communities, and y'all know that there will be people very trigger happy to call the cops on people. Okay, that's time. I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, the next speaker is Hayapesia Hayesia Miraelia. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. I'm Hipatia Mervia.

I'm a transgender resident of Tempi for years and a proud member of United Campus Workers CWA Local 7065. This city council profits profited from a seat of honor at our pride celebration last month, boasting about how m how much y'all love love and how much you want to support Tempy's queer residents. And now when it comes to the wire, y'all propose a policy to make it substantially harder to get mutual aid and food to our neighbors and friends.

28% of queer youth have experienced homelessness or housing insecurity at some time in their lives, including me. Nearly a third of queer youth. We're talking about public spaces paid for by public taxes. I'm a graduate student worker at ASU. ASU pays us $10,000 below the cost of living for Tempe. $25 might seem trivial to some of y'all, but to me that's groceries. Groceries, mind you, that I pay taxes on. So, do I have less of a right to use these public spaces than you who can afford the fees?

Do queer folks not deserve the dignity of potlucks, of necessities, of aid? Why are you abandoning us now? Why make events in public places accessible only for those who can afford the steep fees for every event? Shame on you. Vote no. Okay. The next I should note to the next uh group of people I need uh speakers 58 through 63 to come forward. So 58 through 63. And uh the next speaker I have is Philip Yates. Please come forward. Stra David City of Residents. You have three minutes. [Music] Mr.

Mayor um members of the council, uh I guess I would have to first ask the city manager, uh why weren't the um people that are leading or trying to lead our neighborhoods, neighborhood associations, why weren't they informed that these discussions were going on because there's no way we can get out that kind of information to our residents, our neighbors, our friends, our families. We can't. We have to be involved.

Shame on you for not reaching out to me or any of the other people that are the the u advocating members of our communities. We need uh more action for from everybody that uh is involved with anything to do with this big of a change. Uh we are talking here about violating our rights and once we start doing that we are putting ourselves in really big jeopardy of being sued on multiple levels and I think you have heard that from a lot of different attorneys.

uh we need to seriously consider what it is that we would like to see happening in our city. What direction can we take that is going to better our city? I am a fifth generation Tempe. I can't believe that I am the second person that has said that tonight. Uh I have never even met one that's a fifth generation Tempion. But uh and in any case, I think that it uh please listen to everyone that is talking today. You are our elected officials.

You do have the um opportunity to make a change and you should think about what you it what it is that you are going to do if you do approve this. And it isn't going to be a good u change for our city. It is definitely going to be a bad change for our city. Um and I think that you know people that volunteer their time and their efforts, their monies in our public areas don't have to be jeopardizing their own way of living. They have to be happy. I want to be happy to live here in this city.

I want to be be seeing everybody happy that I live with my family, my friends. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Appreciate it. The next speaker I have is uh Chad Sundon. Please come forward. Statement City of Residence. You have three minutes. Hello. My name is um the Reverend Chad Sundine. I am in Temp I am a Tempe resident and I am one of the priests at St. Augustine's Episcopal Parish in Tempe.

We as a here represent the whole church community and the Episcopal campus ministry and the people who are a part of that. Um we have for the last two decades um since it began um partnered with TCA with IHELP the IHELP program. Um we maintain a small um mutual aid food closet out of our out of our parish for those who come by.

Um, our community volunteers a lot of time staffing the ad hoc cooling centers because of the reduced number of cooling centers that have popped up um, ho hosted at churches and staffed by volunteers. Um, it would be really nice if the community that I represent and that I'm a part of were invited into a conversation about these changes.

And I encourage you to please um bring this to a period of review of public comment that is not just handed from the staff to the council for a vote but that actually gets input from the community on these changes. Thank you. Thank you Reverend. Appreciate it. The next speaker I have is Noah Spencer. Please come forward. State your neighbor city of residents. You have three minutes. Hello. Uh my name is Noah Spencer.

I'm a president of Tempp and uh I'm speaking on behalf of myself as an individual. Uh I sort of came into speaking in this situation uh somewhat organically um just as a person interested in in uh mutual aid and in community engagement generally including broadly events that are open to the public. Um and uh part of that comes from the fact that sort of in my exploration of the of the topic of mutual aid and opportunities for mutual aid.

Um I have gotten the sense even prior to learning about this ordinance which I found out about very recently. um was is that there is a perception and I think maybe an atmosphere uh that there is hostility towards these types of activities and perhaps even um some other types of community based activities in our public spaces uh in the city of Tempee specifically.

Um there was a question earlier about whether for example events centered around sharing meals with the community exist in other cities in the valley. Uh I can tell you that they do. Uh and I've been to some of them. Uh I can also say that we haven't uh from what I've heard actually touched on a lot of what this when people talk about the the concept of mutual aid uh and what that means and I think it probably means different things to different people.

But on a broad level I think um because I think maybe there's been some conflation between mutual aid with community service or charity as we often see those things defined.

But I think a big part of mutual aid is the idea that we can build networks of aid and interdependence within our own communities that can help us be more resistant to really difficult conditions including dangerous heat, food insecurity, lots of things that people in Tempe and throughout the valley experience, which obviously the city of Tempe is taking steps to do things about.

Um, but I think it's really powerful for us as a community to be able to like build a resistance to those things, especially when we're facing lots of challenges. for example, at the federal level.

Um and so of course it's it's less meaningful in that way for me to go and engage in with some other community in the valley because of course you know my desire and in being involved in in mutual aid is is in community building in the community where I live and that is in Tempee and unfortunately the perception that I have gotten is that the atmosphere here is not welcoming to that sort of activity and to the building of that sort of community and rather sort of more perhaps tailored to the interests of large institutions uh that might be present here um and and sort of maintaining a perception that's sort of consistent with that.

So, I would just like to emphasize uh that uh I believe that you should vote no on this ordinance and uh you know that I would like to see uh that something that I have been hoping to see more of I I think uh in my time living here is community which I think is often something that's difficult in a dispersed um sort of community like we have here out west. And I think that opportunities for that whether it's through mutual aid or other activities open to the public are really important.

And when it comes to the matter of public safety, I think heat and food insecurity are public safety issues. Thank you. Okay. Next speaker I have is Cashir Casuras. Please come forward. State your name and city uh city of residents. Uh you have three minutes. Sorry, it's been a while. I'm stumbling a little. I apologize. Uh good evening, mayor, vice mayor, council members, and city staff. Uh I apologize if I'm a little shaky. I came here off of work and haven't had dinner.

Um, I want to encourage you all to I implore you to vote no on this ordinance. The language of it is too broad. It is too far-reaching and it is poorly structured to give guidance to Tempe residents. Now, I'm not a lawyer, but I do work in contract compliance, so I can give a bit of my perspective on the way this reads. First off, we've been talking a lot about parks, but in chapter 5, the language does not specify just parks.

For example, if someone is having a yard sale and their merchandise gets too close to the sidewalk, that could be vending on public property. That would be a special event. There's no other permit that can pass that off.

um if there is a group of hobbyist bird watchers in the park who don't think that they need a permit to watch birds in the park and they solicit or they speak to the public and say anyone's free to join come on join us that then makes it a public event that makes it a special event and that is liable for a permit.

If there is a group of students who decide to kick off summer break by going to the public pool and they have an amount of chaperons with them and their group code is over 30, that's a special event that requires a permit by the language of this contract. Moreover, the language in the parks section um regarding unsanitary events or unsafe events, those the language there is towards a specific purpose and it is biased towards the activities that people might perform in the park.

For example, I have a community garden bed. I have an abundance of produce. sometimes and I offer them to families who are playing in the park nearby. If I leave that produce unattended on a table nearby for them to pick up and I leave, that is then leaving unattended food for distribution and donation. that makes me liable for at least a $100 fee and any other civil penalties that come along with breaking a an non-prohibited act in the park.

Now, the examples that I've given here are kind of extreme to see them actually enforced in these situations. However, if these are exceptions, if these are re ways that they would not be enforced, then they that is unequal application of the rule as it is written. Thank you. Appreciate it. The next speaker I have is Rebecca Sperry. Please come forward. State your name and city of resident. You have three minutes. Hello. Um, and thank you for taking your time to hear everyone speak.

Um, and thank you, mayor, for coming to SHED as well. Thank you. Um, my name is Rebecca Sperry. I'm from Tempe. I wear a lot of hats. K12 teacher with facilitate um with ASU, facilitator with nonprofit, urban planner, army national guard, truck driver, and artist. Keep in mind exper my experience comes from a year with the yoga community, five years volunteering at Urban Gardens, four years in the military, three years teaching, and two years volunteering for the Phoenix Crisis Response.

Also, thank you. Uh oh, sorry. I'm here today to speak on the parks. I'm not here with a fiery speeches or list of laws, which for the record is more than okay. I won't ask you to fight or to feel a certain way. I just want to share some perspective and a bit of data and to trust that you're here because you care about the city. I know you I know you do. This job is hard. I'm speaking because community gatherings in our parks are a force for good. That ripple matters.

In my last statement, I mentioned how the focus on negative yield only activates logic in the brain, while the focus on positive activates the brain in ways that allow for connection. Beyond facts and numbers, I want to ask, what does your ideal city look like? Are there gardens along Mill Avenue? Are the businesses busy and joyful? Do families gather under big leafy trees? Shade, laughter, connection, these things don't happen by accident. They need all of us, including you.

I started learning about cities before I ever got a degree, just by getting involved with other people. In 2020, I decided to dive head first into understandings, understanding what makes a city thrive. and I do my work now. That's the work I do now, right? But I realized I was searching for answers to why the little communities I'd been a part of, especially Tempi, a Tempy apartment complex back in 2019, worked so well. Why did that Tempy that complex come together, right?

That place ticked every box of my favorite urban planners playbook. It was dense. It had places where multiple things were happening, walkable blocks, and old buildings with character. We had we also had sidewalks and shared spaces. I went to 14 apartments platonically. I'd helped neighbors move, meet new babies, hear kids playing at dusk. We looked out for each other and it felt natural. Not forced or planned, but real.

When I shifted my focus to what was broken in the city, some of that magic faded. I think the lesson is this. The best communities don't just fix problems. They create spaces where people can be their truest selves, where everyone gets to connect. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay, the next speaker I have here, I don't have a last name. I just have an Alexander. So, I don't know who to call. Is there an Alexander from Scottsdale? I'll just put that there.

Okay, then I will move to the next speaker. Uh, and actually, let me just be very clear, the um some of the next speakers I know left. So, if I can get speakers 68 to 73. 68 to 73. And then I will I will bring up uh John Escobar. I was just about to ask. Sorry. Please uh uh name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Uh good evening, Mayor Woods, Vice Mayor, and members of the council. Um thank you for spending a long evening with us.

Um and I appreciate the opportunity to address you tonight. My name is John Escobar. I have previously served the city in this council as a member of the neighborhood advisory commission. And I've lived uh in Tempe for 20 years um before moving to Gilbert to uh care for my dad who has terminal cancer. And I intend to return to Tempe because Tempe is my home.

Um like all of you, I am deeply invested in the ideals of public service, dedicating time and energy to improving our community for all of its citizens. Like you, I take seriously our society's obligation to provide basic necessities to families, children, and the unhoused. Like you, I strongly believe in the freedom of personal property, including the right of private citizens to volunteer their time and money to aid their neighbors. This ordinance before you today must fail.

You should vote no on it. I'm here on my own behalf. I also happen to be a member of the Religious Society of Friends, who you may know as the Quakers. I believe in helping others as part of my calling from God and is my right as an American to freely practice my religious beliefs. We all agree that the city of Tempe and the council are bound to honor the United States and the Arizona Arizona Constitutions and you've heard about its provisions today.

You know very well that you must answer in court for any violations of those basic rights that are guaranteed by those charters. But more than that, we all know as a matter of basic, simple humanity that helping people is a good and decent thing to do. You all have had cause in your lives to lend a helping hand to a stranger, maybe even without getting a permit, maybe without giving 60 days of notice that you're going to do it.

