Tempe approves 250 Rio mixed-use tower with streetcar contributions, veterans memorial access

i'm going to go ahead and call the tempe city council regular council meeting agenda to order members of the public who attend the meeting physically are asked to maintain distance between other parties and maths are optional for all attendees per city of tempe policy alternatively members of the public may attend the meeting virtually through cisco webex events by visiting tempe.gov council meeting info for more information council meetings can also be watched in real time via cox cable channel 11 at tempe.gov channel 11.

i'd like to invite anyone who was willing and able to join me for a moment of silence to stand followed by the pledge of allegiance wow thank you very much 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 very much next up this evening we have item four meeting minutes i'm going to be assisted tonight by council member navarro councilmember tomorrow thank you mayor i can get my thing rotated the right way let's say we don't unfortunately we don't we don't have we have nothing for item 4a so we can go straight to 4b uh like to make exceptional board commission and committee meeting minutes 4b2 through 4b6 all right it's been moved by councilmember navarro do you have a second seconded by councilmember arredondo savage please vote oops hi thank you very much that item passes five to zero with vice mayor keating and council member adams absent all right next up item five mayor's reports and announcements i have a few but let's see for first 581 i have the united arizona employees association scholarship recipients that i'd like to call billy vickers up to make a presentation thank you mayor woods and city council members for including us in your plans for this evening i'm billy vickers jr the president of the united arizona employee association more commonly known as the uae and you may recall last year we renamed our scholarship program in honor of long time president of the uae jacqueline wissica and so we're here tonight to induct two new inductees into our scholarship program and jackie wasn't able to be here with us but she sends a message that i wish the scholarship recipients the best in pursuing their educational goals and the scholarship applicants were evaluated on academic achievement an original essay of at least a thousand words school honors community involvement and extracurricular activities mere woods i yield back to you for the announcement and presentation of our amazing uae 2022 jockey scholars okay excellent thank you very much billy so i'd like to first invite adina and carolyn kolia to join us for the presentation actually i think i might have skipped did i it doesn't matter okay all right sounds good okay so our our next jackie scholar inductee for 2022 is adina khalil the daughter of city employee and uae member carolyn kalia who works at the city's information technology department adida graduated this year from gilbert classical academy with a gpa of 3.92 adina completed 17 honors classes and 14 advanced placement college level courses adina served at the student council and helped organize dance events for the school and she acted as manager for the boys soccer team beginning in 2019.

adina volunteered at the arizona animal welfare league and spca where she helped with sheltered animals socializing them preparing diets and feeding them adida has been recognized by the national honor society as a golden scholar and a spartan award for her contribution to the volleyball team adidas essay topic related to diversity and its importance in american culture in her essay adena shared as a child of two immigrant parents from iran i grew to honor my unique background as it reminded me of my family whom i love dearly so growing up in a society where cultural and diversity culture and diversity were initially not celebrated was very hard for me when i attended elementary school everything changed while i was a child of the 21st century where diversity is increasingly being commemorated the families who do not appreciate differences teach their children hurtful messages i remember all throughout my time in elementary school and middle school i would be called names like terrorist or a member of isis simply because i was of middle eastern descent to make things worse i would get bullied for having darker hair on my skin and a larger nose of the children around me the features and history my ancestors left me were ones i used to cherish until i experienced the harsh reality of disregarded diversity i finally understand the importance of celebrating diversity in society especially in america since america is made up of millions of people from several different backgrounds we as a nation should embrace diversity rather than ignore it in recognition of adina's excellent academic achievement the uae inducts adena as a jackie scholar and awards her a scholarship of one thousand dollars this fall adina will attend the university of arizona majoring in law [Applause] thank you appreciate it thank you i got one more go for it all right and the next jackie scholar inductee for 2022 is javier bermudez the son of city employee and uae member hilda bermudez who works in the city's police department javier graduated from mcclintock high school this year with a regular gpa of 4.0 and a weighted gpa of 4.3 4.439 i didn't know that was possible my goodness you want to be mayor seriously javier completed 16 classes at the honors level with straight a's javier also ranked within the top 3 of his class and this is interesting for some reason it was missing in my packet there we go all right javier volunteered at st mary's food bank during the last year helping to package food for those in need he played basketball at mcclintock first on the freshman team and the remaining three years on the varsity team he also volunteered as a young mentor and assistant coach for the club basketball team arizona gremlins where he helped children with skill development and morale building javier scholarship essay topic related to the pandemic what he learned about himself our country and the world javier states in his conclusion the covet pandemic has affected everyone people have lost jobs loved ones relationships and a lot more due to a virus that could have been contained in the first place we can't change how we handle the past but we can change how we handle the future we have to come together as a community state and nation to combat the pandemic and get back to full strength the pandemic can't be fought by just a group of people but rather by a united front in recognition of javier's stellar performance the uae inducts javier as a jackie scholar and awards him a scholarship of one thousand dollars javier leaves on july 5th to attend the u.s air force academy in colorado springs congratulations thank you oh there we go absolutely all right next up we have the save soil proclamation so i'd like to invite the folks who have those amazing green t-shirts to come on up so i've got a proclamation here on behalf of save soil month and it goes like this whereas save soil is a global movement lost by sagarhu uniting world leaders visionaries influencers and citizens of all nations behind a common purpose to restore and safeguard the world's soil and whereas safe soil is a joint initiative of conscious planet incorporated and isha foundation inc both 501 c 3 nonprofits registered in tennessee and is supported by unccd unep iucn wfp and other eminent institutions and whereas safe soil aims to address the global soil crisis recognizing that 52 of the world's agricultural soils are already degraded and by 2050 90 of earth's soil could be degraded and whereas the proposed solution is to advocate for policies across all nations to increase organic content in agricultural soil to a minimum of three to six percent and aims to inspire over and a half billion people worldwide which is sixty percent of the world's voting population to support this cause and whereas in an effort to raise awareness and activate support from leaders and citizens alike satguru is currently on a thirty kilometer journey as a lone motorcyclist covering 27 nations in 100 days through march 21st through june 21st 2022 and whereas addressing soil degradation issues would bring solutions for the nutritional deficiencies food security water shortages adverse climate changes loss of biodiversity and mass migration now therefore i corey woods mayor of the city of tempe arizona urge all citizens to participate in creating bright futures for our children and the future of our planet so i hereby declare june 2022 as safe soil month in tempe arizona [Applause] and i will hear this hold it hold it straight again [Music] degradation [Music] no thank you so much thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you so much thank you thank you [Applause] all right next up i have a proclamation for pride month whereas the city of tempe is deeply a committed to equality for all and whereas the lgbtq plus community has fought tirelessly for equality and the rights and protections they deserve at home at work and in the public and whereas the fight for lgbtq equality continues across arizona the united states and the entire world and the city of tempe is a committed partner in this effort and whereas in 2014 the tempe city council established protections for lgbtq plus individuals from discrimination at home work and in public spaces which then were enshrined by voters in 2015 in the city charter by an overwhelming majority since the passage of these protections the city of tempe has received a perfect score on the human rights campaign's municipal equality index and whereas the city of tempe has an lgbtq plus alliance called tempe pride and celebrates the great diversity of our employees including those identifying as lgbtq plus and joins them in celebrating pride for who they are and whereas tempe will proudly participate in pride events throughout the region with dignitaries public safety officials and city employees all unified to support the lgbtq plus community as they remember their history and commit to continuing the work towards true equality for all people no matter who they are or who they love and whereas the city of tempe is proud to celebrate pride with the help of the downtown tempe authority who was showing their support with special pride flags installed on lampposts along mill avenue now therefore i corey d woods mayor of the city of tempe arizona do hereby declare june 2022 as arizona pride month in tempe arizona [Applause] so little note here we're going to have some longer speeches and comments from council a little bit later but i wanted to make sure that i do these in order i wanted to ask councilmember arredondo savage to come join me down here while a lot of the personal comments from council will come later i wanted to make sure that we uh read this uh for councilmember redondo savage and i have councilmember qb right afterwards so this is a proclamation whereas tempe employees value the faith and trust of the community and continually work to deserve that confidence through attitude conduct service and accomplishments and whereas city of tempe council member robert redondo savage has set an example for others throughout her tenure and has been deeply committed to the values of honesty fairness and integrity and whereas robert arredondo savage has been a champion for veterans by leading the way to become the first veteran supportive city in the state advocating for the veterans services coordinator position developing valor on 8th and the veterans family housing project establishing the tempe veterans commission and creating the veterans memorial park and whereas robert arredondo savage worked to connect steam programs with youth businesses and community through geeks night out and collaborated on the development of the regional opioid action committee and whereas robert arredondo savage distinguished herself as a valley metro board member representing tempe to support the construction of streetcar in tempe and whereas robert arredondo savage created college connect a partnership with tempe schools arizona state university university of arizona northern arizona university and the maricopa community colleges and created the college and career readiness program which helped the city of tempe secure an award of one million three hundred and sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifteen dollars in grant funding and whereas the city of tempe is grateful to robert arredondo savage for her leadership hard work and deep commitment to the tempe community our employees and visitors throughout her entire career now therefore i corey woods mayor of the city of tempe arizona to hereby declare june 24 2022 as robert arredondo savage lifetime of service recognition day in tempe arizona [Applause] come on [Laughter] so let's do one with uh council and let's make sure to bring the family up can somebody photoshop me in yeah we got one thank you guys so much [Applause] councilman kiwi don't go anywhere now i've got yours right here all right here it comes you ready all right this is for uh council member lauren hubey uh we talked about this this is their uh her and council member arredondo savage's last official meeting uh for those who are in the audience and watching at home and that's why we have these special proclamations this evening for them so councilmember qb's reads whereas tempe employees value the faith and trust of the community and continually work to deserve that confidence through attitude conduct service and accomplishments and whereas city of tempe council member lauren qb has set an example for others throughout her tenure and has been deeply committed to the values of honesty fairness and integrity and whereas lauren qb championed the creation of the tempe family justice commission to promote access to just safe avenues of care for victims of domestic violence sexual assault and sex trafficking and whereas lauren qb has led efforts for social economic and environmental justice including spearheading a tempe ballot initiative to reform corporate donations in elections and politics and whereas lauren qb advocated for humane animal welfare policies city-wide resulting in the establishment of the state of arizona's first animal welfare specialist position in tempe and whereas lauren cubie is a recognized national champion for climate change and clean energy and her efforts were key in creating the office of sustainability and resiliency and the tempe sustainability commission which empowers residents to have a say in their city's climate policy and whereas the city of tempe is grateful to lauren qb for her leadership hard work and deep commitment to the tempe community our employees and visitors throughout her entire career now therefore i corey woods mayor of the city of tempe arizona to hereby declare june 28 2022 as lauren qb lifetime of service recognition day in tempe arizona [Applause] thank you everyone you'll hear from me later i should do this um so here's the challenge i'll just say this before turning it over to our city manager uh if i'm already almost in tears about reading those proclamations uh this evening's gonna be a little bit challenging so please hang in there please stay with us so next up mr city manager your announcements thank you mr mayor uh first i want to recognize the representatives we have here from the downtown tempe authority uh you already uh mentioned uh them in your pride month proclamation but they are here uh including the president and executive director of downtown tempe authority kate borders and a number of her staff they're the ones dressed in the pride t-shirts in the back if they want to come down be recognized they also have distributed i think on the dyess you can see a number of rainbow colored roses this has become an annual tradition during pride month that dta does to recognize uh pride uh in tempe and in the downtown and uh we really appreciate their support for that and all that they do and and i'll note that this month in honor of the fact that there was um both the first official federal recognition in the city recognition of juneteenth which was just this past weekend and pride month that they went above and beyond and made sure that they had uh up-to-date pride flags and juneteenth flags flying proudly throughout the downtown and they look amazing and i've gotten quite a bit of very positive feedback about it and kudos to you and your staff kate for putting that together i'll go ahead and yield if you want to say a few words can i say one thing uh andrew yes i i'll say about the uh dta's uh juneteenth celebration it was the first time i ever got multiple messages from people that quoted uh the dta's down uh june teen celebration was lit i'm telling you i got that several times i wanted them to know since they're all standing right here in front of us so high praise indeed uh thank you city manager uh mayor and council it is a pleasure to be here we have been doing this tradition of distributing the roses on a day that we pick in june for several years now and it is amazing how a moment like that you can really touch someone when you just say we'd like to give you this rose in honor of pride today and it's unexpected and i think people are really graced by that we represent the business improvement district i'm joined today by chelsea reading lori foster and kim demerit so this is part of our events team who also put on that juneteenth celebration and we pride ourselves on doing things all year long that are demonstrating that we want to be a diverse community we want to be welcoming to all and this is just one example so we believe in doing things through action not just words like the juneteenth celebration like the flags that you see outside so thank you we hope you enjoy your roses if anyone would like another we have more the back so we'd like to get rid of them before they're all withered saturday night this week is our park after dark celebration and we'll also make that a pride celebration so come on down to the park right here next to city hall on saturday thank you thank you mr city manager i neglected one thing if you don't mind sure okay just i skipped over item 586 which is where the city of tempe board commission and committee reappointments and appointments just want to note that there are reappointments and new appointments to the city of tempe audit committee commission on disability concerns desert conservation commission development review commission industrial development authority joint review committee and merit system board is outlined in item 7a1 on the agenda mr city manager i'll turn it back over to you thank you mr mayor moving on to item 5b2 this evening we are joined by zachary lechner from our historic preservation office he's going to provide you a brief introduction we have so have go go ahead thank you good evening mayor and council my name is