04 22 25 City Council Meeting Minutes
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1 TOLLESON CITY COUNCIL MEETING ACTION MINUTES TOLLESON CIVIC CENTER 9055 WEST VAN BUREN STREET, TOLLESON, AZ 85353 ZOOM WEBINAR ID: 840 6967 9194 TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 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 City Attorney Pierce, and the Pledge of Allegiance was led by Council Member Gámez. C. ROLL CALL City Council: Mayor Juan Rodriguez, Vice Mayor Jimmy Davis, Council Members Christine Chavira, Clorinda Erives, Adolfo Gámez and Cruzita Mendoza. Council Member Linda Laborin was absent. Department Directors: City Manager Reyes Medrano Jr., Deputy City Manager/Employee Resources Director Wendy Jackson, Chief Financial Officer Kevin Artz, Chief Preparedness/Human Services Director Officer 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 and Utilities Director Jamie McCracken. City Representative: City Attorney Justin Pierce 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 2 All citizens and interested parties wishing to speak before the Council regarding non- agenda items or during a public hearing shall fully complete a Speaker Request Form and submit the form(s) to the City Clerk prior to the meeting being convened. Citizens must complete one form for each item they want to address. Speaker Request Forms are located at the entrance of the Council Chambers. For Zoom participants, click the chat button, and enter your name and the item you would like to address. Submissions should be made no later than the Mayor announcing the “Final Call to Submit Speaker Requests”. All speakers will be limited to 3 minutes unless otherwise noted by the Mayor. Speakers are not required to disclose their identities or personal information. You may also submit an online speaker request form at https://www.tolleson.az.gov/speakerrequest at least one hour prior to the meeting. E. CALL TO THE PUBLIC (NON-AGENDA ITEMS) This is the time for the public to comment on non-agenda items. Members of the Council may not discuss items that are not specifically identified on the agenda. Therefore, pursuant to A.R.S. § 38-431.01.H, action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to (1) responding to criticism; (2) directing staff to review the matter; or (3) asking that a matter be put on a future agenda. F. SCHEDULED PUBLIC APPEARANCES AND PROCLAMATIONS – FOR DISCUSSION 1. Proclamation declaring April 2025 as Autism Acceptance Month in the City of Tolleson, promoting inclusion, celebrating neurodiversity, and honoring the unique contributions of individuals with autism, as well as the families, caregivers, and advocates who support them. – Wendy Jackson, Deputy City Manager/Employee Resources Director Mayor Rodriguez proclaimed April 2025 as Autism Acceptance Month in the City of Tolleson. 2. Proclamation declaring May 5–9, 2025 as Teacher Appreciation Week in the City of Tolleson, honoring the dedication and impact of educators who inspire and guide our youth, and acknowledging those preparing to become tomorrow’s teachers, whose commitment shapes the future of our community. – Mandy Carrico, Library Director Mayor Rodriguez proclaimed May 5–9, 2025 as Teacher Appreciation Week Month in the City of Tolleson. 3. Introduction of New Employees: Library Department – Karina Caraveo, Management Support Technician (Passport Technician) Employee Recognition: Development Services Department – Ruby Arvizu, Management Support Specialist: International Code Council (ICC) Permit Technician Certification 3 G. BUSINESS FROM THE FLOOR – PUBLIC HEARINGS AND ACTION ITEMS H. CONSENT AGENDA – ACTION ITEMS Items on the Consent Agenda are of a routine nature and are intended to be acted upon in one motion. Council Members may pull items from Consent if they would like them considered separately. 1. Approve Regular City Council Meeting Minutes of April 8, 2025. (City Clerk Department) 2. Approve Claims and Bills Report for the period of April 2, 2025 to April 15, 2025. (Finance Department) 3. Authorize City Manager to enter into a Professional Services Agreement between the City of Tolleson and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona for the administration of dental insurance benefits for eligible City employees and their dependents, and authorize the City Manager to execute and deliver said Agreement. The annual aggregate amount for this Agreement shall not exceed $400,000. This Agreement shall remain in full force and effect from July 1, 2025 until June 30, 2027. (Employee Resources Department) Council Member Gámez moved to approve Consent Agenda items 1. through 3.; the motion was seconded by Council Member Erives. The motion carried 6 to 0. Mayor Rodriguez – Aye Vice Mayor Davis – Aye Council Member Chavira – Aye Council Member Erives – Aye Council Member Gámez – Aye Council Member Mendoza – Aye I. REGULAR AGENDA – ACTION ITEMS 1. Adopt/Deny Ordinance No. 619 N.S. of the Mayor and City Council of the City of Tolleson, Arizona, adopting the April 29, 2024 City of Tolleson Wastewater Treatment Plant local limits evaluation report and the final proposed local limits contained therein; providing for repeal of conflicting ordinances; providing for severability; providing for incorporation of exhibits; and declaring an emergency. (Utilities Department) Vice Mayor Davis moved to adopt Ordinance No. 619 N.S.; the motion was seconded by Council Member Chavira. The motion carried 6 to 0. Mayor Rodriguez – Aye Vice Mayor Davis – Aye Council Member Chavira – Aye Council Member Erives – Aye Council Member Gámez – Aye 4 Council Member Mendoza – Aye 2. Discuss and consider the appointment and/or reappointment of the City of Tolleson’s Primary and Alternate Representatives to the Maricopa County Community Development Advisory Committee (CDAC) for the term beginning July 1, 2025, and ending June 30, 2027. Currently, Council Member Erives is the Primary Representative, and Council Member Gámez is the Alternate Representative. (City Council) Vice Mayor Davis moved to reappoint Council Member Erives as the Primary Representative and Council Member Gámez as the Alternate Representative for CDAC; the motion was seconded by Council Member Gámez. The motion carried 6 to 0. Mayor Rodriguez – Aye Vice Mayor Davis – Aye Council Member Chavira – Aye Council Member Erives – Aye Council Member Gámez – Aye Council Member Mendoza – Aye 3. Approve/Deny First Amendment to the Design-Build Agreement between the City of Tolleson and Haydon Companies, LLC, in the amount of $713,561, for continued pre- construction phase services related to the 91st Avenue Pedestrian Bridge project, including revised design intervals and deliverables for 60%, 90%, and 100% Construction Documents and budget, as outlined in the updated scope of work and fee schedule. (Development Services Department) Vice Mayor Davis moved to approve the First Amendment to the Design-Build Agreement; the motion was seconded by Council Member Chavira. The motion carried 6 to 0. Mayor Rodriguez – Aye Vice Mayor Davis – Aye Council Member Chavira – Aye Council Member Erives – Aye Council Member Gámez – Aye Council Member Mendoza – Aye 4. Authorize City Manager to enter into a Professional Services Agreement between the City of Tolleson and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona for medical insurance benefits for eligible City employees and their dependents, and authorize the City Manager to execute and deliver said Agreement. The annual aggregate amount for this Agreement shall not exceed $6 million. This Agreement shall remain in full force and effect from July 1, 2025 until June 30, 2027, with an option to renew for one additional year. (Employee Resources Department) 5 Council Member Gámez moved to authorize the City Manager to enter into a Professional Services Agreement with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona; the motion was seconded by Council Member Erives. The motion carried 6 to 0. Mayor Rodriguez – Aye Vice Mayor Davis – Aye Council Member Chavira – Aye Council Member Erives – Aye Council Member Gámez – Aye Council Member Mendoza – Aye J. WORK STUDY AND PRESENTATIONS – FOR DISCUSSION 1. FY 2026 Third Budget Work Study – Kevin Artz, Chief Financial Officer K. MAYOR AND CITY MANAGER’S REPORT OF CURRENT EVENTS – FOR DISCUSSION 1. Community Events Update – Randy Babchuk, Field Operations/Parks & Recreation Director 2. The Tolleson Civic Center will be temporarily closed on Wednesday, May 7, 2025, from 10:30 AM to 1:30 PM to allow City staff to participate in an internal employee event. L. CONVENE INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION 1. Motion to go into executive session. Vice Mayor Davis moved to convene into executive session at 7:45 PM; the motion was seconded by Council Member Erives. The motion carried 6 to 0. Mayor Rodriguez – Aye Vice Mayor Davis – Aye Council Member Chavira – Aye Council Member Erives – Aye Council Member Gámez – Aye Council Member Mendoza – Aye 2. Convene into an executive session pursuant to A.R.S. § 38-431.03(A)(3) and (A)(4) to receive legal advice and discuss and consult with the City Attorney regarding the City’s position relating to negotiations for a development agreement. M. RECONVENE INTO PUBLIC MEETING N. ADJOURNMENT Council Member Chavira moved to adjourn the Regular City Council Meeting at 8:00 PM; the motion was seconded by Council Member Gámez. The motion carried 6 to 0. Mayor Rodriguez – Aye 6 Vice Mayor Davis – Aye Council Member Chavira – Aye Council Member Erives – Aye Council Member Gámez – 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 SUNLAND ASPHALT & CONSTRUCTION LLC 441,177.11 $ 184144 4/3/2025 CITY OF PHOENIX 263,036.28 $ 184249 4/14/2025 SUNLAND ASPHALT & CONSTRUCTION LLC 157,672.92 $ 184144 4/3/2025 AZ MUNI RISK RETENTION POOL-WC FUND 116,998.81 $ 100436 4/4/2025 PUMP PROS INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION 90,913.91 $ 100462 4/9/2025 BROWN AND CALDWELL 77,312.00 $ 100454 4/9/2025 STRAIGHT ARROW CONTRACTING, LLC 69,542.14 $ 184274 4/14/2025 HUGHES FIRE EQUIPMENT INC 66,339.05 $ 184182 4/7/2025 DH PACE COMPANY INC 51,154.48 $ 100474 4/11/2025 STRAIGHT ARROW CONTRACTING, LLC 46,361.43 $ 184274 4/14/2025 C & I SHOW HARDWARE & SECURITY SYSTEM INC 38,523.99 $ 184198 4/10/2025 WATER WORKS ENGINEERS LLC 37,702.00 $ 100466 4/9/2025 AZ PUBLIC SAFETY PERSONNEL RETIREMENT SYSTEM 35,749.69 $ 100470 4/11/2025 AZ PUBLIC SAFETY RETIREMENT, POLICE 34,859.74 $ 100471 4/11/2025 CITY OF AVONDALE 34,056.30 $ 184199 4/10/2025 HAYDON BUILDING CORP 27,489.75 $ 184120 4/2/2025 ADVANCED ENVIRO CURE LLC 20,000.00 $ 100449 4/9/2025 WASTE CONNECTIONS OF ARIZONA 19,699.30 $ 184166 4/3/2025 EATON CORPORATION 19,535.66 $ 100456 4/9/2025 ASR CONSTRUCTION GROUP LLC 17,163.24 $ 184196 4/10/2025 PETER SHAYNE CASTELLANI 16,868.98 $ 184115 4/2/2025 WEST YOST & ASSOCIATES INC 16,721.50 $ 100467 4/9/2025 AZ MUNI RISK RETENTION POOL-WC FUND 16,366.42 $ 100436 4/4/2025 ASR CONSTRUCTION GROUP LLC 14,734.92 $ 184196 4/10/2025 ARIZONA STATE TREASURER 14,376.39 $ 184194 4/10/2025 KIMLEY-HORN AND ASSOCIATES, INC. 13,972.20 $ 100446 4/8/2025 STATE OF ARIZONA 12,470.00 $ 184232 4/10/2025 TOLLESON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DIST.#17 11,520.00 $ 184173 4/7/2025 UNITED SALES AGENCY LLC 10,932.49 $ 100465 4/9/2025 MARICOPA COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT 10,774.50 $ 184125 4/2/2025 AZ MUNI RISK RETENTION POOL-WC FUND 10,386.57 $ 100436 4/4/2025 ARIZONA BOUNCE AROUND, INC. 10,150.30 $ 184150 4/3/2025 City of Tolleson Checks Recorded Check Dates: April 2, 2025 to April 15, 2025 PAYMENTS OVER $10,000 CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 1 of 44 Post-Production File City of Tolleson City Council Meeting Minutes April 22, 2025 Transcription Provided By: eScribers, LLC * * * * * Transcription is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. * * * * * CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 2 of 44 MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Okay. Good evening everybody. I am Mayor Juan F. Rodriguez. Today is April 22nd, and I would like to call the City Council meeting to order. I already did the gavel, so I got ahead of myself. We want the invocation and pledge of Allegiance. City Attorney, will you please provide the invocation? And council member Gamez, will you please lead us in the pledge? PIERCE: Okay, Mayor. Our beloved father who art in heaven, we are so very grateful to meet together this evening to exercise our -- our freedoms and rights to self-governance. We're grateful for this council, and pray that that would bless them with wisdom. Please bless those that are not here, those that may not be feeling well that they will recover quickly, and be returned to full health. We pray for, again, those that that protect us each day, that they will also be protected and be able to return to their families. Please bless us to be able to show kindness one for -- one to another in the spirit of brother and sisterhood, that should -- should abound. And we pray for these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ALL: Amen. 