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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 24, 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 Chavira. C. ROLL CALL City Council: Mayor Juan Rodriguez, Vice Mayor Jimmy Davis, Council Member Christine Chavira, Council Member Clorinda Erives, Council Member Adolfo Gámez, Council Member Linda Laborin, and Council Member Cruzita Mendoza. 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, Development Services Director Jason Earp, Field Operations/Parks & Recreation Director Randy Babchuk, Fire Chief Michael Young, Library Director Mandy Carrico, and Public Safety Director/Police Chief Rudy Mendoza. City Representative: City Attorney Jon Paladini D. FINAL CALL TO SUBMIT SPEAKER REQUESTS 2 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. Introduction of New Employees: Fire Department – Will Burner, Battalion Chief Public Affairs Department – Jacqueline Ochoa, Public Affairs Coordinator Utilities Department – Alexandra Meadows, Wastewater Operator and Paul Vega Soto, Wastewater Operator Employee Promotions: Fire Department – Sean Lucas, Fire Captain 2. Tolleson Elementary School District Funding Support Report – Giselle Herrera, Superintendent 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 February 10, 2026. (City Clerk Department) 2. Approve Claims and Bills Report for the period of February 4, 2026 to February 17, 2026. (Finance Department) 3 3. Approve First Amendment to the Cooperative Purchasing Agreement between the City of Tolleson and American Fence Company of Arizona, Inc. for fencing materials and installation services, and authorize the City Manager to execute and deliver said Amendment. The City desires to amend the existing Agreement to increase the annual aggregate amount from $100,000 to $200,000 for additional services and to extend the term of the Agreement from February 1, 2026 to February 1, 2027. (Development Services Department) 4. Approve Third Amendment to the Cooperative Purchasing Agreement between the City of Tolleson and CDW Government LLC for Software Value Added Reseller Services, and authorize the City Manager to execute and deliver said Amendment. The City desires to amend the existing Agreement to increase the annual aggregate amount from $300,000 to $375,000 for each fiscal year from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2027. (Information Technology Department) 5. Approve the Professional Services Agreement between the City of Tolleson and Rossco Electric, LLC for lighting materials and services to convert lighting at Veterans Park from halogen to LED, and authorize the City Manager to execute and deliver said Agreement. The City shall pay the Contractor an amount for the services at the rates set forth in the Fee Proposal. The maximum aggregate amount for this Agreement shall not exceed $250,000. This Agreement shall remain in full force and effect until February 1, 2027. (Parks and Recreation 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. WORK STUDY AND PRESENTATIONS – FOR DISCUSSION 1. Housing Study Update – Noel Schaus, Revitalization Manager J. REGULAR AGENDA – ACTION ITEMS 1. Adopt/Deny Resolution No. 2633 of the Mayor and Council of the City of Tolleson, Arizona, approving financial support for the redevelopment of two current public housing properties within the City of Tolleson, approving a loan in the amount of $500,000 at an interest rate between 2% and 3%, approving development-related fee waivers in an amount of at least $100,000, authorizing the City Manager to execute an 4 Intergovernmental Agreement and related documents, and declaring an emergency. (Development Services Department) Vice Mayor Davis moved to adopt Resolution No. 2633; the motion was seconded by Council Member Erives. 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. Adopt/Deny Resolution No. 2634 of the Mayor and Council of the City of Tolleson, Arizona, authorizing the sale of City Parcel No. 102-48-263, located at the northeast corner of 91st Avenue and Van Buren Street, to Schulte Real Estate Management Corp., and authorizing the Mayor, City Manager, City Clerk, and City Attorney to execute and deliver the Purchase Contract and all related documents necessary to complete the transaction. (Development Services Department) Council Member Gámez moved to adopt Resolution No. 2634; the motion was seconded by Council Member 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 K. WORK STUDY AND PRESENTATIONS – FOR DISCUSSION 1. City-owned Properties Update – Jason Earp, Development Services Director L. MAYOR AND CITY MANAGER’S REPORT OF CURRENT EVENTS – FOR DISCUSSION 1. Community Events Update – Randy Babchuk, Field Operations/Parks & Recreation Director M. CONVENE INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION 1. Motion to go into executive session. Council Member Gámez moved to convene into executive session at 8:20 PM; the motion was seconded by Vice Mayor Davis. The motion carried 7 to 0. Mayor Rodriguez – Aye 5 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 parameters of federal and state authority regarding immigration activities. N. RECONVENE INTO PUBLIC MEETING O. ADJOURNMENT Council Member Laborin moved to adjourn the Regular City Council Meeting at 9:05 PM; the motion was seconded by Council Member Mendoza. 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 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. 6 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 102000 2/11/2026 VANGUARD TRUCK CENTERS LLC $14,215.28 186805 2/5/2026 ASR CONSTRUCTION GROUP LLC $20,824.06 186811 2/5/2026 TOLLESON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DIST.#17 $12,350.00 186826 2/5/2026 HILL BROTHERS CHEMICAL COMPANY $16,743.23 186836 2/5/2026 MARICOPA COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE $38,576.09 186861 2/12/2026 ALEX AREVALO $64,875.00 186875 2/12/2026 NORWOOD EQUIPMENT LLC $12,569.27 186892 2/12/2026 WACO LLC $37,771.31 186889 2/12/2026 VERIZON WIRELESS SERVICES LLC $11,540.66 186858 2/5/2026 WASTE CONNECTIONS OF ARIZONA $20,103.54 City of Tolleson Checks Recorded Check Dates: February 4, 2026 to February 17, 2026 PAYMENTS OVER $10,000 CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 1 of 65 Post-Production File City of Tolleson City Council Meeting Minutes February 24, 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 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 2 of 65 MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Good morning -- good morning. Good evening, everyone. Been a long day. I am Mayor Juan F. Rodriguez. Today is February 24th, and I would like to call the City of Tolleson Council meeting to order. We're going to begin with our invocation and Pledge of Allegiance. So Development Services Director Jason Earp, will you please provide the invocation, and Councilmember Chavira, will you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance? EARP: Heavenly Father, we come before you today with grateful hearts as we begin this City Council meeting. We ask for your wisdom and discernment to make decisions in accordance to Your will. Bless our city, our residents and our public safety personnel. Protect them as they serve and return them safely home to their families. In Jesus' name we pray. ALL: Amen. CHAVIRA: We 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: All right. Thank you both. Next, City Clerk, please let the record reflect on a roll call that all council members are present at today's meeting. We're going to move on to final call to submit speaker request forms. 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 the matter be put on a future agenda item. Ms. Clerk, do we have any speaker requests at this time? ZAMORA: We do not have any, Mayor. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: All right. (indiscernible) calls to the public. And City Clerk, do we have any of those? ZAMORA: No, we do not. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: All right. And then we'll ask if anyone appears for proclamations for discussion, and the first item on our agenda is introductions of new employee. So I'm going to turn the floor over to our city manager, Reyes Medrano. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 3 of 65 MEDRANO: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of Council. Good evening, everyone. It's great to have our first responders here., of course, as always and our friends from our elementary school. This is one of the best parts of my job is I get to welcome people who've chosen to serve this community because we take nothing more seriously than our service to our community. So first we have from the Maryvale Village of the City of Phoenix, Battalion Chief Will Burner, graduate of Trevor Browne High School, went to high school with a bunch of my cousins. And obviously, he's with the Tolleson Fire Department. And you've been a joy to work with so far, sir. Been fun. Next, I'm equally as excited to introduce a former member of the -- I don't know if they were state champions, but they were close. Tolleson women's soccer, Wolverine soccer team. Jackie -- Jacqueline Ochoa. She's with -- she's in public affairs, and she's doing an incredible job. Believe it or not, got our federal allocations organized. We're still in shock by that because that's a tall task. MENDOZA: A Wolverine. MEDRANO: Yes, Wolverine, definitely. Excuse me. And our utilities department, Alexandra, or Alejandra, Meadows, Wastewater Operator, and Paul Vega Soto wastewater operator. And hopefully, they're on Zoom. And then, I'm very excited to announce the promotion to fire captain in the Tolleson Fire Department of Sean Lucas, who's with us tonight. Where is he? There he is. Congratulations, Sean. Well, well deserved. And to all our new teammates, thank you so much for choosing Tolleson. And I haven't had a chance to meet with all of you yet, in person, but I look forward to it, because we assure your happiness here because we know that happiness breeds success, not the other way around. And that's why we chose you. You were chosen. Your happiness was apparent to everyone in the room the day you interviewed. That's why you're here. And we're excited to have you. Thank you. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Well, it's tradition at these meetings, we have new employees, here in Tolleson, we consider ourselves a family. And so I want to welcome all of you guys to the Tolleson family. Our city management and our Council does a really good CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 4 of 65 job -- or at least we attempt to do our best job, take care of family, as you probably do as well to yours. So (foreign language spoken). Just so you know, sir, we do have a councilmember that also went to Trevor Browne. So you're not alone in the room. You guys bolstered the worst colors in the State of Arizona. DAVIS: Orange are terrible colors. They are terrible. [LAUGHTER] MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: We will stick to our maroon and gold. But welcome to the organization. [LAUGHTER] MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: And then so that's -- are we have any other introductions of new employees? MEDRANO: That's it. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Awesome. All right. Grab the new people? Come on up, new people. And promotions too. Come on. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 1: At an angle, okay? MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I'm going to hold my (indiscernible) in. [LAUGHTER] UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 1: Okay, ready? One, two, three, and four. Congratulations. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Congrats, man. MENDOZA: Congratulations. GAMEZ: Congratulations. LANE: Thank you. LABORIN: Congratulations MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Moving on to public appearances., item number two of the Tolleson Elementary School District funding support report. We have the Honorable Superintendent Herrera. You have the floor, Ms. Herrera. Superintendent. HERRERA: No, we have a presentation there as well. Good evening, Mayor Rodriguez. City Council, city staff, and community members. It is my pleasure to stand here in front of you and share some of the highlights of our latest IGA. There's many agreements CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 5 of 65 that we've had across the years. My name is Gisselle Herrera, and I am the proud Superintendent of the Tolleson Elementary School District. And I have been in Tolleson as a humble servant of the community for almost 19 years. Alongside myself, I have Megan Duplain, and she is joining me as we're going to be sharing some highlights. She oversees the preschool programing, which we're going to be highlighting this evening, alongside all special programs. So with that, we'll go ahead and get started. At the end, we'll take questions, but of course we'll take questions at any point as well. There we go. That one. The big one. The big button. So of course, our district has a mission and vision. And as you can see there on the screen, it really orients the community to what it is that we value. And we value excellence, and we value innovation, thinking outside the box. And one thing that we know is that world-class education systems have the support of their local government. That's just how it is. And that's what we aim at being, a world-class education system that we believe every one of our children deserve. We call them treasures in our district, and we have almost 3,000 of them district wide. Two of the schools, of course, reside here in the City of Tolleson, and we're always looking at ways to enhance their experience while they're with us. Now, while they're with us, officially, kinder through 8th grade, our efforts have always been consistent around bringing preschool experiences to our youngest treasures. We know that a preschool experience can make the world of difference for any child. And our common interest, of course, is the community and the children that we serve. And along with our mission and our vision, we also have our priority goals. Those are the ones that you see there. We refine them year to year. As I think, specifically, of our IGA this year, two that stand out is, number one and number two. First is just making sure that they're prepared for whatever their next step might be. That's all the instruction that we provide, again, officially in kinder. But we want preschool for everyone. If it was possible to give preschool experience for everyone, we know, that's what CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 6 of 65 matters. Ninety percent of brain development happens before the age of five. We get them at five, officially in kinder. But we know that there's so much work that we can do together, right? For preschool. And of course, number two is critical as well. Alongside the academics, we focus on their well-being; developmentally, emotionally, mentally and physically, of course. And so we have an amazing team that does all the things that we need to do for preschoolers to ensure that our priority goals align. And speaking of alignment, of course, we're always looking at partners who have our common interests at hand, and that's again, our children. I know for the City you have those -- those core values that also align to our goals, including the collaboration, the caring, the inspiration, right, the inclusion and the equity that the city really looks through in terms of the lens to provide services for the community. And so these are some of the nuts and bolts, if you would, specific to the funding. The agreement is a 400,000 investment from the city to the school district. How is this money spent? You can see there we have award-winning preschool programs both at Arizona Desert and Porfirio H. Gonzalez schools. And those are two Tolleson schools. And that's how the money breakdown looks like. As you can see for Arizona Desert 155,000, that includes one teacher, a certified teacher, and two paraprofessionals. And then the same would be for Porfirio H. Gonzalez, which is slightly higher amount, that is dependent on the staff and the experience and the pay, of course, for each of those members. And then, all the things that you see that make a preschool run the way that it needs to, along with the supplies, of course, the fees and the instructional materials, 20,000 for each school. And believe me, we try to make that dollar stretch. That's the name of the game with anything in public ed, as you know. Along with that, the breakdown that you see for salaries and the supplies, you also see that the city was generous in continuing the support of our Tolleson afterschool programs in the morning. So we have one currently, and it's been very successful for CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 7 of 65 many years. And that is 50 students, 50 treasures, that families have to go to work early in the morning. That way the kids are not waiting outside or taking themselves to school alone. They have a safe, engaging place before campus to get a snack, do a little bit of homework catch up perhaps, and get ready for the day. And so we have that as well. And along with that, you'll see that we also have in that agreement, as part of that agreement, an amendment that was made just of recent because we realized that the Tolleson afterschool