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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAGENDApacket__09-20-23_0117_500       NOTICE OF MEETING REGULAR MEETING SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION      Chairman Bev Tall  Vice Chairman James Wilson Commissioner Zarrin Caldwell Commissioner Marlene Fahrenbach Commissioner VACANT Commissioner Lisa Ristuccia Commissioner VACANT      TIME:4:00 P.M. – REGULAR MEETING WHEN:WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2023 WHERE:FOUNTAIN HILLS COUNCIL CHAMBERS 16705 E. AVENUE OF THE FOUNTAINS, FOUNTAIN HILLS, AZ Commissioners of the Town of Fountain Hills will attend either in person or by telephone conference call; a quorum of the Town’s Council,  various Commission, Committee or Board members may be in attendance at the Commission meeting. Notice is hereby given that pursuant to A.R.S. §1-602.A.9, subject to certain specified statutory exceptions, parents have a right to consent before the State or any of its political subdivisions make a video or audio recording of a minor child. Meetings of the Commission are audio and/or video recorded and, as a result, proceedings in which children are present may be subject to such recording. Parents, in order to exercise their rights may either file written consent with the Town Clerk to such recording, or take personal action to ensure that their child or children are not present when a recording may be made. If a child is present at the time a recording is made, the Town will assume that the rights afforded parents pursuant to A.R.S. §1-602.A.9 have been waived.    REQUEST TO COMMENT   The public is welcome to participate in Commission meetings. TO SPEAK TO AN AGENDA ITEM, please complete a Request to Comment card, located in the back of the Council Chambers, and hand it to the Executive Assistant prior to discussion of that item, if possible. Include the agenda item on which you wish to comment. Speakers will be allowed three contiguous minutes to address the Commission. Verbal comments should be directed through the Presiding Officer and not to individual Commissioners. TO COMMENT ON AN AGENDA ITEM IN WRITING ONLY, please complete a Request to Comment card, indicating it is a written comment, and check the box on whether you are FOR or AGAINST and agenda item, and hand it to the Executive Assistant prior to discussion, if possible.        Sister Cities Advisory Commission Meeting of September 20, 2023 1 of 2          1.CALL TO ORDER – Chairman Tall     2.ROLL CALL – Chairman Tall     3.CALL TO THE PUBLIC Pursuant to A.R.S. §38-431.01(H), public comment is permitted (not required) on matters NOT listed on the agenda. Any such comment (i) must be within the jurisdiction of the Commission, and (ii) is subject to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions. The Commission will not discuss or take legal action on matters raised during Call to the Public unless the matters are properly noticed for discussion and legal action. At the conclusion of the Call to the Public, individual commissioners may (i) respond to criticism, (ii) ask staff to review a matter, or (iii) ask that the matter be placed on a future Commission agenda.     4.REPORTS BY COMMISSIONERS AND TOWN MANAGER     5.CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of the minutes of the Regular Meeting of January 18, 2023.     6.CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: on Proposed 2024 Meeting Dates.    7.DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Selection of a New Sister City.    8.UPDATE: on the City of Zamosc Mayor Official Visit.    9.DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Future Agenda Topics.    10.ADJOURNMENT       CERTIFICATE OF POSTING OF NOTICE The undersigned hereby certifies that a copy of the foregoing notice was duly posted in accordance with the statement filed by the Sister Cities Advisory Commission with the Town Clerk. Dated this ______ day of September 2023. _____________________________________________  Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant The Town of Fountain Hills endeavors to make all public meetings accessible to persons with disabilities. Please call 480-816-5199 (voice) or 1-800-367-8939 (TDD) 48 hours prior to the meeting to request a reasonable accommodation to participate in the meeting or to obtain agenda information in large print format. Supporting documentation and staff reports furnished the Commission with this agenda are available for review in the Town Manager's Office.    Sister Cities Advisory Commission Meeting of September 20, 2023 2 of 2 ITEM 4. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 09/20/2023 Meeting Type: Sister Cities Advisory Commission Agenda Type:                   Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant to Manager, Mayor/Council Staff Contact Information: Request to Sister Cities Advisory Commission (Agenda Language):  REPORTS BY COMMISSIONERS AND TOWN MANAGER Staff Summary (Background) Form Review Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 05/18/2023 08:05 AM Final Approval Date: 05/18/2023  ITEM 5. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 09/20/2023 Meeting Type: Sister Cities Advisory Commission Agenda Type:                   Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant to Manager, Mayor/Council Staff Contact Information: Request to Sister Cities Advisory Commission (Agenda Language):  CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of the minutes of the Regular Meeting of January 18, 2023. Staff Summary (Background) The intent of approving meeting minutes is to ensure an accurate account of the discussion and action that took place at the meeting for archival purposes. Approved minutes are placed on the town's website and maintained as permanent records in compliance with state law. Staff recommends the APPROVAL of the minutes of the Regular Meeting of January 18, 2023. Attachments SUMMARY MINUTES AND VERBATIM TRANSCRIPT  Form Review Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 05/18/2023 08:05 AM Final Approval Date: 05/18/2023  TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE FOUNTAIN HILLS SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION JANUARY 18, 2023 1. CALL TO ORDER – Vice Chairman Tall Vice Chairman Tall called to order the meeting of the Sister Cities Advisory Commission at 4:05 p.m. 2. ROLL CALL – Executive Assistant Angela Padgett-Espiritu Present: Bev Tall, Vice Chairman Zarrin Caldwell, Commissioner Lisa Ristuccia, Commissioner James Wilson, Commissioner Staff Present: Town Manager Grady E Miller Executive Assistant Angela Padgett-Espiritu Absent: Marlene Fahrenbach, Commissioner 3. CALL TO THE PUBLIC Pursuant to A.R.S. §38-431.01(H), public comment is permitted (not required) on matters NOT listed on the agenda. Any such comment (i) must be within the jurisdiction of the Commission, and (ii) is subject to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions. The Commission will not discuss or take legal action on matters raised during Call to the Public unless the matters are properly noticed for discussion and legal action. At the conclusion of the Call to the Public, individual commissioners may (i) respond to criticism, (ii) ask staff to review a matter, or (iii) ask that the matter be placed on a future Commission agenda. No one from the public spoke. 4. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of the minutes of the Regular Meeting of September 21, 2022. MOVED BY Vice Chairman Bev Tall, SECONDED BY Commissioner James Wilson to APPROVE the minutes of September 21, 2022, Sister Cities Advisory Commission Meeting. Vote: 4 - 0 - Unanimously 5. CONSIDERATON AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Appoint of a Commission Chairman MOVED BY Commissioner Zarrin Caldwell, SECONDED BY Commissioner Lisa Ristuccia to APPOINT Vice Chairman Bev Tall to Chairman of the Sister Cities Advisory Commission. Vote: 4 - 0 - Unanimously 6. CONSIDERATON AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Appoint of a Commission Vice Chairman MOVED BY Commissioner Zarrin Caldwell, SECONDED BY Commissioner Lisa Ristuccia to APPOINT Commissioner James Wilson to Vice Chairman of the Sister Cities Advisory Commission. Vote: 4 - 0 - Unanimously 7. