01 27 26 City Council Meeting Minutes
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1 CITY OF TOLLESON 9055 W. Van Buren St., Tolleson, AZ 85353 • (623) 936-7111 • TTY users, dial 711 for Relay • www.tolleson.az.gov TOLLESON CITY COUNCIL ACTION MINUTES TOLLESON CIVIC CENTER 9055 WEST VAN BUREN STREET, TOLLESON, AZ 85353 ZOOM WEBINAR ID: 840 6967 9194 TUESDAY, JANUARY 27, 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 City Attorney Pierce, and the Pledge of Allegiance was led by Council Member Erives. C. ROLL CALL City Council: Mayor Juan Rodriguez, Vice Mayor Jimmy Davis, Council Member Christine Chavira, Council Member Clorinda Erives, Council Member Adolfo Gámez, and Council Member Linda Laborin (arrived at 6:21 PM). Council Member Cruzita Mendoza was absent. Department Directors: City Manager Reyes Medrano Jr., Deputy City Manager/Employee Resources Director Wendy Jackson, Chief Financial Officer Kevin Artz, Deputy City Clerk Citlaly Salas, Development Services Director Jason Earp, Field Operations/Parks & Recreation Director Randy Babchuk, Fire Chief Michael Young, and Library Director Mandy Carrico. City Representative: City Attorney Justin Pierce 2 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 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. City of Tolleson Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for the period of July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025 – Baker Tilly G. BUSINESS FROM THE FLOOR – PUBLIC HEARINGS AND ACTION ITEMS H. CONSENT AGENDA – ACTION ITEMS 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 13, 2026. (City Clerk Department) 2. Approve Claims and Bills Report for the period of January 7, 2026 to January 20, 2026. (Finance Department) 3. Adopt Resolution No. 2630 of the Mayor and Council of the City of Tolleson, Arizona, approving an Intergovernmental Agreement between the City of Phoenix, the City of Tolleson, Maricopa County, and the Arizona Department of Transportation for the installation, maintenance, and operation of fiber infrastructure along McDowell Road from 83rd Avenue to 91st Avenue and along 91st Avenue from McDowell Road to 3 Lower Buckeye Road, and authorizing the Mayor to execute the Agreement. (Development Services Department) 4. Approve the Cooperative Purchasing Agreement between the City of Tolleson and Advanced Security Technologies LLC for the purchase of security equipment and related services, and authorize the City Manager to execute and deliver said Agreement. The City shall pay the Contractor an annual aggregate amount not to exceed $200,000 per fiscal year for products and services. This Agreement shall be effective upon execution and shall remain in full force and effect until October 20, 2028. (Emergency Preparedness Department) 5. Approve the Third Amendment to the Cooperative Purchasing Agreement between the City of Tolleson and West Yost & Associates, Inc. for program management and implementation services related to operationalizing the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (“SCADA”) Master Plan, increasing the annual compensation to an amount not to exceed $350,000 per fiscal year, and authorize the City Manager to execute and deliver said Amendment. The Agreement shall remain in full force and effect through April 20, 2027. (Utilities Department) 6. Approve the Second Amendment to the Cooperative Purchasing Agreement between the City of Tolleson and WACO, LLC for emergency pipeline repair services, increasing the annual not-to-exceed amount to $350,000, and authorize the City Manager to execute the Amendment. (Utilities Department) 7. Approve the Chemical Purchase Agreement between the City of Tolleson and Hill Brothers Chemical Company for the purchase of liquid chlorine for the Wastewater Treatment Plant, in an amount not to exceed $250,000 per fiscal year, and authorize the City Manager to execute the Agreement. (Utilities Department) 8. Adopt Resolution No. 2631 of the Mayor and Council of the City of Tolleson, Arizona, approving an Intergovernmental Agreement between the City of Tolleson and the City of Goodyear for the acceptance and management of collection system waste, authorizing the City Manager to execute the Agreement, and providing for an initial term of one year with the option to extend by mutual written agreement. (Utilities Department) Council Member Gámez moved to approve Consent Agenda items 1. through 8.; the motion was seconded by Vice Mayor Davis. The motion carried 6 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 4 I. REGULAR AGENDA – ACTION ITEMS J. WORK STUDY AND PRESENTATIONS – FOR DISCUSSION 1. City of Tolleson Permanent Base Adjustment – Kevin Artz, Chief Financial Officer 2. Annual Review of the City of Tolleson Code of Conduct for Elected and Appointed Officials – Justin Pierce, City Attorney K. MAYOR AND CITY MANAGER’S REPORT OF CURRENT EVENTS – FOR DISCUSSION 1. Community Events Update – Randy Babchuk, Field Operations/Parks & Recreation Director L. ADJOURNMENT Council Member Gámez moved to adjourn the Regular City Council Meeting at 6:56 PM; the motion was seconded by Vice Mayor Davis. The motion carried 6 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 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. 5 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 101816 1/9/2026 CHASSE BUILDING TEAM INC $2,241,410.09 101825 1/9/2026 HACH COMPANY $10,634.00 101831 1/9/2026 SOLENIS LLC $16,735.32 101842 1/15/2026 BAKER TILLY ADVISORY GROUP PARENT $10,000.00 101846 1/15/2026 CHASSE BUILDING TEAM INC $1,287,039.97 101855 1/15/2026 SOLENIS LLC $16,735.32 186607 1/8/2026 ARIZONA FIRE AND MEDICAL AUTHORITY $15,387.33 186608 1/8/2026 SAGUARO SUMMIT, LLC $44,806.61 186618 1/8/2026 MARICOPA COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE $23,860.47 186623 1/8/2026 SALT RIVER PROJECT $196,445.32 186659 1/14/2026 PRAGMATICA LLC $23,094.62 186669 1/14/2026 WESTERN ENVIRONMENTAL EQUIPMENT CO $26,748.84 186669 1/14/2026 WESTERN ENVIRONMENTAL EQUIPMENT CO $17,221.68 186607 1/8/2026 ARIZONA FIRE AND MEDICAL AUTHORITY $26,085.97 186607 1/8/2026 ARIZONA FIRE AND MEDICAL AUTHORITY $10,056.47 186605 1/8/2026 ADAPTIVE ARCHITECTS INC $12,600.00 101841 1/15/2026 AZ PUBLIC SAFETY RETIREMENT, POLICE $35,336.00 101840 1/15/2026 AZ PUBLIC SAFETY PERSONNEL RETIREMENT SYSTEM $42,426.20 101839 1/15/2026 AZ MUNI RISK RETENTION POOL-WC FUND $17,520.25 101839 1/15/2026 AZ MUNI RISK RETENTION POOL-WC FUND $154,682.36 City of Tolleson Checks Recorded Check Dates: January 7, 2026 to January 20, 2026 PAYMENTS OVER $10,000 CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 1 of 28 Post-Production File City of Tolleson City Council Meeting Minutes January 27, 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 JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 2 of 28 MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Okay. Good evening, everyone. I am Mayor Juan F. Rodriguez. Today is January 27th, and I would like to call the City Council meeting to order. We're going to begin with our invocation, our Pledge of Allegiance, so our city attorney will lead us in the invocation. And then Councilmember Rodriguez will lead us in the pledge this evening. Please stand. PIERCE: Our beloved father who art in heaven, we're grateful for the opportunity to gather again. And we're grateful for this council. We're grateful for the opportunity to be in a free country. And we pray that thy spirit would guide us and direct us in all things. Please protect those that protect us, and help this council make decisions that will be wise and thoughtful. And we pray for these favors and blessings in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ALL: Amen. ERIVES: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: City Clerk, please let the record reflect that council members are all present, with the exception of Councilmember Laborin, Vice Mayor Jimmy Davis, and then, of course, Councilmember Mendoza are absent today. Should I say the people that were here, or the people that are not? GAMEZ: Either way. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Okay. Now is the final call to submit speaker requests 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 of three items. One, to respond to criticism; two, directing staff to review the matter; or three, asking that the matter be put on a future agenda item. City Clerk, do we have any speaker request forms at this time? Okay. We're going to move on to item E, which is call to the public. SALAS: No, Mayor, we don't. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Have scheduled public appearances and proclamations for CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 3 of 28 discussion. City of Tolleson, annual comprehensive financial report, for period July 1st, 2024 through June 30th, 2025. I'm going to call up Kylie (sic) Lewis. Is she on Zoom? Okay. Can you hear me? SALAS: Uh-huh. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yes we can. This Kylie (sic)? LEWIS: Okay. This is Cailee, yes. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Cailee, okay. I was -- LEWIS: I just need to be able to share my screen, or -- yeah. That works. You have it available? MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, it's up and running, and we appreciate your patience. I know last week we were having some technical difficulties, so we had to push you to this week. So thank you for your ability to move your schedule. LEWIS: Absolutely. No problem. All right. We can go to the next slide, since I can't change it. All right. So we have -- my name is Cailee Lewis. I'm from Baker Tilly. I'm a senior manager, and I work directly with the City of Tolleson on their annual audit, overseeing the whole process. So this year, we have completed the audit of the financial statements for the city for the year ended June 30th, 2025. And we have issued our reports, dated December 17th, 2025. Listed here are three of the four reports that we have issued. The first one is the financial statement audit report, also your independent auditor's report. And we have an unmodified opinion, or a clean opinion. The next report was the government auditing standards compliance report, also known as the book report. And in that report, we had no instances of non-compliance or other matters to report, and no identified material weaknesses. The third report was the federal grant single audit report. Our major program was the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, also known as ARPA, and we had no findings to report there, as well. So as your independent auditor, our responsibilities include planning and performing CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 4 of 28 the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the basic financial statements are free from material misstatement. And reasonable assurance is defined as a high level of assurance, but not an absolute level of assurance. We assess the risk of material misstatement of the basic financial statements, whether due to fraud or error, which includes a consideration of the city's internal control over financial reporting. We performed and customized our procedures based on our risk assessment. We evaluated the appropriateness of the accounting policies used, and the reasonableness -- sorry. Evaluated the appropriateness of accounting policies used in the reasonableness of the significant accounting estimates made by management. We formed and expressed an opinion based on our audit about whether the basic financial statements prepared by management with the oversight of those charged with governance are free from material misstatement, presented fairly in all material respects, in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. And we also performed tests related to the compliance with certain provisions, laws, regulations, contracts, and grants, as required by government auditing standards. Next slide. We are also required to communicate any significant matters related to our audit that are relevant to the responsibility of those charged with governance, which included internal control matters, which we, again, tested various controls and we have no reportable findings. The -- in found in note one of the financial statements are the qualitative aspects of the city's accounting practices, including policies, accounting estimates, and the financial statement disclosures. All significant and unusual transactions have been audited with no reportable issues. We encountered no significant difficulties. We had no disagreements with management, and there were none -- no circumstances that affected the form and content of the auditor's report came to our attention. We are not aware of any audit consultations outside of the engagement team. We had no misstatements identified, and no other audit findings or issues to report. CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 5 of 28 Next slide. In some cases, management may decide to consult with other accountants about auditing and accounting matters, and we are not aware of any such consultations. We did not identify any noncompliance with laws and regulations during the audit. We did not identify any instances of known or suspected fraud during our audit. And for going concern, we are required by professional standards to communicate to those charged with governance certain matters relating to the evaluation of the city's ability to continue as a going concern for a reasonable period of time, but no less than 12 months from the date of the basic financial statements, including the effects of the basic financial statements and the adequacy of the related disclosures in the effects of the auditor's report. And I'm happy to report that no such matters or conditions have come to our attention. We are also not aware of any significant findings or issues arising in regards to related parties. Baker Tilly performed some non-attest services, which included the financial statement preparation and some journal entry, adjusting journal entries, that affect the financial statements, which included the GASB 68 pension and journal pension journal entries, as well as the GASB 34 conversion entries. We also, lastly, assisted with preparation of the data collection form. None of these audit -- none of these on a test services constitute an audit under generally accepted auditing standards, including government auditing standards. Next. So the fourth report that we issued for the city was the expenditure limitation report. And I'm happy to report that the City was under their home rule expenditure limitation by 117.3 million. This -- there's an error in this one right in the first sentence there. But the voter approved expenditure limitation is 198 million. The city expenditures subject to the limitation was 80,000,000.7, which brought you to 117.3 under that limitation. This is a summary of the general fund budget to actuals. So in this table, and then on the financial statements, you'll see that the fund balance in the general fund increased CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 6 of 28 by 25.6 million during the current fiscal year, which was primarily due to an increase in tax revenues as well as investment earnings. And then, actual revenues were $13.5 million more than what was budgeted for and expenditures were 13.4 million less than budget. This is a summary of the enterprise funds. And within the water fund, the operating expenses exceeded charges for services by 625,000, which led to a decrease in net position or equity of 587.9 thousand. In the wastewater and sewer fund, charges for services exceeded operating expenses by 1.8 million, which led to an increase in net position of 2.9 million. Sanitation. The charges for service also exceeded operating expenses by 2.2 thousand, which led to an increase in net position of 18,500 or 18 thousand, yeah, 500. And that is it for our presentation. And if anybody has any questions, I'm happy to answer. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. Reyes? MEDRANO: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. That's okay. Mr. Mayor, members of council, I want to congratulate Mr. Artz and his team on another clean audit. Thank Ms. Lewis for her comprehensive assessment. They're a great team to work with. And also to acknowledge that the City of Tolleson is in compliance with all Arizona state statutes, including 41-1494. Thank you. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I just want to piggyback off of that. You know, the annual budget is -- it's a monster, to put it simple. You know, everybody thinks it's just numbers, but it's not. It's actual money that has to be programed purposefully and intentionally for the benefit of our residents. And it takes somebody that's got immense skills in that world to be able to balance our budget, and to have absolutely no findings with every program that we offer our community is an amazing feat. And so Mr. Artz, thank you. Thanks to your team. I know there's other people on staff that have also contributed. They talked a little bit about the COVID money. I know George (ph.) had a lot to do with that, as well. So I think, as an organization, it's very, very important to me, it always has been, to CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 7 of 28 identify what an organization prioritizes based on how they spend their money and how they manage their money. And so I think we're -- as an organization, we're doing an exceptional job. It is very clear when you look at our books that our number one focus is to serve the people that we serve, and whether it's to programs or facilities, and that we have very professional staff that have made this organization also very professional. The days when Tolleson was known as -- what was that TV show? Mayberry. Those are behind us. I love Mayberry, too, but Tolleson's not Mayberry, it's Tolleson. And we definitely have a very professional amount of people here that get the job done. So I'm very proud of everybody. So I thank you for the presentation, but I equally thank staff for all the hard work on this effort. And I'll open up to council for any comments. GAMEZ: Well, Mr. Mayor, I agree with you 100 percent. I think that Mr. Artz is an artist. And so I congratulate you for being so thorough and professional. And that just makes us look a hell of a lot better than -- some people think that we shouldn't be looking that way, but we do. And I think you guys work hard, very hard, in all that you do. And again, you're just guys, we can go down the road there and everybody has a gift, talent for us., and I think that's -- we're using it. And I thank you and everybody that works here for us. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely. Yes, Councilmember Erives? ERIVES: Thank you. Mayor. I have not so much as a question with regards to the report or anything like that. I appreciate you explaining and the no findings and, again, for the entire team in finance working together on this. But my question is, what happens if there was a finding? Like, what is the -- what happens if there was something? What happens to a city that doesn't get such a great report like ours? Can you explain a little bit for that? ARTZ: Yes. Mayor, Councilmember Erives. So if there were -- there's different levels of CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 8 of 28 findings. So if there was a finding regarding one of our internal controls, then the auditors would typically give a letter of recommendation to the council saying that this control isn't adequate to protect the city's assets. ERIVES: Okay. ARTZ: And so it would be a written finding, and then we would have an opportunity to correct that. And then the next year, when we come back, if it would have been -- if it had been corrected, then you wouldn't see it as a finding anymore. ERIVES: Okay. Okay. So the news would know about that. We would know about that. It would be this letter that comes in? ARTZ: Yes. If there -- ERIVES: And they would give us time to fix it? ARTZ: Correct. So if there's any findings, it would be included in this presentation of what the finding was, and then our opportunity to correct that finding. ERIVES: And if you don't correct it after that first letter, that first year? ARTZ: Then they would have it in the following year's report as a finding and probably make the statement that it had not been corrected. ERIVES: Glad we're not going that direct. I'm just -- I was just wondering what would be happening, right? Where -- we know the good things that are happening, but what could possibly happen? And we don't want that to happen. So again, thank you for keeping us on this side of it. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: When you have so many findings that are not good, the general public starts to -- ERIVES: Lose trust, right? MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: -- (indiscernible). ERIVES: Right, right. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: And so this is very critical. And I did leave something out that I want to circle back. Pardon me. And there was a mention about increased sales tax revenue. And so the increased sales tax revenue versus our expenditures, and that the -- we're under our expenses by $117,000. And so I would be remiss -- I know I CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 9 of 28 talked about the accounting side of it, but I didn't talk about the business recruitment side. Jason and his team, you guys have done a tremendous job of recruiting really good companies to Tolleson, opening up business here and increasing sales tax revenue. So again, it is a team effort. Everybody has done an amazing job, and I call on the individuals in the room. But each one has a family of people that work daily hand in hand to get these things accomplished. So thank you all. Vice mayor? DAVIS: I think you used the right word there. Family. Right? It's very evident that our staff cares about our city, loves our city, and treats it like a family. And they take very good care of it. So thank you guys for all of your hard work across the board, in every department. Your hard work shows. Tolleson is always shining. Every time I'm in the community talking to people, everyone rants and raves about how wonderful it is to work with Tolleson or do business with Tolleson. So you guys do a fantastic job representing us. So thank you all. You should give yourselves a round of applause for the amazing work that you do. CHAVIRA: I'm sort of repeating what everyone's already said. Just thank you. Thank you all for the great job that you do. And this is wonderful news. And we're very fortunate to have all of you on our team, truly. Thank you. ARTZ: Mayor, members of council, I just, on behalf of our team, want to thank you all for your kind words. You can't repeat it enough. That's what drives every member of our team is your satisfaction and that of the community. So thank you. We appreciate it. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Cailee, thank you again for the report. And staff, thank you for this item. Is there anything else that needs to be reported on this matter? I don't think there is, huh? All right. Well, we'll put this one to rest. Thanks again and hopefully we'll see you again in a year, Ms. Cailee. CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 10 of 28 LEWIS: Thank you. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: You're welcome. Have a wonderful evening. We're going to move on to business from the floor. We don't have any public hearings or action items for tonight. Consent agenda, action items, I did see, pretty long list. I think we have a total of eight items for consideration this evening. If you've had an opportunity to review them, study them, and feel comfortable enough to make a motion, I will entertain that now. GAMEZ: So move now. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Okay. We have a motion to approve by Councilmember Gamez. We have a second by Vice Mayor Davis. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. ALL: Aye. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: All those opposed? Not hearing any. City Clerk, this motion passes unanimously. We're going to move on to regular agenda action items. We have none. So move on to J. Work study and presentation for discussion. We have one work study is -- actually, two. City of Tolleson permanent base adjustment. Discussion on that. And I'm going to send it over back to our chief financial officer, Artz. You have the floor, sir. ARTZ: Thank you. Mayor, Council. Staff is here tonight to have a discussion on permanent base adjustment, to talk about the expenditure limitation, in general, and then what some of our options are, and then what staff is recommending that we do moving forward. So a little bit of background. The Arizona Constitution and Arizona Revised Statutes do impose an expenditure limitation on every city, town, county in the State of Arizona. And they -- the way it works is the expenditure baseline is from 1979 to 1980. So whatever your budget was back in 1980, that's the baseline for the calculation. And then the State Economic Estimate -- the State Economic Estimates Commission CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 11 of 28 adjusted -- adjusts that limitation each year for population growth and a standard inflation factor. So what that means for us, our budget back in 1979 to '80 was a little over $966 million. Our population back then was 4,190. The population in 2025, when this was calculated, was 7,400. So you take the 7,400 divided by the 4,190, and you get an increase in our population of 76 percent that our population has increased since 1978. Then they also calculate the inflation growth. And so the inflation has increased 367 percent since 1980. So it just becomes a simple math exercise. You take the $966,000 times the population growth factor of 1.76 times the inflation factor of 3.6. And that would give us an expenditure limitation in 2026 to '27, of a little over $6.2 million. Our budget for fiscal year '26 is over $200 million. So you can see the big gap there between what our budget is and what our expenditure limitation is. So fortunately, when they adopted the expenditure limitation, they did put some options in there. One of the options is a home rule option. We've been on home rule since 1980. So that is a requirement that we go to the voters every four years and have it approved. And we've been doing that since 1980. Another option is the permanent base adjustment. And that's what we'll talk about here tonight a little bit more detail. And then there's also a couple of other funds that really don't apply to us or don't help us. There's a capital projects accumulation fund and then a one-time override. Those don't help us because we have an ongoing need to provide services and provide that in the budget. Those two items would just help if you needed it for one year. So they're really not a solution for us. There's also some expenditures that are excluded. Or there's certain revenues that are excluded from the expenditures. So anytime you issue bond proceeds, any interest income, any intergovernmental revenue. So if we get some federal grants, those don't go against our expenditure limitations, so we would be allowed to spend those even though it would be above our expenditure. So that's a calculation that we would have to perform and determine if we were still under our overall expenditure limitation. CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 12 of 28 So why doesn't the State impose limitation work here in Tolleson? Just going back and looking at that '79 to '80 budget, that's not the same level of service that our residents today are demanding. The level of services that we're providing back in 1980 and the levels of service that they expect today just aren't the same. And so back then, we had a volunteer fire department. And so obviously, we have a paid professional fire department now that wasn't included in the numbers. The regional wastewater treatment plant. So we're providing wastewater services for a lot larger population than just our community. Then we have new services, senior center, library, a new aquatic center. So none of those were factored into that '79 to '80. So that creates a big part of the funding gap. The expenditure limitation doesn't account for new revenue sources that we have, so those additional wastewater revenues, increases in our sales tax rates, and increase in the e-commerce revenue that we receive. And then, just the fact that we've become a bit of a regional shopping destination, and our revenues have grown faster than our population, so we need the ability to have an alternative expenditure limitation so that we can spend the revenues that we're receiving on services for our residents. So the first option is the home rule option. Again, the city's been on this and it's been in place for 40 years. It must be approved by the voters, and the approval is required every four years. And so we've done this since 1980. It's passed every time. There was a couple of times when it got a little bit tight and a little bit close. But we have been successful in doing the home rule every four years. One of the drawbacks of home rule is that you do have to go to the voters every four years, and there is that possibility that if it doesn't pass, then your service levels would have to be reset, and we would have to cut back on the services that we offer to our residents. So the permanent base adjustment option, what it does is it goes back and adjusts that 1979 to '80 expenditure base of $966,000. It's a one-time approval by the voters. And what I mean by that is, is once they approve that number, that is our new baseline. And we don't have to go back. That's not to say that we can't go back. So if, in 30 years, we CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 13 of 28 need to do another permanent base adjustment, we could do that 30, 40 years down the road. So one of the benefits is it reduces the election costs so we don't have to go to the voters every four years for this, and so there's a reduction of election costs. But the biggest thing is it provides stability to the service levels that we provide. So we don't have to worry about it not passing one year, and then trying to cut our budget to meet our expenditure limitations. So in this example, if we went back and used 35 million as our budget for 1979 to '80, you take the population factor and the inflation factor, that would give us an expenditure limitation today of $226 million. So that's just a rough calculation, just to get you close to what our current budget is. But we would go back and calculate and determine how much excess capacity we would want in there. So staff's recommendation. I just wanted to also just state the reason that we're recommending to do this now, is that home rule was adopted in '24, and it's up for election again in 2028. So we're recommending that we do a permanent base adjustment now in '26, and so if it doesn't pass for some reason, we would still be on home rule for two years. And then in '28, we could go back out for another home rule election. If it does pass, then we're on home rule for two more years, but then we don't have to do any more elections after 2026. So with that, staff is just recommending that council provide direction, if you want us to move forward with an election to take the permanent base adjustment to the residents of the city. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Well, I have a couple of thoughts. Number one -- and most of you were here when it happened -- home rule is pretty scary because it has to pass in order for us to be able to spend the money that we earn here in Tolleson. If it doesn't pass, and we got to go back to that 1980 figure, which means the City would not be what it is -- anywhere near what it is right now. I mean, that figure, compared to how much money we make every year is -- there's a huge -- I mean, Reyes might be the only employee that we have left. Kevin, yeah, well, whoever would be, whatever the case is, we don't want to go there. And we did have CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 14 of 28 one year, and I can't remember when it was, but we had a pretty good scare where home rule looked like it may or may not pass. Yeah, I think it passed by two votes. GAMEZ: Two votes. CHAVIRA: Two votes? MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: So this is -- two votes, yeah. So this is an exercise that I think Council, in particular, needs to take very serious because whether you're up for reelection or whatever the case may be, advocacy from these folks up here to our community, the importance of passing home rule is critical. And the same would apply if we decide to create a permanent base adjustment, which I'm a big fan of. I think we do need to create a permanent base adjustment. Our annual budget right now is 280? Okay. I would say 300 million. Set it at 300 million? Higher? 350? Yeah, I would say we need to look at a figure that -- all the money that we make we'll be able to keep and spend for our community. I started with 300 million because I thought we were still far from it. But the reality is we have businesses coming in every single day. Sales tax revenues coming up. The new truck company that we just opened up on 91st, that's -- that revenue is going to start coming in. And so maybe we need to look at maybe 350 or $400 million. And that right there should probably set us up for the next 20, 30 years. What are you guys' thoughts? GAMEZ: I agree, I think the permanent base is what needs to be done. ARTZ: The truth is that I'm tired of being home alone. [LAUGHTER] MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: If it's approved -- and I'm glad you're thinking let's do it now so we don't have to worry about in 2028 -- then we don't have to go back to the voters. It's already set. So what do you think about the $400,000 figure -- or $400 million figure? ARTZ: I think that's adequate because, again, there's exclusions that we can take, and so if we get $50 million from the federal government, that would be excluded from our limitations. CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 15 of 28 So anywhere 300 to 400 million, will cover us for 30 to 40 years, and then if we're running out, we can go back. It's just, I don't think you want to get it too high, because then people start not understanding, or thinking that we're going to have a $500 million budget when this is really a long-term projection. And so I just think it starts creating some concern from residents if they don't -- if the number gets too big. So I think it needs to be reasonable and fairly close to your current budget. But yeah, we can calculate a number that will give us at least 30 to 40 years of time before we would need to go back out for an expenditure, or. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Recommendation, I'm sorry. Because it's kind of a blind -- I'm kind of throwing a dart on the board, and I think $400,000 makes sense to me. $400 million makes sense to me, mentally, based on how much we've grown in the last couple of years. But we're running out of land. There's competition for different services. Maybe we flip a warehouse, and that becomes a direct sales tax revenue opportunity, as well. Who knows? There's so many factors. Reyes, you had your -- MEDRANO: Mr. Artz covered it. We'll do an assessment and bring back a recommendation, a recommended amount to Council. ARTZ: And Mayor, in the auditor's presentation, she talked about the expenditure limitation that we had -- our budget is 200 million, but we spent $80 million. So when we have a $200 million budget, we're not spending $200 million in a given year. So there's -- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: (Indiscernible) that doesn't mean we're going to spend 400 million. That just means we have authority to do it if we actually raise it. But we may be spending 300 million. Who knows? Vice Mayor? DAVIS: Yeah, I think this is a great thing to do, to just move us forward and set us up for the future, so we're not always, every four years, worried about home rule not passing and having -- or God forbid, it didn't pass, and then we'd have to cut all kinds of services that our community relies on, really. CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 16 of 28 MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I mean, luckily, we have another two years to go back to the voters. DAVIS: Yeah. We could do it (indiscernible). MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, hopefully we won't. But I think it's very smart that we're thinking in that manner. I still remember the scare. Yes, Councilmember Chavira? CHAVIRA: There's a lot to be said for stability, and this provides stability for the city. And just as you said, just because we approve 200 million or 300 million, doesn't mean that we're spending it all, but we want it to be available to meet the needs of the community. Very important. We want them to continue to have a senior center. We want them to continue to have the services that they rely upon, and we have an aquatic center coming up in the very near future that we're going to have to fund, and maintain and take care of. That's also very important. We just got that funding for the multi-modal path. That's a beautiful, wonderful thing that will be adding on to Tolleson. And all of those things cost money to maintain, and we want to maintain them well and continue to provide services. So I think the timing is perfect. Thank you for bringing this forward. This is a perfect time to do that. We have -- we can fall back on home rule if, for some reason, it doesn't pass. But I am also supportive of this. Thank you. GAMEZ: Good job. Great job in educating the community in terms of how it works, because even the home rule was difficult for many to comprehend. They couldn't understand. If it doesn't pass, why can't you spend the money that you have? Because that's the law, whatever was in our budget back in 1979 to '80 and that's how we run the city. So people are not going to get their -- they're going to be gone. And like you said, Artz is going to be alone, working. We can't afford that. The police department wouldn't be working. The fire department wouldn't -- nobody'd be here. Crickets. So we have to do an educational component to make sure that the city understands, the residents understand why this is so important. And I think they would understand, and CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 17 of 28 if we make it direct, I mean, a town hall -- whatever means, educate the public as to what's going on. And it's to their benefit. Thank you. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, if staff can get the figures and can get the nice stuff on social media, stuff like that. But ultimately, it's up to this board to go out and sell it to the voters. They need to understand the benefits of this for themselves and for the greater community. So yeah, I'm also in agreement. Permanent base adjustment is the direction I want to go in. I look forward to the recommendation that staff puts together on what that figure should be. And I'll say something that may not be popular, but I don't trust the state legislature. I'll be completely honest with you. They picked 1980 to be our base budget. Come on. I mean, 20 -- 2025. That's over 40 -- that's 45 years from now (sic). And yet, they have yet to touch it again. You guys figure it out, cities. By us doing this, we're telling the state we figured it out. Leave us alone. Go mess with other cities. We passed our own permanent base adjustment. Legislators, do your job. Stop messing with our cities, and we can move forward comfortably, knowing that we have authority from our residents to do what we need to do, to provide the services to them and to support our staff. Yes. GAMEZ: Just out of curiosity, Kevin, can you tell us, if you know, how many cities are on the permanent base adjustment as opposed to home rule? ARTZ: Councilmember Gamez, the last time I looked, I think about 85 percent of the cities were on one of the two, permanent base adjustment or home rule. And of those 85, it was split pretty evenly between home rule and permanent base adjustment. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: (Indiscernible). ARTZ: I'm sorry, Mayor? MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: What do you need to know from us? ARTZ: I just need a direction, which we've received here tonight, and then we'll come back in, probably, March time frame, and start the public hearing process, and present the numbers to Council and adopt all the resolutions that we will need to do. CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 18 of 28 MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: That's why I'm asking, because I know there's a bunch of steps, moving into an election. If we want to make sure that it makes it, it's on there, there's things that we need to do. So. Yeah. Whenever you're ready with that figure, and whatever other recommendations you want to bring back to us, or maybe get a solid figure for Councilmember Gamez as far as who was actually on the permanent versus the home rule, just bring it back to us. ARTZ: Yeah. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: And I think we would all be pretty much on board with this, but we'll formalize the next time you come in front of us. Thank you for the information. GAMEZ: Thank you, Kevin. ERIVES: Thank you. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: City Clerk, before we move on, please let the record reflect that both Jimmy -- Vice Mayor Davis, and Councilwoman Laborin are present. SALAS: Okay. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: All right. And then, so that was City of Permanent Base, and now we have the annual review of City of Tolleson Code of Conduct for Elected and Appointed officials. Don't worry, folks, nobody's in trouble. This is just in reminding us of the do's and don'ts of great governance. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible). MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Truncated it? PIERCE: I did, I cut -- this is similar to the one we did a year ago. I couldn't believe it when Crystal was like, hey, it's time for the annual update, or the annual review. And it truly is just a review. There's been no election. You're all here from last time, so I'm not going to just rehash everything for you. I'll make this very brief. The point of the Code of Conduct is to effectuate the efficiency in government and the respect that you all really, actually, do a really good job of. So next slide. As you know, we run a council manager form of government here, which is the vast majority of the cities and towns in Arizona. I think there may be one out there, may be CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 19 of 28 Tombstone or something, I don't know, that does -- that does it the other way. But you can see that the key is that the Council sets the policy for the city, but does not run the administrative affairs of the city. Was that me that did it? MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Go with it. Just go with it. PIERCE: That's right. So the Council is under the code, and under the council manager form of government is not to interfere with the administrative affairs. And I put the bullet up there, when in doubt, involve the city manager. If you have a question about anything that's going on, involve the city manager. Don't go to staff. It confuses them. The manager will always be able to take you to staff if you have questions or other things like that. And it's really for your own protection. What is the value of that? Legislative immunity is key. I've litigated cases. I probably shared this with you last time. And I've litigated cases where individual council members get named in lawsuits because it's claimed that they got themselves involved in the administrative affairs, as opposed to just being policymakers. When you just stay as policymakers and let the administrators do their job, I can defend you and I can say, no, you shouldn't be named in a lawsuit because you're just the policymakers of the organization. You're just acting in a legislative capacity, and you get immunity for that. And then, again, it confuses staff. They don't know who they're -- they're always going to view you as a councilmember, as somebody with authority, whether or not it's actually true that you can't direct them, but they'll think they won't know that then, and they'll want to be respectful. And it's a confusing thing. So it's important to maintain those boundaries and allows you to provide the vision and allows the administrators to administer. As far as the Code of Conduct goes, again, I've been, as you know -- our firm -- well, you may not know. Our firm is, I think, 23 or 24 Arizona cities and towns where we're their contracted city and town attorneys. And as you know, number one was? MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Is. Right here. PIERCE: Is, always will be right here. Tolleson was the first. And you set the precedent CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 20 of 28 and everybody came on board, and everybody said, hey, we want what they have. In so many ways, Tolleson leads the way. But I share that with you because I have a lot of experience in a lot of different places. We go all over the state, and we have emails between our group on different things going on, and some of the things that go on in the city, some cities and towns are just difficult, really, really difficult. And it's not to say that you don't have -- I mean, nobody's perfect, but you guys do a really good job, in my view, of being respectful to each other, to staff, to the public. And that's the key to the Code of Conduct. It's intended to be a code, a code to help you maintain that respect with each other. Civility and decorum, avoid personal comments. Private comments can turn into public issues. Your conduct with city staff and treating everybody professionally, don't disrupt. This, again, this goes back to the council manager form of government stuff. And then, conduct with the public. And the last bullet point is really the most important one. I mean, it -- Tolleson is still a small city. It's like, I hear you guys all the time talking about growing up, and all the people that you know. I mean, I think Vice Mayor is related to, like, half the city, from