Lending that helping hand to a stranger by sharing communal meals with them, it's not a feeding. A feeding is something you do to pigeons or to zoo animals. That's not what these folks here gathered today are doing in our community. It's not how we're using the land that belongs to the public in our public parks. I'm here tonight to tell you that parks are for people. They belong to the people. They are beloved gathering areas and in many ways they are the heart of our city.

The ordinance under consideration gives unelected bureaucrats enormous power to deny permits to constitutionally protected activities. It stops you from following my beliefs and it stops my neighbors spending their time and money to help their fellow neighbors. I'll leave you with this. The people who are gathered here today, and there are a number of them, have managed on our own to sus out some kind of animist behind what the council intends to do today.

If these are the questions you're getting from us, imagine the kind of questions you're going to be getting from a judge. As others have pointed out, election season is coming. I imagine that some of you like the chairs that you're sitting in. I suggest we all get to work. Thank you for your time. Thank you. All right, the next speaker I have is Julie Solace. Is Julie I think I think I'm pronouncing that correctly. Julie Solace. Okay. Uh the next speaker I then have is Oy Brown.

Please come forward. State your David City of Resident. You have three minutes. Hello, my name is Oie Brown and I live here in Tempi. I have just recently graduated from Marcos Denisa High School and I'm supposed to be worrying about work and affording college, not whether or not my fundamental rights are being taken away. This ordinance is a violation of both the US Constitution and the Arizona State Constitution.

Furthermore, this is a limitation on when, where, and how people exist in a space that they have already paid for. This blatant attack on our first amendment rights bows even sorry is additionally an attack on the Arizona state constitution which goes even further in article 2 section five five when it where it states it is the right of the petition and the people to peacefully assemble for the common good shall never be abridged. This ordinance is a textbook example of what a bridged means.

In this case freedom of speech so exists. If you are absurdly wealthy, you get it approved by the government and you work with the police. The government is who we have historically had to protest against. In what world would the government give the go-ahehead for more attention to be drawn to the systems flaws or their mistakes?

It has only ever been through peaceful protests of the people demanding to be heard that any positive movement has been successful and amplified sound is a huge part of that. I'm not going to stand here and list them for you as I know that we all well aware. However, I would like to point out that this ordinance makes us extremely vulnerable for those who are already talking about taking away gay marriage. The only way to defend this right is how we got it in the first place.

Large peaceful protests, which are usually more than 30 people. After this, how can you answer to the people that you are supposed to be serving? which if I may remind you includes the homeless individuals who benefit from mutual aid organizations that are already being targeted by using a community space to serve the people. Can we stop so she can actually speak please? It's distracting.

Vice Mayor, you are involved in local solutions to ending homelessness advisory committee which wrote ending homelessness a guide for local governments in which nowhere does it recommend violating people's rights, taking away aid or shutting down community support systems. It advocates for the opposite. The center provides assist assistance, education, and critical resources, and creative solutions to help local leaders improve quality of life for their communities. And I will give it to you.

This ordinance is certainly creative. A creative way to hurt our communities, a creative way to take away our rights through freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, a creative way to violate the US state con the US Constitution and the Arizona State Constitution. However, it surely does not help anyone. And you of all people know that. All of you, however, are aware of how this is an attack on your people's rights. So why are we still here entertaining this unconstitutional ordinance?

You say free speech is exempt, but that is not an ordinance, which means it does not matter in our legal process. If parks, if it is just for parks, then keep it to parks. This ordinance includes private and public property, which means people's homes. Thank you. The next speaker is Theo Malloy. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Good evening. My name is Matthew. I'm a Tempe resident and recent graduate of Marosa High School.

The first amendment protects our right to protects our right to assembly and right to petition. Arizona takes it a step further in article 2, section 5, where it claims the right of petition and to peacefully assemble shall never be abridged. Our state constitution emphas emphasizes this fundamental right of the people with powerful wording. It shall never be abridged. This ordinance is an attack on our First Amendment rights and violates the Arizona State Constitution.

Placing a limit on the amount of people allowed to gather prohibits peaceful protest and community events. Any attempt to limit or suppress peaceful protest is an attack on our First Amendment rights. The vague wording of the ordinance also targets basic usage of parks. As a member of the community, I have participated in many activities in our public parks that were well over 30 people.

From birthday parties at Kowanas Park, local sports competitions at CEA and Clark Park to community events at Papago and Tepe Beach Park, we already pay for our parks. So why are we being charged additional fees on top of our taxes? This ordinance will limit free fees to only those who can afford the fees and manage the complicated process of getting a permit? Why does the city need to be involved in how we use our parks?

Our parks are central to our community and this is an unconstitutional limit to how we may use them. The language used in this ordinance is left intentionally vague and gives a city manager the power to control the use of the parks. The ordinance states that any event expected to require a degree of city services above those already provided must get a permit. This gives a city manager sole power to determine what needs a permit. It grants too much power to an unelected city employee.

The city also sponsors events on city property like the annual geeks night out which I know council member Hajj attends. Would they be charged fees as well? The city could prohibit the local yoga group from meeting, but any city sponsored event could easily dodge the fees with a special permit from the city manager. This ordinance will be used to target any groups or movements that the city doesn't agree with.

If a protest was being organized against police brutality, do you expect the police chief to be willing to cooperate with the organizers? This ordinance along with the business permits approved earlier tonight show exactly how the city prioritizes profits over their citizens. There is no input from citizens on this ordinance. This is suppression. All arguments I've seen that support this ordinance talk about us house people as if they were stray dogs.

As someone who has been homeless and is part of the Temp Union High School District's Mckin Vento program, it's horrifying that members are of our community view each other that way. This ordinance goes far beyond attacking mutual aid organizations trying to help the homeless. It will lead to selective enforcement and discrimination. This ordinance violates the state constitution and attacks citizens first amendment rights. Say no. Thank you. The next speaker I have is Vince Mendes.

Please come forward. State your name city of residence. You have three minutes. Hello. Uh my name is Vince Mendes. I am a uh resident here in the city of Tempi. Um let me see. I'm here today because I found out that you want to change or you want to charge people to gather in parks, which last I checked were supposed to be public, as in paid by the taxpayers, as in everyone gets to use them.

This ordinance is just another way of saying if you're not rich, you don't get to exist comfortably in public space. Let's be honest, this isn't about crowd control. This is this isn't about safety. This is about turning the idea of community into a transaction and we see right through it. Who do you really think this is going to affect? Because I promise you I'm going to be Oh, I'm not um it's not going to be the well-connected folks holding fundraisers.

It's not going to be corporations hosting brand events. It's going to be families who gather to celebrate a birthday. Students who organize for change or unhoused people who simply exist in a space you already make hard to access. This is not a neutral policy. This is gatekeeping. This is privatization. This is softbanning the public from public land.

And if this city can afford endless police overtime and patrol those same and patrol those same parks, if you've got money to subs uh subsidize corporations and developers, then you absolutely have the money to let people gather on a patch of grass without sending them a bill. I can only imagine the police brutality this is going to cause for those who don't know about this and refuse to be ticketed, especially to the black and brown communities.

What you're doing here is creating a system where community is punished and isolation is rewarded. And in 2025, in the middle of an affordability crisis, that's what you chose to go off after. Not corporate landlords, not developers backing up rents or jacking them up. You chose people trying to gather in peace. Don't pretend that this is about fairness or maintenance fees. If this passes, it sends one message. Tempe is only open to those who can pay for it.

This is how fascism creeps in, not with boots, but with permanent applications and late fees. And we see it clearly. So, I'm asking you, do you really want your legacy to be recharged people to exist together? Because the people will remember, especially the ones you're trying to price out of public life. So, no, I'm not going to ask you politely. I'm not going to politely urge you to reconsider. I'm going to say this loud and clear. This is cowardly. It's exploitative.

And if you vote yes on this, you don't serve the public. You serve the pockets of power trying to silence them. Genuinely, I hope you guys really vote no on this cuz this is completely unacceptable for so many lives out there. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, really quickly here to um I'm going to need speakers. Let's do 74 to 80 and uh but 74 to 80 but the next up is Jasmine Hernandez. Please come forward. State your name and city of resident. You have three minutes.

Hello, my name is Jasmine Edmandez and I am a resident in Tempee. First, I want to thank the council and the mayor for allowing me to speak today or tonight. On June 11, 2025 on Instagram, Mayor Woods made a public statement regarding a homeland security operation in 10p. He emphasized that our city is a place of inclusion where immigrants, communities shouldn't live in fear and that 10p stands for dignity, safe, and basic human rights.

So, let me ask, if we truly stand by those words, why are you pushing a park ordinance that restricts community gathering and access to public space? I read the update, and let me be clear, I strongly disapprove. Vote no for this ordinance. Not only was this passed without meaningful community input, but it goes against the very values the mayor just stood behind. Do we just forget about the first amendment about freedom of assembly? These parks are not just green spaces.

These were they're where families celebrate birthdays, where neighbors connect, where healing happens. You don't you don't get to regulate the soul of the community from behind a desk. you haven't actually sorry you don't get to regulate the soul of the community from behind a desk if you haven't actually spent time in these spaces. When's the last time any of you sat on those romadas or picked up trash after a busy weekend? Now let's talk about the real impact of this ordinance.

Are we doing this to reduce homelessness? Because if that's the intent, shame on us. Homelessness isn't a isn't a new a sorry, homelessness isn't a nuisance. It's a policy failure. This city should be protecting its people, not hiding them. It's expensive out here. Wages haven't kept up. And now you're charging working families to reserve a gazebo that could be broken and not even built right. That's not governance. That's gatekeeping.

What this ordinance does is put up walls in a place meant for connection. It punishes people for simply existing in public and it tells lowincome families, immigrants, and vulnerable people that Tempe doesn't want them unless they can pay for the privilege. So, I ask you to reconsider. Talk to the community before passing policies that directly affect them. Walk through our parks. Listen to the people who reply. Sorry, listen to the people who rely on the parks.

Because if we're serious about dignity, justice, and inclusion, then it's time for our policies to reflect to reflect those values, too. Thank you. Thank you. Quick question, Mr. City Attorney. Um just as a note for for um and this is unrelated to this item. For folks who still are here, who still have items that need to be approved, we can go beyond midnight and still all of those things will be valid. Correct. That's correct, Mayor.

I do believe though the uh finance director would like the budget meeting to occur today.

So, um what I recommend is we adjourn this meeting for and then reconvene it um 15 minutes later and okay well we'll now time to restart this regular meeting to allow the council to convene the budget meeting hold the budget meeting and then so let's so let's do this I will let's go for another till about 11:50 for the folks who are standing here and then I then we we have to get that budget meeting before midnight but then so we'll journ and come back But uh in the meantime, uh number 73 is up.

Victor Jimenez, please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Hello, council members, Mayor Woods. Um I just want to I just want to let you guys know about my experience. I'm a resident of uh Tempe, been there for 65 years and I'm a retired park ranger for the city of Phoenix. As a ranger, we had to enforce a similar code that Phoenix has and theirs is called a special usage permit and theirs has been in effect since before 1989.

That's when I started as a ranger. I retired 32 years in 2021. And then during that time in that enforcement, we would have to get a sheet at the beginning of every work week and they would give us a list of special uses permits throughout all the parks in Phoenix. And we would have to go there and enforce make sure they would have their permits in order, any insurance in order, whatever they had. If they had a beer permit, we had to make sure they followed the rules on the beer permit.

make sure it was contained between their group, not in the parking lot, not in the bathrooms, and the permit only was good for City of Phoenix property, parks, preserves, and libraries. As a as a ranger, we were also responsible for checking the group periodically throughout their permits, making sure that they were abiding by the permit. We'd offer them assistance in bags cleaning up the area and if they had their permit on site, we would record the name.

That way, in case there was any damage to the area, we knew who to contact about the damage. There was also parks that we had to shut down events because they didn't have their permits and that was not not something that I look forward to. We had to shut down a couple baseball games and we got surrounded by baseball players. Got shut down some soccer games because we didn't have the permits. We got surrounded by a couple soccer players.

