06 10 25 City Council Meeting Minutes

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TOLLESON CITY COUNCIL MEETING ACTION MINUTES 
TOLLESON CIVIC CENTER 
9055 WEST VAN BUREN STREET, TOLLESON, AZ 85353 
ZOOM WEBINAR ID: 840 6967 9194 
TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 2025 
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/w/84069679194) with a computer or cell phone. 
 
A. 
CALL TO ORDER 
 
Mayor Rodriguez called the Tolleson City Council Meeting to order at 6:00 PM. 
B. 
INVOCATION/PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE 
 
The Invocation was delivered by Development Services Director Earp, and the Pledge of 
Allegiance was led by Council Member Mendoza.  
C. 
ROLL CALL 
 
City Council: Mayor Juan Rodriguez, Vice Mayor Jimmy Davis, Council Members Christine 
Chavira, Clorinda Erives, Adolfo Gámez, Linda Laborin and Cruzita Mendoza. 
 
Department Directors: 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, Chief Technical Officer 
Steve Holliday, City Clerk Crystal Zamora, Development Services Director Jason Earp, 
Field Operations/Parks & Recreation Director Randy Babchuk, Fire Chief Michael Young, 
Library Director Mandy Carrico, Public Safety Director/Police Chief Rudy Mendoza and 
Utilities Director Jamie McCracken. 
 
City Representative: City Attorney Robert Wingo 
D. 
FINAL CALL TO SUBMIT SPEAKER REQUESTS 
 9055 W. Van Buren St., Tolleson, AZ 85353 • (623) 936-7111 • TTY users, dial 711 for Relay • www.tolleson.az.gov

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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. 
Employee Recognition: Library Department – Matthew Hart, Library Aide: Bachelor of 
Arts Degree in Mass Communications from Arizona State University  
 
2. 
Check Presentation to West End Little League – Randy Babchuk, Field 
Operations/Parks & Recreation Director  
 
3. 
Paseo de Arte Extension Project by West Valley Arts Council Gallery 37 Artists – Jimmy 
Davis, Vice Mayor  
 
4. 
Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) – Anita Johari, Practice Builder (Transportation 
Planning & Traffic Engineering) at Kimley-Horn 
 
5. 
Proclamation declaring June 19, 2025, as Juneteenth Freedom Day in the City of 
Tolleson, commemorating the end of slavery in the United States and honoring the 
resilience, history, and cultural contributions of African Americans, while encouraging 
all residents to reflect on the significance of freedom and the ongoing pursuit of equity 
and justice for all. – Wendy Jackson, Deputy City Manager/Employee Resources 
Director 
 
Mayor Rodriguez proclaimed June 19, 2025 as Juneteenth Freedom Day in the City 
of Tolleson. 
 
6. 
Proclamation declaring June 2025 as LGBTQIA+ Pride Month in the City of Tolleson, 
honoring the history and contributions of the LGBTQIA+ community and encouraging

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all residents to promote inclusivity, equality, and respect for all individuals. – Wendy 
Jackson, Deputy City Manager/Employee Resources Director 
 
Mayor Rodriguez proclaimed June 2025 as LGBTQIA+ Pride Month in the City of 
Tolleson. 
G. 
BUSINESS FROM THE FLOOR – PUBLIC HEARINGS AND ACTION ITEMS 
 
1. 
Public Hearing – Soliciting comments from interested parties in reference to adopting 
the Property Tax Levy for Fiscal Year 2026. (Discussion only)   
Resolution No. 2604, regarding the Property Tax Levy, will go before Council for 
consideration at the meeting scheduled on Tuesday, June 24, 2025.  (Finance 
Department)  
 
The public hearing opened at 6:52 PM and closed at 6:57 PM. 
 
2. 
Public Hearing – Soliciting comments from interested parties in reference to 
Resolution No. 2602, adopting the City of Tolleson Annual Budget for Fiscal Year 2026. 
(Finance Department)  
 
The public hearing opened at 6:58 PM and closed at 7:00 PM. 
H. 
CONVENE INTO SPECIAL MEETING 
 
1. 
Motion to go into special meeting. 
 
Vice Mayor Davis moved to convene into a special meeting; the motion was 
seconded by Council Member Gámez. 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. 2602 of the Mayor and Council of the City of Tolleson, 
Arizona, adopting the Final Budget and establishing the Expenditure Limitation for the 
City of Tolleson for Fiscal Year 2026. The total amount of budgeted expenditures is 
$233,685,526. (Finance Department)  
Roll Call Vote 
 
Council Member Gámez moved to adopt Resolution No. 2602; the motion was 
seconded by Vice Mayor Davis. The motion carried 7 to 0. 
Mayor Rodriguez – Aye

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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. 
RECONVENE INTO REGULAR MEETING 
J. 
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 May 27, 2025. (City Clerk 
Department) 
 
2. 
Approve Claims and Bills Report for the period of May 21, 2025 to June 3, 2025. 
(Finance Department) 
 
3. 
Approve Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control Liquor License 
Application No. 347171, Series 12 – Restaurant, as submitted by Jorge Agustin Santoyo 
for Sabor and Beer located at 9101 West Fillmore Street, Tolleson, AZ. This non-
transferable, on-sale retail privileges liquor license allows the holder of a restaurant 
license to sell and serve all types of spirituous liquor solely for consumption on the 
premises of an establishment which derives at least 40% of its gross revenue from the 
sale of food. Failure to meet the 40% food requirement may result in revocation of the 
license. (City Clerk Department) Public hearing will be opened for public comment, if 
any.  
 
4. 
Approve Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control Liquor License 
Application No. 347230, Series 12 – Restaurant, as submitted by Juan Carlos Soberanes 
for Ahuevo Cafe located at 9205 West Van Buren Street, Tolleson, AZ. This non-
transferable, on-sale retail privileges liquor license allows the holder of a restaurant 
license to sell and serve all types of spirituous liquor solely for consumption on the 
premises of an establishment which derives at least 40% of its gross revenue from the 
sale of food. Failure to meet the 40% food requirement may result in revocation of the 
license. (City Clerk Department) Public hearing will be opened for public comment, if 
any.  
 
5. 
Adopt Resolution No. 2605 of the Mayor and Council of the City of Tolleson, Arizona, 
approving the Master Transit Services Agreement, Contract No. 172-75-2026-00, 
between the City of Tolleson and Regional Public Transportation Authority (RPTA) 
relating to regional transit services. The City of Tolleson will pay RPTA a total of 
$109,850: $85,277 for the provision of ADA Mandated Paratransit Services and

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$24,573 for the RideChoice Transportation Services Program for Fiscal Year 2026. This 
Agreement shall be effective for a period of seven years, with annual updates to 
incorporate any changes in service levels, funding, costs, or revenues. (Development 
Services Department) 
 
6. 
Adopt Resolution No. 2606 of the Mayor and Council of the City of Tolleson, Arizona, 
approving an Intergovernmental Agreement between and among the Arizona Fire & 
Medical Authority, the cities of Avondale, Buckeye, El Mirage, Glendale, Goodyear, 
Peoria, Surprise, Tolleson, the Daisy Mountain Fire and Medical District, and the Sun 
City Fire District for the use of fire apparatus. The term of the Agreement shall be for 
five years. (Fire Department) 
 
7. 
Adopt Resolution No. 2607 of the Mayor and Council of the City of Tolleson, Arizona, 
approving the Fourth Amendment to the Intergovernmental Agreement for Fiscal Year 
2026, Contract No. C-22-22-120-X-04, between the City of Tolleson and Maricopa 
County, administered by its Human Services Department (MCHSD), for cash 
reimbursement to the City in the amount of $165,000 Community Action Program 
(CAP) services to include crisis case management, coordination of services to assist 
low-income households in crisis situations, and assistance to move closer to economic 
self-sufficiency in Tolleson. The City and MCHSD agree to enter into this Fourth 
Amendment to extend the term from July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026 and to revise 
certain sections of the Agreement. (Human Services Department) 
 
Vice Mayor Davis moved to approve Consent Agenda items 1. through 7.; the motion 
was seconded by Council Member Gámez. 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. 
REGULAR AGENDA – ACTION ITEMS 
 
1. 
Adopt/Deny Resolution No. 2603 of the Mayor and Council of the City of Tolleson, 
Arizona, adopting a Public Safety Personnel Retirement System (PSPRS) Pension 
Funding Policy to clearly communicate the Council’s pension funding objectives, its 
commitment to its employees and the sound financial management of the City, and to 
comply with A.R.S. § 38-863.01. (Finance Department) 
 
Council Member Chavira moved to adopt Resolution No. 2603; the motion was 
seconded by Council Member Laborin. The motion carried 7 to 0. 
Mayor Rodriguez – Aye  
 
Vice Mayor Davis – Aye

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Council Member Chavira – Aye 
Council Member Erives – Aye  
Council Member Gámez – Aye 
Council Member Laborin – Aye 
Council Member Mendoza – Aye 
 
2. 
Current and Future Strategies for Homeless Outreach/Intervention Presentation – 
Marc Simmons, Community Action Program Manager 
 
Adopt/Deny Ordinance No. 616 N.S. of the Mayor and City Council of the City of 
Tolleson, Arizona, prohibiting camping in designated public areas and providing 
penalties for violations; providing for repeal of conflicting ordinances; and providing 
for severability. 
 
Mayor Rodriguez moved to adopt Ordinance No. 616 N.S.; the motion was seconded 
by Council Member Chavira. The motion carried 6 to 1. 
Mayor Rodriguez – Aye  
 
Vice Mayor Davis – Nay 
Council Member Chavira – Aye 
Council Member Erives – Aye  
Council Member Gámez – Aye 
Council Member Laborin – Aye 
Council Member Mendoza – Aye 
 
3. 
Adopt/Deny Ordinance No. 617 N.S. of the Mayor and City Council of the City of 
Tolleson, Arizona, prohibiting the unauthorized removal, possession, or alteration of 
shopping carts; providing penalties for violations; providing for repeal of conflicting 
ordinances; and providing for severability.  
 
Council Member Gámez moved to adopt Ordinance No. 617 N.S.; the motion was 
seconded by Mayor Rodriguez. The motion carried 6 to 1. 
Mayor Rodriguez – Aye  
 
Vice Mayor Davis – Nay 
Council Member Chavira – Aye 
Council Member Erives – Aye  
Council Member Gámez – Aye 
Council Member Laborin – Aye 
Council Member Mendoza – Aye 
L. 
WORK STUDY AND PRESENTATIONS – FOR DISCUSSION 
 
1. 
FY 2025 Third Quarter Update – Kevin Artz, Chief Financial Officer 
M. MAYOR AND CITY MANAGER’S REPORT OF CURRENT EVENTS – FOR DISCUSSION

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N. ADJOURNMENT 
 
Council Member Gámez moved to adjourn the Regular City Council Meeting at 7:52 PM; 
the motion was seconded by Vice Mayor Davis. The motion carried 7 to 0. 
Mayor Rodriguez – Aye  
 
Vice Mayor Davis – Aye   
Council Member Chavira – Aye 
Council Member Erives – Aye  
Council Member Gámez – Aye 
Council Member Laborin – Aye 
Council Member Mendoza – Aye 
  
Pursuant to A.R.S. § 38-431.01 and A.R.S. § 38-431.02, notice is hereby given to the members of 
the Tolleson City Council and to the general public that the Council of the City of Tolleson will 
hold a meeting open to the public. Council Members of the City of Tolleson will attend by 
telephone/video conference call.  
 
Note: The City Council of the City of Tolleson, by a duly passed motion, may vote in public session 
to adjourn to executive session on any agenda item in conformation with A.R.S. § 38.431.03 for 
legal advice from the City Attorney.  
 
Zoom’s live transcription feature can provide automatic captioning by clicking on the Closed 
Caption (CC) button during the meeting.  
 
THE CITY OF TOLLESON ENDEAVORS TO MAKE ALL PUBLIC MEETINGS ACCESSIBLE TO 
INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES. With at least two business days advance notice, 
accommodations can be provided at this meeting for individuals with vision, hearing and/or 
speech disabilities, including a transcriber, large print, an interpreter, an assistive listening 
device, etc. Please call the City Clerk at (623) 936-7111, or TTY users may dial 711 for Arizona 
Relay Service (AZRS), to request an accommodation to participate in this public meeting. The 
City will try its best to accommodate any last minute requests.  
 
LA CIUDAD DE TOLLESON SE ESFUERZA PARA HACER TODAS LAS REUNIONES PÚBLICAS 
ACCESIBLE PARA INDIVIDUOS CON DISCAPACIDADES. Con al menos dos días laborables de previo 
aviso, se pueden proporcionar adaptaciones en esta reunión para personas con discapacidades 
visuales, auditivas o del habla, incluido un transcriptor, letra grande, un intérprete, un 
dispositivo de asistencia auditiva, etc. Llame a la Secretaría Municipal al (623) 936-7111, o los 
usuarios de TTY pueden marcar 711 para el Servicio de Retransmisión de Arizona (AZRS), para 
solicitar un alojamiento para participar en esta reunión pública. La Ciudad hará todo lo posible 
para satisfacer cualquier solicitud de último minuto.

