02 10 26 City Council Meeting Minutes
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1 TOLLESON CITY COUNCIL MEETING ACTION MINUTES TOLLESON CIVIC CENTER 9055 WEST VAN BUREN STREET, TOLLESON, AZ 85353 ZOOM WEBINAR ID: 840 6967 9194 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2026 6:00 PM Doors open to Council Chambers at 5:45 PM for public seating. The public may be asked to temporarily relocate if an executive session occurs. The public will be invited back into Council Chambers when the Council returns from executive session. Members of the public may also participate in the meeting via Zoom Webinar (https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84069679194) with a computer or cell phone. A. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Rodriguez called the Tolleson City Council Meeting to order at 6:00 PM. B. INVOCATION/PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE The Invocation was delivered by Development Services Director Earp, and the Pledge of Allegiance was led by Council Member Mendoza. C. ROLL CALL Department Directors: City Manager Reyes Medrano Jr., Deputy City Manager/Chief Government Affairs Officer Pilar Sinawi, Deputy City Manager/Employee Resources Director Wendy Jackson, Chief Financial Officer Kevin Artz, Chief of Social Impact George Good, City Clerk Crystal Zamora, City Magistrate John Lamb, Development Services Director Jason Earp, Field Operations/Parks & Recreation Director Randy Babchuk, Fire Chief Michael Young, Library Director Mandy Carrico, Public Safety Director/Police Chief Rudy Mendoza, and Utilities Director Jamie McCracken. City Representative: City Attorney Jon Paladini D. FINAL CALL TO SUBMIT SPEAKER REQUESTS All citizens and interested parties wishing to speak before the Council regarding non- agenda items or during a public hearing shall fully complete a Speaker Request Form and submit the form(s) to the City Clerk prior to the meeting being convened. Citizens must complete one form for each item they want to address. Speaker Request Forms are located 2 at the entrance of the Council Chambers. For Zoom participants, click the chat button, and enter your name and the item you would like to address. Submissions should be made no later than the Mayor announcing the “Final Call to Submit Speaker Requests”. All speakers will be limited to 3 minutes unless otherwise noted by the Mayor. Speakers are not required to disclose their identities or personal information. You may also submit an online speaker request form at https://www.tolleson.az.gov/speakerrequest at least one hour prior to the meeting. E. CALL TO THE PUBLIC (NON-AGENDA ITEMS) This is the time for the public to comment on non-agenda items. Members of the Council may not discuss items that are not specifically identified on the agenda. Therefore, pursuant to A.R.S. § 38-431.01.H, action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to (1) responding to criticism; (2) directing staff to review the matter; or (3) asking that a matter be put on a future agenda. F. SCHEDULED PUBLIC APPEARANCES AND PROCLAMATIONS – FOR DISCUSSION 1. Proclamation declaring February 2026 as American Heart Month in the City of Tolleson, encouraging residents to raise awareness of heart disease prevention, promote healthy lifestyles, and learn lifesaving skills such as CPR to support community wellness. – Banner Estrella Medical Center / American Heart Association Recognition of Tolleson Fire Department Life-Saving Response – Banner Estrella Medical Center / American Heart Association Mayor Rodriguez proclaimed February 2026 as American Heart Month in the City of Tolleson. 2. Proclamation declaring February 2026 as Black History Month in the City of Tolleson in recognition of the achievements, contributions, and enduring legacy of African Americans, acknowledging the centennial national theme, “A Century of Black History Commemorations,” and reaffirming the City’s commitment to diversity, inclusion, and community unity. – Wendy Jackson, Deputy City Manager/Employee Resources Director Mayor Rodriguez proclaimed February 2026 as Black History Month in the City of Tolleson. 3. Tolleson Aging in Place Strategy for Updating the General Plan – Alison Almand, Program Manager, Arizona State University Project Cities G. BUSINESS FROM THE FLOOR – PUBLIC HEARINGS AND ACTION ITEMS H. CONSENT AGENDA – ACTION ITEMS 3 Items on the Consent Agenda are of a routine nature and are intended to be acted upon in one motion. Council Members may pull items from Consent if they would like them considered separately. 1. Approve Regular City Council Meeting Minutes of January 27, 2026. (City Clerk Department) 2. Approve Claims and Bills Report for the period of January 21, 2026 to February 3, 2026. (Finance Department) 3. Approve the First Amendment to the Professional Services Agreement between the City of Tolleson and A & Sons Electric, Inc. for additional electrical services related to a transformer upgrade for the generator at the Parks and Recreation Center, increasing the contract amount by $100,000 for a total not-to-exceed amount of $350,000, and authorize the City Manager to execute the Amendment. (Parks and Recreation Department) 4. Adopt Resolution No. 2629 of the Mayor and Council of the City of Tolleson, Arizona, approving the Intergovernmental Agreement between the City of Avondale, the City of Buckeye, the City of El Mirage, the City of Glendale, the City of Goodyear, the City of Peoria, the City of Surprise, the City of Tolleson, and the Town of Wickenburg for participation in the West Valley Mobile Field Force Response Team, and authorizing the City Manager to execute and deliver said Agreement. This Agreement shall remain in effect until July 1, 2031, unless otherwise terminated in accordance with its terms. (Police Department) 5. Adopt Resolution No. 2632 of the Mayor and Council of the City of Tolleson, Arizona, authorizing and approving the acquisition of certain real property in the City for present and future public and municipal purposes, authorizing and directing the Mayor, City Manager and City Attorney to acquire title to Maricopa County Assessor’s Parcel Nos. 102-49-117A and 102-49-118 located at 9101 W. Pierce Street, Tolleson, Arizona, on behalf of the City by purchase for an amount not to exceed $300,000, plus acquisition and closing costs. (Development Services Department) Council Member Gámez moved to approve Consent Agenda items 1. through 5.; the motion was seconded by Council Member Laborin. The motion carried 7 to 0. Mayor Rodriguez – Aye Vice Mayor Davis – Aye Council Member Chavira – Aye Council Member Erives – Aye Council Member Gámez – Aye Council Member Laborin – Aye Council Member Mendoza – Aye I. REGULAR AGENDA – ACTION ITEMS 4 J. WORK STUDY AND PRESENTATIONS – FOR DISCUSSION 1. City Court Department Annual Update – John Lamb, City Magistrate K. MAYOR AND CITY MANAGER’S REPORT OF CURRENT EVENTS – FOR DISCUSSION 1. Tolleson Talks on February 26th at 5:00 PM at Restaurant Oaxaqueño Tierra Del Sol – Jason Earp, Development Services Director L. CONVENE INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION 1. Motion to go into executive session. Council Member Gámez moved to convene into executive session at 7:16 PM; the motion was seconded by Vice Mayor Davis. The motion carried 7 to 0. Mayor Rodriguez – Aye Vice Mayor Davis – Aye Council Member Chavira – Aye Council Member Erives – Aye Council Member Gámez – Aye Council Member Laborin – Aye Council Member Mendoza – Aye 2. Convene into an executive session pursuant to A.R.S. § 38-431.03(A)(3) to receive legal advice and discuss and consult with the City Attorney regarding a potential rezoning of certain property within the City. 3. Convene into an executive session pursuant to A.R.S. § 38-431.03(A)(3) and (A)(4) to receive legal advice and discuss and consult with the City Attorney regarding a contract that is the subject of negotiations relating to joint use of school facilities. M. RECONVENE INTO PUBLIC MEETING N. ADJOURNMENT Council Member Mendoza moved to adjourn the Regular City Council Meeting at 9:06 PM; the motion was seconded by Council Member Laborin. The motion carried 7 to 0. Mayor Rodriguez – Aye Vice Mayor Davis – Aye Council Member Chavira – Aye Council Member Erives – Aye Council Member Gámez – Aye Council Member Laborin – Aye Council Member Mendoza – Aye 5 Pursuant to A.R.S. § 38-431.01 and A.R.S. § 38-431.02, notice is hereby given to the members of the Tolleson City Council and to the general public that the Council of the City of Tolleson will hold a meeting open to the public. Council Members of the City of Tolleson will attend by telephone/video conference call. Note: The City Council of the City of Tolleson, by a duly passed motion, may vote in public session to adjourn to executive session on any agenda item in conformation with A.R.S. § 38.431.03 for legal advice from the City Attorney. Zoom’s live transcription feature can provide automatic captioning by clicking on the Closed Caption (CC) button during the meeting. THE CITY OF TOLLESON ENDEAVORS TO MAKE ALL PUBLIC MEETINGS ACCESSIBLE TO INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES. With at least two business days advance notice, accommodations can be provided at this meeting for individuals with vision, hearing and/or speech disabilities, including a transcriber, large print, an interpreter, an assistive listening device, etc. Please call the City Clerk at (623) 936-7111, or TTY users may dial 711 for Arizona Relay Service (AZRS), to request an accommodation to participate in this public meeting. The City will try its best to accommodate any last minute requests. LA CIUDAD DE TOLLESON SE ESFUERZA PARA HACER TODAS LAS REUNIONES PÚBLICAS ACCESIBLE PARA INDIVIDUOS CON DISCAPACIDADES. Con al menos dos días laborables de previo aviso, se pueden proporcionar adaptaciones en esta reunión para personas con discapacidades visuales, auditivas o del habla, incluido un transcriptor, letra grande, un intérprete, un dispositivo de asistencia auditiva, etc. Llame a la Secretaría Municipal al (623) 936-7111, o los usuarios de TTY pueden marcar 711 para el Servicio de Retransmisión de Arizona (AZRS), para solicitar un alojamiento para participar en esta reunión pública. La Ciudad hará todo lo posible para satisfacer cualquier solicitud de último minuto. CHECK NUMBER CHECK DATE VENDOR NAME AMOUNT 186789 1/29/2026 CITY OF PHOENIX $253,020.24 186787 1/29/2026 ASR CONSTRUCTION GROUP LLC $113,623.08 186685 1/21/2026 CITY OF PHOENIX $48,944.57 186732 1/22/2026 CITY OF GLENDALE $35,000.00 186695 1/21/2026 FELIX CONSTRUCTION COMPANY $32,456.32 186731 1/22/2026 CITY OF AVONDALE $31,969.48 186720 1/21/2026 SONSRAY MACHINERY LLC $14,785.24 186794 1/29/2026 LEA-ARCHITECTS LLC $14,617.50 186673 1/21/2026 ADAPTIVE ARCHITECTS INC $14,205.00 186682 1/21/2026 TOLLESON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DIST.