But after we explained to them what the permit was for, who was responsible for the permit, they would start making phone calls right away and going back to the people that they paid money for the events that the they were having. So, it's just uh you know the city had us do all that as rangers and that was pretty much what we did according to this special usage permit that they had since before 1989 similar to what this one is.

I don't know what the legal verbiage is compared to Tempe in Phoenix, but it's been a fix since since I was a ranger. And that's all I wanted to say. Thank you. Appreciate it. The next speaker I have is Katherine Mancini. Please come forward. Statement City of Residence, you have three minutes. My name is Katherine Kathy Mancini. I live in Tempe, Arizona. I'm going to have to arm wrestle um some people in the audience to see how long we've lived here. But I was born and raised in downtown Tempe.

Um then I moved uh when I was one to the north side of town where my neighbors Lane and um Darlene um I grew up with Darlene's kids. Um so I I understand their plight. I understand their concerns. Um, but I will also say that the parks, um, with all of the work we've done and all of the work that the city has done, the parks are way better condition, way safer than they were when I was a kid in the 70s. And I can tell you that for sure cuz I was here.

Um, so we had, you know, chronic hippie loveins in the parks that would go on for days. We had nudity. I saw so many streakers. I can't even tell you how many. Um, so when we talk about, you know, the parks are trashed or that sort of thing, I I I cannot believe that myself. I do use the parks myself as well. So, um, a little story about, you know, when we're in our bubbles and we look outside.

I I live in downtown Tempe now and um you know I can tell you what what happens after a boots in the park event and I go downtown and there's drunk people and there's drugs and there's you know all kinds of nonsense and shenanigans that go on. So I guess if we look for it, we're going to find it no matter where we go. Um, I'll give a couple little um, tidbits in my last minute or so here.

Um, I worked in in the field of parks and recreation much like the gentleman who just spoke after me or before me. Um, I worked in a small municipality. Um, I actually helped to write a grant to create a first park in a small m municipality here in the valley. And um the thing that I learned in my short tenure in working in parks and recreation was that we want to encourage people to use our parks.

I mean, I would never even think of putting anything in place that's going to discourage the broad use of a park. And so, again, just speaking from my my professional experience, um safety, that's another key word that I've heard thrown around um a lot of. Um so safety is based on what we call risk assessment and we also need to understand what risks the people that are engaging in these activities are willing to take.

It's not a broadbased this is safe or this is unsafe because a community decides for themselves. The users decide for themselves and we haven't engaged any of the community in this. Um I maybe heard about this maybe a month ago. Um, and I like to think that, you know, being in the neighborhood that I pay attention. Um, so using safety as a a word to sort of a buzzword, I think is inaccurate and disingenuine. And I think that when we talk safety, we have to involve the users. Thank you.

Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. We're going to have to Jack, you will be the first person up right afterwards. I thank you for being patient. Let me um can I get a motion to adjourn this meeting? Second. It's been moved by council Hajj and seconded by Vice Mayor Garland. All those in Mayor Mayor, if I may, um we should move to adjourn the meeting and recon recess the meeting and reconvene at a time specific. So, okay. So, if those motions can be withdrawn from everyone? Yes. Okay.

And can you uh restate that language again? So, mayor, I anticipate um roughly 20 minutes for the um so recommended motion is to recess this meeting and it will reconvene at 12:10 a.m. or as soon thereafter as the budget meeting may conclude. Okay. Can someone please make that motion then? Or mayor, may I interrupt? I don't think it's going to take 20 minutes for the budget meeting. Okay. Hi. Can we do it? Um, yes.

Council Katy, I motion we recess this meeting until the time in which the budget meeting is finished. Is that okay? I I I I I'm sorry to be this specific. I think we we need to state a time so we can how about we state this that we re the recess this meeting and it'll reconvene at 12:01 a.m. or as soon thereafter as the budget meeting may conclude.

Is that yeah someone else okay so that uh motion uh was to by counciling as the motion was read uh by our city attorney uh and seconded by council member Hajj. Um, all those in favor, uh, please say I. I. Any oppose? Same sign. Okay. So, this motion, uh, that motion passes. Uh, we're going to move into Jason, I guess you did a minute to turn the room around, I'm assuming, for the budget meeting or Okay. All right. Good morning, everyone.

Um, we are going to we're going to uh reconvene the uh Tempe City Council regular council meeting uh at 12:01 a.m. Uh, we're going to go back to item 8C7. And once again, the next uh back to the public comment portion. So, the next speaker that I have is Jack Maverick. Please come forward, state your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Awesome. Thank you guys. My name is Jack Maverick. I live in the city of Tempe and I am an internet troll.

So before I get started, I'm going to use an acronym that might sound like a curse word, but it is not. It stands for friendly unfettered government. FUG fug. So in the past, I have fought against some of the moves that this council and the city manager has made. But I am happy to report that I have seen the light. I've listened to your arguments. I've read your ordinance. I saw the PowerPoint slides from the Trust me bro Law office and I've done some deep soulsearching and I stand converted.

You see, I know that I have the body of an athlete, but I don't go do yoga in the park with a with a bunch of people. So, I agree with you guys. Fug them. I'm not out here organizing bike rides with friends in the park. So, fug them. I'm not a 15-year-old Latinx girl on stolen Mexican land. So, I'm never gonna have an kitiera, so them. I own a house. I'm not homeless. I own seven streaming services and I pay for them to not have ads. And as you can tell, I don't miss a lot of meals.

So, the homeless that are hungry in the parks, them, guys. I'm a white upper middle class professional who doesn't use the parks in these ways and anyone who's different than me must be criminalized. I don't need to protest anything cuz the rules that you guys make benefit me directly. So I don't need to speak up. I trust that you guys have my interests at heart. So since our last meeting, I have sat in my air conditioned house.

I've watched a lot of Fox News and Newsmax and I'm terrified to go outside. So, anyone who wants to use the parks should pass a means test. They should pay money or they should crawl off and die. Fugum. There is only one change that I want to make to this ordinance and that is I think we should give Rosa another raise. You're doing a wonderful job. We're going to move on to 76. That's uh Daniel Taylor. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes.

Thank you for having me. I'm uh Daniel Taylor, born and raised in Scottsdale. I lived in Tempe for a little bit as an ASU student. Sorry. My name is Daniel Taylor. I was born and raised in Scottsdale, Arizona. A former Tempe resident and a future of innovation and society alumni at ASU.

I'm representing two weekly family-friendly uh community events, the Acra Yoga meetups at Tempe Beach Park and Yoga and more in the park at Papago Park, a skillshare space for yoga, dance, flow arts, music, and more. Our international community reaches thousands through social media. We gather in reasonable numbers utilizing taxf funded public spaces responsibly to support wellness, creativity, and connection.

These events are exclusive uh not exclusive free to join and open to anyone walking by creating vibrant welcoming spaces where communities grow. Yoga is a source of spirituality and stress relief for many while dance and flow arts offer joy and creative expression. These gatherings help people heal, grow and connect. And that positive energy reaches everyone at the park including visitors and staff. In many cities, people play pay to watch acro yoga and fire performances in Tempe.

People strolling down Tempe Town Lake can enjoy free community-led practice sessions. And there's no fire. Don't worry about that. Um, these events help locals hone their skills and often lead to paid performances at restaurants, festivals, and beyond, supporting local talent and enriching Tempee's cultural scene. At Papra Go Park, we fully comply with all noise ordinances, ending amplified sound before 10 p.m. And the overhead airplane noise is often louder than our music.

We uh also promote leave no trace habits and positive reinforcement of rein recycling, making sure the spaces we use stay cleaner than we found them. We're committed to being respectful, sustainable stewards of a shared space. Even park staff have referred to us as disco Yoga at Yoga More in the Park. Uh a light-hearted sign that we're bringing joy and energy there. These kinds of gatherings show that Tempe is alive, connected, and worth investing in both culturally and economically.

That's why concerns over increased surveillance like camera enforcement and AI facial recognition are troubling. These tools may unintentionally undermine the open trusting spirit of community events. If people don't feel safe to simply show up, we may be forced to relocate and uh which is a loss not just for us but for the broader community.

So I ask, how can Tempe ensure that taxf funded public spaces remain accessible, welcoming, and protected for grassroots gatherings that serve the public good? Thank you for considering our perspective. Thank you. Appreciate it. The next speaker I have is Sebastian deport, excuse me. My bad. It's after midnight. I apologize. Um, is Sebastian still here? Okay. The next speaker I have is Tom Brown. Okay, there you are. You guys are doing great. Thank you.

Um, please uh state your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Tom Brown, Tempe, Arizona. Thank you. Um, first of all, good evening and I want to thank several council members and a lot of the staff have met with me in the last two weeks and I've learned a lot. I've drunk a lot of coffee. Um, I want to thank you for uh for all this. I I I'm going to ask the council members to courageously um agree the proposed ordinance could be better written.

There are some terms that are problematic and and some will perhaps have legal legal impacts which we don't want to mess with. Um others have spoken about the details of the um of the ordinance. So I don't need to speak to that so much. Uh they've they've spoke eloquently. I'd rather speak on the future and how we're going to communicate how we can improve the communication between both sides of this desk. Uh we speakers are not looking for perfection nor will we find it um in any room.

This issue is complex and we can only ask that the ordinance be improved to make it easier for people to do the right thing to help others with a minimum of fuss and fees if a continuous is possible. I think we said we would recommend that uh to gather more public input. Now I don't know if I can spin this whole thing so I'll try this. My uh fellow black shirt wearers uh black shirt black shirt clad speakers um please read today's article in the in the republic.

I believe the journalists are here in the audience. I met one of them uh Lauren. It's really well written. Um it's printed on a newspaper. This is real paper not uh not launched in the noisy internet where good ideas go to die. The article is well thoughtfully researched and really well balanced in describing the issues. Um it's called news. It's not shouting. Too many of us get a shameful bit of pleasure at speaking aggressively toward our elected officials and the hired staff.

That does not move us to a solution. It may make our officials less inclined to consider this issue from other perspectives. Um because it is human nature to close our minds when we are criticized. Maybe some minds are closing right now. We need to avoid stirring up that reptilian response because it's a dead end. kills thoughtful discussion and possibly leads to this ordinance being approved tonight as is flaws and all.

Everyone in this chamber is a human with emotions that can motivate us but can also derail us. So let's all of us channel that mojo in a good way towards the solution. Thank you. Thank you Tom. Um next I want to make sure I call uh speakers uh 79 through 83. 79 through 83. Uh the next speaker is Robert Decker. Is Robert Decker here? Okay. The next speaker then is Gretchen Reinhardt. Is Gretchen still here? Oh, there she is. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence.

You have three minutes. Gretchen Reinhardt and Tempy for over 30 years in the Escalante neighborhood. And uh having worked with these two fine gentlemen over those years, they know that uh in our neighborhood, we struggled with a lot of the things we've heard described in North Tempee. I want to tell you as someone who's been involved with neighborhood associations all that time, this is not a solution. We did a lot of things that look very much like this.

And with the benefit of hindsight, I can tell you that what we managed to do, you've heard selective enforcement. It's morally wrong. We um it didn't feel morally wrong at the time. 30 years ago, we were a different place. 30 years ago, when I came to the people who were coming from other cities and feeding in Escalante Park because we had a lot of people who needed food. We had a new program called IHELP and uh there was room in that program.

And so my pitch I felt completely fine making that um please feed someplace, feed in your own in your own home instead of our community home because our kids were not being able to use the park at the time. That didn't go over very well, I'll tell you, with those people I tried to convince. But we did make changes. Um, and many of them have grown over the years. But what I've now come to see is um, we push people out. I will say 30 people for family.

A lot of the families in my neighborhood, 75 is a family gathering. My husband has 10 plus two more siblings and many generations. You don't get to 30 that way. We at least at the time we were doing these things, we said, "No, as a neighborhood association, we want to make sure there's room for people in the neighborhood." Well, that's a cultural thing. Um, that's selective enforcement. We were supporting it through neighborhood associations. Uh, that can be pretty selective.

We were pretty clear that we care about the diversity in our neighborhood. We care that people that don't have enough money to to pay for the park get to use the park. My point is, it's complicated stuff. The person who spoke before me speaks my mind. There's a lot of work to be done. This is far more complicated. And what we've done is push people further and further. And now we're in a more dangerous world.