VENDOR NAME
GROSS AMOUNT
CHECK #
CHECK/PAYMENT DATE
AZ WASTEWATER INDUSTRIES INC
$618,133.48
184686
5/29/2025
AZ PUBLIC SAFETY PERSONNEL RETIREMENT SYSTEM
$500,000.00
100698
5/30/2025
AZ PUBLIC SAFETY PERSONNEL RETIREMENT SYSTEM
$500,000.00
100699
6/2/2025
AZ PUBLIC SAFETY PERSONNEL RETIREMENT SYSTEM
$500,000.00
100700
6/3/2025
AZ PUBLIC SAFETY RETIREMENT, POLICE
$420,000.00
100697
5/29/2025
TOLLESON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DIST.#17
$200,000.00
184688
5/29/2025
ASR CONSTRUCTION GROUP LLC
$176,411.09
184597
5/22/2025
FSL HOME IMPROVEMENTS
$115,244.12
184628
5/22/2025
AZ PUBLIC SAFETY PERSONNEL RETIREMENT SYSTEM
$80,000.00
100696
5/29/2025
SUNLAND ASPHALT & CONSTRUCTION LLC
$74,012.29
100692
5/29/2025
SAGUARO SUMMIT, LLC
$44,806.61
184605
5/22/2025
BROWN AND CALDWELL
$42,896.00
100682
5/29/2025
AZ PUBLIC SAFETY PERSONNEL RETIREMENT SYSTEM
$33,596.59
100680
5/29/2025
AZ PUBLIC SAFETY RETIREMENT, POLICE
$33,501.03
100681
5/29/2025
PUMP PROS INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION
$23,781.36
100689
5/29/2025
LYFT, INC.
$22,467.27
100649
5/23/2025
VERTOSOFT LLC
$20,451.95
100695
5/29/2025
TERROS INC
$19,993.00
184666
5/22/2025
WASTE CONNECTIONS OF ARIZONA
$19,724.97
184675
5/22/2025
WASTE CONNECTIONS OF ARIZONA
$19,710.73
184741
5/29/2025
KELLER ELECTRICAL INDUSTRIES, INC.
$19,485.02
184713
5/29/2025
LEA-ARCHITECTS LLC
$19,108.34
184641
5/22/2025
Metropolitan Life Insurance
$14,729.56
184646
5/22/2025
MARICOPA COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE
$14,416.58
184645
5/22/2025
TRAFFIC AND PARKING CONTROL CO, INC
$13,056.00
184667
5/22/2025
LEA-ARCHITECTS LLC
$12,159.35
184641
5/22/2025
PHOENIX ROOFING & REPAIR LLC
$12,097.00
184652
5/22/2025
ADVANCED ENVIRO CURE LLC
$12,000.00
100677
5/29/2025
ADVANCED ENVIRO CURE LLC
$12,000.00
100677
5/29/2025
BORDER STATES INDUSTRIES, INC.
$11,950.95
184602
5/22/2025
VERIZON WIRELESS SERVICES LLC
$10,638.42
184672
5/22/2025
CITY OF PHOENIX
$10,455.00
184608
5/22/2025
City of Tolleson
Checks Recorded
Check Dates: May 21, 2025 to June 3, 2025
PAYMENTS OVER $10,000

CITY OF TOLLESON 
 
JUNE 10, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES 
 
 
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Post-Production File 
 
 
 
 
City of Tolleson 
City Council Meeting Minutes 
June 10, 2025 
 
 
 
Transcription Provided By: 
eScribers, LLC 
 
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Transcription is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not 
be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.  
 
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CITY OF TOLLESON 
 
JUNE 10, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES 
 
 
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MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Good evening, everyone.  I am Mayor Juan Rodriguez.  Today is 
June 10th, and I would like to call the city council meeting to order.  I'd like to begin with 
the invocation and Pledge of Allegiance.  Development Services Director Jason Earp will 
lead us in the invocation.   
And Councilmember Mendoza, please lead us in the pledge.   
We're going to start with the pledge, so please stand.  Actually -- 
GAMEZ:  Let's do the invocation. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Yeah.  Let's do the invocation first, Jason. 
EARP:  Let us pray.   
Heavenly Father, we come before you today with grateful hearts, thankful for the 
opportunity to serve this great community.  As we begin this meeting, we invite your 
presence among us.  Grant Council the wisdom and guidance to make decisions in 
accordance with your will, Lord.  May their actions reflect integrity, compassion, and a 
deep respect for the trust placed in them by our citizens.  We ask you to bless this 
community, watch over our neighborhoods, protect our families, and bring peace to our 
streets.  Strengthen and encourage those who serve tirelessly, our first responders, city 
staff, educators, volunteers, and so many others who work each day to make this a 
better place for all.  Unite us even in our differences and remind us that the true 
leadership is rooted in service, humility, and love.  May your light shine through all that 
we do today and days to come.  In Jesus' name, we pray, amen.   
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Amen. 
ALL:  I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic 
for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  All right.  Thank you, both.   
City Clerk, please let the record reflect that all councilmembers are present at today's 
meeting.   
Moving onto D, final call to submit speaker request forms.  Now is the final call to 
submit speaker request forms to the city clerk.  All speakers will be limited to three 
minutes for comments only.  Actions taken as a result of all the comments will be

CITY OF TOLLESON 
 
JUNE 10, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES 
 
 
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limited to:  One, responding to criticism; two, directing staff to review a matter; or 
three, ask that a matter be put on a future agenda. 
City Clerk, do we have any speaker request forms at this time? 
ZAMORA:  Mayor, we have two for non-agenda items.  The first one is Adam Decker.  He 
would like to discuss a new proposal for a bus service.  
Adam, are you present? 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Mr. Decker, come on up.  Welcome. 
DECKER:  Thank you, Mr. Mayor.   
Thank you for having me, Vice Mayor and the council.   
I would like to bring to your attention and to ask that you would consider having a bus 
service going from West Side over here to Tolleson.  I'm going to joint with other cities, 
Avondale, Goodyear, Buckeye, because of the massive growth that's going out here and 
the congestion of Highway 10, and when it gets beyond 99th Avenue on 10, two lanes.  
So flip forward, if we got some public transportation, it would be awesome because 
people could commute in the morning, and the bus service could be a lot better than -- 
no offense to the Metro bus service, which I use a lot.  There's a lot of flaws with that.  
They don't come out here on Sunday; Saturday, to certain parts, it's once an hour, and if 
they're late, once every two hours; and then there are other issues that I have that I 
won't bring up because they're petty.  But moving forward, it would be awesome if we 
could put something together.  And just imagine, if you could do that, the local tax 
dollars with Buckeye, Goodyear, Avondale, and Tolleson, it would bring a lot of good 
business in this way, having that.  You could go to the airport, or you could go to the 
stadium or the games in different directions, and they could commute with the bus 
coming back here.  I'm from the Bay Area, and that BART system is awesome.  If you're 
going to go to a Giants game, it goes under the bay, boom, drops you off, and comes 
right back over into Concord, California, and you missed the whole entire traffic.  This 
would be -- you wouldn't go under a bay, but you would take a bus system, and you 
would miss that mess on 10.   
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Okay.  Well, I appreciate your time.  As a city, we're part of greater

CITY OF TOLLESON 
 
JUNE 10, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES 
 
 
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transit system, and so we'll take this to Valley Metro and have that conversation in 
order to see if there's some kind of partnership that we can explore that would connect 
the West Valley cities going west. 
DAVIS:  Micro Transit System -- 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Yeah.  We do have a Micro Transit System for Tolleson residents 
here, and I believe Avondale has one also, and we use Uber and Lyft. 
DECKER:  Yeah.  I tried WeRIDE.  WeRIDE is hitting about 50 percent.  They're not so 
reliable. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Yeah.  Well, here in Tolleson, what it is, it's a subsidized program.  
So Tolleson residents will pay $20 -- and I believe we're up to about 40 locations that we 
travel to -- and then the rest of it is subsidized by the city.  But I thank you for coming to 
us today. 
DECKER:  Thank you, Mayor, for listening, and City Council and Vice Mayor.  God's peace 
to you all.  Thank you. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  And to you, sir.   
Crystal, we had a second person that would like to speak? 
ZAMORA:  Yes.  We have Joe De la Huerta.  He would like to thank Council and Mayor 
and PD and fire for their support for Tolleson's children.  There he is. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Former principal -- 
DE LA HUERTA:  Got a couple days left. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Oh, a couple more days? 
DE LA HUERTA:  Yeah.  And my name is Joe De la Huerta, and I'm the principal over at PH 
Gonzales for a few more days.  But you know, I wanted to thank you guys personally 
because I've been in public education and taught in Title I schools for 30 years, and I 
don't know if your ears ring, but I brag on you guys.  I talk about the City of Tolleson and 
the partnerships and the support.  It's not unusual to have, you know, people from city, 
Mr. Mayor, councilmember, come over and celebrate our kids.  The decisions that you 
guys make to celebrate our kids and give them resources and wraparound our kids has 
just been amazing.  And you know, my 30 years, I've never been a part of anything like

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that where -- you know, it's usually your district is your district, and that's your system.  
And I can't imagine being in a  place like that again because Tolleson has just been 
amazing.   
And I'd also like to thank the police department and fire department.  Response times 
for our schools, I mean, you can tell that kids are number 1, and we appreciate that, that 
kids feel special, and what you guys are doing is special.  I just wanted to share with you 
that because I know sometimes when -- you know, I've been fortunate to be in a lot of 
great places, in Phoenix, Glendale, and different districts, but none of them has been 
like Tolleson, and what you guys do is very special.   
And I have a really special group of our counselors.  Ms. Segovia, Mr. Munoz are very 
caring adults, and the next principal, Ms. Ortega, is also amazing.  And we do silly things.  
And on Fridays, we get a boombox, we dance, and we sing with kids.  And there's a song 
by Lizzo -- I know you wouldn't even think I'd be quoting Lizzo, but there's a song called 
You're Special, and we sing it to kids.  And it goes, you know, if nobody lets you know 
today, you're special.  If nobody made you believe today, know you're special.  And I just 
wanted to thank you guys because the things that you do for our community, for our 
kids is so special, and it's been an amazing blessing to be a part of this community.  And I 
wanted to thank you publicly for that.  So thank you guys, and God bless.   
CHAVIRA:  Thank you. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Thank you.   
We're not going to let him escape that easy.  Mr. De la Huerta was not really supposed 
to be our principal, and then he got so involved with the teachers and all the work that 
they do and you know, the kids here in Tolleson that he decided that he was going to 
compete for it, and lo and behold, he became the principal.   
And talking about something special, you've done tremendous things with our kids 
there.  And the biggest thing that is bad for us is that you're retiring.  But the best thing 
is that we all wish you the absolute best because you have your best years in front of 
you, and I know you're going to be amazingly happy in retirement.  And if you ever 
decide to come back, I'm sure Tolleson will have a spot for you.  You've done

CITY OF TOLLESON 
 
JUNE 10, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES 
 
 
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tremendous work.  
DE LA HUERTA:  Thanks. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Thank you for everything. 
All right.   
GAMEZ:  I have a question for you, sir.   
DE LA HUERTA:  Yeah. 
GAMEZ:  Do you have your superintendent certification? 
[LAUGHTER] 
DE LA HUERTA:  No. 
GAMEZ:  No?  Thank you.  Okay.   
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Thanks, again. 
We're going to move up to item E.  This is for call to the public.  This is for non-agenda 
action items.  It is now time for the call to the public.   
City Clerk, do we have any submissions under that? 
ZAMORA:  I have none for agenda items. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Okay.  Awesome. 
We're going to move onto F.  This is scheduled public appearances and proclamations. 
I'm all nervous now.  You gave us that speech, so I got to figure out how far I'm going to 
be from the microphone.   
So we're going to start with employee recognitions.  I'm going to turn it over to Deputy 
City Manager Sinawi to make some announcements. 
SINAWI:  Yes, yes.  Thank you, Mayor, members of council.  As you all are aware, this is a 
new initiative for us here at the city that we want to make sure that we're bringing 
forward employee recognition.  We have the pleasure of having a lot of talented staff 
here in the city, and we want to make sure that we're taking the opportunity to 
recognize them.  So tonight, we'd like to recognize Matthew Hart.  He's a library aide 
here in the Tolleson Public Library.  He's been here with the City of Tolleson for a year 
and a half, and Matthew has just earned his Bachelors of Arts degree in mass 
communications from ASU.