what I understand. You know what I mean? And so that's -- it's a place where if your conduct with the public isn't courteous, respectful, it's going to be a big deal. More so than maybe what somebody could get away with in a large city like Phoenix or Mesa or Tucson or whatever. So. And then, just finally maintaining -- understanding the conduct with public agencies, boards and commissions, the media. In those situations, you -- if you're ever speaking in one of those boards, or whatever -- and I always advise you not to do that, but stay up here. But if you ever do that, make sure that it's clear that you're not speaking on behalf of the city, that you're speaking on your own stuff. Don't never go off the record when it comes to the press, because that doesn't ever go very well. But really, the key is just if an employee said it, would he or she be disciplined for it? For harassment, hostile work environment, bullying, et cetera? If so, certainly not appropriate for a member of the Council to do that. I mean, like I said, I think you guys do a wonderful job with that. So with that, told you -- did I stick it to five? Did I get CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 21 of 28 it? Five minutes. Any questions? All right. Thanks. GAMEZ: See you next year. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: All right. We're going to move on to mayor and city manager reports of current events. I think, before we go on to parks and recreation, we have to state the obvious. We had an amazing event this week. We had both our Congresswoman Ansari, and Councilwoman -- Congresswoman Ansari. I do this all the time. I do with Stanton, also. Yeah, she used to be a councilwoman, and she is now a federal congresswoman in the House of Representatives. Congresswoman Ansari, and then, also, Congresswoman Grijalva were both present here for really two main reasons. Number one is they were here to award the City of Tolleson over $2 million in grant funds, federal grant funds, that we have gone and lobbied with -- or got lobbied for a number of years. And they presented us two really good-sized checks. One of them is for a program that was talked about earlier, which is a multi-modal path. And really, it's about promoting healthy living in the City of Tolleson and trying to get our residents to that big marker of 100 years of age. Plus, not that you have to die at 100. You can keep going, but get us get to a good percentage of our folks there by exercise, eating well, taking care of themselves, basically. And this multi-modal path will address that directly. I think that's -- that would be an awesome thing for us to be able to accomplish. And the other one has to deal with wastewater, and creating a regional plant that's going to benefit not only Tolleson, but other partners that want to come on board. And so, in total, it's about $2 million. And so I think it's a huge win. And I'm very thankful for both of the congresswomen for coming down and spending time with us. And I guess my question is where's Ruben? We had Mark Kelly in Tolleson, we have Councilmember Ansari. We've had Councilmember Grijalva. So now we got to get Ruben to come down here and spend some time with our residents. So let's make that phone call and get them down here. Tell them we got good coffee and pan dulce. CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 22 of 28 So Councilmembers, other things you'd like to add? GAMEZ: No, I believe that it was a great showing for Tolleson. We had many legislators in state here. They were impressed. The people that provided the lunch, it was great. And I believe the office of the governor was here. Attorney general's office was here. Gallego's office was here. The AG's office was here, and we had all people report out in terms of what's going on. And finally we got to talk about the elephant in the room. What's going on with ICE? What's going on in the cities? In the nation? And we talked about that. We had frank conversations. I won't get into specifics other than it was talked about. And it was great conversation, good communication. The mayor did a great job. And Davis, here, Vice Mayor did a great job. The entire staff did a fantastic job, and I'm very proud of them. And I think people walked away thinking, man, Tolleson, is not what people think it was. And it never has been, but last night, or yesterday, we showed them, hey, we've grown up, and we can kick some butt. And we did. Congratulations to all you guys. Reyes, your staff, you did a great job. MEDRANO: You did an amazing job. GAMEZ: It was great. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Other members that were present. Vice Mayor: DAVIS: It was a really fantastic day. I mean, kudos to the staff for putting it together. And thank you to Congresswomen Grijalva and Ansari for coming to Tolleson and for advocating for Tolleson and getting those funds for us. Those are going to be crucial investments for our future. And then, just a thank you to all of the state legislators and different offices that were here. Councilmember Gamez mentioned a bunch of them there. There was just so many different offices represented, and right here in Tolleson. And I think that's really important that we bring them -- we bring them home and we show them what Tolleson is about. And I think we did a really great job of that. So I'm proud of everyone. Everyone did a great job. Council, staff, everyone. So good work, guys. CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 23 of 28 MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, I will add, I think a lot of the cities -- and I'm thinking of, obviously, Minneapolis, top of head -- were caught off guard. One day, they opened up and they had a huge presence of ICE. And there was this big initiative going on. And so they had to respond. I think here in the state of Arizona, we've done a good job of listening to best practices, making sure that the AG's office is hearing us, making sure that the Congress people are on board with what we need to be doing. And I can tell you that that we have formalized what appears to be a very unified front, and hopefully, it doesn't come here, and what's been happening over there doesn't make its way to Arizona or any other state, for that matter. And it ends in Minnesota. The fact of the matter is, you can wait till it happens and then react, or you can prepare proactively to make sure that we have everything in place that we need to do to best protect the people of Arizona, its residents, and the people of Tolleson. And this event was, I think, exactly meant to prioritize that, right there. The dialogue was great. The members were great. A lot of partnerships were built. And ultimately, Tolleson is better for it. And I look forward to continuing to offer these types of talks as an organization to the greater Arizona community so that we're on the same page and we can find ways to partner up to make things better for Arizonans in general and residents here in Tolleson and the West Valley. Anybody else? Yes, Linda? LABORIN: I don't even want to call it a complaint, but one of my seniors said something about how come she didn't go around shaking hands with the people in the audience. I told her because of the time, she only had so much time to be here. Yes, she got here late, but she was driving from Tucson. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. LABORIN: There's no way you can judge -- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: The traffic. LABORIN: -- the traffic. She says, but my husband and I have been voting for the Grijalvas for years and years. And I said, yes, so I still have a lot of people. But I mean, it CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 24 of 28 would be sort of hard for her to go around shaking hands with everybody that was there, and that would have made her late --- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. LABORIN: -- to go to the other section of the program. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: And I will add, she has -- I'm thinking back at our veterans event that we had. She showed up, she came on stage. Again, she showed up a little late, but she -- and I told her straight up, I said, Tolleson is not a kiss babies and shake your hand and just go kind of a city. We like eye contact. We like feeling your -- the grip of your hand and just having a good down conversation. And she did. I think she did very well to go around to every single table, shake everybody's hands, have a conversation with them. And her schedule obviously was not opened up enough to do that, either of them. But I don't think she's opposed to coming back someday. LABORIN: Uh-huh. DAVIS: The one thing that I would add to that is that her office is going to be setting up here once a month. On, what is that? Tuesdays, the first Tuesday of the month, they'll be here every single month. So that might be something that you want to share with them. They can go visit with her staff because they're going to have a presence in Tolleson, which is huge and I'm very grateful for that. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: And we'll be seeing her here, hopefully, in about a month, and so I'll make sure to bring that up. Yes ? GAMEZ: They committed to having a follow-up meeting with the same group. Both congresswomen. So that's a good thing. And they were impressed. And we'll see what happens. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. Councilmember Erives? ERIVES: Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to say, when we see that -- what's happening on a nationwide, we're -- it's heartbreaking. Right? What's happening in other places. And as leaders of our community, our question is always, what can we do? How do we prepare? How do we inform our residents, and how do we make sure that we're safe? CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 25 of 28 It was wonderful that staff is already working on that. They're already taking action steps for, what do we need to do? And I'm just going back to when we had COVID. That was a situation where nothing was prepared, right? We weren't sure. But the team, oh, my gosh, we all got together and we worked as a team, and we unified and it might be today, this is the plan. And tomorrow it changes because of what's happening. And so having staff that is already thinking, what are we doing? What do we do? How can we inform? How do we communicate? How do we be prepared? And how are we going to be flexible for all these things that could happen, and that preparedness? Right? Just to be prepared set my heart at ease. Okay. So now we know, and having everyone in that building together, having that same team, we're united. We're going to work together. We're going to get through this and how -- and having to rely on one another. I felt it was a wonderful meeting that came out with action steps. What can we do? What are we doing? I know we spoke with Councilmember Chavira, and we were talking, what are our action steps next? What can we do? How can we be prepared? And that to have staff already saying, well, we're ready, we're ready. It was wonderful. Whatever happens, we're ready. Yes. Thank you, Mayor. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Councilmember Chavira? CHAVIRA: Most importantly, that there's communication on all levels of government, a local government, our state government, our federal government leaders, and that there was open communication with them and that, as you said, that there's -- what can we do? What should we be doing? What steps should we be taking to protect the citizens of Tolleson? Because that is why we're here. And so as united as we all are, because we all agree that that is what our job is, to protect our citizens, and that we will do what we can, when we can. And -- but the communication is there, and we are listening and we are paying attention. And thank you, staff, because that was a great opportunity and to have put it together in a short period of time, very appreciative of that, because we would not have had that CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 26 of 28 opportunity had you not worked hard to get us to that point. So thank you. But important work, for sure. GAMEZ: Just food for thought. I know we talked about what -- and it's great. With $2 million for the path. It's going to be lit and stuff. We need to talk about -- or not talk about, but start thinking about planning something. How are we going to use that pit and make it a water amenity? It's big. And people -- and then you continue with the path around it. Fish, or whatever that is, land, an asset that we haven't even talked about. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Needs to be activated. GAMEZ: Absolutely. We need to talk and have come up with ideas because now is the time to hit it in terms of getting more money if we do something there. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I just want to add, I had a baby shower that I had to attend on Sunday. Is there a hand up or? DAVIS: Our attorney is cringing over here. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I know. This will be quick. PIERCE: I'm sorry. That I was just an -- I just threw it out there. Sorry. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: All I'm saying is that the development, Aloma, down by PIR, has a very small lake, a community lake, for the development. I think that would be a very good example that we may want to consider for future development here behind Happy Town in Tolleson. So but -- good point. Anybody else? Anybody else? I'd like to say a comment that has something to do with agenda. [LAUGHTER] GAMEZ: You're doing your job. Thank you. So noted. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Okay. So with that -- Reyes, did you want to add anything? Okay. Community event updates. I'm going to send it over to our Parks and Recreation Director, Babchuk? BABCHUK: Thank you, Mayor. CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 27 of 28 Members of the Council, January 16th, we kicked off our third Friday event. It was really well attended. I think the entertainment and food trucks really hit it off with the people. It's like they've been waiting for this third Fridays to start up again. Our next one will be February 20th. We have a couple acts we're looking into getting and will be celebrating Black History Month during that event. So that's it. Thank you. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Okay. With that, is there anything else that anybody would like to add for the good of the order? Well, then I will entertain a motion to adjourn. GAMEZ: So moved. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: We have a motion to adjourn by Councilmember Gamez. We have a second by Vice Mayor Davis. All those in favor of adjournment, please signify by saying aye. ALL: Aye. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: All those opposed can stay here by themselves. [LAUGHTER] MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: All right. We are adjourned. APPROVED: ____________________________________ JUAN F. RODRIGUEZ, MAYOR ATTEST: ____________________________________ CRYSTAL ZAMORA, CITY CLERK CITY OF TOLLESON JANUARY 27, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 28 of 28 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 JANUARY 27, 2026. I FURTHER CERTIFY THAT THE MEETING WAS DULY CALLED AND HELD, AND THAT A QUORUM WAS PRESENT. ____________________________________ CRYSTAL ZAMORA, CITY CLERK