Scottsdale Council Rejects 2% Tax Increase, Adopts Budget Without Water Infrastructure Reallocation; Former Leaders Decry Cuts

I'm trying to get Good afternoon. First, I'd like to apologize for the delay. And next, I'd like to call the city council uh to convene as four different community facilities, uh district board of directors, which includes DC Ranch, McDow, Mountain Ranch, Via Linda Road, and Scottsdale Waterfront Commercial. The four community facilities district meetings will be held consecutively now. Um, sorry, we're running behind schedule. Uh, and prior to the next special city council meeting, be prepared.

There's there's a special meeting after this before we start the regular agenda. So, we're in for quite the night. Uh for the record, I'd like to note that almost all of the district board members and executive officers are in attendance for the four community facilities district meetings being held uh and will proceed with the first meeting. Um yes, Councilwoman Littlefield, I'm sorry I overlooked that she was not here. Well, we will announce her when she comes in.

Uh turning to uh the first DC Ranch Community Facilities District Board meeting uh of director's meeting. I'd like to recognize Councilwoman Dascus uh to declare a conflict. Madame Mayor, I'd like to declare a conflict. I live in DC Ranch. My husband is on the finance committee, so I will step aside. Thank you. Thank you. So item uh the item on the agenda is for approval of the meeting minutes uh for the DC Ranch Community Facilities District Board. Are there any revisions or questions?

Motion to approve. I can't. I've got a motion and a second to approve the meeting minutes. Please uh indicate your vote. That motion passes. Item number three on the agenda is to request and adopt resolution number 65 approving the proposed DC Ranch CFD budget and ordering a public hearing. Are there any comments or questions from the district board members before I request a motion? Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion to adopt resolution number 65. So moved. Second motion second.

Please indicate your vote. May Mayor, is it possible to for the to expedite it to do uh vote by acclamation going forward? Not now, but please register your vote. Next and last, I believe, is item number four. Not last. Item number four, conduct a public hearing on the proposed fiscal year 2627 DC ranch C CFD budget which I now open the public hearing and uh we have no speakers tonight. So we will u not have any public testimony and therefore I now close the public hearing.

Do any of the district board members have any questions or comments? And if not, uh, I don't see any, we'll move on to agenda item number five, which is a request to adopt resolution number 66, adopting the final fiscal year 2627, uh, DC Ranch CFD budget and ordering a tax levy. Are there any comments or questions from the board members before I request a motion? I don't see any. I'll entertain a motion to re uh to adopt resolution number 66. So moved. All right. All those in favor. That was 66.

That was 66. May I have a And that concludes the these uh that concludes the the items for um for the DC Ranch uh community facilities district district board meeting and uh we I will now move to adjourn and move on to the next CFD board meeting and we'll invite councilwoman Dascus to come back to the dis. Give her a m moment. Okay, moving on to the McDow Mountain Ranch Community Facilities District Board of Directors meeting.

I call to order the Mcdow Mountain Ranch Community Facilities District Board of Directors meeting of June 9, 2026. Item number two on the agenda is for the approval of meeting minutes. Uh are there any revisions? Seeing none, uh, I I'll entertain a motion to approve special meeting minutes of Tuesday, June 10th 2025. Second, please register your vote.

Item number three on the agenda is a request to adopt resolution number 77 approving the proposed McDow Mountain Ranch CFD budget and ordering a public hearing. Are there any comments or questions? I don't see any. Uh and therefore I request a motion um I'll entertain a motion, excuse me, to adopt resolution number 77. So moved. Second, please indicate your vote. Next item four, uh, conduct a public hearing on the proposed fiscal year 2026 27 McDow Mountain Ranch CFD budget.

And I, uh, now open the public hearing. And this is an opportunity to take public testimony, but there are no speakers. So with that, I will close the public hearing. And if the unless the district board members have any questions, we will move on to item number five, which is a request to adopt resolution number 78, adopting the final fiscal year 2627 McDall Mountain Ranch CFD budget. I don't see any questions or comments and as a result, I will make a motion to adopt resolution number 78.

Second. Please indicate your vote. I'd like to move now to adjourn the McDow Mountain Ranch CFD board meeting. Second. All right. We are adjourned. Moving on. Via Linda Road Community Facilities District Board of Directors meeting. Uh I hereby call to order this June 9th, 2026. And item number two on the agenda is for the approval of meeting minutes. And I don't see any questions or comments on the meeting minutes.

And as such, I will move to approve special meeting minutes of Tuesday, June 10th, 2025. Do I have a second? Please register your vote. Item number three on the agenda is a request to adopt resolution number 61 approving the proposed VIA Linda Road CFD budget and ordering a public hearing. Uh please advise if you have any comments or questions. Seeing none, I will move to adopt resolution number 61. Can I have a second? Second. Please register your vote.

Next item number four, conduct a public hearing on the proposed fiscal year 2627 via Linda Road CFD budget which I now open for public testimony. However, we have no public speakers on this item and as a result, I now close the public hearing. And uh moving on to item number five, which is a request to adopt resolution number 62, adopting the final fiscal year 2627 via Linda Road CFD budget. And seeing no comments or questions uh from the board members, I move to adopt resolution number 62.

Second. I'll please register your vote. And now I move to adjourn the Via Linda Road CFD board meeting. Any objections? Moving on to the Scottsdale Waterfront Commercial Community Facilities District Board of Board of Directors meeting. We have I call to order the June 10th, 2026 Scottsdale waterfront commercial community facilities just district board of directors meeting. Uh item number two is for the approval of meeting minutes and anyone have any questions or revisions?

If not, I move to approve special meeting minutes of Tuesday, June 10th, 2025. Second. Please register your vote. Item three on the agenda is a request to adopt resolution for number 48 approving the proposed Scottsdale waterfront front commercial CFD budget and ordering a public hearing. Uh unless there's any questions or comments, I will move for the adoption of resolution number 48. Second. Please indicate your vote.

Item number four, conduct a public hearing on the proposed fiscal year 2026 Scottsdale waterfront commercial CFD budget. And I now open the public hearing for the purpose of taking public testimony. However, there are no public speakers registered. So, as a result, I will close the public hearing.

And unless there's any questions, moving on to item number five, which is a request to adopt resolution number 49, adopting the final fiscal year 2026 27 Scottsdale Waterfront Commercial CFD budget and ordering a tax levy. Uh, unless there are any questions or comments from the board members, I will move to adopt resolution number 49. Second. Please indicate your vote.

Unless there's any other business uh on this matter, I will move to adjourn the Scottsdale Waterfront Commercial CFD board meeting. Thank you. Any objection? We are adjourned. Moving on to the June 9th, 2026 city council special meeting number two. City clerk Ben Lane, may I please have a roll call. Thank you, Mayor. Mayor Lisa Barowski, present. Vice Mayor Marian McCallen, present. Council member Stan Dybosquez, here. Barry Graham, Adam Quasman here. Kathy Littlefield here.

And Solange Whitehead here. City Manager Greg Kaitton here. City Attorney Louis Santea here. City treasurer Sony Andrews here. Acting City Auditor LLC here. And the clerk is present. Thank you, mayor. Thank you very much. And this gives us the opportunity to now review applications submitted for the various board and commission openings under consideration. From the applicant pool, the council will select nominees and fur for further consideration.

First, I would like to uh note that this is vice mayor, the now vice mayor Mckllen's Mary Anne McCallen's first meeting. Uh and welcome vice mayor. And I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge and my appreciation and our appreciation for the service of the outgoing Vice Mayor Adam Quasman. All right, with that, Vice Mayor Mckllen, take it away. Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, this evening, the city council will be nominating Scottsdale residents interested in serving on citizen advisory boards, commissions, and committees. The Scottsdale City Council is responsible for establishing city policies and enacting laws in support of those policies. The council relies on volunteer citizen-based boards and commissions to research issues and make recommendations in support of council's missions and goals.

The information and recommendations provided by the city appointed advisory boards is a valuable tool in helping council members in their deliberations. Appointments for these positions will be made um today or at a a special city council meeting on June 23rd. As we begin the process this evening, I would like to note that my colleagues um that an applicant only needs one nomination in order to advance to the interview before council on June 23rd.

When I call on you, if your chosen applicant or applicants have already been nominated by a council member, please state no additional and we'll move on with the process. Okay, we will begin. Uh the first is the board of adjustment and the board of adjustment is currently there is one opening for the board of adjustment but we did not receive any applications. So if any of you out there in the future want to be on the board of adjustment put your application in. We will move on to the next.

The building advisory board of appeals. There is one opening. The building advisory board of appeals has the jurisdiction to recommend that minor variances in electrical, plumbing, and mechanical application of the building code be granted and that alternative construction methods or materials be allowed. The board also recommends amendments to the code. Special special qualifications. There are none required by city code.

However, members appointed to the building advisory board of appeals should be qualified by experience training to decide on these matters pertaining to building construction. Uh Pete Edgars Fuels term expired in December of 2025. There is one vacancy and one applicant. The applicant is James Meyer. I will now entertain the nomination for the building advisory board of appeals um by each council member. Uh that would be Councilman Quasman.

Madame Vice Mayor, I nominate James Meyer and ask that you close the nomination seeing no other people are nominated. Excellent. Mr. James Meyer, you are now nominated to the building advisory board of appeals. Moving on to the next, the Citizens Bonds Oversight Committee. There is one opening. The citizens bond oversight committee shall receive reports on the city's progress on implementing the bond program.

Review of any proposed project changes to the program and provide such comments to the city council will re respect the bond program as the committee deems appropriate. Joe Dubois's term expired in May. He is eligible for reappointment and has submitted a new application for consideration. There is one VA vacancy and there are eight applicants. The applicants are Brandon Alislade, Felix Kaspari, Joe Dubois, Eric Englet, Matthew Johnson, Patrick McGary, Amber Riviera, and Katherine Wills.

I will now entertain nominations for the Citizen Bond Oversight Committee. Each council member may nominate one applicant. With that, uh, Councilwoman Whitehead, Joe Deos, Mayor Baroski. Thank you. Katherine Wells, uh, Councilwoman Littlefield. Uh, Councilman Graham, Vice Mayor, thank you. None additional. Um, Commissioner Dubo Dubois, he's going to he's going to lash out at us when we when he corrects us for the pronunciation of his last name.