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So congratulations, Matthew. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Is he here today? 
SINAWI:  I don't see him in the room, not unless he's online. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Oh, he's working.  Okay.  Great. 
SINAWI:  So if you have a chance to stop by at the library and congratulate Matthew, 
that would be great. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  We will definitely do that.  Thank you for bringing that to our 
attention.   
And great job on getting that bachelor's from ASU.  
All right.  We're going to move onto item number 2, check presentations to the West 
End Little League.  I saw Patty out there. 
How are you doing, Patty? 
Parks and Recreation Director Babchuk? 
BABCHUK:  Thank you, Mayor and members of the council.  The City of Tolleson is proud 
to present a check in the amount of $14,539.05 to the Tolleson West End Little League, 
made possible through the proceeds raised from beer sales during our 2005 [sic] 
Whoopee Daze Festival.  We're incredibly thankful for the hard work and dedication 
shown by the West End Little League volunteers who assisted with the serving of alcohol 
during this event.  Their support played a key role in the event's success.  This grant is 
intended to support the ongoing mission of the West End Little League in providing 
high-quality baseball and softball programs for our youth.  This partnership reflects the 
strong commitment both our organizations share towards fostering youth development, 
promoting healthy lifestyles, and strengthening the community through sports and 
programs.  The City of Tolleson deeply values the continued work and volunteerism of 
the Tolleson West End Little League and looks forward to seeing how this grant will help 
expand opportunities for youth athletes in Tolleson and our surrounding areas.   
Patty, if you'd come up and accept this check for the Tolleson West End Little League? 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Yeah, we do.  But Randy, before we do, I think there's a couple 
things that we need to clarify here.  Number one, I think the first thank you is to the

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Nandin family.  Patty and her sisters have done an amazing job at this last event that we 
had, but really for many, many years, the Nandin family has been a tradition when it 
comes to partnerships with Tolleson.  And the fact that we have her connected to the 
West End Little League, which is awesome because a lot of us either coached or played 
on it, it's a win-win for Tolleson.  And this money will go to sponsor a lot of kids here in 
town that maybe are not able to pay 100 percent of the registration fee or none of the 
registration fee, and that should never be a reason why they are not allowed to play 
little league here in Tolleson or anywhere else, for that matter.   
BABCHUK:  Thank you, Mayor and members of the council.  Absolutely.  It's even going 
to affect our programs at the Parks and Rec Center.  They've offered to scholarship kids 
that can't afford our summer and afterschool programs, as well, with these funds.   
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Excellent.  The more the merrier.   
All right.  Come on up, Patty. 
NANDIN:  Thank you. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Awesome.  Congratulations, again.   
And for those of you that don't know, I think it was -- 
Go ahead, Patty. 
NANDIN:  (Indiscernible) the city (indiscernible) for taking me on -- 12 years ago? 
12 years ago, when I was thrown into the position as the president, a lot of growing, a 
lot of learning, a lot of fighting, just because one field.  And this season, we have 278 
kids.  With the one field, we have been traveling between Holiday Park, Avondale, 
Buckeye, Goodyear, so it makes for a good season.  But I'm excited for this, for the kids, 
to be able to put flyers up because that way we won't have to say no or -- because little 
do you know that my mom sponsors kids to play, and my son actually sponsored -- it's 
emotional -- a little boy to play All Stars because he couldn't afford it.  My son is barely 
20.  He had his first job at Honeywell, and he paid for two boys to play All Stars this 
season without them knowing it was him.  He goes, Mom, I'm going to pay because I 
want them to play.  So this makes it just so much more meaningful because we are tied 
to the community, and I know there are kids that want to play that are embarrassed to

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ask or just won't ask.  And that's what we want, to be able to say, come play, come have 
fun, come see if you like it.  That's the purpose of it, see if you like it.  So again, thank 
you so much for the opportunity, and I'm excited for this season that'll be starting in 
August.  So -- 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Thank you. 
NANDIN:  -- I will send out the notifications to have you guys come out to our opening in 
August, and hopefully, you guys can all be there. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Awesome.  Sounds perfect.  Thanks again, Patty. 
NANDIN:  Thank you. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  All right.  Item number 3, Paseo de Arte Extension by West Valley 
Arts Council Gallery 37 Artists.  I'm going to turn it over to Vice Mayor Davis. 
DAVIS:  Good evening, everyone.  So our Gallery 37 Program through the West Valley 
Arts Council has been working really hard this summer.   
They're on their third week of class? 
They're on their third week of class.  They're taking courses over at Estrella Mountain 
Community College.  So they have an art class in the morning, and then in the 
afternoons, they go into more of, like, a business-type class.  They are preparing 
proposals to bring to the next city council meeting to present their proposals for the 
extension of our Paseo de Arte, which is going to be some sculptures that are going to 
head east on Van Buren.  We currently have sculptures that go from 91st to about 96th 
Avenue, so we're really excited about that.  And today, we have our representative for 
the cohort, Andrea Garcia.   
So if you want to please stand?   
Let's give it up for her.  She was really brave today and she came all by herself to 
represent her class, and we're really proud of her.  And the best part is she is the only 
one that actually attends Tolleson High School, so we're excited about that.   
All right.  So thank you for coming down.   
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Okay.  You want to come up and take a picture?  You can bring 
your parents with you, if you want.

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GARCIA:  Come with me. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Come on up. 
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER:  Thank you. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Awesome.  Thanks, again.   
Okay.  We're going to move onto item number 4.  This is Safe Streets and Roads for All 
presentation.   
Anita Johari with Kimley-Horn, you have the floor -- or maybe, maybe not. 
How about Jason Earp? 
EARP:  Mayor and members of council, I'm going to have Gabe Elias just kind of quick 
background before she does her presentation.   
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  We're going to go from Jason, to Gabe, to Anita.  Okay. 
EARP:  We had a last-second change.  Sorry. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Understood.   
ELIAS:  Good evening, Mayor, members of council.  So just a little background on the 
SS4A grant and our action plan.  In the Fall of 2022, the City of Tolleson applied for 
federal assistance for Safe Streets and Roads for All discretionary grant program and 
was awarded 200,000 in federal grant funding to assist with the development of the 
city's first action plan to reduce and/or eliminate serious-injury and fatal collisions.  So 
with that grant, we took and we got Kimley-Horn on board to analyze the crash data 
over the course of five years.  So with that data, Kimley-Horn puts together 
recommendations for improvements for the City of Tolleson.  As far as Safe Streets are 
concerned, this report and its findings are directly related to crash data and statistics, so 
we really don't want to get it confused with existing traffic standards right now, you 
know, related to street closures or road work or things of that nature.  This grant is 
directly related to crash data and how to make our streets safer based off of that 
information.  So without further ado, I'd like to present or introduce Anita Johari with 
Kimley-Horn. 
JOHARI:  You can hear me, right? 
Okay.  I can't hear myself.

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Good evening, Mayor and Vice Mayor and the councilmembers, and thank you for this 
opportunity to present on the Safe Streets for All that we are doing, this Comprehensive 
Safety Action Plan for Tolleson.  And I am Anita Johari with Kimley-Horn.  I am their 
senior project manager, and I've been doing safety analysis and safety studies right from 
the time I did my master's in Michigan in year 2000.  So taking all of that information 
with me, we come up with an opportunity to develop some low-cost to high-cost 
infrastructure improvements, some that can be implemented very quickly and easily just 
using maintenance funds, some that require more robust infrastructure improvements.  
So in 2022, the infrastructure and -- 
First slide.  Is somebody moving the slides? 
Okay.  So just introduction about the Safe Streets, the Safety Action Plan, and how this 
came about.  The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the IIJA, established the Safe 
Streets for All, a competitive grant program allocating $5 billion appropriated over the 
five years from 2022 to '26.  And Tolleson -- kudos to Gabe and his team -- is one of the 
first cities in Arizona to get this infrastructure grant, and the aim of the grant was to 
develop a Safety Action Plan for Tolleson.  The Safety Action Plan is a tool for prioritizing 
safety improvements in all roadway investment programs that Tolleson puts together, 
and then it's a comprehensive study focused on eliminating serious-injury and fatal 
crashes affecting all road users.   
As part of this project, what we did was we did an extensive crash data analysis, looked 
at past five years.  We actually extended it to seven years because of the COVID impact.  
We wanted to see how things were before COVID, and then also during COVID because 
there was big dip in the travel patterns, so we didn't want COVID to really impact us; 
and then we did a lot of field visits to understand traffic flow in and out of Tolleson and 
understand what could be improved in terms of safety improvements; then we also did 
extensive public outreach; then we identified high-crash locations and factors 
contributing to the crashes; then finally, we prioritized develop strategies -- some 
include policy changes, some include new programs, and some are infrastructure 
changes -- and then finally, developed an implementation plan, our layout of projects.

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You cannot go and put all the projects immediately on the ground, so it's over the next 
several years.  We came up with a short-term implementation of zero to two years, then 
two to eight years, and eight years, plus.  One of -- 
Next slide, please. 
So Tolleson, as you all know, has a very interesting land use distribution.  The periphery 
is all warehouse and industrial, while the core or the heart of Tolleson is where the 
residential and the commercial and the people live in.  So rightly said, the industrial and 
warehouse are on the core, and the roadways that is connecting to them are identified 
as freight corridors.  So there were previous studies done to identify and designate them 
as freight corridors.  107th, 99th, 83rd are connecting all the way to I-10, designated as 
official freight corridors.  A part of 91st is also a freight corridor that you are able to 
come down south from on 91st, and then Buckeye Road is another freight corridor.   
Another interesting point that we found out was not all roadways are completely owned 
or operated by Tolleson.  We have Maricopa County, Avondale, Phoenix owning these 
roads, and so the jurisdiction has limitations on it.  But it is a major responsibility on our 
engineering team because they have to advocate and propagate safety improvements 
on those roads and be part of those programs.   
So we reviewed -- another thing we did was we got traffic volumes on all of the Tolleson 
roadways, including all of the roadways that you see over here on the map.  We got 
traffic volumes and compared them against the number of lanes on the roadway.  We 
found out that the traffic volumes to the capacity of the road, there is adequate capacity 
on the roadway.  So the capacity is not an issue, but there are other things that we can 
improve safety.  And again, as Gabe said, this project just focuses on safety and not 
improving capacity.  So we're coming up with methods of how to improve the safety, 
reduce the speeds on these roadways, and make it safe for pedestrians, bicyclists, 
motorists, students, everybody together. 
Next slide, please. 
So the five-year data the we -- we looked at data from 2018 through 2023, but the data 
that you're seeing over here, 2,609 crashes, were from 2019 to 2023.  So those were the

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number of crashes.  Again, the focus is on the 53 plus 24, the 77 fatal and serious-injury 
crashes.  That's the focus, but we did not want to omit how the growing trends are.  So 
we've looked at all the locations.  One thing was 67 percent of the crashes do occur at 
daytimes, so it's not that the -- some of the roads do have limited lights.  It's not that 
most of them are contributing to that, but there is some locations where streetlights 
could improve.   
The other thing, I want to focus on the pie chart there.  So the type of crashes, that gives 
us a lot of information on the type -- on where the crashes are, what could be the 
causes of it.  Rear-end crashes are one of the higher crashes.  Rear ends are typically 
occurring at intersections or at driveways where suddenly, somebody is slowing down, 
and they get -- and the person coming behind doesn't know, and they rear-end them.  
Then the second one left-turn crashes.  Those are, again, at your signalized, unsignalized 
intersections.  Then sideswipes are on roadway segments, and when they see -- or when 
somebody sees that this one lane has a lot of traffic, they want to move to the other 
lane, but they don't see who's coming and they bump into them.  Those are the 
segment crashes.  And then the angle crashes are, again, at the intersections, both 
signalized and unsignalized intersections.  The other crashes are predominantly the 
pedestrian and bicycle crashes.   
Next slide, please. 
So this map gives us a little more detailed information about the crashes.  The dots that 
you're seeing there are where the fatal and serious-injury crashes occurred, and the 
colorful lines that you're seeing are locations where the number of crashes over the past 
five years, and also adjusted based on the traffic volume, shows which are the corridors 
which have a higher crash rate:  99th Avenue, 91st Avenue, 83rd Avenue, and Buckeye 
Road.  Even though, Buckeye Road, the overall crashes were not too high, but the 
number of fatal and serious-injury crashes were higher on Buckeye Road.  So that's the 
map that we came up with.   
And using this map, we came up with certain conclusions, and a little more detailed 
analysis was done.  It was interesting to know that younger drivers -- this is age 15

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through 25 -- 28 percent of all crashes was by this category.  I'm not saying that they 
were all at fault, but they were involved in a crash, 28 percent of this number.  And with 
17 crashes involved -- 17 fatal, serious-injury crashes involved a younger driver.  So that 
was a really alarming number, for us to see that these people are just starting to drive, 
and they are getting involved in crashes.  The second one that we did see was speeding-
related crashes.  We did see some speeding-related crashes, and the speeds were 
anywhere in the range of 5 to 25 over speed limit.  So they could be coming off a ramp, 
and they get into a crash that is a speeding-related -- and those speeds could be the 
higher ones, but then we did see some speeding-related crashes.   
So with all that data, we were able to come up with a countermeasure focus area.  We 
said that we had to address intersections, roadway segments with a focus on the freight 
traffic, then neighborhoods and schools.  Those were our other area that we wanted to 
address in terms of safety.   
Next slide, please. 
As part of this grant application, it is important for us to involve the public and engage 
with the public to understand their perspective of safety.  So we did three in-person 
public outreach, and we also had a survey.  We met the public at the trick-or-treat 
event, then we went to the Senior Center, we went to the Teen Council, to understand 
and gauge what the safety perspective was from this different age group as well.  Then 
as part of this project, we developed a safety action group, and this group consisted of 
the City Manager's Office, Public Relations, Engineering, police, fire, school, Economic 
Development.  We met here in this exact room on November 7th to discuss the 
information on the crashes and also come up with some opportunities to improve at 
that first meeting.  And then we met online on February 27th, and we developed -- to 
develop a vision for the Safety Action Plan and a goal for the Safety Action Plan.   
Next slide, please. 
So the vision for the Safety Action Plan that we went with is to eliminate fatal and 
serious-injury crashes for all road users.  This is a big umbrella, and it has to be -- it can 
be achieved through small steps.  So we developed some objectives.  The 20-percent