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. And yes, roll call. Please let the record reflect that all council members are present, with the exception of Vice Mayor Davis and Councilwoman Laborin. Hopefully, they feel better and can join us shortly here. GAMEZ: There's Jimmy. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Talking about Jimmy, let the record reflect that council member -- or Vice-Mayor Jimmy Davis just walked in, and is strolling up to the dais now, as we speak. So the only one that is not present here today is Council woman Laborin. Jimmy, welcome. All right. Now is the final call to -- to submit speaker requests to the city clerk. All speakers will be limited to three minutes for comments only. Actions taken as a result of public comments will be limited to, one, responding to criticism; two, directing staff CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 3 of 44 to review the matter; or three, asking that a matter be put on a future agenda. City Clerk do we have any speaker request forms at this time? ZAMORA: We do not, Mayor. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: All right. Moving on to E, it is now Call to the Public. City Clerk, do we have any submissions for call to the public? ZAMORA: We do not. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: All right. Moving on to F, Scheduled Public Appearances and Proclamations - For Discussion. I believe we have two today. Yes, we do. So let's start with number 1. Proclamation declaring April 2025 as Autism Acceptance Month in the City of Tolleson, promoting inclusion, celebrating neurodiversity, and honoring the unique contributions of individuals with autism, as well as the families, caregivers, and advocates who support them. Deputy City Manager Jackson, will you say a few words regarding this proclamation? JACKSON: Yes. Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of council. This evening, we proudly recognize Autism Acceptance Month, and reaffirm our commitment to inclusion and understanding. One year ago, the City achieved its autism center designation milestone, and it made it possible by the dedication of our team, with over 95 percent of our employees completing specialized training to better serve all individuals with neurodiverse needs. This achievement reflects our values as a compassionate, forward thinking city, and strengthens our mission to build a community where everyone feels seen, respected, and empowered. We also would like to acknowledge our valuable -- the valuable contributions of Ebony Farmer (phonetic), our employee resources manager, whose efforts helped drive this initiative forward and supported the City's path towards greater inclusivity. Thank you. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Well, thank you. So now, therefore, I, Mayor Juan F. Rodriguez, do hereby proclaim April 2025 as Autism Acceptance Month in the City of Tolleson be proclaimed. And now it's the fun part of the council agenda where we get to take a picture, since most of us, if not all of us, are wearing blue, and I have this really nice CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 4 of 44 proclamation. So do we have somebody -- or -- okay. Take your time. We're here all night. So let's do the traditional stand and -- UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: And Reyes has blue. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Reyes -- you got blue, also, Reyes. Look at our -- our city -- our city attorney has blue on. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Excellent. Join us. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Be better if it was up here. GAMEZ: So you don't have blue on. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Just called her out. ERIVES: Nice job, Crystal. Get them. GAMEZ: I like your tie, brother. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: And then, our -- our finance CFO has blue on, also. GAMEZ: Light blue. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Come on. GAMEZ: Come on, now. It's not going to cost you anything. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Think of it as exercise, all the steps you guys are getting in walking up here. GAMEZ: All right. JACKSON: Beautiful. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Wendy, there you go. JACKSON: Thank you. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Thank you. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Enlarge it. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I know that's weird. You know how they are. So -- okay. Thank you, everybody, for participating. We're going to move on to proclamation number 2. We're going to declare May 5th through the 9th as Teacher Appreciation Week in the City of Tolleson, honoring the dedication and impact of educators who inspire and guide our youth, and acknowledge those preparing to become tomorrow's teachers whose commitment to shape the future of our CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 5 of 44 community. So our library director, Carrico, will say a few words regarding this proclamation. CARRICO: Good evening, Mayor, Vice-Mayor, and council. We would like to honor the heart and soul of our education system, our teachers. As we proclaim this as Teacher Appreciation Week, we pause to recognize the dedication, compassion, and tireless efforts of those who shape the minds and hearts of future generations. Teachers are more than just educators. They are mentors, they're role models, they're champions of hope. They inspire curiosity, encourage resilience, and spark the confidence that empowers students to dream big. And every lesson taught in every moment of encouragement, teachers have -- teachers leave a lasting imprint on the lives of their students and the strength of our community. This week, and every week, we extend our deepest gratitude to the educators who go above and beyond, often behind the scenes, to create safe, inclusive, and dynamic learning environments. Your impact reaches far beyond the classroom walls. I want to also extend a special thank you to the council members who serve, or have served in education roles for the service of their community. And let's proclaim May 5th through May 9th Teacher Appreciation Week. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Okay. I'll take that one on. But before I do proclaim it, I will have to say that I love teachers. I say that because I've been inspired by some of the best of them, and I happen to be married to one. So if I don't, I kind of get in trouble, so teachers are awesome. All right, so with that being said I, Mayor Juan F. Rodriguez, do hereby proclaim April 2025 -- wait a minute. Am I on the right one? Oh. May 5th through the 9th, 2025, as Teacher Appreciation Week in the City of Tolleson, be it proclaimed. Now, as in years past, are we going to be providing teachers of the two schools in the high school lunch? CARRICO: We are, yes. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Okay. So just so you know, the -- the little thank you letters on behalf of the council and staff, and we provide a meal for every teacher that service the CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 6 of 44 two elementary schools and the high school here in Tolleson, so -- as a token of our appreciation for all their efforts. So thank you for -- staff for carrying that out. I know every year, I get thank yous from the teachers. Oh, that was awesome. And usually, we go to Honey Baked Ham, or wherever we go, but they're -- they're really appreciative, so -- all right. Number 3 is my favorite, because I just get to turn it over to Reyes. Introduction of new employees. City Manager Reyes Medrano, you have the floor, sir. MEDRANO: Council, this is one of my favorite parts of the job. Anytime we're able to find someone that just oozes commitment to serving people, we are all ecstatic, regardless of the position. Got a note from the city manager of Surprise, who's a good friend of mine, Bob Wingenroth, asking me to make sure that I went down and met this person on their first day, because he knows the family very well; they work in surprise. So we asked Ms. Karina Caraveo to come up to our leadership team meeting to meet the whole team, and she just overwhelmed us with her incredible personality, incredible kindness, and she will be in charge of our passport program, so I couldn't think of a better choice. So thank you for choosing Tolleson. CARAVEO: (Indiscernible). MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Awesome. Welcome. Thanks for coming in. MEDRANO: And another equally as vibrant a personality that I've been blessed to work with for -- how long now, Ruby? How long have you been with us? Two-and-a-half years. She was upstairs with us for a very long time. Not the same upstairs, but we -- I know where to find her when I -- I need a laugh. But Ruby Arvizu recently earned the International Code Council Permit Technician certification. Congratulations, Ruby. I'm going to do this one. It's not on our agenda, but I've been waiting for the appropriate time to make sure that he was here, so he can hear it firsthand. But I want to also recognize and congratulate a dear friend of mine, Assistant Police Chief Jeff Grow. He was recently elected the president of the FBI National Academy Arizona chapter, and he gave me a really cool coin. Congratulations, Jeffrey (phonetic). CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 7 of 44 If you haven't heard, he's also our resident Neil Diamond impersonator. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I heard. MEDRANO: So come by on every Monday morning. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I hear it. MEDRANO: Hey, George has a video. I don't know why George wouldn't play the video today. I mean -- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Come on, George. MEDRANO: Because George is in it. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Well, I think we can all agree that we're all Neil -- Neil Diamond fans. And so if you do a good impression of Neil Diamond -- one of these days, it's going to happen. It's going to happen. MEDRANO: Jeff has supported his fellow officer for years in that organization, and I've always admired the work he's done, both for them, and obviously for the City of Tolleson. GAMEZ: He's also a great golfer. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: All right. Well, thank you, and welcome, everybody, to the Tolleson family. You guys are welcome to make the longest career possible. We're great here. We're awesome people, at least that's what everybody tells me. And so -- and I believe it. I see it day in and day out, so it's a great organization to be at. So very excited about things to come from you guys. So with that, I'll move on to item G, another one of my favorites, is Business From the Floor. We don't have any, so we're going to move on to H. H is our Consent Agenda - Action Items. From where I'm sitting, I see three items to be considered. I will entertain a motion. GAMEZ: Motion for approval. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Okay. We have a motion by Councilmember Gamez. Okay. We have a second from Councilmember Erives. Because she was scissors, you were paper, you got cut. Okay. So we have a first, we have second. All in favor, please signify by saying, aye. Aye. CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 8 of 44 ALL: Aye. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: All opposed? All right. Consent agenda action item has been approved unanimously. Regular 619, new series of the mayor and the City Council of the City of Tolleson, Arizona, adopting the April 29th, 2024, City of Tucson Wastewater Treatment Plant Local Limit Evaluation Report, and the final proposed local limit contained therein, providing for repeal or conflicting ordinances, providing for severability, providing for incorporation of exhibits, and declaring an emergency utilities department. Environmental Manager Dougherty, can you please enlighten us? DOUGHERTY: Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Vice-Mayor, and council members. Aaron Dougherty, environmental manager for the utilities department. I'm here tonight to present the proposed modifications of the City of Tolleson's local limits evaluation to prevent pollutants that are discharged into the wastewater treatment system from passing through or interfering with our operations. Quick background is, the last time local limits were established was in 2010. We've recently received a new permit for the wastewater treatment plant in 2020. We conducted this evaluation in 2024. We went through legal review and adoption. The state has reviewed it and accepted it. It has been through a 30-day public comment period for any comments. There was none, so now I am here to propose those local limits adoption to council. Any kind of other, like, the basics of it is just to protect the wastewater treatment plant, the workers, the environment, the future water supply, and the aquifer that we are here providing to our citizens. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: All right. Well, you had me at protect the employees, the plant, and provide quality services. Having said that, you know, you have to kind of understand what you don't -- what you don't know. And what I don't know is wastewater, so I'm very thankful for guys like you, our director, and all your fellow employees down at the wastewater treatment plant, because, quite frankly, it's foreign to me, but I know it's very critical. So I'm glad to hear that we're in a good place, and we're moving in the right direction, and I would be in full support of this CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 9 of 44 Council, is there any other questions or comments? On this side? Yes, Jimmy? DAVIS: So the one -- the one question that I did have in my update was, how frequent are these -- these things supposed to happen? DOUGHERTY: There's certain requirements and criteria that you follow -- adoption of -- or changes in your wastewater treatment characteristics, industries, new industries new permits that are issued, new limits. So there's several criteria that we follow with EPA guidance manuals. So we follow those guidance manuals, they will direct us of when we hit benchmarks to reevaluate. But there is a small evaluation that is performed on an annual basis, to ensure the that we are protecting our wastewater treatment plant. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible). DOUGHERTY: Yes. Thank you. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Mr. Mayor -- I'm sorry. I'll wait. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Councilwoman? GAMEZ: Excuse me. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: She had her hand up. GAMEZ: I didn't see her. Go ahead. ERIVES: No, no, no. Thank you. Just for -- like you had mentioned, Mayor, I'm not an expert in wastewater, as well. So like, water is new to me. But what would happen if we did not get this approval? What would happen? DOUGHERTY: There would be enforcement actions taken upon the City of Tolleson from ADQ, and potentially EPA. This is a federally mandated program, but more importantly, there's risk to our infrastructure. There's risk to our wastewater treatment plant, workers' health, so there is complications that come with that, as well as compliance with regulatory authorities. ERIVES: And so how do they, like, regulate? Do you, like -- do you, like, get a fine? You get, like, a warning, and then eventually just shut you all down? Like -- DOUGHERTY: Yeah. So -- CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 10 of 44 ERIVES: -- could that be happening, too? DOUGHERTY: The state will perform an inspection, or an audit on our pretreatment program. And if we don't have the system in place, or the programs in place to protect the POTW, the wastewater treatment plant, the collections, the workers, then that is a violation of ADQ and our wastewater discharge permit that we're required to have. Enforcement actions are -- they vary, but it -- they come with fines, they come with consent orders, show cause hearings. So there's -- they have an enforcement response plan, and it can be escalated the further we go. GAMEZ: A quick question, just -- ERIVES: Thank you. GAMEZ: -- are partners are kept in the loop, like EPCOR, what's going on? And -- DOUGHERTY: Yep. Yeah, so we do a -- the public 30-day comment period, as well as inform the stakeholders and partners, JBS. All our significant industrial users that currently have wastewater discharge permits are well aware of this progress. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Comments, questions? Not at this time. Mr. McCracken, did you have anything to anything to add? MCCRACKEN: (Indiscernible). MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: agree, I think Mr. Dougherty did a tremendous job. Let's give him a round of applause, first time in front of us. DOUGHERTY: Thank you. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: So with that, we will entertain a motion. I will entertain a motion to either approve or deny. DAVIS: Motion to approve. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Okay. We have a motion to approve by Vice-Mayor Davis. CHAVIRA: Second. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: We have a second from Councilwoman Chavira. All those in favor, please signify by saying, aye. Aye. ALL: All. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: All those opposed? All right. Good job, majority. CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 11 of 44 DOUGHERTY: Mayor, Vice-Mayor, council member. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible). MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Well done, sir. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible) my partner (indiscernible). MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Lunch time wrestling? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yes. Jason (phonetic) and I wrestled for that one, obviously. GAMEZ: I bet George had won, guess not. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: What do you mean by that? MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: All right. All right. Let's get back on back on track. City Attorney, your job is to keep us on track, so back on track. WrestleMania was last week. Item number 2, discuss -- it was this weekend. Yeah, WrestleMania was this weekend. Number 2, discuss and consider the -- the appointment and/or reappointment of the City of Tolleson primary and alternate representatives to the Maricopa County Community Development Advisory Committee, also known as CDAC, for the term beginning on July 1st of 2025, and ending July 30th of 2027. Currently, Councilmember Erives is a primary representative, and Councilmember Gamez is alternate representative. City Counsel? PIERCE: I don't have information on that. (Indiscernible) That's fine. No problem. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Okay. From my research, I have been able to collect that they have no problem staying where they're at. So that would mean Councilwoman Erives would remain as the primary councilwoman. Councilmember Gamez would -- would be the continued alternative; is that what I'm hearing? ERIVES: But I do want to open it up in case anyone was just jumping out of their chairs to say that this was something they were interested. I don't ever want to take someone's opportunity. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I don't think we want to jump from this height, but if anybody's ever interested in taking on leadership roles, we have MADD, we got CDAC. We have all kinds of opportunities, definitely encourage it all the time. I'm not hearing any. ERIVES: Just from CDAC, I -- it's just wonderful because there are a lot of West Valley CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 12 of 44 cities, and so getting the opportunity to -- to convene -- connect with the different cities, and hear their types of different projects that they're looking for and expanding their community. I always like to hear, like, oh, that they have these projects in the work. And then, like, oh, that sounds like something we could do, or not, right? Like, there's just -- and learning opportunities there. GAMEZ: Or just the opportunity to help other cities. There's some other cities that they need additional help. You know, El Mirage needed some help with some sewer lines a time, and other people need help with other cities -- with fire trucks, and being able to help them out, because we understand what that -- going through that situation feels like, if you've been there before. Being able to help is part of the of the entire experience, so yeah, it's great. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Strong advocacy for our community and the greater West Valley, so I think that's great. We have two really good competent and committed individuals. So I just -- is -- do we have to make a motion to continue, or -- so would anybody like to make a motion to -- go ahead Jimmy. DAVIS: I'll motion to reappoint Councilwoman -- Councilwoman Erives and Councilmember Gamez. GAMEZ: Second. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Okay. We have a second by Councilmember Gamez. You get that, Crystal? Okay. All those in favor, please signify by saying, aye. Aye. ALL: Aye. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: All those opposed? Not hearing any, motion passes unanimously. Awesome. Let's move on to item number 3. And thank you, both. Congratulations. We're going to approve or deny First Amendment to the design build agreement between the City of Tolleson and Haydon Companies, LLC, in the amount of 713,561 for continued pre-construction phase services related to the 91st Avenue pedestrian bridge project, including revised design intervals, and deliverables for the 1690, and 100 CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 13 of 44 percent construction documents and budget, as outlined in the update scope of work and fee schedule. So Development Services department, I'm going to call up Mr. Earp. You have the floor, sir. EARP: Thank you. Whoa. Mayor, Vice-Mayor, members of council. So we just finalized the conceptual plan. So now we're going to be moving into actual design of the project, which will take approximately 12 months. We're just saying that to be safe; we think it will be a little bit sooner. So hopefully, construction starts no later than April of '26. But this is the initial concept, we left room for any kind of artwork, or anything that we want to do later on, but that will come in after we -- after it's actually completed. We can probably have a team, I'm assuming, who would head that up and figure out what we want to do for that. But staff recommends approval, and so we can get started moving on this. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: So this is the initial design, folks. I mean, changes can happen down the road. Obviously, structural changes would impact timeline, and budget, and construction costs, and that kind of stuff. So if you're going to provide feedback, please do so whenever you can. My personal take is, you know, I like the fact that it's got stairs, and I like the fact that it has an elevator. So every -- people of all abilities will be able to use this bridge. From an esthetic perspective, you know, it's kind of old school rail train, kind of a crossing look, to me. I'm good with it. I don't have a -- any kind of major reservation. I mean, I don't know how we're going to incorporate Tolleson into it. I don't know if the sign is just a digital sign, or if it's going to be, like, Welcome to Tolleson, or Bienvenido. EARP: Mayor, Vice-Mayor, members of council, yes, that is digital. So that'll be informational, or whatever we want to put on there. But yeah, that's kind of what -- the take we took. We have the rail, which is served the city forever. We have the -- the curvature, which is the similar to our -- the building, where the where we're sitting now, actually. So we try to do some of those design elements. And then, again, after it's built, then, we'll -- we'll probably have a committee and figure out what any other artwork we could do. CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 14 of 44 MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I don't know if the design team took into consideration, but the significance of the rail to the actual existence of the City of Tolleson is apropos, given the fact that the Tolleson's used the rail to bring out several different investors that started to buy off their -- their farm, their 160-acre farm, and that -- this lands on the actual founding owner of the City of Tolleson, right here. Our feature that is interpretive in nature, I think, would be very appropriate, but I'm going leave that part to Jimmy, and they can figure that out. But no, it would be good. A little of our history right there to (indiscernible). EARP: This is a conceptual. We know that we're going to add art to it, and that's where the vice-mayor comes in. And we'll have several options for council to consider, I'm sure. RODRIGUEZ: None of it gets done without a design, so at this point, today, we're here to consider approval to move in that direction. So I see Jimmy, your hand's up? DAVIS: Yeah. So I mean, this is -- it's a little industrial for my taste, but we definitely need to make sure it has the art on it, for sure. And I don't know why it shouldn't say, maybe, welcome to Tolleson, or something. That's, like -- EARP: Because all that is -- DAVIS: Later on? Okay. Because that's, I mean, a huge opportunity for branding. And we want people to -- I mean, they know they're in Tolleson. We want them to really know they're in Tolleson, so that's all. EARP: And thank you, Vice-Mayor. We will definitely be bringing back, you know, maybe the 30 percent plans, 60 percent plans. We'll often come back and try to show council what -- what we're -- where we're moving towards, and if there's anything we need to tweak. Much like we did with the aquatic center. Thank you. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. My only concern is that, we leave the art so far back that when we want to incorporate it into a bridge that's already built, it becomes very expensive to do so, because you basically got to re-engineer that art into it. Whereas, if it's designed into it from -- from the start -- CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 15 of 44 DAVIS: Yeah. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: -- you can tie the cost into the -- the bridge itself, and maybe some of the design elements can be influenced by the art. But like I said, that's -- I think that's something that the committee can form, and get some residents involved, and have their input, as well. I think it would be a good opportunity to get our residents involved, and provide feedback, and get a bridge that we can all be very proud of. Question? Yes. CM MENDOZA: -- monitor the elevators, how -- because a lot of people can go in there and, kind of, homestead. I know we have a lot of issues at the high school with in and out; who's going to monitor that? Like, the -- the problem we have with the with the transients and -- who? CHIEF MENDOZA: Vice-Mayor and council, I haven't been a part of this. But just by looking at it, I would assume there'd probably be some type of camera feature in the elevators, themselves, that would be accessible to the dispatchers that are on 24/7. Other than that, just routine patrols going in and out, checking and make sure they're empty, as well as going up onto the bridge. I do like that it's flat. I've seen some bridges that are an arch over the roadway, which makes it more difficult to see from the ground anybody's who's camping out on top of the bridge. Yeah, the design looks good to me, with the being able to see through it. And then, I would -- like I said, I would just assume cameras in the elevators. EARP: Mayor, Vice-Mayor, Councilmember Mendoza, also, there's -- the elevator, itself, is -- it's going to be glass, so you can see through it. We're -- so we tried to think of everything we possibly could. Then, later on through this process, we'll think of a policy. There's going to be a certain time where it's -- the elevators are locked, shut down, that kind of thing, so there's no overnight camping, or whatever -- things that could happen. But we'll be work -- we'll work closely with PD, and come up with some kind of policy, and management, of course. MENDOZA: Mayor, members of council, that was the first reaction, I think, we all had to the elevators, is it had to be transparent for PD to be able to -- to see through it. Much CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 16 of 44 like we use wrought iron fencing for the same reason, so PD can patrol and see through the fence line. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: That's a great point, though. We want to think security first. And we do have an officer at City Hall, most of the time. So if there was an immediate need, I mean, they can come out of City Hall. Proximity wise, they're right there. But depending on the emergency, we may need patrol, and all kinds of other stuff. CM MENDOZA: I'm just thinking of the early mornings, and you know, when they're out and about. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: That's good. CM MENDOZA: Because I know we have issues with -- you know, they'll -- they'll lock themselves in, in the elevators, and -- and then unlock them. I mean, I was just wondering how that was going to be monitored. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I'm sure there'll be some growing pains, but we will be very active. Officer Migdalia out in the hallway is -- every morning I show up, he's in his truck patrolling the whole area, and this -- this will just add to his patrol. But it is a good point, thanks for bringing it up. All right. With that, I will entertain a motion. We have a motion from Vice-Mayor Davis. CHAVIRA: I'll second, Mayor. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Councilwoman Chavira. All those in favor, please signify by saying, aye. Aye. ALL: All. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: All those opposed? All right. Tolleson's is getting its first bridge. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: That's cool. I was just noticing. That is awesome. The bridges of Tolleson City. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Okay. So I know some of you guys want coffee, so we're going to have a work study and a presentation for discussion. This is our fiscal year third -- third budget work study. So let me take a little bit -- do you guys want to take -- ERIVES: But item 4. GAMEZ: Number 4. CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 17 of 44 MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Did I miss one? Oh. Yeah, of course. Sorry about that. Yeah, I'm trying to get ahead. Sorry. Authorize city -- manager, city manager to enter into a professional service agreement between the City of Tulsa and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona for medical insurance benefits for eligible city employees and their dependents. And authorize the City manager to execute and deliver said agreement. The annual aggregate amount for this agreement shall not exceed $6 million. This agreement shall remain in full force in effect from July 1st, 2025, until June 30th, 2027, with an option to renew for one additional year. So with that, I'm going to ask our Deputy City Manager, Jackson, to come up and enlighten us a little bit. JACKSON: Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of counsel. I just have a few slides just to go over what this is we're going to have next slide please. Okay, I'm just going to go over a quick summary of how we arrived at procuring Blue Cross Blue Shield for this next contract cycle. Then we'll talk about some strengths and opportunities that we have with our current existing plans. We'll go over what changes we're proposing; and the financial impact to the City, and different cost measures, along with our strategy for moving forward. So during this RFQ process, Blue Cross Blue Shield is who will be awarded our medical and dental provider. It will be for the next two years. And through bundling, we were able to achieve a two percent annual savings on our medical product. Here are some strengths and opportunities for us to make some further improvements down the line. Overall, we have a long partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield. I believe we've been with them for probably about 15 to 16 years, so most of the time since I've been here. They offer quality plan to all of our employees. What they like about our group is we're very stable. Our numbers in terms of our full-time population has increased over time. When I first began here, we had about 150 full-time employees. To date, we're budgeted for full-time employees around 160, not including our part timers. So we're very stable group for them. Based on our product that we have -- with all of our insurance plans, we do not pay any commissions to any brokers. So that's an CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 18 of 44 additional cost savings to our plan. On average, we're saving about five to ten percent each year. Also with our plan structure, with our medical -- Yes? MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Quick question. Do we offer medical benefits to our part-timers? JACKSON: No, we do not. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: You mentioned we had 160, including part timers. They got me thinking, do we offer medical to part timers? JACKSON: No, it does not include part -- no, it does not. In terms of, of our claims, we do have some support there. So with our claims that run over $100,000 in a year, it goes into a pool, a risk pool. So we don't take -- immediately the entire claim hit to our city. We also have a wellness component embedded in our plan. So we use those wellness dollars and the Sharecare wellness in terms of educating our employees to be healthier, have a healthier lifestyle. And then we also have a strong network with the negotiated rates that Blue Cross has with all the providers. Some opportunities that we have that we need to look at moving forward is to offer a mid-tier product, an option in between having our PPO plan, and where we will be adding on a high deductible plan. So we're looking for something in the middle down the road. And then we will be offering a HSA component. So this year plan changes, we will not be having any more new enrollees into our Alliance product; we will be closing that out. But the current existing employees that are in that plan can remain being in there. We will be adding a high deductible plan to our array of programs that we have for our employees. And this is going to help employees make better health care decisions for themselves. We have a strong group of employees that don't really use the plan that often, and this provides them an opportunity to use a high deductible plan and save up for their health care within the future. Having an HSA product is a way for employees to prepare for retirement because it can CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 19 of 44 save up dollars to use to cover their health care costs after they leave here. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: HSA product is paid by the employee? JACKSON: There's a -- there will be a shared commitment between the City and the employee. But when you see the rates, the rates are at 36 percent less than what we're paying for our existing PPO product. We will be saving about $800 a month per employee for family coverage. And I believe it's about 500, close to 600 for a single employee. So with these significant savings, based on our employee usage with the current coverage, both the employee and the City will be saving significant. So the City would be sharing in investment for that HSA product for the -- I'm sorry? We are still working on the design of that, but we're thinking on the low end, the City will be putting in about 1200 a year for the employee. And the employee would match it. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Matching benefit. Well, I know you guys are still working out the details. JACKSON: Yes. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: But it's not a guaranteed 1200. They would have to match? JACKSON: With what the City would be saving per month, per employee, we would need to encourage them to jump onto this high deductible plan. The deductible will be $3,300 for the year. And so working out the numbers for this, we would save in the long run by assisting the employees to get into this health spending account. Many cities are contributing towards it. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: We're just going to give $1,200 per employee. That's what you're saying? JACKSON: Still working out the plan design. However, it could be a shared -- the IRS does have set rules on HSA products in which the employer can contribute to the HSA account for each employee. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Maybe I'm the only one that's interested, but when you figure that out, can you get back with me? Unless counsel wants to report back. I don't know if you guys are interested in hearing about that, but I am. So as you guys work out the CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 20 of 44 details on that, I would like to know more about it. It's up to you guys. I don't want you guys to come back in front of counsel. If I'm the only person who has an interest in it. And that's all I was asking the counsel. JACKSON: And then bundling the medical and medical and dental with Blue Cross Blue Shield is saving us two percent on the medical costs, which is approximately based on our current census numbers, about $118,000 for the year, each year. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: So it's two percent compared to last year's cost for our organization? JACKSON: So in terms of the financial impact, the renewal came in at 9.98 percent increase over our last year. So with the bundling, it reduces it by two percent, which based on our census numbers, it comes out to approximately $118,000 a year. Our plan was utilized a little bit more, it's up 24 points based on the last time we came forward to renew our contract. So the plan has been used a little bit more of this last two years than prior years. So what we're trying to do is by splitting the plan, by giving another option of having a high deductible plan, employees can make an informed choice whether they would like to go into that high deductible plan. It's really designed for someone who may not use the plan that often. Maybe someone who is healthier, just go in for their preventative maintenance. That would help us save significantly to our bottom line, when it comes to our insurance products. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Have a healthy lifestyle. I get it; it's a great product. I think it's good. JACKSON: We do have in our agreement, we do have a renewal rate cap. So after year, hopefully our claims come in at a at a great spot. We do have a rate cap in there, so it won't go over a certain amount. And then in terms of our dental, our dental rates came in very high under MetLife; which is great, employees are using the plan. We were over 100 percent claims usage. So those premiums came in a little bit higher. So by bundling the product, the savings that we have on the medical, it offsets the increase that we were going to experience with the dental program. CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 21 of 44 So what are we going to do moving forward? We're going to continue with the no broker commissions. Because all of those savings does impact our premiums. We're going to continue with the bundled strategy. We did that with the life insurance products, and it worked out wonderfully our last renewal; and we'll do that with our medical and dental. We'll offer the high deductible plan. We'll also will make sure that we have a strong education component to our employees to make sure that they can make a good, cost conscious choice. And then we'll continue to utilize our programing to help with the employees with managing their health. So look forward to bringing forward a mid-plan option after this renewal cycle where we will have the PPO plan, the high deductible plan, and one other choice in the middle for the employees. And that will help spread out the claim liability. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Are you done with your presentation, Wendy? Okay. Thank you. Councilwoman Erives, do you have a question? ERIVES: I was yes, I have a question. Ms. Jackson, with regards to the bundling for dental. So if I was using my dental plan, I'd go to my dentist; I'm on MetLife; I'm good. Will the same doctors for the Blue Cross Blue Shield, will I still be able to go to my same dentist? Or is there may be a different list of dental because you know that switching or not? JACKSON: Mayor and Council Member Erives, they have a very strong network. It's very close; what they've been committed to doing is ensuring that if you are seeing a provider, especially if you're currently in treatment for something, they're going to help assist that dentist become in network. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Questions on this end? Other questions? No? All right. Wendy thank you for the presentation. I think it's really good information. I think it's if there's anything that we're very proud of well, there's a lot things that we're proud of here in Tolleson, but I think the think the entire counsel is very proud of the fact that we offer I would consider beyond competitive benefits to our employees. Our CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 22 of 44 medical dental plans, I would venture to say, are unrivaled in the valley. I mean short of continuing medical plans after retirement which would be the next thing we have to look into, if we chose to go that direction, we have a very robust medical and dental plan, and so that's not by accident. That's because our staff, both on the financial side and the benefit side is diligently looking out for what's best. And the RFP process that we're doing is, is really good. It basically forces all the companies to compete against themselves. And we go with the one that gives us the best deal and the best benefits, the best value for our dollar. So Wendy, thank you very much for all your work on this. And any other comments or questions? Yes? ERIVES: I just wanted to add to what all that you're saying mayor, because when you were talking about the about the commission, right? Like we used to have someone who would go out first. I think having you and your team in house, you come with the perspective that we want our employees to have quality medical, quality dental, to make sure that the plan is a best fit for our, our staff and our team, right? Like you're it's not just, oh, the brokerage, you know, she's trying to find, but you come with a heart; your team comes with a heart. And that makes a difference. Because when you're coming and saying, oh, we're going to bundle, we're going to -- I trust that you're looking at -- because you are looking out for the best. So that's why even if it was a free commissioner, you said it was a five percent, but let's say it didn't cost anything, it's the team that's making the difference, and I appreciate it. Thank you. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: That's a great point. And again, we can't forget the finance side of it. Wendy has a heart. She's a HR person and she does an amazing job. But when we get Ken (phonetic) over there, who's a hard liner when it comes to dollar bills, and they put their heads together, it's a winning -- it's a win win proposition. We get the best value for our employees and that's really what we want to be. So thanks again, both of you guys, everybody, for putting their effort. Yeah. That's a lot of work. ERIVES: Thank you for saying about what you work. And the team to let them know. Yeah. Thank you. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yep. So with that I will take either more comments or I will take CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 23 of 44 entertain a motion to approve. MR. GAMEZ: So moved. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: We have a motion from council member Gamez. We have a second from Counsel Member Rodriguez. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed? Not hearing any motion passes unanimously. Great. So what I'm going to do here is I'm going to stop at what is before, J, guys? Help me out here, H. And I'm going to call for a break because we have some council members that need to use our services, specifically me, and we have some that would like a cup of coffee before we start this amazing, exciting update on our work study for the fiscal year coming up. So we're going to take a ten-minute recess. (Recess from 6:45 p.m. until 6:55 p.m.) MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Okay, folks, I'm going to gavel back in. Our recess is over and we are back in session. We're going to move on to item J, work study and presentation for discussion. Fiscal year 2026, third budget Work study. Chief Financial Officer Artz, you have the floor, sir. ARTZ: Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and counsel. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Good evening. ARTZ: We are here tonight for the third budget work session. We're going to focus on the non-general funds tonight. So public safety funds, debt service funds, enterprise funds. If we have that presentation coming up. Thank you. Again, to start with just a higher level overview looking at all of our funds and what our we estimate our beginning fund balance, revenues, expenditures, transfers in and out for the year and then our ending fund balance. So last meeting, we went over the general fund showing that at a projected to be $44.8 million. Tonight, we'll go through the rest of the funds. It is a shorter presentation tonight. I don't have as many slides as I did last week. But showing an ending fund balance for all combined funds of a little over $70 million. And if you notice, on the far right column, there all of the funds are either positive or for our grant funds are coming CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 24 of 44 out to a zero fund balance. So none of the funds are going into a deficit. Not deficit spending like other governmental organizations do. We're not allowed to do that as a city. So staffing for the rest of the funds, there's only one position being requested. And that's in the water and wastewater funds; so it's a utility engineer. So that position would be split between water and wastewater and provide engineering services to the utilities department. So that is the only position being requested in the enterprise fund. At the last meeting, there were several questions and items that counsel had inquired about. So we wanted to take a little bit of time to go through those tonight. Where did I -- here, go back here. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, it's going to be done. ARTZ: Okay. I know it looks like I'm missing the one slide. All right. I'll try to do it from memory here. No, we had another slide where we addressed all of the questions from counsel at the last meeting. I don't know if Wendy, if you can bring -- Thank you. I apologize that this isn't on the screen for you. But some of the follow up questions. One of the counsel asked for an FTE count by department. So we did attach that schedule to the agenda packet. So the total FTE count with the positions that are being requested this year is 274.5 full-time equivalent positions. And again, in your agenda packet is a list by department. Each position listed out with the title and the Department that it's in. So that is included in there. You also asked us to look at what the cost of increasing the cost of living adjustment would be from three percent to four percent. Staff went back and costed that out, and it's $163,000 for all funds. So that is -- it hasn't been added to the budget, but after we get direction tonight, if that's what counsel wants us to do, we'll add it when we bring back the tentative budget in May. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: So just to clarify, how much did you say? ARTZ: $163,000. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: 163,000. And every employee is treated the same, including CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 25 of 44 public safety and nonpublic safety. I'm 100 percent behind that. This is my take. ARTZ: There was also some discussion about the council's discretionary funds. So we're proposing to increase the discretionary account for each council member by $3,000. So that would be each council member would get a $3,000 increase in their discretionary funding. And it is 6,000 for counsel and I believe 9 for the mayor. And so each would get the $3,000 increase. ERIVES: So we don't have to spend it all, right? Like so -- okay. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: No, you don't. ERIVES: Right. Okay. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: It's your discretion. ERIVES: Uh-huh. Where did the funds. Let's pretend I spent all mine, nice job. And then the following year I don't spend, but maybe just $2. So there's 8998. Where does the funding -- does it roll over for the next year? Does it go back to general fund? Does it go to -- where does it go? ARTZ: Counsel member, we do not roll over the funding from year to year. So it basically goes back into the fund balance of the general fund and is available that next year to be allocated for some other type of funding. ERIVES: Okay. Okay. ARTZ: And so this dollar amount we, you know, we just increased it by the $3,000 based on some discussion at the last meeting. I don't know if that's the appropriate amount that counsel wants or if you want to want to discuss the amounts or whether we want to do that. ERIVES: How did you come up with 3000? ARTZ: it was a 50 percent increase for the counsel. And then we did the same amount for the mayor. So it there was just some discussion at the last meeting about how the 6,000 wasn't enough for a couple of travel trips back to D.C. And so we're trying to accommodate that. DAVIS: One of the problems that I'm running into because I'm on a national committee, CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 26 of 44 is I have to go to three conferences a year, and with our current discretionary fund, I can hardly afford to go to one of them. Which travel costs have got gotten so high. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I really don't have a horse in this race. My funds cover all of my expenses. I typically do two trips a year. They're both NLC based. And so I'm good. If you increase it, that's fine. If it helps the rest of the counsel. Mine will just sit there and it'll go back right back to the general fund. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: So the additional $3,000 be enough for you to cover everything? DAVIS: I think so, yeah. ERIVES: We could always in case if it's not next year, we talk about it again. Right? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yeah. CHAVIRA: And the beauty is right, We don't have to use that. I'm not on a national board. I don't need that money. But for a Jimmy that sits on a national board and represents us all over the state and all over the country, it's important for him to be seen and heard. And so my thought process was that it was important to make sure that he has the ability then to attend those things he should attend. DAVIS: Depends on who you ask. CHAVIRA: But I don't need that money. So my money could go back to the general fund, but then he could do what he needs to do. ARTZ: Then the next item was increasing the special projects funding. So we have currently in there $15,000 and we're there was discussion about the Teen Counsel and increasing the budget for them. So we took the 15,000 up to 50,000. So a $35,000 increase in the Special Projects Fund, it would stay in the counsel budget. So that if there was travel above and beyond what the discretionary funds allow, that there would still be some funding available in the counsel budget to accommodate that, but also having the $35,000 for the Teen. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I think it's good. I think we learned a lot from the D.C. trip this last year. There's a significant benefit in exposing our kids to really good, valuable, leadership opportunities. And every chance that we can do that, we should take CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 27 of 44 advantage of it. All right. ARTZ: Okay. Some of the other items discussed was enhancements to Paseo de Luces. And we had talked about it at the last meeting, that there's some current year budget that we're going to take care of some of those items. The traffic light timing, that's going to a traffic study -- is going to come back in May. And so we'll have some discussion on that. Sports courts at Veterans Park, our thought process there was to go through some type of a planning process to determine which type of courts, how many, where we would want them. And then if there's funding available in the contingency fund that we don't spend on the aquatic center, then we'd have the funding available to do that after we did some type of a planning process on that. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: And just to clarify, when we say planning process that includes community members? Okay. Good, awesome. Yeah. I'm a big proponent of getting the community involved and figuring out what it is that we need for our community. So I think that'd be awesome. ERIVES: Especially because it came from one of our Tolleson talks where the community was asking these questions. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: That's the core reason for the for the forum. So it's good. Yes? ERIVES: I have a follow up. I do not play pickle, so I don't know anything. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yet. ERIVES: I don't play -- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Erives will teach you ERIVES: -- pickleball. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: -- pickleball. ERIVES: So I'm just I'm again, I don't know, I'm assuming it's similar to the tennis courts. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. No. ERIVES: So I'm not sure. Again, just asking that question. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: You can put two pickleball courts on one tennis court. CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 28 of 44 ERIVES: Don't we have tennis court? And I say we because I work at Tolleson High. But Tolleson High has tennis courts. Are those courts not available for community to use at night? There was quite a -- in my recollection of the tennis courts, there was four maybe courts out there? MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Eight of them. ERIVES: Are there available for community members to use for pickle? MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I would that there is. Last I recall. I mean, honestly, you could do two things. You could either repurpose them by repainting them to pickleball courts, or you could paint pickleball lines on top of the existing tennis lines, and you can use them for both. But ultimately, I don't know what our agreement with the high school is as far as those courts. MEDRANO: Mr. mayor, members of counsel, that agreement was canceled by the previous superintendent. So there is no is no agreement. But the school has historically left it open for everybody to use both the basketball, racquetball, and tennis courts. The baseball fields are off limits. But right now, with not -- I'm not sure what's happening at the school. So I don't know what the future of those courts are. ERIVES: I'm not just saying future. I'm saying today, like, if the general community member. He says I have a group of 40. I'm just saying for now, until we get the planning process, till -- UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: When I drive by at night, they're open. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: You can't you can't play pickleball without the lights. But having said that, we can certainly -- I mean, I think that's part of the planning process explorer conversation to see if it's a possibility. Yeah. MEDRANO: I just use the general plan process. Most likely it will be identified through that process that ASU is running for us. And then we engage, we form a committee like we do for everything we do. Yeah. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. And the reality is what came up was pickleball by way of the Tolleson talks, but the reality is Veterans Park doesn't have basketball courts. It doesn't have volleyball courts. There could be possibilities of expanding this project to CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 29 of 44 something that's going to be I think bigger breadth of, of really what the community wants. MEDRANO: Eventually, we'll finish the park on what is it, Jason? Nearly -- Randy, seven acres that we purchased. But we want to make sure that we're strategic where we put anything basketball, pickleball, what have you in the right place that won't interfere with the ultimate design of the rest of the park. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: And also the lighting, because now you're going to have sports lights. And those seven acres are next to homes. So we got to be kind of smart on where we put them at so we don't infringe on people's backyards, lights looking into their bedrooms and stuff like that. And we get complaints on that end. But that's all part of the planning process. ARTZ: Next item was the shade structure at the community garden. And so again, the thought process there was, if there's some additional funding available from that contingency in the Aquatic Center, then we'd be able to move forward with that in the next budget year. And then the last item that we heard was the art projects on Van Buren. I know the TIA has some plans, and I don't know, Reyes, if you wanted to address those. MEDRANO: I can address the Paseo de Luces layout, and then I'll defer to the Vice Mayor on what we have planned for TIA for phase 2. So phase 1 of Paseo de Luces is what you see today. Phase 2 is everything from 91st to 83rd Avenue, and we've relied primarily on private development, our park, the Aquatic Center now, and then some interest on the hard corner next to PD that -- we just had another conceptual presented to us that I think the council is going to like in the next couple of meetings -- to fill out the rest of it. So that's phase 2. And then phase 3 would be from 96th Avenue west to -- Jason, did we go all the way to 107th, or did we stop at 99th? Because 107th turns into Avondale. EARP: (Indiscernible). MEDRANO: We stopped at 107th, so that would be phase 3. So I know we're partnering CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 30 of 44 with the West Valley Fine Arts Council. And I would defer to you, sir, on -- I know you've been talking with our team about it. DAVIS: (Indiscernible). MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: (Audio interference) Thomas (ph.) about that? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible). MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Ah, yes. Hold on. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Oh, I'm sorry. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Christine, you have a question or comment? CHAVIRA: Just clarifying that the art -- this project is not east of 83rd. It's between 83rd and 91st. ARTZ: Correct. Yes, ma'am, Mr. Mayor, Councilwoman Chavira, yes. Reyes, you have the floor. MEDRANO: Another idea we were texting about -- I forget where we were. Well, it doesn't matter. But we want to preserve our mural that's on the racquetball courts because we don't know what's going to happen to it. And one of the thoughts that we were discussing was taking that mural and putting it on this wall where this mountain is. I won't get into the Sunset Mountain -- or you could put it wherever. We don't have to move it. That's for a later discussion, but we want to definitely digitize it and preserve it. And we'll get Maria (ph.) that does all of our digitizing to digitize the murals so that we know we have it. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Make it a wrap. MEDRANO: Yes, or we have the original artist recreate it somewhere, either way, or both. We don't know. Pretty easy, huh? That's the way you do it. ARTZ: So it sounds like, Mayor, that we have direction to move forward with the plan for each of these items, then. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. When I see these projects, to me, they talk to quality of life for residents, and also benefits to our employees, and I think that's a win-win. MEDRANO: I know I speak on behalf of all -- what is it, 279 of us -- to thank council ensuring that (audio interference) organization, so we appreciate that. Thank you. CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 31 of 44 MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Clorinda, you have a comment, question? ERIVES: When it says on the bullet, "Enhancements to Paseo de Luces", is that to go back and beautify it, the little parts that are missing -- for example, the tiles that have been broken and -- was that what enhancement means, or does it just mean, like, new stuff that we don't have? MEDRANO: Thank you. Mayor, members of the council, both -- sorry. That's for both -- for current fixing and new fixtures. ERIVES: Okay. Okay. Thank you. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I would even add in -- I know Justin's going to get upset about this. But it might be a good time for us to think about lights on the bridge to continue the Paseo de Luces theme, since it's so close to 91st right there at Van Buren. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible). MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Uh-huh. No, not regular area lights. I'm talking about, like, lights, string lights like we have on Paseo de Luces. Okay. Cool. Then, we can change the colors, too, to theme them depending on the time of the year. Okay. Justin, I'm done. Go ahead, sir. ARTZ: Okay. Just to touch on the budgeted salary increases, again, we did adjust the ranges by five percent, and then doing the four percent cost-of-living for all employees, for public safety and nonpublic safety. And this was the one-percent increase. So in the general fund, it's an $88,000 increase. For all funds combined, it's $163,000 for the one- percent increase on the COLA. So with that, then get into all the other departments and budgets. The first couple of slides here is just a summary of all the departments. But like last week, I'll get into details here on each of the departments. So in HURF, the budget decreased by $25,000, and that was actually a decrease in the contractual services, and it was really just to make the fund balance a positive number. So it decreased the amount of money that we have available for street maintenance, basically, by $25,000. CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 32 of 44 The AAA funds, which funds a lot of the social club, senior center, the meals that we provide, a budget increase there by $92,000. All of that was in the wages and benefits. In the public safety fund, on the fire side, the budget did not change. There were some capital requests in there and changes in the capital requests. The SCBA packs, $300,000 for those. And the chief can, if you have any specific questions on those, on -- as far as the life of those or how often they're replaced. We have $190,000 in for replacement vehicles, rescue struts for $30,000, wildland gear, $20,000, and then some fire blankets and water rescue equipment. So total capital request in the fire public safety fund of $570,000. And if you have any specific questions on those, then the fire chief would -- YOUNG: Yes. Mayor, Councilmember Gamez, rescue struts are to stabilize -- a good example would be a vehicle that's on its side, that's been in a wreck. While we're extricating, it provides stabilization to the vehicle while we're extricating and getting patients out of the vehicle. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible). YOUNG: 30,000 will be able to get us outfitted on our ladder tender, as well as our big ladder, so roughly two sets. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible). YOUNG: Yes, sir. ARTZ: On the police side, the budget actually decreased by $778,000. The majority of the decrease was, in the current year, we had $860,000 budgeted for the take-home vehicle program, and that's being reduced significantly. But in there, this year, there are $350,000 for vehicles, $81,000 for the dispatch phone upgrade, ballistic shields for 30,000, a police drone for 35,000, and then some additional radios for 28,000. And the assistant chief is available if there's any questions on the capital there. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible). ARTZ: Because we're purchasing them in the current year, and we don't need to buy as many next year, so there's a reduction there. Okay. The debt service funds, these are the funds that service all of our debt payments, all of our general obligation bonds. It's going up a small amount, about $10,000. And this CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 33 of 44 budget does include the repayment of the Aquatic Center, so that's included in there. We also have that, the Aquatic Center payment, in the current fiscal year, so we are able to issue those bonds last Tuesday, and so we'll have our first payment on those bonds on July 1st, so. In the water fund, the budget increased by a little over $600,000. 222,000 of that was an increase in wage and benefits, $120,000 for the engineer, and then an increase in the water treatment costs. So as you're aware, we get our treated water from the City of Phoenix. We did get notification from them of a rate increase this year, so that is the $250,000 to cover the increase of the City of Phoenix treating our water. On the water capital side, the budget increased by $1.6 million. We've got $10.8 million in for capital, just anywhere from -- software, $250,000. We've got the design money in for the buildings for $350,000. They've got a new project in there for an interconnect with City of Phoenix and City of Avondale, and that's in there for $500,000. And then we've got some carryovers. So carryovers are the -- are projects that were budgeted in the current year that won't be completed by the end of the year. So we're carrying those funding -- those funds and dollars over to next year. So we've got Well 9 outfitting carryover of $5 million, a storage tank for site 4. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Just a quick question. The storage tank site for and Well 9 outfitting, will that reduce our dependance on Phoenix water? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Thank you, Vice Mayor and council members. I can answer that question for you. The importance of having Well 9 outfitted, if we can, it will provide more redundancy. And to be honest with you, on the west end of town where we have our largest users, everything is coming from the east, so we get more build-up on the west end. It would kind of mitigate pressure issues, so the fluctuations in town, and it would kind of stabilize everything for the operators so they can be able to predict what may happen in the system and be able to react better. And the same thing with having a connection with the City of Phoenix. That also mitigates a lot of the pressure issues and will help us have a stopgap measure until we decide to do a surface treatment plant in the future. CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 34 of 44 DAVIS: But it doesn't reduce our dependance on Phoenix? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: It helps. It will help reduce eventually when we decide to have everything tied in together and build out. So you're talking about the treatment plan. You're talking about another well, maybe more additional wells. It makes us more self- reliant eventually, but this is part of that path. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Thank you. ERIVES: I understand -- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Questions on capitol? Oh, yeah, you have a hand up over here. Councilwoman? ERIVES: Under the water bullet number 2, buildings, can you explain what buildings this would be? Is it -- ARTZ: So that is -- I'm sorry. Mayor, Councilmember, that is design money for the new facilities down at the utilities department, so the office building. So we have 350,000 in here, but then we also have money in wastewater and sewer for the design of that. So we don't have any money in currently for the actual construction of it, but we're trying to get it designed with the funds that we have available. Sanitation department, budget increased by a little over $34,000, and we did have an increase in our sanitation rates from the private vendor that we utilize. And so that's the $35,000 increase. And I'm sorry; Randy, was that, like, seven percent, did you say? BABCHUK: Seven -- sorry. Yes. Mayor, members of the council, up to seven percent. So it's not going to be the full seven. It's whatever the environmentalists put on them, the environmental company puts on them. We have to reflect that on our budget. ARTZ: And this increase does not impact rates. So the rates that we're currently charging can absorb this $35,000 increase, and we're not proposing an increase in the sanitation rates because of this. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I'm not -- that's great news. I mean, it's not a rate increase. So right off the bat, that's a win. But I do think I would like to see if there's extra charge or how we go back to actually recycling. Because the reality is, we've been telling our CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 35 of 44 residents that we recycle or that we have a recycling program. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible). MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Right, but a lot of that goes into regular waste. It doesn't get recycled. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible). MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I'm saying that on Earth Day because we're in executive session. That's the only reason I'm saying it. ERIVES: We're not in any session -- the windows are open. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Oh. Well, anyways, it's on the public record. So you know, the reality is -- ERIVES: That's what I'm saying, public -- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: -- I think we need to research how we go back to actually -- when we say we're recycling, we're actually recycling. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I didn't know -- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible). MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Part of it is a business decision by our partner. Is that accurate? BABCHUK: Mayor, member of the -- members of the council, yes. So we do -- and I can research and bring forth that information from waste connections. We should be. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: That sounds great. Jimmy. DAVIS: I think -- I've read a lot about, like, they don't have anyone to buy the recycled materials, so that's why it's not happening anymore. But during COVID, some of that landscape changed, so that could be part of the issue. I think China used to buy a lot of our recycled goods and they don't anymore, so that could be part of the reason. I think that's a pretty common thing across the country that's happening. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Well, I think we need to research it and -- DAVIS: Yeah. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: -- make sure that we're able to -- whatever we say we're doing, CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 36 of 44 we're doing, and whatever we're not doing, we're clear that we're not doing. ERIVES: I agree. I did not -- I have been recycling still, so I have this blue can, and that's what I've been doing, and. [CROSS TALK] MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: (Indiscernible). DAVIS: Yeah, the same truck picks it all up. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: And I try my hardest not to contaminate. But it doesn't matter because the same truck that picks up the trash picks up the recycle. And every week, I'm like, what the heck. DAVIS: (Indiscernible). UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Oh, my heart. What on Earth -- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Okay. Justin's giving me the look. Let's get back on task here. Go ahead, Mr. Artz. ARTZ: The wastewater treatment plant, the budget decreased by $27,000, and that's a combination of a couple of items. So wages and benefits increased by 137. We've got the other half of the engineer included here for 120,000. But then there was a decrease in water treatment and maintenance. And I -- Jamie, who did -- it was Kevin (ph.) -- MCCRACKEN: Yeah, Kevin (indiscernible). Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council. So to speak on that decrease with water treatment and maintenance decreases, so as we become more efficient and we work on our process, our chemicals are having more of an impact and doing what they're designed to do; there's less interference. That kind of also ties in with local limits, as well. And then on the maintenance side, a couple years ago, we had gotten staffed up, and the crew was doing really, really well, working as a team. And they're, you know, highly trained, specialized in what they do, so they're able to take on more and more tasks. And that offsets the contractual services that we get at the -- MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: That's great news. Thank you. ARTZ: Yeah, so a total decrease of $27,000 because of those efficiencies in the department. CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 37 of 44 On the capital side, budget didn't change for this one, $275,000. Budget did increase by $3.6 million in the budget that we cost-share with all of our partners, and they help contribute to this. So again, the first item, buildings and improvements, that 525,000 would be for the design of the building. And then we just have some miscellaneous equipment in there, vehicles. The digester, that's a carryover and some new money for $7.5 million. The disinfection system is a carryover for $2.5 million. The clarifier 2 rehab is in there for 2.5 million. And then we've also got some electrical and structure upgrades for $5 million included in there. So total budget there of $22 million for our wastewater treatment plant that we share with the partners. And if there's any questions -- MCCRACKEN: Good evening again. Sorry. Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, so I just wanted to speak on this a little bit. So a lot of the revenues that we're seeing in there are actually carryovers. Take, for example, the disinfection system and the digester and DSST rehab. We have to perform a lot of studies, and a lot of that, those items are engineered. And then we also have to go out to the county and get an approval to construct, so that process has delayed us. We didn't want to be premature on it and jump the gun, and you know, go in without having a good plan and the county giving us an approval to construct, so we have those items. The trickling filter pump rehab and part of that primary influent channel rehab, as we work through those processes, a lot of the items that we buy still have a very long lead time. So specifically the trickling filter pump rehab, that one, we're actually still waiting on some of those parts. They're due in this fiscal year. But to be safe, we wanted to have that amount carried over. A couple of the items on there, the belt thickener rehab and the north belt filter press rehab, those were actually able to get expedited. They were actually completed two weeks ago. So that was after we had started the budgeting process. So sorry for tying you up on that one, Mr. Artz. But the things that we're really asking for, the electrical and structure upgrades, a lot of the infrastructure at this facility was installed in 1968, 1969. So it's really time to start CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 38 of 44 focusing on the motor control centers and how the duct banks are working, ground fault, just different items like that. So we understand that there's a large dollar amount on there, but a lot of it is carryover. What -- you have a question, Mr. Mayor? GAMEZ: (Indiscernible). MCCRACKEN: Yes, these are shared costs with all of our all of our partners. GAMEZ: (Indiscernible). MCCRACKEN: Correct, yeah. Are there any other questions on these capital items? I will let Mr. Artz speak to that one. That fee structure gets a little bit convoluted. It's based on capacity, so it kind of varies a little bit month by month. But our one partner where we're treating, Sun City Flow (ph.), they're -- we're basically looking at what they're sending us, how much capacity they used out of the plant. Then, we move on to the next partner, and then whatever is remaining, then we cover. So it that percentage varies. Any other questions? ERIVES: I'm blown away with the math because I'm thinking, how would you know how much flow comes in from Sun City? Your pipes look different. You know what I mean? Like, it's just amazing how you all do this, and so efficiently. MCCRACKEN: So basically, we have access to the -- to their flow signal, and so we basically monitor that. They also monitor that. And then at the end of the month, we do accounting on it. So that way, everybody's on the up and up, so we know exactly what comes in that plant, both hydraulically and biologically. ERIVES: Come back and say -- oh, never mind. (Indiscernible). That's just great. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: I don't think we have other questions, but that's good information. Thank you very much. And Mr. Artz will have the important answer or the of the percentage. ARTZ: Yeah, so Mayor, Vice Mayor, off the top of my head, I don't know the exact percentage, but I believe it's in the 10-to-20-percent range. So EPCOR contributes 64 percent, and then once that's done, our other partner takes a percentage. And so it can change a little bit each month, but I can go back and look at it for the last couple of CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 39 of 44 months and give you a percentage. But I'm pretty sure it's in between 10 and 20 percent. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Any other questions or comments? No? We're good, Mr. Artz. ARTZ: Okay. Sewer fund, budget decreased here by $21,000, net of the increase in wages and benefits, but also a decrease in professional services. And again, it was similar to the wastewater treatment plant where there's just efficiencies and they were able to decrease some of the contractual services and decrease the budget for that. So that went down by $100,000. And then on the capital side, budget decreased by almost $4 million. And we've got a total in here in the budget of $575,000 for those four items listed there. And then, so as far as the proposed timeline, staff will bring back the tentative budget on May 13th. Again, the tentative budget is the budget that sets our maximum spending authority, so that sets our expenditure limitation. So between now and May 13th, we'll go through and look at all the carryover, potential carryover. So the budget that was presented to you the last couple of meetings will increase because there will be some carryover items that we will add. And we'll ask you to approve that on May 13th. Then, we'll come back in June and adopt the final budget. The final budget can decrease, but it cannot increase from the tentative budget, and then -- UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible). ARTZ: -- we would adopt the -- or request council to adopt the property tax levy. And again, that levy is going down very slightly, but basically remaining level for (audio interference). MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Awesome. Well, that's a lot of really good information on very complex departments. So thank you all for the information. But at the end of the day, it looks like our property -- or our budget is going to be very much in line with what it was last year. And there's not going to be any significant increase to us as an organization or the taxpayers, and so that's a win-win. So thank you for all your efforts and your department. CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 40 of 44 ARTZ: Thank you. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Thank you. All right. We're going to move on to item K, mayor or city manager's report of current events. Randy or Reyes, before I go to you guys, I'm going to call on Vice Mayor Davis. DAVIS: Last week, I -- I'm on the Valley Metro Board of Directors. I represent Tolleson on that board, and I had the opportunity to go to a transit conference in Flagstaff. It was an Arizona transit conference, and it was interesting being around transit people. They're a whole different type of people; that's for sure. But Jason and Gabe were there. Gabe gave a presentation on our micro-transit system, and let me tell you, everyone had questions for him because they were so interested in this amazing program. So I just wanted to give a shout-out to Gabe for, you know, backing that program and putting it together, because it's been a huge success for our community and offers a far better service than Valley Metro was offering us. So yeah, that's pretty much it. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Good. Awesome. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Good job, Gabe. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Well, thank you, Jimmy. We appreciate it. Yeah, good job, Gabe. That transit program has been, I think, a game-changer. On the national level, I think I presented once on transit, and we had all kinds of questions about that. And you know, now, we're going to other parts of the state, and people are noticing. I just wish some other organization would notice, like those that give out awards for transit programs that I think we should have won. But that's a whole different conversation for another day. So having said that -- thank you, Jimmy -- I am going to turn it over to Randy. BABCHUK: (Audio interference) council, on March 12th, we (audio interference) VFW CC310 (ph.). It went really good, gave out over 300 hot dogs. We did incorporate a car show with it. There were several other car shows, but the good thing that came out of it was that everyone that attended loved that it was on the grass, and they'd rather be on grass than pavement any day. So once that word spreads, it's going to grow like CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 41 of 44 wildfire, so we're happy about that. And just adding something new, always it's going to take time for it to grow, so I think we're going to keep that in with that event. And it helps our VFW, so. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Excellent. BABCHUK: Last weekend, the 19th, we had our tree-planting event where Trees Matter came out and helped us plant twenty-five trees at McNeel Park. There was over 40 volunteers. I think 15 of them were arborists, so they came out, looked at the trees, made sure that we had sufficient water source, and everything was good. So really turned out really good, and the park looks really nice. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Awesome. I thought that was coming up this week. All right. Well, I missed it, but that's a really good effort. Anytime that we can add a tree canopy shade to our community, it's an excellent addition esthetically, and also because of the long-term benefits of trees. BABCHUK: Well, actually, it piggybacked, and now they're getting 12 trees at PH Gonzales. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Excellent. All right. Well, I was asked to read item number 2. "The Tolleson Civic Center will be temporarily closed on Wednesday, May 7th, 2025 from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. to allow city staff to participate in an internal employee event". UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible). MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Reyes? MEDRANO: Not to that one, sir. That's pretty self-explanatory. That's basically when we introduce all of your priorities for the coming fiscal year to the whole organization. I did want to mention that we have lowered the flags to half-staff in honor of Pope Francis. But then this morning, the governor ordered that all flags are lowered, as well, so you'll see that for the duration of the period that they're engaged in now in Rome. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Awesome. Thank you. Yeah, I noticed that, also, this morning, so that's good. All right. Yes, Clorinda. CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 42 of 44 ERIVES: Sorry. It kind of goes under mayor and city manager report, so before we move on to another one, I want to stay within the agenda. I remember seeing something, and I'm not sure where it came from with regards to maybe Pilar or -- about an award that was won from wastewater. Did I, like -- MEDRANO: (Indiscernible) to the Arizona -- what was the conference? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible). MEDRANO: Arizona Water Conference. You would think I'd remember that. But it was an honor for me, Wendy, and Pilar to attend to support what was, like, four tables for our utility division. And how many awards did we win? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible). MEDRANO: Five tables. So six awards total. But Mr. Bryan Hicks gave a speech. It was for -- he's our safety manager. And he talked about safety, but he talked a lot more about the culture in Tolleson. And it was overwhelming, I think, for all of us. He did an incredible job. And listening to someone who's relatively new to the organization, compared to some of us, get it was, for me, personally overwhelming because that's just all I've known here. And I've spent all my adult life in this organization. So when you hear someone that comes from outside the organization, has something to compare it to, and does an analysis like he did, it was incredible. So we may even have him come here and deliver it. I can listen to that speech every day, but we're very proud of the utilities department. They brought home six awards, and there were several operators of the year and different of-the-year awards, I know. So congratulations to all of you. And thank you for mentioning that, Councilwoman. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Congratulations. ERIVES: Yes. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Great things happening at our wastewater treatment plant and water plant, so keep them coming, guys. Great job. ERIVES: Thank you. Thank you. CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 43 of 44 MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: So with that, Reyes, is there anything else you'd like to add? MEDRANO: No, sir. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Okay. Anybody else on council? Okay. Well, I'm going to move on to item L, which is, "Now is the time for council to convene into executive session. We are asking members of the public and those that are not involved in this executive session to please exit the meeting at this time, the only action item after the executive session will be to adjourn the public meeting". So do we have a motion to go into executive session? DAVIS: (Indiscernible). ERIVES: Second. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Okay. Hold on, hold on. I have a first by Vice Mayor Davis. Who was the second? The second was Councilwoman Erives. Got it. All right. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. ALL: Aye. MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: All those opposed? All right. We are now in executive session. APPROVED: ____________________________________ JUAN F. RODRIGUEZ, MAYOR ATTEST: ____________________________________ CRYSTAL ZAMORA, CITY CLERK CITY OF TOLLESON APRIL 22, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 44 of 44 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 APRIL 22, 2025. I FURTHER CERTIFY THAT THE MEETING WAS DULY CALLED AND HELD, AND THAT A QUORUM WAS PRESENT. ____________________________________ CRYSTAL ZAMORA, CITY CLERK