And so, uh, I I see a lot of problems with feeding, sharing food, helping people in one of the most dangerous places in the heat of the summer. We need covered places. We need really different solutions than what we've come up with so far because we are not caring about our most vulnerable. And we must work together to solve this. This problem is getting worse even as we are doing more as a community. The problem is getting worse. And yes, you still need to eat if you're addicted. Thank you.

Thank you. The next speaker I have is Da Urena. Yes, please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Hello. Hello. My name is Daenia. Um I'm from South Scottdale, but for the past three years of my undergrad here at ASU, I've been living in Tempe and I've really fallen in love with the city. I would like to say thank you so much for your time tonight.

Um, I come to you today to voice my concern about some changes um in our city's ordinances and how it affects our community's events and activities. I am currently a student at ASU, heavily involved in exploring local arts, the local arts and music community in and out of ASU. And many of the student organizations I am a part of are activities involve putting on music shows and art events on ASU campus and around Tempe.

We do this in order to connect students with the local Tempe music and arts scene and vice versa. I am deeply passionate about the work that we do with these student organizations because I have seen the incredibly talented creatives of Tempe and I believe it's important to continue to foster the comm the creative community here.

If the changes in this new ordinance go into effect, it can make it very difficult for the community to host events and activities in fear that we may be shut down if the city or the city police deem it quote unquote unlawful or unfavorable. Additionally, the permit fees and penalty fees proposed in the ordinance may make it harder for smaller organizations and members of the community to put on events in general due to their smaller budgets and resources.

As someone who has seen how beautiful it is when this community comes together, I urge you to reconsider the contents of this ordinance and protect our ability to spread our ability to spread the arts and culture in our community. Thank you so much. Thank you. The next speaker I have is Ken Jacobson. Please come forward. State your name and city of residents. You have three minutes. Okay. I'm Ken Jacobson. I've lived in North Temp for 22 years. I recall speaking with his mayor several years ago.

He told me he saw himself as a quote public servant and I voted for him because of that statement. It wasn't long before the college's deal proved just how uncorrect that statement was. I also saw personally that this mayor had no problem to throw myself and hundreds of others out of our homes in order to serve not the public but the greed of a California developer. Since then, I've been involved with helping this dist helping hold on helping to helping the destitute at Moore Park.

And now I'm seeing how seeing personally how this mayor has made himself the enemy of these people. This is not someone who serves the public. I've lived in North Temp for over 22 years. I use a park there constantly. I have never seen any of these things that this this little group of so-called community community leaders complain about. I've had the great privilege of helping serve a destitute in War Park since last August.

These people come to us because we don't represent a mayor and city council that wants to find them $2,500 and throw them in jail for six months for being destitute like you do. We are not spending other people's money like you are and then claiming credit for being generous like you do. We are spending our own money and our own time and our own effort despite the fact that you are doing all you can to stop us. These people that we serve have never been a threat to us.

The only threat we face is you. These people do not bring drugs and crime. They are the victims of drugs and crime. They need to be helped and not scapegoed. We are asking nothing but to be allowed to gather in a public place in order to help others who are called by our consciences. No, we are called by our consciences, by our sense of care for others, and by our religion to do so. In my religion, feeding the h feeding the hungry is feeding Jesus.

On judgment day, Jesus tells the condemned, "I was hungry and you didn't feed me." How much worse it will be for people on judgment day who not only don't feed the hungry, but who are doing all they can to stop others from doing the same thing. You can make a 100 degree you can make a 180 degree change in your behavior. I hope not just for the sake of these destitute people that we serve but for your sake that you do.

If you don't you remembered all of you forever as a mayor on the city council that loved the greedy and hated the needy. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker I have is Tamara Joe Sharper. Hope I got that right. Oh, excellent. Thank you. All right, please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Hi, my name is Tamar Joe Scaper or TJ and um I'm a resident of Tempee. I just moved here a year ago. Um and um working with the Okay.

Um and helping out at the New Deals has been New Deal meals has been like my first sense of community here in Tempe. my first feeling of having friends, feeling love, feeling acceptance. And it has been a wonderful experience for me. Um, and I I heard a lot of um blame going to our unhoused residents for how how the parks look. Um, and it's just it's scapegoating. It's scapegoating of people.

Um, and I just wanted to share some of my most wonderful memories at the Green New at the New Deal meals. Um because I talk with people every week about Frog and Toad, about like their favorite childhood books, and there's this little girl who comes and she only wants the the pink donuts with the sprinkles on them. And um there's this this man whose like favorite Christmas present ever was a bike and he remembers it so fondly. Um and these people are like they're wonderful.

They're your community and they protect me. They welcome me. Um, and they make me feel very loved. Um, and I there's no way to like return that love, you know. And this is just putting it's just making it really hard. Um, anyways, I care about this community. They're our community. Um, they are fiercely protective of one of one another.

and driving home from the New Deal meals at the end and looking over into the shade at the trees and seeing people resting with one each one in another and laughing and just loving each other and their company is wonderful. It is the fullest moments I have ever seen mower park and I smile every single time whenever I drive past it. Otherwise, it's often empty and I don't see people there. And um I just I can't imagine a Tempee with an ordinance in place that would stop that from happening.

I think it is wonderful. Um I'm trying to think if I had anything else to say. Um yes, one more thing. Um coming from Iowa, your guys' parks are beautiful. They are stunning. I am gobsmacked every single time. They are clean. They are safe and I love attending them. Um, Iowa's beautiful too. Um, but it's flat and it's not stunning. Um, and I think would there be one park in Iowa that looked like your guys', it would be a tourist attraction for the whole state.

And I just think that there's there's no problem that needs solving. Um, and I urge you to vote no on the ordinance. Thank you. Thank you. [Music] point for Tempe Parks, negative point for Iowa parks, apparently. Um, uh, okay. The the next speaker I have is, I think, in the virtual, Jim Bannon. Is Mr. Bannon there? Yes, he is. His mic is enabled, so he should be able to unmute. Mr. Bandon, can you hear me? Mr. Bandon, if you can hear me, can you unmute your microphone? Okay. All right.

All right. Then I will go to the next one. So, I have one more card here, but the only issue I need to ask our city attorney. The last card I have though is from Alex Monty, but I know Miss Monty, I know you spoke during item six, which was public appearances about this item and so we can't allow speak. I spoke about fascism. I'll ask I'll ask the city attorney just for a judgment to make sure. So, mayor, I think that's your judgment.

Uh I personally I thought I heard her discuss the this ordinance enduring and I so I think she has had her opportunity to speak to the ordinance and you can um deny any further public comment. I think that would be appropriate. You know what here? Let's do this. What's what's what's one more? But thank you Miss Monty. Come on up. And it's already 12:23.

Alex Tempy and is the goal of this to be more clear and fair or is it to respond to a lawsuit you're in all for already weaponizing the permit code to selectively enforce and criminalize a hugs and new deal meal? You can't have it both ways. Um we don't have to wonder if this will be used to criminalize mutual aid orgs. You're already doing it. So, um, we already know that this is going to be used against, uh, cloud covered streets and other or mutual aid organizations.

We don't need you to explain any further. Um, every lawyer that looks at this ordinance says it's disastrous. There's no clear criteria imposed on the city manager for issuing permits. The path to this park permit, the limited use, is based solely on the trust me, bro. Permits are required for any activity that may require a degree more services than ordinary. That's what it says.

So if Kim Gaffrey calls the cops on my group because she sees a homeless person 100 yards away now, is my next permit going to be denied because the police were called to my event? Um also, uh this is this ordinance is authoritarian. We know that it's also unconstitutional which we have covered.

And um I guess I also just want to point out that some of you on this council don't know your own people's history because you obviously don't know how discretionary government permission laws were used against black people and people of color and your ancestors should be ashamed of you. Okay. Excuse me. Please don't go there. I I I've been blackmailed for 46 years and I don't need that lecture. Is there anyone else in the audience wishing to address the city council at this time?

I'm going to go here and then I'll go here. So, and then I have one more. Yes, sir. Hi. Please state your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Hi there. My name is Nicholas Mink. Uh I am a resident of South Scottsdale. Um and I'm a community organizer and activist. I came here with Phoenix DSA. Um in opposition to this ordinance. Not just a member of Phoenix DSA, though. I'm a member of the Arizona Democratic Party. I am a vice chair for the Arizona Democratic Party.

Um and I find the whole situation that we find ourselves here today remarkably frustrating. Um I despise the fact that this ordinance was placed near the end of the agenda. So we are now it is 12:26 as I'm speaking uh still here. Um when this was going to be controversial could have been done earlier. Um I'm frustrated by the blatant unconstitutionality of this ordinance both with state and federal constitution.

Um, as an organizer, the premise of this seems ridiculous to me because I don't know of any organization in which they plan their events two months ahead of time that isn't corporate. Um, it or remarkably large uh most of the time, just as an example, we're to try to pull together some kind of an event. I explicitly set it for 20 people, so people can join and half of those 20 people bring a guest, which frequently happens. That's violation right there. That's over 30 people.

Um, so I find that remarkably ridiculous. Um, and yeah, I I think it's no surprise why people are so disillusioned with local leaders, with current leaders that we have, um, with our democracy as a whole. I think anyone that stands in surprise of that, I mean, I have not seen a single young person come up here in support of this ordinance.

Um, and I have to say it's with the point we are on in history, the rise of authoritarianism, a dictatorship forming as we speak in America, to be cracking down on the very measures that we need to stand up to fight against this is insanity. And I would plead with the uh mayor, vice mayor, and members of the council to look at the flags behind you, think of the moment that you're in, and what side of history you want to be remembered on. And with that, I'll pass. Thank you. Uh Mr.

Davis, uh please come forward, state your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Hi there. My name is Austin Davis and I'm the founder of AZ Hugs here in Tempe. This is a poem to the city, but really it's a poem for Levi, Chucky, Chris, Trevor, Alleycat, Christopher, and all the people on the streets who've died this year with nothing left behind but the fingerprints of fentanyl. We'll know it's grief if the sadness ever settles.

And we'll know it's love when we never stop loving them. But when we lose them, we'll know it's lost because we don't ever stop losing them either. Tonight, I invite our mayor to walk Mill Avenue after the bars are all closed down. I ask, will he say hello to the people of his city who have nowhere else to go but bus stop benches and the dark corners between buildings?

Mayor, I hope you'll look down at the sidewalk paved red with bricks and see that we have enough here to build a roof with four walls somewhere safe for all of us. Thank you. Thank you. And uh sir, I can you please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Hi, John Perrell. I live in Tempi. Uh, this ordinance caught my eye mainly and I'm just going to go straight to the point because I want to go home and go to sleep.

Um, is the um feeding of the homeless in the parks. Uh, specifically Papago Park. I live in North Dempy. And what does happen that's been touched on is after the feedings these people leave trash. I have gone to Papa with my kids and I have seen drug paraphernalia laying around, knives, razor blades, needles. I've seen people sleeping in the slides on the playground. I've seen uh discarded clothing that is soaked in human waste. And it's just getting been getting worse over the years.

I don't like to take my two kids to Papago Park or the women's park right there near near to it for the same reason. In the last few years, we've had an uptick of homeless in our neighborhood. They take packages off my porch. They take items out of my front yard. I had one night someone kicking on my back gate. And when I went to confront them, they said they knew the owner of the house and wanted to say hello. I've had our dumpsters in our backyard ransacked. They don't put the trash back in.

I've had to clean human waste out of my yard. Had to clean the back alley up from human waste because it starts smelling. And yes, I hope this ordinance puts an end to the feeding. I do hope there is a way to find out how to a better way to find out or tired a better way to there has to be a better solution for the homeless for feeding but what we got going now it's not it and that needs to change and that's why I support this. Thank you. Thank you. Is is there any uh no please please no stop.