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reduction in fatal and serious-injury crashes by 2030, this is the same percentage that 
the state has adopted -- as the State of Arizona has adopted as part of their Safety 
Action Plan and so went with that same percentage.  And then we progressed towards a 
Vision Zero as a build out of Tolleson (indiscernible) -- or by 2050 as a long-term version 
of it.  Then this Safety Action Plan is based on the FHWA guidance called Safe System 
approach, which says we cannot accept any more fatal and serious-injury crashes.  Fatal 
and serious-injury crashes, really, it impacts the entire community.  When somebody is 
gone from the community, when somebody is seriously injured, it impacts the friends, it 
impacts the family, it impacts the entire community when they are not able to move, 
and they are just paralyzed in the road.  So the Safe -- so we went with using the 
guidance of the Safe System approach, which also says safety is a combined 
responsibility of leadership of the different departments of the city and also the public.  
So constantly engaging the public in what the city is doing with regards to safety and 
always educating them with safety is what this Safety Action Plan and the Safe System 
approach really advocates.   
So next slide, please. 
With that part process in mind -- and we've already spoken about the emphasis areas -- 
we are the -- Tolleson's Comprehensive Road Safety Action Plan has responsibility and 
involve the engineering, enforcement, education, emergency response, public relations 
in terms of equity, and then right now, presenting it to you as a council in terms of 
engagement with the management, the leadership, and the public.  So that's why this 
Safety Action Plan really has all spikes this Safety Action Plan will include.  And so our 
emphasis areas, again, the young drivers and school area safety, changing the human 
behavior to take the responsibility of road safety upon them.  When you are a 
pedestrian, when you are a bicyclist, when you are a driver, what are the safety norms 
of it?  Then understanding that you are going to be interacting with vulnerable road 
users, which means you are -- as a driver, you're going to be interacting with a 
pedestrian or motorcyclist or a bicyclist, but as a -- school students as well.  And as a 
student or any of these, you're going to be interacting with these heavy vehicles around

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you.  How should you react with them?  How do we increase that education and that 
responsibility in them?  And finally, infrastructure improvements.  That's been our focus. 
Next slide, please. 
So going into our recommendations, we came up with policy recommendations that we 
develop a Safety Task Force Committee.  We already developed a committee for 
development of this plan, and we are thinking that the same committee will become the 
Safety Task Force Committee to take this project to its fruition as well, then create and 
designate a road safety coordinator who can oversee the safety improvements and the 
recommendations in this plan.   
Then we went into the education initiatives; that is, to establish maybe a high school 
curriculum or a special ed class in the high school, to do a driver ed program.  There are 
several resources which we will share with in the report.  Then establish a pedestrian 
safety and bicycle for younger students, like middle school and elementary, how they 
should be navigating through these roadways.  Then having media campaigns.  The 
public outreach media campaigns, in terms of distracted driving as a pedestrian as a 
bicyclist as a motorbike rider, what are your responsibilities?   
Then we go into the enforcement category of expanding the enforcement in terms of 
DUI, speeding, red-light running, aggressive behavior.  Also, one thing we did notice was 
truck parking on all the roadways, and that is a safety concern as well because once a 
driver is in the truck and a pedestrian is walking, he is not able to see that, and he starts 
driving and somebody is hit.  Two of our crashes were like that.  So truck parking is an 
issue in this area, so enforcing no on-street parking.  Then all our data comes -- all our 
analysis came from data, so effective crash coding is another thing that we want to 
emphasize on and having a constant understanding of how these crashes are done. 
Next slide. 
The city has already -- just listening from us, the city has already started doing some of 
these highlighted projects.  They have understood that the signal timing on freight 
corridors should be reactive to how the trucks can maneuver through that location.  So 
some of those signal-timing projects have been implemented already, and that is going

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to become part of the policy as well, for freight corridors, especially.  We are looking at 
the yellow and all red, so it is responsive for the vehicle as well.   
And then the second thing that Gabe was telling me was the pavement marking.  He's 
already working on improving pavement marking through the maintenance fund on 
83rd Avenue, and then he's already bought the three -- you would have seen in other 
places, it's a yellow marking on the signal backplates.  It improves the visibility of the 
signal even during the dark and when it is -- when you're driving east, west, especially, 
and the sun is going down, you're not able to see the signal, but this reflective marking 
will help you see the signal.  So that is going to be implemented quickly.  So those are 
some of our non-infrastructure, low-cost projects that the city has already started 
implementing. 
The next one is the -- 
Next slide, please. 
The next one is the infrastructure projects.  These are the higher-budget projects that 
we have identified. 
The next slide? 
Yeah.  So 99th Avenue, we are thinking of some speed feedback signs on 99th Avenue -- 
91st Avenue.  99th Avenue, we are recommending a median.  Medians are not here, but 
a median really helps visually create a barrier, which will visually -- which will 
instinctively create the slowing down of traffic.  So we are suggesting a median.  And 
then the area near the CBI, we did see a lot of crashes, fatal and serious-injury crashes, 
pedestrian-related fatal and serious-injury crashes, so one of the recommendations that 
the group came up was to really create a fence to prevent crossing on 99th Avenue, 
midway -- jaywalking, as we can call it, midblock crossing.  So to really direct the 
pedestrians to the intersections, and then they can cross there.  So that would be, like, 
creating a fence or something like that in the median on 99th Avenue.  So those are 
projects that the city is eager to invest into, and we want to go after the implementation 
grant, which is the next phase of this project.  So as part of -- 
Next slide, please.

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So those are our high-end projects.  And what next is we want the -- we want to adopt -- 
officially adopt this Safety Action Plan as part -- you should have received an executive 
summary of the Safety Action Plan as part of your package, so please provide comments 
upon your review of the package.  Please provide us the comments.  We will address all 
those comments, and then we want to officially adopt the Safety Action Plan at the next 
council meeting on June 24th.  Once that is adopted, then we will be able to apply for 
the implementation grant.  This year's implementation grant is due on June 26th, so 
really, we're cutting it close to 24th and applying for -- we already started working on 
the implementation grant, then accept the safety goals and recommendations, and 
commit to making safety as a priority for the town.  So those are our next actions.  And 
as I said, the Safety Action Plan, this grant requires the city to keep in touch and keep 
the public informed about its safety initiatives and show the public how the needle is 
moving towards improvement.  That encourages everybody to invest into that.  So every 
year, we would like an evaluation done.  We will provide the tools to the city at the end 
of the project, so they can evaluate, keep that process going.   
So with that, I can take questions. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Well, Anita, first of all, thank you for your presentation.  I think it's 
great, thinking safety, especially when it comes to some of our major corridors where 
we've had significant accidents, serious accidents, deaths at times.  Anything that can 
prevent that, of course, is paramount, especially when we talk about areas around 
schools and major corridors.  So I look forward to some of this stuff being implemented.  
The items that you had listed, all of them seem pretty doable.  None of it seems, you 
know, out of this world.  I don't know if the 200,000 will cover all of it, but I think if it's in 
the name of safety, that's something that we can consider, maybe, pitching in some 
funds to make sure that we can get 100 percent of those projects out of the way.  And 
you're right; it's not going to be done overnight.  It's going to be done in the course of a 
number of years.  And so we'll be here, and we'll stay committed to the plan.  But you 
gave us some homework.  We have to review the plan, provide feedback, because you 
got a really quick timeline that you have to meet, so --

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JOHARI:  Yes. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  All right.  Council, other questions or comments? 
GAMEZ:  Thank you, Mr. Mayor. 
Thank you so much.  It was comprehensive, and I enjoyed it.  There was a lot of 
information, safety being the number one priority.  I live right in the corner of 91st 
Avenue and Taylor, and I see the issues that we have with traffic.  Not right now 
because there's summer school, not a lot of traffic -- 
JOHARI:  Uh-huh. 
GAMEZ:  -- but when school's in session and people are working, going back and forth, 
we have issues with the traffic.  And it's not on there, but I've seen incidents of road 
rage, and that's an issue.  And you talked about behavior.  Those are things that we 
need to address.  Our police department does a good job.  They were out there today.  
They have a task force in cooperation with other cities.  This month happens to be our 
turn, or this week, and they were stopping people, and they were telling them not to 
speed.  That's what we need, and safety, again, being priority.  And I think that if we 
work together and we do this and we know that it's an issue, we deal with it.   
Another thing that you guys don't deal with, and I think it's an issue, is the quality of the 
air in those areas.  We talk about emissions from the automobile, the trucks.  It's not 
pleasant.  And I've said this before.  In the morning, you wake up, you have all this 
exhaust coming your way, and you combine that with the Fabuloso stuff from the 
laundry and then Sunland Beef for (indiscernible) -- 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  (Indiscernible). 
GAMEZ:  -- I mean, you mix it up, it's a hell of a breakfast.  It really is.  It's not good.  So 
we have to deal with that, and that's an issue because people live on both sides of 91st 
Avenue.  You know, it's not like on 83rd Avenue; it's not like 99th Avenue.  Not that 
many homes.  Here, you have them, so we have to do it and remember that we're 
dealing with residents in our community that are having to deal with that.  And you're 
right.  The Carniceria, the one on Garfield, good business.  They probably barbequed like 
a million pounds of chicken a week.  I mean, it seems that way.  And you can smell it,

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which it smells good.  (Spanish spoken).  I mean, enough is enough.   
But I'm saying, thank you so much for your presentation.  There's still some issues that 
we have to deal with, and we just got to be very positive about it and not pretend that it 
doesn't exist.  It does exist, so we have to deal with it.  But thank you so much. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Thank you, Anita. 
Any other comments from Council? 
I heard Jimmy, and then we're going to go Clorinda.   
So Vice Mayor? 
DAVIS:  I'm glad you did bring up the problems on 99th Avenue with the (indiscernible).   
GAMEZ:  Bless you. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Bless you. 
DAVIS:  I have seen -- bless you.   
JOHARI:  Bless you. 
DAVIS:  I have seen countless people almost get hit.  Thankfully, I have not witnessed 
somebody actually being hit, but that's a big, big, big problem and a huge safety issue 
almost daily, probably multiple. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Okay.  Councilmember Erives? 
ERIVES:  Uh-huh.  Anita, I just wanted to say thank you on all of the presentations, but I 
really -- the data, right?  Like, the data doesn't lie.  We're not saying, oh, it's an 
imaginary issue.  No, this is an issue, and this is why.  And the numbers.  When you were 
mentioning young drivers, right, so students -- you know, we have a high school here 
that's young -- and I teach high school, and so they're young and they're excited about 
driving.  But I do know that we don't have a program like driver's ed anymore.  So 
something that maybe the city can do, maybe something we can think about in the 
future, how we can partner up, how we can figure out so that we can get these drivers -- 
these young drivers, you know, some education, some opening, you know, their eyes 
with regards to this.  And then I was thinking, well, not just our young -- the future 
young kids as they come ready to drive, right?  Like, oh, I can't wait to drive.  I'm going 
to be 16, and I'm going to take my sister to school.  Well, again, now you're talking

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school areas, young drivers, inexperienced, high-traffic.  How we can do as a 
community -- because those are our babies going to school, so how can we as a 
community help support?  So I appreciated all the data and that we can -- solutions, 
right, so not just a problem but how we can solve this, and through education.  And I 
was thinking Teen Council -- I was thinking a whole bunch of programs that we could do.  
So thank you.  I appreciate that. 
JOHARI:  And yes, they are looking at a lot of education programs, and they are available 
already.  And the program is free of cost.  It's how to deliver it.  So that's where the next 
part comes in, is finding that team of -- finding a coordinator or a representative inside 
the town who can take this and deliver it to the students.  Thank you for this. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Yeah.  Thanks, again. 
Gabe, thank you.   
And who introduced you? 
Jason.  Jason, thank you, too.  It's really good information.  Thank you. 
All right.  We're going to move onto item number 5.  This is a proclamation declaring 
June 19th, 2025, as Juneteenth Freedom Day in the City of Tolleson, commemorating 
the end of slavery in the United States and honoring the resilience, history, and cultural 
contributions of African Americans while encouraging all residents to reflect on the 
significance of freedom and the ongoing pursuit of equity and justice for all.  I'm going 
to call up the deputy city manager to say some more on this item. 
JACKSON:  Hi.  Good evening, Mr. Mayor and members of council.  Yes, this is the 
significance of Juneteenth, a powerful reminder of the end of slavery in the United 
States and the enduring struggle for freedom and justice.  Today, I'm wearing an African 
clothing from Ghana.  It's in solidarity and celebration of the rich cultural heritage and 
the resilience of the African American community.  Throughout this proclamation, we 
hope that it's showing our commitment to equity, inclusion, and ongoing work towards 
more justice in the future. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Awesome.  I know last year we had a Juneteenth event.  Is that 
something that we're repeating?  That was a shirt that was given out, yeah.

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You might have to come up here because you're on part of the white table back there. 
BABCHUK:  Mayor and Council, this year, we haven't heard back from the lady who 
came forth and asked to host that event.  So what we did is we took the initiative, and 
we're having -- we're celebrating it during that whole week in our afterschool program, 
in our library programs, and also in our Senior Center. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Excellent. 
BABCHUK:  So we'll be celebrating the whole week Juneteenth. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  I think that's a great idea.  If we're not going to have one-time 
celebration, we can at least sprinkle the different programs that we already have in 
place and help educate some of our community about Juneteenth and the importance 
and significance of it.   
Beautiful blouse, by the way. 
Oh, well, you're sitting down, so -- very, very nice.  Yeah.  Thank you. 
GAMEZ:  (Indiscernible). 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Yeah.  So with that, thanks, again, guys.   
And so therefore, I, Mayor Juan Rodriquez, to hereby proclaim June 19th, 2025, as 
Juneteenth Freedom Day in the City of Tolleson.  Be it proclaimed.   
We're going to move onto item number 6, proclamation declaring June 2025 as LG -- I 
got to get this right -- LGBTQIA+ Pride Month in the City of Tolleson, honoring the 
history and contributions of the LGBTQIA+ community and encouraging all residents to 
promote inclusion, equity, and respect for all individuals.  I'm going to turn it over to 
Deputy City Manager Jackson and then turn it over to Vice Mayor. 
JACKSON:  Thank you, again, Mr. Mayor and members of council.  As we recognize, Pride 
Month is a time to honor the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer 
or questioning, intersex, and asexual individuals, collectively known as LBGTQIA [sic] 
community.  Pride is a celebration of love, identity, and the right of every person to live 
authentically, and we stand proudly in support of equality and dignity and inclusion for 
all.   
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  All right.  Thank you, City Manager Wendy Jackson.