I have none additional, but I did want to we I'm just impressed by how many applicants we have for this and we have deficits in other commissions. Maybe maybe uh somebody wants to put a backup application for another commission. Thank you, Council. Council, Vice Mayor, I apologize. Can Councilwoman Littlefield repeat her nomination and we didn't get it? Oh, I I believe she said Brandon. Uh, Brandon Alis. Okay. Thank Councilwoman Dasquez. Kathy Wills. Okay. Uh, and no additional. No additional.

Okay. And I um have no additional. So that leaves um Brandon Alazette, Joe Dubois, and Katherine Wills nominated. Okay. Historic Preservation Commission. The Historic Preservation Commission coordinates local efforts to identify and protect significant historic and archaeological resources. The commission advises the planning commission and the city council on all matters concerning historic and archaeology archaeological preservation.

The commission's focus is to implement the ordinance process for identifying Scottsdale's historical, archaeological, and cultural resources, promote an awareness of them for future generations, and to recommend programs to archive community goals or achieve community goals for their preservation and conservation. The commission also reviews changes or alterations to exterior of properties on the historic Scottsdale register in accordance with the approved guidelines for each property.

Special qualifications for this commission as outlined in the Scottsdale City Code. Each member shall have demonstrated a special interest, knowledge, or experience in at least one of the following: building construction, history, arch, architectural history, real estate, historic preservation law, or other historic preservation related field. J Panzir's term concludes in June. He is eligible for reappoint. However, he has not submitted an application.

There is one vacancy and one applicant and the applicant is John Duncan. I will now entertain a nomination for the historic preservation commission and that will be with uh the mayor mayor Baroski. John Duncan. And seeing no other applicants, I would uh move to have him nominated. Nominated. Yes. Okay. So, Mr. Duncan is nominated um by the mayor and that um moves us to the lost trust fund board. There is one opening it it's required by state statute.

The lost trust fund board make recommendations to the city council regarding the administration of the lost trust fund. The trustees shall meet at least once a year and submit a report to the city council regarding the status of the trust fund. The report shall also include recommend recommendations to the trustees that from the trustees that they deem necessary. Special qualifications as specified the Scottsdale city code.

The city council shall appoint five joint trustees of whom no more than one shall be the member of the city council or of no more than one trustee may be a city employee. Brian Pitluck resigned in March. There is one vacancy and one applicant. The applicant is Edy Dunning. I will now entertain nominations for the Lost Trust Fund board and I will start with Councilwoman Littlefield. Thank you. Uh Ed Dunning. Okay, that being said, with one applicant, by um rule, one nomination is all we need.

And we have concluded tonight's um nominations. And again, at the June 23rd meeting is when we will confirm um the appointees. Thank you. Thank you very much, Vice Mayor McCllen. Very well done. All right. Uh with that, I will move to adjourn the special meeting. Any objections? So moved. All right. Now I call the June 9th, 2026 city council meeting to regular city council meeting to order. City clerk Ben Lane. May I please have a roll call? Thank you, Mayor. Mayor Lisa Barowski, present.

Vice Mayor Marian McCallen, present. Council members Jan Dy Bosquez here. Barry Graham, Adam Clausman, here. Kathy Littlefield here. And Solange Whitehead here. City Manager Greg Kaitton here. City attorney Louis Santea here. City Treasurer Sonia Andrews here. Acting City Otter Lakeoff here. And the clerk is present. Thank you, mayor. Thank you very much.

And this evening we have police officers Scottsdale police officers uh Shlock Savage and Ortiz as well as Scottsdale firefighters Jack Shannon and Leonard Cornelius if anyone requires any assistance from uh staff or public safety. Please let a member of our staff know. Uh I'd like to ask Vice Mayor Mckllen to lead us tonight in the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much. And for the invocation, I'll turn it over to Councilman Quasman. Thank you, Madame Mayor. I'd like to call up Rabbi Pinhas Alouch uh to this podium right here.

And as he's walking up, uh I want to let everybody know that Rabbi Alouch is the founding rabbi of congregation Beth Tila and the founding dean and spiritual leader of Nishmat Adin High School in Scottsdale where he resides with his wife Esther and his 10 children. One of him is one of who is here today. Um it is always an inspiration. That's how you win.

Um he is he's a respected rabbitic figure, a renowned lecturer, a prominent author of many essay essays of Jewish faith, mysticism, and social criticism. Uh Rabbi Alouch, he's also a blogger and is on many publications uh for his op-eds uh from the Huffington Post and the Times of Israel and and more. and he was listed by the Jewish Daily Forward as one of the 36 most inspiring rabbis in the country, if not the world, in shaping 21st century Judaism.

So with that, thank you, Rabbi, for those humbling words. Ladies and gentlemen, please rise and join me in reflection. Master of the Universe, Honorable Mayor Barski, Vice Mayor, esteemed members of this council, city officials, and all those convened here to fulfill one of the seven Noah high commandments, the commandment to govern by just laws rooted in the recognition of you, God, as the sovereign ruler of all people and all nations.

Friends, I stand before you tonight not as a guest, but as a grateful neighbor, blessed to live in this splendid city and humbled to shepherd a congregation, congregation of more than 800 families, many of whom proudly call Scottsdale home.

Lord, we thank you for the blessing of Scottsdale, a city born from the vision of pioneers who looked at the desert and saw possibility, who looked at barren land and saw flourishing neighborhoods, who looked at a handful of settlers and saw one of America's most extraordinary communities. These great visionaries embodied the timeless truth inscribed on the great seal of the United States of America, a pluribus unim out of many, one.

And they understood that greatness is not built by individuals alone, but by people of different backgrounds, cultures, and faiths who come together for shared purpose and a cause greater than themselves. And so God, please bless our mayor, vice mayor, council members, all those entrusted with public service, and all of us that we may prove worthy of this remarkable legacy.

Grant our leaders clarity in moments of uncertainty, courage, in moments of challenge, humility in moments of success, and the wisdom to guide this great city with integrity and compassion. Above all, grant them what King Solomon sought, an understanding heart to listen deeply, to lead justly, and to serve faithfully.

May Scottsdale continue to shine as a city where tradition meets innovation, where responsibility walks hand in hand with opportunity and where neighbors care for one another, and where every resident can live with safety and security, dignity, and respect. As my beloved mentors, the Luba Cherba and Rabbi Advan Stanzel of blessed memory often taught, "The world is not perfect, but it is perfectable.

May we each do our part to perfect it, bringing more light, more goodness, more kindness, and more healing into our city and into our world." And finally, in the words of our great teacher Moses, "May it be your will that the glory of your presence dwells in the work of our hands. indeed may dwell in the work of the hands of the great leaders who are gathered here tonight and in the hands of every citizen of this great city. And let us say amen. Amen. Thank you very much, Rabbi.

All right, turning to the mayor's report. Uh before we embark on that or tonight's meeting, I'd like to acknowledge uh a a a strong and valued member of our Westworld staff, an employee of uh nearly 30 years uh here in Scottsdale, Walt Weir, who um unfortunately and untimely passed away last week.

And uh Walt was known as a respected respected not only for his expertise but for his care and and diligence and dedication would be an understatement to Westworld and the stakeholders that call Westworld home on a regular basis and uh certain certainly we extend uh our heartfelt condolences to Walt's family, friends and co-workers. He will be remembered with gratitude for his years of service and his lasting impact here uh on our city and at at all of the events at Westworld.

And uh so very sad occurrence and he will be missed for sure. And moving on, I would also like to highlight that joining us uh this evening is the members, some members of the North Miami Youth Council who are visiting all the way from Florida and that is a long trip.

Um, North Miami Youth Council is a youth advisory board appointed by their peers providing youth perspectives on community issues uh while developing leadership and civic engagement which is much like the Scottsdale's mayor's youth council who is a very impressive group of young uh individuals high school students actually who facilitate ideas and bring them forward such as the uh prohibition on vaping here in Scottsdale last year.

So, they do great work and we're thankful that for the um youth council from Miami that has joined us. Do we have any members of the group from Miami here with us? All right, we're going to invite you all. Well, I recognize some of the Scottsdale ones. They're frequent flyers around here. All right, I'm gonna have you all come down for a photo. I understand. Please join us down here at the front and the council. Thank you for being here. Are you sure? in case someone All right.

Thank you very much for being here tonight. Miami, I think it's something else. North Miami You Youth Council. That was a treat. Okay. As is always the case during tonight's meeting, the council may make a motion to recess into an executive session if we need legal advice on any applicable item on the agenda. And if so authorized, it would not be open to the public and we would uh come back to the regular meeting when we were done. So, meeting minute approvals.

Uh, unless there's any questions or comments, revisions, I will move to approve special meeting minutes of April 28th, 2026, executive session meeting minutes of April 28th, 2026, and regular meeting and work study session minutes of April 28th. So move. April 28th, 2026. So move. And that was a second. So, uh, please indicate your vote. Thank you. Uh, this evening we have item number 22A which was added to the agenda on June 3rd, 2026.

And as such, it requires a separate vote to remain on the agenda. Uh unless there's any objection, I will move to accept the agenda as presented and add the uh item number 22A to the consent agenda. Second. Please indicate your vote. Next, we have consent agenda items 1 through 22A. And as soon as this pulls up, I'll entertain any questions or comments on any items on the consent agenda. Does anyone have any? I do. I push my button. Councilwoman Whitehead. Uh, yeah.

I think I'd like to move item 21. uh to the regular agenda because I'm going to ask for a continuence on that. Okay. Well, go ahead and pull that off for now and put that after we have the vote on the balance of the consent agenda item. 21. 21. I said 21. Okay. Public. Yeah. Ben, did you get that right? 21. Okay. one of the PSPRS funding policy. Okay, we're going to hold that in advance. So, seeing no other questions or comments, I will entertain a motion on May. Mayor, I apologize.

We have one public speaker. Sorry, I'm rolling right along. All right, we have consent agenda item 22A. Uh, former mayor David Ortega is here. I don't think I saw him. All right. if he shows up. Calling going once, twice. Okay. Seeing no public speakers, I will uh now entertain a motion to approve consent agenda items 1 through 20 and 22 and 22A. So moved. Second. Oh, sorry. Please indicate your vote. Okay. Now, we have uh item consent agenda item number 21.

I'll turn the floor over to Councilwoman Whitehead for uh discussion or questions. Yeah, I don't need a uh I don't need a staff presentation on this.

Um the I've spoken to actually members of the Scottdale Fire Association and also uh POSA and I I think I I appreciate um city manager Kaitton's um trying to increase uh the comp allowance, but I think what we're looking for or what the members of each of these organizations are looking for is a work study session or um yeah, a work study session on the item. Um, so I'd like to continue it and ask the city manager to uh put this on uh so there can be a public discussion.