I'm yes please come forward. Okay. Am I audible? Okay. Yes. Please state your name and city of president. You have three minutes. My name is Nathan Charlton. I now live in Mesa because after six years of living in Tempe, it became too unaffordable for me to live here. Um, but fortunately, I'm in a situation where I can afford to move to a different apartment where I can then afford rent. That is a privilege that not a lot of people get, not a lot of people can afford.

Um, but that's not specifically what we're talking about tonight. What we're talking about tonight is this ordinance, which I'm very much opposed to. Um, if you can't tell by the t-shirt, less of a t-shirt now than it was originally. Um, I'm a volunteer at the Aerys Foundation. Um, and I can say that because of the work that Aerys Foundation does that there are children in this city tonight who went to bed with a full and warm belly that would not have if not for the work that we do.

And I am sure that this has been very I don't know uh maybe your butts are a little sore at this point because you've been sitting for so long, but a lot of people's butts are a lot more sore because they have to sit on the sidewalk. And frankly, I care a lot less about the troubles that you guys have had to go through than I do about them. Um and I'd also like to remind you a little bit about some recent Tempe history.

Some people brought it up tonight, but the Coyote Stadium proposal, that was something that this council apparently thought they had an understanding of the city's support for until they actually asked the residents of said city and then they learned that actually the city at MP had no interest in that proposal whatsoever. And I think if you were to do the same thing with this ordinance tonight, the results are clear.

I think and I think also that many people have mentioned as well the uh potential political consequences. I'm sure even though your butts are sore, you enjoy those seats. And if you think that the energy that you've gotten from a meeting like this has been at all intimidating, the energy that you will get if you vote this in and you support this ordinance will be much more drastic. I promise you there will be very, very serious political consequences.

But again, I want to bring it back to the people that this matters to and the people that I care about, which are the people that are forced to live on our streets when it is ungodly hot outside. I can't even imagine. But I I don't know. I speaking from personal experience, I the work that I do with Aerys, the amount of kids and parents that I've had come up to me and say, "You know what? I would really like is a blank pad and some crayons, maybe some colored pencils, you know what I mean?

A hot meal, something like that. It's very basic requests. It's very easy stuff to figure out. And I don't know, I'm rambling. Um, but I guess I would say that if if the consequence to filling that child's belly is some trash in a park, I will take a thousand piles of trash before I take an empty kid's stomach. That would be my Thank you. All right. Is there anyone else in the audience wishing just Yes, please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Hi there.

My name is Phillip and I am a resident of South Phoenix. Um I my background is in uh performing and recording music. Um, one thing I want to bring to light is that uh with the uh permits and restrictions placed on a lot of parks and facilities around Tempe, um we are setting a really good amount of restriction on uh building fantastic communities.

And I would like to add to this by saying that um Tempe for a very long time has been a a fantastic trends setter when it comes to um uh fueling and and funding the arts all across the board in the Phoenix area. Um when it comes to a lot of other places in the valley currently, uh restrictions are are constantly getting tighter.

Um, I I don't know if I'm alone in this, but I see um touring acts, uh, live bands, uh, musicals, um, all all sorts of mediums of art just skipping over Arizona entirely. And, uh, it was not always this way. U, for a very long time, Arizona across the board used to to curate really, really amazing work.

Um so to have this sort of movement happening across uh not only the Phoenix area but uh you know for for people to even consider taking initiatives towards restricting uh public places that could potentially help um create these uh performance opportunities. It it's really uh terrifying to me.

I think um one of the best things about uh attending uh any of these performances and for me personally performing in these these events is that uh there is a really really fantastic harmonization that uh that supersedes any sort of uh you know background whether that be cultural, lingual um uh class uh wealth class anything of that sort um every single time I've ever attended or been a part of a performance I feel like these things um for at least this small period of time get set aside and we can all just kind of uh form a very nice unity with one another.

So, I would like to thank all of you for taking all of uh this time to be here for countless hours and for all the people who are working this event. Um, but I would like to to really encourage you to vote no on this because I think that um I if anything, we need to be moving in the other direction. We really do need to be opening up more spaces for people to to um you know, fruitfully enjoy however they want to enjoy things. Thank you. Thank you. All right.

Um, is there anyone else in the audience wishing to address the council? If so, please get my attention. Yes, please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Uh, my name is Gilbert, but I live in Tempee. I think everyone already knows what your vote is going to be tonight, but instead you're here wasting our time when this is likely going to be a seven uh 70 vote in favor.

We know this because we're sick of your backhanded tactics like putting a controversial issue like this at the very end of a meeting. So, anyone who doesn't have eight hours to get dedicate pleading with you will be unable to speak. If you even had an ounce of humility, decency, or respect for anyone here that isn't a developer or a big business, you at the bare minimum, you would do you would uh table this uh tonight for more community input.

Focusing on ordinances like this at a time at a time like this shows how short-sighted, petty, and fascist fascist enabling this entire city council and manager are. You're exemplifying what might one might imagine blue maggot to look like. I know your elected positions are supposed to be nonpartisan, but I also know the council pretty much is a complete Democrat majority make which makes these attempts to quell voluntary efforts do the work you refuse to do even more pathetic.

You represent a party with no future, no morals, no direction, and with absolutely no solutions in the face of growing fascism in an everexpanding police state. You welcome it with a smile, and you're too cowardly to even be honest about your intentions, which to me makes you just as dangerous as some jack boot ICE agent. Between red maga trying to sell off our national lands and blue maga here at home trying to privatize our local parks. I see no difference.

You blame Ron Tapscott and Austin Davis's lawsuit on the reason you're rushing these ordinances through. Yet that was the last thing they had to resort to after repeated attempts to work with the city. At least take ownership for your actions. We see through you and your efforts to beat down on the least fortunate among us. We know these ordinances are going to t who these ordinances are going to target because we know the people and groups you've already targeted with the existing ones.

I think it's disgusting. You have the audacity to hide behind identity politics such as having a native land proclamation and affront today's written agenda. And yet, under your leadership, just a few days ago, cloud covered streets was unable to provide vital and humanizing services because the private organization, the Native Action program, who dared invite them to their space in King's Plaza in Tempe, was threatening with a $1,500 fine if they returned.

This is nothing to do with public safety and everything to do with an overreaching and unconstitutional government control. It's cruel and shameful to threaten an indigenous organization and then turn around and use our people as some sort of political cover for your ne neverending charades and disrespect for the residents you're meant to serve. It's atrocious and laughable to threaten find and arrest people like us and yawn food not bombs foundation deal. Thank you. All right. All right.

Is there anyone else in the audience wish to address the council? So yes, please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Hello, I'm James Quan. I am a resident of the Tempe area. So, first off, I'd like to state that uh DSA unequivocally condemns any racist remarks made against Mayor Woods, and we're very sorry you had to experience that.

Uh, and I'd also like to go on about this entire thing, and it's the fact that if we're trying to solve homelessness, right, this isn't the way to do it. What we're really doing is kind of just pushing them around and not really solving the problem. You're kind of just pushing it under the carpet and it's only going to fester. It's only going to grow and it's only going to turn into something unmanageable, you know?

So if we are to tackle homelessness, which I think is kind of this is kind of the reason why this is all happening, right? We need to, you know, not make the resources that the homeless people have uh more unaccounted for. We can't remove those resources that they have that they rely on. And it is something incredibly important to them because if we need to kind of remove the homeless situation or at least try and help absolve the situation, we need to get them off the streets.

And this isn't getting them off the streets. If we want to get them off the streets, we need to, you know, get them jobs, get them housing, all of that stuff. And what I see from this is that you're removing resources that allows them to do these things. And those things are incredibly important to them because those are basically the only things that they have. And if we remove them, then well, what else do they have?

I mean, they'll probably just turn back to drugs, turn back to something that will make them happy. because removing everything that kind of gives them the opportunity to get a better life, you know, to make themselves happy, to become a better person. And that is just incredibly worrying to me because these resources, they have helped so many people. And when you make it harder for these resources to be accessible by them, it just exacerbates the problem.

you know, you're not really solving anything by this other than really just kind of ruining all the other activities that have 30 or more people, you know, like these resources. I think I'm just repeating myself at this point, but there are incredibly important and I'm really trying to enunciate that. That that is all I have. Thank you. Is there anyone else in the audience? Yes, please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. My name is Megan.

Um I'm a resident of Mesa. My name is Megan. I'm a resident of Mesa. Um I have a sister who's homeless. I'm raising her son. Um often times these parks are places where their family members seek them out. Um these events are those type of places. Uh that's the point on that. Um, I'll leave that one there. My second point is I've volunteered through soccer. Could you come a little closer to the microphone? I've volunteered my time as a mom with um little with soccer.

Can you please move closer to the microphone? and these these facilities are so we're paying for not only for soccer and we're paying taxes um but a lot of these sports facilities or sports organizations don't pay for your practice. So I've taken kids to Mesa Red Mountain actually specifically where the lights are on all the time and we were kicked out told not we couldn't play soccer there but the lights were already on. there was plenty of space, plenty of fields to use.

Um, but we had to leave and we couldn't play soccer that night, paid for and everything. So, um, I think that's an interesting imbalance there. And another imbalance I see is, um, fear in the streets. I fear more so at my corner in Mesa where day laborers stand more than 30 more often, more days when I pass by. Um, and I think those opportunities should be given to homeless.

Um, cooling centers should be resource centers for jobs and they should be sent out for day labor and not um have loitering at Circle K's and whatnot on the streets. And I'm also a single mom struggling for work. So, there's a lot of there's a lot of overhead on all of that. And I think if you're shutting down the camps and you're shutting things down, you need to have places for them to go. Cooling centers should have food jobs. So yeah, don't cut the resources.

My sister needs them and I may need them someday. Thank you. All right. Is there anyone else in the audience wishing? Yes, please. Did you Did you spoke? We got another for the uh business license. Yes. Okay. Yes. Please come forward. State your name and city of resident. Do you have three minutes? Hi. Hi. Again, Amanda Reef, resident of North Temp. I um have a lot of overlap in some of these different um community meetup groups for one, but that's not what I'm going to dwell on the most here.

But I also like have a membership with the Acroyoga and some other different communities that we do use the parks because we don't have anywhere else to go for some of these community things that are just little community efforts. Hey, I have this skill I want to share. Let's bring people together. People always are just like, hey, tell me when and where to show up and I will be there.

But if we don't have a place of when and where to show up, we can't form community in this ever growing isolationist society. But what I really want to get on here is if we are focused on this as a supposed measure to clean up the parks and make homelessness less visible, the way to go about getting people off the streets, quote unquote, ending homelessness is not ever going to be bandating the issue and just moving them somewhere else. I've seen that in Scottsdale. I've seen that in Phoenix.

I've seen that in Tempe. And it always has the same cycle where you just push the problem off on someone else and then that becomes the same problem and then they get pushed somewhere else and pushed somewhere else and pushed somewhere else and there's nowhere for them to ever end up going. So it just ends up seeming like you want them to just disappear off the face of the earth in the end.

The real solution to homelessness in Arizona and in this country is the over overbloating of con commercial real estate and not having regulations on actual rent limits because the rents that we have especially around Tempe that say they're affordable housing are not actually affordable housing. are still extremely expensive to the point that college students who are working multiple jobs to pay for their education cannot afford apartments in the city of Tempee anymore.

And the people who are alumni cannot afford to stay where they've lived for years and years. The solution to homelessness is curbing corporate greed and not letting so many developers come in and just want luxury highrises that are affordable or unaffordable to any everyday masses. What we really need is to use these vacant real estate properties that are sitting vacant, corporate real estate, office buildings.

Those need to be turned and repurposed into transitional housing and affordable housing, not new buildings that are so fancy that people who are on the streets can't even afford to live in them in the first place. So, we just need to kind of actually refocus on how we could ever actually solve homelessness. And that's by one, giving them housing because that's been proven in other states and cities and municipalities that when you just give unhoused people homes, the rest becomes Yeah. solved.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Is there anyone else in the audience wishing to address the council? If so, please get my attention. All right. Sir, please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. 1 a.m. We are getting there. Thank you. I know I'm tired, too. But, uh, thank you all for being here and, you know, just being here out this late at night. I know you guys are exhausted. I know I am, too. My name is Andrew Hinkle.