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And we're going to turn it over to Vice Mayor. 
DAVIS:  Tonight, we officially proclaim June as Pride Month and recognize Juneteenth 
here in the City of Tolleson.  These proclamations are more than symbolic.  They are 
bold affirmations that Tolleson stands with and for those who have been marginalized, 
silenced, and overlooked for far too long.  And in these times, that affirmation matters 
more than ever.  Across the nation, the Trump administration has launched targeted 
attacks against our communities.  At the very start of Pride Month, they announced 
plans to rename the USS [sic] Harvey Milk, a ship honoring a Navy veteran, civil rights 
hero, and the first openly gay elected official in U.S. history.  Harvey Milk, a man who 
was forced to resign from military service simply for being gay and who was later 
assassinated by a fellow city council member.  While this captured media attention, 
behind the scenes, the administration quietly slashed funding for HIV/AIDS prevention, 
PrEP access, and essential healthcare services for the LGBTQIA+ community that saves 
lives.   
The attacks don't stop there.  The black community continues to face relentless erasure 
and targeting, from the removal of black historical figures on national platforms to the 
dismantling of DEI initiatives, defunding of HBCUs, and even the elimination of Black 
Lives Matter Plaza.  These are not just bureaucratic decisions.  They are deliberate 
attempts to silence the truth and rewrite history.  
Our Latino community, our community, is also under attack.  Tolleson may be the only 
all-Latino city council in the United States.  We are a city built by immigrants and the 
children of immigrants, and as we witness attacks of aggression and militarization in 
cities like Los Angeles, we must speak up.  We must stand with our familia.  We must 
condemn these attacks, and we must be ready to act.  That means calling our senators, 
reaching out to every member of congress demanding they defend our communities, 
and push back against these dangerous, dehumanizing policies.  Even without a current 
congressional representative, we must demand that they protect our communities and 
push back against this dangerous wave of authoritarianism.   
These proclamations are important, but they are empty without action.  That's why I'm

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proud to say that in Tolleson, we do more than issue words.  We lead.  This year, 
Tolleson became the first city in Arizona to join the Greater Phoenix Equality Chamber of 
Commerce, reaffirming our commitment to LGBTQIA+ inclusion and economic 
opportunity.  We also made history within our own organization, elevating two women 
of color to serve as deputy city manager, meaning that all three of our top leadership 
roles, city manager and both deputies, are now held by people of color.  That is what 
real equity looks like.  We've passed inclusive, nondiscrimination ordinances, we've 
launched DEI initiatives that are rooted in action, not just intention, we partner with 
organizations that reflect the people we serve, and we continue to show up boldly, 
unapologetically, and with purpose.  I am proud to say that in Tolleson, we don't just 
issue proclamations.  We lead.  So tonight, we just don't proclaim Pride Month and 
Juneteenth.  We recommit to the work ahead.  We stand with our black, Latino, and 
LGBTQIA+ communities, we proclaim with pride, we celebrate with joy, and we lead 
with courage.  Let's keep showing the world what Tolleson stands for.  Thank you.  
Happy Pride, and may freedom ring this Juneteenth. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Thank you, Vice Mayor.  
And with that, I, Mayor Juan Rodriguez, do hereby proclaim June 2025th [sic] as 
LGBTQIA+ Pride Month in the City of Tolleson.  Be it proclaimed.  
All right.  We are going to move onto item G, business from the floor.  First thing we 
have is a public hearing, soliciting comments from interested parties in reference to 
adopting the property tax levy for fiscal year 2026.  This is for discussion only.  
Resolution Number 2604 regarding the property tax levy will go before Council for 
consideration at the meeting scheduled on Tuesday, June 24th, 2025th, Finance 
Department.  I will now open up this public hearing and turn this over to our Chief 
Financial Officer Artz.   
ARTZ:  Good evening, Mayor and Council.   
ALL:  Good evening. 
ARTZ:  We are here at the final step of the budget process for this fiscal year, so we do -- 
the state's (indiscernible) law requires that public hearings on property tax levy and on a

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budget (indiscernible) and then go into to a special meeting to adopt the final budget.  
So just real quick, as far as our budget is concerned, our total budget is $233,685,526.  
That has not changed since the tentative budget that you adopted at the previous 
meeting.  The property tax levy is going down very slightly this year over last year, going 
from 2.6796 to 2.6760, and then you can also see a little bit of the history there going 
back to 2021 when the rate was at $3.52.  So it has gone down almost 85, 90 cents since 
2021 for the property tax rate.  And as the mayor mentioned, that resolution will come 
back to you at the next meeting for the property tax levy.  So staff is available if Council 
or the public has any questions. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Well, I'll turn it over to Council for questions at this time.   
Any questions or comments? 
Yes, Councilmember Erives? 
ERIVES:  I have a question.  Just play with this question.  So I want to know my individual 
property taxes, so -- or Joe Public, right?  Joe Public wants to know.  Well, they said at 
the last council meeting that taxes have gone down, but I don't really feel it.  How would 
I know that?  What would a -- how could a person go through -- I don't know -- a 
website, maybe, to see how their individual property taxes have gone down?  Is there a 
way for the public to notice that? 
ARTZ:  Mayor and Councilmember Erives, there are a couple of components to your 
property tax, one being the property tax rate.  That's what the city can control.  And so 
ours is going down very slightly, but there are other jurisdictions that have property tax 
rates, and so the school districts and others that the city doesn't control, so their rates 
may be going up.  The second component of it is your property tax valuation.  So the 
county sets the property tax valuation for each home.  So your valuation may go up, and 
even though our tax rate goes down, in total, you may be paying more.  So if individuals 
have a question on that, I'd be happy to speak with them individually, could kind of walk 
them through that, but they would have to go to the county website to see what their 
tax valuation is, and then they would have to look up the tax rates for each of the 
jurisdictions to determine if they're going up or down.  So we control the rate, that's

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going down slightly, but in all likelihood, individual's total tax probably will see an 
increase with the valuation going up and depending on what other jurisdictions are 
doing. 
ERIVES:  So people would go to the Maricopa County -- 
ARTZ:  They could go to the Assessor's -- 
ERIVES:  Assessor's. 
ARTZ:  -- website and get their tax valuation -- 
ERIVES:  Right. 
ARTZ:  -- and whether it's gone up or not for this year, and then they could look at all of 
the jurisdictions to determine -- 
ERIVES:  Okay. 
ARTZ:  -- what their rates are. 
ERIVES:  That'd be good information to see, oh, the school bonds and the overrides and 
how much of that's increasing to theirs as well. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  They do send out a half sheet every year, also, to every resident 
that has all the -- 
ARTZ:  That has the assessed valuation on it. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Yeah. 
ARTZ:  That probably doesn't have the new rates yet in there, but as soon as the county 
gets a collection of all the jurisdictions' rates, then they would be able to determine 
what the total tax bill will be for the next year.   
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  You had me at it's going down for our city -- 
ERIVES:  Right. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  -- so -- 
ERIVES:  Right.  I like that as well. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Yeah. 
ERIVES:  But I would also like some -- how do I prove that?  How do I show that?  And I 
appreciate that if I go to the county website, there will be some -- and then I like the 
information that the school bonds and the school overrides, and I remember seeing

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West-MEC on there as well, so there's different -- yeah. 
ARTZ:  Again, I'd be happy to sit down with anyone that would like to go through it, and I 
could sit down and run through their tax bill with them. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Anybody else on council have any comments or questions? 
All right.  This is a public meeting, so if anybody wants to speak on behalf of this, I'd be 
more than willing to grant three minutes. 
Okay.  Not seeing any. 
City Clerk, do we have any submissions? 
ZAMORA:  We do not, Mayor. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Okay.  With that, I will close this public meeting.  Thank you very 
much, everybody.   
I'm going to move on to our next public hearing, which is soliciting comments from 
interested parties in reference to Resolution Number 2602, adopting the City of Tolleson 
annual budget for fiscal year 2026.  I think I'm going to call back up the Finance 
Department.  I will now open up this public hearing.  
And our CFO Artz, take the floor. 
ARTZ:  Thank you, Mayor.  I don't have any additional information on this.  Again, our 
budget is the 233 million, and it has not changed from the tentative budget that was 
previously adopted by Council. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  So just for general information, this has been a conversation for 
over the last three months, maybe, four months. 
ARTZ:  Mayor, we started -- I believe our first meeting was in January, so -- 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  January, so it's been -- 
ARTZ:  -- five months. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  -- a process, and this is a process that we do every year.  And so 
the budget has not changed.  Council has thrown in some new ideas and some 
possibilities.  That exchange with the total, the 233, is still our operating budget for the 
incoming year -- 
ARTZ:  Uh-huh.

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MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  -- so that's very important to note.  What's also important to note 
is that budget just doesn't happen by itself.  We have a team of folks that work for CFO 
Artz and CFO Artz himself do a tremendous job and win many awards when it comes to 
finance management, and we are very honored to have you as a member of our team.  
And I just want to thank you, I think, behalf of the council for all the work that your 
team has done to get us to this point.  And it's considerable because $233 million in 
tools to provide good public service to our community takes a very serious 
concentration on managing that money, and ultimately, that's a huge responsibility.  So 
thank you for helping us out with that. 
Any comments or questions from Council? 
GAMEZ:  Just a fantastic job.  Simple as that.  Thank you. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Okay.  Not hearing any other? 
No?  Okay.  This is a public meeting, so anybody from the public that would like to 
speak?  
No.   
City Clerk, are we good?  Any submissions? 
No.  Okay.  Then this public hearing is also closed.   
We're going to convene into special meeting.  So motion to go into special meeting? 
We have a motion by Vice Mayor Davis. 
GAMEZ:  Second. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  We have a second by Councilmember Gamez.  All those in favor of 
going into a special meeting, please signify by saying aye. 
ALL:  Aye. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  All those opposed? 
Not hearing any.  Motion passes unanimously.   
We're going to move onto item number 2, which is to adopt or deny Resolution Number 
2602 with the mayor and council of the City of Tolleson, Arizona, adopting the final 
budget and establishing an expenditure limitation for the City of Tolleson for fiscal year 
2026.  The total amount of budgeted expenditure is $233,685,526.

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So I will turn it over to the finance director if there's any other comments at this time? 
ARTZ:  I have no additional information. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Yeah.  I think you've done a tremendous job.  And this budget has 
to be adopted before July, so that's what's here today.  And I look forward to us being 
able to do that.  So I will entertain a motion. 
GAMEZ:  Mayor, I'd like to readopt -- I make a motion to adopt the Resolution Number 
2602. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Okay.  We have a motion by Councilmember Gamez.   
I saw your hand, Vice Mayor Jimmy.   
I have a second by Vice Mayor Jimmy.  All those in favor of adopting our budget for the 
2026 cycle, please signify by saying aye. 
ALL:  Aye. 
ZAMORA:  I was going to conduct a roll call vote. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Oh, it's a roll call vote.  Okay.  So you know what, Crystal?  I'll let 
you lead that. 
ZAMORA:  Yeah.  Okay.  Mayor Rodriguez?  
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Aye. 
ZAMORA:  Vice Mayor Davis? 
DAVIS:  Aye. 
ZAMORA:  Councilmember Chavira? 
CHAVIRA:  Aye. 
ZAMORA:  Councilmember Erives? 
ERIVES:  Aye. 
ZAMORA:  Councilmember Gamez? 
GAMEZ:  Aye. 
ZAMORA:  Councilmember Laborin? 
Councilmember Mendoza? 
There you go. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  All right.  Motion passes unanimously.  Thank you very much.