The concerns are real in terms of the financial. There's a lot of complications with this that were outlined in a memo. I think that's good. Fire does not have comp at all. So maybe some an opportunity to discuss this further so the public understands the members of these organizations understand and we also have parody between uh uh police and fire. So uh so I move to uh I guess um continue this item with the intent of having a work study session.

If city manager can come back to us on that one. You did the wrong have to withdraw my motion. Do I have I'm looking at paper instead of my iPad decided to die. I said PSPRS. What was the item I wanted to Oh, I see. I I pulled that wrong item. 20. Yeah, I wanted 20. Okay. Uh that is a mistake on my part. Um, what are my options on on on that? Reconsider. Can we reconsider item 20? Mayor, members of the city council, item 20 was approved by the council.

So, a um member of the prevailing side would have to make a motion for reconsideration. Um, at the as it stands, item 21 has not been approved. Okay. I I move to approve item 21. Second and let's vote on that. Okay. Yeah. Sorry. Please vote on item 21. And I would like to make a motion to revote on item was 20 if my colleagues would so uh consider that point point of order. Motion for reconsideration. Point of order.

The motion for cons reconsideration is out of order because she was not voting in the affirmative. I I did. She did. You did vote in the affirmative. Correct. I did. Second withdraw. Very second. Okay. There's a motion and a second to reconsider consent agenda item number 20. And I would like uh a little more information on this. Um I know you mentioned it earlier, but Well, okay. Uh do we need to before we can I can talk to the item, don't we need to vote? No. I I I'll be glad to speak to it.

This was a very generous offer by uh city manager Kaitton to bump the comp allowance from I think 80 into 120. But I think the discussion's a little um it's a little broader than that in that we have public safety is not covered equally and also there's a desire to um there are some other desired changes.

So maybe it might make more sense rather than to put administrative work making this change to have a work study session or a report from the city manager on our I think a work study session is what I would like to further discuss how the comp works, how it impacts our budget and what the options are and what other cities are doing with this. Thank you. Mayor, forgive me. I um seconded the motion which I w uh wish to w I wish to withdraw. Okay. Any other second? I'll second the motion. Okay.

So, all those in favor of the motion to reconsider item number 20, please indicate your vote. We didn't hear from one. We didn't hear from. All right, moving right along. We have regular agenda item number 23, truth and taxation hearing on proposed fiscal year 2026 27 property tax levy. Uh, and we have a presentation from Scott Seline, budget director. And I will now open the public hearing on item 23. Thank you. Good evening, Madame Mayor, members of the city council.

Uh, before I begin with the proposed property tax rates for uh, next fiscal year, I wanted to take a few moments to go over some uh, property tax basics for the benefit of everyone that may be watching. Our property taxes are assessed by different taxing districts as shown on this slide. The city's total portion of the overall property taxes are only about 15% uh of the overall um property taxes that are being assessed. That 15% is made up of two components.

the primary component which mostly goes to the general fund to support uh general city activities and there's also a small portion that goes to the risk management fund for tort settlements and then there is the secondary t property tax component which goes to support voter approved bonds. So currently in this fiscal year, the city's property tax rates for a residential owner occupied home is about $610 per $100 of total assessed value.

Most of that goes to schools, counties, and special districts. As you can see on the slide here, the city's portion is the 49 cents and 42 cents that are kind of listed in yellow off to the right for a total of 91 cents per $100 of assessed value. the property um the property taxes are not calculated based on the um fair market value or the total cash value of the home. They're based on the limited property value or LPV as it's sometimes abbreviated to in the current year.

The median LPV for Scottsdale residents is $398,851. The table on the right takes that uh LPV and converts it into how much property tax is paid. So looking at that city row there, if we apply the 91 rate per $100 of assessed value, that comes to $362.95 of the total property tax bill of $2,44.95. Limited property value again is is what property tax rates are assessed against is lower than the fair market value or full cash value of um of a home.

The limited property value is restricted in how much that it can increase in a given year by law. The annual increase of limited property value is limited to 5%. So even if the market value increases significantly in a given year, the LPV will increase by a maximum of 5%. So getting into the proposed property tax uh rates for the upcoming fiscal year. Uh those are laid out in the orange column here on the slide in front of you.

When you add up the two components, the primary and the secondary property tax for fiscal year 2627, it's a total of 90.7. When you compare that to the previous year's property tax, it's a reduction of 0.5%. And when you look at the individual components themselves, the primary property tax rate is decreasing by 1.8%. And the secondary increases by 0.9%. And I'll go over why those are changing in um in some upcoming slides that are coming up.

We put this chart together to show how uh Scottsdale's proposed property tax rates for fiscal year 2627 compare to those uh neighboring cities uh of ours in the valley. And you'll see that Scottsdale compares very favorably to u many of our other cities uh neighboring cities. This table explains and kind of crosswalks the change in primary property tax from our current rate to our proposed rate um in orange at the bottom.

So starting at the current rate of 48.9 the uh the appreciation in assessed value causes the rate to decrease by about 1.8 cents. Um new construction presents no change to the rate but it is it does increase the levy. So I'll come back to new construction in just a moment. The there is a provision in law that allows us to increase the maximum levy by 2% annually. that adds about one cent to the rate. And then a reduction in city tort settlements is a decrease by a tenth of a of a cent.

So when you add up all those percentage changes, you get from the current rate of 48.9 cents to the proposed rate of 48.0. And then moving over to the levy column on the right, uh you take the current levy of 40.3 million primary property tax and add in all of the changes uh that are contemplated on the slide for new construction, the 2% levy increase, and then the reduction in tort settlements and you get to the proposed total levy of $41.3 million.

This table shows that same crosswalk, but for the secondary property tax rate, starting with the current of 42.3 cents. The appreciation and assessed value pushes the rate down or decreases the rate by about 1.4 cents. And then the amount needed for debt service increases by 1.8 cents. When you add it all together, you get to a proposed rate of 42.7 cents on the secondary property tax side. And the levy changes from 34.9 million to 36.7 million.

This slide shows the impact of the property tax rates on a median property in the city. The median limited property value uh increases from the current year to the proposed 2627 year from 398,000 to 418,000 as listed there on the slide. That median limited property value is an increase of 5% um in 2627 compared to the previous year. At the 90.7 cent rate that the city is proposing for 2627, the actual property tax to be paid to the city in fiscal year 2627 is 379 uh $379.76.

And that's a 4.6% increase compared to the previous year. And that is due to the increase in the median property value uh going up. I put together this table to show historical uh primary and secondary property tax rates for the last several fiscal years. You'll see that at the high mark of fiscal year 2324 where it was 98.1 um it's been fairly steadily decreasing every year since then to our current proposed level of 90.68. Adopting the property taxes is a two-step process.

The first step is tonight. It is uh we're asking council to conduct the public hearing and to adopt a motion to levy the property tax rates and then on June 23rd we will ask council to adopt the property tax levies and to uh fix the actual rates. And this is the action that we're requesting of council tonight and I believe that's the last slide. Uh so I'd be happy to stand for any questions. Thank you Scott. And I now officially open the public hearing on item 23.

And we have no public speakers on this. So, uh, I'll move on to questions from the council. Councilwoman Deb Bosquez. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, so what this presentation would suggest is that the property tax rate, the percentage would go down, but because property values increased, the out-ofpocket payment that the residents would pay would go up. Madame Mayor, Councilwoman Duboscus, that's I'm going to back up. That is correct for a median property in Scottsdale. Okay.

And so, um, what is the amount that it would go up? Is about a million is what it look like? Uh is this what you're referring to right here? Yes. Um overall the city's primary property tax levy will increase by about a million dollars and uh a significant portion of that is due to the maximum the 2% increase that we are permitted to levy and that's the majority of what's driving that increase of a million dollars. Okay. And so new construction is.3. So that would not be part of the increase.

Uh Madame Mayor, Councilwoman Dubosquez, that's correct. It it the new construction contributes to the levy but does not change the rate. Okay. So on current homeowners, then the net to the city would be about $700,000 increase. If we're not talking new, we're taking new construction out, right? U Madame Mayor, Councilwoman Debbas, that's correct. Okay. And city manager Kaitton, is this something that you had included in your budget forecasts?

Um, Madame Mayor and Councilwoman Deboscus uh yes this uh additional funds are calculated, uh, within the proposed budget. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Men Graham. Scott, thank you uh, for the presentation. the this 2% increase is that kind of um like what when's the last do you have any memory of when we haven't increased that? Uh Madame Mayor, Councilman Graham, I am not aware of that. I would have to research that and get back to you. Okay.

Um it's um it's the kind of thing that we can kind of inch up taxes a little bit every year legally and we don't have to go to the voters or anything. And I think as far as I've been, you know, I've been following this, I think that councils just sort of wave it through every time. I've been I've been, you know, tracking this for 15 years or so.

Um, city manager, is it if we if we, you know, with inflation and all the cost increases that our residents and everybody's facing, I mean, would it be catastrophic to our budget if we just sort of held off for one year? Madame Mayor and uh, Councilman Graham, we have a number of projection estimates uh, within our budget. I would say uh a large part of our revenue stream does not come from property tax. A large part of our revenue stream comes from sales tax, state shared revenue and fees.

And so in the grand scheme of the pie chart that I believe my colleagues articulated through the budgetary process, the property tax is a fairly small uh portion of the overall revenue stream. And we have the fortunate benefit here in Scottsdale of a significant amount of tourism and the super events and the events and that brings a lot of outside money into our uh revenue uh portfolio. And to directly answer your question, we project a budget that is uh nearly a billion on the operating side.

And if we had uh 800, excuse me, eight or 700 less in revenue, uh I believe we would be able to absorb that less revenue. Should that be council's wishes? I mean, I just think about um I think about gas prices people are paying. Think about and how that sort of trickles and reverberates across every other aspect of the economy. And I think about, you know, we can and we always do, but we don't have to every year.

And so I know that this city manager, city manager Kaitton has worked really hard to uh scrutinize the budget. Um the things that he's done to make things leaner, more operationally efficient. Um so without sort of, you know, recklessly going about it, I'd say that can we I would make a motion.