I'm from Gilbert, Arizona originally and I'm coming to ASU uh to live here and learn business law. I am relatively young obviously looking at me and I'm new to the fields here, but uh the work that I've done, Gilbert, where I grew up has been a fairly sheltered bubble. Uh I didn't really see a lot of issues around where I grew up. green grass, white fences, well-maintained lawns everywhere, HOAs controlling it all. It was relatively peaceful.

And recently, I went on a road trip all around the country alone in my car. And I saw some absolutely deplorable sites. And thankfully, when I came back, I knew this is where I needed to be doing something about it. Maybe Gilbert has its problems too, like anywhere else. But in Tempe, where I'm going to be attending school for the next four years, the homeless situation here is noticeable. And yes, there are, as we've heard, there are issues other and homeless people in other communities.

Scottsdale, Mesa, Chandler, they exist everywhere. My focus is here right now, but I care about them everywhere. And this ordinance that we have suggested tonight cannot pass. It does not help this cause. Please vote no. Otherwise, you know, I'm a young college student. I got plenty of time to canvas. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else in the audience wishing to address the council? If so, please get my Yes, sir. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence.

You have three minutes. Hi, I'm Jim Sterry from uh Scottsdale and I would just like to remind this council of the recent election of Zoron Mandani in New York. When you see something like that where a bunch of young people can go out and elect a very progressive leader who wants to see through change, we can do that.

And when we see people like Andrew Cuomo in office who don't do what he was elected to do or people like Mayor Eric Adams in office who do don't do things that they were elected to do, we go and vote them out. And that is exactly what happened to this city council because most of you ran on housing affordability. Most of you have run on housing issues and yet you've done nothing to help the homeless population. You have done nothing to help the least housed people in our communities.

Instead, you're actively trying to criminalize people who are trying to help them instead of doing anything about the situation itself. Thank you. Is there anyone else in the audience wishing to address the council? If so, please get my attention. Oh, yes. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Um uh hello. I'm Jules De Laos. Uh I live in Tempe. Um wasn't planning on speaking. I'm not the best at speaking.

Uh but yeah, I just want to wish you just spoke no on this ordinance. Um I only recently learned about it. Uh be honest. uh because of a lot of events uh kind of going on across country and in my personal life have kind of been politically burnt out. Um so I learned about this only recently and just appalled by it. I mean just the frequent statements not to reiterate everything there but it is a clear attack on the homeless.

It's just it's uncon unconstitutional and uh I don't know I just it's uh there's just so much fear like I you know for me at least it's you know another thing and you know I'm thankful in my life that I've had privilege that I've had meals I've had a home to go to ultimately I do have family and you know if you take time to actually talk to someone you know who's struggling who's on the streets um you know there's a few statements earlier that just uh it's it's completely dehumanizing you know like these are people we're talking about in the end of day you We can you just can't reduce someone to just be an addict and throw it and kick them down the street and you know like half the time for half of the people are talking on this they won't even look them in the eyes when they're driving by and it's just you know I it's painful you know uh like every day I wish I could do something more than I I am and um you know I want to look to our officials right like I grew up believing oh hey you know our government has the best for us our local representatives do and in these these instances, it is a breach on that.

It's a breach of trust. It creates fear and in a time where it's hard to trust people. It's hard to like feel good about things in the future. Um I don't know. Like it it just I don't see where this goes at best. Um just kicking down the can uh kick the can down for homeless. Um it's just painful. And so I just really wish you take time and vote no and uh at the very least have more people involved and not just behind closed doors. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, please come forward.

State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Hi, my name is Christy Dargas. I temporarily live in Aatuki, but I've been a resident of Tempi for about the last 10-15 years before that. Um, I grew up in North Phoenix and I have moved to Tempe because I love the community and soul of Tempe that is not existent in North Phoenix. And I apologize, my not my phone with my notes died long ago.

Um, but I was previously involved in many many organizations that have utilized the parks and I'm currently working or getting involved in more with individ or the enforcement of this um ordinance. That was even unclear when council member Adams was asking whether it was going to be like NY's bridge protests was going to be able to continue as it's been considered spontaneous and then it was stated possibly no because it's happening every week.

She had to leave because she was at the bridge this morning at 5.

But I believe that we must pause the the passing of this ordinance in order to get actual community engagement and support and an actual clear forward forward forward plan that supports the entire community because this is just being ramrotted through in the middle of the night while we are trying to actually declare that we all feel that there is a much better way moving forward that everyone's rights to access the parks is vital to the support and the soul of this community.

So please urge I urge you to vote no. Thank you. Thank you. Um is there no in the audience wishing to address the council? If so, please get my attention. All right. Seeing none, I will close that portion uh the public testimony portion of the public hearing. See exactly where I'm at. Um does staff have any followup um on this? Sean, anyone? Mr. Anderson, anything? Or uh Mayor, I'm happy to answer any additional questions that the council might have.

If you we can if there's any questions, Sean and I can come. Sounds good. Okay. Thank you. Uh, anyone on council? Um, any comments or discussion? I don't have any questions. So, all right. Any comments or discussion for anyone? Um, I if you want to Oh, okay. Well, Sus, I'll start. Um I I think what is first of all I appreciate everyone who came out this evening to speak. I mean I know it's definitely been the longest meeting I've been a part of in 13 years here.

Um, I I think the thing for me that's so challenging here is that there were conversations that were had a while back that talked about how there were pe folks who were concerned that they were being asked to go through sort of a one-sizefits-all process for special events that um you were sort of applying and things all sort of went to the special events task force.

uh which is sort of an internal group of staff, something that the council isn't even involved in and that that was sort of the process for how things were how things were actually done. And I know in the work that Mr. Anderson started almost a year ago, frankly, meeting with many members of our staff from uh community services and I'm sure many other departments that actually took part in this work.

The thought process here was trying to find a way to create a process that actually simplified this.

that made it so that if you were simply applying to rent a Roma in a park or rent a space where previously there wasn't any real rentable space there that you could actually do so in such a way where you weren't going through the special events task force that it wasn't taking uh 60 days but that you could probably get the permit turned around and probably in in roughly a week or even frankly even shorter. Um, and also that you know when I was when Mr.

Wagner was up here earlier and he was giving his presentation and one of the questions I asked was when you're talking about renting a romata at any of our parks and having the ability to rent a romata, would that apply to any and all groups that want to actually uh rent a romata in a city park? And his answer was yes. um to the point that this is not about discrimination.

It's it's about the ability to create a different process with multiple tiers to clearly separate people who are doing largecale events like an arts festival, an October Fest, a Fourth of July uh event at Tempe Beach Park, a Fantasy of Lights parade the day after Thanksgiving, and so on and so forth.

events of that nature that clearly constitute closing streets and rerouting people and amplified sound and all and extra security and all of that from just someone who wants to rent a romada uh for a couple of hours or frankly to what Mr. Wagner said the entire day for the purpose of having a smaller event of 30, 40 or 50 people.

And that has all that was the purpose of doing this was not to in any way, shape or form try to make things more complicated, but was frankly to try to make things simpler and provide a path forward for those who are wanting to access the parks and not to create such a an expensive ordinance or such an expensive fee in some way that would burden anyone in our community from being able to access it. I also when I think and I'm going to I'm not going to go long here because it's been late.

Um when I think about a lot of the public buildings in the city of Tempi, the Tempe public library where there are a couple of meeting rooms in the basement uh along with other meeting rooms on the second floor, the pile center, the Tempe Tempe History Museum that has that beautiful room that many groups rent for many events, the Tempe Center for the Arts.

All of these are taxpayerf funed facilities uh that were built with taxpayer money and frankly maintained by the staff here at the city of Tempee. those rooms and all of those places just like our parks or public buildings and we rent those rooms out to people when I think the majority of the council if not all of the council was there for the new uh sort of I can't think of the name recreation center that was actually created at Clark Park just within the last year.

We talked a lot about that about how this is a uh wonderful amenity for the people not only in this neighborhood but frankly throughout the city of Tempe and that a lot of the programming we're providing but also the room rentals here at this building are not here to make money. Uh but they're frankly you know charging people somewhere between 10 and $25 for Tempe residents to be able to rent rooms or rent space at that facility in the Clark Park neighborhood.

and everyone celebrated that and thought it was a wonderful amenity that that was being added to that park to truly bring back the Clark Park pool along with amenities for those residents in that neighborhood and frankly in other neighborhoods to really congregate and hold neighborhood meetings and and and so on and so forth.

And so from my perspective, when I look at this and I look at the $25 fee, which is frankly what really is what would be what most people would pay unless people are putting on an event where literally you're having an October Fest and having 10,000 people or the 4th of July and having 10,000 people. That is what the overwhelming majority of people in this community would actually be doing.

I know I couldn't personally put on an event that would require that kind of street closure and that kind of additional security and and things of that nature. And so when I look at this and and and the form I pulled out earlier tonight about all of these fees of these $25 fees are frankly things that date back well over 101 15 years from previously approved ordinances from the city of Tempee and over the years we have never raised those fees.

We haven't attempted to say, "Well, there's been inflation, so therefore we're going to bump all the fees up to 35, $40, $50 to get more cost recovery." We've tried, like a lot of public universities, like they say in the Arizona Constitution, to keep things as close to free as actually humanly possible to make sure that we're actually recovering some of the fees, whatever, for heating and cooling buildings and replacing sod and parks and just replacing all of the public amenities for the people for the parks that people have talked about are so beautiful.

It's not to make money. It's simply just to get some bit of uh resources back to actually take care of the assets that we are trying to maintain for the nearly 200,000 people that live in the city and and and so when I when I made the comment that that this ordinance from my perspective and and asked Mr. Wagner with the would these ramadas and with these public spaces be available to any and all groups that's I asked that question because that's truly what I meant.

I I I hear what people are saying about, you know, some of their concerns, but the fact of the matter is that is not what the ordinance is crafted to do. And that's why there's no place in the ordinance that specifically speaks to that because that is not what Mr. Anderson and his staff and the other members of our city of Tempe community services team and other departments that took part in this. That is not what they intended in any way, shape, or form.

And that is definitely not what I have intended in any way, shape, or form by reviewing this. And I know that's not what the other six people up here, frankly, think either. And and so from my from my perspective, this is not this is not discriminatory. This is not an an attempt to only support the wealthy.

This is an attempt to actually create a more simplified process with multiple different paths to actually getting a Roma reserving space in our and and for any and all groups to be able to use these spaces. And so with that, I'm going to yield. Vice Mayor Carl. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for what you're saying and the questions that were asked earlier. Um I'm sorry I'm losing my voice. You know, I appreciate everybody who came out and spoke today that have already gone home.

And I appreciate that the mayor moved this to the front of our agenda because when this is vote is taken, we still have a whole three, four pages left to go that we still need to vote on and work on for our meeting. So I appreciate that it was moved up for us. Um, you know, the shirts I keep seeing the black shirts. Very, very cute. Um, you know, looking at the parks for people. Parks are for people. I think that's trying to read it. I'm sorry. My my eyes are so Oh, yeah. That's a park.

But parks are for people. They're for all the people in our community. Um 196,000 residents that live in the city of Tempee, 196,000 that live here in the Tempe, the parks are for them. They're for all of us to be able to use. And we on council represent all of them. And I know that uh the speakers that came tonight, some of them were from Tempe, some were from other places, but we represent everybody here that is in our community. And I think we work really hard to try to do that.

And we want to hear the voices of all the people that want to be able to um make a comment on the things that we are going to be voting on um at our council meeting. And I I think it's it's hard for me some of this stuff I some of the notes that I wrote down here. Um I I'm not I'm going to go through some of them. So I'm trying to get myself organized here. But I wrote down somebody said you guys don't care. That's absolutely ridiculous.

We wouldn't run for office and stick our neck out there for people to try to chop it off or throw darts at our back if we didn't care about the city. If we didn't care about our residents. if we didn't care about our unsheltered people in our community. This council has done so much and I'm not saying we've done enough and I'm not saying there isn't more to do, but we have done so much in our community for our unsheltered and our and residents in the city of Tempee.