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Selection of a New Sister City. 8. NEXT MEETING DATE: Wednesday, April 26, 2023. 9. ADJOURNMENT Vice Chairman Bev Tall requested a motion to adjourned the meeting of the Sister Cities Advisory Commission at 4:50 p.m. MOVED BY Commissioner Lisa Ristuccia, SECONDED BY Commissioner Zarrin Caldwell to adjourn the regular meeting of the Sister Cities Advisory Commission Meeting at 4:50 p.m. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS _________________________ Bev Tall, Chairman ATTEST AND PREPARED BY: ___________________________________ Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Regular Meeting held by the Sister Cities Advisory Commission in the Town Hall Council Chambers on the 18 day of January 2023. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and that a quorum was present. DATED this 20 day of September 2023. _____________________________ Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 1 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 1 of 31 Post-Production File Town of Fountain Hills Sister Cities Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes January 18, 2023 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. * * * * * TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 2 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 2 of 31 PADGETT-ESPIRITU: (Indiscernible) once you call to order the meeting, and then I'll just state -- TALL: Okay. I call this meeting to order. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Okay. And let the record show everyone is here, with the exclusion of Commissioner Fahrenbach. Roll call's done. TALL: What about Marlene? CALDWELL: She's -- PADGETT-ESPIRITU: That's her. Marlene Fahrenbach. TALL: Oh. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Sorry. (Audio interference) No, there is not. (Audio interference) Yes, you can either do that at this meeting, if it's something -- you know. Now, I know we have one commissioner missing, and I know we have two vacancies. Or if you prefer, we could wait until the May 17th. TALL: We have two vacancies? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: We have two vacancies. WILSON: Yeah. Enrique's gone. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Um-hum. TALL: Hold up. He can't take his place. I mean, who are you going to have to take his place? CALDWELL: But there's supposed to be so many spots. WILSON: He stepped down. TALL: Oh, I know. He's retiring. WILSON: Yeah. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Yeah. And -- TALL: I mean, you know, you can't be -- WILSON: No. TALL: -- in his position. I mean -- TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 3 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 3 of 31 WILSON: No. TALL: -- does it have to be a consult from some country or -- PADGETT-ESPIRITU: No. It -- TALL: -- one of our sister cities? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: No. No, it does not have to be that. And the town clerk, she will be doing advertising for recruitment for this commission, and then we will be -- the Mayor, hopefully, if we get enough, will be making those appointments in April. So we should have, hopefully, two new commissioners before -- TALL: And I'm sorry, the other commissioner is who? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Oh, it's Nick. CALDWELL: Nick -- PADGETT-ESPIRITU: It's the chair. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE SPEAKER: He resigned. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Yeah. TALL: Yes. Yeah. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Yeah, he resigned. So we should have, hopefully, a full commission come May, by the time for the May 17th meeting. So it's up to you. I mean, of course, you know, they'll be so new, they won't -- yeah, so I'm sure the people that are here are the ones that, you know, you would probably want to be. That's my opinion. CALDWELL: Jim, are you interested at all, or not? WILSON: Not in the chair position. I would be -- I mean, if Bev wanted to be nominated for the chair, I would gladly do vice chair. TALL: Yeah, I'll do that. WILSON: Only because I'm so booked right now with some other volunteer -- and, of course, I have a full-time job, too. CALDWELL: Yeah. Yeah. WILSON: I'm pretty engaged. But I would definitely back you up if you'd like that. TALL: Yeah, okay. Let's do that. WILSON: Okay. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 4 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 4 of 31 TALL: That's fine. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Okay. So do we have a motion for -- then, do we have a motion for Bev to be chair and Jim to be vice chair? Do we have a motion for that? TALL: I -- CALDWELL: Yeah. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: You make the motion for that, and then she does that. CALDWELL: I can make the motion, yeah. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: And you -- okay. And then do we have a second? RISTUCCIA: I should second. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Okay. Perfect. TALL: Okay. All in favor? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKERS: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Perfect. TALL: All opposed? Okay. That's easier than -- PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Yes. TALL: -- with all the new people. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: I agree. All right. TALL: Okay. Now, the big question is the selection of the new city. And I -- that's why I would like Grady to be here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Yeah. TALL: Because before he made a comment that he thought that Asia would be a good -- a starting point and then another European (audio interference) was kind of his thought. CALDWELL: Well, do we have to discuss the -- Jim, did you send this around? The whole criteria thing? WILSON: Yeah. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Um-hum. CALDWELL: I think we probably should (audio interference). WILSON: (Audio interference) all they are, are examples of (indiscernible). CALDWELL: Right, right. (Audio interference) TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 5 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 5 of 31 WILSON: I don't know if I need that. Christine (ph.) and Grady and the Mayor and others met to discuss putting together kind of a collective team, a collaborative team of a couple of members from the commission, a couple of members from the board, maybe a member from the -- TALL: To what? To choose the -- WILSON: To create the guidelines. TALL: Oh, to create this. Okay. WILSON: Right. Start with the guidelines. We got to get a set of rules. TALL: We got rules. WILSON: So Christine suggested that we get a couple of members from the board, a couple members from the commission, maybe a member from the community, and that team become kind of the focal team for creating the guidelines -- UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Okay. WILSON: -- using maybe some of these as our models. Create our own guidelines and then, armed with that set of guidelines about how we go about choosing a city, whether it's a match, whether it's a mismatch, whether it's anything else that, you know, may have come from that crazy decision matrix that I'd, you know, thrown out there at one time. However we go forward, that will then drive what cities we will look at, right? Then everybody can throw darts at a map and let's say, look at that city, look at that city, look at that city. But armed with the guidelines, we'll be able to go through those cities and say, do they truly match to our rules? We really don't want to start looking at cities until we have the rules. CALDWELL: Right, right. I agree with that. TALL: Okay. WILSON: That make sense? TALL: Yeah. WILSON: So -- TALL: However, we've changed our focus totally from what you started off -- WILSON: Absolutely. And that's fine. That's -- TALL: -- (indiscernible) you wanted -- you wanted a match -- WILSON: I know. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 6 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 6 of 31 TALL: -- rather than a mismatch. WILSON: I know. TALL: And then Grady says that, and I sort of agree. We need to go to a different continent than Europe. WILSON: Which is why I think the set of guidelines is so important, right? You know, we need to know what it is that we want. TALL: Exactly. WILSON: You know, before we can go find that one that we want. TALL: Right. WILSON: So -- now, I don't know who's leading that charge, you know? I know that -- since it's going to be a collaborative effort between the board, the commission, and the community, you know, is it Christine? Is it Grady? Is it -- I don't know. You know, that, I think, is still yet to be determined. You know, who's leading this thing? Who's going to be the project manager on this thing to create the guidelines? TALL: Yeah. CALDWELL: Yeah, I was -- I'm willing to be on that committee, and just throw that out there as a possibility. I really appreciate you putting this together. I've kind of called for it for a while and -- WILSON: Sure. CALDWELL: -- I think it's a really important effort. I did notice in looking through this, because I read through it all last night that, you know, it's interesting, like Scottsdale has a very -- WILSON: Oh, yeah. CALDWELL: -- a very economic -- a very -- oh, no, Phoenix. Sorry, it was Phoenix. WILSON: Yeah. CALDWELL: Very focused on the economic ties, and it's like -- WILSON: Right. You can tell where their interests lie, right? CALDWELL: Right. Right. But I did have a question on one of these things, if you can -- this page, SCI affiliation? WILSON: Okay. CALDWELL: Here it says page 3, but I think it's actually 7, where this little map is. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 7 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 7 of 31 WILSON: Yep. CALDWELL: A question on one of those. TALL: Okay, what was the question? CALDWELL: So, number 2 says -- where was it? WILSON: Efforts by U.S. jurisdictions? That second paragraph? CALDWELL: Yeah, the efforts -- let's see -- "to establish official links with foreign jurisdictions that already have an active and recognized U.S. sister city will not be recognized". Right. So I didn't understand that. SCI, I guess, is the, you know, national body -- WILSON: That's Sister Cities International. CALDWELL: Right. WILSON: That's the -- CALDWELL: Sister Cities International. Okay. It says -- so it was a little confusing. "Efforts by U.S. jurisdictions to establish official links with foreign jurisdictions that already have an active and recognized U.S. sister city, county, or state, will not be recognized." WILSON: Right. CALDWELL: I didn't -- WILSON: What that means is -- CALDWELL: -- it's like, what does that mean in English? WILSON: -- what that means is they don't want to go after a city that already has a sister city partnership with some existing U.S. city. They want to find somebody brand new, right? So because -- CALDWELL: Oh, okay. WILSON: -- for instance, like Pietrasanta, the city in Italy that we had originally kind of homed in on, they actually currently have seven different current twin-city relationships with other cities in the U.S., cities in Europe, and we -- at least on the surface, it would be difficult, I think, to maintain that many relationships. TALL: I agree. CALDWELL: Yeah, that's interesting. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 8 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 8 of 31 WILSON: Well. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible). CALDWELL: But even if they -- WILSON: Maintain them well. CALDWELL: -- even if there was one -- just another foreign city that had one relationship with an American city, we couldn't consider them? I find that -- yeah. WILSON: Well, again, these are not our rules. CALDWELL: No, I know. WILSON: This was -- CALDWELL: But I find that quite restrictive. WILSON: -- this was just what they decided to choose, right? CALDWELL: Yeah. WILSON: I mean -- CALDWELL: Yeah. WILSON: -- we wouldn't have to follow that model. If we wanted to have a city that had seven already-existing relationships -- CALDWELL: Oh, I see. WILSON: -- we could do whatever we wish. CALDWELL: But -- WILSON: This is not for us to use as a -- CALDWELL: -- but -- WILSON: -- you know, we shall use these rules kind of a thing. It's for us to kind of get our head wrapped around how would we write a set of rules. CALDWELL: But this one says, will not be recognized by SCI. So that's my -- TALL: Yeah, (indiscernible). CALDWELL: -- point. And we should be recognized by Sister Cities International. WILSON: Oh. As if they're alluding to that we at a local level would have to get approval from SCI to pick our city, if -- TALL: Yeah. RISTUCCIA: That's almost how it sounds, yeah. WILSON: That's kind of how it sounds? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 9 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 9 of 31 I'm not aware of that particular connection to SCI. I don't think -- I'm guessing it hasn't -- it hasn't led our previous selections. TALL: Well, I don't know. WILSON: It should have, because, if it were the case, Dierdorf has multiple sister cities. TALL: Well, so does Zamosc. WILSON: So does Zamosc. So does Ataco. Actually, Ataco does, too. TALL: Yes. WILSON: So too did Kasterlee. So if that rule really applied to us, we wouldn't even have the sister cities that we have today. So I think it's probably -- TALL: We don't know when this policy went through. WILSON: Yeah. Yeah. And it could be just something -- CALDWELL: (Indiscernible). WILSON: Yeah, it could be just something that they decided on for themselves and kind of wrote that in there, even though there truly isn't jurisdiction at the SCI level. I don't know. But it's certainly a good question to ask. TALL: (Indiscernible) don't we? Check on it -- WILSON: Yeah. TALL: -- if SCI has that -- PADGETT-ESPIRITU: And also, I just want to -- just on another note. That's still consistent -- just letting you guys know that Grady is on his way. He'll be here in just a few minutes. WILSON: Okay. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Okay? Thanks. TALL: Well, maybe he knows the answer to that -- PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too. WILSON: That's a good -- yeah, a good point. TALL: So, okay. So we need to find this out. It would, I think, be difficult to find that. CALDWELL: Yeah -- WILSON: Yeah. TALL: Unless you go to some out of the way place in Mongolia or somewhere. WILSON: Sure. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 10 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 10 of 31 TALL: And I've been there. WILSON: Yeah. Right. TALL: So -- it's a fascinating place. CALDWELL: Yeah, that was the only thing that I kind of got hung up on, was like what does that mean, you know? But I do like the list. It's great to have a -- sort of listing other things that priorities and such. WILSON: Yeah, I mean some are very detailed, others are not. You know, again, it just kind of -- TALL: And I'm sort of agreeing with Grady, as far as doing something different than Europe. WILSON: Oh, yeah? TALL: I mean, there's lot more in the rest of the world. WILSON: Absolutely. TALL: South America and Asia and -- WILSON: Yep. TALL: -- and so I think we ought to consider some of those now. WILSON: Sure. So -- TALL: And something in China is going to be a different problem. CALDWELL: That's the thing, yes. WILSON: So when we draft the rules that we're going to use, our guidelines, we'd better make sure to leave ourself open-ended enough to be able to consider cities like that. TALL: Exactly. WILSON: Right? So again, it goes to the level of how we're going to create these rules. TALL: But I'd also agree with, hey, if they have too many sister cities already, you know -- WILSON: Is it a -- TALL: -- and we're number ten on the -- WILSON: We ought to at least question it. TALL: Absolutely. And we're looking for a relatively small town, so we can't have somebody, you know, like with a whole bunch of them. WILSON: Right. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 11 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 11 of 31 TALL: Because they're not going to pay attention to us -- WILSON: Right. TALL: -- and that's not what we want. RISTUCCIA: And on the front page, the number 3, diversity and relationship between existing sister friendship city relationships of geographic diversity, social culture diversity -- TALL: Yeah. RISTUCCIA: -- candidate cities, other sister city relationships. TALL: Yeah. WILSON: Right. Yeah, you can see how certain cities went -- TALL: Yeah. WILSON: -- in some direction, some went others. TALL: Grady, we had a question on this thing that Jim sent around. MILLER: Um-hum. WILSON: It's about seven pages and then there's a little map at the bottom. MILLER: This document here. WILSON: Yeah. TALL: If you look at the -- MILLER: What page? Is it in the back? TALL: -- it's sort of -- no it's -- WILSON: It'd be page 7 of the packet. MILLER: On page 7, okay. WILSON: Oh, okay. TALL: With the map. WILSON: It's got the little map on the bottom. CALDWELL: It's really page 7. MILLER: It's in this one here. Okay. Well, is it in the council packet -- or the -- WILSON: It's actually in this guy. MILLER: -- or is it in this one? Yeah, it didn't pop up when I -- 7 of 7, right? Here it is. Okay. TALL: Okay. In the second paragraph on the left, it says duh duh duh duh duh, all these TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 12 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 12 of 31 restrictions will not be recognized by SCI. Do they say yes or no as to which sister city you can have? CALDWELL: This is Sister Cities International. There's something -- TALL: Yeah. CALDWELL: -- I was questioning some of their kind of restrictive policies there. TALL: Well, wait, like -- CALDWELL: Sorry. TALL: -- he's reading. MILLER: Well, so you really want to -- for the most part, when you establish a sister city, you really want to have it sanctioned by Sister Cities International. So you definitely want to make sure it's not already part of Sister Cities International. So there are some sister cities that are actually not part of Sister Cities International, okay? And -- TALL: But this says that they can't have any other U.S. -- MILLER: But I'm looking at this, and if I'm not -- am I missing it? It says, SCI affiliations policy. Oh, affiliations policy. Because I was thinking it was -- like, there's -- you can have -- you can be an affiliate and you can also be a sister city. And I don't know if -- TALL: Well, but then it says it will not be recognized by SCI if you have other -- CALDWELL: We're looking at item 2 on the left. TALL: Yeah, the second paragraph. MILLER: Yeah. No, I'm reading that, and I see what you're saying. I will tell you that no -- I think they're applying this to U.S. cities, okay? So because really, well, Sister Cities International, while, you know, it's got the international in the name, they're trying to focus really on the United States and foreign relations and the things that we do as a country, the citizen-to-citizen, you know, diplomacy. TALL: Okay. MILLER: Okay, so I don't think it's unusual that you might find sister cities that have multiple sister cities. The question is -- like, for instance, our sister cities all have other sister cities. TALL: Others. MILLER: And some of them also have multiple -- TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 13 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 13 of 31 WILSON: U.S. relationships. MILLER: Yeah. So I think this is just -- this is a guidance and I think we'll need to just look at this and make sure that we probably are very careful when we're doing this because we want to be sanctioned by Sister Cities International. Otherwise, what happens, you can have it and you can have the relationship; it just won't be something that they will recognize and they won't have it in their directory. Now, I will tell you about 20 years ago it was a big deal, Sister Cities International. And I think Sister Cities International is a good organization. But if you go to their website, they have just been -- they don't keep up anything. I mean, it's really horrible. I mean, it's abysmal to run a business or a nonprofit like they've been running. And I think that it shows you that they have probably resource issues. And I know back when we were becoming sister cities when I was in another city, they had just moved from -- they had their own building in Alexandria and they had just moved to the Ronald Reagan Federal Building, which was a private building, and they were going to lease space. Well, they got into financial difficulty about three years into that because the lease payments ate up all the equity that they had from their other building, and then they got into all these financial -- so I don't think they've ever been really financially strong since they made that move. And I don't -- I think they may have even moved out of where they were. But -- so I think this is something -- we should look at that as a possible guideline to us. TALL: Well, we need to -- we also need to find out what they will sanction and what they won't. MILLER: Well, the deal is they typically sanction if a city is not already taken. So I mean -- WILSON: That's an easy model. TALL: So on -- we would have no sister cities. WILSON: They're not going to dictate, like, oh, you have to be the same size or you have to -- they don't get into that level. TALL: But are we going to have to find one that has no sister cities? MILLER: No, I think they're talking about other U.S. sister cities. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 14 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 14 of 31 TALL: Oh, you mean if -- MILLER: That's what they're talking -- that's -- TALL: -- sisters like Sedona and Phoenix or Fountain Hills wanted the same -- WILSON: Yeah. TALL: -- sister city that -- MILLER: Yeah, that's what this paragraph is talking about. They're not talking about those abroad. TALL: Okay. MILLER: They're just talking about that you can't share a sister city relationship effectively -- TALL: Yeah. MILLER: -- having like us and Scottsdale have the same sister city in Italy, right? TALL: That makes sense. MILLER: So that's what this paragraph is really saying. It's not saying that they can't have multiple and it's not saying that we can't. Because as we know, all these cities around us all have multiple sister cities. CALDWELL: Yeah, exactly. TALL: Yeah. MILLER: So does that kind of make sense? WILSON: Yeah. TALL: Yeah. MILLER: Now, we had also, when we were looking at Pietrasanta -- TALL: Yeah. MILLER: -- I was trying to think of the name and how to pronounce it -- we found out that Mobile, Alabama -- WILSON: Um-hum. MILLER: -- was one of theirs. But we also learned it was kind of an inactive relationship. So I didn't feel so bad about that, because they were saying, with the exception of they had some recent ceremonial thing to celebrate some sort of a function, they really hadn't done anything with that sister city relationship in many years. So as far as I'm concerned, it was probably like a Kasterlee -- TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 15 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 15 of 31 TALL: Kasterlee. MILLER: -- situation. I mean, we -- it took the death of the mayor who was mayor at the time for them to finally acknowledge the town, once we sent condolences to the mayor. The mayor -- actually, the mayor notified the town about the passing of that mayor who was mayor at the time of our sister city being founded with Kasterlee, and then we sent condolences and then the current Mayor, you know, expressed thank you and gratitude and then it, you know, and then sent a regret letter that, you know -- kind of acknowledging after we sent our letter that yeah, it's regrettable that we're no longer sister cities -- TALL: Yeah. MILLER: -- or -- but understood the reasoning for it. TALL: Yeah. MILLER: So -- I'm sorry, I kind of got you -- (Audio interference) WILSON: I was just bringing the team up to speed with, you know, kind of the strategy that we'd come up with about creating a set of guidelines -- MILLER: Um-hum. WILSON: -- first before we