I I would like to make a motion maybe give our res giving our residents a break for the year and to keep that to keep that flat instead of the 2% increase so that you know residents now people people um blame us when the county or the state or some other reason property taxes go up.

um we can't control that but there is a sliver there is a slice of what they pay for property taxes that the city collects and so I think a little bit of relief from the city for one year I don't think could you know be the you know the most harmful thing so if if my colleagues will support me I I'll move to keep that maximum levy it's close to zero so that people are basically paying what they paid last year second uh I'm going to second that because this is a great point.

There's always kind of the the devil's in the details. Um because property values go up, your taxes actually go up. So this used to bug me when I was on the council as well. So and also I note that our uh revenues are um general fund revenues have been exceeding expectations. So that I think that is a reason to give the money back to the taxpayers and we can do it by in this way by not increasing the uh the property tax. So um I think that's a great idea. I'll second that. Go ahead.

Mayor, members of the council, may I make a suggestion regarding the motion? Instead of um doing a motion to keep things flat, could we do a motion to not impose the uh 2% maximum levy increase? So amended. Thank you. Agreed. All right, Councilwoman Whitehead. Yeah.

So I also I'll support this but I guess what I would like to have uh is some data on the you know the approximate cost uh to the homeowners uh because this is going to affect I guess businesses as well as homeowners all properties and so I just would like some uh so that we can put a number of what's what is the savings are we talking about five bucks a month are we talking about something significant and the other thing that I would request request is um some guidance on where the funding ho how are you you know what's what will be cut as a result of this where are you going to find those efficiencies just so we have an idea of what we're getting and what we're not getting thank you council men if I can just respond to that this is I think this is an opportunity and I you know this idea came up talking Councilwoman Debowskus before the meeting.

Um, you know, so what if it's five bucks? It's five bucks. That's five more bucks you get to keep. And that if it's only five bucks, why do we need it? So, I've heard that argument many times. And um it's just we don't have to force this every year. We've got a multi-billion dollar budget. Um we have literally that would literally be one check. That's smaller than a lot of the checks we write. our average payroll run is, you know, how much. So, uh, thank you, mayor. Thank you.

And I just want to point out that the city manager did respond to that earlier in that, uh, the, um, current budget with the exception exclusion of this would be fine and could absorb it. So, thank you. Uh, let's go ahead and take a vote on the motion. Mayor, this is a roll call vote. Oh, pardon me. Go ahead. Please take the roll call. Mayor Lisa Barowski, I. Vice Mayor Marian McCallen, I. Council member Yan Dubosquez, yes. Council member Barry Graham, yes. Councilman Adam Quasman, I.

Councilwoman Kathy Littlefield, yes. And Councilwoman Solange Whitehead. Hi. Thank you. The item passes unanimously. Thank you. All right. Item 24, public hearing on proposed fiscal year municipal streetlight improvement district expenses and property tax levy by district. And uh this evening we have Anna Henthornne, assistant city treas treasurer to do the presentation. Good evening, mayor and members of the city council.

This action is to solicit the public testimony on the proposed fiscal year 2627 municipal street light improvement district for the proposed expenses and tax levy. The streetlight improvement districts were established in 1971 to allow taxpayers to pay for the operation of street lights. The city has 357 streetlight improvement districts formed by petition of the property owners.

The streetlight improvement districts are established for the sole purpose of purchasing electricity for lighting public streets. The cities levy um a special property tax based on the estimated electricity cost for each district. The operating cost for each district varies in relation to the usage, number of street lights, and whether they are service by APS or SRP. The city completes 357 separate property tax calculations for each district, and that represents 33,970 properties.

Here is a map of the street light tax districts. The blue represents the APS and the green represents the SRP. The fiscal year 2627 levy is $642,566 with an average levy per lot of $18.92. The average increase is $1.89 per property.

This action item is to solicit public testimony on the fiscal year 2627 streetlight improvement district proposed expenses and tax levy with a request for a motion to adopt the annual statement estimated expenses and levy the proposed 2627 streetlight improvement districts by district taxes to be assessed on June 23, 2026 via the ordinance. and I can answer any questions you may have. Thank you very much. I don't see any questions and I don't have any public speakers.

So with that, I will entertain a motion to adopt the annual statements and estimates of expenses and levy uh on the proposed fiscal year 2627 municipal streetlight improvement district taxes by district with taxes to be assessed by ordinance on June 23rd, 2026. So move. Second. Thank you. All those please indicate your vote. All right. Moving on to item number 25, final public hearing on the fiscal year 2627 budget presented by again our budget director, Scott Seline. Thank you, Madame Mayor.

This is the adoption timeline for the budget. Uh we're at the last step tonight where uh there will be a public hearing, final public hearing and adoption of the budget. This slide shows the uh amount that was enacted in the tenative budget. The total is 2 bill118.9 million. Uh that amount is the maximum expenditures that the city may have in its budget next year.

Overall, the budget uh splits is split up between operating $838.2 2 million for operating, 881.9 million for capital improvements, and 398.8 million in contingencies and reserves. This summary slide is the same slide that we've shown in previous presentations. It compares the FY2627 budget, kind of breaks it up into operating capital and reserves, and compares it to previous years.

And if you look at the total budget line, the uh tenative 2627 budget is $85 million less than the 2526 adopted budget. Uh about a 3.8% overall decrease. This slide describes some of the pay table and compensation changes that are part of the uh the budget that will be that compensation changes that are in the budget. There will be step plan and market adjustments that are effective on July 1st for fire sworn employees. Those changes by sworn rank are shown on the table on this slide here.

Additionally, sworn employees will be eligible for longevity annual payments that will be uh effective September 1st, 2026. I did also want to highlight that there will be uh the budget contains merit of up to 3% and market adjustments of 1% for all other employees. This is the action that we're requesting tonight to hold the public hearing on the budget as approved tenatively on May 19th, 2026. And that brings me to the end. I'd be happy to stand for questions. Thank you, Scott.

I do have quite a few uh public speakers on this agenda item, so I'll go ahead and call on them. Starting with Dan Isac, followed by Betty Janick, Bruce Helen, and then Fred Freda, excuse me, Hartman. Dan Isaac, address on record. Uh, thank you, Mayor. As uh I mentioned at the last meeting, I have some concerns with this budget.

And while I agree with Barry Graham that we should not increase taxes for the sake of increasing taxes, I find it fascinating that he's concerned about a $700,000 increase in taxes, but he has no problem throwing away $700,000 on a crosswalk that's going to benefit about 50 people. Um, now Mr. Quasman would like to say that that crosswalk is for the safety of the elderly and the children.

Yet I haven't seen any proposals that the parks which seven days a week have children crossing major streets to get to have such crosswalks. Nor have I heard anybody mention that our senior centers have such crosswalks. It's not about safety. It's a pet project of Adam Quasman. But again, that's only a few hundred,000. My bigger concern, as I mentioned last time, is that this council continues to claim that they're being fiscal stewards with our money.

They're taking credit for a $50 million decrease in pension funding for the police. That would be like saying, "I made a down payment last year in a house of $50,000, and therefore, since I don't have to make that same down payment this year, I'm saving $50,000." I'm not. It was a prepayment. It was a good idea, but not spending it this year is not a savings. Just like eliminating 50 positions that are empty is not a savings.

But the biggest issue with this budget is kicking the can down the road with regard to our water security. I do not believe we are imminently going to run out of water. I'm not at that extreme, but we do know we need additional solutions for our water. Our city manager has removed all funding from the CIP for water projects, claiming that we don't know how much they're going to cost. No corporation in the world would do such a thing.

You put a placeholder, you plan for it, and when we get additional information, we adjust it. to pull out all funding for the next fiscal year for water solutions is irresponsible political nonsense. And I think the council should refuse this budget because it is committing the biggest sin of government, which is kicking the can down the road. We cannot afford to do it. It's bad enough we do it at the federal level. It's bad enough we do it at the state level.

We should not be doing it at the city level. So vote against it or put money in the CIP for this coming fiscal year for water solutions. Whether it's additional sources, whether it's purification, whether it's infrastructure to get our reserves out of the ground, do something. Put it in the budget. Act on it. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Betty Janick. Could you save former council woman? Thanks. Could you turn on the Elmo, please? Thank you. Okay.

Following up on what Dan just said, I'd like to talk about the APRW program, Pure Water, Phoenix, $300 million for this project. About halfway through, mostly grant money. It's going to be done in two and a half years. Scottsdale, what did we do? We zeroed out that number. We have removed 67.6 million from our CIP. Pure water projects work. They are ongoing in Arizona California Utah Texas Australia, and they are actually working in Namibia and for decades in Singapore.

So don't tell me they don't work. Now, Scottsdale's water budget 2627, $233 million in water projects were removed from the 5-year CIP. 94 million comes from reducing the scope of existing projects underway. 139 million comes from projects not yet started. There was $100 million put into a new category delayed for a year called sources and supplies. This is very fuzzy. It is very nebulous and it should be defined.

11 staff positions in the water department were either eliminated or moved to another department. Why did you change the accounting methods for the 2627 budget? That seems very political to me. Now, where is our funding coming from for Pure Water Scottdale? for drilling wells and lift stations to retrieve water from storage in southern Scottsdale and move up to North Scottsdale. Not to even mention Barllet Dam Harqua buying and swapping for San Diego's unneeded cap water.

The biggest omission of all that you have committed is no funding for conservation. that is what is going to bridge the gap between what we have and what we need while the we develop these new water programs. Um and the other thing is we are not even covering the true cost of water right here right now. This is a priority takes time to develop new sources. Good governance makes the tough decisions to protect citizens. It is forward-looking. It shows leadership. It is profiles and courage.

Where is the promised transparency? No discussion, no outreach to the public, no study sessions. Looks like politics to make the budget look good is winning out over common sense in this election year. And you know what? That is not good governance. My ask is very similar to what Dan said. Adjust the water budget before passage. Make those tough decisions in the best interest of the citizens so we can continue to rely on Scottsdale water. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have Bruce Helen.

Good evening. For those that don't know know me, I'm a 30-year Scottsdale resident and the former director of water supply for the Salt River Project with over 40 years of experience in managing water resources in Arizona. I very much appreciate the opportunity to address the mayor and council on this the critical role that water plays in our community. There are three main points that I'd like to make.

Past leaders in Arizona have long understood and had the foresight to work together regarding the need for investment in water infrastructure and that construct has not changed today. We invested in infrastructure that secured reliable water supplies from varied wa sources of water that have provided the resiliency and reliability that we're all benefiting from. However, that water resiliency is at risk.