program, which is also part of this agreement, and is now housed instead of Parks and Rec, it is now housed at Arizona Desert and Porfirio H. Gonzalez. We have a special treasure that needed additional support, with special needs. And so you'll see that expenditure there as well. And that is to ensure that that student, again, through that list of inclusion and equity, experiences success in the Tolleson afterschool program. So the impact of course, it's always going to be that children are ready to succeed, whether it's going to be before school, whether it happens to be in the preschool setting and beyond. It is our focus that we are always doing our very best to bring those educational experiences to every one of our kiddos. And then, I'll have Ms. Duplain share some more highlights about the preschool program specifically. DUPLAIN: Hello. I'm the proud administrator of preschool and special programs at Tolleson Elementary School District. My name is Megan Duplain. I stand here today with extreme gratitude for the partnership and the continued investment that the City has had in our Preschool Excellence programs. If you walk into our program, you'll see a little snapshot in a video. You will see from the second you walk in the door, children who feel safe, connected, a sense of belonging, staff that are there to inspire our children and our treasures, and help them grow as much as they can before sending them to kindergarten. So within this intergovernmental agreement, we are able to maintain low adult-to- student ratios. We were able to continue high-quality staff development. So our CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 8 of 65 treasure hunters continue to grow in their skills. Even though, you know, we are all five stars in our preschool, and our staff have been there -- our -- the retention rate in our preschool programs is almost 100 percent. So they've been growing every year. But every year we bring people in from Quality First and ADE, and different organizations to teach us and help us grow so that we're ready and prepared to meet the needs of all of our children and inspire them to be their very best. We are replacing instructional equipment as it gets outdated, to ensure we have quality supplies and supports for our children. And we sustain a high-quality curriculum. We use Frog Street, which is an evidence-based curriculum, and we bring in trainers to support us in that along the way. And it is -- and it continues to ensure the access for Tolleson families to this high-quality preschool that is evidence-based and truly the foundation that our children need to jump off into kindergarten ready . Our children, and you will hear from our kinder teachers, they can tell who goes through our preschools and who doesn't, by the way they walk in and hold themselves the first week of school. And it's like -- it says right up there, and this is -- this is evidence, this -- this investment changes life trajectories for children, and I wholeheartedly believe that. Oh, and this is our preschool program budget. As Superintendent Herrera presented, the part of the IGA, 200,000 for the Arizona Desert Elementary School, preschool, and 200,000 for the Porfirio H. Gonzalez preschool program. Oh, and this is -- HERRERA: Now we have a video. DUPLAIN: Yeah. It does have some -- HERRERA: It has some. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 2: Yeah. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 3: It says -- DUPLAIN: Acknowledging. Yeah. HERRERA: Okay. DUPLAIN: Yes. HERRERA: That's right. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 4: You can also share out the presentation to the CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 9 of 65 Councilmembers. HERRERA: Thank you. DUPLAIN: Perfect. HERRERA: Thank you. DUPLAIN: As you saw in that video, we had treasures exploring worms at Porfirio H. Gonzalez. They loved it. And the little one -- I happened to be in the room when this was happening, and he said, he really likes me. Do you see? He's listening to me. And the teacher sent a picture of him reading to his worm. [LAUGHTER] DUPLAIN: And we saw at Arizona Desert, they made -- they had them create art, and they created easels on the chair of their -- and they flipped their painting papers on the back of the chair. And the kids felt like they were Van Gogh, and artists, and they were just so proud to present their artwork, you know? And then you see the dress up that we -- that one of the children was in a fireman outfit. We inspire our children to practice and grow and explore and, just -- we -- they know that they can be anything, and you should hear them from day-to-day. They're like, I'm going to be a fireman this week. No, now I'm going to be a doctor. Let me show you, because we have all this developmentally appropriate play equipment for them to practice. And they put the doctor suit on, and they put the veterinarian suit on. And so it's just a beautiful program to inspire our children and let them know you can be anything you want to be. And it's just an incredible foundation. So thank you. Thank you for -- for this investment. And I know Mayor Rodriguez talked about it when we did the presentation at Porfirio H. Gonzalez. You said it's not a donation, it's an investment, and it is an investment. It's an investment in our children, in our community. And it's -- I don't think there's any more of an investment or a better investment. I'm kind of biased, but. HERRERA: A little, a little. Just a little bit. Thank you so much, Ms. Duplain. And of course, I would be remiss if I did not also highlight other parts of that agreement. And one of those is the shared community spaces. As you see and they're listed there, top of CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 10 of 65 mind comes the Field of Dreams, the beautiful space that we now have, not only for our kiddos, which we've had for the District, right, for quite a few years, but now is shared with the community as well. We had a job fair, actually, at Arizona Desert this Saturday, and as we were leaving the job fair, we saw the community using the Field of Dreams, and we hadn't seen that in many years. And so it was really nice to see. And it's a beautiful space. I know that you know that. School gymnasiums as well is -- are -- is part of that agreement. And, as you know, there's a lot of interest in having safe spaces that are well-maintained so that children can go ahead and extend their learning and talents, however, it might be, through the lens of sports. And then parking lot for the community events that are held right in front of the District office, of course, that is part of the agreement as well as a joint usage, because, again, we have the common interest, and that is the community. As a result, we have safe spaces for youth, but not only for youth, also for the rest of the community in a way that makes sense to both the City and the District through the lens of efficiency. We have the spaces, you have the folks. We can make something work, right? As well as the joint usage, we also have the T.A.S.K. program, which again, we've had in past through a different IGA. The way that it's been modified now it is on site and it is ran out by city staff, who of course are experts at doing just that, running afterschool, extended programing through the lens of T.A.S.K. And we have one at Arizona Desert and one, of course, at Porfirio H. Gonzalez. And I'll tell you what, it is such a game- changer for the children, but for the families, because families are working families, and the children are young, and having them walk to an empty home is not optimal, as you know. And while, we have 21st programing and grants that we bring in, those sometimes are spotty in terms of the grade levels and what it is that they're teaching, because it has to be very academic in nature. This is very much recreational. It fits every need, and it's extended in terms of the hours. So I know that the families really appreciate it, and it CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 11 of 65 makes a difference in their life knowing that as they're coming home, their kids are in a safe, engaging space. Which is nice is -- what's also nice is that it is truly an extension of the day because the -- the students are in the -- a familiar space. They're in school, but they also have familiar routines and familiar rules, if you would, and our RISE initiative to ensure that behavior is consistent throughout the day and beyond. Again, like Ms. Duplain, say a big thank you to City Council, to the community for this continued partnership. Together, we're here for the children. Our common interest is the community. And again, we'll take any questions that you might have. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Other way around. This agreement has been, I think, a very powerful tool. I want to thank you personally for working with our staff to make this agreement come from a piece of paper to fruition and, as evidenced by all the pictures, you know, the end winners are our kids. And you're right, they -- we co -- there are co beneficiaries. You know, when they're in the school they benefit from their academic opportunities. When they're in the afterschool program or out in the community, you know, we take we take charge in a sense. And -- and ultimately they're better off for it. We build a better community together. And so thank you for that. And also thank you for the presentation. I think one of the criticisms that I've heard over the years from, from the Council is, okay, so we gave them this much money, but what do -- how do we know what he did with it? And you have a slide that literally breaks down how much goes into staffing, how much goes into the different supplies that are needed for the programs, and then how much goes to fund somebody that can help a kid with special needs that needs more one-on-one attention. And that's critical because at the end of the day, as public organizations, you know, how you spend your money has to be justified. So that one slide right there is very powerful. And I thank you for -- for actually doing that. There's some more comments, but let me open it up to Council. Council? Okay. So let's -- I saw -- Linda, you go first. LABORIN: Well, how many students do you have in the gifted program? Would you be CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 12 of 65 able to tell me off the top of your head? In the gifted program. HERRERA: Gifted program? Not preschool program? LABORIN: No, no, in the -- HERRERA: In this the preschool program? LABORIN: Let me try that again. DUPLAIN: We have 18 children in all of our classes. LABORIN: Okay. And do you have any planned activities that none of the other kids are doing? DUPLAIN: So our preschool programs function solely on their own. So outside of the school, they are involved in the school community, of course, but they do a lot of different preschool things with their parents. They have -- they -- they actually have their parent-teacher nights as well, but they have different holiday events and different classes and different things with our parents. LABORIN: Okay. What about the kids that don't celebrate Christmas, Thanksgiving, and stuff like that? What do you teach them about those holidays? DUPLAIN: They learn about all holidays, regardless of religion. And we -- and so they -- regardless of the -- we just -- we try to teach them a well-balanced approach to holidays, when it comes around. And we also were driven by the early childhood standards that have been put out by Arizona Department of Education. So that is what our curriculum is based on. LABORIN: Okay. Thank you. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Councilmember? And then we'll come back to you, Christine. CHAVIRA: Okay. GAMEZ: I'm interested to see what the parents, what kind of feedback did they leave. Especially a preschool program. I used to work for (indiscernible) now I work with elementary, years ago, education. HERRERA: Yes. GAMEZ: We used to call it home study. The parents would -- the teachers would go into the homes, and give lessons, and the parents were watching, and listening and CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 13 of 65 learning. So I just -- I'm really asking, how is it going with parents, how do they feel about it? (indiscernible) but it's -- it's -- it's important that they are involved. And I just wanted some feedback in terms of -- DUPLAIN: Yes. GAMEZ: -- what they -- DUPLAIN: Our preschool team prioritize the partnership with their parents because they realize we have three-year-olds walking in the door to us. We have to be partners with their parents. We have to understand what their likes are, what their interests are, and making sure that parents feel very safe leaving, leaving them with us. So we do different newsletters every week to communicate. We do Fashion Dojo, which is a communication system where they get pictures every Friday of their children that -- our preschool teachers prioritize contacting every parent every two weeks to ensure that there's something specific about their child and their child's growth. Our events that we have with our preschool parents fill -- fill always. And we have, you know, we have received great feedback. GAMEZ: Thank you. DUPLAIN: No problem. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Councilwoman Chavira? CHAVIRA: Is there a fee that the parents have to pay at all for this service? It's not? It is free to them? That's great news. Well, thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Thank you for the wonderful information. And then, of course, for the partnership because no one loses in this. Everyone's a winner in this, and the community. So we appreciate that. Thank you. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yes, ma'am. DAVIS: I think it's no secret that I will always support preschool programing. I taught preschool through 8th grade general music for a really, really long time. And I will have to agree with you that it is night and day, the behavior of the kindergartner who went to preschool, and who didn't attend preschool. So I can tell you're both on fire for -- with -- with education and what you do. So that's amazing, too. Just seeing that, CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 14 of 65 knowing that the leaders in the school district are just on fire about education. That's amazing. One question. You said 18 students per class? Or total? Per class? All right. And this is kind of a curveball question. So I'm not trying to throw you or anything, but about how many kids do you think live in the Tolleson elementary school district that are the age of preschool? All together. DUPLAIN: All together? HERRERA: We'd have to come back with that. Yeah. DAVIS: Okay. Like a ballpark. It doesn't have to be an exact number. What do you think? HERRERA: Preschool kiddos live within the Tolleson boundaries. We'd have to probably pull that -- DAVIS: Yeah. DUPLAIN: Yeah. HERRERA: (Indiscernible) DAVIS: Just -- just throw a number out there. What do think? [LAUGHTER] HERRERA: Well, I'll tell you. I'll tell you something that I learned that in Arizona, only about 3.5 per 10 kiddos attend preschool. DUPLAIN: That's what -- HERRERA: So if we follow that trend, although I think because we do have, and have had, quality preschools, we're probably higher than that. DAVIS: Well, that's great. HERRERA: On average. DAVIS: I guess my point was, there's so much more work that we need to do to find funding to make sure that every single one of our children gets this early childhood education. You know? It's so vital. It is an investment in our community. It's an investment in our future, and our future workforce. Do you know what the graduate graduation rate is for pre -- a kid who did preschool in CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 15 of 65 comparison to one who didn't? HERRERA: I don't as of yet. But we're doing the work. DAVIS: (Indiscernible) HERRERA: No . We're doing the work with a Helios Institute, which we now have access to data that allows us to track our students, I'm hoping, including our preschoolers, all the way beyond into high school and into college. So we're really excited about doing that. And we can certainly layer the preschool numbers, too, to see how that's faring out. DUPLAIN: I would agree with that. DAVIS: -- throughout. HERRERA: For many -- for many reasons. You're correct. And that is what the studies do share. Uh-huh. DAVIS: (Indiscernible) HERRERA: Thank you. DAVIS: -- as much as we can to make sure that our little treasures, that our -- littlest treasures, as you call them, get the education that they deserve and the foundation that they deserve. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Okay. Thank you. Councilwoman? ERIVES: Oh, the little one about the worm. I'm excited about that, when he says he's listening. Fantastic. That's the inspiration that we want, right? That little spark. You mentioned, Vice Mayor, that the administrators, that flows into the classroom with those children. So I have a couple of questions. When you had mentioned that there are two classrooms and each have 18 -- is that a full- day program? Are we talking full day for preschool? DUPLAIN: Full day. ERIVES: Full day. So they start at 8:00 to 3:00? DUPLAIN: (Indiscernible) CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 16 of 65 ERIVES: Oh, wow. So they're really getting a good chunk of time there. DUPLAIN: There is some down time. ERIVES: Of course. We all need that. We all need that. DUPLAIN: Exactly. ERIVES: A second question. So if I, hypothetically, right, I'm a parent. My child is about preschool age. I'm a Tolleson resident. How do I apply? Is there like a list? Is there a application process? DUPLAIN: Yes -- ERIVES: Is there a screening that happens? Is there a waiting list that I need to know about? DUPLAIN: So currently there is a waiting list, but you go on our website and fill out the interest form. ERIVES: Okay. DUPLAIN: And then that gets us to our welcome center, and then my admin assistant, Berenice Soto, and then they're called off there. They do a process that they go through collecting different paperwork and that to make sure they qualify financially. ERIVES: Okay. DUPLAIN: And so that -- there's a few steps to it. ERIVES: Okay. DUPLAIN: And then they come in. First priority is our -- as always, is our Tolleson families. ERIVES: Thank you. DUPLAIN: And that is the (indiscernible). ERIVES: Thank you, thank you, thank you. So if there's a waiting list, this program needs to grow and expand. Nice, nice. HERRERA: A lot of advocacy that happens every year like clockwork from, definitely Ms. Duplain, myself, and the team, to find every dollar under every rock to support and advocate for preschool. But knowing what we know about public get even currently, right, it's tough coming from the State. It's -- we don't see it happening. So different CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 17 of 65 grants are written throughout the years, and they come and they go. And so we are looking year-to-year to be quite honest in terms of programing. ERIVES: Look under that rock, maybe find another worm for the little one. Right, right? [LAUGHTER] ERIVES: Thank you ladies for the presentation. Like Mayor had mentioned, that is so helpful because then when we have answers for our constituents, when they have a question. Oh, something about the preschool, we have something, some information to share. Thank you. Thank you. DAVIS: We're a city of industry, and there's like, 35 Fortune 500 companies here. Have any of them ever funded preschool before? HERRERA: Not that I know of. Not as of yet. We're hoping that at some point we can loop them in a little bit closer. DUPLAIN: Uh-huh. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I meant to ask, to say that, going back to the investment example, I think that is amazing. I saw the smile and bright futures. As a quasi, by default, part- time teacher, I get to -- my wife works at P.H., so I get to hear the stories of the kids every day. And you know, the really nice stories, or really good stories. We have amazing kids. And amazing kids become better because of the investments that we put into them. So I want to thank you guys as a school district for being an amazing partner. All the commitment from your staff members day in and day out that make the reality for our kids that much bigger and brighter. And I just want to let Council know that the superintendent did invite us for a tour, I believe it's March 4th. Midar (ph.)'s not here. He was the one that we're coordinating with. But March 4th at 9 a.m. at P.H. Gonzalez. If any Council member would like to go and attend and actually get a tour of the program itself, March 4th at 9 a.m. , we'll be there and no breakfast. So if you want your breakfast burrito -- [LAUGHTER] HERRERA: We will have some nice -- some nice treats. DUPLAIN: Awesome. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 18 of 65 HERRERA: Thank you. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: But yeah, I definitely plan to be there, and I look forward to visiting P.H. Gonzalez on the 4th at 9 a.m. and getting to say hi to the kids and celebrating this partnership. And thanks for coming in. All right. Thank you. All right. We're going to rock and roll through some of this. Business for the floor, we don't have any. H is our Consent Agenda. I see a total of five items on the consent agenda for action. GAMEZ: Motion to exclude them. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: We have a motion to exclude by Councilmember Gamez. LABORIN: Second. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: We have a second by Councilmember Laborin. All those in flavor -- in favor, please signify by saying aye. ALL: Aye. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: All those opposed? Not hearing any. Madam Clerk, motion passes unanimously. We're going to move on to Work Study and presentations for discussion. Item number one is Housing Study Update. We got revitalization manager Shows? GAMEZ: Schaus Noel? MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: What is it? GAMEZ: Schaus. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Shaus, yes You have the floor, ma'am. Better known as Noel. SCHAUS: Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Vice Mayor and Councilmembers. I'm pleased to be here this evening to share with you some information that we have to share about a housing study that was conducted over the last year. Gave us some really important information with specifics for Tolleson. Housing has obviously come into everybody's awareness, and the affordability issues for housing nationwide. But this gives us a little bit more specific data for our community. This was funded, I just want to mention by MAG. They had a grant that allowed us, and CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 19 of 65 several other communities, to have that housing needs assessment done and an action plan prepared. It was developed through Matrix Design Group, and they started working with our staff last year, around this time in February. And they finished it back in December. So pleased to share this with you. Why this study matters. We wanted to be able to provide some really -- some good data to identify affordability gaps for the community, what people are able to pay versus what the costs for housing are. We wanted to evaluate what our housing supply is and what's needed, now and in the future, to guide policy decisions to ensure affordable housing for all people, for include -- to include everybody in the community. Key findings. These may not be super-revelatory, but we can go into more specifics. But as we know, housing costs have been rising faster than incomes. Renters, especially, face severe cost burdens. And we'll talk -- I'll talk quite a bit about this because I think this was probably the most -- not surprising, but the -- the level of need and the burden was much greater than I had even anticipated when I was reading the data. As we know, the senior population is growing and is particularly vulnerable. I think we see that every day. I do, working right next to the senior center. And we know that there's a housing supply shortage, but it's especially acute for lower income households. For Tolleson, some key demographics. As of 2022 -- so the data -- and I'm referring back to 2022. All of this data was gathered to be comparative. So it's pulling from data sources and sources basically that look at a -- at a range of dates from 2017 to 2022. So some of this is a little dated. Obviously a lot has happened in the last few years, but these are trends. So and as of 2022, population was about 7,200, largely Latino community, almost a fifth or a little bit more than a fifth of our residents are 65 or older. A median household income of 47,875, at that time, even, was quite low for even the county and the state. And an 18.9-percent poverty rate, also a little bit higher than the County and the State. Just to put some demographic context. Looking at the housing stock, there were 27 -- about 2,700 total housing units, the majority being single-family detached homes, 34 percent multifamily units, apartments, CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 20 of 65 and with some limited duplexes, townhomes. Actually townhomes. I think our first townhomes are officially being built, like right now. Right there on the corner of 99th and Van Buren. We do have maybe a few ADUs coming along. We know that we have some housing and mobile homes, but there's not a lot of other middle -- what we call missing middle housing. And there are -- what the study found is there's really not sufficient affordable options for the variety of income ranges that we have. The rental market challenge. Back then, the median rent here in Tolleson was about $1,100. I'm thinking now, the kind of rents that we see, the rental requests are much higher than that. We see 1,800, $2,000 for market rate right now. And so that rent has gone up. But just for comparison purposes, at that time, the median renter income was only 27,000, whereas the income needed to afford rent was 44 -- almost 45,000. That's a very big gap. And that that's where you're going to start seeing overcrowding with people moving in together to afford. You're going to see some people slide into homelessness if they miss rents. What was interesting at that time, as well, 2017 to 2022, is renter income actually dropped while rents increased by 30 percent. That's not sustainable. Here's just kind of a little visual of the rental affordability gap. The rental cost burden. I mentioned that this was kind of -- these were kind of the numbers that surprised me a little bit. We think of cost burden as when we spend more than 30 percent of our gross income on housing, 68 percent of renters are cost burden, 93 percent of seniors are cost burdened. 42 percent of people are severely cost burdened, which means they spend more than 50 percent of their gross income on rent. Anybody under -- or renters under $50,000 in income are cost burdened. So I mean, I think -- we see this every day. It's like I said, it's still kind of shocked me. And the severe rent burden is much more pronounced in Tolleson. And I can think of seniors that I talk to quite often that this is something that keeps them from thriving, really. And it's just -- it's hard to see. For homeownership, we also know that there's a large challenge with affordable CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 21 of 65 homeownership. Not only have costs arise -- been rising for housing, but our incomes aren't keeping up. Interest rates are obviously causing -- are a piece of that. But the income needed to afford a median home back in 2023 was $91,000. Again, the median household income here was a little bit more than half that. The result of that, really, is that first-time home buyers are locked out. So it's a challenge for our younger families and folks that are wanting to get from rental into homeownership. 28 percent of homeowners are cost burdened. So it really -- it really is that they face a fight, a greater financial strain. Going forward, it's something that, if we want our community to grow and have families, as well as seniors thrive here, it's something to think about what kind of policies and things we can -- we can do to help create more affordable housing. Housing units needed. They, through a variety of calculations, came up with 417 units was the shortage at that time as of 2022. 249 rentals, 168 ownership units. The strongest demand, again, among low-income households that 83 percent of the units must be affordable at 80 percent or less, AMI. Which means that we're -- we need attainable housing for folks that are the ones that have fewer resources. Market rate housing right now is just not attainable for most of the people in the community. The numbers at the bottom of the screen, I just kind of was putting that up here for -- I guess just to give you an idea. Currently for a two-person household earning $72,000 a year to be affordable, their housing costs should not exceed about $1,800 a month. Again, we're finding that most rents are 18 to 2,000. And then for someone at 50 percent of AMI, $45,000 a year for two people -- they I don't even know -- there are there are units out there for 1,125 a month, but they're few and far between. There's waitlists for them. There's just not enough of that at that price point. So just to reiterate primary areas of need. Affordable rentals. Workforce housing. Workforce housing is typically thought of as like, hey, what would our nurses, or police officers, or educators be able to afford, like the 60 percent, 100 percent, 120 percent of AMI. Senior housing is a is an area of need, and I know that's definitely an interest that you have as a priority for the council this year. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 22 of 65 Smaller units, interestingly, a lot of the units that have been developed in the last several years are larger, like three, three-bedroom units. But what the study found is that we have a lot more households that could really use one- and two-bedroom units. And then, first-time buyer options, obviously -- I mean, there are different first-time buyer programs out there that we refer people to when they come to us. But it would be great to sort of layer -- layer those kinds of funding options, especially for people that don't typically qualify for the subsidies, like for 80 percent and below. So we need to be able to expand some of those programs. Some key strategic principles that the study recommends is to focus on production of housing for folks at -- or below 80 percent of AMI. That's where 83 percent of the demand lies. Address the severe rent burden first, because 42 percent of renters are spending more than half their income on rent. Target seniors and smaller households, because that's where the demographics really show the needs are. Increase supply while reducing costs, because production and regulatory reform must occur together. Use local leverage to attract outside capital. Tolleson can't solve this alone without state and federal resources. So some targeted strategies that I'll talk about briefly. And I would love to share this with you if you're interested. It is a 94-page report. So this is very brief and very high- level, but the targeted strategies I'll just kind of talk about tonight include establishing a workforce housing trust fund is a suggestion, would be a local, flexible funding tool that would allow the City to support affordable rental development, first-time homebuyer assistance. It could do gap financing for tax credit projects and help preserve affordable units. So for instance, it could augment what we already do with CDBG funds to repair homes for the low -- for lower income homeowners. Why would the -- this kind of trust fund would matter. Would provide local leverage to attract low-income housing tax credit projects, and state and federal investment. The private market alone, again, will not produce affordable units. Expand mixed -- missing middle housing. I think the council has already taken some steps to allow ADUs. Maybe consider expanding that possibility. Permitting duplexes CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 23 of 65 and triplexes in appropriate zones. Reducing lot size minimums. Maybe offer pre- approved ADU designs. That would just support seniors aging in place. Expanding naturally affordable units, and provide smaller units that are needed. Reduce development barriers. I think the city actually has quite a few waivers and deferring of -- of fees for affordable housing, but maybe we look at that, see if there are other things we could do. Maybe reduce parking requirements in certain developments, or certain types of developments. Offer density bonuses. These impact by lowering construction costs and improving feasibility. Senior Housing and Aging in place. Strategy 4, offer fee relief for senior housing. Encourage ADUs, maybe for caregiver housing. Very hard, obviously, to afford having someone cared for in another facility. Continue to expand the home modification program, and pursue HUD funding for Section 202 and 811, which is basically support services for seniors and folks with disabilities and housing. Impact for this. Without senior housing expansion, we could see more overcrowding, less housing stability, and more homelessness, to be honest. Partnerships and funding. We want to collaborate, if possible, with nonprofit housing providers. We currently do with FSL Home improvements, for instance. There are several others that we could bring into the fold with mission driven private developers, regional and public agencies, with HUD, the Department of Housing, Maricopa County, and the Housing Authority. We would like to attract, if possible, low-income housing, housing tax credits, more CDBG funds, which we go after every couple of years. And then, if we have a housing trust fund, we could leverage that money with these other dollars to match grants. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: (Indiscernible). SCHAUS: Yeah. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: We have to put a certain amount of funds, we just have to match, or (indiscernible) or we can apply to other agencies to get (indiscernible) SCHAUS: I think all of the above. And I can bring some examples, and we can kind of look into that if that's something the Council is interested in exploring. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 24 of 65 MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: But honestly, the mechanics behind it are difficult to see how it impacts the end goal (indiscernible) SCHAUS: Yeah, I'd be glad to -- to get some more information. The study itself kind of provides some examples. And so maybe I can talk to city management and put some information together for another meeting? Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Just final takeaways. Tolleson's challenge is primarily affordability. The rental burden is severe and widespread. Seniors are uniquely vulnerable. And barriers for rental is also homeownership are -- are growing. But I think there are some things that the Council and City can do to maybe provide some solutions. And I'm excited to share the study with you and maybe revisit down the road, especially with the Workforce Housing Trust Fund and any other ideas you might have MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I'll turn it over to Council now, if anybody has questions or comments or. I have a couple things I can add. A couple things that really jumped out at me, and I think ideas that I have -- we've explored in the past. Obviously, senior housing is on the top of the Council's list. I know I've heard it from multiple people. Senior living development that allows folks to stay, not only in town, but maybe get services while they're there. So maybe assisted living units, and then not so assisted, like, you know, you can sustain yourself kind of units, because obviously people age into -- as they age, they need their -- their percentage of need increases, incrementally as they, as they lose mobility or suffer different medical conditions, that kind of stuff. I asked about the fund. But also, I'm a big fan right now of condo because I read a study that the average buy in price right now, versus the income of a person, that puts the average American at about 40 years of age before they qualify for a mortgagee, to be able to buy their first home. 40 is ridiculous. I mean, look, I mean, that's -- that -- to me, if you got to wait till you're 40 to buy your first house, man, that's like the American dream is kind of skipping you by, you know. I mean, the first 40 years of your life, you got to build up just to be able to get a mortgage, have a big enough down payment. That's crazy. But one of the ideas that that I know we've been tossing around is the idea of building CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 25 of 65 condos like they used to back in the day, but with individual ownership. So maybe it's a one- or two-unit condo, and maybe it looks like apartments or something that is high density development. But you can own it. You can buy it. And so somebody coming out of high school, going to work at one of the warehouses, for example, they would be able to afford something like that as a starter home. Then, as they advance in their employment, and in their income, to the higher brackets, maybe they can qualify to get a rental unit then, or maybe purchase a home. My only fear with that is that a lot of folks tend to hold on to those units, and then turn them into an enterprise, and they want to rent them out. And so now I got a source of income, which is fine. But I think the focus for me is ownership. I think that would be great. And they don't have to wait till they're 40 to buy a condo versus a three- bedroom home. You have your hand up, or? GAMEZ: I'm just stretching my fingers. [Laughter] MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: If there's any -- I'm going to turn it over. I wrote something else down, but I -- my handwriting is really bad, so I got to decipher my own handwriting. [LAUGHTER] DAVIS: Welcome to the reality of my entire generation. We cannot afford to buy homes. That's just what it is. You mentioned ADUs. What more could we do in that space? SCHAUS: If I remember right, the AD -- are the ADUs available in certain parts of like certain parts of the zoning areas or something -- DAVIS: I thought legislator had changed the rules on that. Is that correct? What -- what -- so how does that look? What are people -- UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 5: Mayor, members of the council, we've had several ADUs come before you. We talked about maybe expanding the program, some of the issues that we can come back with another study. Both Noel and I can look at it. It's just some of the areas of the city, the lots may not permit for that due to setbacks and that CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 26 of 65 kind of thing. It's usually the larger lots areas, but we'll look into it more to see if we can expand into the smaller lots. It might be difficult, but we'll definitely look and see if we can do something there. DAVIS: I mean, I'm very much in favor of that. I mentioned that in the past. I know that we were looking at it, and I know the legislature changed some rules, but let's definitely take a deep dive into that, because whatever we can do to help people in our community find affordable housing, I think we need to do. Especially when the -- what was the percentage of seniors that are, you know, facing these issues? That's absolutely outrageous. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Also, we have a lot of homes that have, I would say, probably lived the majority of their life, they're dilapidated, they're falling apart. Some of them are abandoned. And I know we've done a good job of buying some of those properties, especially the ones that have criminal elements that have moved in. But I'm a big fan of kind of looking away from, from really building fees for those kinds of properties, because if we have a developer that's willing to come in, buy an old home, demolish it, and then build a brand-new unit that modernizes our current housing stock. So I really like the idea of whatever building permits we have if we can reduce the rates to a percentage, if they prove that what their intent is to basically build a new home on that property, I would be a big fan of that as well. And I know we do some of that already, but I think if we do more of that, it may encourage more private development from folks that want to flip one or two homes a year, or maybe 10. It's up to them. But they come into our community and they say, okay, this house was built in the 1930s, and you know, parts of it is still -- is adobe. And the roof is collapsing and nobody -- so I'd like to buy it. And honestly, the other part of it too, is a lot of the nanas and tatas have moved away or passed away. And so the great-grandkids own it, and they don't live here. So it's a thought way in the back of their mind, you know, about that house that nana and tata lived in. And so how do we make that house something modern that the new generation of Tollesonians, or maybe those grandkids can move back and consider that CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 27 of 65 a housing unit they can thrive in and build a family in. So hold on. Okay. Councilmember Chavira? CHAVIRA: We have a number of properties, as we'll be talking about, some properties that the city already owns, and perhaps we can further our conversation on using some of the properties that we already own to maybe serve some of these needs. And we can see where the zoning applies, and what things maybe we need to change, perhaps, for some of those properties if it can work. So I mean, I think we have some options that we could perhaps already use. SCHAUS: Yeah. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Vice Mayor? DAVIS: I'll say there, out loud. Maybe some retail on the bottom and housing on top. SCHAUS: Yeah. Sure. DAVIS: Got to go up because we're landmarked. SCHAUS: Sure. DAVIS: What are we -- rent control. That's my question. Like what -- what are -- what can I -- not -- no? He's shaking his head. Absolutely not. Not allowed? [LAUGHTER] MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: For the record, that's our City Attorney. [LAUGHTER] MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: But I like the idea of thinking out of the box. I mean, I think it's critical. Oh, I'm sorry. Another hand. ERIVES: I agree with what everyone is saying. When we went to Utah this last National League of Cities, they had their conference up there. We attended a mobile unit. It's like a little workshop. They take you in a little bus to a tiny village, and they had these tiny homes. What I thought the presentation was going to be about was how to use this land. Maybe some tiny homes for people to maybe start their first-time home ownership. It was a little bit different than that, but it did get our ideas -- what we need to do and how we can do this started. So I'm excited if we look outside the box like you had mentioned. Maybe some properties that we have. Maybe, I don't know, a CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 28 of 65 veteran's village, so veterans could qualify. Maybe Workforce like we had mentioned. So just different ways. Vice Mayor had mentioned that this generation is trying to find housing. My daughter said the same thing. She was getting ready to purchase a home. Within the first seven minutes of the house being on the market, it was sold. And she was like, well, I didn't even get a chance to look at the home because someone else, an investor, is purchasing the home, not to live there, right. So then she didn't even get a chance to be part of the game, in essence, right. So how do we allow -- how can we best help so that there are not investors coming in. And I don't know if that's even legal for us to be involved, but I'm just saying we have to do something different than what we're doing. For our senior population, you had mentioned it was a fifth of our population that could be potentially find themselves without a home, right? That's not okay either. There's a lot of things that we need to do. I'm glad we're having this conversation. I think we need to have continued conversation on this. Thank you, Ms. Schaus. SCHAUS: Thank you. ERIVES: Thank you. The study's good. I'd like to read it. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. Talking about the National League of Cities. Many, many moons ago, I attended a conference, and there was this idea, which I thought was -- I thought it was silly at first, but it kind of made sense. Their municipality was -- their problem was that properties were too expensive. It was a upper socioeconomic community. And so the city was buying properties, and they had contracted a contractor to come in and build new homes. But the person that qualified for it didn't have to worry about buying the property. They just had to pay the cost of the home, and they had to sign up for financial management classes, and they had to sign a long- term mortgage for the home, for the actual structure. And then, after so many years, the City actually would give them the property. And so that home, it made it easier for them to qualify for a mortgage, because instead of having to pay for the actual land, you're only paying for the structure, and the construction of it. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 29 of 65 And then after 15 years, they saw that their commitment to the community, and that financial management has kicked in, and they're able to save up more money, the City would be like, okay, you earned it. And you're now a Tollesonian. And so they get to keep the house. And of course, they would be able to pay off the mortgage that much faster because it's a smaller amount. You only got to pay for the actual structure. But I thought to myself, that's either a very dumb idea or that's genius. One of the two. [LAUGHTER] MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: But we're the ones -- it's not really a policy issue. It's a national issue. SCHAUS: Right. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: And that's a problem. Nationally, it's a big problem, but it's also an opportunity because this is what people like yourself, people that speak housing language, that enjoy reading 94-page documents on housing, define best practice on H21, because everybody's trying to find a solution for the same problem. SCHAUS: Yeah. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: And again, maybe working in Utah, or Washington State or New York, Florida, Newfoundland, they have a good example with what's here. So I do want to -- I do want to continue the conversation and exploration of opportunities, because I think if we all put our heads together, we can find the right solution. And so I just want to thank you. Great presentation, great information. SCHAUS: Thank you, Mayor. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: It's one of the things that we talked about because we have a house, right. Or at least, I have a house. And so unless you bring it to our attention, and continue to remind us that this is an issue in our community, we have to continue the connectivity and our commitment to that subject matter. Housing is very important for our community, and you're the vocal reminder of why it's so significant. So thank you for coming in front of us. Council, any other questions? Comments? Yeah, come on back. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 30 of 65 SCHAUS: We will. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: All right moving on. We're going to regular agenda action item. Item number one is to adopt or deny resolution number 2633 of the Mayor and City Council, the City of Tolleson, Arizona, approving financial support for the redevelopment of two current public housing properties within the City of Tolleson, approving a loan in the amount of $500,000 , at an interest rate of two to three percent, approving development related fees, waivers and in an amount of at least $100,000, authorizing the City manager to execute the intergovernmental agreement and related documents and declaring an emergency. I'm going to turn it over to Jason Earp, our Development Services Department. EARP: Thank you. Mayor, vice mayor, members of the Council. Perfect segue to this. We're excited about this project. Gerald Minott will be presenting this, and solving some of our issues that Noel just discussed, hopefully, with their application that's due in April. But I won't steal his thunder. So go ahead, Gerald. Thank you. MINOTT: Greetings, Mayor, City Council. Thank you for having me. Thank you, Jason, for that wonderful introduction. I'll try to be concise because I know we've had a lot of presentations. My name is Gerald Minott, Executive Director for the Housing Authority of Maricopa County. I have also on the call on the -- virtually, we have our housing development manager, Chanchal Singh. So we just wanted to present a great opportunity to speak to some of the presentations that have already happened, specifically housing, but also it speaks to the earlier conversation about education. So we want to speak to that. So Baden homes and Hollar apartments. The housing authority is looking to redevelop this particular property. And it would be beneficial for listening ears to hear this because it's I'm excited. So just to talk a little bit about the Housing Authority, we're not just a housing authority that just sits around and pushes a whole lot of paperwork. We're also a developer. We have jurisdiction over Maricopa County, with the exception of different cities that have their own housing authority. City of Scottsdale, City of Chandler, different cities like that. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 31 of 65 But we're considered a high performer. We have several housing options. We have housing choice vouchers that we administer, about 1,800 of those throughout Maricopa County. We also have multifamily housing development, and we also manage that. So we're not a typical developer where we create the housing stock, and then we leave. We actually stay committed because we have a subsidy, and we have responsibilities on a federal and a state level to manage those properties. We have about 869 units that we manage. Since 2016, the Housing Authority has developed 801 tax credit units, through either a tax credit application or a co- partnership. Currently, we are developing redeveloping -- re-developing a property in Avondale. That's our largest property. It's 120 units. And so we're in the process of doing that right now. The Housing Authority has been, like I mentioned, a high performer. We've been working with families, many of housing options, affordable housing options, well over 80 years now. So we have been in the market to develop properties like this. So this is Madison Heights on the left. It's in Avondale on Dysart. It's 143 units. That was one of our prized properties there. Top right-hand corner of the River at Eastline Village. It's in Tempe. It's 56 units. It is a -- that was a brand-new construction there. And then at the bottom right, Heritage at Surprise, that's 100 units there. That was also a brand-new construction. The two on the right are both owned and managed by the housing authority. The one on the left is a co-partnership with the housing authority, with the developer. So those are kind of some of the outcomes that we have. This is a prime example of what we are really passionate about. This is Norton Circle redevelopment. So on the left, that's the before. So that's kind of a military barracks- style public housing, brick-and-mortar, cement, rough, dilapidated space. And we converted that 46 units to 100 units. And that's on the right. It was leased, 100 percent in three months. And that's the space on the bottom right-hand side. So it went from the before, to the after, 46 units. We increased density from 46 to 100 and allowed it to be a lot more modern and a lot more smiling faces and families. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 32 of 65 This is Heritage Senior Apartments. This was recently opened in October of last year. This is 99 units, brand new construction. The Housing Authority owns and manages this particular property. It has Section 202. Noel mentioned that a little bit earlier. This is an investment and partnership with the City of Surprise. This is actually the second property that we have, which are almost right next to each other. But Heritage Senior Apartments is a part of a old-town site initiative by the city, and they're actually building -- after we completed this, they're currently building their multigenerational center. That'll go right next to the Heritage Senior Apartments. But this particular project includes nine percent tax credits, and it also has HUD Section 202 with it. So we kind of see, kind of, some of the development that has taken place. The proposal that we're seeking out now is Baden and Hollar Apartments. So this is existing property, existing families, existing homes, that we want to modernize. There's 45 units. They are in need of not only a fresh coat of paint, but a lot more amenities inside the unit. This particular property currently is four -- one to four bedrooms. We're going to convert it to one to three bedrooms. We want to include supportive services. We want include -- those are wraparound services for resident services. We want to include a higher density, going from 45 units to 100 , and keep the affordable housing option, or the affordable housing subsidy that's on the property. When we say affordable, we mean -- I mean, families pay 30 percent of their income. This is a design concept here. Like I mentioned, this will include a property that's adjacent from one another, 100 units. It'll include a clubhouse with amenities or the existing two properties, Baden and Hollar. They do not have a leasing office on site, so families have to go elsewhere to get that support. But this will include a clubhouse with amenities, a play area, a tot lot, and will be around two to three story building. This is the project timeline. We're looking to get the support from the City Council. We're going to put in our tax credit application for nine percent April 1st. Announcements are roughly around June. We'll look to bring in an investor to help support the financing in August, do our due diligence, look for project closing, CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 33 of 65 construction completion around September of next year, and then have stabilized occupancy by December of 2027. So that's the brief timeline. So the investment -- I heard that earlier, that word -- is really the -- to help the Housing Authority assist with the tax credit application aspect. The State of Arizona is extremely competitive when it comes to funding for housing, whether that's bonds, tax credits, nine percents, four percents. And because of that competitiveness, it's important that we score very high on that -- on that scoring criteria for tax credits. There's two specific scoring criteria: local government contributions of at least 500,000, and developer fee waivers of at least 100,000. So those two scoring criteria will assist with a scoring, as we scored it now, 180 points out of a possible 185. Developers that typically get the tax credits are scoring in that range. So it's very, like I said, competitive. So would we be very helpful to have those two criteria so that we can maximize the amount of scores that we have when we go in for application. So the other thing that I wanted to bring up is, right now, the property, hasn't been named yet, as we're going to redevelop it. So we had two possible ideas, three possible ideas, Residence at Roosevelt, Garden Court Apartments, and Flats at 93rd Avenue. And so those are the potential names that we're going to name this new redevelopment investment of housing in the City of Tolleson. So I wanted to open it up for questions if you have any questions for me. DAVIS: First, the name's missing Tolleson. So. [LAUGHTER] DAVIS: (Indiscernible) MINOTT: Great question. Yes. So the families that are there now, they'll have the first right to refusal. They can come back to the property. Obviously, we would have to relocate them, because we're going to demo the entire property, and they would come back. So similarly, we've done this on three other projects. But 80 to 90 percent of families that had to relocate came back to the property. Yeah. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: By the way, I am a big fan of Brandon Talks, (ph.) always a square mile. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 34 of 65 MINOTT: Yes. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Somehow we've got (indiscernible) Tolleson to date (indiscernible). MINOTT: Tracking. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yes, Councilmember? CHAVIRA: So will all the units be LIHTC, or will there be a mix then, of public housing, Section 8 voucher, or just -- MINOTT: Great question. CHAVIRA: -- all LIHTC? MINOTT: No, that's a great question. So the entire property will be tax credit, but on another layer of -- of subsidy, there will be what's called project-based rental assistance. That's the assistance that we currently have with HUD. We would not remove that. And that allows the families to only have to pay 30 percent of their income for their rent. GAMEZ: You mentioned -- MINOTT: Yes, of course. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: You mentioned services, and I'm just wondering, I know you brought up the leasing office, but what other services do the residents get in their contract? MINOTT: Yeah. So typically with tax credit applications, there are resident services that have to be included in that lower agreement. Certain agreements haven't been finalized yet. But typically what we see on properties that we do is financial literacy. We -- that is a resident service requirement, so that families that are in that particular property have to attend those types of programing. We also have computer literacy. We also have other resident services such as Kids' Cafe different things like that. So it's really a mixture. And it also depends on what the state is requiring as far as those wraparound services for residents. GAMEZ: I just wanted to say, I grew up on (indiscernible). MINOTT: Okay. Okay. GAMEZ: With that Hollar Gardens Apartments. Those are the ones west of where I CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 35 of 65 grew up. And so I had a lot of friends that grew up there, and they're still friends of mine. And I always thought those units were kept up nicely. They were clean. We played a lot of ball there -- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Pope Francis. GAMEZ: -- broke windows and stuff, but nevertheless, got chased around. But we had a great time. And I think this is good that it's happening. I think that it's going to continue to do what it's always done, provide housing for people who need it, but at a greater scale, and I welcome this development. I think it's great. My issues would be the traffic, if anything, and the parking situation for the people that live there. It might be self-sustaining. I don't know. Those are issues that maybe aren't issues, but just concerns. Again, I really do appreciate this. And it kind of tears me up a little bit because what I grew up with, it's all going to be gone, but it's new, so that's cool. That's fine. And so I welcome that, big time. Thank you so much. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Thank you. Anyone on this side? ERIVES: I just have a question. Sorry. I know you speak housing, but when you say those letters, LIHTC, I'm assuming that's a tax credit? CHAVIRA: Yes. ERIVES: And I heard -- they speak a little bit more of that. So can you explain to me, you said the people that live there now have the option of coming back and signing up to be -- to live there. In the meantime, where do they go? MINOTT: So typically when we do relocation, we have a relocation plan. Typically, when we have to demo a property, we place families temporarily in a neighboring property that we manage. So it may be Avondale. It may be -- we have a couple of properties in Avondale. We have different partnerships. We want to keep them close to where they're at, because obviously they may have school --- ERIVES: That was one -- yeah. Uh-huh. MINOTT: -- medical, or those types of things. And we fall into that. We've handled that appropriately. If there isn't something that meets the family's need because it may be size, maybe it's, you know, other extenuating circumstances, we do have some other CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 36 of 65 housing options. ERIVES: So they -- they're -- they go. And what about like, pack -- I mean, I'm just literally thinking of a senora, a woman, right? And she -- she's elderly. Is there assistance to help her pack up the stuff and to physically move her? I don't want anyone hurt, and, you know, just kind of like, oh, I broke my arm when I was moving heavy boxes, and so I wasn't sure if there -- so there's support for that. Okay. So then you said those, those families, if they choose to, they can come back, but you also said they were going to almost double in size, so additional people can come in to live. Do I have to have a voucher, or a Section 8 voucher, for that? Or again, can my daughter say, oh, there's now some new apartments in. Maybe I qualify based on the requirements. Or, like, can you explain that next part? MINOTT: Yes, yes. Thank you for your question. Thank you. So let me go back. So the families that are going to have to temporarily relocate, as part of the relocation plan, we're required to provide them the moving services. So what we offer is the moving services; pack, move, whatever. That's part of what we're going to do in that process. So no one that has maybe -- they have a cast on their hand, and they can't pack, then we take care of things like that. So there's a whole process that goes along with that. In terms of families that have a voucher, so the property currently has assistance on it. So you can't add a Section 8 voucher with project-based assistance, right? Because that would be dual subsidy. So you can't have both. Now, potentially, what would happen is if we're going to increase it to 100 units, 45 would have the assistance. So the 30 percent. But families that maybe have a Section 8 voucher, or they income qualify, because under the tax credit eligibility they have to income qualify, right? They have to be under a certain income level. They could use their Section 8 voucher at the property, as long as it's not -- as long as it doesn't have subsidy already on it, on that unit, right? So if we have 100 units, 45 have subsidy on it, the other 55 would be able to use a Section 8 voucher on it. The other folks that maybe don't have a Section 8 voucher, as long as they income qualify, they could still be able to -- be able to -- be eligible for that unit, even though it CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 37 of 65 is a lower rent cost. So. Okay. CHAVIRA: I'm sorry, I forgot one question I meant to ask is that historically there has not been management there on the property. Would there be now then management on the property and maintenance? Yes? Terrific. Thank you. DAVIS: I've got a bunch of things (indiscernible). [LAUGHTER] DAVIS: You mentioned qualifying income. What is that? MINOTT: That's a great question. And I don't memorize those charts. Because it's also based upon how many -- how many household members you have. It's a whole chart that it comes with the state. I don't have those memorized because I would have to go through each bedroom size and each set aside that's part of the tax credit property program. DAVIS: Families that are (indiscernible) that help them with going to school (indiscernible). MINOTT: Agreed. Right, right. And then right when school starts. Right. Depending on the timing of the development. So we do offer services, and it is somewhat limited. So we have moving, we have transfer fees, we have utility, you know, transfer fees, different things like that that we take care of. But as far as travel to a particular school, if you will, because they had to be temporarily displaced. That is not something that we typically take care of. Okay. DAVIS: If I can (indiscernible) senior center (indiscernible) MINOTT: Uh-huh. DAVIS: It's wonderful. MINOTT: Right. DAVIS: I would have the same concern with them being able to get to the senior center. And you know, that socialization is very important for seniors. Okay. And you also mentioned amenities. What amenities are -- is this property going to have? MINOTT: So we would include -- some of our modern properties include a dishwasher. They would include a garbage disposal -- CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 38 of 65 MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: (Indiscernible) MINOTT: Okay. Okay. So you know, there's certain -- with the property that it exists now, there are certain things that it just doesn't have that we would consider, why is this not in the -- why is this not in the unit? So you know, dishwashers, ceiling fan, different things like that. Obviously, new light fixtures. DAVIS: (Indiscernible) MINOTT: Correct. DAVIS: And (indiscernible) MINOTT: Correct. Yeah. We're not going to do a splash spot, but it would have like a playground. That's something that the property doesn't have. So it would have those types of outdoor amenities. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Jason? EARP: Thank you. Mayor, Vice Mayor. I can't take the credit. Randy thought of this, but it's something we could think about if this comes to fruition, is potentially putting that as part of our Lyft and Uber destination. Or -- and/or -- I can't speak for -- for George, but you know, our vans going out of the city to pick up seniors. DAVIS: (Indiscernible) MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: (Indiscernible) There's going to be a waiting list for these units. Do you go to a county waiting list, or are you going to give Tolleson residents an opportunity, and have a local waiting list here? MINOTT: Great question. So all of our -- the waiting list for this particular property is currently open now. So there is a waiting list, because there is a federal requirement that has to take place because of that -- the subsidy that's on it. For the subsidized units. Those units that don't have subsidy, like that are just tax credit, right, like we talked about the 55, those don't have a waiting list. Those are just, you know, you come out to the property management and you say do you have any available units, that type of thing. So yes, there is a waiting list for the affordable side, but for those that are not, it -- there's a, you know, first come, first served. DAVIS: Can we designate those to the community? Is that possible? CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 39 of 65 MINOTT: It's possible when we go into the application process, there are certain things that we can do as far as set aside. So maybe there is a -- excuse me -- there is a point system for seniors, if you're going to serve those types of populations. So that is something that we could consider. Yeah. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: How about for Section 8? MINOTT: Yeah. So there'll be some -- certain requirements for ADA units. There has to be a certain percentage of that. So we'll have to have that included in that proposal for that development. Yeah. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: (Indiscernible). Well, I didn't grow up on 8, but I grew up with a bunch of friends that grew up in these projects. MINOTT: Okay. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: And so I can tell you I often (indiscernible) my knees on that turf out there many times, playing basketball. But I think it's time for some modernization. I mean, the units have been there. I'm a big masonry guy, I like block. I'll admit it. Bullets can't penetrate through them. Just saying. [LAUGHTER] MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Plywood and chicken wire look kind of bad. But that's the construction model that we have here in Arizona. Tornadoes and that kind of stuff. But I think it's time for modernization. Honestly, the need has grown. Initially, the service that we provided for 45 families. We're on pace to double it at 100 new ones. MINOTT: Uh-huh. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Which I don't think is a crazy ask. MINOTT: Uh-huh. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Well, (indiscernible) is on the property. MINOTT: Right. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: And it's in a sense, self-contained. MINOTT: Uh-huh. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: So I think we do (indiscernible). I really do. And so with that being said, I want to thank you for your presentation. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 40 of 65 MINOTT: Thank you. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I look forward to seeing some renderings of what the -- MINOTT: Uh-huh. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: -- Tolleson development will look like because right now it's theoretical. MINOTT: Uh-huh. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: You see what other things have happened in other cities. MINOTT: Right. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: But as we move closer to Tolleson, and the design starts, I would love to see a follow up to that. MINOTT: Of course. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: And maybe that's something we can do here locally. And then, also, I just want to reiterate, it's very critical for us for a six-foot mile city that Tolleson is prominent as a name. MINOTT: Okay. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: And so, you know, if there's any way that Tolleson can be tied into it, I think, it would be beyond awesome. MINOTT: Yes, sir. Okay. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Vice Mayor? DAVIS: And if there's some space for a mural somewhere on there or some artwork, we're never going to shy away from that. If there's no other --- was there other questions? MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: No, I'm just -- I was making sure nobody else questions. DAVIS: Can I make a motion to adopt resolution number 2633? MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I will now entertain a motion. Vice Mayor has made a motion -- ERIVES: Second. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: -- to adopt. We have a second by, was it Cruzita, or was it -- Clorinda. By Councilwoman Erives. We have a first. We have a second. All those in favor signify by saying aye. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 41 of 65 ALL: Aye. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Those opposed? Awesome. Motion passes. And good luck on the petition. You got the 500,000 and 100,000, so hopefully it puts us in a pretty good competitive place. MINOTT: Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: All right. We're going to move on to item number two. This is to adopt, deny resolution number 2634. This is Jason's walk-up clap. [LAUGHTER] MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: For the Mayor, City Council from the City of Tolleson, Arizona, authorizing the sale of the City parcel number 102-48-263, located at the northeast corner of 91st Avenue and Van Buren Street to Schultz Real Estate Management Corp. and authorizing the Mayor, City Manager, City Clerk, and City Attorney to execute and deliver the purchase contract, and all related documents necessary to complete the transaction development. Mr. Jason Earp, Development Services Director, you have the floor, sir. EARP: Thank you. Mayor. Vice Mayor, Members of Council. First of all, this is a step forward to something that the City has been wanting, the community has been wanting it awhile. Myself, with our team, certainly Jon Paladini, has helped put this together tonight. And they're also on virtually, if there's any questions for them, but I'll just kind of go over some highlights. It would be the sale of the northeast corner of 91st and Van Buren. We're selling it for $1 million. Some of the requirements for this development, it has to be a minimum of 15-year lease. It has to include a grocery store that has a minimum of 30,000 square feet. They have a due diligence time. They're working with someone now, but that would be nine months. And for some reason, if in that time, whether it's nine months or even shorter, they cannot fulfill that that requirement, then the property reverts back to us, and then we can move on looking for someone else. But we think, and another important aspect of this, if they do move forward, they build a beautiful plaza area with a grocery store, and other stores around it, and in two years CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 42 of 65 they want to sell it, we have first right of refusal to purchase it and own it for as long as the City would want to own that. So we make sure to put a lot things in place to make sure that we're protected, that this property is just not bought and then developed into something else. And if, Jon, you want to add anything else to that, that's kind of the gist of the -- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Let me mention that -- MINOTT: Oh, go ahead. Mayor. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Question is this. It's zoned commercial, but it has to be a grocery store of at least 30,000 square feet that would be built on? EARP: That is correct. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: No commercial development without our approval can be built there? PALADINI: Right, the, Mayor and Council, the current purchase agreement will be followed up at some point during the escrow by a development agreement. It's required in the purchase-and-sale agreement, but there'll be basically a deed restriction that requires that the property be used for at least a 30,000-square foot grocery store. As the primary tenant or occupier of the property, there's a likelihood that there'll be some other ancillary shops and maybe a restaurant pad or fast food pad or something like that that goes along with it. I think the other thing that the buyer-slash-developer is going to be obligated to do is -- is fix that big drainage hole, you know, that's going to -- that's there, you know, so that's why the cost is a little bit less than appraised. But when you look at sort of the engineering that needs to go into the property to make it usable, it, you know, we're pretty -- what was what's the word? Satisfied with purchase price, and then the -- for the long term return on investment. EARP: Jon, I just need a small correction because of that -- what's there is -- it comes off of 91st Avenue, has nothing to do with the project actually. So we're going to use other CIP funds -- PALADINI: Okay. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 43 of 65 EARP: -- to move that off of it. So that would be our responsibility. But under another fund because that's drainage from 91st Avenue, not from the actual property. PALADINI: The only other -- not the only other thing, but what you will see, I think, in two weeks is bringing to you a zoning, or amendment to the core zoning code that allows -- because right now it doesn't allow for 30,000 square feet for a grocery store. So there'll be a code amendment that will create an exception to that for a grocery store purpose. So you know, unless you want it to be, you know, another 30,000 square foot sort of box stores. But the kind of thought -- the thought was is to allow for 30,000 square foot grocery store in the core zone. And I think our thinking is that if and when this one goes in, you probably won't see another one for a while. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: In our core zone, is there any other lot -- building that size? EARP: Potentially the southwest corner of Van Buren. PALADINI: And you know, again, getting a little bit ahead. But, you know, developers can always cobble together multiple parcels, and you know -- so it's always possible, I think. So that's why we're going to do it sort of strategically to allow for, you know, a 30,000-square foot grocery store. And by the way, a 30,000 square foot, I think the agreement says it -- that's the retail space. So if you talk about like the back areas, offices, that's an addition too. So that's a pretty good size full-service grocery store. Yeah. EARP: That's pretty much it. Obviously staff is recommending this, and hopefully sometime in the near future, we have a grocery store. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Well, this is -- this obviously has been a lot of work, just making -- I know Jason has seen, Reyes and other management folks have done amazing work and going out there and marketing this site. Our developers also has done a great job, and you know, we're not quite there yet, but this is a major step in that direction. So you know, I think it's -- it's a good step. And then they're going to pay us for it. You said a million dollars? EARP: Yes. For the property. Yes. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 44 of 65 MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: (indiscernible), so I think it's a good idea. ERIVES: When you mentioned -- thank you, Mayor. When you mentioned the million, can you just tell me again, you said if in nine months they don't get a -- EARP: Yes. ERIVES: -- it returns back to us? EARP: So they have an initial -- ERIVES: Do we have to pay them back the million? Do we have to refund them? PALADINI: No, no, because it will be -- it will still be an escrow. So -- and there's an extension period of the escrow. So right now we're anticipating nine months. I think they have an extension up to another six months after that. So you know, just to lock down a tenant, you know, a grocery store tenant and then -- and then once they do that, then they close escrow, then then that's when the purchase proceeds come to the city. ERIVES: I just wanted to make sure that we looked, but we really didn't find anything. And so we -- PALADINI: Just be clear the agreement allows either party, the city, or -- as a seller and the buyer/developer to cancel the escrow up to that time period, if for some reason can't accomplish what we're trying to accomplish. Because the whole goal of across the street is to get that grocery store. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Attorney and staff have done an amazing job of putting together a contract that protects the city, and that's a perfect example of how it's doing that. But any other questions? Yes, please. DAVIS: I think this is a great step forward being out there, you know, talking to the community lately this, still, one of the number one asks of our community, so -- and our -- our residents deserve equitable access to food. So if we can -- all food, you know --- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Fruits and vegetables. DAVIS: Good food. You know, not fast food, not McDonald's. Sorry, McDonald's [LAUGHTER] CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 45 of 65 DAVIS: (indiscernible) guardrails, safe, it'll help. (Indiscernible) MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: And this is (indiscernible) talking about this great development that's coming down the road. There's a lot of pieces that have to fall into place, but this is a very significant first piece. So the work that's gone into it is also very significant. So again, I just want to reiterate my thank you for staff's efforts, and continued commitment to an ongoing goal to get where we need to be, and -- somebody talking? (Indiscernible) did they want to speak? I don't have any questions. I just have a lot of gratitude at this point. So any other questions? All right. Well, funny enough, I will entertain a motion. GAMEZ: (Indiscernible) MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Okay. We have a motion by Councilmember Gamez. DAVIS: Second. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: We have a second by Vice Mayor Davis. All those in favor of approving this item, please signify by saying aye. ALL: Aye. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: All those opposed? Okay, Clerk, motion passes unanimously. We are going to move on to Work Study, and so, Jason, thank you very much. Are you -- EARP: Thank you mayor. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: So just because we want to be efficient, I don't want Jason to walk all the way back. Stay where you're at. This is a Work Study and presentation for discussion only. This is city owned property update. And guess who's going to be presenting? Our Development Services Director, Jason Earp. EARP: Thank you. Mayor. So this is an overview of the properties that the city owns. I know a couple of the councilmembers have -- am I hitting the wrong one? The big -- the big button, right. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. [LAUGHTER] EARP: Any questions? [LAUGHTER] EARP: So these properties -- there's about 11 properties. We're going to discuss the CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 46 of 65 current status, identify development opportunities, and then receive Council direction. And just wanted to let you know, also, we have Ruby Arvizu, from our department here taking notes, so if anything that's said, we're -- I know it's recorded, but you never know. I want to make sure we capture everything that's -- that's said. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Who? EARP: What was that ? Arvizu. Ruby Arvizu. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Arvizu? EARP: Yep. So this is kind of an overview of our 11 properties that we own. And we'll get a closer look at them. The ones -- the ones in red are still in escrow. So they're officially not ours yet. But those were approved by Council, and we're working towards those. But we'll also go over those as well. So we might as well start off with the -- the biggest one which we dub the Pit. It's undeveloped property. There's certain things we could do. We talked about them earlier with Noel's, and also the county's, you know, build to rent or lease to own housing, for sale, residential. Obviously, that would be market driven. Or public parks- slash- recreation or all the above. You know, so this is one of the ones that we're here to tonight to get feedback from Mayor and Council on what you want to look for it, look at in this area. So this is kind of just a description or shows where it's at, Villa del Verde. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: My perspective, earlier when I was talking about purchasable condos, this is a property that comes to mind. I like the idea of incorporating a park and maybe putting the condos on the edge side of it. And then, this is also where our trail system -- is going to -- it's going to border this property, so we can tie in the trail system into it. But I would love to see condos that young, or anybody can purchase. But particularly young folks coming out of Tolleson can buy as a first home, as a starter home, as they build up their income to be able to do something more significant, like build a -- buy -- buy a bigger home. But this parcel has amazing opportunities for a pond, a fishing pond. It's got access to the canal right there. (Indiscernible). Stuff like that. Nothing too crazy, like I wouldn't want to see Workforce here. It'd be CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 47 of 65 more of a passive. But of course, the housing, I think, is critical. And maybe the parking and rest stop area for some of the homeowners we have, (indiscernible). But that's what I would like to see. DAVIS: I agree. My doctor told me recently that he was (indiscernible) find that out there. [LAUGHTER] DAVIS: But I do think that's a great spot for some type of mixed use with -- with parks. And you know, I think I think a pond would really be great. And condos would be amazing more. But condos that you can purchase, not -- not rent. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yes? CHAVIRA: Thank you. I also love that idea. I think that would be great to have some condos, to have a pond, to have the dog park, a walking space. It can be integrated into our multimodal project that's coming through. All great ideas. Love it. I think I would like to see us have perhaps a town hall at some point and talk to the community that lives in that area and get some ideas to what they might like to see. By then, we're going to have the aquatic center coming up and have it all work together. Awesome. I love it. Yeah. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: (Indiscernible). Maybe 5th Avenue and Van Buren. And Del Valle. CHAVIRA: Yeah. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I mean, it's small enough to where you're not going to have a huge traffic flow so you can have your units, but not so many that it becomes scrappy. CHAVIRA: Right. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: -- when you're leaving every morning before work. CHAVIRA: Right. Yeah. DAVIS: It would be wonderful if (indiscernible) MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: (indiscernible) ERIVES: Out on the rocky modal? DAVIS: Once the trail ends, you know, the lakes, their little park where you can exercise some more. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 48 of 65 EARP: Okay. Thank you. Mayor, Vice Mayor, we were taking notes, and we'll come back with something on all these properties that we talk about. Thank you. 9101 West Pierce. This is the one that was just approved last Council meeting. Still going through escrow now, but it has two properties 6,500 each, so about 13,000 total. Things that can go in there. It's core. So it's commercial office, residential, entertainment. Retail, residential. Yeah. Right there. It's right off of 91st Avenue. Infill housing. We've been talking about houses -- it's is a theme tonight, I guess. So that could be -- it could be residential over retail. I think that was brought up also and -- or standalone retail. So those are some options for that lots. And we're open to any suggestions Mayor and council has. GAMEZ: Mr. Mayor -- oh go ahead, sir. LABORIN: Yes. DAVIS: Yes. [LAUGHTER] DAVIS: I think in many of these spaces, if we can, because with such a huge housing shortage, I think we should always look at commercial and-- and retail. I mean, you know what I'm saying? Commercial on the bottom and residential on top. I think that's a good option for many of these. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I will add that I think parking needs to be thought of before we put in retail. We have a situation, as you all aware of, where we have a great store, and a lot of complaints from the neighbors because people are parking in front of their house. And so that might be a good opportunity for us to have a small parking lot to service the retail portion on the frontage. DAVIS: I think there is a parking lot already like a block away, isn't there? From there -- isn't like the one by Circle K? Isn't that -- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: It's a walk. CHAVIRA: It's a walk. [CROSS TALK] DAVIS: The one that goes to the church? CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 49 of 65 MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. That's the church one. DAVIS: Yeah. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 6: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council, just to give you a brief history on this parcel. We've had two different groups over the years. It's been a very long time that have approached us. The first one was Dairy Queen. That never came to fruition. We were very excited about it. And then, a, --like a, what would you call it, a miniature golf facility that would have had a snack bar and stuff. So there's been interest in the past. Hopefully with the increased traffic, and the more development around Tolleson, we can attract -- I think we all agree, like, we've been after residential over retail for years, and the one to the south of Van Buren sets the precedent. I'd love to see more up and down the core. This is a great opportunity for that as well. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: (Indiscernible). ERIVES: (Indiscernible) so that's how her house was before, too, right? MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. ERIVES: Yeah. You had said. Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. EARP: Thank you, Mayor. 9213 - 9215 West Polk. Again, about almost 14,000 square feet. We're already moving towards. This is the old, sorry, Andretti's -- Aldretti's (ph.) Aldretti's. So we're moving forward towards infill housing. I had a conversation -- oh, she left, with Noel about this. So we're working on this. It just makes sense because it's housing all along Polk Street. So we're looking at -- the only question I have for Council is would you like to single lots or would there, duplex? CHAVIRA: Tiny homes? MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I would like, I would like a single-family home on each lot. DAVIS: I would disagree. I think if we have the opportunity to be flexible or something like that. I know I used to flex that the owner had (indiscernible) on one side and then -- CHAVIRA: Uh-huh. DAVIS: -- pretty messed in the middle of the (indiscernible) It had plenty of parking. It CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 50 of 65 didn't really disrupt the rest of the neighborhood. So like those options would be great, if it's diversified, if we'll have an option. EARP: Thank you, Vice Mayor. So the biggest difference obviously you have two single detached family homes. It's two families, for the most part. Duplex, fourplex, if you go up, you can add more residential that way. So it was just a conversation we had internally just wondering, you know, thoughts from Council. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Do we have any bites on it. EARP: No, no. We would -- we had to go out and solicit for whatever council decides they would like to see there. CHAVIRA: My street. You know, but I'm not opposed to a duplex or a triplex or maybe some -- I'm sorry, townhouse style. If we have an issue with seniors that don't have an affordable place to live, maybe that's the way to go. I think just having a residential development would make us all happy on the street, as opposed to a commercial business. So whatever that may be, and what serves the community best, for me, that would be great. But I think if we -- the more people we can serve, if we can serve, maybe some seniors, that would be terrific. Yeah. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: (Indiscernible) EARP: Yeah, yeah. There's several things we could do, and that's one of them, RFP, RFQ, and/or working with a nonprofit to do some infill housing or whatever that looks like. After we get feedback from council, then we'll go back and kind of do our homework, and then I would assume, come back and, you know, we can -- we put feelers out there between Noel and I on the housing part and see what -- what best fits there and who wants to -- it's all market driven, right? So. ERIVES: For that same property, I don't know. I think we have talked about, like, if you did senior housing -- but you're so close to Van Buren, could we also add like a walkable path that they could go from that neighborhood area down towards Van Buren? So then once they're there -- I think of like schools, right? When we talked about different buildings and an apartment complex, if there was a gate so that they could walk to the school to make it walkable. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 51 of 65 But if it were to come down right to -- to Van Buren, now, if it's a senior complex that has a senior area, right, for homes, then they could, like, walk to Van Buren. Once you're on Van Buren, you can go to the restaurants. You can go walk to different places. Sometimes there's a church. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: (Indiscernible) ERIVES: We own that. Right. So that could be a -- I'm just thinking, if you're -- that way, you don't have to go all the way around. It's a walkable park for that facility. CHAVIRA: I would, you know, I would think about security for -- if it was seniors as an example that we would want to make sure that they're secure. And I think a gate to Van Buren would be great. But that's also going to be a parking area. So we'd have to see how we could make that work. Yeah. EARP: 9258 West Van Buren. We're calling it -- right now we're just calling it Tolleson Community-slash-event center. We don't know exactly what. That's the former call to care property that we bought off -- on Van Buren, to host city and community events meeting space and regional events. Lately, we've been having Congresswoman Grijalva and others. And you know, you see, sometimes it gets pretty packed in our area. Now, this will be definitely a much bigger spot for -- to host those kind of things and anything from quinceaneras, anything that we could think of potentially needing space. And we have a bunch of ideas flowing, but we -- we still wanted to ask you and your thoughts on that. Potential expanded programing and rentals. That's what I was talking about. But just to kind of give you a picture, that's where it's at in the lot to the -- to the west we purchased, so then that would be incorporated parking as well for the river. DAVIS: (Indiscernible) most especially (indiscernible). MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: (Indiscernible) outside of all of the uses would be awesome (indiscernible) small businesses incubator for culinary arts, if we have a kitchen and its different (indiscernible) small businesses that we provide an office space, conference room, and they all have offices. But the idea is that you could get them, so they go big enough to have their own corporate rooms. CHAVIRA: We use the space that's farther down on Van Buren for that and separate the CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 52 of 65 two. Because I do like the idea of having a place to have your quinca and your anniversary and things like that. I think the community would all benefit from that and like that, especially if residents get a, you know, a sliding scale fee perhaps on using the space, but maybe we do that incubator and that I can't remember what we're calling it. It's across from -- oh, okay. DAVIS: Having been in that quarter space over there, I think that's a great use of that space -- CHAVIRA: Right. DAVIS: Pretty big. It's pretty open. And then there's another side space that the building is kind of divided into two sections, if I remember correctly. (Indiscernible). But for this one -- CHAVIRA: Yeah. DAVIS: -- one other thing that I need to mention. Mayor pointed it out to me. The side of this wall here is a huge white canvas that needs a mural. So we need to figure out how to make that happen. [LAUGHTER] MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Sorry, guys. [LAUGHTER] MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: The idea is that could be a studio for residential students at Arizona State. You come down and do a community project -- CHAVIRA: Yeah. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: -- for a semester. And so basically you need to be artists that are developing their own artistic reality, and they can become, or get those studios on their own. But just another idea. It doesn't have to be business or culinary. It also be artists, or people that -- CHAVIRA: Yeah. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: -- they can do projects at the high school an elementary schools. DAVIS: I think that it might be appealing. [LAUGHTER] CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 53 of 65 MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: That's why I didn't want to bring it up. CHAVIRA: I like it. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Just another just another idea. I mean, whatever sticks and whatever the -- whatever the market is calling for. But who has a question? Pilar? Go ahead, Pilar. SINAWI: Yes, thank you. Mayor, Members of Council. As you're talking about the incubator space, I know that that the Parks and Recreation Center does already have, like a community kitchen. And now that we've been able to move the programing over to the after -- on the site, to the Tolleson Elementary School District, I think that, you know, those ideas of bringing in students and colleges, that facility may lend itself for that also. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: (Indiscernible). EARP: These are -- this is one of the ones that we already are moving towards, the old gas station right next to the property we were just talking to. We're -- some of our businesses downtown are busy, especially on the weekends. And they need parking support, parking. And so we're in design now of a parking. It's not going to just be a parking spot. It's going to be what our engineer calls a fancy parking, whatever that means. But just to make it more amenable, you know, nicer than your paved parking lot, so hopefully fit the area. And just so you guys -- DAVIS: (Indiscernible). EARP: Yeah, we've been discussing that in length, so -- DAVIS: (Indiscernible). EARP: Yeah. So talking with the Deputy City Manager, she's been really pushing for this, and we've been doing a lot of research with traffic engineers with the -- I won't think of the name of it, MUT -- anyways, the manual uniform for traffic control for streets and highways. Unfortunately, we're not going to be able to get a -- it brings more liability on us if we put a crosswalk, because in reality, no matter what, even if we flash it, it's two lines, it provides security for someone, it doesn't fit in the -- in the basically engineering of it. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 54 of 65 But another idea that our City Manager and deputy city manager had that we're really looking at is doing some closing off -- well, we're already going to close off some of the driveways because there's too many driveways. Again, that's a safety issue, for not only pedestrians but also traffic, is some kind of wall that we quoted the fact that Las Vegas that will direct them. Not a small wall where they're just going to jump over and still walk across the street, direct them to the -- either of the two crosswalks there. DAVIS: (Indiscernible). EARP: Definitely want to match our esthetics. Yeah. For sure. ERIVES: You don't have it marked in yellow, but we own the property where the restrooms are? EARP: Yeah, that's going to be part of the -- the parking. Yeah. ERIVES: Oh, is that part of your presentation, too? EARP: Yeah. Well, it's just part of the parking that we're going to knock down that little wall, and most of the ADA will -- parking will be there. One for the community center and then two to use the existing crosswalk that's right there already. And then ,they can move across to the either the two restaurants they want, may want to go there. ERIVES: Any plans for the restrooms to be open? EARP: We have plans to build the restrooms, actually. We finally found the original developer of that -- McNeel Park, doesn't have any restrooms. So in speaking with our -- with Randy Babchuk every time we have events, you know, we bring in Jay Johns anyway. We don't open those. It's been a hassle right there. I think just because of the area it's in. So we keep them closed. But most of the time, majority of the time -- UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 7: Yeah, Mayor, Members of the Council, we just find all kinds of drug paraphernalia when we leave it open, we found, and it's just a hazard because kids after school want to go and use the restrooms. And if there's that kind of stuff being left in there, we'd rather not leave it open, and we just lock it up. Now, when there's a special event where someone asks they're going to be using the place, we'll go up and make sure, open it up, lock it -- clean it, and then come back and lock it up when the event is done. So I know they've done a couple toy drives there at CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 55 of 65 the place this past year and we've done that. So but other than that, we don't leave it open. EARP: And so we'll, we'll work with that and rent Jay Johns or anything for events like that. But we use the McNeel Park, not only residents, but also for I'm assuming, T-ball and that kind of thing. So little kids, they got to go to the restroom, and there's no restrooms. There's no restrooms there right now. DAVIS: Those are like modulars? EARP: Yeah. Yeah. They're modular. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I like the idea of parking lot because it serves the needs of (indiscernible) a parking lot's not going to help break out. Again, if it's a good fit for us, you know the property, we can (indiscernible). EARP: Understood. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: (Indiscernible). CHAVIRA: That would be nice too. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: But the fact that it's a parking lot, it's got a lot of flexibility. CHAVIRA: Right. EARP: 91st Avenue, Northeast and Southwest corners. Goes without saying, we approved a PSA today. We're working on a grocery store development on the northeast corner. The southwest corner, we're pretty confident once the grocery store comes in, that's just going to activate that corner. And that's also core commercial office, residential, entertainment. And so we'll look to do the same kind of things, residential, hopefully commercial, and then residential above that, or anything that might come we kind of will bring, hopefully, multiple things to council for that. DAVIS: (Indiscernible) these are things that (indiscernible) EARP: Sure. Sure. DAVIS: (Indiscernible) MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Agree. DAVIS: (Indiscernible) EARP: Aquatics center site, seven acres. One of the best decisions we ever made about CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 56 of 65 moving it here. We are coming to Council pretty soon. We're working with our procurement officer. We're doing a change order, if you will, or for economy of scale reasons, we're going to do the retail that we talked about whenever we started talking about this spot, because it definitely has enough room to put multiple suite up front and plenty of parking for both. So interestingly enough, word got out. And so we already have someone that's interested in. It'll only fit one drive through to where it is, but then we'll have other -- other suites for other retail. But we already have someone interested and ready to go as soon as that's built and hopefully sign there. So it is bringing a lot of excitement already, even though it's -- it's not even complete yet but -- DAVIS: Dairy Queen? [LAUGHTER] EARP: I'll tell you -- I'll tell you, we were working with Dairy Queen very closely. But that's the aquatic center. Anybody has any questions? Here's one of the ones that maybe have out of sight, out of mind. 83rd Avenue and Buckeye. It's approximately six acres. It's zoned I-1. This is the one we purchased from the County. So I just -- throwing out different ideas, you could have retail on the frontage, light industrial on the back. Potentially attract I-1 user for e-commerce. Now we own it so we can control what kind of I-1 goes there, if it goes. Or it could be all retail. But that's going to be market driven. We found out over the years that when it's too deep, it's hard to get all retail. And in this picture I'll actually give you a perfect example, even though they kind of frustrated me. Farmer Boys on the bottom corner in Phoenix. So they put on the corner there retail, and then they have a like a light office industrial behind it. That's something I could see probably fitting there. So you'll have the retail kind of covering that part of it. But then we diversify our revenues by having two -- two types of businesses there. DAVIS: (Indiscernible) but this particular thing is like an incubator for small shops that have space where they, like, share. (Indiscernible). EARP: Definitely. As we all know, we're -- it's perfect. That's why we're talking about CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 57 of 65 e-commerce a lot. We have 95 percent built out, right. So we've been buying up some of these properties because we have to, and then to maximize revenue, we're trying different ways to bring in that one would be something like that behind an actual retail spot. So yeah. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: E-commerce would be amazing. Yes, Pilar? SINAWI: Mayor, Members of Council, also an idea. I think I've shared just with everyone already that my daughter is playing club volleyball, and I never realized how much money goes into hosting tournaments. Just the sheer volume of teams that are played to play at a facility. I think Randy shared with me that teams are paying about $900 a team to show up to a facility to play. And depending on how many games you can host at the same time, multiply that by 20, 30 teams at a time, and that's just on one weekend. And then, these tournaments are held, you know, the majority of the time. There's opportunity, you know, for it to be an opportunity for the city to, you know, have a return on their investment to eventually get the money back in that investment. And there's flexibility for you know, some kind of indoor court facilities. That would be not only, you know, volleyball, but basketball, whatever is indoor. But there's a very high demand for club. And there is nothing in the West Valley right now. The closest thing we have is the Avondale Sports Complex, and it's small inside. That's more recreational. We have the recreational already with our parks and recreation department, but this could be an opportunity on the club side to be able to bring in a lot of revenue and the potential to, you know, bring a lot of people into the community as well. GAMEZ: That could support the retail on the frontage. DAVIS: (Indiscernible), but it's just crazy. So there is a high demand for that, that type of use. So. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I like that idea also for -- to repurpose the current warehouse. DAVIS: Yeah. Yeah. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: We have a warehouse that goes under, and it's not getting used. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 58 of 65 We can repurpose that too. ERIVES: Right. Temporary too. Doesn't always have to be permanent. [CROSS TALK] DAVIS: Volleyball, soccer -- ERIVES: Uh-huh. DAVIS: Sports are (indiscernible) ERIVES: And indoor because it's hot. EARP: Thank you, Mayor, council. So the next one is 9360. Saguaro Manufacturing is what we call it next Tomales Guadalajara, the one we talked about earlier, your incubator. I think Councilmember Chavita brought it up. It could be a retail development opportunity. And help the Van Buren corridor revitalization. It is about 5,000 square feet. It's broken out like that. Once we get it, we'll make it one lot, but, yeah, this could be a lot of different things. We actually already have because, you know, people hear these things. Well, it came to council, so we already have someone that wants to sell home furnishings, like a home goods there. I've heard anything from -- yeah, so there's -- there's all there's already interest in it. So it'll be interesting to see once we actually own it, you know, and do some cleanup and then put it out, see what comes back. But I don't know if you have any questions on that one. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: (Indiscernible) they saw the sign? EARP: Correct. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 7: (Indiscernible) Manufacturing? EARP: No, it was just called Saguaro Manufacturing, the old -- that's what it was called. No, this was just to be just strictly home goods sales. I'm just giving an example of someone that's already reached out to me. DAVIS: (Indiscernible) [LAUGHTER] DAVIS: But yeah, I think (indiscernible) MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yes, Linda? LABORIN: When I was in North Carolina in October, my daughter-in-law took me to this CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 59 of 65 one. It was a shopping center, and the stores started closing down. So she took me into this one -- one area there where they had like a sales, different, different things on certain days. They had everything for a dollar. Another day they had $5 items. You know, everybody would bring in stuff that they wanted to sell. And on another day they had furniture, sofas and stuff like that. New. Not used. New, new equipment. And she says that they made money every single day. There were people lined up to go into that thing. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Do you remember the name of it? LABORIN: I'm sorry. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: You remember the name of it? LABORIN: It didn't have a name. It was in the shopping center where -- where a big store used to be at. And there were buildings, you know, around it, restaurants and everything. But that one place I'm going, like, this is like a warehouse sale, like Amazon. They had a lot of stuff in there from Amazon. And it was crazy. It was crazy. People were -- carts full of stuff, you know, to go check out. And it didn't -- I don't think they had -- they had the checkouts and it wasn't anything fancy, just very plain. But they got a lot of people into that store. If you knew the days that they were going to be selling stuff. Hats, pants, shoes, everything. Everything was in there. It was crazy. EARP: Some of these last ones are 9353 West Van Buren. Fixations is in the front. We have, we're developing a lease, as we speak, for the back piece and to be announced soon. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: That's three, by the way. That's strike three, buddy. [LAUGHTER] ERIVES: It's been barbecue. It's been Beanie Express --- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: It's been a lot things. ERIVES: It's just like -- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: It's all food. EARP: So that's the property. We've done a lot of work. We redid the outside seating area covered in the back. If you remember, the barbecue was. We're doing some more CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 60 of 65 this week. And eventually, probably next fiscal year, we'll be looking at paving the parking lot. So right now it's mill -- millings. But yeah. So we're excited that that one will be filled as well. And then, the last one, 9205 West Van Buren Street, a Ahuevo Cafe . They've been doing very, very good. They met -- we met with them about three weeks ago. They're ready to expand. So we took the building, chief building official, looking how they can expand into the parking lot in the back. Because I guess in their weekends, they're about two- hour waits. And so they're trying to look for two things. They need more kitchen space, for sure. And then they need, not only sitting, but they want to put some large parties back there. And because right now they have to put them in the center of it. And when it comes with large parties, they tend to stay a little longer. And when you already have two-hour waits, it's tough to get people in and out. So it's definitely a good thing. When they first came, I knew the concept would work because it was just different. But yeah, it's not what I expected. It's amazing. And they're doing a great job. And very good tenants. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Can you expand (indiscernible) EARP: Yep. So if you see, like, the red car, the white car. So they can go back so many feet. I mean they can go back further, but -- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: (indiscernible) EARP: Yeah. So right now all their employees park in the back. Yep. So anyway, that that was the last of it, but we thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Members of Council. We took notes. So on various ones, we'll be coming back to you and then we'll look at bringing the core -- the definition core, what's allowed there and what -- and we have our own ideas and staff of what needs to be changed or what's outdated. And we'll bring those up then. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Councilmember? GAMEZ: Jason, did you ever consider maybe you did looking at the property, the RID property, I mean, that's there. It's probably the only thing we don't own in that area. And it's -- it's next to the aquatic center. It's next to Happy Town. It's next -- CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 61 of 65 MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: (Indiscernible) GAMEZ: Yeah. Well, you said it. That's just something to consider. EARP: Yeah, we've considered it. We've even got an appraisal on it. We've talked to the -- I don't know if he's president or what his title is. Director. Obviously, they're -- the RID canal is there, right next to it. it's not ideal that they want to move. They did at least tell us, well, do you have a spot for us, kind of thing. Nothing set in stone. And then I don't know if there's anything we can do, as far as condemnation or not, but I'll leave that for Jon to answer. But we definitely looked into it. We approached them about it. It was at first a hard no. Now it's like, well, do you have another area we could go to. So we're working on that. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Jason, this is a good opportunity. We keep the faith a lot (indiscernible) there's those smaller wins (indiscernible). EARP: Sure. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: (Indiscernible) Honestly, I'm excited. I'm excited. (Indiscernible). And I'm excited to hear that we have potential users of Saguaro. Fixation (indiscernible) EARP: The old Saguaro manufacturing. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Trying to figure out what I'm going to ask you about tomorrow. So that's good. Interest is growing. The population is growing. The core is becoming that much more popular with the Ahuevo and other restaurants in there. So that's going to be more attention, and hopefully more interest. So thank you very much. EARP: Thank you, Mayor. CHAVIRA: Thank you, Jason. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Thank you, Mayor. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Let's grab him back his chair. Okay. We're going to move on to L, which is Community Events coming up. So I'm going to kick it over to Parks and Recreation Director Babchuk. BABCHUK: Thank you. Mayor, Members of the Council. Just want to kind of give you an update on our past third Friday, which happened this past Friday. We had a great showing. It was -- the theme of it was celebrating Black History Month. We had a group CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 62 of 65 of Kawambe Omowale, the African drummers and dancers come out. Did an amazing job. Just how they presented themselves, and -- and their culture was amazing. And then we had Backdoor Funk, who just killed the show. They just -- I mean, they had people going, and just invited everybody out to dance. And I think this is one of the ones that, I mean, every walks of life came out and danced. I mean, the dance floor was -- was packed the whole time. So it was a really good turnout. Plenty of food vendors. And I think adding more food vendors helped out. I mean, pizza was all packed. It was Lent Friday, so everyone was there, but we had plenty of food to go around, so it definitely was well received. Our next third Friday is March 20th, and we're incorporating our Easter event with that, and we're working with the VFW and Theo (ph.) with that. So we'll have a good combination. Easter Bunny will be out there giving out goodie bags and taking pictures with the families, and then looking at booking El Regreso for our entertainment. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Comments? Questions? Jason, you have the floor. EARP: Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Members of Council. I just also want to remind you this Thursday is Tarleton (ph.) Talks. I will have canjo. (ph.) We have the -- the SBA coming out, talking about how to open a business, small business association. We also have Arizona at Works coming and talking about employment, how residents can find employment. And then, we'll also have Dress for Success out there. So if someone is in need of either a suit, or a nice dress, or something for an interview, they'll be out there to discuss what they do and donate clothing to people that need something to wear. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: You had a question, Vice Mayor. DAVIS: I just wanted to commend the staff who put together the third Friday entertainment. I thought I thought it was exceptional. It was perfect for Black History Month. It was very culturally appropriate. So great job. Just great job to your staff for putting that together and highlighting, you know, various cultures, because I think that that is one of the, you know, main tenets of TIA is highlighting art and culture. So good job. BABCHUK: Thank you, Vice Mayor. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 63 of 65 MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: (Indiscernible) DAVIS: (Indiscernible) [LAUGHTER] BABCHUK: You did a good job, Vice Mayor. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: (Indiscernible) Pilar? SINAWI: Mayor, members of council, thank you. On that note, with the third Fridays, I think that it's been a phenomenal shift from the city, you know, to focus on the third Fridays, because it's allowed the opportunity to streamline even our special events, where we're able to, you know, really focus on TIA, yes, the culture and arts, but we're celebrating more cultures intentionally through our third Fridays. I know, like, one of the bigger changes this year, you know, will be in the fall with the third Fridays, like having our Veterans Day be part of the third Fridays. It's going to allow, you know, just a lot of pros, as far as like having our veterans have a night to celebrate with their families. It'll be dedicated to them. And then, instead of doing our Veterans Day during the day, they'll have the flexibility to go other places because I know that they've always been torn. So the third Fridays has really allowed, you know, the opportunity for us to even celebrate more while streamlining our events. So it was a great move on the council's part, and Randy and his team. ERIVES: I just wanted to say Third Friday was fantastic, exceptional, phenomenal, like you all had mentioned. I had a particular family who came up. We were talking. Because of the Third Fridays -- they're not residents of Tolleson. They just -- their daughter loves music. And so as different bands have been coming to perform, she's excited, she's dancing, she's loving the music. The families, they come from the State of Washington, so they come down during winter time. She says they're not snowbirds, they're rain birds. So they get a lot of rain over there. So they come here to the dry. But she just said that she felt so welcomed within our community, that their daughter has made new friends, and that the dancing, and then just bringing the different types of music. So the daughter loves all kinds of music. Love her. CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 64 of 65 So she's like rocking and rolling, and yet she's -- she's dancing to cumbia. She's learning all these different cultures while she comes to dance. And I know why we're here, right? We love Tolleson. But it was so beautiful to hear a family that kind of wants to adopt Tolleson and part -- be part of that family that comes out because of Third Fridays. So it was a really great to hear that. So great job, staff, because again, they -- they -- they're ready for the next one. They're ready for the next one. So thank you. Thank you. Yeah I'm ready for the next one too because the band was magnificent. They were, yes. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Good. Well, that's all really good information. I look forward to the next one as well. We are going to now move into AM, which is our executive session. So now is the time for council to convene into executive session. We are asking members of the public and those that are not involved in this executive session, to please exit the meeting at this time. The only action item after the executive session will be to adjourn and go home. So thank you for coming. We will see you folks. And I'm going to call a five-minute recess. APPROVED: ____________________________________ JUAN F. RODRIGUEZ, MAYOR ATTEST: ____________________________________ CRYSTAL ZAMORA, CITY CLERK CITY OF TOLLESON FEBRUARY 24, 2026 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 65 of 65 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 24, 2026. I FURTHER CERTIFY THAT THE MEETING WAS DULY CALLED AND HELD, AND THAT A QUORUM WAS PRESENT. ____________________________________ CRYSTAL ZAMORA, CITY CLERK