#17 $11,750.00 186792 1/29/2026 HILL BROTHERS CHEMICAL COMPANY $11,717.12 186793 1/29/2026 IMAGETREND LLC $11,288.55 186792 1/29/2026 HILL BROTHERS CHEMICAL COMPANY $10,884.41 186792 1/29/2026 HILL BROTHERS CHEMICAL COMPANY $10,884.41 186792 1/29/2026 HILL BROTHERS CHEMICAL COMPANY $10,084.41 City of Tolleson Checks Recorded Check Dates: January 21, 2026 to February 3, 2026 PAYMENTS OVER $10,000 CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 1 of 31 Post-Production File City of Tolleson City Council Meeting Minutes February 10, 2026 Transcription Provided By: eScribers, LLC * * * * * Transcription is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. * * * * * CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 2 of 31 MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Thank you. All right. Let's start that again. Good evening, everyone. I am Mayor Juan F. Rodriguez. Today is February 10th, and I would like to call the City Council meeting to order. We're going to begin today with our invocation, our Pledge of Allegiance. I'm going to ask our economic development director, Jason Earp, to lead us in invocation. And then Councilwoman -- Council member Mendoza to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. If you can, please stand. EARP: Dear Father, we come before you, (indiscernible) and unity as they make decisions that impact the lives of our residents. Help us to lead with integrity, fairness, and compassion. Guide our discussions, so they are respectful and productive. And may our work today serve the greater good of our city. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. MENDOZA: 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. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: All right. Thank you, both. City Clerk, please let the record reflect on our roll call that all members are present with the exception of Councilwoman Chavira. It is now time to call for a submit speaker request to the City Clerk. All speakers will be limited to three minutes for comments only. Actions taken as a result of public comments will be limited to, one, responding to criticism; two, directing staff to review the matter; or three, asking that a matter be put on a future agenda. Do we have any at this time? ZAMORA: We do not, Mayor. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Moving on to call to the public. This is for non-agenda items. Do we have any of those? Okay. Scheduled public appearances and proclamations, I believe we have two this evening. Our first proclamation is declaring February 2026 as American Heart Month in the City of Tolleson. We're going to be encouraging residents to raise awareness of heart disease prevention, promote healthier lifestyles, and learn life-saving skills, such as CPR, to support community wellness. We have a number of folks here today, Banner CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 3 of 31 Street Medical Center and American Heart Association. So with that, I am going to turn it over to -- why don't -- should we start with Jon Holmes and Dr. Clever? You guys can come up, take the stand. They're with Banner Estrella. Yes, thank you. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: So I just want to thank everyone for coming (audio interference). And in my 34 years, one time I've had the opportunity to meet somebody that I responded to after the fact. It's a very special evening. I don't want to waste a whole lot of time. I would like -- if you don't mind, sir, if you would come up and just tell your story briefly and then have the crew come up so that you guys can -- DAVID: Thank you, Tolleson. And we all are really thankful for the Tolleson Fire Department and their quick-acting EMT people. I had surgery on my rotator cuff, and I was in a lot of pain. And two weeks later, I started to have a heart attack. And my wife called 911, and the Tolleson EMTs and the fire department were there in minutes. And by that time, I was already losing patience. But my wife raised my tongue -- because I didn't hear it when they told me to raise my tongue. And they gave me some of that nitroglycerin, or I wouldn't have made it. Did an EKG, sent it to the Banner Estrella Emergency Room, and when I -- and we got there within a minute, it seemed like. And they were ready for me, and they stood around until they actually took me up for the surgery. They didn't just drop me off and take off, and I was really thankful for them staying around. And the doctor said, ten more minutes and I wouldn't have made it because I had the double widowmaker. So if it weren't for the incredible speed within the Tolleson Fire Department, EMT's to get to our house and get us to the hospital, I wouldn't have been there to make it. And then of course, the surgeons at Banner did outstanding jobs. I had two surgeries there in the end. One put the stents in, which kind of saved me then, because I was already almost to pass out, and then later had the triple bypass surgery. But all the surgeons, the staff, the people that work there, nurses, everybody at Banner Estrella, it just did an incredible job. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 4 of 31 So if not, this would be my one-year anniversary of my demise if it hadn't been for all those people to help me. So Tolleson and everybody is lucky to have the fire department here and those people working. And I used to work in an office that now is El Rodeo catty-corner from them. And I never thought that one day they would be saving my life because we take them for granted a lot of times. And then I was shocked that a lot of people don't even thank them after they do all the wonderful work, but -- well, you know, I might get another 10, 15 years out of that. So I want to thank everybody. Yeah. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: So Mr. David, I hope it's more than 15 years. As far as I'm concerned, maybe another 20, 25, if not longer. That is our city goal, every resident makes it to 100. But in all seriousness, I think the folks over at Banner Estrella have done an outstanding job when it comes to medical service to the residents of Tolleson and, of course, our fire department, not only the response time but the knowledge to do what has to happen when you get there. Transport people in a manner that is very swift and very proactive in your approach to how you carry out your job. It's amazing. We're very fortunate to have all of you guys here. So thank you, all. And again, I'm glad they were able to help you out today. Maybe tomorrow, somebody else. But point being is we have the right people in the place. We have the right hospital down the street, and teamwork prevails. Again, another saved lives. So thank you very much for your efforts. DAVID: Superb training. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. So do you want me to do the proclamation, or is that -- so with that, because it was -- yeah, because it was a -- I guess a -- not the heart attack at the moment, but they were able to save it. I, Mayor Juan F. Rodriguez, do hereby proclaim February 2026 as American Heart Month in the City of Tolleson. Be it proclaimed. We do have an official proclamation, and I think it'd be great if David and his wife can come up here and hold it. And if the fire department can come up with us, we can take a picture. And Banner Estrella, too. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 5 of 31 Come up, folks. It's a nice little room. It's not that far of a walk. Come on up. Come on. Bring your wife also if she wants to come up. You guys can -- you guys can hold the certificate. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Thank you. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Thank you, guys. Right there. On the dais. Come on up. This can squeeze in. Now, you can see from our perspective. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: We're trying to level out. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Ready? MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Okay. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: One, two, three. I think we're good. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Thank you. Oh, thanks, guys. Thank you. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely. Thank you for your work. Do you want to call him out? You can go next. Yeah. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: It's a pretty one. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I'm going to turn the floor over to our Fire Chief Young. YOUNG: I just wanted to acknowledge these individuals. These are Kevin Blackadder (ph.), Gabe Rios (ph.), and Mike Rhodes (ph.). They were the actual crew that responded to Larry (ph.) and took him in, as well as Patrick McCullough (ph.), who's not here tonight. So I wanted to make sure that they got the recognition for the phenomenal job that they did. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Awesome. All right. We're going to roll on here. Item number two is a proclamation declaring February 2026 as Black History Month in the City of Tolleson in recognition of achievements, contributions, and enduring legacy of African Americans. Acknowledging the centennial national theme, A Century of Black History, a Commemoration, and reaffirming the city's commitment to diversity, inclusion, and community unity. I'm going to turn the floor over to our Deputy City Manager, Wendy Jackson, and we do have a proclamation as well. JACKSON: Good evening, Mr. Mayor and members of Council. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 6 of 31 This year, we recognize Black History Month with special significance as 2026 marks 100 years since the first observance of what was called then Negro History Week, established in 1926 by Dr. Carter Woodson. His vision was to ensure that the contributions and achievements and lived experience of Black Americans were recognized as an essential part of American history. This centennial reminds us that 100 years is not only a measure of time, but it is a reflection of perseverance and progress over generations. As a city, we value respect, fairness, and community. Honoring Black History Month provides an opportunity to reflect on history, acknowledge contributions that have shaped our nation, and recognize the lasting impact of Black Americans in every area of American life. So thank you so much for this proclamation. We appreciate it. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Thank you. So with that I, Mayor Juan F. Rodriguez, do hereby proclaim February 2026 as Black History Month in the City of Tolleson. Be it proclaimed. We also have a proclamation. I don't know if somebody wants to grab it. Or we definitely want to post this somewhere at City Hall. And then we also have the one for the heart one. Thank you very much. Okay. Moving on. We're going to go to item number three, Tolleson Aging in Place Strategy for Updating the General Plan. ASU project manager, Alison Almand, you have the floor. ALMAND: Testing. There you go. Great. Good evening, Mayor and council members. I am Alison Almand. I am the program manager for the ASU Project Cities program. I thank you for inviting me tonight to share about our spring 2025 collaboration between the City of Tolleson, ASU's Project Cities Program, and ASU's Masters of Urban and Environmental Planning, in which we were helping devise a strategy for updating the General Plan for Aging in Place. This collaboration with the City of Tolleson is at the core of our program's values in connecting our community partners, such as Tolleson, to faculty and students at the university so that students have the opportunity to make a real impact within their CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 7 of 31 communities through project-based learning. And part of our goals primarily is to produce research-backed solutions for our communities. As I like to tell students, this is not a theoretical exercise through their coursework. They are working directly with city staff and working directly with community members to create action-oriented recommendations for the city. We also, as part of our program, are looking to prepare the next generation of sustainability leaders in our next workforce in creating conscious and principled students and workforce leaders. And as part of that, we also strive to provide project- based learning and teaching experiences for faculty. As we see this, it's a win-win-win partnership for our community partners, our students, and our faculty at ASU. We've had quite a bit of impact since our program start in fall 2017. We've worked on over 127 class projects with now 17 partner communities, Tolleson being one of them. Collaborating with over 1,500 undergraduate and graduate students across 30 ASU schools, centers, and programs in the university. And we look at this model to really serve as a connector piece between our local communities and with all the knowledge and resources available at ASU. Now for Tolleson. We were excited to partner with the city on an Aging in Place strategy as part of the General Plan update process. Part of this was having students explore literature and industry best practices for planning for healthy aging in place in cities. By particularly looking at the City of Tolleson, general plan to identify opportunity areas for incorporating key principles of healthy aging in place in your community. Through this, the students facilitated small group reflection with community members to identify those opportunity areas and to ultimately develop recommendations for a supplement as part of your general plan. And how the students did this, they started with preliminary research findings from the World Health Organization and the Arizona Planning Association. In all of this, research was used to inform recommendations and the community engagement that we conducted with the City of Tolleson. And so students really wanted to centralize community-lived experiences and values as part of their research CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 8 of 31 process. And so as the key of this, we conducted focus groups with Tolleson seniors at our Tolleson Senior Center back last February, where we had about 30 senior residents convened to discuss what they love about their community and what they're looking for in how they age in place over time, and especially in consideration of their grandchildren and their great grandchildren. And what we saw at this focus group was that Tolleson's aging residents love their community center, and they love their community. And they want to make it a place where they know that their children and their grandchildren can continue to live and thrive. But the students didn't want to stop there. We also knew that looking at aging in place wasn't just looking at Tolleson seniors but also looking at the livability of the community through shade, housing, transportation, so that it applies to all residents of all ages. And so we hosted a tabling event at the community's 3rd Friday, where we interviewed approximately 60 residents. And I remember, council member Jimmy joined us as well. And what we saw with this was the key takeaway being that there was a powerful sense of community within Tolleson, with people's interest primarily in the services being offered, recognition for the city's police and EMS, but also identifying opportunities to improve transportation and walkability as well as business access through the community. And so the students summarized their findings into the topical categories from the general plan. And what they found was opportunities to improve walkability within the community. And so that includes tree canopy and improved infrastructure, investment in ADA compliance around the city, especially in the downtown area, as well as investment in the public transit. A lot of the community members use some of the voucher programs but would like to see more paratransit options and accessibility for transit information. And for housing, we saw a great amount of interest in affordability, especially in assisted living, new construction within the city, as well as an emphasis on housing rights. And as part of the Aging in Place component, students identified opportunities for zoning CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 9 of 31 changes and modification funds to invest in the city's existing housing stock while amplifying it as a community for people to move to. As for facilities and services, as I mentioned, people love their community, and they love the services that the Civic Center offers. They would like to increase awareness, particularly around bulletin boards, calendars, some way to engage residents of all ages, whether it be radio, social media, but also hosting intergenerational classes and events connecting the city's youth with its senior population as well, as well as investing in the fantastic medical services within the community by potentially investing in ride share opportunities and new medical facilities. As for the environment, the students identified opportunities with the warehouses around the city to reduce noise and other pollutants, also to isolate industrial uses. Extreme heat and shade came up again in this category, providing shade and misters, air conditioning, potentially implementation of green infrastructure, particularly in the city's downtown area to add to the cooling effect, as well as implementation of cooling centers within the city, allowing residents to cool off as they make their way through the downtown. And as we looked at growth areas, the students found with residents an interest in retail diversity and really seeing the downtown as a hub for retail and investing in the city's small businesses as well as taking advantage of unused land for business development. Food access was also a topic of particular interest for residents, particularly for the aging residents, in grocery delivery options to allow for greater accessibility for food access, investment in farmers markets, and even community gardens