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Again, thank you, CFO Artz. 
So we will reconvene into a regular meeting.  Not sure I need the gavel out, but I did, so 
here we are.  We're going to move onto item J, which is consent agenda action items.  I 
see items I [sic] through 7.  If you have had an opportunity to review them or you have 
any questions for any item, now is the time to do it.  If you do not, now is the time to 
make a motion to approve all seven items in one shot. 
GAMEZ:  Mayor, I make a motion to -- 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  We have a motion. 
Vice Mayor? 
DAVIS:  Motion to approve the consent agenda items number 1 through 7. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  We have a second by Councilmember Gamez.  All those in favor 
please signify by saying aye. 
ALL:  Aye. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  All those opposed? 
Okay.  Motion passes unanimously.   
We're doing great.  (Spanish spoken).  Okay.  Item K, regular agenda action items, adopt 
or deny Resolution Number 2603 of the mayor and council of the City of Tolleson, 
Arizona, adopting a Public Safety Personnel Retirement System Pension Funding Policy 
to clearly communicate the council's pension funding objectives, its commitment to its 
employees, and the sound financial management of the city, and to comply with A.R.S. 
special series 38-863.01.   
Who can I call up here?  I know.  CFO Artz, come on up.   
[LAUGHTER] 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  You're very popular tonight. 
GAMEZ:  He's the money man. 
ARTZ:  Thank you, Mayor.  So yes, before you tonight is the Pension Funding Policy.  
Arizona Revised Statute requires that this be presented to Council -- if I can get this to 
move.  So Arizona Revised Statute requires that the governing body shall adopt this 
policy annually.  The funding policy needs to include how to maintain stability of the

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contributions, how and when the funding requirements will be met, and to define the 
funded target ratio, and then the governing body also has to formally accept the trust 
share of assets, liabilities based on the actuarial report.   
So the actuarial valuation for the two different trust funds that we have, the first one 
being the police fund, we've got $20.7 million of assets, $21.3 million of liabilities.  So 
we have an unfunded liability still of $500,000, but the funding ratio for the police 
department is 97.5 percent funded.  On the fire side, we have 23.6 million in assets, 25.7 
million in liability.  So we have an unfunded liability in fire of $2.1 million, and the fire 
trust fund is 91.8 percent funded.  So when you look at the combined totals, our funded 
ratio is 94.4 percent for both funds.   
Just looking back over the last six years, going back to 2019, you can see in the police 
department, we were 80 percent funded, so in six years, we've gone from 80 percent 
funded to 97.5 percent funded.  On the fire side, we're at 85.8 percent funded, and 
we're up to 91.8.  So again, making progress towards getting that 100 percent funded 
for both of our trust funds. 
So the key takeaways, the required annual payments that we make to the trust funds 
are coming from our operating accounts, and they've been included in the budget that 
you just approved.  The target date to be 100 percent funded is 2036.  The city has paid 
an additional $2 million in this current fiscal year, so we sent that payment two weeks 
ago to the PSPRS fund.  So those numbers that I just showed you did not include that 
additional $2 million payment.  2 million in total, and we broke it down between the 
liability, so 80 percent of it went to fire, 20 percent went to police to try to get them 
both closer to the 100 percent funded.  The unfunded liabilities decreased by almost $3 
million in the past six years.  Again, the funded ratio has improved on both funds, and 
the adoption of the resolution tonight satisfies the requirements of Arizona Revised 
Statute.  And staff is available if Council has any questions on our retirement funds.   
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  I think I have a mathematical question.  So really, what we're out 
is probably about $3 million from 100 percent? 
ARTZ:  Mayor, yes.  So the total liability was $2.6 million, but that's as of June '24, so

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almost a year ago.  So with the additional payments that we've made and our annual 
contributions, at this time next year, I'm hopeful that we'll be very close to being 100 
percent funded for both. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  I think that's awesome. 
GAMEZ:  It is awesome, yeah. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Yeah.  And so we're doing good on behalf of our public safety.  We 
want to make sure that their pension is secured.  I mean, they put their lives on the line 
day in and day out, so that's the least that we can do as a city.  And I think it's a fiscally-
responsible thing to do, also.  We have extra revenue, we see a big ole gap that needs to 
be filled, and we have taken responsibility over the years to make sure that we 
contribute a little bit more.  Unfortunately, other cities haven't, and their reality when it 
comes to their unfunded liability is very different than ours.  But again, we're here to 
manage the funds for Tolleson, and I think that's a very responsible thing that we've 
done.  And so I'd like to commend Council and Artz and management for their vision to 
get us where we're at right now.  But I look forward to be 100 percent paid on both of 
those fairly soon, hopefully by next year.  
So with that, is there any other questions or comments? 
GAMEZ:  I was going to ask in terms of how we rate with other cities, but I think I know 
the answer to that. 
ARTZ:  Mayor, Councilmember Gamez, we are very favorable when you can compare us 
to other trust funds for other cities and districts.  You know, some other communities 
might be 100 percent funded, but they may have issued bonds to get 100 percent 
funded, so they just swapped one debt for another.  That's one of the nice things here in 
Tolleson, is that we did not have to issue any debt to get our funds to be almost 100 
percent funded. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  That is awesome. 
Other questions or comments? 
DAVIS:  I -- 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Jimmy?

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DAVIS:  I just think it shows our commitment to our police and firemen in ensuring that 
they're taken care of after all they do for service.  I mean, I guess in Tolleson, we pay our 
bills instead of moving them around, so -- 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Yeah.  There's other cities that have passed initiatives just so that 
they can bond to pay their unfunded liability.  And that's very true.  You're selling bonds 
to pay for the unfunded liability, but now you've got to pay your bonds, and so that's 
also another payment type.  But really, I think we've done a tremendous job as a 
governing board and as an organization over the years.   
So the policy is going to be to continue as we are, Chief? 
ARTZ:  Yes. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Okay.  Well, with that, any other questions or comments? 
CHAVIRA:  Me. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Yes -- 
CHAVIRA:  I'm the new kid on the block, so -- 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  -- Councilmember Chavira? 
CHAVIRA:  Thank you. 
So everything is new to me, and I'm seeing everything with a fresh set of eyes, as it 
were.  And I just want to compliment you on the great work that you do because this is 
amazing.  We're a small city, but we have big city issues, and it's pretty amazing how 
well run it is and that we do value people in this organization.  And it's not just talk, as 
the Vice Mayor said.  It's actually put into action.  And so thank you for all of your hard 
work.  
And to all of you. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  So with that, not seeing any other comments, I will entertain a 
motion.   
Councilmember Chavira? 
CHAVIRA:  Said it. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  I'm going to get a second. 
Councilmember Laborin, can I get a second from you?

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Okay.  We have a first, Councilmember Chavira, and we have a second from 
Councilmember Laborin.  All those in favor of approving our policy, please signify by 
saying aye. 
ALL:  Aye. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  All those opposed? 
Not hearing any.  Motion passes unanimously.   
Thank you.  I think that's the last one for tonight. 
[LAUGHTER] 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  One more?  Okay.   
All right.  Let's move onto item number 2, which current and future strategies for 
homeless outreach, intervention, and prevention.   
CAP Manager Simon [sic], you have the floor. 
SIMMONS:  Simmons. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Simmons?  Simmons, Simon? 
ZAMORA:  Simmons. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Simmons?  Okay.   
SIMMONS:  Good evening, Mayor, members of council.  My name is Mark Simmons, and 
I'm here this evening to present to you a request to support a partnership between 
Maricopa County and the City of Tolleson.  The government partnership, again, we got 
Maricopa County, IGA between the City of Tolleson and Maricopa County, and to 
address homeless outreach and engagement.  This particular program, the objective of 
the Hand In Hand Street Outreach Program is to increase service connection and resolve 
the underlying issues contributing to homelessness for people in unincorporated areas 
of Maricopa County and targeted areas in and around communities such as Tolleson.  
The program's comprehensive approach helps address the root cause homelessness, 
including access to housing, mental and physical health issues, substance abuse -- 
substance use, rather, and financial stability.  The program's primary focus is focusing on 
the immediate assistance to people experiencing homelessness with the goal of helping 
them achieve stable housing and a better quality of life.  I am requesting authorization

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to enter into a 250,000 intergovernmental agreement with Maricopa County to leverage 
an additional $1.9 million committed by Maricopa County.  The budget is all inclusive for 
the costs of outreach workers, case management services, and transportation for 
outreach workers and clients.   
The overview, with what we're considering today, this program will address the 
increased number of unhoused in the City of Tolleson, the transient population, housing 
instability, and substance abuse.  If those four items look familiar, that partnership, if we 
choose to go that direction, helps to address the following council priorities on the 
transient population.  Let me remind you, from those priorities, Tolleson understands 
that the transient population, as well as those suffering from substance abuse, require a 
comprehensive network of services to address unique challenges faced by those in 
transition and/or in recovery.  Efforts to understand and support these needs require a 
collaboration with organizations that provide housing support, social services, and 
interventions in concert with city services to address the complexities of housing and 
civility and substance abuse. 
The investment provides pooled services, outreach and engagement, and leveraged 
funding.  An investment of $25 [sic] buys access to pooled services such as homeless 
outreach and engagement, mental and physical health services, case management, 
transportation, addressing substance use, and the accessibility of flexible funds.  What 
does that mean by flexible funds?  Well, there's two subsets of flexible funding that 
Maricopa County would provide within this agreement.  The first set would be housing 
of short-term stays, so they would provide housing for those who are unhoused.  It 
could be hotels, any kind of short stays during that time, which would be paid for by 
Maricopa County.  And secondly, there's the use of additional funds which can be used 
for rent, can be used for transportation, car repairs -- it's numerous.  So whatever we 
can think of to address these individuals who are unhoused, and they have not been 
able to obtain those funds to take care of any of numerous things, Maricopa County 
would be able to take care of that at that time. 
The request, again, is an authorization to enter into $25,000 intergovernmental

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agreement with Maricopa County in support of the Hand In Hand Street Outreach 
Program. 
Thank you for allowing me to present this evening, and I will -- 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Well, you're not done. 
SIMMONS:  -- now entertain any questions. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  There's going to be some questions.  But the first question I got to 
knock out is, did we budget the $25,000 for this in our operating budget for next year? 
SIMMONS:  Mayor Rodriguez, yes.  So $50,000 has been approved for a program similar 
to this.  But what we're looking at is utilizing a portion of that for this program, and then 
once we get this program running, there may be other areas that we can also support as 
well.  So we do have that additional funding that could be used at that time, the other 
25,000, to support other needs -- 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Excellent. 
SIMMONS:  -- of the homeless population. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  All right.  I saw some hands up.  Let's start with Councilmember 
Chavira. 
CHAVIRA:  Thank you. 
Thank you so much for your presentation.  So just to be clear, we're investing $25,000 of 
our budget, but in return, Maricopa County is going to provide us with 1.5 million in 
funding?  Is that what I heard? 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  1.9. 
SIMMONS:  Mayor Rodriguez -- 
CHAVIRA:  1.9?   
SIMMONS:  -- Councilmember -- 
CHAVIRA:  That's even better. 
SIMMONS:  -- Chavira, yes.  So it's a $25,000 investment to leverage $1.9 million of 
services.  Now, that breakdown, which I did not go over before -- so that breakdown, 
what that entails is that Maricopa County would commit roughly around $900,000 in 
general funds.  The cost of the partnerships, which are between CBI, Community

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Bridges, and Phoenix Rescue Mission, would be about $965,000, but that includes the 
nearly $300,000 for personnel.  So our $25 [sic] simply pays for personnel.  It does not 
affect the services we get or the funds we may request at any time for someone who's 
homeless. 
CHAVIRA:  And will we be providing those services through our offices, or will people 
have to be referred to Maricopa County? 
SIMMONS:  No.  Mayor Rodriguez, Councilmember Chavira, the services will be housed 
out of our police department.  They will have an outreach worker.  We have proposed 
three days a week, 8 to 5, and they will be generally just submitting those services.  If 
we find someone within our Senior Center or community services, we can then refer 
them to that individual, which then, depending on the services that are needed, he or 
she could provide those services for that individual. 
DAVIS:  Oh, boy.  Okay.  So there's going to be a dedicated person at the police 
department, is what you're telling me?  Are they going to be doing street outreach, or 
are they just going to be locked up in an office all week? 
SIMMONS:  Mayor Rodriguez, Vice Mayor Davis, no.  They'll have a place at the police 
office, but the goal is that they will be committing -- they'd be submitting to outreach 
throughout all of Tolleson, and then just whatever the police department or any of our 
community members may have seen or they would like to be addressed, that individual 
would take care of that at that time.  He or she simply just has a space there at the 
police department. 
DAVIS:  So they will be going out into the community -- 
SIMMONS:  Correct. 
DAVIS:  -- and -- okay, okay. 
SIMMONS:  Yes. 
DAVIS:  So I'm hearing short-term stays, but are they going to be trying to get them into 
some type of transitional housing program or some type of -- like a Housing First model? 
SIMMONS:  Absolutely not.  So what I mean by short-term stay, so for an example, a 
family, single mother of five children, they've been evicted, so the goal is to at least get

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them off the streets into a safe space.  That could be anywhere from -- I believe with 
Maricopa County, it could be up to ten days, but during that time frame, they're trying 
to look at the services that are needed for that family, best represents the needs of that 
family.  So that's the purpose of the short stays and the hotels. 
DAVIS:  So they will continue to provide case management throughout that stay -- 
SIMMONS:  Right. 
DAVIS:  -- to ensure -- 
SIMMONS:  Once -- 
DAVIS:  -- that they get into some type of other program? 
SIMMONS:  Excuse me.  Mayor Rodriguez, Vice Mayor Davis, once they have been 
engaged by Maricopa County, services then continue at that point.  Whether they find 
other services, whether they find housing, anything of that nature, they will continue to 
manage that family and any of the services that they need at that time. 
DAVIS:  And then I'm also hearing that there's some preventative services like rental 
assistance, and I heard you say car repairs and other services like that to prevent 
somebody or a family, for instance, from becoming homeless? 
SIMMONS:  Yes.  Mayor Rodriguez, Vice Mayor Davis, yes.  Those preventative services 
are there.  The list I gave tonight is very minimal because they are very open to ensuring 
that whatever the issue is that may have initiated the homeless, whether it's individuals 
passing through, car breaks down, they can't afford it, they're willing to take care of 
those things as well.  So anything that we can do to address that and also move that 
along, we will be open to doing that as well. 
DAVIS:  All right.  So sorry.  I have 100 questions. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  That's okay.  And just so you know, Manager Simmons, you don't 
have to say, Mayor Rodriguez, every time.  You can go directly back to the council. 
SIMMONS:  Thank you. 
DAVIS:  Yeah.  That is a mouthful.  Sorry.  And then you want to have a long last name, 
too.   
So I'm assuming this would be the first tier of approach, right?  So if PD were to