We've wor continued to working on things for for that community also and to get our seniors to age in place. We wouldn't take this job. We wouldn't put ourselves out there if we didn't care.

So when people get up here and say, "You guys just don't care." First of all, I don't know how many people in this room has reached out to any of us and said, "Hey, can you come and have a coffee?" I want to get to know you a little bit better so that I can understand why you might be voting or not voting on something. I I would love to be able to do that. I Please let please let her speak.

So, so please do that because I would love to sit down and talk to somebody because it's hard to judge somebody if you don't really know them. And I think I would like to get to know our residents better and I want them to get to know me and understand how I make my judgments.

I I appreciate all the work that's gone into this criteria that you're setting up to try to make these adjustments because I believe that at the bottom line all of this this is we are working on the quality of life and the public safety in our parks. This is what we're doing and this is why we are doing this and I want people to understand that and that understand how much work has gone into this. It it is it perfect? It it may not be perfect, but you know what?

We are working on this ordinance and we have produced something that we think is quality work that we can vote on and make a decision on. Again, we appreciate the the comments that people have made um to us, but have to also understand that all the comments that were made to me were not made in this room tonight. There were a lot of residents. I was stopped at the grocery store, once at the um Costco. Um people are calling us individually. People are talking to us on the street.

The voices that are in our community that are talking to us about this proposal that we're looking at doing. And we're not just the voices that were only in this room. There were some friends that wanted to come here and speak. And I have to be perfectly honest, they were nervous about coming here because they didn't want to get cat called. They didn't want to get approached in the parking lot. And just like what's happening right now, I I'm just I'm trying to be honest.

This is this is really difficult. It's hard for people to come up and speak. Bless the hearts of people came up here and said got up here to speak for the first time and said that tonight. That is not an easy thing to do. Even if you're really passionate about something, it's hard to do. But it's even harder when you try to make a comment on something on social media and you get bashed by people that you don't even know. It's hard for those things.

And it's hard like that when people are laughing about it. It's not funny. We want people to be able to take part in this process. So again, I appreciate that everybody was here that they voiced their opinions. I appreciate the people who were not here tonight that voiced their opinions and I don't have anything else to say. I'm just kind of just done. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Council Hajj.

You know, I wasn't going to say much, but I want to first off, thank you for all the comments, but one thing I've learned in my life, we sit and we talk about we want everybody to be equal. We want to do that. But when you bring in race, that is a very hurtful and hurtful thing. There's been things said today that should not have been said. It should not. If we want to work together, we have to work together. We can't come and attack each other.

Um that was some um I thank you guys for your passion, but doesn't mean that we don't have passion. We care. And for you to for somebody to come in and say that you don't understand how it is to be black. That is one of the hardest things to hear. And I had people we heard people clapping and doing that after the fact. That is not 10B. That is not 10B.

I wanted to address that because I, you know, as vice mayor said, you represent part of it, but we got just, we got, I got overwhelming people coming to me and saying how they felt about it. Those people are not going to come. When they feel that they've been heard, they don't walk into the chambers, but doesn't mean that their voices aren't heard by us. We heard from hundreds and hundreds of people. You do not represent the minority majority.

You represent the minority of people that we heard from in this situation. So if you asked us to talk about who we represent, we represent all. No. No. And you know what? Just saying money. I came from nothing. So don't tell me what money is about. No, no, no. I'm just saying no. We're not This is not This is my conversation. Allow us to speak. We allowed you to speak for hours. No, no. This is about what we we are commenting on what we're saying.

We make decisions for our whole city, not just part of it. So, at that point, I just want to I just want to say how I felt how how as I'm going to protect I'm going to say our council, we care. Every all seven of us care. Our city manager cares. All of our employees care. They've been they've been working on this for they we take they've taken time and effort to make sure people's questions were asked.

They've taken I'm I I'm not going to sit here and allow people to call our our our pe our our employees names. That is disrespectful. You would not want somebody to do that to you. No, no, no, no, no. This is my time. We have allowed you to speak. I just want to put out there that we have the right to say don't disrespect our staff, our employees and we and as I said we take everybody in consideration, every age, every person. Thank you. Thank you. Uh anyone else any comments? Um, council.

Uh, thank you, mayor. Just because things are kind of devolving here, um, I'll just quickly say every everyone out here is doing what they think is right with the information that they have available. Everyone up here and our staff is doing what they think is right, no matter how the vote goes, with the information they have available. No one runs for office to ruin the city that they live in.

And I think we would all do well to give each other, especially now, as was pointed out repeatedly tonight, and you're not wrong, we would all do well to give each other a little bit of grace. With that, mayor, I move we approve. Okay, it's been moved by council heating. Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by council member Hajj. Sorry, give me one second here. Okay, with that, please vote. Council. Yeah, I'm trying to. Sorry. And that item passes seven to zero. [Music] Okay.

[Music] [Applause] All right. So, let's see. All right. So, let's see. Let's go to where we Let's see. Um, let me go to item 8B1 next, which is to introduce and hold the first public hearing to adopt an ordinance for an amended planned area development overlay for Revalry located at 955 East University Drive to modify development standards related to parking for a new mixeduse development. The applicant is sender associates. They here. Oh, yes. Um, oh, actually, uh, yeah.

Any comments, um, from city staff, uh, regarding item 8B1? Okay. Um, this, uh, is there any presentation from the applicant this evening? No. Okay. Um, I will also then open the public testimony portion of the public hearing. Is there anyone in the audience wishing to address the council on this item? If so, please get my attention. All right. Seeing that, I'll close the public testimony portion of the public hearing. Council members, any comments or discussion? Okay.

The second and final public hearing on this item is scheduled for August 28th, 2025. All right. Let's see here. Let's make sure I can get my place. The next item of the section is uh 8A2, which is to hold a public hearing and adopt a resolution to approve design and placemaking principles for Diablo double but character area 2 plan dated June 2025, which encompasses generally the land east of 48th Street, north of the Highline Branch Canal, west of Priest Drive, and south of the Salt River.

The applicant is the city of Tempee. Uh, Jacob, good to see you. Good to see you. Um, get my presentation up, but good morning, uh, mayor and council. Uh, for the record, Jacob Payne, principal planner with the city of Tempe Community Development Department. I'm here before you, uh, with a resolution to adopt a, uh, character area plan for the Diablo double area. Um, so I'll go over kind of a highlights of character area planning as a refresher, but u, we've got eight of them in the city.

Um, this one is actually uh the final one to be written. So after tonight, we could possibly have a character area for every portion of the city, which is uh fantastic that we would have those placemaking and design guidelines for every property within Tempe. Um, so this particular area is uh number two shown there in purple on the west side of town. um generally between 48th Street and Priest and from the Salt River down to Baseline.

Uh we've decided that we're not finished with this project yet though. It's been 10 years in the making, but we will actually start endeavoring and updating some of the older ones. So, we've actually already commenced this project with the Apache area. So, you can expect to see me sometime in the future with an update on that plan. Um, as a refresher, these documents are high level. They are just vision and policy. They're non-regulatory.

Um, what they contain are uh principles and guidelines relating to placemaking and design. Um, these are things that we've come up with that are consistent with overall city goals, but also objectives that align with the vision that the community holds for their area, things they want to see encouraged and promoted in new development.

So, the purpose of the plan of these kind of plans is to have something that's got ownership of the community, something that they can point out and say um they agree with the things that we're looking to try and promote through new development.

Um particularly for us in the planning department, we do use this as a reference for development when we get uh proposals to point at um things that we want them to do um that help us better uh feel that it's compatible and appropriate for us to support uh those projects. Um, and then we also use them looking forward to just kind of lay out some decision- making, whether that be for uh master planning efforts or things that we do into code amendments later.

Things are a little bit more regulatory than what the document of this scope can do. Um, so a document of this scope isn't going to be able to change anything uh regulatory as I mentioned. So any type of projected land use or density can't be um changed through this. We can't do anything that affects zoning or private property rights. Anything that um relates to regulation um as well as handling individual instances of code compliance. Can't do that through um a policy document like this.

Um so I'm going to do a quick recap of the process that we endeavored through for this project. Um we began in January of this year uh where we held two meetings, one virtually and one in person. That'll be a pattern that we um do throughout this process to try and make sure that we reach all the audiences that we can. Um and then we also opened a survey at that time um which I'll show you some highlights of the results that we've received.

Um in March we had our second public meeting with a little dotcray activity which is what's seen in that picture. You might remember I think I talked about it the last time I was here with the character area planned but I'll u give a refresher on uh that activity as well. Uh also in March we held a mixer with the business community. So that was in collaboration with the city's economic development department as well as the Tempe Chamber of Commerce.

Um and they were even gracious enough to host us for that meeting over at uh Max 6 on Broadway and Priest which is conveniently within the area. Um so that was fantastic. In March and April we u went around to some relevant boards and commissions in the city uh make them aware and get some feedback um from their perspectives. all culminating in May when the first draft of this document was released.

Um after which we held another public meeting to get more input um as well as opened up an online comment period um right up until we needed to include a final plan for public hearing. Um some highlights of the first survey um things that float to the top of the list as priorities heat mitigation in uh addition and improvement of sidewalks and street scapes. It's a lot of focus on making pedestrian areas more comfortable. Um again, pedestrian oriented design floating up there.

Um having an overall um continuous plant pallet is something that came up as important through this u particular question. Um and then again promoting those um canal oriented pedestrian oriented type principles. Um our second activity doing that dotooccocrayy. That's where we give the participants a certain number of dots that they can allocate to their project or to their themes as they see fit. They can do all to one or they can spread them out.

Uh but there were 16 of them of those categories. Uh and we brought those boards to three uh inerson meetings as well as had an online version of it. So what you see here is the cumulative responses of those boards and the online survey.

Um so up top some of the things that we saw in the earlier public feedback um looking at managing extreme heat promoting shade um as well as public health and safety was a topic that came up a lot through verbal conversations we have with the community members um showed itself um up high on the list through this activity as well. Um so the plan itself um that's the cover of the document which you'll see in your packet.

It opens up with an introduction and some history of the area uh before getting into the details about the plan development through the public process kind of what I've just highlighted um earlier before getting into those uh individual planning design and placemaking goals and principles which is kind of the meat and gears of of how this document uh works. There ended up being 12 of those which I'll show you on the next slide.

Uh but also included in these documents are some appendixes that go into a little bit more detail and um certain aspects. So, one of those things is a recommended plant pallet based on historic but also desert adaptive and native plants that we want to promote. Um, new in this character area that wasn't in previous ones is an implementation rubric which is designed to help us as city staff be able to make determinations that a project is in general compliance with these documents.

So, uh, looking forward to seeing how that works out for us. Um, since it's kind of a pilot on this one, but I'm excited. Um, then there's some demographic and employment data as well as input uh summaries and a project timeline. And then there's one more appendix that I didn't get to add on this, but there's um a catalog of some images that um city staff took of the area as well. U these are the 12 themes that ended up in the document.

So you'll see some familiar topics, things that popped up during our public engagement. Um extreme heat management that uh connectivity um shade and walkable environment, public health and safety. Um making sure that we emphasized those areas that we heard from the community that they wanted to see in this document. Um just an example of what they look like these documents. Um this is an example from the open space section.

So, it starts out with kind of like a preamble that sets the tone and an overall objective of what we're trying to accomplish with this theme before getting into individual principles that go to further that objective. And this is a look at a spread of the document where you can see one theme will start and there will be some background about um what we're looking to accomplish before getting into those individual principles to get there.

Um, as I mentioned earlier, we started this project back in January. Um, and we are right now at that purple star, the very last stop um, on the project timeline for this one. So, um, I'm looking to, um, get the resolution approved and have this plan adopted and I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have. Thank you. I'm excited for this plan. It's been long overdue and I think it will be really really good and and I just like how you presented all the photos and and explanations.

So, thank you. Thank you and good job and and uh thanks for being awake uh this hour in the morning. I just I have one thing um that I wanted thing I want to say great document. I love actually when I was going through the pages the little mountainscape that you have on the page. Very cool.