Immediate and significant investment is needed to address a dwindling Colorado River water supply. Scottdale is not yet in a crisis, but without significant investment in water infrastructure today, we are placing undue risk on future generations in of it residing in this community. We owe this to our residents and businesses, the certainty and assurance that Scottsdale is actively investing in specific projects and programs, which is my second item.

Identifying specific investment in specific water infrastructure and demand reduction programs ensures water certainty. A lack of water certainty creates consternation in the city's ability to meet future demands. And media outlets will have a field day. educating everyone on Scottsdale's lack of preparedness.

We're seeing that today as others make statements and claims that Scottsdale is at high risk and lacking preparedness by not specifically identifying identifying and setting aside funds for direct investment in specific projects. Scottsdale is creating unwarranted uncertainty in its water supply planning.

Therefore, it's critical that Scottsdale include in its budget specific dollars that are dedicated to specific water infrastructure projects and resource programs that protect and maintain Scottsdale's water certainty and conveys a message to all Scottsdale residents that water infrastructure investments are a priority for the city.

Removing water projects from the budget sends the wrong and what could result in it being a very costly message for Scottsdale, which is, this is my last point, water is typically top of mind in a priority issue of concern for all Valley residents. Now is the time to overcommunicate and provide residents with the facts and data they need to feel comfortable that the city is responding responsibly and proactively to this ongoing drought, including explaining investments, benefits, and its costs.

A cohesive, focused, and consistent message is important. If the public is confused, there will be reluctance to support funding needed for water infrastructure and conservation programs, which al ultimately results in project delays, lost opportunity, and increased costs for the city. Thank you for the opportunity to briefly share my perspective and my 40 years of experience, and I've dealt with this before, and I can tell you it's a challenge.

I look forward to working together with Scott Stillwater and the council. Thank you. Thank you so much, Bruce. Freda Hartman, followed by Steve Sutton, David Ortega, Barney Gonzalez. Thank you. Good afternoon. Good evening. By now, I'm sorry. I should have noted uh the speaker's podium is over on this side now. So, just to make sure we capture you accurately. Um I should aim this way. No, no, you should. Yeah, you you got to walk across. I'm sorry for that. Okay. Oh, I need to come over there.

Yeah, sorry about that. All right. I was like, where is she? She's speaking. It used to be there. So, apologies. Okay. Uh, good evening, mayor, vice mayor, and council members. I'm Freda Hartman. I currently serve on the Scottsdale Library Board and last year I provided public comments in support of a library project in the CIP budget.

Today I represent myself only and not the board and I want to speak in favor of that same project which is included in the proposed CIP budget this year for your approval. The project adds a second to mainf floor restroom on the west side of the civic center library. There is currently one restroom on the far east side of that floor. The total floor space is 103,000 square feet. So it's quite long of a walk from the west side to go to the east side. The patrons must walk through five busy areas.

Those include children's, teens, cafe, main lobby, and the information area to get there. The next nearest restroom is on the lower level and uh is reached by stairs or elevator, which can present a problem for people who have mobility issues and also for families with children. I strongly support this CIP project request and I ask for your approval of it. And if I could, uh, Scottsdale is very fortunate to have so many library advocates and users.

The use usage metrics each quarter that we have seen continue to climb, as they should, in a great library system within a worldclass city, which Scottsdale is. As I end my term of service this year on the library board, I want to thank each one of you for your continuing support over the six years that I've been here to improve our public libraries and to make the libraries better as city leaders.

You came to each one of our branches and you brought your yourself, your families, and your friends. And I'm sure that our gate counts really benefited from that quite a bit. I think they went way up. But as city leaders, uh, please know that your support is so very appreciated.

And so I want to also thank city manager Kaitton and his team for their commitment to improving the budget review process to find where there can be better efficiencies in requested projects and also to improve the overall effectiveness. as a business person, bottom line business person, that appeals to me and I really appreciate and I value the fact that we try to find efficiencies and effectiveness in this new process.

So with that, I want to thank you all very much and I ask for your support on this project. Thank you. Thank you Steve Sutton. Steve Sutton, address on record. Good evening, Honorable Lisa Barowski, mayor of Scottsdale and council members. Scottsdale is under attack. The attack threatens the current and future security of Scottsdale. The attackers physical characteristics make it difficult to identify them amongst the population of Scottsdale.

Fortunately, the weapons they use easily identify the attackers. But unfortunately, these weapons also make it impossible for law enforcement to defeat the attackers. Other means are required to defeat the attackers. The other means are Scottsdale residents who are aware of the attack and actively counterattacking in defense of Scottsdale. If you do not know who the attackers are, the following explanations and counter and definitions will help to identify and defeat them.

The attacker's weapons of choice are rhetorical and psychological tactics designed to manipulate people with false claims and exploitation of irrational fears and prejudices to the point where people stop using critical thinking skills. The attacker's goal is to achieve and/or maintain power over people. The use of these weapons is identified by the word demagoguery. The people who use these weapons are identified by the word demagogue.

The goal of a demagogue is to achieve and maintain power over people for their own self-interest, not to serve the best interests of the people. There are residents of Scottsdale who are using phrases such as toilet to tap, poop water, and insults such as sewage salange, not due to ignorance, but due to deliberate use of demagoguery. There are members of and candidates for the city council who have used the same phrases, and their behavior identifies them as demagogues.

As this council and most of Scottsdale residents know, taking action now to provide for the future supply of water to Scottsdale at the lowest possible cost is imperative. Any claims of a need to delay funding of plans to initiate advanced purified recycled water treatment because of unknown safety factors or the impending changes to state regulations are not credible.

These regulation changes will not significantly increase the cost of the equipment and operation necessary for advanced purified recycled water. This council is voting for a budget that fails to fund what is known in Scottsdale as advanced purified recycled water, also known as directable. This is outrageously irresponsible of this council. This delay appears to be nothing more than an attempt at political manipulation to maintain and increase the power of the current council majority.

Prove me wrong. Fund advanced purified recycled water. Thank you, Steve. Next, we have former mayor uh David Ortega. And I understand that Barney Gonzalez has dedicated time to you. So, please uh please proceed. What do you do you need? How much time do you need? Four minutes or is it gonna five? Yes. Thank you. Five minutes. Okay. Good evening, mayor and council. Happy to be here.

You know, the entire Southwest is bracing for a severe, I say, severe cuts in uh the water which is delivered by the central Arizona project. It makes the news every day and uh we are bracing for a a large shock everywhere in Arizona and especially here in Scottdale. It's also shocking that the city budget has eliminated $230 million in CIP water projects over the next five years. 230 million is not spent in one year.

It is spent in uh because it's planned and for this coming year it's approximately $60 million. This is part of a rollout that's been in progress uh since Mayor Drinkwater. I recall being at the water campus in uh and u in 1987 is when the first delivery of cap water came to Scottdale. Just two years uh after it started to uh be delivered, Scottsdale became renowned as a an amazing uh campus for innovation uh for recharge as well as recapture of our precious water.

However, right now, uh, it brings into question by reducing and tossing out the plan that, um, I would say, um, I worked on with Councilman Littlefield, Bob Littlefield, as well as the current Councilwoman um, during my term, as well as, um, of course, our Councilman uh, Whitehead. It's not a happen stance that we have what's considered the best water system and reclamation system. I have to review with you that I was on council 25 years ago when we signed a deal with to annex Desert Mountain.

They had no water and we made a deal to preserve our aquifers and to recapture and reclaim the water that we get. Why is this so important? It's so important because the delivery of cap water enabled the development of North Scottsdale. Basically, all the area north of um Indian Bend where SRP's canal arrives, that is all dependent on the cap allocation.

And what that means is SRP water cannot go north, but the other water can has to remain um well that's the only water that North Scottdale has to work with. Right now the allocation is 80 um 80,000 acre feet. Back in in 90 89 it was only 20,000 acre feet. However, the cap has never delivered more than 65. Last year, we only got 65. And allocation can say one thing, but the reality of what the yield is upstream is another.

And we are on the verge of being told by the federal government because it is all federal water. Hey folks, you're going to get 50% if you're lucky. You're going to get 40% of your if you're lucky. and you're going to have to live with it. That's a very striking thing that's uh that's faces all of our schools, our businesses, and every resident in town. But especially because if you live north of or around Sheay all the way up to Desert Mountain, 90% of your water comes from cap.

Some cities uh like Gilbert only get 20% from cap water. They say, "Well, it's no big deal." Well, yeah, if you get cut by 50%. For us, it's a huge It's a huge cut. Now, what did we rely on? We were known, as I said, as a very progressive, innovative leader in the country. Today the budget is basically saying um let's put it off. Let's wait and see how bad it is. Scottdale has never planned that way.

We've never said we are going to reject the technology that we have and stop buying supplies and continue the innovation that we we need. For that reason, at this time, I am requesting that you reinstate the five-year CIP plan. Now, if you're wrong, you're not going to spend it. If you are, it has to be in the budget, but you can't just toss it out and say it's no longer valid.

A budget requires the planning that will look ahead to cover those costs in an ordered way through the treasure treasur's office and every contract is approved at the council level. Back to what we're dealing with. Scottsdale has been able to over the last 25 years to save billions almost 160 billion gallons of water in our aquifer. That's a mini that's like a mini Lake Powell but it's it's it's in Scottsdale and if we don't if we if we don't conserve our water those aquifers will collapse.

Thank you. So again, I would uh strongly suggest that you restore the funding as stated and spend what's necessary so that we can sleep at night. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Next, we have Paul Bos Basha. Good evening, mayor and city council. My name is Paul Basha. I reside at 7333 East Chapperel Road in Scottsdale. I was employed by the city of Scottsdale transportation department for 22 years and I've been a consulting traffic engineer for an additional 20 years.

I'm also a an associate of teaching at Arizona State University for undergraduate and graduate traffic engineering courses and have been for 27 years. As you know, the Scottsdale traffic engineering um area conducted a study in 2024 of Shea Boulevard and 65th Street. The study scored 33 points, which is three points more than the minimum necessary for some type of pedestrian treatment.

The study stated that the existing traffic signals at 64th Street and 70th Street were sufficient for pedestrian protection in that area. 64th Street is 1,000 ft west. 70th Street is 2,800 ft east of the location. Critical to the decision to install a pedestrian hybrid beacon is 20 or more pedestrians crossing a street in an hour. The 2024 study counted 15 pedestrians crossing Shea near 66th Street in an hour.