ambika adikari principal planner for the long range planning and community development i work with jack very closely so i'm very honored to introduce him today jackie lechner is our new senior planner and a historic preservation officer who joined us on february 14th this year before joining the city jack served as a historic preservation specialist and planner for the north dakota state historic preservation office in that position he served as a co-coordinator of the national register program in the state and oversaw the revision of the historical component of the state's six-year preservation plan he received a phd in history from temple university he taught at various institutions including the university of wyoming and centenary college of louisiana he has published one book and several articles and book chapters in the field of history more of an academic plus historian his office is located near the sp conference room in the community development in the garden level we're really happy to have him he will say a few words about himself jack all right mr mayor council members thank you very much for having me with you this evening um dr takari uh mentioned um uh yes i'm coming most recently from north dakota uh so i was enjoying the heat until a couple of hours ago uh and then uh and monsoon season started which is uh you know not a surprise for someone who spent some time living in north carolina where uh every every rain feels like a monsoon it seems like um we've obviously had the opportunity just to speak a little bit uh during a recent e-session and work together on an issue which i enjoyed very much and so i'll very much enjoy working with you uh you know in in the in the months and and years ahead i'm sure um i as dr carrie mentioned i have a background not just in historic preservation but uh at academia and so obviously as an academic you know you're trained to to do to do research and and you know to to publish um but also as an academic you know we're trained to to teach and to educate um and particularly someone who you know worked at a variety of institutions including a community college you know i really value the opportunity to you know to to teach the public not just about history but in this role obviously about about the importance of historic preservation and so i see myself uh as a you know as an advocate for historic preservation here in the city of tempe and i very much look forward to uh to carrying out that role um uh with your assistance uh moving forward so thank you very much and thank you very much for the position and thank you very much for uh for the opportunity to speak with you this evening thank you appreciate it welcome mr city manager thank you mr spear moving on we have a brief presentation uh from staff regarding stormwater management capital improvement program specifically at watson drive and bernard lane [Music] good evening mayor and council uh julian driessen deputy engineering and transportation director and city engineer i'm excited today to introduce you to greg kent he's a principal civil engineer for the city and oversees our bridge inspection program our storm drain program and as well as our cip design and so i'm going to he's going to give a brief presentation about our stormwater program and uh and then be able to answer any questions you might have so greg um good evening mayor and council i'm here to present as as julian mentioned on our watson and watson drive in bernard 9 storm dream project under our storm dream management program we believe this program best fits under the safe and secure communities protecting the safety and public prop protecting the safety of the public and property through flood protection measures our our program's first five construction projects are based on and we're ranked on by our storm dream management study which we completed in which prioritized our top storm drainage improvement needs across the city the study also provided research and background to be successful in applying for maricopa county flood control district grants which we have been successfully obtained over four million dollars in matching grant funds and we will continue to apply for these funds into the future we also have the opportunity to look for more funding and add green stormwater components to some of these projects through the zip resilient tempe master plan project process in the next two years the watson rain watson drive bernard lane project is the first project we applied for and received grant funding through the the the flood control district maricopa county the project area is located between baseline road and guadalupe road between rural road and kyrie node road on the east as part of this as part of the 2019 storm drain management study go ahead and do that there you go that one this map shows a concentrated area as a potential flood hazard of a potential flood hazard using a sophisticated hydraulic model the highlighted yellow and green locations on the map represent the level or size of storm that could potentially cause flooding okay next the 2019 study also ranked our ranked our top potential projects this project was ranked number four among the 15 locations recommended for flood mitigation this all this project was also was ranked also number one among recommended projects based on size and estimated cost which qualified it for the flood control district small project assistant program grant or s-pap with a maximum matching funding amount of five hundred thousand dollars city staff submitted this project in october 2019 and was awarded the 500 000 matching grant in january 2020.

as noted the goal of the the project is to reduce the risk of flooding in that neighborhood the solution we identified was to install approximately 1100 feet of 24-inch storm drain between rural road and college avenue moving excess storm water west to an existing storm rain system near kiwanis park here is an illustration of the proposed storm drain alignment 24 inch pipe in the in the red and white which extends along the el paso multi-use path from rural road to forest avenue near kiwanis park where we're at today with this project is we are currently at 90 design and anticipated final design by the mid-summer of 2022 and anticipates construction beginning early fall 2022 and construction completed by june 2023 are there any questions thank you greg really appreciate it uh i don't have any councilmembers have any questions thank you sounds good no thanks great thank you for your time thanks thank you greg thank you julian appreciate it mr city manager yes thank you mr mayor uh next is sort of a heads up type announcement we are going to be uh soon awarding the uh for the tempe municipal operations center which is a a city development of of space um just off of real slaughter parkway adjacent to the eve bomb the east valley bus operation maintenance center for a number of municipal uses that award of that contract we anticipate will happen during the period of time where there are no council meetings in july so our last regular meetings tonight we have a swearing-in meeting on friday next friday the first and then our next council meeting isn't until august 18th as a result what we were are doing and want you to know because it is a large contract for the construction of that site is that we will approve it administratively for a ratification to occur at your first regular meeting in august and we do this fairly often when these sorts of of periods arise where we have to move quickly to secure the price and to get the contract done but given the significance of this particular contract we wanted to let you know in a public meeting that this is happening so that there's no confusion about why it would be coming to you as a ratification and i'm happy to answer any questions thank you visiting manager any comments or questions from council hearing none thank you anything else yes uh i'd like to exercise a brief point of privilege to um i don't have anything to add to your very well said proclamations regarding council members arizona savage and and council member qb uh other than i have had the personal pleasure of being able to to work with and serve each of them in their capacities as council members for three terms for council member savage for two terms for councilman qb and i don't think i'm telling any tales out of school to say that they are different people with different approaches and i mean that in the very best way but what i am have been struck by in thinking and reflecting over the last few days about about tonight and and into the future is what is less important at the end of this period in their leaving the council with their their legacy of service is not how they are different but how they are similar and the way they are similar in my mind is that they are are so deeply imbued with such a great love for this community and such a great sense of of duty and service to this community it doesn't matter about the the differences what's important is they came to this council to serve the city of tempe and it's the community that is the city of tempe and they have done so with such honor and distinction i've just been awed by being able to sit where i sit on this diocese and to work with them continuously over that period of time and we are certainly going to miss them here i think that's fair to say but we wish them i wish them nothing but the best and i'm just i'm just really uh we're was very blessed and privileged to have the opportunity to work with both of you so thank you thank you excellent thank you so much andrew appreciate it next up we have item number six public appearances according to the arizona open meeting law the city council may only discuss matters listed on the 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 public appearances shall be limited to an aggregate total of 60 minutes no person shall speak more than once and there is a limit of three minutes per speaker speakers present at the podium must state their name and city of residence and provide a speaker card members of the public shall refrain from making personal impertinent or slanderous remarks and for 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 the cards are received speakers choosing not to appear in person or virtually may provide their written comments to the council prior to the meeting for their review speakers visual aids and appearances by phone or recordings are not allowed council members are prohibited by state law from taking action on commenting or discussing a matter raised by a member of 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 in legal action at the conclusion of public appearances the council may ask the city manager to review a matter or place a matter on a future agenda i got my speaker card here uh right here i've got josh wells good to see you again mr wells please come forward state your name a place of residence you have three minutes to address the city council hello my name is josh wells i live in phoenix arizona i'm here today representing central arizona for a sustainable economy also known as case i want to start off i meant to come up here very angry and agitated but somebody gave me a flower so it just softened me up a little bit y'all got the good side of me today um so i am here speaking in concern of the real project happening it's item 8b1 um this is another project part of a concerning trend that we've seen around government property lease excise taxes or tax abatements this one being an eight-year abatement that this project is asking for for what is predominantly office space and that's 14 stories of office space now what they are providing in terms of things in addition to the project are good you know the 100 donation to the affordable housing trust is very positive their donation to schools is very positive but in terms of what tempe needs and what its residents need 14 stories of office space is not going to solve our housing crisis people need real direct solutions to these things and especially if we're going to be giving large tax abatements to companies to developers it should be projects that directly impact the community in a very positive way so i asked that the council really take time to look over these agreements rudy take time to dirty review them show concern about the way we move forward because as i mentioned earlier today i want tempe to move forward in the most positive direction for all of its residents and for people in the valley at large so i appreciate your time thank you mr wells really appreciate it good seeing you that is the only card that i have uh this evening is there anyone else in the audience wishing to address the city council please get my attention all right seeing none i'll go ahead and close the public portion of this meeting and move on to item number seven which is the 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 the disclosure form if you wish to speak on a public hearing item please fill out a speaker card and submit your completed card to the city clerk prior to the agenda item coming forward for council discussion i will call your name when it is your turn for public comment so the consent agenda this evening are miscellaneous items seven a one through seven eight fifteen awards of bids and contracts items seven b one through seven b fourteen and resolutions items seven c one through seven c eight 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 alright seeing none i will ask the clerk were there any comments received from the public none at this time thank you cara council uh any other agenda items that you'd like to remove from the consent agenda for separate consideration council sounds good we're hearing none uh do i have a motion to approve the consent agenda moved by councilmember navarro and seconded by councilmember qb please vote hi and that item passes 5-0 with vice mayor keating and council member adams absent all right all right now moving on to item number eight which is the non-consent agenda 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 the disclosure form at this time the first item of the section is 8 a 1 which is to adopt a resolution authorizing the adoption of the updated city of tempe historic preservation plan the city the applicant is the city of tempe council any comments or discussion if not i look for a motion on item eight a one move by council member arredondo savage seconded by councilmember navarro please vote hi and that item passes five to zero with vice mayor keating again council member adams absent the next item under the section is eight a two which is to adopt a resolution authorizing the approval of smith innovation hub design guidelines dated june 2022 the smith innovation hub generally encompasses the lands bounded by university drive price road rio salado parkway and mclintock drive the applicant is the city of tempe counsel any comments or discussion down i'll look for a motion and to approve item 882 so move been moved by council remember cubie and seconded by council member arredondo savage please vote hi and that item passes five to zero with vice mayor keating and councilmember adams absent the next item under the section is 8 a3 which is to adopt a resolution authorizing the approval of maker district design guidelines dated june 2022 the maker district generally encompasses the lands bounded by southern avenue kyrene road broadway road and priest drive the applicant is the city of tempe council any comments or discussion okay do i have a motion on item eight a three so moved moved by councilmember qb seconded by councilmember arredondo savage please vote i you can do it and that item passes 5-0 with vice mayor keating and council member adams absent the next item under the section is 8 a4 which is to approve one-year contract renewals with all-city towing incorporated apache sands service center incorporated and professional towing and recovery llc for vehicle towing services utilized by the police and municipal utilities departments council any comments or discussion hearing none i have a motion on item eight a four second moved by council member arredondo savage seconded by councilmember qb please vote hi and that item passes five to zero with vice mayor keating and council member adams absent the next item under the section is 8 a5 which is to approve the utilization of a five-year source well cooperative contract with axon enterprise incorporated for the lease purchase of 370 taser electronic control devices and related gear for the police department council any comments or discussion been moved by councilmember navarro and seconded by councilmember arredondo savage please vote hi and that item passes five to zero with vice mayor keating and council member adams absent the next item under the section is 8 a6 which is to approve the annual excess insurance renewal program for fiscal year 2022-2023 to include the following insurance coverages property workers compensation environmental pollution fiduciary liability and foreign travel insurance purchased through the city's insurance broker alliant insurance services incorporated counsel any comments or discussion hearing none do i have a motion some moved by councilmember qb seconded by councilmember arredondo savage please vote hi and that item passes five to zero with vice mayor keating and council member adams absent the next item of the section is 8a7 which is to approve the utilization of an eight-month omnia partners cooperative contracts with cdw government llc and shi international corporation for the purchase of software licensing technology products support and services council any comments or discussion drive a motion it's been moved by councilmember navarro and seconded by councilmember qb please vote hi and that item passes five to zero with vice mayor keating and council member adams absent the next item under the section is 8a8 which is to approve a one-year contract renewal with express scripts incorporated who will provide pharmacy benefits management services for eligible city employees and their dependents to be administered by the human resource department council any comments of discussion been moved by council member davar seconded by councilmember arredondo savage please vote aye and that item passes five to zero with vice mayor keating and council member adams absent the next item under this section is 8 a 9 which is to adopt a resolution authorizing the memorandum of understanding between the tempe officers association and the city of tempe effective july 1st 2022 to june 30th 2027 council any comments of discussion been moved by council member arredondo savage and seconded by council member navarro please vote okay and that item passes five to zero with vice mayor keating and council member adams absent the next item under the section is 8810 which is to adopt a resolution authorizing the memorandum of understanding between the firefighters union and the city of tempe effective july 1 2022 to june 30th 2025.