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encounter somebody, then the social worker -- or are they a social worker? 
SIMMONS:  They are a combination of social workers, case workers, behavioral health.  
All these individuals, this is what they do for a living, yes. 
DAVIS:  That answers that question.  But yes.  Oh, sorry.  You're at the -- you're in the -- I 
guess we didn't want to hear from PD today.  
MENDOZA:  So Mayor and Council, just back to the point of them being housed at PD, 
obviously, when people are observing someone who's experienced homelessness, they 
typically call the police department.  So it's just a natural landing spot for them to be 
there.  We feel like the information sharing will be better if they're housed at PD, so an 
officer would be coming and obviously the person from Maricopa County from the Hand 
In Hand Program, and we'd be able to say, hey, we talked to this person in this location, 
this is where we last saw him, this is their information.  We look to tie them into our 
messaging platform called Evertel.  That way, they can then take that information, then 
go back out onto the road and contact this person. 
And then the second question? 
DAVIS:  Now I forgot what my second question was.  I think my questions were 
answered, honestly. 
MENDOZA:  Okay. 
DAVIS:  Thank you. 
MENDOZA:  Okay.  Perfect. 
DAVIS:  Thank you. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Councilmember Gamez? 
GAMEZ:  Mr. Mayor, thank you. 
Do you guys deal with CASS?  It's an organization that houses homeless people in 
Phoenix.  We used to contract with them years ago, the city and them.  I don't know if 
they're still in existence or not.  That would be an opportunity for us to get them to 
work with us.  And I'll have more to ask.  Go ahead.  Answer the question, then we got 
some more. 
SIMMONS:  All right.  Councilmember Gamez, right now, we do not contract services out

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with CASS.  It's more so on a referral basis.  For right now, the reason we're considering 
this particular agreement is because CASS does not offer outreach or homeless 
outreach.  CASS is considered what's call a coordinated entry location, so it's a 
coordinated entry throughout Arizona.  These are specific places that individuals can 
either call the 211 system, and they can be guided to various locations that provide 
specific services for these individual needs, right?  And CASS is one of those.  You can go 
onto the property itself and register, but they do not provide the outreach services.  I 
definitely would like to reentertain that contract or that partnership again if we could.  
We just need to finalize or try to look at how that could benefit both us and CASS as 
well. 
GAMEZ:  The reason why I'm bringing that up is because at one time, years ago, again, 
we used to open up donations from our community.  We used to call it the share 
program, and that was a rip-off for a program that SRP used to have, people who give 
money, who will donate money, and we'd use that money to pay the water bill for 
people who needed help with their water bills in Tolleson.  And it was a share program 
because that money would go back.  They paid SRP.  So it was great.  It was nonprofit; 
they would get a tax write-off.  The way I'm looking at it is if we had that agreement 
with CASS and we get people to donate, companies to donate, they get a write-off, we 
get those dollars, and we use it locally, and if we can get an agreement with CASS, then 
we have money to fund that.  But it's all donated funds.  I think there are people in this 
community that would give that money on a monthly basis just to help out, and they're 
getting a write-off.  But that's something to maybe look at, and that's something that 
maybe would benefit us and to supplement the $25,000 that we're using for that.  And 
people would be, I would think, happy to do that if we just market it correctly, and 
everybody wins.  Just something to think about.   
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Yeah.  I think that's a great idea, but we're here for this action 
item here, so we got to stay on task.  But that's a good idea for us to explore moving 
forward.  It's good that we got $25,000 that will open it up to other opportunities.  But it 
could be either this or it could be establishing donation possibilities, but they're all good

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ideas.  I just think this is a pretty good comprehensive approach to what we're doing.  
And our deficiencies will show themselves.  We'll do this, and we'll see what we're not 
doing or what we could be doing better.  We have $25,000 in the kitty to work on that, 
and we have resources already.  Maybe we could get with Maricopa County or CASS or 
another nonprofit.  How do we fill that void and continue to meet the gap? 
Vice Mayor? 
DAVIS:  Does this agreement come with any guaranteed beds, any guaranteed shelter 
beds? 
SIMMONS:  Vice Mayor Davis, it does not come with guaranteed beds.  Once these 
individuals -- once they're able to obtain housing or find housing for these individuals, 
that is all handled through Maricopa County. 
DAVIS:  All right.  This is the last comment, I guess, I will say.  I think this is a good first 
step.  I really do.  I still don't like these ordinances that we're about to look at, but I do 
think this is a very good first step.  So thank you for taking the time to work this out.  
Thank you to the Human Services Department in general and PD.  I do appreciate what 
you guys do.  I really do.  I just worked -- I worked with the unhoused population, 
unhoused families in particular, for a great deal of my 20s, and so it's a very important 
issue to me.  And so I want to make sure that we are remembering -- as I talked about 
earlier, we need to remember that these are human beings, and we need to treat them 
with dignity and respect at all times.  And I think sometimes we dehumanize people who 
are homeless, and you know, a lot of people are a paycheck away or one bad thing 
happening in their life from being homeless.  I learned that very early on when I worked 
in the shelter because a lot of the people that I would see living in that shelter program 
were just like me, were just like me.  I'd seen a lot of myself and my family's situation in 
those people.  So we always have to remember these are human beings that we are 
dealing with.  Always handle with care and love, and that's all I have to say about that. 
SIMMONS:  Thank you, Vice Mayor Davis. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Councilmember Chavira? 
CHAVIRA:  This data, will we be keeping our own data, or will we be relying on Maricopa

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County to keep data?  Because that will help us decide for the future, right -- how many 
are single individuals, how many were families, what were the circumstances -- so that 
we can do a better job next year in coming up with other funding or other partners that 
are going to help us.  But we want to make sure that we're helping the right people, too, 
or the people that are here.  So if we make sure we're having -- we keep some data so 
that we have that information going forward. 
SIMMONS:  Councilmember Chavira, yes.  So they will have -- part of this agreement will 
include analytics, so monthly analytics, the intergovernmental agreement states those 
datapoints that we will follow.  It will be something that we will obtain the information 
monthly on, as well as we will meet with them to -- as we look at the data, we can then 
address it real time, right?  We can make those adjustments and kind of see, are these 
datapoints worth monitoring, or is there other things that we can look at based upon 
what's occurring in the community?  So those things will be available.   
You're welcome. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  That's a really nice cup, by the way.  Just thought I'd point that 
out. 
CHAVIRA:  I purchased it from a Tolleson resident -- 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Very nice. 
CHAVIRA:  -- from his own business.  So yes, it's beautiful.  He did a great job. 
DAVIS:  I lied, I lied. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Vice Mayor? 
DAVIS:  She made me think of something.  That data is going to be specifically Tolleson 
proper data that we'll get, right, not -- because this is a region we're talking about, so 
how many other entities are involved in this region?  Because that's $1.9 million split up 
amongst a region, so how many entities are involved in that region? 
SIMMONS:  Thank you, Vice Mayor Davis, for that question. 
DAVIS:  I'm quizzing you. 
SIMMONS:  The communities involved, currently, right now is Apache Junction, Buckeye, 
El Mirage, Gilbert, Guadalupe, Goodyear, Litchfield Park, Peoria, Surprise, Tolleson,

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Wittmann, Waddell, and Youngtown are all part of this pooled service of homeless 
initiatives. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Yes, Councilwoman Erives? 
ERIVES:  Thank you for presentation.  I have a couple questions.  With regards to 
funding, right, we were talking about data, how to collect, and then you listed a lot of 
cities.  And so for me, the numbers go ting-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling (ph.), as far as services for 
our community.  This is a one-year program, if I'm understanding correctly? 
SIMMONS:  Councilmember Erives, yes, it is.  It will be an annual agreement, annual IGA.  
And just based upon, as Mayor Rodriguez mentioned, kind of our first steps to what are 
we doing, what does it look like, and with the annual agreement, we can make those 
adjustments over time as to the services that Tolleson will need. 
ERIVES:  Has the program been used before with other cities?  Like, let's say Apache 
Junction that you mentioned.  Has Apache Junction done this last year and has data to 
show that it's been effective? 
SIMMONS:  Councilmember Erives, thank you for that question.  Yes.  So the other cities 
that I have mentioned are currently part of this program.  I do not have data readily 
available today, but if that is a request of yourself, I'm sure I can get that data for you 
and provide it at another time. 
ERIVES:  Another follow-up.  With regards to funding, our investment is 25,000, and 
then there's 1.9 amongst all those other cities, correct?  And then you had mentioned, 
like, a 965,000 for just Tolleson.  So I guess my bigger question is, would we ever be told, 
sorry, Tolleson, you've used all of your Tolleson dollars, and it's February so sorry, no 
more for this next year, you've tapped out, and then our community is not being 
served? 
SIMMONS:  Councilmember Erives, thank you for that question.  No, it's not based upon 
the city.  So I can readdress -- or I will readdress your question.  So the 900,000 and the 
965,000 is just kind of an overview of where that 1.9 is going to.  All of the cities, 
everyone comes in at a different budgeted amount.  So Peoria, I believe their 
investment was 75,000.

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ERIVES:  Oh, okay. 
SIMMONS:  El Mirage, I believe 15 to 20,000.  So it's not based upon what Tolleson has 
used, this amount of service, and it's just pooled services -- 
ERIVES:  Okay. 
SIMMONS:  -- and they just utilize those all together and just use it as we continue to 
kind of see what the city needs or what Tolleson needs in itself.  It's general funds, so we 
are at least guaranteed for that annual period that funds will be available for those 
services.  And you have your general funds, and then you have the flexible spending or 
flexible funds that I mentioned later on in the -- 
ERIVES:  Right, right. 
SIMMONS:  -- presentation that's available as well. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  And depending on the -- 
ERIVES:  Flexible funding -- 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  -- need for that -- 
ERIVES:  -- yes, I saw that. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  -- we could revisit the amount of money -- 
ERIVES:  Right, right, right. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  -- that we allocate.  So there's always opportunities to do that too 
down the road. 
Vice Mayor? 
DAVIS:  Once this gets going, I'd really like to do some type of like ride along or see, you 
know, how it's working out in the field and kind of go out with that, so -- 
SIMMONS:  Thank you, Vice Mayor Davis, for that response. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Yeah.  Any other comments, questions? 
Yes, Chief? 
MENDOZA:  Mayor, one other key component of this agreement provides that we would 
still be able to have access to the services on the days when the person is not housed at 
the police department.  So we could still reach out to them, so it's not just three days 
and we don't have those services available on the other two days and on weekends.  We

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will always have those services available.  They just may not be starting within our 
community at that very moment. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Well, I think it's a great program.  You know, it's very similar to a 
program that we use at my other job, and you know, you have a case management, in 
our case, park rangers, sometimes police department, depending on the situation, and 
then of course you have the field departments to go in there and help clean up some of 
the messes that's left behind.  And you know, there's times where the people don't 
want to get served, they don't want to go to a shelter, they don't want to go to a hotel, 
and so you know, that's where other folks get involved.  But I think we're providing a 
program that's going to give a gamut of opportunities for those folks who may be 
experiencing homelessness in Tolleson to get them on the right feet, and I think that's 
where we need to start.  You know, some of the other stuff that we have in my other 
organization is more punitive in nature, it's more public safety in nature, but you know, 
you have folks out there that have warrants in other states.  They're here for a reason, 
you know, and have serious crimes that you have to look after.  So you know, but I think 
this is a great place to start given the size of our city, and honestly, the population that 
we're experiencing in homelessness right now, I'm just glad that we're getting 
something started.  And that way, if this continues to grow or the needs change, there's 
flexibility in it, too.  I really like that part of it because we don't know what the needs of 
tomorrow are going to be, you know?  And so as those needs grow or they diminish, we 
can do the same with the program, increase it, keep it as it is, and create the best 
solution for Tolleson possible.   
So other comments or questions? 
Okay.  I don't see any.  So I guess I have to entertain a motion, don't I? 
ERIVES:  Motion to approve. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  All right.  We have a motion by Councilmember Erives. 
ZAMORA:  This was just a presentation item, the action item is the ordinance if you 
could please read the ordinance language?  The IGA will come before Council at a later 
date with the resolution with Maricopa County.