The travel speed on Shea Boulevard reveals that the 85th percentile speed is 53 miles per hour. It is not surprising that only 15 people cross Sha Boulevard in an hour. People will not risk walking across a six-lane high-speed high volume street without protection. It is a certainty that if a beacon is installed on CHA at 66th Street, more than 20 pedestrians per hour will use it.

Pedestrian hybrid beacons are superior to traffic signals, especially because the pedestrian walk lights are only activated when a person activates a button at a pedestrian hybrid beacon. Also, the beacon flashes a red phase which allows drivers to proceed on the flashing red light rather than wait. Traffic signals at 64th and at 70th Street are timed for certain times of the day in the week to always activate a walk signal, unnecessarily stopping cars when no pedestrians are present.

Also, at a typical red light with a walk signal, the cars have to wait until the pedestrians are completely across the street. The fact is a pedestrian hybrid signal, sorry, pedestrian hybrid beacon at 66th Street will decrease traffic delay on Shea Boulevard. I encourage you to include that beacon in your budget. Thank you. Thank you. David Mansfield, followed finally by Sasha Weller. Good evening, mayor and council. My name is David Mansfield. May not remember the name.

I was general manager for the water resources department uh for almost 12 years having to having retired in 2007.

uh if we can say anything about water utilities I would it's clear that we are very capital intensive infrastructure is the key to not only delivering our resources but has been a real critical key with respect to Scottsdale as being a leader across the country starting back in early early years in 80 87 and early 90s I would want to emphasize the fact that advanced treatment technologies have been critically used or critically needed in our industry allowing us to deliver resource water more efficiently and effectively and ensuring a safe and reliable source of water.

Therefore, looking at uh budgets, budgets and the and and the CIP budgets are very important to continue because these facilities do need either replacement or taking advantage of even more reliable facilities. I don't know if how many of you been to San Diego in the last 15 years. Well, what you when you went to San Diego, what you were drinking was direct reuse. That's what and I don't think anyone's complain about San Diego water that I'm aware of.

So, I'm just telling you this is not a new technology. It's nothing new in terms of trying things out. San Diego was a bit more difficult in that they were kind of forced to do it very early on. But it's very very important that we that we realize that this is going to have a reliable source and even in aspects even more healthy than what we started out with the process originally. Um yes Scottdale is not the is facing a a major issue with the cap reductions.

We're not the only ones but as as the mayor had just commented on Scottdale is highly dependent. However, if you look at City of Phoenix's current capital improvement program, what are they doing? They are building facilities that mirror Scottsdale's facilities. They because they they've realized too the fact that they are kind of a little bit behind the the eightball with respect to taking advantage of that. So, you see that uh throughout the city of Phoenix system.

And I guess we're not the only cities involved by or at least impacted by this process. More importantly though, the final decisions not been made and we really have some challenges with the upper basin states who have told the federal government they have not really interested in any conservation measures unfortunately. Uh but I think that's a solvable problem.

I hope that we can get this done and get it done in an amicable fashion and all states and all the Southwest be beneficiary of of the technologies that we have. Thank you very much. Thank you, David and Sasha Weller. Good evening, mayor, members of council. My name is Sasha Weller. I'm the president of the Scottsdale Firefighters Association, 3370 North Hayden Road. I wanted to come tonight and speak on uh favor of this uh the adoption of this budget.

Um I want to thank you on behalf of the more than 400 members of the Scottsdale Firefighters Association. I want to thank the city council. I want to thank the members of the senior staff of of the city of Scottsdale. Uh you have a hard job. These are tough times. So we really appreciate all all your hard work on this. Excuse me. Uh this budget has taken a thoughtful approach to employee compensation. It'll keep Scottsdale competitive in an incredibly competitive market.

Uh this budget will take steps to once again return Scottsdale to being a becoming an employer of choice and we truly appreciate that. Uh we applaud the uh the potential to bring an employee health care clinic into the city. We really believe that that will not only reduce cost of uh health care to the employees, but we think that it'll reduce cost to the uh taxpayers as well by keeping some of that in house.

Uh, additionally, we are are very confident in the idea that it's going to reduce city's cost when it comes to workman's comp injuries, which will allow us to maintain our uh, self-insured status with the Industrial Commission of Arizona, which is something that we've been fighting significantly to keep our E-OD score down, which is a vitally important part of of uh, of of our model here in Scottsdale.

want to thank you for your continued efforts on advanced firefighter cancer screening and um uh uh and testing. Uh we thank you very much for that effort this year and we look forward to working with staff and you on this uh to make this a more permanent thing moving forward in the future. Um want to thank each of you both staff and council for your your service. Again, like I said, this is tough stuff and tough times. So we thank you all for your service to our community. Thank you.

Thank you Sasha. All right, that concludes the public speakers on item number 25. And I do see some speakers on the dis here. Councilwoman Whitehead, I guess I'll kick it off. So, you know, this budget has things that I do like. I think Sasha mentioned some of some of those items. Of course, it has things I I don't like, but I'm not here tonight to talk about those.

I do want to uh hopefully offer a compromise, something we can do on this budget to address some of the water challenges that we face and um point out to the members of the public, we cannot change the budget uh the allocated dollars. We can move money around. We can't actually increase the budget at this meeting. So, I'm certainly not going to be asking to do that. I also want to call out uh members that spoke.

The thing that one of the many things I love about Scottsdale is our former elected leaders and staff do not ride off into the sunset. They actually stay engaged and we've seen a lot of that in my eight years on the council. So, thanks for all your remarks. Um this past weekend in Boulder, Colorado, there was a Colorado River uh law water conference.

And at that conference, um Scott Cameron, who is the acting commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, otherwise known as the person in charge of the river. uh um and he pointed to Phoenix's advanced pure uh advanced water purification as the solution, not the river. So if we're going to read tea leaves, what he is saying is the federal government, as we've known based on every proposal they've put out, is likely not going to bail us out.

And we're going to have to work together as Arizona has always done to bail ourselves out. And the one thing that has made Arizona a success is we've enthusiastically debated passionately on many things but not water. So there has been obviously a lot of controversy but there is a policy a council adopted policy the strategic plan uh that was designed not by me.

I'm so glad I'm getting credit for it on social media, but it's actually the professionals that run our water utility that wrote the plan. And um it is a plan to get us from where we are today with most of our eggs in one basket to where we need to be tomorrow, which is a diversified water portfolio so that we can continue to deliver not only secure and safe water, but affordable water. And I have to whoever just mentioned San Diego former employee that was great.

My kid who lives in San Diego called me up and said, "What's up, mom?" You know, where's the controversy? You know, she's drinking it and she's she loves San Diego. Um, so five-year CIP budgets, you know, one more comment I want to make. Wow. Former mayor Ortega, think about that.

I had not really thought that through that until the late 80s we did not get that water and the entirety of North Scottsdale is was enabled by that and most of us live u north of most of us are wholly dependent or almost wholly dependent on cap so good good job mayor on that um so when I'm out and uh meeting with water professionals around the state and including our water professionals in our own city.

we have what I call an immediate uh need and by immediate I don't mean next year I mean like immediate and then we have sort of these what I would call medium-term which would be more like one to two years from now and then we have you know from there to forever so we have to deliver it's our job to deliver water that is our job so the immediate needs I think we need to focus what are our challenges for the immediate needs if in fact the federal government um does cut off a sign significant amount of our cap water.

Again, not every part of our city is um going to be impacted the same. And the the the key about water is you can have all the water you want. And if you don't have a way to get get it to where you need, you may as well not have the water. So, that's what I want to propose. just moving a little bit of money around in this current budget to do a couple uh to accomplish a couple things to be able and this this is money that will uh give us the authority.

It doesn't mean we have to do it, but move some money for quickly drilling wells in the north so that in fact Desert Mountain or DC Ranch or any other place um we do have the capacity in in the event of the worst case scenario or even the mediumcase scenario, we can continue to move that water to where we need it. And secondly, if we go back to that Scott Cameron dude, he said, "We're gonna rely on AWP.

We're gonna rely on Arizona's uh uh pure water." And again, for the public, pure water, um there's advanced purified recycled water, pure water. There's a number of different names, but it's just treated water that's local and within our control um and without regulations and without having to move it. And moving is very, very expensive. So, I also want to move forward with the design.

to move money from a contingency fund to a line item that a allows us to quickly add uh drilling sites if needed and b uh moves forward with a contract we have but is paused which is to design begin design of the um our own pure water facility uh as required by ADQ and yes EDQ rules are changing here and there a little bit that doesn't necess necessarily stop us. It certainly hasn't stopped Phoenix from moving forward with a design.

All engineers know that you solve problems without ever having certainty and you make tweaks at the end if you need to. And yes, we're looking at the feasibility. We know it's feasible, but it still has to be done and we can uh walk and chew gum at the same time. So, I guess I I asked Greg, but uh city manager Katon, I didn't give you much time, but what I'm hearing from professionals is if we moved um $20 million, again, budgets are conservative.

We go out of our way not to spend it, but allocate roughly 20 million to those two line items. Um since I didn't really get an estimate for the engineering cost, um then we haven't changed the budget. We haven't committed to anything, but we've given our we've given the public some transparent some transparency they're demanding and some confidence that we are taking this seriously for 30 years. We have taken this seriously for 30 years. We've invested to get in to where we are today.

Everybody who's drinking water, you can thank leaders from the past 30 years for getting that water to your faucet. And so, um, I guess let me ask, um, our city treasurer a question, which is where are we on contingency funds? Um, so for the water and sewer capital improvement plan, there's 40 million in contingency funds between those two uh, funds. And let me ask something of uh, city manager Greg Kaitton. the uh advanced purified recycled water treatment facility.

Would that be a combination of would that be funded by a combination of the both funds or is it considered one or the other? Madame Mayor, Councilwoman Whitehead, I think that's part of the analysis and the feasibility that we're working on now that we will return and at this point in approximately six months for a council discussion not only on the capital side but also on the operating side and the anticipated uh staffing measures, operating costs and that complete package.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Again, I I you know you know I I like the expression I anybody who's a parent has used this expression, God helps those who help themselves. So we we have a situation and it's our job to prepare for the worst case scenario and work diligently to deliver the best. And what I'm hearing is that there are possibly a number of emergency uh water.

There'll be a some there'll be some sources of emergency water, but those emergency sources will not be available to those who are not moving forward with these projects. So they will not be available to those who have their head in the sand for lack of better words. So while we don't I'm not accusing us of having our head in the sand.

