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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025.0304.TCRM.Verbatim Transcript.Approved TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MINUTES OF THE REGULAR L MEETING OF THE FOUNTAIN HILLS TOWN COUNCIL MARCH 4, 2025 A Regular Meeting of the Fountain Hills Town Council was convened at 16705 E. Avenue of the Fountains in open and public session at 5:30 p.m. Members Present: Mayor Gerry M. Friedel; Vice Mayor Hannah Toth; Councilmember Gayle Earle; Councilmember Brenda Kalivianakis; Councilmember Rick Watts; Councilmember Peggy McMahon; Councilmember Allen Skillicorn Staff Present: Town Manager Rachael Goodwin; Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson; Acting Town Clerk Angela Padgett-Espiritu TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 1 of 76 Post-Production File Town of Fountain Hills City Council Meeting Minutes March 4, 2024 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 MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 2 of 76 MAYOR FRIEDEL: Rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. ALL: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Please remain standing if you choose. We're going to have an invocation by Pastor Rod Warembourg from Desert Creek Fellowship. WAREMBOURG: Thank you, Mayor, councilmembers. Please join me in prayer. Father, I come before you tonight, found in Christ. Father, I come before you as a representative of a kingdom that is unseen, but Father, we ask for your help tonight. Father, I pray that you'd be made wisdom to this council. I pray, Father, that you would help to lead them so that they could lead us well. I pray, Father, that you'd give them wisdom so they could guide us as the people of this town well. I pray, Father, that you would help them to do so in justice and in righteousness. I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. ALL: Amen. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Town clerk, can we have a roll call, please? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Thank you, Mayor. Mayor Friedel. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Present. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Vice Mayor Toth. TOTH: Present. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilwoman Earle. EARLE: Present. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember Kalivianakis. KALIVIANAKIS: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilman Watts. WATTS: Present. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember McMahon. MCMAHON: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember Skillicorn. SKILLICORN: Here. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 3 of 76 PADGETT-ESPIRITU: We have a quorum for the record. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Thank you. Can you please read the statement of participation? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Yes. Anyone wishing to address the council regarding items listed on the agenda or under call of the public should fill out a request to comment card located in the back of the council chambers and hand it to the Town Clerk prior to consideration of that agenda item. Once the agenda item has started, late requests to speak cannot be accepted. When your name is called, please approach the podium, speak into the microphone, and state your name for the public record. Please limit your comments to three minutes. It is the policy of the mayor and council to not comment on items brought forth under call of the public. However, staff can be directed to report back to the council at a future date or to schedule items raised for a future council agenda. It's also requested that applause be kept to a minimum to avoid disruption of the meeting to maintain decorum, and provide an equal and uninterrupted presentation. Thank you. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Thank you. Now we'll have our reports by the mayor, councilmembers, and town manager. Rachael, I'll start off with you. GOODWIN: Thank you, Mayor, council. Good evening. I have a couple of updates. I'm going to try to move pretty quick, but I did want to take some time. It's a very busy time of year, so I wanted to -- first of all, I wanted to thank all of our staff and all of the guests that joined us for our teen takeover. We had over 120 teen at the community center this past weekend, enjoying activities, and games, and prizes, and food, and all kinds of stuff. Special thanks to our sponsors, which was the Fountain Hills Coalition, the Fountain Hills Library, and, of course, the Mayor's Youth Council, for making the event possible, so a lot of fun there. This Thursday, we'll be celebrating the grand opening of a new trail within the preserve, the Mesquite Hollow Trail, so join us at noon at the Adero Canyon trailhead as we recognize this new addition and show our appreciation for our volunteer trail builders. Also, upcoming, if you haven't already marked your calendars, I see an Irish Fest shirt out there, so shout out to -- or Irish fest wearer. All right. That's coming up on March TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 4 of 76 15th, so not this weekend, but next weekend. There's lots of music, food, beer, all kinds of things, and, of course, the greening of the fountain. We'll also have the greening on Monday the 17th for Saint Patrick's Day as well. If you want to find out more information, including the lineup, including the menus, all that kind of stuff, visit us on experiencefountainhills.org for more information. Friday. This Friday is recognized as National Employee Appreciation Day, so I wanted to take a second to recognize our staff. Here in Fountain Hills, we are fortunate to have a dedicated team of over a hundred staff members who work tirelessly to provide essential services and programs to our community. Their hard work and commitment make a tremendous impact every day, and I want to express my gratitude to each of them, so thank you for all that you do. Lastly, I want to take a moment to recognize and bid a fond farewell to two of our outstanding team members and partners. That's Captain Larry Kratzer back there, as well as Lieutenant Mike Lawson. Both have been exceptional partners in our community, serving with dedication and integrity. As they transition to new roles with MCSO, we are truly grateful for their service here in Fountain Hills. While we will certainly miss them, we're excited to cheer them on as they take on new challenges. So Captain Kratzer, Lieutenant Lawson, thank you, and we wish you all the best. Those are my updates. Thanks. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Thank you. Councilwoman Gayle Earle. EARLE: Yes, I attended the Fine Arts Fair, and it was a really nice fair, and purchased some fun goodies, and also we had a council retreat last week that was 6 and a half hours long. We worked on how we're going to take care of the roads, capital improvements, projects, budget, and more, and then I've been listening to the legislative updates on Mondays with the Arizona League of Cities and Towns. Thank you. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilwoman Kalivianakis. KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Greetings, everybody. Thank you all for coming here tonight, and whether you're live, or streaming on YouTube or on Cox channel 10, TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 5 of 76 hi. Welcome to our meeting. I'll try to make it really quick. Tonight, we're going to have a proclamation for the American Red Cross, and I want to give a big thank you to our town manager, Rachael Goodwin. It was a couple months ago, and I went to her with this, and you know, the people in the Red Cross, you know, after the cameras leave and the trucks go, they're still working. They're helping the citizens of our country through earthquakes, fires, and all the tragedy that you've seen in the past year, and so not only did she agree to it on the spot and very decisively, but she also was the one that recommended we do the fountain in red, so thank you for a job well done. You're good at what you do. I also attended the Night of Hope, and that was -- we did the proclamation for that a couple of weeks ago, and that was attended at Grace Church, and there was 1,300 people there, including Andy Biggs, our county attorney, Rachel Mitchell. Warren Petersen, who is a president of the Senate, and it was on that night that they decided that they're going to put a task force together at the Senate and state level to combat human trafficking, and so it was an inspirational night with many law enforcement, with many clergy, and with a lot of elected leaders. You know, there was a round table, and all the elected leaders went on stage. I sat next to Mayor Hartke from Chandler, and they prayed over us, and it was quite an experience, and so I just wanted to keep people aware of the human trafficking. It's an ongoing issue, and there's a lot of people around the site that are fighting that -- state around fighting that. We had the Firewise conference. This time, it was 30 minutes long, and then around an hour and a half worth of questioning, and it was a great presentation. Again, very topical with the Hawaiian fires, with the California fires, and people are very concerned and are concerned in our community about fire management. We get a lot of emails from the citizens about various overgrown washes and stuff, so this mayor has been very, very on top of that. The council is on top of that. Our staff is on top of that, and I just want everybody in this town to know that that's one of our top priorities. Again, like Gayle said, we went to the retreat. It wasn't very long, but very TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 6 of 76 productive. We had a lot of -- we talked about a lot of different things, and just so you guys know, a lot of times things come up, and they say, well, that came up awfully quick. You know, we just heard about that on the agenda two weeks ago. You know, some of these things, we've been talking about for a year or two, but they're retreats, and we didn't get much of an audience there, so if you're really concerned about all the upcoming things in the pipeline, please make sure that you attend these things, because that's when you're going to find out what's coming at you in the future. And then the last thing is I went to the Festival of Fine Arts, again, very successful. I talked to the vendors. They were all profitable. They were all very happy with it. I talked about this at the retreat. It was just a splendid success, and I want to thank the town, the Maricopa County Sheriffs, and the Chamber of Commerce for such a job well done. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilman Watts. WATTS: Thank you, Mayor. Similar to what Councilwoman Earle said, I attended a couple of the Arizona League city meetings. Very informative. Keeping up to date on what house bills, Senate bills are in the pipeline. I attended a day of training at the fire department out in Mesa, which I found excruciatingly painful, so it was very interesting, educational, enlightening. The fair was another event that I went and walked around. Unfortunately, I didn't have to buy anything, but I did get a lot of looking, and last but not least was the budget meeting, which was almost as painful as the fire day, so thank you. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Thank you. Councilman Skillicorn. SKILLICORN: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to quickly point out on Saturday, March 22nd, here in Fountain Hills, there is a event going on called lookup, and it's actually in the afternoon, 12:30 in the afternoon, there's a children's event, but in the -- later that evening at 6 p.m., there's an event for all families. That speaker is going to be Will Graham, a bunch of musicians, and a big event for everyone. Everyone that is watching on TV, watching on the YouTube channel, but also here in the audience are TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 7 of 76 welcome to attend. Thanks. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilwoman Peggy McMahon. MCMAHON: Thank you. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for attending. I also attended a few things since our last council meeting. Like Rick Watts said, we attended the fire department's annual training day out at their Mesa facility, which the facility in and of itself is very impressive, and it was impressive to see the combination of fire departments from other towns and cities and how they all work together to fight fires and car fires especially and work with their EMTs to save our lives. It's very impressive. If you ever have the opportunity to participate in that, I suggest you do so. I also attend the weekly legislative calls and keep up on what our legislature bills are doing or not doing. I also attended the budget workshop, and I was fortunate enough to be able to attend a business meeting with our economic director, Amanda Jacobs, and a business owner, Rich Barker (ph.). He is a developer. He owns the Pony Express building, and if you haven't been in that building, it's really amazing. He has really renovated it and is really utilizing the space, and he is very pleased to be in Fountain Hills and have business here. In addition, being on the Fountain Hills Youth Coalition, I was able to attend their annual essay contest writing award ceremony, and what those students wrote and said, their intuition, and their perception of themselves and others was very, very touching, and I congratulate all of the contestants and the winners, and I look forward to next year's essay contest, too. And in addition, the Irish Festival is coming up, and I hope everybody attends. Like Rachael said, it's a blast. Thank you. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Vice Mayor. TOTH: Well, to avoid repetition, I went to several of the things mentioned, and I hope everyone had a great week. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Thank you. I also attended the Festival of Fine Arts. I was down there actually five times over the weekend, just walking around, talking to vendors, looking at the crowds, and making sure everything was okay, and it was pretty well attended. We did have the Firewise seminar, and we have one HOA that I think is designated Firewise, TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 8 of 76 and that's Sunridge right now, so we're looking for more HOAs to jump on that and get that done as well. Also as was mentioned, the budget retreat, we went over a lot of capital improvement projects, and looking forward to getting a lot of work done for the residents of this town. I also attended the food for kids event in the community center. That event had over 400 volunteers, and they literally packaged thousands and thousands of meals for for youth and people around the country, so it was really good to see the community come together, and it was packed, and it was only two hours and I saw a little bit of oatmeal on the floor, but otherwise, it was a fun event and it was very well received. And I also attended the Drug Coalition essay winners recognition awards ceremony, and I have to say that that was such a moving event to hear these kids, these students, and their stories was really moving and very humbling. A lot of thought and a lot of emotion. You could just feel it in the room that night. I also had a meeting with our law enforcement committee, going over some things that we're going to work on with the sheriff's contract. They also had a meeting with our Veterans Committee, so we'll be rolling that out next -- at our next meeting, and I'd also like to recognize our staff since it is staff appreciation week. So we have a great staff here in this town. They work tirelessly for all the residents of this town, and they put in a lot of extra effort without even being asked in a lot of cases. So we really appreciate our staff and kudos to them, and I'd also like to recognize Captain Kratzer and Mr. Lawson as well. Captain, I've had the pleasure of working with you for several years. We're going to miss you, but I know it's better for you. You're moving up, so we appreciate your effort here in this town and what you do for the residents and for our community, and then I have one, one housekeeping thing I want to -- I want to bring up. This is the second time I'm bringing this up. I rewatched the last council meeting twice, and I have to say that I was embarrassed by the behavior on this dais by some of the council members in this last meeting, so here's what's going to happen. If there's a point of order called by somebody, it has to be recognized by the chair. Whether I'm TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 9 of 76 here or the vice mayor is in charge, they have to recognize that point of order, and then it has to be decided whether there's footing for that point of order. If it's decided that there isn't, whoever appealed for the point of order can appeal to this body for a vote on it, and that's the way it's going to be done. Also, if there's disorder on this dais, I'll politely ask the person if they need to leave the meeting. If they don't and it continues, we will take a recess. We will call a time-out. We're not going to have that anymore. It was very embarrassing, so I'm apologizing to our residents, the rest of this council, and our town staff for what happened in this last meeting. So going forward, we're not going to deal with that. So that's all I have for this right now, and now, we'll move on to the proclamation for the Red Cross and Vice Mayor Hannah Toth, is there anybody here from the Red Cross? I don't see anybody here. All right. So we're going to read the proclamation, and then we'll make sure that that gets delivered to them. So Vice Mayor? TOTH: Whereas during American Red Cross month in March, we recognize the compassion of people in Fountain Hills and reaffirm our commitment to care for one another in times of crisis, and whereas this generous spirit is woven into the fabric of our community and advances the humanitarian legacy of American Red Cross founder Clara Barton, one of the most honored women in our country's history who nobly dedicated herself to alleviating suffering. And whereas today, kindhearted individuals in our community exemplify Barton's commitment as they step up through the AZNM region to provide a beacon of hope for our neighbors in need. Through their voluntary and selfless contributions, they make a lifesaving difference in people's darkest hours. Whether it's delivering shelter, food, and comfort during disasters, providing critical blood donations for hospital patients, supporting military families, veterans, and caregivers through the unique challenges of service. Saving lives with first aid, CPR, and other skills, or delivering aid and reconnecting loved ones separated by global crises. And whereas we hereby recognize this month of March in honor of all those who lead with their hearts to serve people in need, and we ask TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 10 of 76 everyone to join in this commitment to strengthen our community. Now, therefore, I, Gerry Friedel, mayor of the Town of Fountain Hills, do hereby proclaim March 2025 as Red Cross Month in Fountain Hills as we illuminate our famous iconic fountain in red on this day and encourage all citizens of Fountain Hills to reach out and support its humanitarian mission. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Thank you. Now, we'll move on to presentations. Rachael? GOODWIN: Wonderful. Director Weldy is going to give a brief introduction, and then I believe we have our guests that will lead us through the presentation. WELDY: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Madam Vice Mayor, and councilmembers. During fiscal years '19, '20, and '21, during the renovations of the community center, we discovered some water intrusion issues and other things that were needed corrected in that building. I think it's important to note, under the direction of town management and the mayor and council's, every single year since that time, we have planned, budgeted money, and tackled one or more of the challenges that have been faced, and we've made substantial progress. This year, we asked for a considerable amount of money as we were planning to move forward, a half million dollars. As part of our planning and discussions with the town manager, the CFO, and procurement, we decided to take a step back and let's get an evaluation of everything that's been done, and I have Allana Buick and Bers representative, and I'll introduce him shortly. Give us an update, and at the same time, we recognized that we needed to do an assessment of all of the roofs of the buildings, so that wasn't included in the original one, but kind of skimmed over, but we recognized that it's also important. With that said, this will be the second update directly from Mr. Buick to this council regarding his assessment and their professional opinions. Well, I said I would open his PowerPoint. Here we go. WELDY: We're going to try a new one. BUICK: Okay. WELDY: Let's try this one. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 11 of 76 BUICK: Yeah, I'm a little more familiar with this one. WELDY: There you go. BUICK: All right. Thank you, Mayor Friedel, Madam Vice Mayor, and councilmembers. My name is Jean Buick with Allana Buick and Bers, and we were retained by the town of Fountain Hills to -- approximately about three years ago to evaluate some leaking conditions in the community center, which I'm going to give you an update on how those repairs are performing, and then I'll also give you our preliminary findings on our roof evaluations. So what we have here is an overview, and our team had an opportunity to revisit the community center window repairs. We also evaluated the roofs of the library and museum, community center, town hall, and central plant. Our scope of work was, as I described, to evaluate the window repairs and then evaluate the roofs, so let's talk a little bit about what we observed on the window repairs. Here's an overview of your community center. We were brought in a few years ago to understand and study why you had extensive water intrusion through the window assemblies and door assemblies and whatnot, and essentially, the original construction was poor, and water was able to get through the window assemblies. There was reverse slope on the hardscape, and so there was excessive water intrusion into the interior at various locations. We performed a lot of testing to verify the concerns and then developed some repair options, one consisting of potentially replacement, and the other, which was more of a exhaustive wet sealing solution, applying silicone sealants to help stop the water from getting in. So in May of 2022, we had developed a report with our findings and provided recommendations. Again, the recommendations went from one extreme to replacing to another extreme of repairing, so to be proactive, the town retained a contractor to perform a wet seal approach, and you know, I'm pleased to report that it is performing and it's helping keep most of the water out of the building. This is just an example of what we went through to test the windows. We had spray racks and replicated leakage. This photo represents a wedding paper that TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 12 of 76 shows how much water was getting into these assemblies, and you can imagine with the monsoonal rainstorms, at times, water can easily penetrate these areas and introduce a lot of moisture into the interior. During our survey of the recent repairs, we did notice some leak stains, but to the best -- to the best of our knowledge, there may be one or two leftover leak stains, but not nearly the dozens upon dozens of leaks that you had been experiencing. Those have been abated. Some of the other repairs that occurred, aside from sealing, was the installation of a trench drain. The trench drain helped assist with removing water away from the building, so you didn't have water flowing into the door assemblies and intruding into the interior, and that's been quite successful. This trench drain has a pipe, and that pipe connects into a storm system to evacuate the water. Also, there was another area over at the (indiscernible) room. This was actually an open patio, had reverse slope issues, and an opportunity was taken here to create a new storage area, and so that patio, which was quite problematic, was enclosed with a new storage area, which has been well received. Here's an example of what I mean by wet seal. So what is a wet seal? So a wet seal is application of sealant over joinery between the glass and the frame and between frame joints, and that helps keep water out. What was used as a product is silicone, and silicone lasts a long time. I mean, I've studied silicone that's 40 years old, and it's still performing to this date, so this is at least a 15, 20-year repair. Now, nonetheless, it can be imperfect, so at some point, you may have to plan for a replacement project, but this has given you some life and sometime before that needs to take place. There was also adjustments to the door sweeps at the doors to prevent water from traveling beneath the doors, and there was also some localized grinding of the concrete to create slope, to have water evacuate away from the doors instead of flowing towards the doors and pooling, so that's been quite successful. So in summary, there were temporary repairs, have prevented a lot of water from getting in, and it's given you some extended life. Regardless, like any repair, you have to have maintenance and inspect regularly to be TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 13 of 76 sure that the sealant is still intact and performing, so ultimately, someday, you know, there will have to be a permanent solution in place, but this will give you some time. Any questions on the window repairs, and -- no? Let's jump into the roof. So in general, you have polyurethane foam roofs with a granulated coating system. A pretty common roof system, particularly in the desert environment. Commonly used, has great insulation value, generally can perform well with maintenance. As an overview, you have the community center and central plant buildings that were constructed approximately in 2001 with 32,000 square feet, you have the town hall building built around 2005, 17,000 square feet, and you have the library museum building built around 2001 with 23,000 square feet. So all in all, we have approximately 70,000 square feet of roofing. Some of our observations are this. You know, maintenance has been on top of either a leak report or some delamination of some areas, but it continues to get worse, you know, as this roof continues to age, but the staff has been proactive. With the community center, what we saw -- we did see some stained tiles, and that may not necessarily be a roof leak. It may be an issue with chilled water lines or other mechanical-related leaks, so roof leakage isn't a big issue. However, there are several signs of distress that need to be remedied. Here's a roof overview. Here's your white coating system, has granules in it, and that's over a foam spray application over a metal deck. We did do some roof course just to understand what the roof assembly consisted of, and what we have here is a core foam roofing, and we took the liberty of making a cross-section. I don't want to bore you to death, but essentially, you have a coating. That's the thin line on top with the granules. You have foam roof that gives you insulation value and some slope. You have a gypsum board on this particular deck that gives you fire-resistant construction and a metal pan deck. Some of the issues we see are failed roof patches at tie-ins. You know, at some point, you can only patch this roof so many times. They're coating, delaminating, and you really don't want to do a patch over a patch. At some point, you have to do a more TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 14 of 76 exhaustive repair. We see some cracks and desponded blisters. So what's a blister? A blister in foam roofs happens either due to some moisture that was trapped. There could have been some UV exposure between the lifts of the foam as it was being applied that caused delamination. So you see these sort of --- let's call it mini eruptions on some of the roof areas that need to be remedied. We also have coating cracks. So this is a harsh environment. You have UV attack, hot weather, and you can expect the coatings to degrade over time. Other miscellaneous things. We see some unsealed mechanical penetrations. We also see some holes in the foam. That's likely due to a bird attack. Birds sometimes like to look for worms in the foam roof, so they'll tap it and start poking into it, and then, unfortunately, sometimes bees will burrow into the roof insulation, so you have constant maintenance. There are some isolated areas of what I call ponding water. So where water can build up, and there's a lack of a roof cricket behind units, and you know, water is nature's natural solvent. Over time, it can break down anything. And it's time to implement some repairs. We have other details where you have parapet walls, abutting walls, and there's some open joints, so an opportunity for water to eventually leak into the building through the roof. One other note, some of the parapet walls are short, and you have roof drains, you have scuppers that need to be maintained, so one potential consideration is to implement some fall protection as well, to make it safer on the roofs where the walls are low. Town hall, so here's an overview of the town hall building. Interestingly enough, I mean, we did see some stained tiles. That may be a roof leak. We did roof course. Again, there's a coating system. Polyurethane foam over a metal pan deck. This roof, although a little younger, built in 2005. We did notice some popping sounds and a lot more blisters on this roof. So the popping could be a separation of each respective layer of foam or a popping between the coating and the underlying foam system, so there's an adhesion issue. There are some isolated low spots on the roof which can hold water, and there are TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 15 of 76 blisters, and you can see that someone has been patching some of these blisters when they erupt to keep water out from the system, and here's an overview of a shot. You could see these little eruptions and with the yellow arrows and also the roof patches as well. There's a closeup of the coating. It's cracking, and there's some patches over some of the cracks. Here's one where we put a metal roof and insert it into the crack. The concern here is over time, eventually, water can break down that underlying coating foam and then get into the interior. There's some improper terminations, voids, more roof patches. I'll jump onto the library and museum roofs. Again, we see some spot- stained ceiling tile. Again, could be mostly addressed to mechanical issues. There may be a spot roof leak or two, but to the best of my knowledge, the roofs haven't been profusely leaking. Here's a roof core, and this particular roof, interestingly enough, they inlaid a Visqueen membrane before they put the foam roof. It's an attempt to keep the foam roof from undulating and filling the foam metal panels, but we did see some telegraphing, and what that means is you start getting little pools of water on the roof deck, so this area will likely require more extensive repairs. Your typical drainage consists of roof drains and scuppers. There's some rusted components at coatings and penetrations, some holes at unsealed joints, some failed and desponded coatings at both walls and roof. Another item of note, and as part of any repair program, we did note that some of the curbs are low and some of the curbs may need to be raised. It's to help prevent water from entering easily into and through the curbs. You can see the fractured roof coating. We inserted an arrow into a crack, so that's an opportunity for water to rest and eventually leak through. So you know, based on our professional opinion, after observing these roofs, we think they're in need of some extensive repairs or replacement. You have two options. One is recoating, which is actually a common approach for foam roofs. Usually, that consists of prepping the roof. One method of preparing the roof is to scarify it. Basically, you're TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 16 of 76 grinding the upper surface of the foam roof. You apply one inch of foam and then you apply a new coating system. An alternative to that is replacement. I don't know if I necessarily recommend replacement. I think it's pretty intense, and it can expose your interior finishes to leak intrusion, so I'd say given our experience, this would probably lean towards being more of an extensive recoat with a good quality coating. That can get you 10, 15, 20 years of life. So at this point, what are our next steps? So it would be to go into a design phase, develop some preliminary cost engineering estimates, construction documents, go out to bid, and find a contractor or award a contractor to perform these repairs, and then head into construction. And I was asked, well, Jean, you know, what do you think the duration of the work would be for the coding project? That would be between, you know, three and six weeks. It depends what some -of -- what some of the other repairs we have to do. We have to remind ourselves that aside from the coating, there's things like low curbs, parapets, other sealant transitions that need to be remedied as part of an overall project. Any questions? MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilman Watts. WATTS: Just a couple of questions, and I'm not sure whether these go to you or to Justin, so whoever. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Sure. WATTS: When you say there's significant reduction in water intrusion, on a scale of 1 to 100, what percentage are we talking about from where it was to where it is? BUICK: 95 percent, 98 percent. WATTS: So we don't have a lot more to do because -- BUICK: For now, the sealants are holding up. WATTS: Okay. BUICK: Yeah, and my understanding there may be -- is it one or two leaks. WATTS: Two that have been identified at this point that are just intrusions, though? BUICK: Yes. Correct. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 17 of 76 WATTS: And the remediation that you did? I assume you had an industrial hygienist in. BUICK: We didn't perform the repairs. I'd ask -- WATTS: Who did the remediation? BUICK: We were the engineer assisting with developing a repair approach. WATTS: But it says remediation was done, so -- BUICK: Correct. WATTS: Who did it? BUICK: I'd have to ask Justin. WELDY: Mr. Mayor, Councilmember Watts. We did have an industrial hygienist that came in and did all the repairs, and their name escapes me right now, but we will get that information off to the mayor and council. It was a pretty extensive -- not only in the lobby but also in the soffits of the hallway between the ballrooms. WATTS: Okay. So we know that from a comfort level, that the public is protected from airborne contaminants that the industrial hygienist would have identified? WELDY: That is correct, and we did before, during, and after tests, and we have also tested the exterior of the building during that time frame, so we had comparisons. WATTS: Okay. And the leaking -- the leaks that weren't identified as leaks, we don't know whether they're a water line, condensate, or roof leaks; is there a reason we didn't identify those? BUICK: Right now, our preliminary scope was to evaluate the roof, and I think the next plan of action would be to work on the design of the roof and in parallel, open up some of the ceiling tiles and see if there's some insulation or condensation issues with some chilled water lines, or maybe a leaky sprinkler line, so. WATTS: I just want to make sure we capture that before we have an award for moving forward for all the other repairs. BUICK: Yes. WATTS: and a performance bond, I think, is -- looks like it should be included because the performance that was done by the original contractors on all three buildings, you know, the gypsum board that is on the one roof, maybe a water board, maybe a soffit TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 18 of 76 board, maybe, but if it's half inch drywall, that's probably not a good substrate. So the performance bond component, I think, is going to be imperative for us to make sure that, again, we protect our investment, so just a suggestion. Thank you. GOODWIN: Mayor, if there's no other questions, and not to hurry this discussion, I just wanted to kind of share that this update really does coincide with our budget process, our CIP. We'll be working to figure out next steps in how we integrate this into our budget process as well. MAYOR FRIEDEL: And we've got a meeting coming up to up to discuss all that. GOODWIN: Correct. MAYOR FRIEDEL: If that's it, no other questions. Thank you, and we appreciate it. BUICK: All right. Thank you. MAYOR FRIEDEL: We'll move on to the call to the public. Town clerk, do we have any comment cards? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Yes, mayor. We do. First up will be Ben Larrabee (ph.), followed by Larry Myers (ph.). LARRABEE: Howdy, y'all. So the following will be addressed to Councilmembers McMahon and Kalivianakis. Several weeks ago, you both withdrew your endorsement from the council's letter of support for HB 2164, known as the Arizona Healthy Schools Act. The bill bans harmful dyes and chemicals from school lunches to protect children from the effects of ultra processed foods. Why is the bill important? Well, for the simple reason that the food we currently feed our children is killing them. Over the past 20 years, it has been revealed that one-fifth of children are now obese. Type 2 diabetes has doubled. Autoimmune disorders in children have tripled, and most shockingly, there is now a 23 percent increase in cancer diagnoses in children. All of this is directly related to the food we feed them. Now, in your opposition, you claim that the bill and your fellow councilmembers failed to specify exactly what would be in it and what would be banned. This is a lie. The bill clearly spells out exactly what would be removed from school lunches, which include potassium bromide, titanium dioxide, brominated TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 19 of 76 vegetable oil, yellow dye 5, red dye 3, red dye 40, among others, and all of these are known to cause, you guessed it, cancer, autoimmune disorders, hyperactivity, mood disorders, kidney damage. And you also claimed in your response that this bill you could not support was because it was a partisan endeavor by the Republican party. This is also a lie because this same bill just passed unanimously in the Arizona House of Representatives. Why? Because it should be universally recognized that the fight to protect our children knows no party, yet both of you still found a way to land on the left of every single member of the House of Representatives. Now, I accept that you've already made your decision, and I see you smirking as I'm talking about the health of our children. That says it all. I also acknowledge that both of you have made your decision and that you're unlikely to change it from my speech here tonight, so let me put this away that both of you will understand. Elections are next year, and both of you just punted on the health of our children, just to spite the adults in the room, and we will remember that. Thank you for your time. KALIVIANAKIS: May I address? MAYOR FRIEDEL: Yes. Go ahead. Address. KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'll make this very brief, but this is the problem I've been faced with since being elected. People are getting their facts from Facebook and not from the record. If you're going to come here and make public comments to this body, I suggest you get your facts straight because if you look at the record, talk to the mayor, and talk to the town manager, I supported that bill, and I supported it publicly in this council meeting, and you're just wrong. I'm sorry about that. Check the record if you'd like, but I was in support of it. I did have a few comments that I added, but my vote was indisputably yes. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilwoman McMahon. MCMAHON: You know, I appreciate you coming and standing up here, but some of your accusations are incorrect. I did my homework on that bill. I spoke with the school superintendent and a board member of the school, and I learned that we already have TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 20 of 76 rules and laws against processed and ultra-processed food in our schools. It is nonexistent. There isn't even vending machines. The kids hate the food. You know, the pizza's made out of wheat crust and something else, and normally, the kids love pizza. They don't love this pizza, so in doing my homework, I found out this was already prevented in our schools. I didn't see the need for the bill because it addresses all those things that were in the bill and the operative word that you said -- I don't know your name, is that we feed our kids this food. Parents feed our kids ultra processed foods. The schools are working hard not to, and our schools don't have processed food, so I didn't see a need to support that particular bill. Thank you. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Next speaker, Town Clerk. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Larry Myers. Larry Myers declines, so next we have up is Shelby Blecher (ph.) and then followed by Crystal Kavanaugh. BLECHER: Good evening, Mayor, councilmembers, staff. Happy to be here tonight, and there's -- I wanted to say that there's other people in town that are happy that I'm here tonight. People have been thanking me for coming up and bringing up subjects to you. They're either not able to come or they don't feel comfortable coming over here and talking to you, so I'm getting thanked by more and more people. I did want to say I'm happy about the MCO contract and the cost reductions that you all fought to get for the town. I'm also thankful that, along with the $60,000 we didn't spend on doing a doing a study, maybe that money will be put to good use fixing the roofs and the chillers that apparently we need to be done. In general, I'm just happy that we finally have a fiscally responsible town council that looks at things and knows what they want to fund and doesn't go off on tangents like our former mayor did that's supported by a small group of mean women and other people, and I'm very happy to say that there are more people in town that support your fiscal responsibilities than you're hearing snicker in the crowd right now. Please, Mayor, please, councilmembers, continue to be the fiscal responsibility body TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 21 of 76 that you have shown in the last month and a half. The next thing I wanted to bring up, and maybe you can all talk about this, is the use of single-use plastic bags in town. I don't want to see a ban on them. I don't want to see a bill that, you know, prevents people from using them, but if we can gently nudge our vendors towards some type of way to go back to using recyclable paper, renewable paper products as opposed to plastic bags, that would be a great thing for the town to do. When I was at the art festival last weekend, just going to vendors that were selling food products, one bag for each food product, put inside another bag to protect it, put inside another plastic bag, and I get home, and I've got three bottles of product, and I've got seven plastic bags, so if we could just try to coerce people in some gentle way to move towards paper, that would be great. Thank you. KAVANAUGH: I'm bringing this up now because I know this will be coming on your plate one of these days, and this is my opinion about the sanctions that were placed on Councilman Allen Skillicorn, and he's had one year of these sanctions restricting his interactions with staff without a babysitter, restrictions on paid conference attendance, and restrictions from holding the vice mayor position. One supposed violation included him inappropriately asking fellow councilmembers on the dais whether they had taken part in any one-on-one private interactions for town-related business with the (indiscernible) developers. A few on the council feigned outrage, but in fact, it was later revealed that there were indeed ex parte communications taking place with the developers through the use of a councilmember's own private email, which kept it out of the public domain and a secret from the other councilmembers. That councilmember had not disclosed this even when asked. Once discovered, sanctions should have been reversed at that time in my opinion. Also, anyone viewing the video of the Code enforcement and deputies interaction with Councilman Skillicorn regarding the removal of his political signs could see that there was no threatening behavior demonstrated by him. Simple frustration from an unclear sign ordinance was on display, however. The irony of sanctions being applied to TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 22 of 76 Skillicorn regarding fearful staff interactions is that even at the present time, there are staff that could tell you they have indeed felt bullied or intimidated by some in this very room, and not by Councilman Skillicorn. A simple apology for any perceived hurt feelings would have been sufficient. It's definitely time to remove these politically motivated sanctions and move forward. Thank you. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: There are no others. CULP: May I state for the record -- yes. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Yes, yes, you may. She actually had submitted on one card more than one item to speak to. CULP: Good evening. My name is Beth Culp (ph.). I'm a resident of Fountain Hills. Before I proceed, I just would like to point out that I found Mr. Larrabee's attack on these two councilwomen to be out of order and against the rules of procedure. We're not allowed to mention councilmembers by name or call them out by name, and the gavel wasn't tapped, and I think that's unacceptable. Now, I'll get to my point. There's been a lot of talk during the election and since the election on transparency by this body. And to me, transparency means not having to fact check your elected officials and not having to do records requests to verify that what your councilmembers and your mayor tells you is true. And I want to go back then to February 5th, the day of the mayor's coffee, and I was in the audience when Mayor Friedel stood up in front of the group, and it was a very pleasant event, and he said, I met with Sheriff Sheridan. I expressed my concerns to him, and I'm happy to announce that as a result, we have a six percent reduction in our cost effective July 1. Well, that made me very confused because I spent a lot of time looking at that contract, and I knew that the mayor and the sheriff didn't have the power to unilaterally negotiate a contract reduction, so I thought about it. Then the next day, I read a press release, and the press release said, I am pleased to announce that the MCSO contract for Fountain Hills residents will go down roughly six percent, said Mayor Gerry Friedel. A short time after being sworn in, Sheriff Jerry Sheridan and I met. I expressed the TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 23 of 76 concerns I had with the contract, and to say he listened would be an understatement. This is a win for our entire community. Now, nobody will argue that it was a win for the community, but the problem was that it was misleading, and the next day -- or not the next day. A couple of weeks later, the mayor put a letter to the editor in the paper and he took credit, direct credit. He said, my meetings with Sheriff Jerry Sheridan resulted in a year-over-year savings of six percent of approximately 370,000. That wasn't true. That was not true, and if people want to see the whole record, they can go and look at the Flourish Fountain Hills website, but I had to get a letter I had to request from the county, and I requested from the town, and I have the letter from Mr. Prindiville, who's the COO of the MCSO, and it clearly states that the reductions were the result of cost savings that the MCSO realized because it paid off pension benefits. Thank you. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Thank you. Any other speakers, Town Clerk? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: No, there is not, Mayor. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Thank you. Okay. We'll move on to our consent agenda items. We have one consent agenda item. That's the approval of the minutes for the last meeting. KALIVIANAKIS: Motion to approve consent agenda. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Second, anyone? WATTS: Second. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Second roll call, please. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilwoman Earle. EARLE: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember Kalivianakis. KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilman Watts. WATTS: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember Skillicorn. SKILLICORN: Yes. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember McMahon. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 24 of 76 MCMAHON: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Vice Mayor Toth. TOTH: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Mayor Friedel. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: The agenda item passes unanimous. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Thank you. We'll move on to our regular agenda, and we've got a public hearing for consideration of possible action, so I'm going to open the public hearing. Are there any speaker cards for agenda item A? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: No, Mayor. MAYOR FRIEDEL: No? Okay. Farhad, go ahead. TAVASSOLI: Yes. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, members of the council, this case that I'm presenting before you on John's behalf. Unfortunately, he couldn't be here tonight, is a special use permit request to allow outdoor vehicle displays. Let me get this started. All right. Again, a special use permit request to allow outdoor vehicle display. The subject property for this use permit request is at the northeast corner of Fountain Hills Boulevard and Glenbrook Boulevard. It is a property that's a little bit over two-thirds of an acre. It contains a 10,000, give or take, square foot multi-use or multi-tenant commercial building. The applicant, who sells golf carts, occupies about 4,400 square feet of that building and is requesting the special use permit request. The applicant currently has an indoor showroom of golf carts on display inside, well within the parameters of the zoning ordinance for the C-1 zoning district, and again, the special use permit request pertains to the outdoor display. A little bit of background to provide to you tonight. You might recall, I guess, the chain of events that led up to this use permit request that the applicant has been operating golf cart sales at this location for well over a year, and, again, desires to display vehicles in the parking lot. The applicant initially came in with a rezone request at the time from a C-1 to a C-2 with a special use permit to accompany because, at that time, that was the only instrument TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 25 of 76 or mechanism that would allow outdoor display. The SUP couldn't be granted without the rezoning, so council denied the rezone request. This was late last year and directed staff to proceed with a text amendment that would allow the use in a C-1 zoning district with an accompanying special use permit. I already went over that first point, and again, this is really the last step in this process for the applicant to obtain all the necessary entitlements to continue with the outdoor vehicle display. As I mentioned, the property is zoned C-1. Also, the same zoning district located to the north and the same in the state land property and community commercial to the south, but as you can also see, it is on either side. It is largely residential, of a single-family nature. Much of the area known as plat 106 -- I should say, much of the commercially zoned area of plat 106 is vacant. It has been platted -- actually, it was originally platted in 1970. There are some existing uses there, such as the Scottsdale Bible Church across the street, as well as a couple of restaurants, but largely, it is a mixed neighborhood with some low-intensity commercial uses. So again, the C-1 following this text amendment allows vehicles by right with all display and sales indoors, outdoor display of nongasoline vehicles of one ton or less in size allowed in the C-1 with the approval of a special use permit that -- after the text amendment approval back in January. So the business owner occupies three suites operating