council any comments or discussion been moved by councilmember navarro and seconded by councilmember arredondo savage please vote aye and that item passes five to zero with vice mayor keating and councilmember adams absent the next item under the section is 8a11 which is to adopt a resolution authorizing a maximum dollar amount for an individual job order of up to 2.6 million dollars for the purpose of procuring construction services for the u.s 60 emergency freeway repairs at mcclintock drive counsel any comments or discussion okay it's been moved by councilmember navarro seconded by council member arredondo savage please vote hi and that item passes five to zero with vice mayor keating and council ripper adams absent the next item under the section is eight a twelve which is to ratify job order number eleven to fps civil llc for the us-60 emergency freeway repairs at mcclintock drive project council any comments or discussion it's expensive and thank you to our team as what was set up here uh so moved by councilman for cubie do you have a second second by councilmember eridano savage please vote and that item passes five to zero with vice mayor keating and council member adams absent the next item under this section is 8 a 13 which is to adopt a resolution authorizing a maximum dollar amount for an individual job order of up to 3 million dollars for the purpose of procuring construction services for the us-60 emergency water transmission main repairs mcclintock drive council any comments or discussion we see a theme here it's been moved by councilmember arredondo savage have a second seconded by councilmember navarro please vote hi and that item passes five to zero with vice mayor keating and council member adams absent the last item under this section is 8a14 which is to ratify job order number 12 to fps civil llc for the u.s 60 emergency water transmission main repairs at mcclintock drive project once again seeing a theme counsel any comments of discussion or drive emotion been moved by councilmember navarro and seconded by councilmember arredondo savage please vote hi councilmember garland quick on the draw there five is that pass is five to zero with vice mayor keating and councilmember adams absent the next section on the non-consent agenda is ordinances and items for introduction and first hearing these items will be read and introduced tonight but no vote will be taken the second hearing and vote for these items is scheduled for august 18th 2022.

only item under the section actually tonight is item 8b1 which is to introduce and hold the first public hearing to adopt an ordinance approving a development and disposition agreement for developer owned real property located at 250 west rio salado parkway and authorizing the mayor to execute a development agreement one or more deeds leases and related documents with 250 rio owner llc to affect such transaction i see uh maria lochner and manju lavazz coming up would you like to give a presentation yes mr mayor members of the council for your record my name is angela buzz plot from gamington burnham to north central phoenix eight five zero zero four um maria's with me i want to thank her for all her help with the project we just wanted to give you a very brief presentation on the development agreement and just a topic we talked a little bit about this last time we're certainly going to talk about it again we're building as speaker earlier mentioned we're building an eight-story office building which i think mike and i went through and we're really proud of the building but one of the things we really want to talk about i think it's an iconic building but this is really what this project is about and we wanted to spend some time with the council and it's the only thing councilwoman erdogan savage for all her help but one of the canon zach was here and we've spent a lot of time with zach talking about the preservation and rehabilitation of a historic ash avenue and what that will do and how that becomes our front door and you know i think all of us who've lived in this community probably didn't even realize where ash avenue has been and we're going to celebrate that and also bring in a new entrance to the park and kind of expand kind of how the park and what's available to the park which is be a very large community benefit in the new park ash avenue certainly the bleachers and then the baseball fields and more importantly not more importantly but just as important we are also providing access and we're gonna it's going to be a part of what will be hopefully the second phase of the veterans memorial and we've been working with councilman erdondo savage oh sorry um thank you maria you're welcome and um you know and the veterans commission which we really appreciate and the staff and and keith and all the park staff in terms of what we can do to kind of help use ash avenue the rehabilitation and kind of work towards the veterans memorial and so you kind of see it here where we're starting we've started we've been talking to the staff and how we're going to continue this and work through as we work through the development of this development agreement it allows us to kind of use ash avenue to use as a foundation for the memorial in addition having contributions to schools i think maria's going to talk about that um the streetcar and i won't go into the whole thing but we just want to say thank you i want to take this time to say thank you to robin thank you to a lot of people who have helped us here and thank you to this whole council and their support of the veterans memorial and the ash avenue bridge so i'm let maria talk and then i'm happy to answer any questions thank you we just wanted to run down quickly what the different benefits were for this agreement um obviously the the rehabilitation of ash avenue and preservation of that abutment is very important to the preservation of the community assets that we have there the developer has also agreed to donations to um the tempe public schools to the tempe coalition for affordable housing the assistance for the future veterans memorial which we've been working on for a long time um they're going to participate in the streetcar agreement and provide uh almost two million dollars in additional public infrastructure as well as some parking spaces for 60 years for the city are there any questions i've got one quick question actually so when we talk about um the the almost two million dollars in additional public infrastructure can you talk a little bit about what that public infrastructure looks like yeah i think it well it looks like it it's at least a million dollars for the preservation rehabilitation of ash avenue um and so and that's based on mark vincent's report that the city is done when mark was the historic preservation officer and then there's some other infrastructure items related to some street lights and other things as we round the curb along ash avenue and then um actually i'm going to show you here and then it's maybe hard and mike can talk when we do the zoning contact oops sorry is that not that one no the other one um you can see there's a little bit of the roundabout that you can see here as it's adjacent to the public parking lot and so there's some other infrastructure items that happen um both along the stairway and then kind of the roundabout that's within the public parking lot i'll just say too i appreciate the answer too i mean looking at it just from where i'm sitting i mean it's a pretty stunning building i mean quite honestly i mean we've talked about a lot about wanting things that are truly iconic and where people will actually drive by and just have some kind of a wow factor and i mean for me just looking at the screen from where i'm sitting right now i mean there's definitely a wow factor with the building so i i mean kudos on the design no we appreciate that thank you i can cancel any other comments councilman rodondo savage of course very good i did make some comments last time you were here on this vas mantela so i just want to again say thank you um so very much and i think people probably don't really realize you mentioned how long we've been talking about doing the veterans memorial and people may remember the penny saver site that penny saver is obviously that's where the penny saver used to sit and it's been empty for a really long time and one of the biggest challenges for us when we talked about phase two of the veterans memorial was that ash avenue rode and it kind of became a barrier for us because it was so expensive to rehab it and the thought that you're you want to come in and have that same passion um desire to really create something remarkable not only with this building because it is stunning i agree with the mayor which is funny because sometimes we don't always agree but i do agree with him on this and i think to me being able to have the the veterans memorial park and to really be able to tell our story and what what veterans mean to us and and what it means to tempe to me this is really remarkable and creating that gateway into the park is one of those things that we've really talked about and and i'm very confident that duffy's going to be able to pull through some really remarkable designs i know he's already been talking um to some artists about what that could possibly look like so i i am very excited i think this is just going to be in a great addition to the downtown so i wish i was here to for your final vote but i'm glad i'm here at least to this point thank you mayor thank you councilman down to savage thank you for all your hard work on this anyone else comments or questions amir yes councilman garwood i just want to um say that i i love the project i think it looks great it's looking at the pictures from every angle i think it looks wonderful and i think it's going to be a good addition i appreciate how much module the builders there how much they're really paying attention to um doing something with that ash avenue and then really working with the veterans memorial walk i think it's going to be something spectacular i think we're going to be so proud of it when it's done i really appreciate that and i really appreciate council member dondo savage stepping up and and following through and making sure this gets done and um i'm just i'm glad that it's moving forward while she's still on council right now so thank you so much thank you councilman garland any other comments from council all right thank you so much really appreciate it back to arizona you got it is there anyone in the audience wishing to address the city council on this item speakers have up to three minutes i'll take a look right now seeing none i'll go ahead and close the public hearing cancel any additional comments or discussion all right hearing none just want to reiterate the second and final public hearing on this item is scheduled for august 18th 2022.