I think with the um possible cuts coming even as soon as October, um I I guess I will move to um uh to take uh I guess to move $20 million from the appropriate contingency fund to two different line items. One is to restore some funding to our advanced purified recycled water uh for engineering and design and the and another fund for emergency drilling um that might be needed. And I don't know if um if anybody would like I'll second the motion and I'd like to speak to my motion. Okay. Thank you.

So seconding that um if we're looking at taking away $67.6 million um from CIP over the long haul, we're looking at just a smidgend, right? Onethird of the money coming from contingency. And if we don't need it because of the hundred million put aside, then so be it. But if we do need it and we don't have it, then we have put our head in the sand. Um it's a scary time. We want to support the budget because there are so many wonderful things in the budget.

Um, like Sasha said, and I you want to be supportive of the entire budget moving forward for so many reasons and all the employees and all of the residents, but we also want to be prepared for the residents. So, that is why I am seconding this. And if we don't use the 20 million, great. But if we use it and we need it, it's there. It's contingency. It's not taking anything away from this year's budget. It's assisting it. So, that is why I'm seconding it.

Thank you, city attorney, mayor, members of the city council. This particular item is not agendaized for any action. Um, this motion would need to be uh considered in the special meeting that follows with the final adoption of the budget. Okay. Well, thank you for that. Um perhaps I'll follow up with you on how best to proceed and at least I've had the opportunity that I frankly have been denied. I have asked for public meetings on water.

When you take away when you eliminate all the funding for a c a council approved strategic plan to keep water flowing, we should have had a public meeting. So I'm glad to have had this opportunity. I look forward to more public meetings and this discussion later. Thank you. Uh city attorney, do you have something else? I'm sorry I left my mic on. No, I don't. We heard everything you said. It was pretty good. All right, that concludes uh this item. And with that, I will uh close item number 25.

And thank you for everyone that spoke. Um and moving on to public comment on non-aggendaized items. Public comment is reserved. Uh you know what? I just want to go back and for all of you that may not have been here, this is a very complex issue. I guess I I I want to comment on this before I move along. Uh the budget is obviously has a lot of moving parts, super complex, lots of decisions to be made, and we've had now two hearings on this.

So any um you know, revisions or improvements, uh subtractions, whatever you might say, um we've had the opportunity to do that. And I know water is a very big focus for all the speakers that spoke. I too share the concerns about uh the funding for these resources.

Based on the um the open dialogue that we've had here in prior meetings with both the city manager and our city treasurer, I am reassured and confident that we will have a comprehensive water discussion in a work study coming up here shortly. and uh we have the opportunity to readress the funding and uh the CIP uh projected for for these items that have been removed and it's a different way to look at it.

It's we want the cost of the of the project before we plug and you know put it in the budget and I get that and all I can say is you know let's see how this works out and we'll this is not a done deal. So, um, now I'm going to move right along to, uh, the public comment announcement. And of course, public comment is reserved for Scottsdale citizens, business owners, or property owners to comment on non-aggendaized items that are within the council's jurisdiction.

No official council uh, action may be taken on the items that the speakers raise, and speakers are limited to three minutes to address the council. I have a list of speakers here and if you haven't signed up and you wish to, please see the city clerk. Uh, we have five speakers tonight. Steve Sutton, followed by Vars Veron. I hope I'm saying that right. Dan Isaac, Avon Cahill, and Doug Box Box Balm. Thank you. And again, the podium will be over here to your right. Steve Sutton address on record.

I don't have a prepared statement for him. Just some observations. I've been attending city council meetings since August of 24. I probably missed a couple in 24. I've missed one this year. In all the time I've come to the council and watched invocations, I've never seen an invocation that comes close to addressing my religious beliefs. It's been an interesting week of demotion and promotion.

At the federal level, we have the demotion of certain organized religions as not being worthy to be on the DoD's list of recognized religions. A big example being the demotion of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints not being Christian although it's my understanding that was recently reversed. And then we have an issue of promotion a pro promotion of religion at least my perception of promotion of religion that is occurring right here in this council chamber repeatedly.

I believe an invocation should be something that appeals to everyone and primarily be something that is non-denominational. And yet I repeatedly see since this council has come in what appears to be promotion of one religion specifically in that we have individuals giving the invocation that go into great detail about biographies and accomplishments and I just don't think that's appropriate. We don't see that with uh anybody else.

Um, I think that uh you're doing a disservice to us by not making the invocation uh less a secular event and it should probably be pretty short too, not as long as a public comment or longer. The other thing is is I see a promotion that is very disturbing which is really more or less an act of corruption and that is the council spending money for another program that has not been properly studied, another spending project.

I mean, we've already gone through the old Adobe Mission garage that there was no study to support building a garage there. That was a far more expensive than what I'm talking about right now, which is even though it's only, I believe, like $600,000 to build a $600,000 crosswalk for such a small group of people to use. That is going to inconvenience many thousands. Just does not seem like an appropriate use of government funds. And I think that there are many people feel the same way.

I suspect we are going to see action on that in just about a month or so. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Steve. Next, we have Barroom. Hello everyone. I'm Virun, a 12-year-old and an incoming seventh grader at Scottsdale Preparatory Academy. And this month is June, which is National Safety Month. So, I stand here today because I deeply care about online safety and digital kindness. Every day, kids use technology for games, messages, and other social media.

And these areas are prone to anonymous and known harassments, which can result in cyber bullying. I wanted to do something about this. So, I created this program called Shield. Strong help in every level of digital life. It's a simple acronym for kids to remember how to protect themselves and avoid cyber bullying online. I'm going to call out what each letter in Shield stands for. S stop and stay calm. Take a pause before you react. You always need to be wise on what you say. H help and report.

Seek guidance from a trusted adult or authority. If it's in an app or a game, report it. And if you feel like someone is in danger, get help immediately. I ignore and block. Don't engage with bullies. Just block or mute them. E. Engage kindly. Promote respectful and positive communication whether it's in person or online. L. Log evidence. Save screenshots to document the situation. And lastly, D. Disconnect and recharge. Take a tech break for your own mental health. It's the best thing to do.

I'm here because I strongly believe that Scottsdale can lead the way to promoting digital kindness. The city already has many youth safety engagements and Shield fits perfectly with that. I would love to partner with the city to share shield through one schools, libraries, and youth programs. Two, displaying posters in community centers. Three, promoting digital kindness through city events. And lastly, four, requesting the mayor to possibly recognize digital kindness week to raise awareness.

My goal is simple. I want every kid in our online community to feel safe. Thank you for your time and thank you for letting me have the opportunity to speak about something that will benefit the city tremendously. Just remember to be a shield, protect yourself and others online. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, you're hired. That was a great interview. Listen, before you leave, that was excellent and well said.

Uh, I just want to point out that we have the mayor's youth council that that you might want to look into. I don't know what grade you're in um if you're in high school yet. Yeah, the mayor's youth council would be a great place for you to check in. And you can see Terrence who's right behind you give you more information. All right. Thank you very much for that. That was that was really refreshing. Next we have Dan Isaac. Follow that, will you? Yeah, that's impossible.

I certainly didn't have Come on. Come on. You You can try. I did not have that at that age. I don't have that composure at my age now, but it's very impressive. Um Dan Isaac address on record. Uh two quick things, maybe a third. At the last council me, I tried to speak at public comment and it took 27 minutes for me to be able to speak for three minutes. The behavior of two of our council members was ridiculous.

Now, they are allowed to make points of order, but the way they did it was disrespectful, not just to me, but also to the mayor. In fact, Adam Quasman running down the stairs from the bathroom, almost stripping, screaming point of order, was uncalled for when he didn't even know that there was a point of order on the floor to be discussed. The only thing that would have made this even more comical is if he had not had time to zip up before he came back to the bathroom.

And that would have violated our YouTube agreement, I'm sure. Um, but by the way, Adam, what I say to my spouse, you'll spend a lot less time in the bathroom if you don't take your phone. So, I suggest that. Um, but 20 Oh, I've gone three times today, but I didn't take my phone. but 27 minutes to allow me to speak about things that were in the purview of our council because it's the behavior of our council members. That is absurd.

It's bad enough that our residents have to wait two to three hours to speak, but to then be interrupted for 27 minutes to speak for three is unacceptable. Second point, I was disappointed with the entire council for a unanimous vote about the railroad park admission fees. Now, I was shocked that a successful attorney and council member can't afford $3 per individual. And even Barry and Jan were a little concerned about making that change and they wanted additional information.

It was contrary to what our director of parks suggested. It was contrary to what our city managers suggested. Yet, we made a decision without calculating the cost, without calculating the benefit. I don't know whether it's the right price. The experts think it's too low of a price, the existing one, but you all agreed to cut it. Now, I'm all for city services being free for residents. The motion wasn't just for residents. It's everybody who goes there in the summer.

You all acted emotionally instead of logically despite caution from Barry, caution from Jan, caution from our parks and wreck, caution from our city manager. You all did not do what you were supposed to do. You should have asked for analysis and voted on it and then maybe come up with a better solution which is free for residents or reduced for residents but not cut it for everybody who brings their kids there. You're spending our money unnecessarily. One last quick thing.

The city newsletter for this week has no mention of the Junth celebration this weekend. And I know we can't support diversity because this council said it's a bad thing, but I would think a major event would have been in our city newsletter. Thank you. Thank you, Dan. Next, we have Ron Cahill. Dan's a lot taller than I. Uh, good evening, Mayor Barowski and city council. My name is Ivon Cahill, and the address is on record.

I was one of the 27,000 reported residents to have signed the Axon petition. I was very very disappointed we did not go to a void a vote. But what I have discovered through a public records request is alarming. The city sent me 14,932 pages. I was what they call papered, hoping that I didn't find things. Mayor Barowski tried three times to move the election to an earlier date.

Despite her attempts, four members of the council denied the request to put Axon referendum to a vote on the city council agenda and move it to a special election. This is amazing because the city of Glendale had a similar referendum petition at the same time, December 2024. The council acted expedentially on January 14th and had a vote and it went to a ballot on May of 2025. But what happened in Scottsdale?

Well, what I have seen is collusion between council members and TA's council members and the Scottsdale Progress. Council member Graham sharing city emails and blind carping copying Tom Scanland from the progress. So apparently Tom Scandan doesn't have to do a PRR or send an email because Barry's just sending in blind carbon copies both to him and Jan. The city clerk cooperating with polls to pull the council members. The city attorney redacting email addresses from Mr. Graham.

the to and from emails from Jan Deboscus and I asked myself why are these redacted? The polling is an apparent practice which I here has been modified but was to make four calls to council members who they know will support the item on the on the members that they want to remove. No random tests, no record of who he called and no recording of the vote. This is not transparency in government. Then Mr.