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MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Okay.  Well, that fixed that.   
All right.  Thank you very much, Mr. Simmons, for your presentation.  That was 
awesome. 
SIMMONS:  Thank you, Mayor.  
Thank you, members of council. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Okay.  So -- 
ERIVES:  Thank you. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  So now we have the two ordinances adopted tonight, Ordinance 
Number 616, new series of mayor and city council of the City of Tolleson, Arizona, 
prohibiting camping in designated public areas and providing penalties for violation, 
providing for repeal of conflicting ordinances, and providing for severability.  Does 
anybody have any comments on this item? 
Yes? 
DAVIS:  I still don't like these ordinances, so I'm not -- I just feel that penalizing poverty is 
just not something that we should be doing in the City of Tolleson.  I went on and on 
about this the last time that they were before us.  You know, I'm glad that we at least 
now have a plan with a buffer in place, but I just feel that this is just not -- this isn't very 
Tolleson, you know?  Penalizing somebody for being homeless just feels like -- it just 
doesn't feel right to me. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Yeah.  I don't think that's what these ordinances are designed to 
do.  I think it's designed to give city staff all possibilities to react to the situation on the 
ground.  And so we have a difference of opinion, and that's fine.  The reality in the field 
will tell us down the road if we're dealing with bigger issues.  Maybe we have to go back 
and readdress these, but really, you have multiple options.  One is make a motion to 
deny, make a motion to approve, or make a motion to table, and that's what it comes 
down to.  I'm okay with what we have going on right now with the city.  I'd be okay with 
tabling this.  And if there is ever a need, and we've got all kinds of grocery carts and 
people are sleeping everywhere and hiding everywhere behind buildings or taking over 
ramadas at our park that our community members can't use because now they're

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sleeping on the bench, maybe we revisit that.  I'm open to whatever, but I think we have 
a good start, and these ordinances really are -- this is a more punitive approach.  We 
have a soft, a lot much better white-glove kind of approach for those that really do want 
help, but for those that don't -- and believe me, they're out there -- we have something 
that's a little more punitive in nature. 
Yes, Councilwoman? 
CHAVIRA:  I mean, I, too, spent 30 years in public housing and worked very closely with 
the homeless.  And there have to be rules.  And I understand that it may seem harsh, 
but I do truly believe that in this situation, Tolleson has heart.  We're not just saying, you 
can't just set up your tent along Van Buren or 91st Avenue or anywhere else and create 
or have the ability to create alternative housing.  We have just entered into -- or we will 
be entering into an agreement where we try to do something to help the homeless 
because I don't want people to be out there either.  That's not what we want in 
Tolleson.  But we do want to have a clean and safe place for residents to live and work, 
and so that's important as well.  And so I think the resolutions are important, I am a 
proponent of the resolutions, and I know that the police department and the staff and 
us as people, we're not going to persecute someone who's homeless.  That's not who 
we are.  And I'm not thinking of this as a tool by which we would do that.  It's simply a 
tool to make sure that we also have the responsibility to have a clean, healthy 
environment, that our children can walk to school, that I can walk for exercise, and that 
someone who may be homeless, we have help for them, and they'll have an alternative.  
And we can call, and we can get them some help.  But taking up and pitching a tent, 
that's not the answer to the problem either.  So I think it's the right direction to have 
this ordinance and then, you know, have programs available to help.  That's what we 
want to do. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  And the hope is that we never use the ordinances.  And quite 
honestly, none of these -- 
CHAVIRA:  Right. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  -- are felonies, so they're not designed --

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CHAVIRA:  Absolutely. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  -- to be, you know, we're going to lock this person up.  It's not a 
got-you policy.  Other cities are adopting those.  I read this today; there's a city where if 
you're offered help three times and you refuse it, you get arrested.  And that's a city 
here in Arizona.  That's not what we're going to do here, I think, ever.  But the reality is 
we want to give our staff the full gamut of options to address whatever the situation is, 
and I think we did a great step or we're going to do a great step at our next meeting, 
and these ordinances are for those that are outliers.  I mean, I'll be completely honest 
with you.  There's going to be some folks, they're going to be down at the ramada at the 
park -- because this is what I've -- this is my experience -- and you ask them to move 
because somebody wants to throw a birthday party, no, I was already here.  Sir, you're 
laying on top of the table.  This is not a bed.  I don't care.  Kick me off.  And you know, 
now we have residents that want to have a confrontation with this person.  No, we can't 
have that.  We should have rules that prohibit that, also.   
Yes, Councilmember? 
GAMEZ:  Yes, Mr. Mayor.  I 100 percent agree with Councilwoman Chavira.  We need to 
have the rules by which to go by, but my confidence 100 percent behind how these 
people would be treated by the kind of police officers that we have.  We have a police 
department that are firm, just, and respectful.  I've seen it.  I saw it this morning.  So 
they're going to treat people with dignity and respect and still take care of business.  
And we got to have this to fall back on in case somebody says, no, you can't do.  Well, 
we do.  But how you treat people and how you get that respect is something that takes 
us -- or makes what we are today as a city that cares, has a culture that's developed 
over many, many years, and people know that.  This council knows that.  Mr. Davis had 
mentioned that, how we do care, and I believe that everybody that's sitting over there, 
department heads, employees, feel the same way.  That's why we are who we are.  But 
we still have to have the rules by which to fall back on, but I think that will take care of 
business.  And I can't see Chief or anybody else throwing a guy in a shopping cart, 
(Spanish spoken).  It's not going to happen.  It's not going to happen.  It's going to be

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with respect, and those people will probably say, well, I didn't know I was breaking the 
law.  It's how you approach it.  So I have nothing but the utmost confidence that the 
right thing will be done.  Thank you, Mr. Mayor. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  I honestly believe that a lot of folks think that the greatest tool 
that a police officer has is his badge or her badge.  I happen to think it's the heart 
underneath it, and our police officers here in Tolleson have big hearts.  And our 
firefighters do too.  When they show up to a scene that they have to work, they show up 
with their heart first.  They make sure the people are okay, and if there's anything that 
we can do as an organization to help along the way in a positive manner, we do that, 
first and foremost.  And I know the chief's here.  We keep looking at him.  We know his 
character.  But the reality is once you meet his officers, you know, you can tell that his 
leadership has bled down through the organization, and we have really good police 
officers that I have full trust in.  And so that's all I'm going to say about that. 
Other comments? 
No? 
Yes, Jimmy? 
DAVIS:  I just want to clarify that I also do believe that our public safety officers are 
amazing here in Tolleson, and my dislike of this has nothing to do with them or their 
character.  Again, I know some people in the homeless services arena who are on the 
ground, and these types of ordinances in their cities have caused trouble for them and 
it's made their jobs more difficult.  So that will be my final statement. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Okay.  Can I make a motion, City Attorney? 
WINGO:  You may. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  I may.  Okay.  Well, I'd like to make a motion to approve.  There's 
actually two ordinances.  We have a second with the -- 
Councilwoman Chavira, do we have to take them individually? 
Yeah?  Okay.  Well, then, this is for the adoption of Ordinance Number 616, new series 
of the mayor and city council of the City of Tolleson, Arizona, prohibiting camping in 
designated public areas and providing penalties for violations, providing for repeal of

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conflicting ordinances, and providing for severability.  We have a first; we have a 
second.  So all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. 
CHAVIRA:  Aye. 
ERIVES:  Aye. 
GAMEZ:  Aye. 
LABORIN:  Aye. 
MENDOZA:  Aye. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  All those opposed? 
DAVIS:  Nay.  
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Okay.  So just to clarify, one nay? 
DAVIS:  Yup. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Okay.  So for the record, six to one, motion passes. 
Moving onto number 3, this is to adopt or deny Ordinance Number 617, new series of 
the mayor and city council of the City of Tolleson, Arizona, prohibiting the unauthorized 
removal, possession, or alteration of shopping carts, providing penalties for violations, 
providing for repeal of conflicting ordinances, and providing for severability.  I believe 
this is going to be a very similar conversation.  If we want to have it, we can, or I will also 
entertain a motion.  It's up to Council.   
GAMEZ:  Move for approval. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  We got a motion to approve.   
City Attorney, can I second? 
Nice.  I'll second.   
All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. 
CHAVIRA:  Aye. 
ERIVES:  Aye. 
GAMEZ:  Aye. 
LABORIN:  Aye. 
MENDOZA:  Aye. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  All those opposed?

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DAVIS:  Nay. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Okay.  Again, this motion passes six to one.   
So we move onto L, work study and presentation for discussion.  You were right; we do 
have one more, fiscal year 2025 third quarter update. 
Chief Financial Officer Artz, once again, sir, you have the floor.  Next time, we're just 
going to move the podium to where you're at. 
[LAUGHTER] 
ARTZ:  Thank you, Mayor. 
So earlier tonight, we were looking at next year's budget, looking towards the future.  
This item is looking at our third quarter for the current year budget, and so I just wanted 
to go over this briefly and give you some background on where we're at in our current 
budget.   
So looking at the general fund revenues, we budgeted a total of $44.8 million in 
revenue.  We've collected $41.5 million through March, so March would be 75 percent 
of the year.  So we've collected 92 percent of our budget through three quarters of our 
year.  So revenues are looking very strong.  We're coming in over budget on our 
revenues in the general fund. 
Looking at all of our other funds, our major funds, so the public safety tax, that's funded 
from a sales tax that's dedicated to public safety.  That's at 66.5 percent.  That's one 
month short, so when we get that accrual in for the month, we'll be right at 75 percent 
in that fund, also.  As you can see there, the other funds, HURF, water, sanitation, 
they're all at or above the 75 percent through the year.  The one that is an outlier is the 
wastewater fund, but again, that one is a little bit different because we bill our partners 
based on our capital projects.  And so if we haven't completed the capital projects, then 
we don't bill our partners.  So that's why that revenue kind of lags, and that is typical. 
Yes? 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  A long time ago, I had a question about HURF.  Can you please 
explain what HURF is, and what we can use that money for? 
ARTZ:  Yes, Mayor.  So HURF stands for the highway user revenue fund, and that is the

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gas tax.  So every time you purchase gasoline, you're paying 18 cents per gallon to the 
state for the gas tax or the highway user revenue fund.  That money all goes into a pool, 
so depending on which county you purchase that gas on, population of the county, 
population of the cities, it gets distributed back out to different jurisdictions, so based 
on county populations throughout the state and then city populations within that 
county.  So we get a percentage of the gas tax that's collected.  So it's not by site 
location, so if you're purchasing in Tolleson, that that money comes to us.  If you 
purchase it in Apache Junction, it's all getting pooled together, and then we're getting 
an allocation of that. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  How do you use it? 
ARTZ:  That money is restricted for street purposes, so it has to be used for street 
improvements, street construction; it can be used for salaries for your street staff. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Awesome.  Thank you for the clarification.   
Vice Mayor? 
DAVIS:  Did you say 18 cents per gallon? 
ARTZ:  18 cents per gallon, and that's just -- and then there's a federal tax of 18.5 cents 
per gallon.  So the total tax per gallon is almost 36 cents that you're paying just in taxes. 
CHAVIRA:  There's this little bitty sign on the gas pump that tells you that -- 
ARTZ:  Yup. 
CHAVIRA:  -- but it's really small.   
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  We need one of those things -- binoculars to read it.   
Any other questions at this point? 
You got it, sir. 
ARTZ:  So one of the items that we like to keep track of is just our sales tax collection by 
month, and so you can see here on the table on the left, we've collected $32.1 million 
for fiscal year '25.  Through March of last year, we were at $30.1 million, so we're seeing 
a $2 million increase in just our sales tax collections through the nine months.  And we 
like to keep track of this just because if we are going to see a slowdown, typically, you're 
going to see it in your sales tax collections.  And so if we start to see a trend in our sales

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tax collections being less than the prior year, then we'd be coming back to Council and 
saying, okay, we're seeing this trend, we might need to start looking at the expenditure 
side.  But we're not seeing anything like that.  Revenues are continuing to come in 
strong and strong over the prior year. 
Next, we just have all of our different orgs and departments and what the budget and 
expenditures are.  You can kind of look through here.  Most everyone's at or below 75 
percent.  One outlier there is Finance Department; we're at 80 percent, but we believe 
that we'll be below budget by year end.  But everybody else is at or below the 75 
percent and right on track of where we need to be.   
And so in total, $51 million budget in the general fund.  We've expended $23 million to 
date, so we're at 45 percent of our budget on the expenditure side.  So going back, 
recalling there was $41 million of revenue, $23 million of expenditures, so we are 
expecting that there will be an addition to our fund balance or our savings this year 
because we're collecting more revenue than we're spending in the general fund.  So we 
anticipate to see a $15 to $20 million increase in our fund balance. 
And then again, just for the other funds, looking at all the other funds, all these funds 
are, again, below the 75 percent and right on track. 
So key takeaways, revenues are projecting to exceed budget, expenditures are coming 
in under budget, and we fully anticipate that the results of operations for the year will 
be positive additions to our fund balance. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Mr. Artz, I think that's amazing news any way you look at it.  
Expenditures are down; revenue is up.  It's a good place to be a Tollesonian.  So thank 
you very much for your management of the money. 
Council, any other comments or questions? 
ERIVES:  Thank you. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  No? 
DAVIS:  Awesome work. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  Thank you, sir.  I promise I won't call you back up. 
Okay.  So with that, mayor and city manager report of current events.

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Any comments?   
We have the 4th of July coming up, but that's still pretty far away, I think.  We'll have an 
update at the next council meeting for the 4th of July. 
How's their summer program going? 
BABCHUK:  Mayor and members of the council, currently, we have 131 kids registered, 
and we see about an 85 to 90 kid -- yeah -- attendance rate.  So we're doing really good.  
I think we have about 60 on the waitlist right now, so we're trying to weed it out and 
take on more.  This is our second week of the program, so we're kind of weeding them 
back into now, so -- 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  That's awesome.  That's excellent news.   
All right.  Well, I have nothing else to add.   
Anything councilmembers want to, need to add at this point? 
No?  We're good? 
All right.  I will entertain a motion to adjourn. 
GAMEZ:  So moved. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  We have a motion to adjourn.  We have a second by Vice Mayor.  
All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. 
ALL:  Aye. 
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ:  All right.  Everybody have a wonderful evening, and thanks for 
coming out today. 
GAMEZ:  Thanks for coming.  Appreciate it. 
 
 
APPROVED: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
____________________________________ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
JUAN F. RODRIGUEZ, MAYOR 
 
ATTEST: 
____________________________________ 
CRYSTAL ZAMORA, CITY CLERK

CITY OF TOLLESON 
 
JUNE 10, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES 
 
 
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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 JUNE 10, 2025. I FURTHER CERTIFY THAT THE MEETING WAS DULY 
CALLED AND HELD, AND THAT A QUORUM WAS PRESENT. 
 
 
____________________________________ 
CRYSTAL ZAMORA, CITY CLERK