the following agenda items now were scheduled for second peering and final adoption were read and introduced on june 9 2022 votes on these items will be taken this evening first item of the section is 8c one which is to hold the second and final public hearing to adopt an ordinance for a code text amendment for marijuana infusion text amendment consisting of changes within section 3-426 marijuana and other sections within the zoning and development code to allow alternate separation requirements for marijuana infusion facilities including updates to the land use tables and related definitions the applicant is gambigen burnham and i see lindsay schube how are you i'm great mayor woods council members lindsay schube with law firm of damage in burnham 40 north central phoenix arizona 85004 mike marowitz gave a very detailed presentation last hearing so i'm available to to review the presentation to answer any questions or comments anyone has but i think we had a very fruitful discussion last hearing and just stand for questions unless you would like something else sounds good thank you uh anyone from the council have any comments or questions no nice to see you thank you lindsey really appreciate it is there anyone in the audience wishing to address the council on this matter you have up to three minutes i'll please get my attention now all right seeing none i'm gonna look for a motion on item eight c one been moved by councilmember navarro and seconded by councilmember eridando savage please vote aye stop functioning all right here we go leave me a roll call hi good all right cool that item passes five to zero with vice mayor keating and councilmember adams absent the next item of the section is eight c2 which is to hold the second and final public hearing to adopt an ordinance for a zoning map abandonment from gid and r16 to cc a planned area development overlay to establish development standards a public hearing to adopt a resolution authorizing a general plan land use map amendment from public open space to mixed use and density map amendment from no density to high density urban core and approve a development plan review for a new 14-story office building with ground floor commercial for 250 rio located at 250 west rio salado parkway the applicant is gammagen burnham plc just want to also note that a general plan amendment requires that affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of the city council therefore uh madam city attorney how many votes would that be this evening with only five of us it is still five votes so we have to get all five we gotta run the table okay just trying to kick up the intrigue i guess you know so all right and this i was also that this item was going to require two votes i see miss fos you're back i'm back all right welcome back yeah thank you uh again for the record manju lavazz law from gammage and burnham i have brought mike duffy who did the design hey mike actually is the person who's done all the work um he's gonna make a beautiful ash avenue and a veterans memorial so um you know we don't have to go i think we went through the presentation uh thoroughly last time happy to go through it again or answer any questions but we just want to thank you all for your help i'm really excited by the presentation and i think as you said and mike talked about we're really excited hopefully this will be an iconic gateway to the city on the west side excellent thank you so much anyone from the council have any comments or questions well show some pretty pictures yes you want some pictures yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah like some pretty pictures there he goes here this is mike's design mike show your pictures yeah happy to give a brief presentation if you'd like or answer any questions oh let's see anyone else no okay wonderful thank you so much thank you very much all right is there anyone in the audience wishing to address the city council on this item speakers have up to three minutes to address the council if you would like to speak please get my attention all right seeing that i'll close the public hearing so we've got two votes on this item just want to state first the first vote is on the general plan land use map amendment and the density map amendment so i'm going to ask for a motion on the resolution authorizing a general plan land use map amendment and a density map amendment and a second it's been moved by council member navarro do i have a second seconded by council member uh eridano savage please vote hi i'd say five five five votes and then some i guess so uh that item passes five to zero with vice mayor keating and council member adams absent you have officially run the table of all five the second vote is for the zoning map amendment planned area development overlay and development plan review do i have a motion on the ordinance for a zoning map amendment in addition to the planned area development overlay and the development plan review that's been moved by councilmember navarro and seconded by council member arredondo savage please vote wait this is eight c2 uh i this is this is just a c2 wait we just voted on nct uh uh two votes for this item oh yeah sorry and that item passes five to zero with vice mayor keating and council member adams absent all right the last item under the section is eight c three which is to hold the second and final public hearing to adopt an ordinance authorizing the mayor to execute a development and disposition agreement with tempe 206 south farmer avenue llc a delaware limited liability company is there a presentation on this item i guess i got maria's is she still here no you're good okay great perfect uh anyone in the audience wishing to address the city council on this item seeing that i'll close the public hearing council with e comments or discussion yes councilmember cubie just a quick comment just to note that the requested 20 year five-year giblet lease which will reduce the developers tax property tax burden by about 1.1.2 million over the lifetime of the lease that what results from all this uh and why would there's such a strong benefit is that affordable housing will in the downtown area will happen so i um proudly support this yeah well stated thank you anyone else any other comments or questions all right i've been it's been moved by councilmember navarro do i have a second seconded by council member eridondo savage please vote hi and that item passes five to zero with vice mayor keating and council member adams absent now we're going to move on to item number nine current events council announcements and future agenda items i think council what we'll probably do is we'll go through our kind of more standard announcements and then we'll get uh we'll get to some speeches so let me go ahead then and start with council member eridonda savage any announcements okay sounds good uh councilmember garland i don't have any specific announcements but i just want to say that it would it's only covid that would keep me away from being there today with all of you and being able to sit next to robin and seeing lauren on the dice and i i'm going to miss them dearly and being their colleagues i'm going to miss them so terribly much and i that's all i'm going to say because i'm going to start crying thank you councilmember garland next up uh councilman qb any any sort of standard announcements strangely no ah all right uh next up i would go to councilmember navarro oh wait one thing i would like to just say to my family i'm so happy for you all being on vacation while i'm here in the heat of the summer thank you thank you councilmember of already announcements uh yeah mary i think i have one i don't know if i was on pictures let's see if we got some cool stuff i don't know oh um i'd like to uh thank mag we uh actually had a trip to hermesia mexico uh to talk about strengthening our region and economics with trade with mexico we were sexually successfully establishing connections with mercedes government business communities also during the mission we connected with state and of sonora and legislators of sonora congress which was great in terms of just accessing uh their understanding of what they're doing in hermesios so we're talking about near-shoring um from products getting into instead of long beach ports where uh we'll be attracting uh hermesa to have those ports and to increase that trade strengthening the transportation corridor from uh for sorry trucks to rail um continuing on the uh what we call highway 11 all the way up to canada so they're doing their part mexico is really um trying to invest sorry infrastructure and we were there to learn more about that and more in the investment also we've had this trip back in 2019 this was a a huge trip for us learning more about the factories and the types of work that they have there this picture right here is a factory of approximately a hunt over 110 people which started with 10 people it's the transition happened from a group out of pittsburgh who does in manufacturing small parts from volvo so those parts for volvo were not being able to be manufactured in pittsburgh at at a cost that they could afford and also with the um type of machinery that needed to be infrastructure they found a partner within hermeseo to actually do that so that helped hermercio out in this in terms of this factory from 10 employees to producing now 110 employees with decent wages and and what that does is tremendous effect within that community so those partnerships is just an example of what we're trying to establish here um with the with the mag region hopefully creating more uh partnerships down the road i personally hope to create more partnerships um within temp b we also talked to some people in the restaurant business um and if you have not had a hermesio steak or any one of the steakhouses down there it's absolutely fabulous but there also is an opportunity to have that type of uh uh uh restauranteers come out to our areas to um showcase what they have and i think that's a unique thing in a partnership when we talk about a community that is trying to evolve and trying to create more international flavor so i think what we're trying to do and what we're trying to achieve in hermesio is a big benefit to the region but i think it'll be a huge benefit to tempe and our development that we have here so um real kudos to mag and i love to thank the mayor of hermessio he opened his arms and the people that we got to meet there um and we did get to give them some nice chouch keys of the the city of tempe some ball caps which i have to say was impressive because i have not seen a great paul cap in a while time in a long time but tempe man you knocked it out of the park with a nice fitted cap so the mayor was very happy and he sported him one of these pictures i thought but i don't have it here well maybe he didn't know he was going to wear the hat right there after that picture but i don't yeah anyways that was it mayor thank you thank you so much councilmember navarro i've got two very quick announcements i think i've got a slide for the first one i believe this was one actually given to me by councilmember adams who wasn't able to be here this evening but i wanted to make sure to read it on her behalf so drag story hour arizona and tribute at one of my favorite coffee shops brick road coffee so it's a special young adult story hour and trivia night celebrating pride month with stories and trivia drawn from shared lgbtq plus history drag story hour is about drag queens and kings inspiring our community members to be themselves through books songs and artistic impression and that's going to be held on saturday june 25th at 6 p.m at brick road coffee which is located at 4415 south rural road suite 10 in tempe go check those guys they're awesome awesome food and drinks so please make sure to get over there and my second announcement is just a quick one regarding the maricopa county board of supervisors who are currently asking for public comment on five draft maps that would adjust the boundaries of the county's five super supervisorial districts this redistricting is required by law following the 2020 census the deadline to approve district changes is july 1st 2022 and you can view the maps and give your feedback at www.maricopa.gov and that's it for my announcements with that uh i will ask here moving on council members uh eridano savage and cubie would you like for us to go first would you like to start uh let's see okay um council member garland i'll go to you since you're on the phone would you like to begin oh gosh you're gonna make me get started holy smokes so this is my first time to be a part of um of an evening like this and i just have to say it's um it's hard to do it from home because i'm a huggy kind of person and i just really want to be there um you know lauren when i first got on council or even before i got on council i don't know a lot of you guys know this but with techy leadership i actually shadowed lauren which was kind of fun to sit down and talk to her about her job and what she did and look what happened to me so i'm telling you tempi leadership and shadow day was important um but you know i learned a lot from um sitting and talking to lauren about what council was gonna what could it could be like and how she um and how she approached it and i think you know the same thing meeting with robin um and then talking to them and and looking at them as mentors and and the others on council the same way but i just have to say i've built not only a great relationship that i enjoy working with them and even not agreeing on issues it doesn't change the fact that i still have a lot of respect and i enjoy working with both of them and um and i really i think we're going to miss their personalities on the council and i um and i tried to explain that a little bit better in a card because i knew that i was not going to be able to get through it by talking so both you guys you have your cards and read them because i cannot um say all of those things um right now but i'm going to miss you guys a lot it was really fun working with you and robin i will still crack up every time i look over at that chair and i wouldn't see your feet touching the ground still makes me laugh um but anyway you guys are wonderful and you were a great addition to the city of tempe and you've done so much for us and and i hope to carry forward the things that you guys have done and are important to you and just know that i will still be calling you for questions and advice later so thank you so much for all you've done for tempe and all your advice and help with me thank you thank you councilman thank you all right i will go next then um so i've got comments about both uh councilwoman arredondo savage i was going to tell you that uh to for your request i will try to keep them short and save some some additional ones for later as you've asked uh but but there are definitely some things i have to just say very publicly the first meeting the councilmember arredondo savage and i had and we met before this but she's laughing because she knows exactly what i'm going to talk about the first meeting we ever had was at usaid right at mill and baseline and i was meeting with her when i was running for office for the second time the first race i actually won uh i remember asking robin to sit down with me and have a conversation because she was a long-time community leader and i just wanted to pick her brain and just talk to her about a number of things and according to her talk i certainly did uh she said i i don't remember this but i totally trust her knowing me that uh pretty much for the entire hour hour and a half that we were sitting there she pretty much didn't get an entire word in as she sat and listened to me pretty much empty everything in my head all of these different ideas and thoughts that i had about the community and where tempe should go and she sat there and listened to me talk which i really appreciated uh because i didn't realize how much i was talking but to be quite candid i was probably very nervous and that's why because i was thinking oh my gosh i'm sitting with robert arredondo savage and i need to i need to tell her everything that i've ever thought of in my entire life the one question i will tell you though that she asked me uh when i was when short of i guess kind of considering my qualifications for public office here in the city of tempe uh which he said and you know robin was a school board member with tempe union for many many years and the one question she asked me was do you feel that you can carry the ball forward on education issues because that was what was critically important to her was that we had people who cared about our students and our teachers of the future of education uh in the city of tempe and i told her yes i feel very comfortable talking about those issues uh and really trying to