Lane sends out an email to council members saying there's a consensus that the vote has been cancelled on item two that was done by Barry Graham. The fact is the election could have been held early. Since 1982, Scottdale has had 21 special elections. The city manager wrote a memorandum stating the city also had an option to hold a special election at an earlier date and possible dates were given. The language for the Glendale and Scottsdale referendums were exactly the same.

Nothing was mentioned for November 2026. So why was it done? I'll tell you why it was done. Because Bob Littlefield told us. He said Barry Graham and I need a platform to run on in November of 2026. So if you want proof, I have proof. And now we know who took away the vote of the residents of Scottsdale on the Axon election. It was Barry Graham with Kathy Littlefield, Jan Deboscus, and coordinating with TAS. Thank you. Thank you, Avon. Next and last, we have Doug Boxbound.

Well, that was very good timing as I just walked back in the door. I am a uh 30-year residence of Scottsdale and I know you have a lot of important things going on here, but uh I'm recently retired and I've been trying to train for M's track and field. There's not a single track available for adults to use. Even though we pay for it with our taxes before CO, you could go over to Scottsdale Community College and use that track. They have no track team now. They have no football team.

There's nobody using the track, but there's no access for individuals who are just trying to be healthy. I have to train on 87th Street Terrace, which is concrete, basically. Terrible for your legs, terrible for your body. I just need a place to run. So, I'm trying to find out why Sarro High School, Scottsdale Community College, or any other tracks are not available to those of us who pay for it. Thank you.

We don't normally engage with speakers, but thank you for coming to speak to us about this and we might be able to help point you in the right direction, but the Scottsdale City Council does not oversee the either the Scottsdale Unified School District or the Maricopa County Colleges. Um, so again, we'd be happy to put you in touch with someone that can maybe open some trap doors for you. That would be great because again, I I don't mind paying my taxes.

I would just like to be able to use what I pay for. Okay. Thank you all. All right. That closes public comment. And next we move on to Mayor. Oh, you added I'm sorry, David. Come right up. Thank you. And I did get notified by the city clerk. It seems like it was a long time ago, though. I'm sorry. Thank you very much. and really appreciate it.

Mayor Baroski, um I wanted to talk about water quality and it was very uh good to see the Councilman Quasman offer some water and I I I guess if if I were to ask you to look at that bottle that you offer just now, can you can you read the label on it? California. Yeah, it says California. And the the uh last time I was in here, the water that was distributed said um water life or something like that. And it came from Sacramento, California.

And if you read it uh and go into it, it said this water comes from uh uh waterways around Sacramento. Now this one is a different brand and it but it al is it also said and or city water of Sacramento.

So somehow that city water that you're offering and you're drinking and the city buys is offered because people have faith in uh adequ environmental quality uh all of those protections that we have in water and for some reason rather than by local again pure water that I see councilman Graham drinking again it may be from California Right. So, the the number I wanted to leave with you today is regarding Scottsdale clean water. Scottsdale Water tests lab tests our water 6,000 times a year.

All the water that comes to your uh residence or business is has to go through grueling test and that's the first responsibility of this council as utility but no one up here none of you can change that if it meets EPA quality if it meets ADQ quality it is sur certifiable to be served to the public and no one can stand in front of that and say, "Well, I know more than the scientists or I know less than the scientists and for other reasons I don't believe it's good enough and I'm arbitrarily saying that because we have quality control on our water and that's a given." Um, it's also very important to note that we SRP and CAP delivers raw water.

Raw water has been through Laughlin parties, parties on Lake me, algae poisonings, everything else by the time it comes down to cap, it gets purified by our best systems in the world. And when we can recover that, even if we only get back recover half of that, cleanse it to purity, it is still SRP or CAP water. The molecule didn't change. All the impurities were taken away.

And now it's that's the most important takeaway that this council and all mayors and council want to make sure the public knows we have the best water possible. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right, that concludes Oh, I'm sorry, Councilman Clausman. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I want to thank Mayor Ortega for coming tonight and and and I I don't know him well, but every conversation we've had has been so friendly and lovely. Um looking forward to sitting and meeting him with him on this.

Um but I if if this means that we can change this water to the natural water of Fiji water, I am all in or Evian or natural stream water and natural spring water. I'm all in. And also my biggest problem with these are the uh the plast the microplastics. That's my fear point of order. But finally, I want to thank I want to thank uh the mayor mayor Ortega in saying that we should agree with that we should trust the EPA. So, I would like to reach out to um RFK Jr.

at the mayor's insistence that we meet with uh with RFK Jr. and and and making sure that HHS and uh the EPA um uh point of order, Mr. Wasman, make sure that we get the outcome that we want. Excuse me. What's your point of order? We're not on the topic. We're not a respon We're not allowed to respond to public comment on non-aggendaized items. I agree. So, you're done, right? Okay. All right. All right. We don't have any that concludes public comment. We do not have any citizens petitions.

So, moving on to mayor and council items. Uh there is item 27 agenda. uh potential policy for optional cancer screenings for firefighters at the request of Councilwoman Whitehead. So, I'll let her briefly talk about this. Yeah, I just want to thank this council. We have in this upcoming budget funding for uh cancer screening for our firefighters and I'd like to see that not be an annual thing, just be part of a policy and um obviously it's an issue.

So um I am asking my colleagues to join me and agendaize an item regarding a policy for optional cancer screening. Optional being that the firefighters don't need to have the screening but the city is required to provide it. Cancer screening for firefighters. Um so uh let's see. And I would like to move to direct the um city manager or responsible charter officer to agendaize the item for a future meeting. I'll second that. All right. I don't see anybody else that would like to speak.

And this certainly sounds like a worthy cause. And which which did you choose out of the three options? One. One. agenda is a future meeting. Okay. So, no other speakers. Uh please indicate your vote. All right, moving right along to council member reports. Uh, do we have anyone? I'll go ahead and start. I know I had my own mayor's report, but I literally have to apologize for not pointing out the Junth celebration on uh coming up on It's next Friday though, but we don't have a council.

Saturday, Saturday and next Friday. I think it's Friday. Saturday is the general event at the civic center. Okay. Okay. Okay. Hold on. Uh, in any event, um, we, uh, we hope it's a great event and I was remiss in not pointing that out and next week we don't have a council meeting. So, uh, thank you very much for whoever pointed that out. I think it was Dan. Uh, moving right along, Councilman Quasman. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Just a point of personal privilege.

I want to wish a very happy 52nd anniversary to my parents, Scottsdale residents, Donald and Dela Quasman. Their marriage is a testament to um to how it should work and they're truly truly best friends and they truly respect one another and they gave me growing up the kind of uh the kind of household that showed how how I can be a good husband and father. So with that uh happy anniversary. Thank you uh Vice Mayor Mckllen. Thank you mayor. Um, I want to wish our mayor a happy belated birthday.

Her birthday was the 7th. Happy birthday. Thank you. Why, thank you. You're welcome. Uh, I also want to thank the SC the parks and recreation department last week. Uh, they had a celebration of the lights on the courts at Chapperel Park, uh, multi-use uh, court for handicap accessible as well as everybody, you know, the general residents.

But during that time, that celebration, the lights, it was such a great celebration because there's, if you would have been there in the park that night, you have people fishing, you have lacrosse going on, you have baseball going on, you have soccer going on, you had swim lessons and swim team, and city employees are walking by with their kids, and grandparents are walking by with city employees kids. And there was just such a wonderful celebration.

That being said, it was funded through grants that the parks department applied for and I just want to give them kudos. Uh, of course I came from parks and wreck, but uh it continues to be such a bright spot in our city. Good job uh to director Molinari and his staff. Excellent. Okay, that concludes our council members and uh my my uh presentations. So, we'll now conclude the Yeah, we're moving on to a special meeting. Yes, I know it's a special meeting.

So, officially adjourning uh the regular city council meeting and moving on to the special meeting. Um, starting with item special SP1, final adoption of fiscal year 2627, budget estimates and five-year capital improvement plan. And I think we have a presentation again by Scott Seline. Thank you, Madame Mayor, members of the council. A very brief presentation. Um, just before I do it very briefly, I'd just like to thank all those who participated in the development of the budget.

It is a significant undertaking and uh there was much work that went into it. This is the council action that we are uh recommending to adopt ordinance 4712 and 4713 as tenatively approved on May 19th 2026. And that's that's my last slide. Happy to stand for any questions. Thank you, Councilwoman Whitehead. Thank you.

So, I would like to enthusiastically move to adopt ordinance number 4712 setting the final budget estimates for the fiscal year 2627 uh budget as tenatively approved on May 19th 2026.

adopting the final fiscal year 2627 job classification and job classification pay table in conformity with the Scottsdale revised uh code sections 14 through 20 through 14 oh sorry 14-20 through 14-24 and authorize or approving uh as applicable certain salary adjustments included in the final budget for city employees and charter officers as and setting salaries for to the presiding judge and associate judge and adopt ordinance number 4713 approving the capital improvement plan for the period beginning July 1, 2026 and ending June 30th 2031 with my um uh with my additional language uh of uh move uh taking uh 20 uh 20 million dollars of the capital improvement contingency fund and moving that to line items that would allow uh for drilling wells if as needed in North Scottsdale and engineering design of Scottsdale's advanced purified recycled water facility as needed by ADQ.

I'll second that motion. All right. I have a motion and a second. I don't see anyone else to speak on this particular one. Councilman Graham. Thank you, Mayor. Make an alternate motion to adopt ordinance 4712 and 4713 as presented to the city council. Second. Okay. We have an Do you want to speak to it? Uh we have an alternate motion and a second. So we are going to take a vote on that and uh like you have briefly some time to speak before you vote. I I would like to add that it's pretty clear.

Um, a lot of my constituents asked this city council to be a bit more transparent. And so my request for this vote was just to allow the public to it was to allow my colleagues to vote and I would say I do not have the votes. I think that's clear to the public. I will never not vote for a budget. So, um, I accept the fact that this council does not want to support these projects at this moment in time. Thank you. Thank you. And with that, we will take a vote on the alternate motion. All right.

And that concludes our meeting. Thank you everyone who for your patience today and for coming. Move to adjourn.