within the community as part of an intergenerational opportunity to engage with the youth. And finally, we looked at open space and parks. The residents love their parks, but they would like to conduct a need assessment, particularly around lighting within the park, safety within the parks. And the students recommended investment in grants for park improvements as well as reducing heat exposure within the parks themselves. And so this work all culminated in what we call a final summary report, which I have a copy with me today. Some are also delivered to the city, where the findings were CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 10 of 31 compiled into an action-oriented document that the city can then use as part of a supplement for its general planning process. Now, I want to recognize the students in their work. This report actually was awarded two student planning project awards. And Tolleson was recognized this past August at the AZ Arizona -- the Arizona American Planning Association, Arizona chapter for the best student planning project in recognition of outstanding planning work by students that showcase innovation, community engagement, and practical solutions. Following that, the students were also recognized by the Western Planner for their exceptional high-quality project and plans, especially in the planning field. And so we're excited to see this award-winning work, along with the City of Tolleson, to provide a roadmap for future planning within the city. And with that I want to thank everyone again, and especially the participation of city manager and assistant city manager, and Chris Hamilton (ph.) as well, is really taking the project lead on this. And so with that, I will take any questions. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Couple things. Going back at the stuff that you identified up there, all the things that we want to -- all these factors, I see a lot of them that have already been thrown out there by staff, by the council. And so there's definitely a really good dovetailing that the students have identified on things that we're already working on, but things that we can enhance beyond that. So I think it's a very good marriage of ideas in that sense. You know, for an academic institution, a lot of times people come, and they do presentations. And they kind of have a disconnect because the academic vocabulary doesn't always meet with the standards of a community. But I think I counted you using the word love at least seven to ten times in the course of your presentation. And I can't think of a word that embraces who we are as a community more than how much we love Tolleson, and people are very proud of being part of Tolleson. And so the other thing I'll add is, is this whole emphasis is really on living longer, you know, on making a community that is going to celebrate life by protecting it. And we CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 11 of 31 have done some really good accomplishments. And we just landed some federal money that's going to help us hopefully create a trail system here in town and enhance our parks and so on and so forth. So I think, overall, it's a very good marriage between what the students came up with and what the community has been pushing for, and I know staff has always been on board with all that. So thank you for all your hard work. Thank you, students. I know these efforts are not -- they're not turnkey. You have to go out there and actually see people in their eyes and have true conversations with them. I thank our staff for them contributing to the greatness of Arizona State University and achieving two awards. Jason, great job, and hopefully that's the first of many awards. And so council, questions or comments? GAMEZ: No, I think it's great. Everything you've mentioned. Everything's perfect. There's just there's nothing else we can add. I'm lost for words. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. Vice Mayor? DAVIS: I just want to congratulate the students on their fantastic work. And of course, thank you to the staff for helping them along. These are great recommendations, and like Mayor said, we are, I think, already engaging in several of them, not a lot of them. So it's exciting to see where we can go and what the future holds. And I think the word love is the right word for our community, right? We're a community full of love. So I'm glad that that was recognized by somebody not from here, right? So great. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: And I love the packaging, by the way. Can I see that pamphlet? I mean, this is professionally done. I mean, this is nice, thick, very nice colors, very comprehensive. I'm sure every idea has a page or two. So the fact that you guys are able to package that and create a document that that is easy to follow and easy to incorporate into our plan is amazing. So any staffers, Jason Reyes, that'd like to add? ERIVES: I just wanted to say thank you as well for coming in to our community. I know we love our community, but it's also wonderful to see how our community loves to talk about ourselves and talk about all of the -- from the parks all the way to the improved CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 12 of 31 walkability. You had mentioned a couple of things. I was thinking the heat -- you had mentioned about heat and how hot it is, right? And if we could plant some more trees in our parks and all those types of things that we -- that very doable. But I love that you communicated with our -- or connected with our seniors and our 3rd Friday so that our community gets a chance to share not just, you know, we're here, we're having a great time here in Tolleson. And then the book -- oh my gosh, is the book available for us to have maybe in a library, so people could read it and see some of the -- because it is award-winning, right? So yeah, this is fantastic to have Tolleson in a book like this. I love it. Thank you. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: It is. ERIVES: Thank you for your time. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: It's a huge celebration because, I mean, we're council, and you know, we know a lot of folks here in town and a lot of our staffers grew up here, too. So we know that love is inherent to who we are as a community. But when you have an outside organization that brings students at -- maybe from all kinds of -- parts of the nation, and they just happen to be in this class together, come out and come up with the same conclusion by talking to our community members. I mean, to say that that's satisfying is an understatement. That is an acknowledgment of who we are from a third party. And it's a beautiful thing; it really is. Yes? GAMEZ: A couple of questions. Perhaps, can that be produced, if not already, in Spanish as well? ALMAND: I think I can follow up with our staff. GAMEZ: I appreciate that. Thank you. There's members of the community that would really love that. And I'm not saying I'm a -- what's the name of the artist that was just in the -- in the Super Bowl? What's that name? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Bad Bunny. GAMEZ: Not Bad Bunny. I'm just saying it's something we should do. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 13 of 31 ALMAND: And it as an accessible resource as well for the community. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Bad Bunny doing a concert here in Tolleson would be one of -- really good bullet points. ALMAND: Yeah. ERIVES: Yeah, I already suggested it. Right, Randy? That was. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Okay. Reyes, anything? MEDRANO: Before I ask Jason to say a few words, I want to thank you, Alison, and your team. It was an incredible experience. We got to -- we got to go to ASU, and we had to actually present why Tolleson is special enough to be chosen by the students. And I was excited because I knew that the students would bring an exuberance that would be refreshing to the entire effort. I've been involved in several general plans at this point, and this by far was the most fun. And just to see how serious the students took it, but they found the joy that Tolleson has to offer was an incredible experience. And that's indicative of your leadership, Alison. So thank you so much. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Earp. MEDRANO: Earp from the University of Arizona. EARP: The ones that lost yesterday. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Jason, did you want to add anything? EARP: Yes. So I will give it up to ASU. They did a great job, and Reyes stole some of the thunder. It was really cool that we had to present. And Reyes actually did a really good job presenting, and we had to get selected. So it wasn't a guarantee that our project was going to get selected. So it seemed like the students were excited what we're doing here in Tolleson. And just a reminder, this is just -- like Alison mentioned, it's a segment. It's a piece of our general plan, which is a good piece of it. So we'll be looking forward to doing the general plan this year and this being part of it -- award winning, part of our general plan. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I don't know about you guys, but that's very nice booklet. A lot of times universities crank these out and do great work with the community, and then it sits in a shelf somewhere. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 14 of 31 So Alison, I gave you my personal commitment -- I think every staffer that was involved and the rest of this council will give you the commitment that the ideas in this book will find its way to our general plan, and we will find time, whether I'm here or somebody else is here, somebody else -- council members are here to manifest some of these ideas into reality in our community. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I'm glad you said that, Mr. Mayor, because Mr. Babchuk just ordered a bunch of really big trees we're going to plant everywhere. So -- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Like trees. We're soon to be in a USA -- tree USA -- UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Tree city. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: What is it? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Tree city. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Uh-huh. Yeah. But Alison, thank you. ALMAND: Thank you. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Please go back, tell your students they did an amazing job. We're very proud. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: And Babchuk from the Arizona State University, I want to be fair -- I want to be fair. GAMEZ: How many students were involved? ALMAND: This was four students. So one international student and three students from the locality. And so they were really excited about the opportunity to participate. And I used "love" a lot because that's what the students saw when they were engaging with the community, is how blown away they were by the love that members had for their community after each engagement. So -- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: All right. ALMAND: Thank you. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely. Okay. We're going to move on to G, which is business from the floor. We have none for today. We're going to move on to H, consent agenda action items. I have five items on here. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 15 of 31 Council, have you had time to read them? GAMEZ: Approve them, Mr. Mayor. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Okay. We have a motion from council member Gamez. We have a second by council member Laborin. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. ALL: Aye. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: All those opposed? Awesome. Motion passes unanimously. City Clerk, please let the record reflect that. We don't have any regular agenda action items. We have one work study and presentation for discussion. This is our city Court Department Annual Update, and I would like to call up our city magistrate, Lamb. You have the floor, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, the tallest judge in the State of Arizona. Welcome, sir. LAMB: Mr. Mayor, Mr. Vice Mayor, council members, staff, citizens, good to see you again. I'm still and continue to be impressed by how well run the city is, and I thank you guys for allowing me to be part of that organization. So you're welcome. Now, when Ms. Jackson emailed me and said that the council wants me to report every year to the council about the court, I said, oh, I've got to go in front of this august and intimidating group every year. And then she had a follow-up email that said, when I do go in front of the council every year, they're going to consider a wage increase for me. So then I said, jeez, maybe I should report to them every month. [LAUGHTER] LAMB: Anyway, the court's doing really well, and it's exceeding my expectations. And before we get into specifics, I just wanted to kind of explain how our city court fits into the entire Arizona system. And so there are two levels of courts -- generally speaking, two levels of courts in Arizona, the trial courts and then the appeals courts. And in each of those, there's two levels. With the appeals courts, there's the Court of Appeals, and then you go to the Supreme Court. And then with the trial courts, there's a general jurisdiction courts, and then there's limited jurisdiction courts. And limited jurisdiction courts are just as it says, limited to what they can hear, what kind of cases they can hear. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 16 of 31 And that's basically what jurisdiction is, what kind of cases you can hear. With the limited jurisdiction courts, we are limited in this city to only hearing criminal misdemeanor cases, and those are disorderly conduct -- these are examples -- disorderly conduct, shoplifting, drug paraphernalia. And with misdemeanors, you can never send anybody to prison; you can send them to jail. And that's the distinction. With the general jurisdiction, court can hear felonies, and they can also hear misdemeanors. They can hear anything; they're general. With those guys, they can send them to prison. Now, another limited jurisdiction court -- well, before I go on to that, we hear criminal misdemeanors, civil -- we don't hear civil -- civil traffic, and we hear orders of protections and city code violations, and that's what we're limited to. With the other -- there's two limited jurisdiction courts. There's the justice courts and the city court. The justice court is the one down the way with Pep Guzman as the judge. And any justice court in the state, they can hear everything we hear -- except city code violations, they don't hear. But they hear criminal traffic, civil traffic, criminal misdemeanors. And they also have two things that we don't have, which is evictions; we don't handle evictions. And they also handle civil lawsuits that are of small amount. If they're a large amount, they go to Superior Court. So that's the levels of court. We are the limited jurisdiction court. Now, a lot of times people will say the -- you know, they say the prestige goes from the top court down to the bottom. You have the Supreme Court, then the Court of Appeals, Superior Court, and then a city court. But in reality, the court that the general public is exposed to is the limited jurisdiction courts, the city court and the justice courts, because we are really the face of the courts to the public because in the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, you hardly ever get citizens there. You have just attorneys arguing. And sometimes, it's just the judges or justices in their chambers reading briefs and making their decisions, and they don't really mess with the public. And you can see that by the numbers. In the Supreme Court, there's about 1,000 cases filed every year. In the Court of Appeals, 3,000 cases. In the Superior Court, which is another trial court, 200,000 cases. And then, get this, because it's 1,000; 2,000; 200,000 CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 17 of 31 limited jurisdiction courts statewide, 1.5 million cases. So those are the cases that are where you're going to get the general public, and you get people that are not bad people either. You're getting civil trial -- you know, somebody speeding, somebody needing an order of protection. So our courts are very important because, like I say, they are the face of the court system and how people view the court system. Now, to go into specific tonight, I'm just going to talk about civil traffic and how we run that here in our court. There are two types of civil traffic. There's the moving violations and the nonmoving violations. The moving violations are the speeding, running a red light, changing lanes incorrectly, and those are usually resolved with a fine. But they'll have three choices when they come to court. One, you can pay a fine and admit to the violation, and if you need monthly payments, we set up a monthly payment plan for you. Two, you can go to a hearing, which is like a trial. The officer comes in, you come in, you bring any witnesses, they bring any witnesses. We have the hearing, and it's decided. No lawyers are allowed on the side of -- well, the lawyer has chosen not to be there on the side of the police. But lawyers are allowed on the other side, and we have the hearing. The third choice is that you go to traffic school; that will dismiss the ticket. You don't get any points, doesn't affect your insurance. Nothing's reported, so that's a good choice to make. But you still have the choice of going to trial. But if you lose the trial, you don't get defensive driving. You don't get the traffic school. You have to pay the fine. Then we have nonmoving violations. Nonmoving violations are no insurance or registration (audio interference). For the most part, don't have insurance. (Audio interference). You can have -- say, you come in; I will give you two weeks to go get insurance policy. (Audio interference). That's moved a lot better. Same with registrations. (Audio interference). I did read a solution. Harold Mackey (ph.), he's the head of (audio interference) swimming with sharks. He CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 18 of 31 writes every month -- or every week, every Monday. Yes, I am a complete nerd. [LAUGHTER] LAMB: (Audio interference). But anyway, I digressed. And so with Harold Mackey, he's described a town that had a speeding problem, and they tried everything. They put up a sign that said, please drive carefully; that didn't work. Please slow down; that didn't work. Children at play, slow down; that didn't work. Then they put up a sign that said nudist colony up front, down the road, and that one worked. People started slowing down. So if we ever get a speeding problem, keep that in the back of your mind. So I will now turn it back over to the Mayor Rodriguez, for any -- or for the rest of your meeting. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. Well, first of all, thank you. I won't let anybody know where the nudist colony is in Tolleson, but if it works to slow cars down, then I definitely think we should be putting up signs pretty soon here. That being said, the court system here in Tolleson is a little different. The judge works for us in the sense that he's a contracted employee, but we really don't have jurisdiction as an organization over what he does. He reports to the greater power, which is the State. However, I always measure my complaints or my input based on community complaints. And if any of you guys have ever been pulled over or have had a situation where you end up in court, you know, it's really easy to complain because it was a -- probably not such a positive experience. And I can tell you -- and I can't speak on behalf of the council -- but I have received absolutely no complaints from our residents about their treatment by the police, about their treatment by our court systems, or the outcomes that they've had to comply with, whether it was a fine or whether it was having to go get insurance, or whatever have you. So whatever you're doing is working for the people that we serve. As long as it's working for them, then, Judge, it's working for me. So thank you for everything you do. You have a team. It's not just you. You have some good people that work with you over there. I can only ask you to continue to do the great work that you do on behalf of our CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 19 of 31 people. Thank you for your presentation, and I will open it up to council. LAMB: Let me just say you're right about the team we have. They've been there so long, and they're so efficient that, when we have orders of protection -- as I mentioned last time I was with you guys, we get them from all over. And that's the one thing where you can come from a different city and come to our court and get an order of protection. So people that work here -- and we have a lot of people that work here that don't live here -- they come at their lunch hour or anytime they have a break and get an order of protection. And one of the things that's happened is that our city is so efficient -- and it's the clerks, not me -- but the clerks are so efficient at getting things done here that people actually come from other courts and say, they're so slow, we're coming over here. So sometimes. It doesn't pay to be good because we don't get paid for order of protections. We can't charge for those, but we get a lot of people from outside of the U.S. and for that. But -- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Councilman? GAMEZ: Judge, how long have you been (indiscernible)? LAMB: I've been with you guys seven years. But I've been a judge for 30 now, so it's been a long time. I was on the Superior Court bench before, which was handling -- and I didn't mention this, but they handle divorces, which it's nice not to be handling, and guardianships, probate. Those type of things are handled by those courts, but -- GAMEZ: Thank you. LAMB: All right. Thank you. Okay. No -- no. DAVIS: I'll let you go soon. Just keep up the good work. I think, like Mayor said, I never, ever hear complaints about the court, so obviously, you're doing a good job because we'd be hearing about it for sure. So yeah. So -- LAMB: So yeah, it's kind of like trying to be a referee. You don't want to be noticed. You just want to blend in and not having complaints. That's great to hear because that's what our job is, just to kind of referee things. DAVIS: Pretty sure you don't blend in. You're taller than probably 90 percent of our CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 20 of 31 population, but that's okay. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: So Wendy, you mentioned something about compensation, and I'm not really sure 100 percent how that works with our judge. LAMB: Well, let me say this because I come up for reappointment every three years. And at that time, I've usually asked -- and hopefully continue to be reappointed -- but I ask for the nine percent, which is three percent per year. But they were saying that it might be better to do three percent each year and not ask for the big nine the one time. But I'm good with whatever you guys want to do. I mean, if you want to do three percent each year or nine at the end of the three years. JACKSON: Good evening. Good evening, Mr. Mayor and members of council. I believe last year you passed an addendum to the agreements that it would mirror similar to what we do for the employees, like the COLA increases, et cetera. And per code, his position would need a report out to you at least annually, and so that's what this covers for our code. But in terms of, like, performance increase or something like that, if you would like to know what it would be based on performance, I can give you that as well to mirror the other employees. GAMEZ: (Audio interference). JACKSON: Uh-huh. GAMEZ: But again (audio interference). MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Go ahead. JACKSON: Mayor, I think -- yeah, yeah. Mayor and council, the agenda is really for a report. So I think you can have a general discussion about compensation issues, but we would have to bring back a second amendment to the contract because -- you know, if you wanted to formally do something just so -- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: This is a great starting place. You all start thinking about it, maybe get some direction from staff as we move closer to it, and we'll revisit when city management puts it back on the agenda. Yes, Reyes? REYES: Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of council. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 21 of 31 There really wouldn't be a need to put it back on the agenda because council already approved the last contract that awards the judge compensation in the same form as every other employee, so the decision has already been made. What Wendy mentioned is that this report is required by code, I believe, and the contract. So it's simply a report. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: You're kind of on an island on your own. And so a lot of times, you know, we know you're there, but we don't really see you like we see everybody else. And plus, you're a handsome gentleman, so coming by and saying hi is a good thing. LAMB: I will tell you to thank -- you know, you mentioned about not overseeing our court, and I'll just tell you we do get oversight because we just had the Supreme Court sent three people for a whole week to go through all our cases, go through everything that's happening, and they're going to give a report in a few months. So I'll report back to you next time about how we did, but they said that we did well. So -- UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Nice. Good. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: That's really good. Did you have a question, Attorney Paladini? PALADINI: Yeah, Mayor and council. So right now, the judge has a contract that has a one -- amendment number one, which I believe was done last year -- last May. Which one of the changes was made to give the judge COLA adjustments to the salary. But if you wanted to do -- just to be clear, if you wanted to do a merit adjustment on top of that, then we would have to bring back amendment number two to the contract to change the salary number. So -- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I personally -- I'm okay with the COLA, and I'm okay with the adjustment that we do every year for every employee. It creates uniformity and fairness across the board in my opinion. But again, I'm only one of seven. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I agree with that as well. So we probably need to readjust back in. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: And right now, the contract reads that way. PALADINI: Right now, the contract reads that -- it provides for the judge's salary. And CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 22 of 31 then it says it's adjusted from time to time in the same manner or percentage as the mayor and council may establish for all employees of the city if expressly approved by the mayor and council. And then it goes on -- the amendment from May adds to the salary a COLA adjustment. But if you want to adjust sort of the base salary, then my recommendation would be -- you know, and as the judge said, if he's getting an adjustment, the nine percent every three years, I think he'd be better off if you did three percent a year because it compounds. So if you wanted to do that, we could bring back a contract amendment that adjusts the number -- whatever his base salary is because I don't -- I don't know if it was adjusted by COLA by a three percent, if that's what you want to do. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I want to do -- I want to -- Wendy, go ahead. JACKSON: To the elements I would like to add, Mr. Mayor, members of council, we do have a salary range. And then for our performance measures for employees, we have two ratings: Either you're leading, or you're meeting the performance expectations. So I would hope that, whenever you decide what the salary is going to be, if you're going based on what the employees get, then I would know what that score is so I know what to calculate. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Attorney Paladini, you made a really good point, and I want to thank you for that. And that is that what's been agendized today is a presentation about the city courts, and we've had that. Judge, thank you very much. I think we as staff and our attorney to get together and have a deeper discussion about what composition looks like and then come back to council and present it to us at a later date. But for today, it was really about the presentation, and you did an amazing job. LAMB: Thank you. I'm good any way you choose. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Okay. And I will take any last comments from council. ERIVES: I just wanted to say thank you for explaining the process. I'm not an expert, so when I'm taking notes and I'm listening -- because you said, what's the difference between the courts and all that, I feel like you always give us a lesson, and I appreciate CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 23 of 31 that because I'm not an expert at it in any regards. And if I were to get a traffic, I would be panicked, and I wouldn't know what to do. And I do remember you had mentioned when you come to court, this is the biggest case of our life, right? If I were to walk in because I had traffic -- and that you mentioned that you're the eye of the public, the public gets to see this. This is your experience. This would be my experience in the court system. So thank you for teaching us as you were presenting because I find, with information, I have more knowledge, and it's a little less stressful. Thank you. LAMB: I'm glad you're not an expert ERIVES: I know. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Anybody else? Judge, thank you, sir. ERIVES: Thank you. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Okay. With that, we're going to move on to Mayor and City Manager's report to current events. I have two things, Reyes, that I'm going to start off with. First of all, I want to thank Vice Mayor Davis here and staff. This morning, we had a grand opening for the Del Sol Jewelry, which is another retailer here in our community. So Jimmy, do you want to say a couple words about your experience this morning? And first of all, thank you for doing that on my behalf. I wasn't available, and so you stepped up. Not the first time. Thank you. DAVIS: Had a busy morning wearing the mayor hat this morning, but it was a great experience. I had a lot of families show up. We had city staff show up and public safety. And they've been in existence for over 40 years. It's a family business, so this is the niece and her husband who opened up this particular location. And they live here in Tolleson. And even their kids went to high school and stuff here, so they're really rooted in this community. I think they've lived here for, like, 15 years or something like -- how many was it -- ERIVES: 13 -- CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 24 of 31 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: 13 years. DAVIS: -- 13 years. I'm making up numbers now. But no, they were a wonderful family, and they have a wonderful product and jewelry and watch repairs and batteries. It's good to know if you need to get your, you know, battery changed on your watch or if you still wear something like that. So yeah. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: But we started this a while back in our economic development. Folks have really quarterbacked this. When we have a new business enter Tolleson -- traditionally, it's been an eatery of some sort -- we have a grand opening. We celebrate them coming on to our family and deciding to open up a business in Tolleson. It's a big deal for us. It's a big impact to our arms when it comes to sales tax revenue. And it's also options for our residents. You know, we have some of the best Mexican food, I've been told, in the entire state. But if you want a burger, we got burger joints. If you want a good quality cup of coffee, we have cups of coffee. You know, we have a variety of different foods that you can eat now. If you want Italian, we got Roma's. Even some of our former Mexican restaurants are rebranding in other areas. So it's a -- I think somewhat of a renaissance, and I think it's a beautiful thing. And we need to continue to celebrate that. And the fact that today was a jewelry is a little bit off the eatery side, but hey, they're all welcomed. Everybody's welcome here in Tolleson. And so Jimmy, thank you very much for helping out with that. DAVIS: It was really neat too. Just one more thing that I want to mention -- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: For the record, Jimmy does not get a discount at the jewelry store for doing that. DAVIS: I didn't. For the record, I did mention that it is Valentine's Week, so -- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Oh, it is. DAVIS: -- if you need to buy jewelry for anyone, you can go there and get that. But I also included the fact that I don't have anyone to buy jewelry for, which is okay. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Don't tell my wife. DAVIS: But I was going to say that the new coffee shop next door, the Cafecito -- CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 25 of 31 MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. DAVIS: -- coffee shop, they came, and they brought flowers to the new owners to congratulate them. So it was nice to see, you know, that community. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: And they're also locals, right? DAVIS: Yeah, they are Tolleson graduates as well. Yeah. So it was amazing to see just that camaraderie and, you know, unity amongst businesses in our locality. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Just keep growing our family. On a similar note, I want to thank two other groups of people. Number one is I want to thank our police department. As some of you may or may not know, a couple of weeks ago -- I think last week maybe or two weeks ago, we had a walkout from the high school. A bunch of our kids -- I don't know exactly how many, but I would probably guess about 500 of our high school kids walked out of the high school in protest of what's going on at the national level when it comes to ICE and all that other jazz. I won't get too much into that. But what is very important to our community is, number one, that our kids have the right to be heard, and if they want to go out there and protest, we should do everything that we can in our power as an organization to keep them safe while doing so. And so they left the high school, and I believe they decided to come here to City Hall. But along the way, we had police officers that were making sure that they stayed on the sidewalk, that they stayed safe, that nobody was messing with them because you're always going to have some crazies out there. And so everything from -- not my knowledge, there was no major incident. Every kid got home safe. They were able to say their piece. And so I wanted to publicly acknowledge the efforts of our police department in collaboration with the high school and, again, report that, even though these things are happening throughout the country, here in our backyard, our kids safety is always going to take our paramount approach in the way we conduct ourselves, and the tip of that spear is our police department. And you guys did an amazing job. So thank you. And thanks to all the officers. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 26 of 31 And the last thing I have -- and then, Reyes, I promise I'll turn it over to you -- is this last weekend, we have a very good partner that we've had for, I would say, the better part of two decades. And that's the Tohono O'odham Indian community. They have a reservation down south. It's in Sells, Arizona, outside of South Tucson, not Tucson. But every year, we go down there. They've been a huge supporter of our community. Every year, I think by law, every gaming community has to give 12 percent of their winnings back to local communities. And we have been the recipients of the Tohono O'odham grant application for many years, and they've been very gracious, and we're very thankful. A lot of our facade projects have been sponsored by that, and I know they've helped us out with our fire department before. I think they might have helped us outfit one of the -- a fire truck, I believe. I may be getting the wrong reservation, but point being is that they've been a big supporter of Tolleson. So this last weekend, Chief Good quarterbacked this effort. I know a lot of public affairs staff helped out with grabbing some giveaways. They had this really cool rodeo. And they have one drive, and I think it's probably at most two miles. But to put it in perspective, we were prepared for 1,500 people, okay? Now, if you're not familiar with Sells, it's like you leave you leave the big city, right? And you go to a very small city called Tucson, and then you leave that very small city called Tucson and go to an even smaller city called Sells way out in the middle -- on the way -- on the way, heading what's that city that you hit on the way to -- UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Ajo. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: -- on your way to Ajo. So it's between Ajo and South Tucson. So it's kind of in the middle of nowhere, right? Except that if you live there, it's Sells. So we show up -- and Adolfo went with me, so muchas gracias. I know we had some other folks that wanted to go, and unfortunately, last minute, they couldn't. And we jumped out, and we walked that street, and we gave out a Tolleson bag with some nice sunglasses to every person in the parade until we ran out. We had 1,500 bags, and we ran out. How many people do you think were still out there? CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 27 of 31 GAMEZ: You know what? I thought there was a hell of a lot more people than last year. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. GAMEZ: I mean, there was so many people. And I tell you what, they were very grateful -- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yeah -- GAMEZ: -- for what we were doing. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: -- absolutely. GAMEZ: They thanked us like you wouldn't believe. A lot of them knew where Tolleson was at. They thanked us for the support, and it was amazing to me that they knew that. And you can feel how genuine they were in they're expressing their thanks. And it was consistent, at least on my side of the road. Juan was on the other side. And we're going -- I think it was more, like, three miles as opposed to two miles, but it felt like to me -- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: It was a good exercise. We got our steps in -- we got our steps in. GAMEZ: And it was a -- it was an experience. And those people really loved us being there. And I think that we have a great relationship with the TO. And they're there to help us, and we're here to help them. And I think it was fantastic. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: The chairman and the vice chair were both there. GAMEZ: Yeah. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: We got an opportunity to thank them for their contributions to our city, and we were there to return the favor. I know PepsiCo, Gatorade, donated a pallet of -- two pallets of Gatorade, and that went to -- we have a senior program here. They call it their elders. So it's kind of like where their senior citizens go to participate in the rodeo. And so all around it was a really good event. And I think we accomplished our goal, which was to get acknowledgment of our contributions back to them as they have contributed to us and, you know, basically redefine a great relationship and keep it going to the future. So Chief Good, thank you for everything you've done. I know this is, like, the third or CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 28 of 31 fourth year that you've taken us down there. Pilar, you and your staff, Mario, I know you guys put all the bags together. That was awesome. Just letting you guys know next year, we're probably going to need more. Go ahead, councilman. GAMEZ: I think that -- I mean, we talked about it. I think next year, I think it'd be a great idea if we include the teen council to help us, especially on dispersing those bags. They can do -- what we did in two hours, they'd probably do it in half an hour. I mean, we need the youth out there. And it was tough. It's tough because there was just a lot of people, and there's only two of us at one time on each side -- one of us on each side. Juan was lucky to get somebody to help him. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Two people. GAMEZ: And I was by myself. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: (Indiscernible) helped me with the bags. GAMEZ: And yeah, your son was an amazing, amazing worker. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: He was hustling. GAMEZ: I think we should give him a big round of applause because, I'm telling you, that kid is awesome. Juan is -- Julian (ph.), you did a great job. He really did. He really did. And anyway, it was an experience that we'll continue experiencing every year. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I will tell you that a lot of cities don't do these types of things. They get a grant, or they get some kind of an award. And it's an immediate thank you. Maybe send them a letter, a email (foreign language spoken). You know, that's it. But I think one thing we do very well here in Tolleson is we acknowledge our friends, and we honor our friendships with them. GAMEZ: That's correct. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: And we continue to invest and make that friendship stronger as we move forward. The federal government, we have some really good advocates there. Some of the state gaming communities, we have good relationships there, and we're continuing to grow our relationships, without a doubt, so. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 29 of 31 But anyways thank you all, everybody involved. That was really, really good. And you're right, a council member will be there next year with our walking shoes and getting our steps in. So City Manager? I'm sorry. I can't -- REYES: Yes, sorry. Mayor, members of council, February 26th at 5 p.m. is Tolleson Talks. It's at Oaxaqueno restaurant. We're going to have a couple of -- we're going to have SBA, the Small Business Association there. So if anybody in the community wants to learn how to open a business or just get some resources from them, they're a great contact. And then we'll also have Arizona at Works. Anyone looking for employment or resources to find employment, they're a great contact as well. Plus, we'll have Dress for Success, which have been out here for our job fairs; they're a nonprofit. Individuals that are looking for jobs and may not have a nice dress or a nice suit or anything for an interview or that kind of thing, they you can go into their mobile unit, try them on. If they like it, they give it to you. Even in our job fair, we've had one individual, they gave her a couple of outfits for her first week of work when she was employed with one of our businesses here in Tolleson. So that's February 26th at 5 p.m., Oaxaqueno. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Oaxaqueno. Okay. So just a quick overview. A while back -- I think it was last year, maybe a couple of years before that -- we started this thing called Tolleson Talks, and it's council's approach to going out to the community. You know, it's great that you guys are here, by the way. But you know, an open-door policy doesn't mean you walk in our door. Sometimes, it's okay for us to walk out, right, into the community. So we pick a different restaurant -- so we have the restaurant. I'll get some marketing out there for them. But we invite the community to come out, and we have just open conversations about how the city is doing, how can we make our community better, ideas on development for the future. And every meeting has some speakers that highlight different parts of our organization CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 30 of 31 and the service that they offer the residents. And then, sometimes, some nonprofits are associated with the city as well as the one on the 26th is going to have. So Jason, thank you to your staff, public affairs, for everything you guys do to make those events very successful. I think our population has been going up every meeting. I think last one is maybe up to, like, 60 people. And so just more food and more conversation, and everybody has a really good time. The biggest thing is we get to say hi to our community and spend a good quality hour or so just hanging out with them. I think Reyes was there last time, too. Yes, good job, Reyes. And so it's all of us. It's not just council, but also staff. So with that, I know you had something else you wanted to add. DAVIS: I prepared a statement, so you know what that means. So I just wanted to briefly share that I have been appointed this week to the National League of Cities Race Equity and Leadership Council for 2026, which is a direct appointment from the president of the National League of Cities. Earlier tonight, we proclaimed Black History Month, which is a reminder of why this work matters. And Tolleson representation isn't just something we talk about; it's how we govern. Our top three leadership roles are held by people of color, two of whom are women, and our entire city council is Latino. That representation builds trust and leads to better outcomes for our residents. Through this role, along with my service with NLC's Hispanic Elected Local Officials Constituency Group Board and the Human Development Federal Advocacy Committee, I'm proud to represent Tolleson nationally while bringing back ideas and best practices that strengthen our community. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Awesome. And I'd like to -- I'd like to add that Jimmy just finished his fifth year on council. I think he's got a certificate he should show off somewhere in here. Make it official. I also have ideas, apparently, and I think we had a ceremony this week for all of our city employees. So congratulate all the awardees as well. I heard it was a pretty good room. Is Reyes up to 40 years yet? Six more? All right. Six more. It better be a big certificate. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 10, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 31 of 31 So folks, here's the good part. Yes sir? I started over, too. So here's the good part of the -- the good and not so good part. The next part of our agenda is to convene into executive session, which pretty much means that we have to close the doors and members of the public get to go home and get some rest. We have to be here a little bit longer, but that's where we're going. But thank you all for coming out. We really appreciate it. ERIVES: Thank you, thank you, thank you -- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: You guys have a wonderful night. ERIVES: -- thank you, thank you. GAMEZ: Yeah, adios. APPROVED: ____________________________________ JUAN F. RODRIGUEZ, MAYOR ATTEST: ____________________________________ CRYSTAL ZAMORA, CITY CLERK CERTIFICATION I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THE FOREGOING MINUTES ARE A TRUE AND CORRECT COPY OF THE MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF TOLLESON, ARIZONA, HELD ON FEBRUARY 10, 2026. I FURTHER CERTIFY THAT THE MEETING WAS DULY CALLED AND HELD, AND THAT A QUORUM WAS PRESENT. ____________________________________ CRYSTAL ZAMORA, CITY CLERK