carry that that kind of mantle forward to the city of tempe but it just shows you uh what her deep commitment was to the city of tempe her perspective was look i understand that the city uh that there are duly elected school boards for all three school districts of the city of tempe but you cannot be a mayor or a city council member sitting up here and not care about education of the future of our kids because so goes the future of our students here so goes to the city moving forward and she had the wisdom to uh to know that and frankly to ask me that question in probably the only sentence she was able to get in during that meeting because i kept talking um but i mean but she continued that work when she got onto the city council uh and has been our leader on education issues we talked a lot about you know college and career readiness uh and college connect uh you know frankly the hiring of marie raymond at the city of tempe who was our first education coordinator was largely due to council member erdog savage's efforts and really keeping that focus on education here in our community and at tempe city hall so i credit her all of the things that we have done from an educational standpoint in the last 12 years she was the leader or she played a major major part in getting those things done so my perspective is the entire education community uh here in the city of tempe uh you know owes her a great debt of gratitude for the work that she's done over time and then i just think about all the work we were able to do together um when it came to veterans issues uh she really brought those issues to the forefront and she played such a huge role that we talked about in the proclamation and creating the veterans commission uh and and working on the balor on eighth project which is right down the street from four peaks uh but but what a lot of people didn't see too was the work that she did in advance of that project we're looking at uh my aide parish buys at the back of the room who also was in the marines they spent time not just saying we want to build a project for veterans but trying to find which veterans weren't being served in the valley and so they went around to several different non-profits and organizations trying to figure out where there were gaps and what they came back with was we're not doing anything at all for women veterans in our community and women and people with families and trying to help them get back into school after they get back home from serving and so that effort to create valor was not just something about wanting to do a veteran-supportive project it was an exhaustive project that they took up and the council member arredondo savage took up of trying to get all of the information that we could possibly have to make sure that we were truly filling a gap that was not being served in any other city or town in the state of arizona and that's why we are the first veteran supportive community in the entire state is due to her efforts and so i just had to publicly thank her and applaud her and i think about all the work you've done on valley metro rail with the streetcar opening up on may 20th you really over the last couple of years have completely shepherded that process through and we have the streetcar here i know a lot of that work was started by councilmember shanna ellis but i mean you did such an exceptional job of bringing that home and making sure that we have another incredible valley amenity that the city of mesa is already talking about partnering with us on to create a truly regional transportation system but even more importantly to me i mean i from my perspective what i'm going to miss is just the ability to work with you every day i've had a wonderful time i started in 2008 you started in 2010 and as you sort of alluded to earlier there's been a lot of times where we sort of had different visions for the city when it came to design we had this whole joke about uh how you know how i like things with tons of color and she liked things that were a little more beige and so we would have these jokes all the time about beige and color and all of the stuff but the reality was kind of uh piggy backing up our city manager's comments uh you know we both cared tremendously about the community and frankly i learned more from her than i could ever possibly talk about uh just about the history of this community uh just the greatness of this community she was sort of in a lot of ways my conscience on all of those issues and sort of explaining where we had been as a community and frankly where we needed to go based on that history and her deep love and her family's love for the city and so you know i'm i'm just really sad to see her go i was sort of dreading this evening because i just didn't want i don't want to lose you know robin or lauren his colleagues they're such exceptional people um and robin i i really uh consider you to be a tremendous friend and public servant and shocking i do have more tomorrow that i'm actually editing from this um but i want to tell you that like i'm i i love you to death and i'm really truly going to miss working with you every day you're an absolute treasure to this community so thank you and to council member qb so our our actual first meeting which i'm sure she'll remember too uh so we had met previously at um a then legislative district 17 democrats meeting but we didn't really meet we were just sort of in the same room as people who were trying to do good work on behalf of the community and one day i was i happened to be walking past the asu art museum kind of where the old saks sandwich shop was i know that's all being demoed now but i was walking through there and someone popped their head out of a door and i heard corey and i turned around and it was lauren qb and she said i'm lauren qb like i go to the district 17 democrats meetings and like you know we've been in the same room together many times and i said oh you know it's nice to meet you and you know and so we just started chatting and she said do you have some time to come inside and spend some time with me and i said sure so next thing you know we're sitting in a conference room in the building that she works in for the next hour just having a far-ranging conversation about a whole host of different conversations and and little did i know that that sort of meeting that seemed a little bit random would turn us into lifelong friends lauren has done such incredible work here i mean on things we talked about in the proclamation as well with the family justice commission the work we did together on campaign finance reform when you see all the other cities in the valley and you see uh contribution limits the max donations are around sixty five hundred dollars for an individual uh and in tempe they they go up every you know every two years you know kind of for you know for inflation but i think the uh next cycle it'll be 560 i believe will be the max contribution and people always ask me you know why are the limits in tempe are so much smaller than a lot of other places but that was largely due to the work that councilmember cubie did on trying to make sure that regular people had a voice in government that has been one of her biggest concerns since the moment i met her standing on asu's campus was making sure it wasn't just people who were attorneys and people with lots of money to spare had an opportunity to participate in government the thought process was if the limits are lowered to an actual amount that is low enough everyone can actively and equally participate it's not going to be the average person who can give you 200 and the developer who can give you 6 000.

it really levels the playing field to make sure that there's no undue influence but quite honestly too that people of all different backgrounds have the ability to run for office because as we all know sometimes running for office can be exceptionally cost prohibitive and it tends to attract a certain person who either has lots of disposable income or just lots of time on their hands and the efforts that council member qb put in and limiting those corporate contributions and bringing the individual contribution limits down quite honestly is something that is going to live on in the city for quite some time and when you look and see the stories frankly that the arizona republic ran back on march 8th we had our last election talking about electing the most diverse council uh in this entire state and frankly i think we already had the most diverse council in this entire state is largely due to those efforts it's allow it was finding a way to make sure that everyone could participate actively in their government way of whether it's petitioning your government or sitting up here on the diocese as a member of the city council and i have to very publicly thank her for that work uh and as we talked about she's truly not just a regionally but also a nationally recognized champion on climate change and climate justice issues uh and on environmental sustainability and quite honestly she really has inspired me when i when i first started i didn't know a whole lot about sustainability but you can't really be friends with councilmember qb and not just pick up things through osmosis at some point because i mean it really is sort of central to everything she does in her being uh and and so i learned a lot about sustainability and how to create a greener planet and frankly to leave something for generations after us uh that they can truly be proud of and live in comfortably and and frankly i would not have known those things without her um and then i think about you know this the work that you've done on animal welfare and your advocacy and uh you know for workers in our community i mean i just i i can't think of a person who's been a more tireless advocate for the working class uh and for and for animals i mean you know you you've just done such an incredible job on so many things i i can hardly talk about all of them uh and i and i just think about all of the things that during that time that both you and councilmember arredondo savage have frankly taught me about just uh you know public policy issues but also about friendship and about uh as the city manager talked about it but just genuine caring for this community uh and just i mean and for those of you who know lauren uh i don't think she sleeps um i i will get text messages from her at 11 45 at night saying hey you still up i'm like i am but why are you still up you know then i kind of realized the hypocrisy that i'm still up to and i'm thinking why is she up but that's just how she works i mean she's just a tireless advocate for so many people and so many causes and i think that's probably why she must only sleep four hours a night because she's trying she's constantly trying to think about ways to improve this community and improve you know working conditions for people and just improve the lives of everyday citizens and so i just have to thank her and and just lastly i'll just say this too um about just you know the friendship element um you know you know lauren uh like robin i mean frankly have been in my corner my entire career um you know lauren has been in my corner and and some of the the toughest moments i've had you know in a lot of ways and so has so is council member errando savage and i just think about how you know you have always had my back you have always supported me you have always been my friend even when we haven't agreed on things we've always i i remember a night back in 2014 um after she won we had a conversation we've been having kind of a disagreement about something which i won't get into um but i remember um i called her that night when she won the election and she said you know i love you corey and i said i love you too and whatever issue we were having before that was frankly over it was just sort of done instantly and usually that's not how things work but it was the deep sort of you know feelings that we had for one another as friends that meant we got past whatever it was very quickly um and i think that just says a lot about your friendship and the relationship that we've developed over the years so i am truly uh going to miss working with you i know we're always going to be friends but you've done just such an incredible amount for this community and i really applaud you uh for all of it and so just to the both of you to to councilman rodondo savage account supporter cubie uh you two we are greatly going to miss you like you were you are both two of my best friends you have been friends you have been mentors and more importantly you have been champions for this community and the entire community here in tempe and frankly the region owes you both a huge debt of gratitude so thank you much for your service and just i love you both thank you mayor council for rare navarro i don't know how you follow that mayor i can't believe i got through without crying he covered the bases um i'm like about raid uh i was like why can't i breathe it's these flowers i was like gonna have daryl get an svn of albuterol going cause i'm about to lock up yeah so with that said uh councilmember kuby i think the mayor has expressed a lot of it and i just want to say getting to know you from before council getting on council knowing your passion by far blows it out of the water i know exactly where you stand even if i might disagree i might know i know exactly where you stand but it's it's unbelievable the passion you have towards and the commitment you have towards where you stand at and i actually and i say this probably over and over to so many people yeah i disagree with her but damn it she's got a point on these things and damn it she has passion on this stuff and i envy that i actually do envy that a lot and it's it's your support that you have um with our employees with the workers with social justice with economic justice it's making sure that that people are taken care of and you truly have that when they talked about pre-k and you've been a big supporter of that yes it does have so many benefits to our community and it was a hard initial decision i remember that to make that step because are we the school board are we the city council but at the end of the day it has been by far the biggest impact in my opinion on the community on the community and you've been really big part of that and that's what stuck with me the other things that stuck with me is is obviously your your ability with sustainability um you you bring up so much information so much data and and i regurgitate it believe it or not uh and and it's it's it's impressive um but the the knowledge you have in the background you have on on those issues has just informed us so much and and the passion you show and i know on development we we often sometimes different we and we sometimes don't but you push the envelope and when you push the envelope it sets up the next one and the next one and the next one and eventually we start making progress and that's what i've seen throughout and i know that as this council goes forward we're going to continue that progress because you've laid the foundation you truly have and i know that we differ on sometimes and we fight like brothers and sisters often too but i just want to tell you i love you and i apologize for anything but at the same time i know you're going on the better things and i know you're going to be doing some great things down the road so i appreciate you and the energy you have is incredible let's see robin my prom date so we had a picture and we're both stuck down the basement we're doing our council pictures and i don't know who's mentioning that hey why don't you guys get up there and take a picture together so we did and it looked like a prom picture and then everyone's like you guys want the prom together and so it's been all across the valley it seems like and in other cities you guys want the prom to get i heard you know i was like uh yeah we did so we just played it up but um it's been fun i mean uh me and robin we've had a blast uh i i you know the the conversations the countless nights discussions over beers debriefing whatever it may be um it's been fun and it's really been a pleasure with you up here on council the veterans passion you have being a veteran yourself just like mayor woods has said to initiate the valor on eighth and to take over and to take on i know that a lot of citizens brought up at the very beginning to do the memorial but you've taken that and you've acceded to the presentation tonight which is by far outstanding and it's gonna be such an improvement on that part of the lake for sure and it's i'm sorry i'm trying i'm not clamping up yet i'm just i'm gonna blame it on the flowers so um but no it's the passion you have in continuing those things forward uh education you and your family this is such a strong passion for you guys and to be on the council with you um to