Um at one time there was discussion about changing the names of the butes to the tribal communities what the tribal communities were interested in and I think the bell butes there oh earlier in the evening I could have said it but I can't remember it now. Um, is was there any discussion about looking at that name change now before you print the document that would have all that on there?

Vice Mayor Garlet, um, we didn't have that conversation explicitly, uh, mentioned in the history of the document. They go way back. Our historic preservation officer has written a really in-depth history. It's a very good history. I read that, too. So, I'm I'm sure that it's mentioned in there the, you know, indigenous and traditional names for those features of the landscape.

Um, the name Diablo doublebe has been a placeholder for the character area for some time now, even before the beginning of the development of this process. Um, it wasn't directly considered for us to change, but you know, that's something that can happen when we update it later. But, it wasn't part of the conversation at this round. No. Okay. I appreciate that. Thank you. We don't have We lost our group. We're back. You're back. Doesn't time. You just finished it. Do you had any questions?

I think Jacob is amazing. So, that's what I said, too. I said, "No, I don't I don't have I I don't have any questions. I'm just proud he stayed awake." Um, all right. So, um, thank you, Vice Mayor. Appreciate it. Um, this also is a public hearing item, too. So, if there's any public testimony on item 882, uh, please get my attention now. Anybody crazy enough to come up now? Okay. Um, hearing none, I'll close the public testimony portion of the public hearing.

Council member, any comments or discussion? All right. Um, then I will look for a motion on item 882. Moved by Council Member Adams, seconded by Council Member Hajj. Please vote. Yes. Okay. I'll get it and Okay, sounds good. Then that item passes 6 to zero with council member Keading uh temporarily absent. All right.

Uh the next item under the section is 884 which is to award a one-year contract with four one-year renewal options to Povo Radiology for MRI body screening services for qualified employees and the dependent. Council member comments or discussion. Motion to approve. Been moved by council Adams. I have a second. Seconded by council member Chin. Please vote. And that item passes six to zero with counciling absent.

The next item of the section is 8A5, which is to approve the utilization of a one-year National Association of State Procurement Officials, Value Point Cooperative Contracts with Verizon, AT&T Corporation, and T-Mobile USA for the purchase of a variety of wireless services, uh, wireless devices, and airtime services. Motion to approve. This moved by Council Adams. I have a second. Second. Seconded by, uh, Council Hajj. Please vote. Yes. And that item passes 70 to zero. Right on time. Oops.

My throat is just dry. Um, really quickly here. Um, Darren, what was your second item? Where where um where is it here? I'm sorry. I meant to I meant to cover that. I'm so sorry, Doug. Um 8C5. Let's go to 8C5.

Hold the second and final public hearing to adopt an ordinance approving a development agreement for developer own real property located at 108 East 7th Street and authorizing the mayor to execute a development agreement one or more deeds, leases, and related documents with core temp 6th LLC to affect such transaction. Council members, uh, anyone want a presentation? No. Shocking. Um, this is also a public hearing on it.

Is there anyone in the audience wishing to address the city council on item 8C5? If so, please get my attention. All right, seeing none, uh, I will close the public testimony portion of the public hearing. Uh, it has been moved by Vice Mayor Garland. Do I have a second? Seconded by Council Keiting. Uh, please vote. And that item passes seven to zero. Once again, sorry, I meant to do both of your items and I forgot. So, thank you. Congratulations. All right.

So, uh, let me go back to item 8A6, which is to award a 5-year contract with five one-year renewal options to EUI LLC for the furnishing of operational consultant services to manage the production activities of the Kyne Water Reclamation Facility. Council members, any comments or discussion? Motion to approve. Good move by council member Adams, seconded by council member Hajj. Please vote. And that item passes seven to zero.

The next item under the section is 8A7 which is to approve one-year contract renewals with American Equipment Services LLC, Bolar Holding Corporation doing business as Bolar Equipment, Bingham Equipment Company, Bridgestone HostPower, BTE Body Incorporated, Colby Welding and Radiator Incorporated, Courtesy Auto of Mesa LLC, Courtesy Chevrolet, Cumins Incorporated doing business as Cumins Sales and Service, Nhard Ford Sales Company doing business as Nhard Ford, Empire Southwest LLC, Fleet Line Truck and Fire Equipment Repair.

Freightlininer of Arizona doing business as Velocity Truck Centers. Larry H. Miller Ford. LZ Delta LLC doing business as go a motorcycles. Southern Tire Mart and Tech Chevrolet Incorporated doing business as Nhart Chevrolet for repair services and parts for city vehicles and equipment. Council members. Any comments or discussion? Motion to approve. It's been moved by Council Member Adams, seconded by Council Member Hajj. Please vote. Sure was. And that item passes 7 to zero.

Next item under the section is 888, which is to approve a one-year contract renewal with Rebel Oil Company Incorporated doing business as ROC, Saratoga Rack Marketing LLC, and Supreme Oil Company for the purchase of vehicle and equipment fuels. Council members, any comments or discussion? It's been moved by Council Member Hajj and seconded by Council Member Adams. Please vote. And that item passes 7 to Z.

Next item under the section is 8A9 which is to award a construction contract to FPS Civil LLC for project number 5810911 Storm Drain Improvements Roosevelt Street. Just as a note, my apologies to uh I know Darlene Justice who was here earlier to speak on this item, but I understand why she couldn't stay. Um uh is there a uh any comments or discussion or do I have a motion? Can I just say that I'm really h happy that we're finally getting this project done? Yeah.

um they've been having trouble for a long time. So um motion to approve. Okay. Thank you council member uh Adams for that motion and seconded by council member Chin. Please vote. And that item passes 7 to zero. The next item under the section is 8810 which is to award a construction contract to Felix Construction Company for project number 322417A recharge wells GMP1 long lead material procurement at Ken McDonald Golf Course. Motion to approve.

Been moved by council member Adams, seconded by council member Hajj. Please vote. You can tell that item passes seven to zero. You can tell who the night owl is. You are totally the natto. The next item in the section is 811, which is to award a professional services contract to concert North America for project number 3205025D, well improvements phase 2, South Tempi water treatment plant. Any comments or discussion? Been moved by council member Amber and and seconded by council member Chin.

Council member Amber getting on the board tonight. Uh please vote and council member Adams and and that item passes 7 to zero. The last item under the section is 8812 which is to award a professional services. He caught me off guard. Uh contract of Matrix New World Engineering Land Surveying and Landscape Architecture Incorporated for project number 3224017A recharge wells at Ken McDonald Golf Course. Any comments or discussion? As a golfer I so I move this forward.

Okay, it's been moved then by council member Chin and seconded by council member Adams. Please vote. And that item passes 7 to zero. The next section on the non-consent agenda is ordinances and items for introduction and first hearing. The items under the section will be read and introduced tonight, but no substantive votes will be taken. The second hearing and votes are scheduled for August 28th, 2025. Uh let's see.

Next item under the section is 8B2, which is to introduce and hold the first public hearing to adopt an ordinance for a code text amendment within the Tempe zoning and development code amending section 6-315 related to adaptive reuse of commercial office and mixeduse buildings for multif family development. The amendment intends to comply with mandates and provisions of Arizona House Bill HP 2110. Uh council members, uh any comments or questions?

Uh as a note too, this is also a public hearing item. So if there's any public testimony on item AP2, please get my attention now. Seeing none, I'll close the public testimony portion of the public hearing. Council members, any comments? So, oh, we're not okay. No, no worries. Withdrawn. Perfect. No worries. Uh, second and final public hearing on this item is scheduled for August 28th, 2025.

The last section, last item under the section is 8B3, which is to introduce and hold the first public hearing to adopt an ordinance authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute a lease agreement for lease of city-owned real property located at 34th East 7th Street in Temp, Arizona, subject to approval of the lease terms by the city attorney, otherwise known as the favorite item of council for Chin this evening. Um, uh, anyone have any comments or questions?

All right, seeing none, this is also a public hearing item. Uh so if anyone has any public testimony on item AP3, please get my attention now. Okay, seeing that I'll close the public testimony portion of the public hearing. Uh reiterate the second and final public hearing on this item is scheduled for August 28th, 2025. The last section on the non-consent agenda is ordinance and items for scheduled for second hearing and final adoption. So votes on these items will be taken tonight.

Um the next item under the section is 8C2 which is uh continued to the August 28th 2025 regular council meeting at the request of the applicant. So just want to note yes the applicant has requested a continuence of their application to a date certain which is going to be this coming August 28th of 2025. Um council members any discussion on the request to continue? No. All right. Um, if we would like to continue this item, I would look for a motion and a second.

Moved by council member Keating and seconded by council member Hajj. Please vote. Yes. And that item passes 7 to zero. Uh, let's see.

Next up 8 C3 which is to hold the second and final public hearing to adopt an ordinance amending the zoning and development code consisting of new land uses for agretainment data centers and extreme water uses and within the MUED zoning and clarification to smoking establishments and tobacco retail land uses tattoo establishments updates to security plants and definitions. The applicant is the city of Tempee. This is also a public hearing item.

So, if there's any public testimony on this item uh 8C3, please get my attention now. Okay. Seeing none, I'll close the public testimony portion of the public hearing. Council members, any comments or discussion? It's been moved by Vice Mayor Garland, seconded by Council Member Adams. Please vote. And that item passes 7 to zero.

Next item under the section is 8C4 which is to hold the second and final public hearing to adopt an ordinance amending chapter 33 article 7 Tempe city code relating to water conservation by amending sections 33-140 33-141 and 33-142. Council members uh let's see let me go to the public hearing portion. Um actually this is a public hearing. So if there's any public testimony on item 8C4 please get my attention at this time.

Okay, seeing none, I will close the public testimony portion of the public hearing. Council members, any comments or discussion? It's been moved by Council Biting and seconded by Vice Mayor Garland. Please vote. I And that item passes 720 to zero. Uh, next up, uh, item 8 C6, which is to hold the second and final public hearing to adopt an ordinance authorizing the partial abandonment of the public utility easements located on the west side of Rural Road and the north side of Warner Road.

Second, uh, a quick thing before we withdraw those really quickly. This also is a public hearing item. So, if there's any uh, public testimony from anyone in the audience on item 8C6, please get my attention now. Okay, seeing that, I'll close the public testimony portion of the public hearing. Council members, uh, do I have a motion? Second move by council member Keing and seconded by council member Adams. Please vote. I'm very excited about this. Excellent. All right. Thank you. Okay.

Uh, let's see the vote screen come up here. No, I vote yes. Uh, yes. Oh, there we go. And that item passes seven to zero. Uh, next thing, uh, last item under the section 8C8, which is to hold the second and final public hearing to adopt an ordinance setting a salary rate for the mayor and city council. This is also a public hearing item. So, if there's any public testimony on this item, could you please get my attention at this time? All right.

Seeing none, Keith, I thought you were raising your hand for a second. I was a little concerned. I was like, I was like, I'm in real trouble if Keith is um I was I will close the public testimony portion of the public hearing. Council members, any comments or discussion? Moved by Council Member Hajj. I'll second. Seconded by Council Member Adams. Please vote. And that item passes 720 to zero. Which brings me to item number nine, current events, council announcements, and future agenda items.

Council members may request that an agenda item be added to a future council meeting during their aotted time. But with uh in accordance with the open meeting law, there should be no discussion on the item other than to clarify the request. I will now call upon council members for their comments and or requests to add an agenda item to a future council meeting. And this evening, I will start with council member Hajj. I have none. Okay. Next up, Council Member Amber. Vice Mayor Garland.

Council member Keating. Oh, don't you I have to be at the surgery center in four hours. That's right. That's it. I just want you guys to know. You're going to sleep easy. Uh, council member Adams. Uh, no announcements this evening for once. Thank you, Council Member Chin. And I don't have any announcements either. Uh item number 10 that is public appearances. Is there anyone in the audience who would like to address the council?

If so, please come forward and state your name and city of residence for the record. We got our eye on you. Seeing none, I will close item number 10 and move to item number 11, which is adjournment. The next scheduled regular city council meeting is August 28th, 2025. We are adjourned at 1:43 a.m. Good night, everyone. That's right.