go throwing darts at a map and picking cities. Christine had recommended, from the board, that we pick a couple of members from this team, a couple of members from the board, maybe a member from the community at large, and work through maybe some of these models as an examples and create our own set of guidelines. MILLER: I think that's a really good idea. You know, I was sensing -- and again, it has to do with the history here. So our history has been that the Sister Cities corporation has always been, like, involved in helping secure sister cities, and then they administered the sister city relationship. It's only been six years or so or seven years ago that we created our Sister Cities Commission, and the purpose of that was really as a backstop to ensure that these are city-to-city relationships. If something happened to the association, then, you know, then all these sister cities -- I've seen this in my own experience, watching other sister cities fail, and it's when you have that kind of a situation where you have a citizen group or a nonprofit that typically the leadership's with the same people for many, TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 16 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 16 of 31 many years and then they're not developing new leadership and then eventually it just -- those start failing. And then -- so I wanted to make sure we had a backstop, and the town, if you look at what our mission is, it's really to help secure sister cities and also help maintain them. But there's different roles. There's some roles that we share, and I think we're supposed to be working together with the association on who -- you know, whose role is what. But there are some overlapping roles, because I think we both have a role in overlapping and also have a role in securing one. But when it comes down to the ceremonial roles, that's all on the town's side. You know, it's not to say that the leadership from the Sister Cities corporation wouldn't be at functions or things like that. I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying it's the mayor-to-mayor kind of thing, and also if they have somebody on their team like our own corporation, then we pair them up and match them up. And then the same thing, I've been really relying on the exchange program to be administered by the Sister Cities corporation. But I think that's maybe what we should do, and this came up previously at another meeting of ours, probably last fall or whatever, is we probably should just -- I think it's very simple. We just get together and we just say -- you know, I think what we do is we pull out maybe the bylaws of what the corporation is. We pull out what the mission statement is that helped create this board, and we just kind of say, okay, well -- I mean, I could kind of do it in my head as I'm talking right now, because I've got it up here -- WILSON: Yeah, because you set up swim lanes that might have a little commonality in between. MILLER: Absolutely. And that's why, you know, when we are -- we have done things where we have waived fees or things for fundraising that Sister Cities will do, because there is that connection with the town and you're fundraising to help administer and do the programs for our Sister City program that typically, if you didn't do it, or I shouldn't say you, but if the corporation didn't do it, the town would be doing that. So -- anyways. CALDWELL: Has there been a set of guidelines like this before or is this kind of a new -- MILLER: This is new, what Jim has helped develop. I mean, I'm not saying -- it's new to us. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 17 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 17 of 31 And again, keep in mind, when we started the commission, we were still hopeful that we can get Kasterlee revived and we made several attempts to do that. And we had very much ongoing relationships with -- Zamosc had just come on, and that was relatively new. But we had the student exchanges keeping the German and the Polish sister cities going, and then we still had connections and activities tied to -- TALL: Ataco. MILLER: -- Ataco, right. I was going to say something else, but -- TALL: Oh, I'm sorry. MILLER: No, no, no. No, I'm sorry. Because I almost said Del Taco, and then before I said that I was going to say El Taco, so -- TALL: Oh, no. MILLER: -- so thank you. Ataco. So -- but anyways, we've had those going, and I'll be honest with you, I understand that there is motivation possibly to get another sister city, but we're a small town, and I think the key is having quality of the relationships that we currently have and maintaining them to the optimal, versus adding one. Now, I'm excited at the same time. I'd love to have one from another part of the world. But I also know that we're just kind of, like, short on resources, and I also know things are getting harder sometimes, at times, for the corporation. They've had some new blood come in there. That's great. And they've had some new ideas and new stuff and they're doing some exciting things, so I think that's great. But I also think, if we go to replace Kasterlee, I think we stop there, in my opinion. TALL: Oh, yeah. MILLER: I think four is enough. Ataco, I think -- what I kind of like about Ataco is, on occasion, we do some really significant human service kind of things that really help out that and makes us all feel good. And it's what this is all about: this small worldwide community. And then we've got these student exchanges, which is really awesome, and I wouldn't mind seeing the student exchanges be changed a little bit from what we've done in the past. You know, maybe -- you know, I like how it's run, but I don't think it makes sense to have those going on in the same year. I would do -- TALL: Yeah, yeah. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 18 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 18 of 31 MILLER: -- off years, so it's less -- it just will leave people less frazzled. TALL: I think that's what they're doing from now on. MILLER: Yeah. TALL: Germany is coming and then the next year Poland is coming. MILLER: I think it's also, you know, another sister city program that I ran, we did the student exchange program during the summertime, and it was a two-week exchange. And then there would be a break of about a week or two, and then the other family -- and it was all homestay and that all worked well, just like we're doing the homestay here. RISTUCCIA: Is it Tempe or Scottsdale that does that? MILLER: You know -- RISTUCCIA: I think they do theirs during the summer and then they're able to use (indiscernible) -- MILLER: Yeah. RISTUCCIA: -- dollars because it's an extracurricular. MILLER: Tempe is -- I want to say Tempe is the granddaddy of all the programs. If you want to see the most successful sister city program in the country -- I don't want to say they are the most, but they're probably -- for like the last 50 years, you know, they have been really on top. And it all has to do with funding. They get -- they do that Rocktoberfest. That's their big fundraiser. And 20-some-odd years ago, they were clearing a half million dollars a year. Clearing it, just on that one event alone. And that's why they have so many sister cities and they were able to fund -- I want to say, I think they actually fund the exchanges for a longer period of time, like maybe during an academic period of time, like maybe a semester or something. CALDWELL: Are you talking about Tempe or Scottsdale? MILLER: Tempe. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Tempe. MILLER: Yeah. And at least, that's how they used to do it. RISTUCCIA: (Indiscernible) some kind of fundraiser that we could do that could be at least partially like that, because that was one of the things; could we help sponsor some more of the kids, so it's not all on the families and to make a better -- MILLER: So -- TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 19 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 19 of 31 RISTUCCIA: -- a better experience for them without -- and -- MILLER: Yeah. RISTUCCIA: -- maybe a diversity of students participating, rather than just families from -- students from rich families -- MILLER: Yeah. RISTUCCIA: -- who can afford it. MILLER: That's a good point. Unfortunately, that sometimes tends to happen. I wouldn't say rich families, but a lot of times it's just your, you know, middle-on-up families that do it. Well, what we did when I was in Peoria, we actually -- the Sister City program paid for the airfare for the students, and then the home hosting was done by the families. So yeah, there's expenses. Totally, I understand that. And part of the problem is, it seems like they want to top, you know, like, you know, it's when they do these experiences. Like when we were doing it, it was summertime, so a lot of -- they wanted to get out of the heat and all that and show them the Grand Canyon and -- UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Um-hum. MILLER: -- I think some of them went over the top. I mean, they would try to take them to California and Disneyland and all that kind of stuff. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible). MILLER: But they still ended up having good experiences. But the families, to your point, put out serious dollars on that. RISTUCCIA: And with something like the airfare, it would enable some of the students from here that wouldn't be able to do it, otherwise. MILLER: Well, does the Sister Cities corporation not help with the airfare for the students? TALL: No. MILLER: Are you serious? I thought -- RISTUCCIA: They help, I think, with the excursions for the ones coming here -- TALL: Um-hum. MILLER: Okay. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 20 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 20 of 31 RISTUCCIA: -- but not for the airfare for the kids going. MILLER: Okay. RISTUCCIA: So it does kind of limit the students -- MILLER: Right. RISTUCCIA: -- that can participate. Unless they're doing fundraising on their own, they don't have a support -- MILLER: I didn't realize that. I didn't know what level of funding the corporation did. So that's a good point. WILSON: It's been pretty bleak for the last few years. I think it's beginning to ramp up a little bit, but I -- MILLER: The pandemic really -- WILSON: Yeah. MILLER: So I mean, I would -- that's a pretty common model that I just described. RISTUCCIA: Is to provide the airfare for the students (indiscernible)? MILLER: Yeah. Especially when you have the homestay cost being absorbed by the families, so -- CALDWELL: Well, we have the 10,000 a year from the town, so it's like, what is that going for, I guess. WILSON: That'll drop now that one city's come off that list, right? It's $2,500 per city. MILLER: Well, is it really spent that way, or -- I thought it was more -- because I think I heard Lisa say like when we do host, there's some of those excursions -- UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Some excursions. MILLER: -- and things that are happening when the students are here. So I don't know if it's really divvied up, if it was being divvied up, three or four ways. WILSON: It's just a general fund. RISTUCCIA: Yeah. MILLER: Okay. So I mean, I would think that's something you guys might -- now again, keep in mind what airfares now cost, so you know, you're talking, really -- so I mean, that's why it also makes sense every other year. But even on just -- say it's a $1,500, which is not really that unheard of, times six -- WILSON: Um-hum. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 21 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 21 of 31 MILLER: -- and I don't know, how many students do we typically have? RISTUCCIA: I think 12. WILSON: Um-hum. MILLER: 12 for each country? RISTUCCIA: I think. MILLER: That's a lot of kids. Yeah, we may want to just revisit that whole number. RISTUCCIA: I think Germany wanted to send us -- or was it Poland? -- wanted to send us 20, and then they capped it at 12. WILSON: Sure. MILLER: Yeah. And chances are, I don't know how that's being funded, but it could very well be -- it could be that their government is actually funding it. WILSON: With Germany, we know that to be the case. MILLER: Yeah, these are -- when you're abroad, it's a totally different world and they actually -- I mean, I'm not saying the Third World countries. But I'm saying, you know, the European countries, a lot of times -- I mean, a lot of them, even when they go on to college, the government is actually paying if you go to a public institution. I mean, that's all changing in England. They started reforming that about, you know, eight, ten years ago. But for the most part, if you got the scholastic grades and everything, you know, and you had your testing and all that, you were able to be on a full ride and that was room, board, and tuition. So anyways, we're getting off a little bit here. TALL: Well, the problem with the students that came from Ataco, and we can't do that anymore because they wouldn't go home. MILLER: No, and so I think that relationship has evolved, and I think we're satisfied with that relationship. The only part that kind of saddens me is I would like to see if we can start getting some other people involved with the Ataco relationship. Enrique's great and he's got the ties to that city -- TALL: But he's retiring. MILLER: -- and he's retiring. He's starting to slow down. So I would like to see what we can do to just continue and have him involved, but get somebody transitioned in to helping with that, because we want that to continue -- that relationship to continue. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 22 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 22 of 31 TALL: Um-hum. MILLER: So and as we were saying, it seems like a lot of these relationships sometimes get vested with individuals, and then people move on or things happen and then things happen to the relationship. TALL: Well, that's sort of -- well, the same with Poland. If Elizabeth (ph.) and Bomile (ph.) go away, then we have no connection there, either. MILLER: Yeah. So I think -- well, you know what, we do have -- and you'd be surprised. I think we do have other people that have either -- obviously, Polish descent, but people that might be first generation Polish Americans living in Fountain Hills. So we just need to find out who those people are. I'm sure that both Elizabeth and Nick (ph.) -- TALL: Oh, they would know. MILLER: -- probably know, yeah. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: And Kade (ph.). MILLER: Oh, yeah. That's a good point. Yeah, good point. Because he is a natural there. TALL: Yeah. MILLER: He and his family. Well, and that's what we're really, when you're doing these sister city relationships, that's what you're wanting to develop. That's what Tempe's got right now. So Tempe, you know, the Newhousels (sic), Dick Newhouse (sic) or -- WILSON: Neuheisel. MILLER: -- Neuheisel. He and his wife were the early starters, and shakers and movers of that program 50 years ago in Tempe. And all the kids that they -- and the families that they got involved, those other parents that were their age, now there's other kids that went on those exchanges and now they're in the leadership over there. And that's what we need to do. TALL: Yeah. MILLER: We need to capture those people. Now granted, people move on and they're going to leave from our community. But there will always be some people that still have a connection here and will be involved. So that's what you also want to develop, part of TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 23 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 23 of 31 sister cities, is that leadership of people through, hopefully, that have been touched by an exchange and the students are the natural connection. And what happens is, typically it's not right away. I'm sorry, the gentleman that we were just talking about -- WILSON: Enrique? MILLER: No. The -- UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible)? WILSON: (Indiscernible). MILLER: Yes. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Um-hum. MILLER: He's probably quite the exception. And he's one that has already stepped up. But what we've seen in other sister cities around the Valley here, at least that I'm familiar with, is it's taken like a few years. Once they're into -- well after their adulthood and they're in their 20s or maybe when they're 30, then they start taking an interest back in this again once they kind of got their life kind of established and they're -- you know. So that's also what we probably need to focus on. WILSON: In the industry, we call that succession planning. MILLER: Right. WILSON: You know, you're always training your number two. MILLER: Right. So they can step up when the opportunity comes. WILSON: Right. MILLER: So yeah, we've had an interesting discussion, and I think what your recommendation is, is to have, you said, two from this group, two from the -- WILSON: The board. MILLER: -- board -- WILSON: And maybe one from the community at large. MILLER: I think that's a good idea. WILSON: Yeah. TALL: And then we also -- we're talking about replacing Enrique. And you can't just have anybody replacing Enrique. MILLER: No, and I'm not trying to replace him. I want to make that very clear. I didn't say replace him. I'm saying get somebody to shadow him to learn a little bit more about TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 24 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 24 of 31 it and take an interest in Ataco so that he can impart a lot of that information with him. Again, I'm not trying to replace him at all. TALL: No, you can't. MILLER: No. He's got it -- a lot of it's up here and in here, and we can't replace that -- TALL: Right. MILLER: -- with somebody else. But somebody else can learn a lot of the connections and who the contacts are and so forth. And you know, and just like a city, they evolve and they have elections and the leaders change and there's new people and there's always going to be somebody that comes in that really doesn't understand the sister city relationship. So you still need people like Enrique and if it's not Enrique, you'll need somebody that's still trying to maintain those connections and relationships with people. TALL: Right. MILLER: So -- WILSON: Now, the only question I had and probably on the mind of Christine, too, is if we form this team, you know, we really need to have somebody who's driving it, right? And the question is, with the natural kind of tug-of-war that sometimes is happening about who takes care of what in this relationship between the board and the commission -- MILLER: You know what? I don't really -- I sense that people think there's a tug-of- war. I don't see that. WILSON: Yeah, I kind of do. MILLER: I mean, first of all, how many of you -- UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKERS: We said that. MILLER: -- how many of you are board members, right now? I mean, I had a discussion with Christine and she made it sound like -- that I had withheld information. I'm like, well, no. We talked about this at a board meeting. I'm like, you've got -- how many of your board members are on my board? CALDWELL: Yeah. WILSON: Well, and we now have on our meeting, you know, agendas, an action item where any of the members from the commission can have a chance to speak -- MILLER: Good. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 25 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 25 of 31 WILSON: -- and cross-communicate. MILLER: Jim, I don't care if it's you, Lisa, Bev -- are you also on it, too? Any of you, I have no concern if one of you just want to be the chair or the driver on it. I applaud, you know, going forward with it. WILSON: Sure. MILLER: I think it's a really good plan. WILSON: Yeah. MILLER: So maybe what -- well, I don't want to mess up things. So let's see if we can get that off the ground. TALL: Well, I don't see a competition between the board and -- WILSON: No, I don't, either. TALL: They're just -- I mean, it's not like we have a big -- a lot of power here. WILSON: No. TALL: So -- MILLER: No, I think -- and it's good that now there's that agenda item. I think, to Christine's point, she was caught off guard with some things, like she didn't know about Kasterlee, and she was shocked that the official action happened and somehow it didn't get back to her. CALDWELL: Have we mentioned that at the board -- TALL: Oh, yeah, we talked about it. WILSON: Yeah. MILLER: Oh, okay. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yeah. MILLER: Well, she caught me like off guard, and I'm like, well, we had it on our agenda and we talked about it and you have board members. I wasn't trying to throw any of you under the bus, but I'm like going, I don't know how you couldn't have known. CALDWELL: Yeah, because we talked about it. WILSON: Yeah. CALDWELL: Yeah. MILLER: So -- WILSON: I think it really comes down to those swim lanes. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 26 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 26 of 31 MILLER: Yeah. WILSON: Right? If we had a visual representation of those two swim lanes -- MILLER: Yeah, maybe a flow chart. WILSON: -- of what the board does and what the commission does and where we overlap, I think it would've been more clear, because -- MILLER: Right. WILSON: -- I think that there may have been some assumption that the board somehow decides who's in or out as a city. MILLER: Yeah. Yeah. And it can't -- WILSON: And that's not really the case. MILLER: -- it can't happen because -- WILSON: Yeah. MILLER: -- guess what? When -- WILSON: That's the way it happened before. MILLER: Well, no, it couldn't have, because what happened, I think, before is the corporation did all the legwork -- WILSON: Yeah. MILLER: -- convinced the powers that be in the town that this was the sister city we wanted, convinced them -- it was a really easy sale, because the first mayor that wanted this was Miles -- TALL: Jerry Miles. MILLER: -- and then, you know, Morgan -- you know, Sharon Morgan became mayor. But they wanted these things, and then they were also involved in the -- you know, the association. Miles wasn't initially, but he got that formed. And then I think, if I'm not mistaken -- are you guys part of that FFHA or FF -- FHCCA? The -- TALL: I am. MILLER: But is it -- are you guys your own separate 501, or are you under the umbrella of -- TALL: No, under the umbrella. And I'm not -- MILLER: And he created the FHCCA, too. TALL: -- I'm not for sister cities. I'm on there for something else, so -- TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 27 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 27 of 31 MILLER: No, it's a very -- TALL: -- (indiscernible). MILLER: -- big umbrella organization. So all I'm trying to say is the only way that these actually get sanctioned -- we have the partnership agreements. Who's signing the partnership agreements? It's the mayors. WILSON: Um-hum. TALL: Right. MILLER: So you can't do these without -- WILSON: That's correct. MILLER: -- a city on both sides doing this. WILSON: Right. MILLER: So I like your idea. So I think that's a really good plan. RISTUCCIA: I'd like to help with the selection of (indiscernible), so. WILSON: Okay. Yeah -- MILLER: And Jim -- WILSON: -- so the package was basically just a set of examples of, you know, guidelines that have been created by other cities. We just hopefully, you know, use some of it maybe as a model (indiscernible). MILLER: I think what we have probably seen is, more often than not, with the exception of the newer sister cities that have come online, like up in Sedona, most of the sister cities that have come through have been through emotions or connections -- WILSON: Yeah. MILLER: -- that people have. WILSON: Um-hum. MILLER: And what I mean by emotions, like oh, I'd love to have a sister city here -- wherever it might be. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yeah. MILLER: Or it's through connections with people that are either of descent from that country or people that already have some sort of a connection there somehow. They know people from there, or whatever. TALL: Well, Christine wants somebody that has connection to the country. And it TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 28 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 28 of 31 makes more sense, because there (indiscernible) closer to those countries with people that, you know, like Zamosc and -- MILLER: Right. TALL: -- Ataco. WILSON: It helps foster the relationships -- TALL: Absolutely. WILSON: -- which is really fundamental. It's, you know -- MILLER: I think it's absolutely -- it is fundamental, but we also need to make sure that we have some other things that we can do to sustain the relationship -- WILSON: Yes. MILLER: -- beyond those connections. WILSON: Yes. MILLER: Because connections change. People move on. People leave. I can't tell you how many times I've seen where organizations or things flounder just because someone has moved out of town. That they were the -- TALL: Yeah. MILLER: -- everyone relied on that person to do everything with that group or organization. So -- good. TALL: Well, this thing that Jim's going to be putting together. The one he had before, we were looking for similar places, and then your comment about well, we need something in Asia. And I totally agree with that. We need something a little bit different from Europe and that's not exactly like we are. MILLER: Yeah, I think Zarrin brought that up. RISTUCCIA: I think it was Zarrin that had -- CALDWELL: Yeah, I was pushing that for a while. RISTUCCIA: Yeah. CALDWELL: And Nicholas when he was here. MILLER: Yeah. The key, you know, and I think this has been in some of the criteria, not only here but other places, is the ability to easily communicate. TALL: Yes. MILLER: Because some places, I mean, you know, the big push right now has been TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 29 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 29 of 31 Africa and also China. And it's really hard with some of the communications. I'm not saying that there's -- I mean, the Chinese and their urbanized area is not an issue, but they have -- I forget how many cities I had read about that are one million people and bigger -- TALL: Oh, yeah. MILLER: -- and they have a ton -- TALL: Amazing. MILLER: -- and as much as you would think that the Mandarin or Cantonese, you know, it's -- those are very big languages. A lot of them are learning our languages, but it's hard to find people that know those languages here. TALL: Right. WILSON: Um-hum. MILLER: So those are the things, the communications and your emails and all that kind of stuff, you have to kind of figure that out. The same thing, the ease of getting to and from, you know. Like how many hours are you going to take to get to and from. Like some countries in Asia are better connected, certainly, than others. So if you are looking at, you know, Thailand might be an example of where it's easy to get into Thailand, but maybe, you know -- CALDWELL: Vietnam. MILLER: Ho Chi Minh City may not be the easiest to get into. I mean, it may -- it is now easier than it used to be. You've been there, right? TALL: Oh, yeah. MILLER: Yeah. TALL: Yeah. RISTUCCIA: And I apologize. I'm going to head out. I have a meeting that started at 4:30, so -- MILLER: Well, you know what? Could you just adjourn the meeting? Because actually, you leaving would leave us without a quorum. So if you -- I think we've probably talked this through, so I think this is really good, so if you don't mind. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Okay. MILLER: That would be great. CALDWELL: Do we have another vote or something? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 30 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 30 of 31 RISTUCCIA: So we're doing with the discussion -- with that, we're kind of tabling that, but forming a group? Is that what -- WILSON: Right. Yep. RISTUCCIA: Is that what the decision was on that? WILSON: I mean, we can decide amongst ourselves who amongst this group would be our two from the commission. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Okay. WILSON: You know, part of it. CALDWELL: Well, I said I'm open to doing that. WILSON: Sure. CALDWELL: Unless somebody else wants to. I mean, that's fine. MILLER: Well, I'm saying, she's like our -- I mean, who else -- who's not here today? I know Nicholas is not with us. Marlene, she's not part of your group -- CALDWELL: She's sick. MILLER: Okay. So are we down one? CALDWELL: Two. MILLER: We're down two. TALL: We're down Nick, Enrique. MILLER: Okay. So I don't think you have to take a formal action on that. So I think we've got consensus on what we're going to do. RISTUCCIA: And then just like really evaluate and go -- MILLER: It's a work group. So long as we don't have more than two people from this body, we're okay. TALL: Okay. So then I guess we adjourn the meeting. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: And then next meeting date is? I mean, it's May 17th? TALL: Yeah. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Um-hum. RISTUCCIA: Okay, so I motion to adjourn? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Um-hum. CALDWELL: Go ahead. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I second. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 31 of 31 JANUARY 18, 2023, SISTER CITIES ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 31 of 31 TALL: And all in favor? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKERS: Aye. TALL: Okay. MILLER: Okay. Awesome. ITEM 6. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 09/20/2023 Meeting Type: Sister Cities Advisory Commission Agenda Type:                   Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant to Manager, Mayor/Council Staff Contact Information: Request to Sister Cities Advisory Commission (Agenda Language):  CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: on Proposed 2024 Meeting Dates. Staff Summary (Background) Sister Cities Advisory Commission Proposed 2024 Meeting Dates The Commission Meets on the Third Wednesday of the Month at 4:00 PM   January 17   May 15   September 18   Attachments Proposed 2024 SCAC Meeting Dates  Form Review Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 05/18/2023 08:19 AM Final Approval Date: 05/18/2023  11/29/2021 Sister Cities Advisory Commission PROPOSED 2024 Meeting Dates – Third Wednesday of the Month - 4PM January 17 May 15 September 18 ITEM 7. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 09/20/2023 Meeting Type: Sister Cities Advisory Commission Agenda Type:                   Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant to Manager, Mayor/Council Staff Contact Information: Request to Sister Cities Advisory Commission (Agenda Language):  DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Selection of a New Sister City. Staff Summary (Background) Attachments New Sister City Selection Criteria  Form Review Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 05/18/2023 08:05 AM Final Approval Date: 05/18/2023  ITEM 8. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 09/20/2023 Meeting Type: Sister Cities Advisory Commission Agenda Type:                   Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant to Manager, Mayor/Council Staff Contact Information: Request to Sister Cities Advisory Commission (Agenda Language):  UPDATE: on the City of Zamosc Mayor Official Visit. Staff Summary (Background)  Two City of Zamosc officials, along with their spouses will be visiting the Town of Fountain Hills on October 16, 2023, through October 20, 2023.   1. Andrzej Wnuk  Mayor of the City of Zamosc    2. Agnieszka Kowal  Director of the Department of Education of the City of Zamosc A Welcome Reception will be held at the Town Hall prior to the October 17, 2023, Town Council Meeting.   Form Review Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 05/18/2023 08:10 AM Final Approval Date: 05/18/2023  ITEM 9. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 09/20/2023 Meeting Type: Sister Cities Advisory Commission Agenda Type:                   Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant to Manager, Mayor/Council Staff Contact Information: Request to Sister Cities Advisory Commission (Agenda Language):  DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Future Agenda Topics. Staff Summary (Background) Form Review Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 05/18/2023 08:05 AM Final Approval Date: 05/18/2023