shepherd that and to be honest with you i can remember when we were there we were both on on the committee and we're both looking at each other and we're having a discussion it's like how can we do this there's so much that we need to do in terms of education and connection with the city and all these and we kept on going and going going like we need a coordinator and i remember that and it was it was it was with your you know leadership and passion we got this coordinator which got another assistant which i was like i'm still like you're gonna need more trust me because the partnership with the schools the partnerships with community college the partnership with asu is strategically important and there's so many different avenues when we talk about those partnerships that i even utilized when i have a brilliant idea but i need an asu student to help me follow through with it those things have been just a big inspiration but the other thing that i have to say is the college connect i can't i i'm jealous i sit here and i'm like damn it you did such a great job on this and it's it's and i remember this it's it's through nlc and through other things and and you took ownership and leadership of making something here in tempe and it's like every single council meeting you have and i love that too it's the advertisement of it it's what it can do and and when i got with my kids and they're going through college i was like college connect it was over and over in my head and was the one thing i went to i was like well what do we do college connect you know we can go down there we can figure it out you know whatever the information was but i have to say that those things has made this community so much stronger and more unique than other communities because of your passion your drive towards those things when we talk about veterans when we talk about mag and transportation we talk about nlc involvement arizona league involvement when we talk about the thoughtfulness of development and and there's times that we often disagree on the type of development i want higher you want lower i want wider i want more you know whatever it may be but you bring up thoughtful conversation you bring up thoughtful um points of interest that i'm like oh i didn't think of that but it also spurs the conversation along with lauren and others to make sure that the product has gotten better and i think that what we're doing in tempe is a real attribute to this council and to you robin and lauren about what you provide for us all in terms of making those things happen and being possible and i think with developers it's it's actually set the template of okay we know what we're getting into we know what we have we know what tempe wants and we we lay out the playing field so it's no surprise and we really have gotten there so the other thing is before i forget too is is also your help with the opioids and your passionate on that and and i think that for this community with what we achieved with wastewater with what we achieved with partnerships with asu and what we should achieve with pd and fire and documentation and trying to pinpoint that it has been a real big um um a benefit to our community in what we're doing with opioids and and with robin's leadership on that in in the direction we're going and how we're trying to achieve that is bringing national attention um and kova did breed it for us though but because we had to switch our wastewater over to track and covet but um but it that has brought the opioid thing up to light again um so these are just a few of the things that you both have um been part of but but robin i want to tell you that as a friend i adore you i uh we'll miss you thank you councilwoman let's see i'm going to go ahead and turn to the council members for their comments councilmember eridando savage i will start with you yeah yeah i begged the mayor to let lauren go first i guess that didn't work out i i can it's totally fine it's totally fine um okay i i wrote a lot of notes and i think just being here knowing it's my last meeting kind of get you and seeing all these people here in this audience i just want to say thank you thank you thank you so much for what you do so i'm going to gather myself really quick i'm gonna smell the roses okay all right um i gotta say being on this council for the last 12 years is probably one of the biggest honors i've ever had it has just really truly been a blessing to be able to work with so many incredible individuals to make this community the best place that it can certainly be it's it's kind of been interesting when i've reflected and just thought about you know that 12 years and what that looked like and some of my colleagues kind of mentioned it so when mayor woods got on the council in 2008 you got to remember there was a big recession and when i got on the council in 2010 we were reeling reeling from the fact of can we keep our employees can we continue to provide these great quality services what can we do for our community everybody is hurting and and that was really hard and it was really tough to be on this council for at least two years where it was survival and one thing that was good in that time for me is i had the ability to really get around and meet our different departments understand what our departments are doing really get to build relationships with our employees and understand the hard work and the things that they do every single day for this community whether the times are good whether they're bad whether they're indifferent we have some of the most outstanding individuals in this organization and i couldn't be more proud of what you do every single day when i got on the council our population was about a hundred and sixty thousand as i leave council our population is 195 000.

our budget that very first year was 750 million and we just approved a budget not too long ago for 1.1 billion we've created in the last thank you don and marie for this information but in the last 10 plus years we have created almost 50 000 jobs for this community and that is saying a lot of the growth of this community and that doesn't happen by itself at all we've been able to bring a lot of great different headquarters to the city of tempe i mean they've kind of gone anywhere in the world but they picked this place and they clicked this place for a reason because this is a an amazing community this is an amazing region and it's a really great state and i am so proud of it um and the one thing that i am so proud of too is as we've continued to grow and we've we've managed the way that our we've managed and and weathered a lot of the storms i have to give kudos to those council members that came before us because i feel like they really did a phenomenal job of putting us in a very good position to be able to come out of that recession and be able to do some really great things for this community and what i noticed is the one thing that never changed for tempe is our tempe values our tempe values have been the same since the day i got here and the day that i am leaving and what we all do together is to provide the best outstanding quality of life and always try to strive to do better and those things don't happen by themselves they happen when we work together and this is one of the most incredible teams i've ever seen i'm really so proud of this organization and these amazing people and if i don't look at you it's because i don't want to get teary-eyed so i'm going to start staring it up at the beams because that's going to what i'm going to do and if i had the time i would want to just call out every single one of you and say thank you so much for what you do and what you have done for me to make me a better council member to be able to provide great quality service here in the city of tempe i'm so thankful for that i want to really just say thank you to a few people because all of our tempe employees are the best but there's some that i definitely have on speed dial you know you got those people that you have on speed dial and and and you really count on them a lot and so i just kind of have to kind of run through it and i i i want to say to like rosa and ryan i looked at my phone too to say who have i talked to recently and who do i text most frequently and um ryan i am sorry i called you a lot i i mean one of the things that we did here in the city of tempe are some really remarkable developments but we have so many remarkable people here that always answer the call always willing to answer my questions and i'm so grateful for that and rosa always keeping me calm talking me off the ledge giving me some great ideas and keeping me focused and centered it has just been amazing and i'm so grateful for you and for you uh i have to say the other people that i call a lot is naomi naomi i know i call you a lot i have all these great ideas and i'm just sure you need to hear them and you are always so gracious and you answer the phone still even though you called me back the other day so thank you for that i really do appreciate that and to of course uh my valley metro team i like to call it my valley metro team uh to eric and sam and to marge i will tell you they are incredible they care so much about this community and transportation it was so easy to fall into learning about how important transportation is to city tempe and i will tell you i was the very first one when we were going to do streetcar back in the day i really wasn't sold i thought whoa i don't know is that really going to be a good idea and then the more i got to know and the more i worked with marge and sam and eric i realized that it's just a piece you know streetcar is a piece of the bigger picture of what our comprehensive transportation system can really be like and so i am so grateful for them for our little group text messages that kind of keep me laughing and keep me going and i just so much appreciate their knowledge and wisdom and being able to share that with me and being so patient with me that's been really phenomenal donna you and your team i i we have thrown so much at you you i i just mentioned some of the great things that this community has done but that doesn't happen without really good leaders and having really good people around you so thank you for what you do thank you to your team um that has just been really remarkable now jeff in your new position i won't have to be calling you about code enforcement anymore and maybe my dad won't be calling you i'm sure he's probably listening i'm gonna have to tell him that you got promoted so stop by bothering jeff when you got a code violation you are definitely where you need to be and i'm very excited about you being in that position so congratulations to you and thank you for your friendship and thank you for always being willing to help and assist and and address hard problems and also to kb keith burke who is in italy so he's not here but uh a great shout out to him even though he thinks he's the best pickleball player in town i know he's not and um we do like to i think get after it when it comes to pickleball but he now being promoted i think he's in the right spot too and i'm really happy and excited for him but he's just been a really good inspiration uh and and just a really good friend and an advisor and learning uh as i go through things and i know all of you are in your driving i mean you and your the traffic light doesn't change and you get really all upset and kind of pissy well who do you call right i call shelly seiler i always call shelly scion she still answers the phone i haven't called her lately but i'm telling you when it comes to traffic nobody knows traffic any better than her so that's been really remarkable and fun and of course you know there's a few people too that you know you get really close with and you realize you can't do things without them and they're so important to really kind of help lift you up and ensure that you are where you need to be when you need to be there and and that you have all the documents and all the information that you need and that first started with parish you know parish we've spent seven years together and that was pretty dang remarkable we did so many things we accomplished so many stuff together you're right mayor we did travel and go check out a lot of different places to ensure that we were bringing the best possible project to the city of tempe and i think we did a lot of remarkable things together so i'm so grateful for you and timmy g i know you're here now not because you work for the city but because you work for arizona state university and i will tell you even though the short time that we had together i think you were probably at home more than we were here because it was two years of a pandemic but i will tell you uh you know we kind of threw you i threw you to the wolves and and and you did a really incredible job obviously you did such a great job that asu stole you and so i'm not really happy with that but i do appreciate the notebook that you brought me so thank you for the asu swag thank you for everything that you've done to keep me straight i certainly do appreciate that because i i realize how important it is to have somebody behind you and in your corner and not afraid to tell you what you think and then of course i gotta say something to tanya but i'm not gonna be able to look at her because i know she's gonna get a little teary-eyed and i'm and it's probably perfect because she's sitting right next to behind my husband and i can't see your face um but when timmy g decided to leave um there was really you know joel and i were pretty much by ourselves we didn't have a council aide i didn't want to be his council laden he didn't want to be mine so tanya tanya chavez volunteered and stepped up to say hey i will come and support you whatever it is that you need and so she has been doing double duty for two months and that is really remarkable i mean thank goodness we got rid of joel so now it's just tanya and i so that's been pretty great and we've done some really cool remarkable things so anyway i i know i missed a lot of people but i will just want to tell this community how much i not only i hope that people realize and appreciate this city as much as i do i love this city and i know these people the our employees here in the city of tempe love it too and they care and it shows with the work that you guys do every single day and i just want to say thank you i hope i get an opportunity to see you after this and to chief glover and to your staff thank you so much for everything that you do i know it's been a rocky road at times but i will tell you you will always have my support i am so thankful for our first responders for our public safety in general i know i wish chief reese was here also because you guys have been really remarkable you stood up in so many things and when it came to getting through a pandemic as this organization did i think we leaned very heavily on our fire department and they really did come through and that happens because we have really great leaders in place and i'm so grateful that you're there i feel safer in the city because of you so thank you so much for that and i to my council colleagues that are here right um joel yeah so joel everybody does say it was my prom date and if you guys saw this picture you would think so because skip at the time decided it would be really fun on this picture to give myself a corsage and joel a boutonniere so no wonder everybody thought we were at prom even though i was in a suit i don't know who wears a suit to prom but i guess i do and um i gotta tell you i've loved working with joel he is so dang funny cracks me up and when we talk about education i mean that stuff doesn't happen without being able to work with the teammate and joel was right there when i jumped on board and said hey you know let's let's kind of work together and see what we can do what is the city of tempe's role in education and joel's like yeah let's do it this would be really great he obviously has family members that are in education so it was really easy for us to pair up and work together and that was what we did we brought forth some recommendations and that was like one of the very first things that i did in the city of tempe which i was super proud of and it did start with marie raymond and creating that education coordinator and that's just really grown from there into college connect and career ready and tempe pre are you specialists that are on the campus not only at our high schools but at our middle schools and just really understanding what the role is of education for a community and how we can really enhance the lives of our youth and our families and i'm so grateful for you for doing that and i'll tell you i don't look at right aways like i ever did before you know if anybody knows joel joel knows he loves his right ways and uh he loves ficus trees so i will always think of joel every time i'm downtown and i see a ficus tree or i see maybe like you know things are getting a little dingy on the right of ways i mean i know joel's on it so i feel really good about that but joel i tell you i have so much enjoyed uh being up here on this dice with you working with you decompressing afterwards maybe you know a beer or two i really liked it when you bought because that was pretty great um just didn't happen enough but so i got to keep it light and easy because it's so much easier for me to get through it and um just to say you just been a really amazing friend uh you know i do like your wife a lot too so she's pretty great and uh i've really just enjoyed the things that you've been able to do and i and one thing i think too that you brought to the table for me was your passion for nlc for the national league of cities people that don't know what that is it's an opportunity for us to go and learn what's happening you know in other cities and other states and really across the country and and because he was so involved and engaged it really encouraged me to do the same thing and i really learned a lot by having that opportunity and i'm super grateful for that that was really great so thank you so much for that joel and and the work that we've done um that really you did you you spearheaded it and i just jumped on board and helped along the way with opioids and wastewater which is pretty remarkable and how that was pivoted and to really help and assist our community when it came to covet 19 and really understanding and that doesn't happen too either by itself because i think it was us and and rosa really took on that um and championed being able to do that pivot really quick and help our community and really understand where we were struggling and where the crisis really is so that's really important to be able to have that now i'd like to talk about randy but he's not even here but how can i not because you know randy and i had one of our first outreaches together we called it the round table with randy and robin and i fought because i thought my name should be first i mean i'd been here longer but i didn't win that battle either but he's just been a really remarkable individual uh to work with i love sitting next to him and and you know we have a lot of similarities and the way we work and what we do together but he's been really a good advocate a great advocate when it comes to economic development and really working on some of our areas um that were a little depressed and needed uh you know like the makers and i think that was something that he was really passionate about and making sure that mcclintock road get adjusted i mean he had some certain passions and i really do appreciate that and have loved working with him and lauren i like to call lauren the energizer funny because she does not stop i mean i will get text messages from her or an email in the middle of the night like what the heck does this woman never sleep i'm telling you she does not and the way that she works in that way is the way she works for this community it is really remarkable and we don't always agree and i think it's funny that andrew said that we are different personalities okay yeah we are but i'll tell you our passion and our desire to do what's right for this community are steadfast we really do care and it's great because i think the one thing about this council has been really remarkable is we're diverse we have different experiences we bring different ideas and different passions to the table and i think you have taught me so much when it comes to things that i just didn't really know so much about before whether it's sustainability or social justice and i'm really grateful for that because that's been an education for me and also the work that we've been able to do together when it came to equal pay and it wasn't only just about ensuring everybody got equal pay but it was also about educating women in our community to understand that their worth and their value and to me that is invaluable so i am so grateful that we were able to do that together and also the work that we did with adaptive recreation to really ensure that um there is all abilities for all of our individuals in this community and how important it is and and the one thing i had an opportunity to go to today and it was because of i think some of our work was the enhancements for um camp challenge and that is just a really cool to be able to see the accumulation of the camp challenge in their summer and uh their plays today and maybe that should have been my announcement but it it's not and i just want to say thank you because i think together we we did some really really great things so i'm very grateful for you and um and to doreen are you still there are you sleeping but doreen i'm here and you don't have to look me in the eye so this is even better this is great all right i'm going to tell you i'm going to tell you i'm i'm using your chair i have all my stuff on your chair and everything over here so i want to tell you i i have really enjoyed working with you these last two years and i'm really sad because i feel like we just really started getting going on some of the cool things that i know we're going to be able that you are probably going to be able to do together you are one of the most outstanding amazing individuals i have ever met one of the kindest caring human beings that is so ethical that i am just it's just a breath of fresh air and i'm so grateful for you i've loved getting to know you i know we were going to be friends for many years to come and the one thing that you said to me and you've said it to me lately in the last six months is what is it you need me to do what can i do what do i need to carry on for you and um i have no doubt in my mind that you will take on some of these things that i know are important and passionate to me and you will continue to ensure that they remain successful whether it's our refreshed um refresh tempe campaign you know whether it's the work that we do with veterans as i know you have veterans in your family too to me that is just so important that you offer that and i know what is really amazing is i know you'll follow through i have no doubt in my mind and i just want to say thank you you're just been great to work with and i love the way you work and the way you do your homework and asking really tough hard questions and not afraid to speak your mind and uh you know vote the way that vote you're conscious i love that a lot so thank you and i look forward to many many years of friendship with you doreen not that i'm not gonna be friends with any of you guys i don't want to say that at all and then tamer woods uh mayor woods i don't know where to start right so i said this was going to be really short and i apologize that it's not and um he's right about that breakfast at usaid i was completely done with my breakfast and he had barely even touched his but those protein pancakes are pretty solid and i remember exactly what i ate and i remember what he didn't and i thought is this guy going to eat anything or what but i'll tell you the passion and the drive and what he showed me then and there was so it hasn't changed he hasn't changed this is what he truly cares about he cares about people he cares about services he wants everybody to be treated fairly and equally and i can't tell you how remarkable of a human being he is and how great it's been to be able to work with you you say you've learned stuff from me well i've learned a ton from you and i can tell you i have a list but i'm going to narrow down to just a couple and one one and he you know he's going to laugh when i say this he's taught me how to compromise now my family might disagree because they're sitting right over there but he really has and the fact when i say compromise it's it's about collaboration and bringing everybody to the table doesn't matter what side of the issue you may be on let's sit down let's talk about it and let's try to find a great resolution that we can all live with and that is something that i've learned from you mayor i think that um that is one thing that you are stellar about is really bringing people together and creating some synergy and that vision of moving forward i love the work that we were able to do when you were a council member with our veterans task force so he gives me a lot of that credit but that doesn't credit doesn't come to me that credit is really a joint effort and all those people that sat around that table that really cared about this community and cared about our veterans and how we could do better but we have been able to accomplish so many of those things that we actually set out to do whether it was you know from valor on eight their housing projects to the veterans commission to community salutes to really getting a little bit more involved with the veterans day parade and and now to see this veterans memorial is is pretty great to see that come to fruition so mayor i just want to say thank you for everything that you do i've loved what you've been able to teach and how you lead this community and how you lead this council i am so proud um to work beside you and to call you a friend and so thank you so very much for everything that you do and and i want to say thank you to um the new council members that are coming in right i'm not going to have an opportunity to be here when they come in and i'm very confident as doreen had mentioned that she was going to you know ensure that those things that i've been working on are going to stay fluid in the future and i'm really confident that with arlene and verdetta you guys have got a really amazing team and and to andrew i just want to say i thought if i could make him cry it'd be great but i'm not going to be able to do it um you have restructured this organization and put some people in some really key places and i am very excited and i'm kind of sad at the same time because i'm not going to be here to really witness it and the change but i would just say that you've really put together a really dynamic team in city hall and you are going to see some really remarkable things a lot of synergy a lot of energy a lot of excitement and a lot of vision moving forward so i'm really proud of the work that you have done and and how you care about this organization and your fairness and always wanting to do what's right and and being a good listener most of the time um you know sometimes you didn't always take everything i said but you know i do really appreciate the opportunities to sit down and really hash things out and and talk about it he said he goes you're tough i'm like i don't know if i'm really that tough but i may be blunt and i gotta work on that a little bit but andrew i feel like you know together we've we've been able to create some really cool things and and i know that you're going to move this organization um forward in a really positive way then i'm super excited about the leadership and the and the way that you've structured this organization and where you're gonna go so thank you for that um and then just lastly which i thought i'd leave them for last because i knew i'd lose it if i didn't so i didn't expect my family to come but they did i told them not to but they did so for anybody that's an elected office you know that it doesn't just it's not just you you take everybody along for the ride right and so whether it's your family whether it's your friends and your supporters i mean it takes dang you timmy g i see you back there laughing at me and he he bet me and i lost just right now but it takes all those people behind you to make to give you the opportunity to do the things that you really want to do and and i couldn't do that if i didn't have that support of my family of my friends you know they were my friends before i became elected officials i'm hopefully they're going to still be my friends after but i feel pretty good about it and so i'm so grateful for them for for letting me miss a few ball games maybe missing a few key events but i tell you i have loved this journey i really have and i know i couldn't have done it without your support without your unconditional love and to my parents who are going to be so mad that i'm saying this to them is you know we kind of are who we are because of our family and our parents but i have the most incredible parents i had a great childhood right here in the city of tempe you know they really taught us how important family was how important service was and how important a work ethic is and they truly live by those words and next week they are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary and if that's not proof in the pudding i don't know what is and of course i have four siblings and i have one of my siblings here tonight so jamie thank you for being here i appreciate you and she's had to pick up a lot of slack because we have a family business and a lot of times i'm come i'm here and and i'm not there and so i'm so grateful for what you've been able to do and and um to be able to hold the fourth down but watch out i'm coming back so be careful um so anyway i so many other things you know i want to say and i told the mayor i didn't talk very long but i blew that way out of the water and just again to this community i want to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve and to be a public servant and hopefully be the right voice that you needed and that you wanted i have loved working here working alongside my colleagues and really creating some really awesome programs and initiatives that i feel have really taken this um community to the next level and i know i see nothing but stars moving forward as as we get this new council on board and andrew you have your new leadership on board i am so excited about what the future holds and i just want to say again thank you to the community for giving me this opportunity because it wouldn't happen if you didn't support me if you didn't vote for me and i'm forever eternally grateful to be able to be here and to do this so with that mayor thank you [Applause] next up council rubber cubey well i made no promises to be brief so um but for the last few months i've woken up to thinking about what i wanted to say to you all tonight and um it's not quite as ocd as my friend jackie who wrote a resignation letter every day for a year before she finally left her job but it's close not quite as ocd but um but you know i think it's fair to say i came to this office with a heart of an activist and an organizer and it was that energy i brought to the council you know it sometimes conflicted with the slower pace of government and policy change which which you know did lead some to some clashes with some of my colleagues at times and we we all have different styles but we all aim to serve the people at tempe in the best way possible we just have different you know pathways of getting there i have so much gratitude for my council colleagues tonight to start with the ones that are are away randy uh we began as close friends working in the campaigns of others including david shapiro in 2012 and harry mitchell in 2008 and policy differences randy have really tested our friendship over the years and that saddens me but we've gotten over it um but most recently i'm so thankful to you for championing a prevailing wage and animal welfare but i do want to tell you it's cubey not kuby for 12 years you've been calling me kooby and i'm finally standing up no but i'll miss working with you randy and jen we begin as election election opponents even adversaries and we became close colleagues on the sustainable and livable communities committee and i so appreciate the way you represent neighborhoods the way you stand up and fight for our neighborhoods and thank you so much for your for your warm friendship and robin robin you know we have been oppositional at times with some policy ideas but when we work together like you mentioned with equal pay and with adaptive rec we did such good things for our community and i'm going to treasure those memories robin they're some of my best memories of council i think equal pay especially was one of the best memories i have not just a view but of council and you've had such an impact in your 12 years 12 years you're you're a lady i'm the young one but for education veterans affordable housing adaptive wreck i mean just the list goes on and on and i know how much you love you love the city and i'm kind of envious of the close family that you have because i come from a very dysfunctional family and i see your family and it's so it's so moving to me um i'm not referring to my immediate family but my family back east way to meet my brothers no you don't want to meet my brothers anyway um joel it's been a really great ride and i i have loved if even you may not think so but i've loved engaging in debates with you and and i know you're going to carry forward the transition to electric powered landscaping equipment you're going to finish that work and and you're going to rid the city of styrofoam and plastic waste we were on the ban the plastic bag single-use plastic committee together um but you make me laugh you know we spar together but you you're right we're like brother and sister although i agree i'm the much older the much older sister remember when david shapiro retired i actually referred to him as my special cousin which i'll never get over saying that anyway joel i just will treasure our memories memories of you and doreen doreen i so much wanted to be for you the way corey was for me when i first got on council and i know you will in turn pay it forward with with arlene and with bradetta and you're so prepared always so prepared there's nobody like you i remember um when we were meeting with coyotes i hope i can go there but we were meeting with some coyote staff a year a year and a half ago and one of the um coyotes staff members said oh the council member's taking notes referring to me and i looked up and said you think you think i'm bad she's taking color-coded notes and she's going to file them all i mean you're so prepared for it for every every action every discussion and then on the other side you're such a profound voice for the unhoused for those who are vulnerable in our community um if not for you i'm not sure we would have seen the embrace of climate action of equity of the new office of animal welfare and i just say carry on doreen i will still miss working with you corey i am not going to look you in the eye right now um we've been friends since you ran for office 17 years ago 17 years ago i remember we were in casey morris and someone thought you were barack obama and he was like well you stood up and then they knew you weren't a barack obama um you've been a sounding board to whom i can go to again and again for advice for support for for critical thinking and in your two terms on council oh i'm looking at you and now as mayor you've been the spark for affordable housing for for bold and innovative solutions you you approach staff and you say i i don't want you to stand back i want you to say everything that's on your mind and that what you what you can bring to this issue that's how home time for all got started right because you asked council to go big and and go bold and you've always brought forward innovative solutions and just for showing it how it's done showing us how it's done and i've treasured the policy debates we've had you know i love to engage in policy debates and um most of all i treasure your friendship i know your mother must be so proud of you up in heaven because um you were just the most amazing human being and and you were such a you are such a great son to your dad and um i love you so much as a little brother not as a special cousin but a little brother um and uh and we i don't know what we're gonna do with that that's what she said jokes we'll have to find a way we'll have to find a way um but to the fresh crop of of council members that are going to be sworn in next week i wish you all the best there is such potential as council member erdog savage said in this next council and berdeta has such a heart for public service and is a beloved person in the community arlene so connected to asu and understanding the climate solutions and and all that she can bring to the community as someone who's lived here her whole life and wants the best i think she'll do amazing things and i would say you have difficult decisions ahead and the only advice and of course is unsolicited but i'll give it to you tonight to our new council members coming in is there are words of wisdom that were given to me by um martin o'malley he was the governor of maryland and i had the privilege of hosting an event for him in tempe and i asked him what's your best advice i'm a new council member i need some advice from a seasoned he was a governor and a council member and a mayor and he told me vote is if you're never running for office again and you'll always do the right thing and i've used that i've used that that scheme in that scheme i've used that that understanding many many times in my council career remember quick quack quick quack too soon too soon but yes um and staff you know i thought like robin there's so many and i would really keep you here all night but i want to talk just about a couple people and one is someone you might not necessarily hear about but to me he is emblematic of the city of tempe and his name is robert yabus and he's close to retiring he keeps threatening to retire but he he hasn't yet um and he i think he's brought in probably hundreds of millions of federal and and state and county tax dollars to pay for improvements for our roadways for streets building his complete streets he he to me is is the heart and soul of a tempe employee and he's not here we had didn't have a chance to say goodbye in in council chambers but stephen methben is someone i always turn to uh to help solve a problem that seems to be you know unsolvable and i remember when i was first on council he said to me after meeting you know lauren i noticed about you um you'll be upset about something and it's clear that you're upset but you'll you'll just say well i'm sorry excuse me well it's like you should just be proud and own what you're saying and be stronger in what you're saying and that was really good advice he gave me the rest of my colleagues are probably like oh maybe maybe you should have been acquired without advice but um i just want to recognize uh stephen and you know andrew and rosa tom and keith and sonya and judge kane and carla we have such a strong leadership team you're so this combination of heart and intellect and compassion and and i thank you so much for your patience and working with me for your advice i know sometimes those requests would come at strange times a day and i didn't expect you to respond then and sometimes you would um but i thank you so much i'm really excited about all the innovative changes that are coming in tempe government and i really attribute your embrace of innovation um in the way we make waves in the desert to you lastly um well second last braden braden k dr braden k one of the first graduates in the school of sustainability and um when he became our our manager of sustainability and then our director i i almost felt i could i could drop the mic and walk away because i had such faith and i knew with our sustainability commission which which um john kane led i knew that that we were going to be in such good stead but i wanted to stick around because it was fun it was fun working with braden and the sustainability commission and all the work that went into it but braden we couldn't ask for for a better person to to um shepherd us into a more sustainable and livable city kristin guin so she's my aide and we first met in 2007 we were charter members of arizonans for obama and i worked for her in ohio in appalachia rural appalachia as a volunteer and in a strange turn of events she came to work for me in city council and she is committed she's brilliant she is kind-hearted she's feisty as all get out and she's willing to rough ruffle feathers sometimes to affect change and help people so you can see how we have some things in common there and i just want to thank you kristen you're watching from home you're also i know um suffering from covet but i want to thank you for being by my side for understanding my motivations always and for being willing to tell me some hard truths at times and you know the way my mind works like no other even my husband maybe in some ways huh um so thank you kristen i love you so much you're my sister so um i ran for office to heed barack obama's call to run for local office where he said change can really happen and i wanted to see the city of tempe embrace more sustainability and climate solutions and principles and practices of equity because sustainability is so much more that energy and recycling and conservation is it's about equity and i believe with all my heart all my intellect that cities are are the incubators of innovation they're the percolators of progress and um you might be surprised to know this some have accused me of just being a democratic ideologue but for me democratic ideology wasn't my driver it was it was the knowledge and the passion that cities were the place to effect change and if cities created 70 percent of our carbon emissions then we had to be 70 of the solution so i am so proud of all that we've accomplished together council um we we i took this sustainability baton and all of us from the honorable ani shikerjian who's continued to be a friend and be a sounding board for me so i salute ani for all her service and and for getting the ball rolling and doing amazing things and then we created this new sustainability commission and john you were the the inaugural chair thank you for all that leadership and um then our the office of sustainability resilience and climate action plans followed we had 100 renewable energy goal passed in 2018 we had family justice commission the first in the nation and a family advocacy center that's followed this year integrative press pest management thank you so much craig um we set the stage for solar and ev ready codes that that we hopefully will implement along with international green construction code coming up i'm sorry that i won't be there to witnesses witness it but i know we'll have colleagues that will carry that baton and then campaign finance reform and dark money prohibitions and in constituent services forever and always we know how important it is fundamentally to be responsive to our constituents and lastly the office of animal welfare it's the first in arizona and it is modeled after new york city's office and they're they've been mentors to us i'm so proud of the work and i'm so touched that the council supported that effort so to all those that knocked doors and donated and advised me to my to my brothers and sisters in the union movement who champion economic justice and fight for fair wages and collective bargaining thank you to those in the grassroots who joined me and challenged me thank you this one's going to be hard for those who nurtured me okay cecilia escare and andrea escare herb vibel lois fow beth hoffman sue ringler and cj brignel brigel your kindnesses sustain me and your memories will always be blessings to me let me just take a second okay guys um and then linda knutson gail shanks and an entire escara family you are my touchstones and jenny norton most of all you're my truest friend in this world and i go to you almost weekly for for counsel and advice and i so admire you want to want to be you so um you win friends and you build community when you run for office and you run campaigns and when you serve um you can also lose friends and there are family strains and sacrifices as you mentioned council member donna savage i want to thank my daughters olivia and nora and this is the last time i'll say it publicly but their nicknames are oblivious and ignora and it's held true and i want to thank also my son-in-law michael um for for all of their good graces as i brought chaos into their worlds into their lives and mike my husband of 39 years 39 years plus four in college so um he he never imagined he be a political spouse beginning in his 50s and i put a lot of pressures on him but don't you be feeling sorry for him because he's enjoyed the most excellent baked goods over the years and even if they become all vegan they are incredible baked goods so my heart is full and grateful to mike for our history together and for how he sparked me to grow yet stay myself um ultimately we do what we do in life to make our parents proud don't we so my dad joe hackett he was a character if you guys think i'm a character whoa you should have met my dad um this is a really bizarre moment i realized last night when i was writing this but my dad died the exact age that i am today i don't want to be a dobby downer but it really really struck me um and my mom who slipped into the depths of dementia around the time i first got elected she she had warned me continuously over the years don't roll your laryn don't roll in your eyes they'll get stuck in the back of your head and so i was sworn that someday on council that was going to happen to me but i've thought of that warning across the years but then little did she know my my daughter would become an eye doctor so i got that covered you know when that happens i can just call my daughter out into the out from the dice here and she can help reverse my eye roll but i so wish my parents were here so they know that that my memories of their kindness and conscience fill me up and sustain me every day so you can probably realize that i have multiple streams of guilt that that stream from me and um i've had much opportunity in my life due to my my race in my class i married a guy who was jewish and so i do consider myself culturally jewish so we have that guilt sometimes and and i have generational guilt of what kind of world we're leaving behind for for our children and our grandchildren and i have the knowledge that i will be a grandmother or a grammy as we like to say in my family i'll be a grandmother in december and um i want nora junior if it's a girl uh she is going to be a democrat i want nora jr to know that i didn't sit silently by that i stood up that i was willing to stand alone at times to fight for what i believed in and to fight against what i think is the existential crisis of climate change but today i am filled with gratitude with those that helped get me elected austin amy and zoe they were my campaign managers in different campaigns zoe is now being written about in academic articles for the work she did with john ossoff she started a company called relentless she's advising the state at texas i'm in beta o'rourke i'm so proud of her um and david shapiro and all that he did for me and my first run and his advice over the years and then oh all the volunteers and the individuals and social justice organizations that part with me partnered with me as well finally finally i'm finishing up thank you to the residents of tempe for for those who engaged in every opportunity david sodolowski are you watching i know you're watching i so treasure the comments and your engagement at every issue that that we've seen in council and i think of nicole galvan and karen lathan they tugged on my sleeve and brought we brought new policies for us beca policies forth because of their passions and their expertise and then john kane the first commissioner of the of the sustainability commission and kendon who was your vice chair and now is the chair and um he was my first appointment to the sustainability commission back in 2014 and he has been such a force for change and you mentored him and who knew but this new budget would have four additional positions an increase of 56 percent in its budget but we have a new position in energy energy equity climate justice neighborhood resilience climate policy and grant writing who would have thought seven years ago thank you so much to the sustainability commission for all that you've accomplished and to those who fight for our neighborhoods that like ron tapscott from tempe neighborhoods together uh to joel to joel carnejo from samiyas and to those lastly who may have disagreed with me a lot but they knew i would listen at least and try to help and make the city government more transparent and our city more livable thank you friends and um in the words of woody guthrie and i wish i could sing i wish i could pull out a guitar and sing but in the words of woody guthrie so long it's been good to know ya let's all see no not really but it's really been it's been my honor and i will miss miss all of you and miss this time in my life thank you [Applause] thank you thank you thank you both it so it feels so weird to have this one last item on here but i'm just going in order i should have switched this around item number 10 public appearances oh i should have i should have managed the agenda better tonight uh is there anyone in the audience who would like to come forward and address the city council and if so please come forward state your name and city of residence for the record i'm gonna close that one really quickly with that said um just one once again wanted to thank uh council member eridano savage and councilmember qb for your service to the city of tempe uh you just are you're both absolutely tempe treasurers and we're all going to miss you and but just thank you for the memories and thank you for everything you've done and as you've said uh we're all going to continue to be friends and neither of you are allowed to block by number so um with that said we oh we are adjourned thank you so much everyone [Applause]