as golf cart business, and is requesting the SUP, and would like six parking spaces adjacent to these suites along Fountain Hills Boulevard to display his vehicles. Now, based on the required parking, and I can go over the -- you know, the calculations if you wish. There's only one space available for a display area, but considering the fact that the building is largely unoccupied, in fact, about 60 percent of the building is currently unoccupied, staff believes there's adequate room or ample room for vehicle displays on six parking spaces. Now, again, as I mentioned earlier, the general plan designates this subject property and the surrounding environment as a mixed neighborhood character type, primarily residential, with some low-intensity commercial, primarily intended to TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 26 of 76 serve the adjacent community. This here is largely a continuation of that point, and it does reinforce the fact -- the general plan does that any use must be compatible with the adjacent neighborhood and done in a way that both supports the continued health and residential area, and I'm reading the last phrase, by the way, and makes a more viable and sustainable commercial node. The zoning ordinance about the topic of special use permit says that any special use permit should not be detrimental to the public health, safety, peace, comfort, and general welfare of persons residing or working in the neighborhood, so that is the criteria that staff has looked at in analyzing the merits of the special use permit request and whether or not it is appropriate for this area. We believe that there are -- the use is more or less compatible with the area, the use in particular being the outdoor display. Following the text amendment that was approved not long ago, the use has been operating for over a year, and there have been no known issues from the neighborhood. In John's review and analysis, he had looked at, the impact of those residing or working in the neighborhood, and again, has not identified any negative impacts that would occur. There was a citizen participation plan carried out, which, again, did not reveal any concerns from the public. So the use permit request considers -- excuse me just a second. Let me take a look at John's -- technically, only one space, as I mentioned, is allowed for vehicle displays, based on the parking calculations, but because, again, the building is currently unoccupied for this use, there's plenty of parking available, and again, the applicant is requesting up to six stalls for vehicle displays. The area that you see on the lower right-hand corner, the aerial photograph, highlights the area in red in which those vehicles are -- the applicant plans to display those, and actually, those were the areas that were approved by or recommended for approval by the Commission. Again, no concerns from the public during the citizen participation process. Boilerplate language for a good neighbor statement will be included in the special use permit, and will be displayed in an area at the business where it's visible. Staff and the TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 27 of 76 Planning and Zoning Commission believes that the standards set forth are consistent with the special use permit criteria for granting such a request, and staff supports recommendation for approval as well as commission, and with that, I'll conclude my remarks. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Since there were no public comment cards, I'll close the hearing, and we'll have discussion. Councilman Skillicorn? SKILLICORN: Thank you, Mr. Mayor and planner Tavassoli. When is the effective date if the council approves this? TAVASSOLI: Mr. Mayor, Councilman Skillicorn. As I mentioned earlier, the applicant has been operating this business with outdoor display for quite some time now, so in effect, almost immediately after approval. SKILLICORN: Immediately? Okay. And Mayor, planner Tavassoli, I see your presentation says the Planning Zoning approved this. Do you recall what the roll call was? TAVASSOLI: No, Councilmember Skillicorn, I don't remember. MAYOR FRIEDEL: And I can answer that because I was at that meeting. It was unanimous. SKILLICORN: Oh, it was unanimous? And Mayor, I do see two members from Planning and Zoning are here. As long as no one's shaking their head, I'll make a motion to approve. TOTH: Second. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilman Watts, did you have something? WATTS: I had a question about the parking spaces that you said were six? It looks like there's actually five. Did I did I miscount something there? TAVASSOLI: We'll go back to that aerial photograph. WATTS: I know why you're looking for that. TAVASSOLI: Sure. WATTS: Because the applicant occupies a space 103, 104, 105, that suggests that 101 and 102 are available. What would be the likelihood of some high parking requirements TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 28 of 76 from those, or is that going to be something like retail, similar to what the applicant is today, so we're not going to have a huge impact on parking? TAVASSOLI: Yeah. Mayor, Councilmember Watts, without having had anybody inquire recently about those units, don't really -- can't really predict, you know, what types of uses might go in there, but if, you know, say, something that has more parking demand, like, such as a restaurant which requires 1 to 75 -- 1 stall per 75 square feet. Well, you know, that's -- WATTS: We're not going to make it. TAVASSOLI: And essentially, this may preclude such a use from locating on this particular parcel. WATTS: But we wouldn't preclude somebody that wanted to lease that space based upon the applicant having occupied all the spaces. Wouldn't we have to find another reason to do that? It sounds a little bit discriminatory to me. TAVASSOLI: Right, Mr. Chairman. Yeah, that's certainly something, you know, a potential discussion that might occur, you know, if such a business were to -- a more intense business were to locate in that building. WATTS: So maybe we ought to lean more towards four spaces as opposed to six spaces? TAVASSOLI: Right. Well, the applicant, yeah, did request six spaces, but the Planning and Zoning Commission, in their recommendation for approval, specifically stated that this area that you see here on the aerial, that those -- I don't know what you want to call them, one, two, three, you know, four and a half spaces, and that one immediately, you know, way down south there is actually -- doesn't provide the dimensions for one full parking stall. But that area specifically is the parameters they have to work, so -- WATTS: So maybe five is it, then? TAVASSOLI: Yeah, yeah. WATTS: Okay. I could support five. Thanks. TAVASSOLI: Yeah. MAYOR FRIEDEL: So we have a motion and a second. Any other discussion? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 29 of 76 GOODWIN: Mayor, just as a point of update, generally speaking, when an SUP is approved, it generally goes into effect 30 days after as a general rule. WATTS: Okay. So is it too late to amend the motion? So I can amend the motion at this point to amend it to five spaces in lieu of six spaces? ARNSON: Or you can ask Councilman Skillicorn if he's willing to consider that amendment to his motion, and we can just go about it informally. SKILLICORN: If I'm acknowledged, Mr. Mayor, I would like to amend my motion to the shaded red area, which appears to be something like five spaces. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Okay. Councilwoman McMahon? MCMAHON: Thank you, Mayor. What if the other shops are leased and they need the parking space? Will this preempt them in perpetuity, or what happens? I mean, hopefully, that space will be leased, and this won't prevent them from being leased for lack of parking in front of their stores. TAVASSOLI: Yes, Mayor, Councilmember McMahon. Yes, approval of this use permit may preempt certain uses to use that parking within that area. Now, that may offer the potential for some kind of cross-parking agreement within the larger Plat 106 area as one of the conditions, so yeah. MAYOR FRIEDEL: So we have -- WATTS: One more. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilman Watts. WATTS: If I'm not mistaken, the area behind the suites is wide open, and they also adjoin what used to be Flapjacks and the Mexican food place, but that that's all part of 106 as well, isn't it? So that's when you said you might be able to find a joint lease on parking spaces if the other spaces didn't have the sufficient number of spaces. TAVASSOLI: Correct. WATTS: Okay. Then that would work, I would think so. Thank you. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Okay. So we have a motion that's been amended and a second. Can we roll call, please? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember Kalivianakis. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 30 of 76 KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilman Watts. WATTS: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember Skillicorn. SKILLICORN: Yes. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember McMahon. MCMAHON: Nay. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilwoman Earle. EARLE: Yes. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Vice Mayor Toth. TOTH: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Mayor Friedel. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: The amended motion passes, six to one. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Thank you. Agenda item B, consideration and possible action on resolution 2025-04, proposing a diversity, equity, and inclusion policy for the Town of Fountain Hills. Councilman Skillicorn. SKILLICORN: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I like to very commonly talk about how Fountain Hills is open for business, and I just want to read off a list of businesses and businesses and companies that have recently reduced or eliminated DEI programs. So Amazon, Accenture, Amtrak, Caterpillar, Disney, Ford, Harley-Davidson, John Deere, Lowe's, Tractor Supply, and many more, and I do want to point out that ever since the Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that many elements of affirmative action are actually unconstitutional, and as a public sector entity, I think that we need to think about that. Also, I want to point out that the Department of Education, the federal government, and even many state and local municipalities, including the City of Scottsdale, have also done the same activities. So to keep us in line with the business sector, to keep us in line with the federal government, and keep us in line with the wishes of our people, I'd like to make a motion TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 31 of 76 to approve this as drafted. EARLE: I second it. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Discussion here now. Councilwoman Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yeah, I'm a little perplexed why we're even hearing this tonight. The staff summary states the town has no plans to create an office of DEI administration and adheres to all state and federal nondiscrimination laws. If you were to look at our town code, article 3, section 2, it's entitled, merit system. There is hereby created and adopted a merit system governing the employees of the town, except for those enumerated in this section, for the purpose of regulating conditions of employment and removal of town's employees. The merit system does not apply to the council or the mayor, and so I'm kind of struggling to know why we're even hearing this tonight because it just seems -- it just seems like it's redundant. It's telling us we're not going to do something that we're not doing, and it seems a little bit politically charged, and I've used that term before, that, you know, we're bringing up DEI, and we're bringing up immigration, and those type of things, and I would just like to warn the town that this is a slippery slope, that this could lead to debates on abortion. This could lead to debates for a town council and national issues that are just extremely divisive in nature, and that I'm not sure there's any place in a small town community like ours to even deal with these issues. If you were to Google what a town council should be dealing with, our responsibilities are to create policies, enact ordinance resolutions, set the budget, provide services, manage resources, and post taxes, make appointments to town manager, attorney, municipal judge. Ensure compliance. Our departments are carrying out our wishes. Listen to the community and recognize achievements, good deeds, and local citizen's awards, and also cooperate with other governments which which we do. And even with 9D, I think that we are going to cooperate with the federal government that wants to take criminals out of our community, which is another redundant measure that we're going to discuss later tonight, and I guess the reason that I have to discuss TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 32 of 76 this tonight, and I'm reticent to, because if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I could use those same adages. Problem, solution seeking a problem, but I do see mischief in this too, and maybe for the sponsor of the bill, he might be able to alleve [sic] some of my fear, and those fears being if you look at the staff report, the proposed ordinance currently includes the following clause that could impact town activities and how it is interpreted. Now, I know this isn't an ordinance. This is a resolution. It's stronger than a proclamation. It might not be as strong as an ordinance, but it's still giving direction to this town and to the staff, and so this is nothing that we should just take lightly, like, maybe a proclamation that you might let it go. This is directing our staff, and if you look at section N, use of public funds for political subdivision, membership organizations, and everything that comes later, would this affect our relationships with GPAC, with the League, with East Valley Partnership and Mag? Would this limit our ability to contract for cement companies, for people pouring sidewalks, for people, for heating and air conditioning committees? Even the firm tonight that did the study on the community center. If they had a DEI policy, their business, could we even do business with them? Could you address, Mr. Mayor? Could you happen to address that? MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilman Skillicorn. SKILLICORN: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Well, if those organizations that we belong to are in violation of and have active, divisive DEI policies, it appears that, yes, our town does have a problem with divisive DEI policies, and if the fact that it might affect our current business tells me that we do have a divisive DEI problem in town hall, and we need to correct that. KALIVIANAKIS: So your answer would be we couldn't contract with those companies, if I may just clarify? MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilman? SKILLICORN: Mr. Mayor, I think that we should be in compliance with what this council says. KALIVIANAKIS: Maybe I should seek the guidance of our town attorney. Could you TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 33 of 76 explain what he just said to me and how this is going to affect -- [LAUGHTER] ARNSON: Mayor and council, respectfully, and in fairness, there are some parts of this ordinance that I think could be a little bit -- elaborated on a little bit more further, a little bit further. I do think that, in general, speaking to expending funds on the establishment of a DEI office and not contracting with individuals for that purpose, for the purpose of establishing such an office and following merit-based hiring, is perfectly legal and aligned with legal norms. So the resolution on the whole to me doesn't present -- yeah, I understand. It doesn't itself present a legal problem, but you're talking about specifically subsection N, and after discussing with the town manager earlier today, that is something that if this is approved, the town would -- we would be seeking clarification on about the council's direction and how to enforce this policy. So I think in fair -- I think that is a fair question. We do need direction in how to interpret subsection N. KALIVIANAKIS: So since I still have the floor, I might suggest that possibly this is tabled, or we go into executive session so we can discuss the legal ramifications of this proposed ordinance. ARNSON: It's up to you, Mayor. MAYOR FRIEDEL: All right. Let's adjourn to executive session. ARNSON: You'll need a motion and a second. MAYOR FRIEDEL: I need a motion and a second, please. KALIVIANAKIS: I'd like to make a motion to adjourn to executive session. MCMAHON: Second. WATTS: Are you talking about right now? MAYOR FRIEDEL: Right now. ARNSON: Right now. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Yeah, yeah. Right now. ARNSON: And then we can call for a vote. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Thank you. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 34 of 76 MAYOR FRIEDEL: Yeah, we have to vote on it. Roll call vote, please. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Okay. Councilman Watts. WATTS: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember Skillicorn. SKILLICORN: No. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember McMahon. MCMAHON: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilwoman Earle. EARLE: To clarify, we're voting to go to executive session? ARNSON: Correct. EARLE: No. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember Kalivianakis. KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Vice Mayor Toth. TOTH: Given that our attorney specifically stated there weren't legal concerns, no. WATTS: And Mayor, before you -- I'm going to change mine because I misunderstood, very much like -- just like Councilwoman Earle asked for clarification. I misspoke, so I do not want to go into executive session. I want to vote on this now and whatever amendments we come up with. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: For the clerk, can you can you please say again? Councilman Watts? WATTS: I'm going to say no (indiscernible) but I do have a question for town attorney when we're done as well. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Mayor Friedel? MAYOR FRIEDEL: And I wanted to go into executive session. WATTS: Great. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: It fails. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Okay. So we decide right now. So Councilman Watts has a question for Aaron. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 35 of 76 WATTS: So I have I also have concerns about Section L and N. ARNSON: Yes. WATTS: It seems to me that we could simplify this a lot by one or two line items that basically say, we are not now, nor were we in the future going to engage in any DEI office administration. Some verbiage to that extent, including some of the vendors that we were not going to necessarily support, but wouldn't it be simpler than -- some of these things really give me heartburn. Am I misreading L and N as well or no? ARNSON: Well, first of all, there's a J. I don't see an L, actually, in the ordinance. There's a J, but not an N [sic]. WATTS: There's an L. ARNSON: Oh, is there an L? WATTS: Yeah. ARNSON: I apologize. WATTS: Public use of funds for political subdivision memberships and organizations. ARNSON: Thank you. I was looking at the other -- at the other document. I apologize. WATTS: It's okay. That to me, that would give -- the heartburn there is because some of the organizations like Mag, some of the organizations like the League of Cities and so on may have those leanings, and we sometimes, occasionally, not always, but -- ARNSON: Correct. WATTS: I just don't want any affiliation with it. ARNSON: Well, and Mayor and Councilman Watts, if you're asking if simpler is usually better, the answer is usually yes, and so I think that that would be an appropriate suggestion in this instance. It's certainly up to the council what policy directive that it wants to take, but that can be an amendment to the motion that's been made. Likewise, you could move to take any other course of action with respect to this resolution. It's a policy decision of the council, but if that's your preference, my suggestion would be, let's take a five-minute recess, work to put -- I can work to put a one-liner together consistent with that direction, and then you can come back because I don't want to draft on the fly. Does that make sense? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 36 of 76 WATTS: It does. I would like to ask Councilman Skillicorn if that would be amenable from the standpoint of this is complex. If there is an overriding statement that we could come up with to make this simpler by saying we don't now, or in the future, want anything to do with DEI. SKILLICORN: Mr. Mayor, Councilman Watts, you know, I think that is the objective of it, and I think the language is clear. If there are entities that are involved in divisive DEI, that's a problem for our town, and frankly, I think that this is a wake-up call to those organizations that are practicing divisive DEI, that they need to clean up their act and start complying. WATTS: Okay, okay. Thank you. TOTH: May I have a point of clarification, Mayor? MAYOR FRIEDEL: Yes. Go ahead, Vice Mayor. TOTH: Thank you. In our packet, the use of public funds is marked as N, but I believe it is L in the actual resolution. I just want to make sure that -- is there another paragraph that we're discussing at the moment? Okay. Sorry. I just want to make sure. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilwoman Kalivianakis. KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just so the people in this audience and the people at home and the people that review these tapes have a reference point of what we're doing here tonight, based on a principle that Councilman Skillicorn wants to gnaw down to the bone. He thinks that us not hiring contractors and us being removed from all these Mag and all these helpful -- you know, we do this League report that we all attend every Monday morning. We wouldn't even be invited to listen to those reports anymore. So we are not going to be inflicting punishment on them, and cement contractors, and HVAC companies. We're going to be inflicting punishment on us because when we contract out for bids, we are going to have to look at those companies and do a re -- and we might even have to get a separate compliance officer to see if the people that we're dealing with have DEI or woke policies so that we will not do business by punishing them, that you're not going to get Fountain Hills money. This would probably result -- TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 37 of 76 and when we bid out projects, either not getting bids at all or the highest bid because there might be only one company that doesn't have woke policies. And so it's going to cost us a lot of money. It's going to cost us a lot of credibility throughout the state that we're not going to be a member. You know, we go to the GPAC Arizona Cities and Towns conferences every summer, which we -- it's a four-day conference, which we learn so much. We would not be invited to those conferences. We would be the unwanted stepchild in Arizona. What we're doing here tonight is going to hurt this town beyond what you can even imagine, and so if the gentleman says about elections count, well, this vote counts, and if anybody votes for this, what was your admonition? See you at the ballot booth because this is ridiculous. This should be voted now six to one, and we know who the one would be. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Let's keep those comments to ourselves next time. Don't be nasty like that, please. Councilwoman Earle. EARLE: Thank you. Mayor. Do we know if the League right now is participating in the DEI policies? ARNSON: Well, and Mayor and council, that is one thing to consider, right, is that we're here sitting -- we're kind of speculating one way or another whether any group, one way or the other, engages in these types of policies or has a majority membership, right? We actually don't know that as we sit here tonight, and nor do we understand what the definition, necessarily, of DEI policy specifically entails. So that's why this provision, L, Councilman Watts. That's why this provision, L, does raise concerns for the staff. It has nothing to do with the policy behind it. It has to do with, we're not completely sure how we'd go about enforcing or complying with council-directed policy, should that remain included. TOTH: Mayor, if I may? MAYOR FRIEDEL: Vice Mayor. TOTH: Thank you. I apologize. It's just relevant to the question that was just asked. I did some research prior to our meeting, and I do not see any DEI-related anything on the website, not even a policy or a statement on League of Arizona Cities and Towns or TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 38 of 76 Mag. On top of that, I will add that despite the fear tactics that everyone was just witnessed to, Scottsdale actually just passed something very similar to this, and Scottsdale is a huge city. Also a member of these organizations. We're going to be okay, everybody. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilwoman McMahon. MCMAHON: Thank you very much, mayor. Wow, what a politically charged resolution that personally does not belong in our town. You know, when I first read this agenda item, my immediate reaction is, what's it trying to do? What's it trying to mandate we do? It's not clear. It's full of buzzwords that are undefined and purposely, I think, to add confusion and chaos, and there are legal concerns with it. Many. In my opinion, the whole document. You know, as councilmembers, we took an oath to uphold the State and the U.S. Constitutions. Quota-based hiring was outlawed in 2014, and to continue this practice violates the United States and state Constitution, our Bill of Rights, as well as numerous federal and state laws. This is why our hiring practice in this town does not give preferential treatment to any individual. It has always and will continue to hire qualified candidates based on merit alone and not through alleged discriminatory methods proposed in this resolution. In essence, to me, this resolution has nothing of substance in it because the town does not engage in or spend any money on any programs that uplift diversity. In fact, they don't even define diversity. And further, as Kalivianakis stated, and the attorney, this resolution does raise concerns about dissolution of our long-standing and respected partnerships with other towns and entities, including Mag, GPAC, the League of Arizona Cities, East Valley Partnership, Mayors Council, and others due to these organizations' potential or perceived involvement with diversity initiatives. Wow. These relationships and memberships provide significant benefits to both the council and the town. Preventing them based on politically charged diversity concerns is not only disrespectful and irresponsible, it's reprehensible. If any councilmember does not want to be involved with these organizations or attend events like the League, don't. That's your TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 39 of 76 personal choice and that's your personal political belief, but don't tell me not to, because I have this -- I am afforded the same courtesy you are in allowing my own political beliefs and interpretation, and whether or not I want to associate myself and the town and other councilmembers with these organizations. This resolution will also prevent the town from entering into inter-governmental agreements or applying for grants that could help us maximize our tax dollars. If so, the financial consequences to our budget in town could be disastrous. It will be disastrous. It will also harm the town's reputation and our well established relationships with other towns and vendors throughout the valley, making it difficult and much more expensive for us to work or even attempt to get a contract with others. You know, think streets and budget funds. Think what the inter-governmental agreements have done for us financially and paving our streets. We've gotten certainly a heck of a lot more for our buck. We've already lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant money due to this politically negatively charged diversity narrative. You know, the council has already voted down grants because of perceived diversity problem. I have no idea why this resolution is is spreading fear about diversity. Diversity already exists in our community, on this dais, and our staff, rightfully so. It's legal. Let's continue to hire employees based solely on merit and trust our staff to operate within the law, respecting all applicants regardless of sexual orientation, race, religion, physical and mental disabilities, culture, or veteran status, not based on distorted or perceived diversity perceptions and allegations. And in addition, if you look at the paragraph, what is it -- below N, it talks about, you know, there's words, "confession" in here, and it talks about in compliance and ordinance staff shall promptly issue directed to end invented identification based pronoun usage in our emails and stuff. That's an infringement on my freedom of speech, which Skillicorn famously continually uses to defend his actions and some of the things he's brought before council. So again, there's legal ramifications for that as well, so I am against this. I think this is the wrong place and time to discuss it. I wish we would have gone into executive session, and TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 40 of 76 again, I respect our staff, and I respect that the fact that they have the hiring policy that they have. Thank you. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilman Watts. WATTS: I'm really glad we didn't go into executive session. I think this is exactly the kind of transparency that the town needs to see, whether you like it or not. I fully respect everybody's right to do what they want to do, and I also am concerned about protecting staff, and I would have a question for town manager. How many times am I going to put you on the spot? How many times have we been asked, are you guys a member of any DEI organization, affiliation, or do you have a DEI office statement, something in your normal protocols when you qualify contractors? GOODWIN: Not that I'm aware of, no. WATTS: No. I don't think any organization has ever asked that question. I think it's incumbent on us to continue to hire people based upon your merits, how good you are at what your job does, what your job is, what you're hired to do, and I think moving forward, there's nothing wrong with saying that we won't now and we won't in the future weight the scales of justice based upon some DEI predication that doesn't have any merit. So I'd like to see this go to a vote with one exception. I want to eliminate L only because I don't want to prohibit staff members, councilmembers, commissioners to be able to attend organizations that are identified as being DEI compliant because half of the world, if not all of it, is going away from the DEI mandates, including the federal government and state governments, local governments. They're all moving away from it, so base it on people's capabilities. Base it upon their merits. I'm completely supportive of that, but why would you want to weigh the scales of justice differently? MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilwoman Earle. EARLE: I was going to say something, but can I let Allen go first, if he was going to answer that, Allen, then I will. KALIVIANAKIS: I think I was next. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilman Skillicorn. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 41 of 76 SKILLICORN: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and I don't see any prohibition from an elected official or someone using their own resources for attending any kind of meeting or training they want to do. It's just using taxpayer money to attend or be a partner with some sort of training or activity. Specifically, it says activities. So that really is, you know, someone could attend that. They just can't use taxpayer money to do it above $50. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: How do we get reimbursed? Sorry. EARLE: May I go now, Mayor? MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilwoman Earle. EARLE: Sorry. Thank you. Everybody's had a chance to speak, so I would like to call the question. MAYOR FRIEDEL: We have not taken any public comment yet either, so. KALIVIANAKIS: May I speak, Mayor? MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilwoman. KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I promise I'll make it brief, but I just want to -- MAYOR FRIEDEL: You promised that like an hour ago. I'm just kidding. SKILLICORN: Point of order. There is a motion and second on the floor. KALIVIANAKIS: What I'd like to do is just just discuss what Councilwoman Toth said to just straighten out the record. Scottsdale actually did have a DEI office and was hiring on DEI policies, so this is an apples and oranges deal. They had a new council, a new mayor, and they did vote to get rid of the offices of the DEI, which we don't have, and so I'm not sure if that's a sound analogy. And I also would like to say that I don't think that saying I'm fear-mongering is an adequate characterization of what I'm doing here tonight, and I don't like that term. I'm trying to say possible legal complications that we could have. I'm trying to provide a reality check of the possible consequences of what we have here, and I would just like to state that if I'm fear-mongering, then our town attorney and our town manager, and the staff report that identified this as a problem, they must be fear-mongering, too. So I'm not the only fear mongerer [sic]. It's the staff. It's the attorney. It's the manager TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 42 of 76 that also have deep concerns about this. MCMAHON: I'd like to clarify your comment, please. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilwoman. MCMAHON: Councilmember Watts, the executive session was solely for legal. It wasn't for lack of transparency and to discuss this whole agenda item. Thank you. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Do we have any comment cards? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Yes, Mayor, we do. For the record, the town received 20 comments in writing with the position of against and 2 in writing with a position of for, and then we also received two who would wish to speak. So first up to speak will be Benjamin Larrabee, followed by Beth Culp. LARRABEE: Howdy again, everyone. So I speak today in support of the resolution banning DEI, and I urge councilmembers to pass it as is. During the past few years, our nation has witnessed what happens when you value race and gender over content of character. The military is lowering combat standards to become more inclusive. Colleges are excluding gifted individuals based on their skin color. Corporations and governments are refusing to hire qualified candidates to satisfy diversity goals. Our illustrious former vice president was a DEI hire herself, and thanks to four years of incompetent governance, I cannot afford a home for my family. Yes, boo, people who want to buy homes. That'll win you elections, Democrats. Now, there are real-world consequences to fixating on race and gender at the expense of merit. Now, many have questioned tonight, why do we need this resolution? After all, we don't hire based on skin color. We don't even have a DEI office or policies, so why would we need to ban it? Because every single one of the institutions that I just mentioned once hired solely on merit and then were infiltrated by the worst cultural arsonists to advance their own interests, which is what will happen here if we failed to safeguard against it. Now, many will further claim that DEI is actually a good thing because diversity of all stripes is exactly what strengthened us. Great. Then I would ask, how many open Trump supporters do you advocate that we hire? How many Republicans do you want TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 43 of 76 influencing key positions and bringing their talents here? Are you seeking to recruit evangelical Christians to help run the government because, after all, real diversity, true diversity means recruiting all Americans from all backgrounds, but not a single DEI advocate will ever propose this, and we know it. Because DEI is not meant to increase diversity. It's meant to recruit people that think and act just like its partisan ideologues. It is a naked power play, and it will be wielded here if not stopped. So in short, this is exactly why DEI must D-I-E. Thank you very much. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Town clerk, do we have another speaker? ARNSON: Mayor, I'd suggest that while Ms. Culp is making her comment, maybe a town clerk can sift through and get her name and see if we have her (indiscernible). MAYOR FRIEDEL: Go ahead. CULP: Again, my name is Beth Culp. I live in Fountain Hills. I think what we just witnessed here is a perfect example of what happens when culture warriors take over local government. It's not lost on me that Mr. Larrabee, who spoke on two topics here, is, like Councilmember Toth, employed by Turning Point USA, and both of the things he spoke to are big talking points for Turning Point USA, and Mr. Larrabee also is Ms. Toth's fiancee, which may account for the fact that our mayor was very deferential in treatment of him in his earlier comments. I don't want to take this council's time trying to educate anybody on what DEI is, or how it's made a difference in my life and the difference in so many lives of people that I know. I can tell you this. DEI is not affirmative action. All DEI tries to do is level the playing field so that people who walk in the door who don't look white, who don't look male, are not automatically excluded from opportunities, but my bigger concern, and the one I really hope we can get to, because these meetings are miserable not only because people behave badly, but they're miserable because we're we're talking about all of these inflammatory topics. And as far as I can tell, the only reason is that we engage in this kabuki theater is though certain councilmembers who want to advance their political careers and their agendas TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 44 of 76 want to establish their right-wing bona fides, their turning point bona fides, their MAGA bona fides, and that's not what this town should be about. We should be about fixing our streets, supporting our schools, supporting our businesses, and not promoting the political careers of town council people who want to go on and seek state office or national office. Thank you. TOTH: Mayor, may I respond to that? MAYOR FRIEDEL: Can we take a recess? Five minute recess, please? (Recess taken) KALIVIANAKIS: Mr. Mayor, I just have a point of order? Very brief. MAYOR FRIEDEL: What's your point of order? KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for recognizing me. It's come to our attention that somebody had a speaker card that they thought they filled out today, and I guess it wasn't logged in correctly, but I would just ask if maybe we can offer some leniency and just tear the speaker card? MAYOR FRIEDEL: No. We're not. That speaker card came in late. KALIVIANAKIS: Okay. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Okay. I've already cleared that with the town clerk. KALIVIANAKIS: Okay. Thank you. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Thank you for asking, though. Councilman Watts. WATTS: I'm suddenly confused because I think there was a motion on the table. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Yeah, they called the question. WATTS: Okay. MAYOR FRIEDEL: And it was seconded. WATTS: Okay. So once we do that, then if it fails, then we can move to an alternate. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Yeah. WATTS: Thank you. ARNSON: Okay. So now we're voting on whether to call the question. MAYOR FRIEDEL: We're voting on whether to call? ARNSON: If you want to force us to vote immediately, this is the time to vote on TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 45 of 76 whether to force it to a vote immediately. MAYOR FRIEDEL: All right. Roll call, please. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember Skillicorn. SKILLICORN: Yes. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember McMahon. MCMAHON: No. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilwoman Earle. EARLE: Yes. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember Kalivianakis. KALIVIANAKIS: No. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilman Watts. WATTS: Yes. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Vice Mayor Toth. TOTH: Yes. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Mayor Friedel. MAYOR FRIEDEL: No. ARNSON: It still does not carry, Mayor. It's a two thirds vote. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Okay. ARNSON: So the -- MAYOR FRIEDEL: So we're back at square one. ARNSON: So we're back -- we're back to -- MAYOR FRIEDEL: Back to discussion. ARNSON: -- discussion. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Yeah. WATTS: So -- MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilman Watts. WATTS: Sorry about that. So at this point, I'd like to move forward with the vote to approve striking item L. ARNSON: So you're moving to amend? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 46 of 76 WATTS: To amend the motion as presented. ARNSON: Okay. WATTS: Striking line L, item L. ARNSON: You'll need a second, and then we'll vote on the amended motion. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Can we have a second for that? I'll second it. ARNSON: Yeah. Mayor seconded. So we need to -- we need to call for a vote on the amended motion. MAYOR FRIEDEL: This is a vote on the amended motion. Town clerk, roll call, please. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Yes, thank you. Councilman Watts. WATTS: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember Skillicorn. SKILLICORN: No. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember McMahon. MCMAHON: Nay. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilwoman Earle. EARLE: I'd like to explain my vote. As Hannah said, she looked into those entities that we were concerned about, people were concerned about. They are not doing anything with DEI, so -- to not do the amendment is a no. ARNSON: Is a no? EARLE: No. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember Kalivianakis. KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Vice Mayor Toth. TOTH: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Mayor Friedel. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: The amended motion passes, four to three. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Okay. And then regular item C is to appoint a review, a three person council -- three person work group to review for possible revisions to our town code, TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 47 of 76 section 2-4-1, which is our rules of procedure. MCMAHON: Can I ask a question, please, Mayor? I'm confused, okay, because I thought we were voting on the motion to amend to take out N, and we haven't voted on the whole motion. ARNSON: You're actually right. Oh, you are. You're actually right. MCMAHON: I mean, so am I -- ARNSON: Mayor and council. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Yeah. ARNSON: We voted to amend the main motion, I apologize. The main motion is now amended, so we now have to vote on the main motion. I'm sorry. We skipped the last step. Thank you. MCMAHON: Thank you. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Okay. Thank you. MCMAHON: Where are we? MAYOR FRIEDEL: All right. That's right. I missed it, too. Okay. So now we have to vote on the main motion -- ARNSON: Which is now amended. Right. ARNSON: So my understanding is that, as according to Councilman Watts, and as seconded by the mayor, it was to approve the resolution as written, with the exception of subsection L. MAYOR FRIEDEL: L. Right. ARNSON: So that's what we're voting on. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Town clerk, roll call, please. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember McMahon. MCMAHON: Nay. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilwoman Earle. EARLE: Yes. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember Kalivianakis. KALIVIANAKIS: I'll vote present. Present. I'll abstain. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 48 of 76 PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilman Watts. WATTS: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember Skillicorn. SKILLICORN: Yes. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Vice Mayor Toth. TOTH: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Mayor Friedel. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: The motion passes. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Thank you. Now, we move on to consideration of an appointment of a three-person work group to review on possible revision of our town code, section 2-4- 1, our rules of procedure. Vice Mayor. TOTH: Thank you. I wanted to kind of introduce the topic, if that's all right. What my original motion was actually for article 2 of the town code, and the reason for that is that when we put a work group together, I want to make sure we're coming up with a holistic product that covers any of the concerns that we're referring to. Those include issues that this council in the past has ran into and issues that we're open to in the future, such as an actual procedure for filling a vacancy, such as updates to our ethics code. Actually, things like -- actually, the motion that we talked about earlier originally could have been kind of folded into this section. However, I want to put a route work group together of three of us who look at this as a whole, come up with a product to present to the council because I hear with each election cycle, especially the candidates, the people that advise the candidates, everybody has suggestions for ways to make our meetings especially run smoother, and we need to finally just sit down and work it out. So I would -- first of all, like to motion to approve my own suggestion, but with the change, so approve the appointment of a three-person council work group to review and consider potential revisions to town code section 2. EARLE: Second. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 49 of 76 MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilwoman McMahon. MCMAHON: Thank you, Mayor. You know, this is really an important topic, and it impacts the mayor, the council, the staff, and it's pretty significant, and therefore, I respectfully request that the formation of this committee be reconsidered, and I've asked -- I said something to the mayor about this as well, because based on my council experience, I believe this issue would be better addressed through an all-inclusive council, staff, and the town attorney work session. This would allow for a broader range in exchange of ideas and discussion of any potential revisions to this particular article that affect all of us, and after all, it is responsibly of the council and staff to implement these rules with legal guidance, and since the council will eventually be reviewing and discussing these proposed revisions in detail at a future meeting, I think it would be beneficial to involve all councilmembers in a more informal, productive, transparent work session because I think that would facilitate a more relaxed discussion of proposed revisions, the rationale behind them, and allowing for us to address our concerns, questions, and staff -- and provide staff with a clear direction before placing any suggested revisions on a council agenda. Ultimately, I think that this would streamline the conversation, save time, and prevent the need for multiple council meetings that could result in time-consuming, back and forth revisions between staff and council like we've seen in the past, like the sign ordinance. So you know, I would like a holistic approach to it. I would like to be involved in the discussions, and I would like to see this as a work session, council session, like we did on the budget, et cetera, because of the impact that it's going to have on council and staff. Thank you. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Vice Mayor. TOTH: Thank you. I just wanted to give a reminder that what the work group comes up with will be presented and voted on at council, so this is us saying, hey, we're going to work on this, work on a proposal to do, and then propose it to the council, and then we vote on it. The reason that I'm talking about a three-person work group is because I TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 50 of 76 think I could call for a moment of honesty here, and if we really ask ourselves if we schedule a work session without any prior written proposal with this council, who has behaved in particular ways over the past couple months, do we honestly believe anything would get done? MCMAHON: Yes. TOTH: I disagree, and that was out of order. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Please stop. Do we need a -- do we need another recess, Ladies? Councilwoman Kalivianakis. KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I do concur with what Councilwoman McMahon said. I am very uncomfortable with this three-person work group. Again, through the election cycle and everything I see is transparency, transparency, transparency. That's what they keep telling us they're doing. You know, earlier today, in another agenda item, I put up, what is the town council's responsibilities? What are we tasked to do? Nowhere in this document or any document, does it say that the town council writes town code and town ordinances. We have staff for that, and town manager, isn't that -- from your education and all your experience, isn't that the normal way things are done in a town council? GOODWIN: Normal, I guess, is a relative term, but the idea is that the staff and the council have had multiple iterations of this document, being questions, concerns raised, whether it's about particular portions, the ethics policy has come up multiple times, about how do we do it, how should it be done, what changes can we make, and we've kind of gone around and around on that conversation. I had a chance to talk to the mayor about changes that the staff would like to see, particularly in this portion of the ordinance. I had a chance to meet with the vice mayor about it as well. She had quite a bit of information and thoughts on it. The conversation evolved to the idea, okay, a work group might make sense in the sense that we have council participation. They can meet with staff to get the staff participation. They can help draft something that would accommodate all of the different perspectives. Now, that being said, that's not the only TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 51 of 76 tool in the toolbox. We certainly don't have to do it that way if the council would like to move in a different direction. At the end of the day, though, this portion of our town code often gets criticized and is due for an update. How we want to achieve that is certainly up to the council. KALIVIANAKIS: And that I agree with. I've been a proponent to change parts of the town code myself, including section 2. On the other hand, putting a three-person work group together, or they take this, they discuss it, it gets brought before in a moment of honesty, like the vice mayor said, it would be rubber stamped five to two by this council, and I don't think the two would have any say, and I doubt if the two would even be one of the people that would be recommended of the three. That would be my suspicion, and so this just has a sense of a dark room deal, writing part of the town code as they see it and then getting rubber-stamped to the council. I much prefer this to be a work session between the town staff or town attorney and all seven on this council to provide input like we do in everything else, at every retreat, every work group that we give to the staff, and then they write the code amendment based on their expertise. Because, you know, once again, I remind everybody that the people that serve on the town council have no particular area of expertise except for what they did when they were in their jobs. I was a lawyer. I have expertise in the law, but I don't have expertise writing. I've never written code. I've never written ordinances, and I think that we should trust the people that are paid a lot of money, a lot more than $400 a month that will do right, write the code correctly based on the input they have from this council, and proceed forward. And so again, just in the name of transparency, you know, I would suggest that this three-person work group either be changed to a seven-person work group or just have discussions with councilmembers on what they would like to see done directly to town staff. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Thank you, and that will be transparent because it will be brought back to the council. You'll be able to weigh in. I'll be able to weigh in, so we'll -- TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 52 of 76 Councilwoman McMahon, Skillicorn, everybody will be able to weigh in, so it will be very transparent, but thank you for your thoughts. Vice Mayor, do you have any more to add? TOTH: No, sir. Ready to vote. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Okay. MCMAHON: Excuse me. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilwoman. MCMAHON: Thank you very much, I appreciate it. Ready to vote. Who is on the committee? There's no transparency in this particular motion or anything, so I'm not ready to vote on it. I need to know whether I'm on the committee or who's on the committee. MAYOR FRIEDEL: So the participants on this committee will be Councilwoman Earle, Vice Mayor Toth, and Councilman Watts, Rick Watts. [LAUGHTER] MCMAHON: Then once again -- KALIVIANAKIS: When was that decided, Mr. Mayor? MAYOR FRIEDEL: It was decided right now. MCMAHON: May I please be recognized? MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilwoman. MCMAHON: This is to me, out of line. You seem to be picking people other than the most senior councilmembers. This is a nonpartisan council, and I am uncomfortable with the continued picking of friends and fellow Republicans, and I'm going to say it because you're not picking me, and you're not picking Brenda, and we are -- and this is the reason -- one of the reasons why this is not going to be a transparent committee. This involves every single councilmember, and we should be in a work session discussing it and in addition, speaking of committees, I have no idea who's on the police committee, who's on any of the committees that you, the veterans committee, or any -- MCMAHON: -- so there's no transparency. MAYOR FRIEDEL: You're out of line right now. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 53 of 76 MCMAHON: Excuse me? MAYOR FRIEDEL: You're out of line. MCMAHON: You're out of line. MAYOR FRIEDEL: I didn't want to go there tonight, but the reason you're not on this committee is because both you and Councilwoman Kalivianikis are under investigation right now for ethics violations. Councilman Skillicorn has got sanctions against him. That's why he's not on the committee. Who's left? The three people here that I just named? I'm not on there either. MCMAHON: Excuse me. MAYOR FRIEDEL: No. MCMAHON: You are sitting here telling me that I'm excluded because there's allegations against me. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Correct. MCMAHON: Nothing has been found. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Correct. MCMAHON: Well, that does not exclude me from serving on a committee. MAYOR FRIEDEL: It does. It does. MCMAHON: No, it doesn't. MAYOR FRIEDEL: It does, in my eyes. MCMAHON: No, it doesn't. MCMAHON: Show me where the rules say that. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Do we need another recess? Okay. Do we have a motion? KALIVIANAKIS: I do have a point of order, if I may. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Do we have any speaker cards? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Yes, Mayor. We do. The town received twelve written comments with the position of against and one written comment with a position of four, and then one request to speak, and that is Larry Myers. MYERS: Mayor, council, children. You prove yourselves time and time again. Before the mayor had to explain it to you, I was going to explain why I thought he made that TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 54 of 76 decision without having any conversation at all. There sits a man who's had sanctions on him for a full year. This month is a full year, and we have no procedure for lifting them or discussion about how you lift them, and that would go for Councilmember McMahon and Councilmember Kalivianakis if they were under in the same situation as Councilmember Skillicorn. What if you got sanctioned and there were no provisions to discuss about lifting them, and that's just one part of the town ordinance that the town manager says everybody questions. That's just one tiny part of it where people go, well, what's the procedure? So to take the only three other people and stick them on a workgroup and then come back to you all and have a discussion about it doesn't seem out of line to me. It seems like a common sense move because there's three people sitting on the dais right now with a shadow. Yes, I get it. Councilmember McMahon, you've been accused of something, and nothing is proved. The same goes for Councilwoman Kalivianakis. I'm just saying, going forward, what happens if you are in Councilmember Skillicorn's position? Wouldn't you want the procedures to be fair and clarified so that we don't have this bitter confrontation all the time, and we exclude people for extenuating periods of time over something that was -- well, I've seen the video, and I didn't see any aggressiveness, and I saw the transcript and the video of his questions at that meeting. So I don't understand why he got convicted if you want to use that word. It's not my position. It is what it is, and he got his sanctions, and he can't sit on the work group, and neither can you at this point. If it ends tomorrow, maybe you can. That's common sense to me, and there's no sense in yelling at each other about it, because common sense tells you that you can't deal in this realm at the current time. Thank you. KALIVIANAKIS: Mr. Mayor, I was called out by name, so I'd like to respond, please. I think that's our procedure. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilwoman. KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you. In case it has gone unnoticed in this town, I have had 11 ethics violations charged against me. I have been under ethics investigation since I took TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 55 of 76 the oath of office. It's not by accident that I'm always under ethics investigations because the ethics investigations were all initiated by the group we named ROT, or they named themselves. Crystal Cavanaugh, Liz Gildersleeve, and our Mr. Corrigan, who I've mentioned before here, who was the was the ROT candidate that failed to win the election, are the three people now that have me under investigation. Not hardly a fair group of people. They've been jamming me up ever since, and so if I can't do my job because they continue to file ethics violations against me, which are completely without merit and should have never even survived the scrutiny of a cursory investigation by our town attorney. I think that's a little bit ridiculous, and so to say that I can't serve in any other capacity because I'm constantly jammed up by the ROTers is ridiculous. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilman Skillicorn. SKILLICORN: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'd like to make a motion to call the previous question. TOTH: Second. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilwoman. MCMAHON: Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate it. You know, I listened to what the public speaker said, and there's a significant difference. Skillicorn has been found in violation. They are merely allegations against me. I have not been found in violation, so basically, I've done no wrong, and it should -- and I should not be prevented from serving on the council as an elected official and doing my job, and I personally -- and I don't mean to insult you. I think it's an excuse, and I think that's unfortunate. You're not treating the councilmembers equally. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Thank you. We have a call for the question and a second. That ends discussion. We need a a vote, please. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilwoman Earle. EARLE: Yes. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember Kalivianakis. KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 56 of 76 PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilman Watts. WATTS: I have a question for our attorney before I vote. Are we going to be provided with all the evidence of what transpired prior, which would be MCSO's reports, the inspector, what transpired even in executive session with the council? Are we going to have documentation, or are we doing this on our own merit? I know we're doing the call to the vote, but -- ARNSON: No, well, sorry. I think substantively, though, I think we're talking about the revisions to the rules of procedure. WATTS: Just the revisions at this point? ARNSON: Yeah. WATTS: Okay. Aye. ARNSON: And now -- WATTS: Aye. ARNSON: Okay. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Did you vote? He voted yes. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Thank you, thank you. Councilmember Skillicorn. SKILLICORN: Yes. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember McMahon. MCMAHON: What are we voting on, please? ARNSON: Voting on whether to call the -- Mayor and council, what you're voting on is whether to limit or -- excuse me, to terminate debate and then we'll vote on the underlying motion. MCMAHON: Okay. Aye. Thank you. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Thank you. Vice mayor Toth. TOTH: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Mayor Friedel. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Passes. ARNSON: Okay. Now, we vote on the main motion. The underlying motion. No more TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 57 of 76 debate. It's done. We're voting, if you please. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Okay. Councilmember Skillicorn. SKILLICORN: Yes. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember McMahon. MCMAHON: No. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilwoman Earle. EARLE: Yes. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember Kalivianakis. KALIVIANAKIS: Nay. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilman Watts. WATTS: Same question for town attorney. ARNSON: I'm sorry, what was the question? WATTS: Are we going to be provided with information that preceded this for the decision-making that went on? ARNSON: So with with respect to that question, I'm assuming that what we provide was what has been proposed before. WATTS: Okay. ARNSON: What's come before council with the revisions to the rules, and you can read the transcript or video about why those were rejected, come up with additional options for how to proceed, and Town Manager, if I'm stepping out of line with that, that's what I anticipate. GOODWIN: That's accurate. I mean, I think that historically speaking, there's been a few revisions recently adopted, but nothing of substantial quality. So if you were mentioning background on executive sessions and things like that, I'm not sure that there's anything to be shared from that. I don't know that we've had anything related to that unless I'm overlooking something. ARNSON: Literally, it's just revisions to the rules of procedure. WATTS: Okay. Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Thank you. Vice Mayor Toth. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 58 of 76 TOTH: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Mayor Friedel. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: The motion passes five to two. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Thank you, and then we move to item D, which is resolution 2025-03, declaring the town's intent to comply with enforcement of federal immigration law to the legal extent permissible for the sole purpose of removing violent criminals from our community. Councilman Skillicorn. SKILLICORN: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. It wasn't all that long ago that I used to be a state legislator, and I would work on solving presents, both the present and the future and that is still my commitment today. My commitment is to our town, and my commitment is to protect our town, so on that note, I will make a motion to approve as drafted. EARLE: I'd like to second that. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilwoman. MCMAHON: Do we call for comment cards first or do we speak? MAYOR FRIEDEL: We can do it after you're done. MCMAHON: Thank you very much. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Are there any comment cards? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: The town received only written comments. 16 with the position of against and 1 with the position of for. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Thank you. Councilwoman. MCMAHON: Thank you very much. You know, I read this, and I thought to myself once again, here we go. This is under the guise of public safety, adherence to the rule of law, and the prevention of violent crimes. Councilmember Skillicorn is proposing a resolution that involves federal immigration law enforcement, including ICE, border Patrol, the town, and Maricopa County Sheriff's Department. He suggests that the town and MCSO comply with federal law to the fullest extent possible and avoid obstructing federal law enforcement efforts as some sanctuary cities are doing. However, it's TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 59 of 76 important to note we are not a sanctuary city, and after reading the proposed resolution and conducting some research, I have a few questions. Are you suggesting that the town of Fountain Hills and staff and Maricopa County Sheriff's staff are impeding law enforcement? Are you saying that they're not doing their job in enforcing the laws? Are you implying that the town and the sheriffs are not committed to cooperating with and enforcing laws to protect the health, the welfare, and the safety of our community, and that a resolution about federal immigration law is needed to address this? Are you accusing the Sheriff's office of allowing violent crimes in our town due to an alleged criminal's immigrant status? Are you asking the town and the sheriffs to engage in racial profiling, assuming that immigrants in town could automatically be suspects of intending to commit violent crimes? I mean, it seems like that in what you're asking, and regarding enforcement of federal immigration laws, Maricopa County Sheriff's Office is already doing its job, and it's enforcing laws that are within its jurisdiction and authority, and also the sheriff's office in town already fully cooperated with the enforcement of laws within the jurisdiction, regardless of the perpetrator's identity, immigration statute, or other crime -- type of crime committed. And I did some research and have facts that support this. Fountain Hills is consistently ranked as one of the safest towns nationwide and in Arizona. We have very few violent crimes and even fewer attributed to immigrants and gang involvement, drug distribution, which, due to the Fountain Hills Youth Coalition, is way down, and these are all shown by the Maricopa County's annual monthly reports and statistics. The police and police and census reports show there is no significant immigrant issue or population in our town. And in researching this agenda, I also discovered that the Trump administration issued over 700,000 ICE immigration warrants, which, in your document, you failed to state that most of them are unconstitutional and unenforceable and are not being forced by law enforcement agencies across the county, including Arizona. In fact, Sheriff Sheridan TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 60 of 76 has publicly stated that he will not enforce unconstitutional federal immigration laws, and Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, like other police agencies, are legally enjoined from doing so due to court orders, federal court orders, and former Sheriff Penzone made a similar pledge, and the state attorney general in Arizona has also stated she cannot and will not prosecute these cases. Additionally, the Melendres -- excuse me if I mispronounce the name, litigation arose from Arizona's legal battle with Sheriff Joe Arpaio's unconstitutional racial and immigrant profiling, which cost us, the taxpayers, over $314 million in litigation. The case resulted in a court order preventing our sheriffs from continuing these practices. In short, this resolution is not only ineffective, but also legally questionable. Maricopa County Sheriff's Office cannot unconstitutionally enforce federal immigration laws because they lack the jurisdiction over them and again, are legally enjoined from doing so. Also Maricopa County Sheriff's Office does remove violent crimes and criminals from our community 24/7. It's their job, and we keep thanking them for it every time we're in the council meeting. Accordingly, the resolution to me is moot and legally unenforceable, so I don't even know why we're talking about it tonight, but I would like to say that let's continue to respect Maricopa County Sheriff's officers for doing their job 24/7 and appreciate their commitment to keeping our town safe, welcoming, respected, and one of the safest towns nationwide because they do do their job, law enforcement. Thank you. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilwoman. KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yeah, I'll probably vote for this one, but I'm going to get a few licks in first. Once again, this seems like a solution looking for a problem. This isn't a problem that we have in this community. It seems like a case of just virtue signaling of, you know, here I am. I'm going to lead the way, going to deal with immigration, DEI, all these nationally divisive issues, and then I'm going to appear in some small newspaper tomorrow and be called a hero. It suggests that the town refrain from interfering with law enforcement to remove violent criminals from our TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 61 of 76 town, and I would ask the question of the public. Does any rational person listening to me right now really believe that our town would interfere with removing dangerous figures from our community? I think that's self- evident. It says that we declare that we are not a not a sanctuary city. Why would we make such a foolish and redundant statement of fact? We are not -- we are not a sanctuary city. If we had been designated a sanctuary city, it would have been done by a previous council and a previous mayor, and I think we all know in the room. I won't have to even bother you tonight, Rachael, and ask if we are a sanctuary city. We're not. So why are we here? Instead of watching the presidential thing or playing our saxophone, why are we talking about things, again, what Councilwoman McMahon, said really don't matter. This isn't pushing the ball forward. You know, I ran for this council job, as with my Coast Guard job, doing shore patrols, and life jacket exchanges, and doing vessel inspections to make sure people's boats were safe, and when I got this job in this town council, the reason I did it was so I can improve the people's lives, not just people that boat on lakes, but 25,000 people to the town I love. I was thinking that I was going to get together with likeminded people, and I think the people here are all in love with our town, but I don't know why we're having conversations that aren't helping people more and sticking with our charter and what we should be doing, and that's what I'm a little concerned about, is all the time that we pull away from our staff, from our town attorney, and from this council to talk about things that don't matter is time stolen away from things that need to be attended to, that won't be attended to because of this time sink every week that we have to deal with. And so it's my speculation that these issues have been brought, foisted upon us for political and partisan reasons. I don't think this is really related to the needs and the progress of Fountain Hills. I think it's about future aspirations, reputation, and future goals from our councilmembers, but like I said, I will be voting for it because how can I not? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 62 of 76 MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilman Watts. WATTS: I'm not going to be short winded, just so you know. A question for the town attorney, again. If I read this correctly. A resolution is simply a testament that we're going to follow the law of the land, whatever the federal laws are. This isn't an ordinance. This isn't law. This is just simply an acknowledgment that we're going to follow the guidelines consistent with federal immigration laws; is that correct? ARNSON: Mayor and council, it's a resolution. It's a statement of policy, and that's more or less what this says, that we're going to act consistent with the law. WATTS: Perfect. Thank you. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Any public speakers? No. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: No. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Okay. Do we have a motion? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: We do. CULP: Okay. Last call. I'm surprised, actually, to hear councilmember Kalivianakis said she's thinking about supporting this one because it's so poorly written. I mean, this resolution is a true word salad. This is one of the paragraphs, paragraph 3, resolve that the town will seek assistance, if necessary, from the United States Attorney General's Office to indemnify the town and its employees for any assistance or cooperation with federal immigration authorities, as permitted by law. What does that say? Does it say the town is going to seek assistance from the AG to indemnify it for assistance or cooperation? The whole resolution is like that. It needs to go back to the drawing board. Somebody needs to flyspeck it because statement of policy or statement of law. We should be proud of what we put in writing and it should make sense, and this one makes no sense whatsoever. Another paragraph. Another concern, too. Has the town considered that people, residents, might look at this and see it as encouragement that they should, as residents, undertake to enforce because it doesn't just say we're going to going to remove violent criminals. What it says is that we are going to provide assistance and cooperation to ICE. We, the town are. Now, who's going to provide that? Who's going to provide that TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 63 of 76 assistance and cooperation? The MCSO isn't. Are we going to have posses? Is one of the councilmember -- any of you going to lead posses, and are you going to go out and are you going to arrest people you suspect of violating immigration law? And if so, where are you going to put them because you can't put them in the jail here. That's not allowed. There is a direct conflict between what the state has said in this proposition and what's happening on the federal front, and you're asking to get caught right in the middle. It's not, is there? There is a conflict. It's not in the case of a conflict, which is what this resolution says. Don't make more trouble for all of us. Don't lead people to believe that they can -- in reliance on this town's resolution to support and cooperate with ICE, that they can go out and start arresting people, or go to our schools and harass our kids, or go to our shopping centers and harass people there that they suspect of being immigrants. Because when you start looking for immigrants, you are, by definition, going to be involved in racial profiling. You're an official entity. If you're engaged in racial profiling, you'll be right there in front of Judge Snow with the MCSO, and it won't be good for the taxpayers. So at least take a second look at this. If you want to say, we want to support ICE by saying good job, you know, we appreciate what you're doing, that's fine, but this isn't what this says. TOTH: Mayor, I'd like to call the question. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Do we have a second? SKILLICORN: Second. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Roll call, please. MCMAHON: Mayor? Excuse me. I was going to ask Larry Kratzer -- I was going to ask Captain Kratzer to make a comment. MAYOR FRIEDEL: It's too late. MCMAHON: Of course. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Okay. Councilmember Kalivianakis. KALIVIANAKIS: Nay. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 64 of 76 PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilman Watts. WATTS: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember Skillicorn. SKILLICORN: Yes. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember McMahon. MCMAHON: No. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilwoman Earle. EARLE: Yes. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Vice Mayor Toth. TOTH: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Mayor Friedel. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: The motion passes. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Now we go to the main motion. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I thought that was it. MAYOR FRIEDEL: No, that was just to call the question. ARNSON: So we move to -- so they moved to call the question, which means we terminated debate, which means the underlying motion to approve has to be voted on. MAYOR FRIEDEL: We need a motion and a second. ARNSON: I thought we did have a motion and a second. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Did we have that? Okay. ARNSON: All right. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Yes, we have the motion from Councilmember Skillicorn and a second from Councilwoman Earle. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Okay. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember McMahon. MCMAHON: Nay. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilwoman Earle. EARLE: Yes. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 65 of 76 PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember Kalivianakis. KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilwoman -- Councilman Watts. Sorry. WATTS: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember Skillicorn. SKILLICORN: Yes. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Vice Mayor Toth. TOTH: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Mayor Friedel. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Motion passes six to one. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Thank you. Next up is our item E, amendment number 5 to the Cooperative Purchasing Agreement 2022-062 with Mesa Energy Systems and Justin, I think you're on deck for that. WELDY: Mr. Mayor, Madam Mayor, and councilmembers. If I may, Mr. Mayor, I would like to make a statement of correction. Earlier this week, when I was discussing this item with other councilmembers, I misspoke and noted that two weekends ago we replaced the two compressors associated with this project. I was mistaken. In fact, the compressors that were replaced two weekends ago while the community center was closed down were on another chiller. Having said that, the facility's reserve study that was done in 2016 identified the three chillers in the physical plant as ideally having a 30- year lifespan. While I am not a professional in that particular type of mechanical product, I will note over the last several years, we have spent at least over $100,000 repairing them, and it's evident by the most recent testing of this one that they're failing. What we are here tonight to discuss is the replacement of one of the three. There has been a considerable amount of discussion between the town manager, myself, and the facility supervisor on how best to proceed with this. Using guidance from the chief financial officer and looking at other options or other possible solutions, the one that we bring for you to -- TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 66 of 76 before you tonight is the most cost effective, long and short-term, using the 30 year lifespan, that will benefit this community With the least amount of impact in regards to the amount of work that is necessary to repair the unit. Having said that, these are some really big numbers, and we are well aware of that, and we have certainly shopped around, and thanks to the facility's supervisor and the two plant mechanics, we were actually able to shop around using some expertise and make recommendations, and get some of the fees lowered slightly. However, you'll note in this ask tonight that we are asking for a little bit of additional money in an amount not to exceed, and the ask for that additional money is just in case. Some of the piping and components that operate this system may or may not be damaged as part of this project, or when the new one is being installed, it may be discovered that some of the valves or some of the gauges are simply at the end of their life expectancy. Please note there is one number that is solid here, and that is the number to replace the chiller. It is clearly explained in this staff report. Any other changes will be discussed in great detail with the town manager prior to making any decisions. This isn't a two or three hour project. This is a multiday project, and we take it to heart to do the best that we can with the limited funding we have. Another part of the discussion was in regards to how to fund this. The facility's reserve is underfunded, to say the least, and we are using that money on other facility reserve items, and some of them come before this council on a regular basis because of their price of $15,000 or above. Others are a little bit lower than that and within the town manager's purview. However, we have decided, because of the price tag of this and savings in the capital improvement fund from other projects, to utilize that fund to pay for this project. That's a lot of information. There is a considerable amount of information in this staff report, and there are also attachments to that staff report. Knowing all of that, I will do my best to answer any questions that you may have related to this item. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilwoman Earle. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 67 of 76 EARLE: Just for people listening and with a concern, I just want to say that I had a discussion with you, Director Wesley [sic], before, and this 300K that you're asking is a one-time deal. It's not in the contract or yearly contract, correct? WELDY: Mr. Mayor, councilmember, that is correct. This is a one-time ask for this repair. We will be returning to council at a later date for an amendment to this contract that will cover our preventative maintenance and other items and an owner's allowance that may or may not -- may or may not be not be needed next fiscal year. EARLE: Thank you. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilman Watts. WATTS: Justin, thanks for all the information. You say you got a couple of bids. How did this bid compare to other bids? WELDY: Mr. Mayor, Councilmember Watts, there's not a noticeable difference in the dollar threshold. The biggest impact on that would be the amount of time necessary to do the work and the requirements in regards to shut down and start it up to keep the system online or operating, but most importantly, get it done before the hottest part of the year. So the dollar amount was a minimal, not enough to make a big enough difference in regards to the schedule. WATTS: What's the lead time? WELDY: I do not have that information, but if you'll allow me a moment, I will turn to a friend. WELDY: I understand from the consultant from facility, 16 weeks after a purchase order and notice to proceed is received. WATTS: Okay. And I saw that there's a five-year warranty, but it doesn't specifically say -- is that labor and materials or just materials? WELDY: Historically, that is for the materials. WATTS: So what's the warranty, labor warranty? WELDY: I'm not sure that I have that information, but I can certainly look into the underlying agreement from the state and see if it's covered in there. WATTS: Okay, and the two remaining chillers. Does this new chiller utilize the same TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 68 of 76 refrigerant as the replacement chiller is going to utilize? WELDY: No, Councilmember. It does not. It uses -- WATTS: I can see Steve (ph.) shaking his head, so. WELDY: -- a much more modern refrigerant. WATTS: Okay. WELDY: There was a lot of technical terms that I removed from this staff report. I personally didn't understand them and knew I would not be able to stand here and explain them to you. WATTS: Okay. WELDY: But it's the latest in refrigerants. WATTS: And I understand and appreciate because some of the refrigerants are evaporating before our eyes, but my question really is, are we recovering the refrigerant, leaving it on site so we can use that refrigerant in the other two chillers?, because refrigerant is effectively liquid gold these days. WELDY: Another question I don't know. BARTLETT: They have, I believe, salvage. I don't know that it included the refrigerant, but it didn't include the equipment, like, we can find out. WATTS: The refrigerant -- as long as there isn't -- it isn't contaminated, and even so, they can still refine it (indiscernible), I believe. Okay. And so if it's not contaminated, then we should store it on site because how many pounds of refrigerant are there, and again, that's liquid gold these days. So I would appreciate that. WELDY: So if I understand the ask, it is to see if the vendor can recover the refrigerant, if it's clean, and we would store it on-site and own it? WATTS: The vendor has to recover it in one way, shape, or form, presuming -- assuming that it is clean today because the chiller is still operating, so there wouldn't be any reason that we shouldn't store it on-site and be able to utilize it in the other two chillers. That's a significant amount of refrigerant. WELDY: Understood. WATTS: Okay. Believe it or not, that answers my questions. Thank you. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 69 of 76 WELDY: You're welcome. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Aaron, I see your light on. ARNSON: Thanks. Mayor and Councilman Watts, I just wanted to point out while Director Weldy was up there, I took the liberty of looking at the warranty. There's a one-year labor and warranty -- excuse me, labor and materials warranty from date of beneficial use stated in there. WATTS: Thanks. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilman Skillicorn. SKILLICORN: Mayor, Director Weldy. One quick question I had is comparing the bids. Did anyone engineer this differently, you know, have different SEER units? I was talking to someone that knows a little more about HVAC than myself, and they mentioned that it may not be the chiller. It could be something that's under-engineered or you know, some other design issue with it. Did anyone respond to the bid in something that was a little bit different, even though the price might have been similar? WELDY: Mr. Mayor, councilmember Skillicorn. So we did not issue an IFB, an invitation for bids. What we did was go out and look at cooperative use agreements with comparative pricing for the units, and then speak to professionals in the field and get their opinion on the modern equivalent of our 20 plus year old ones. So the short answer is this is more efficient, which some of that is described in their proposal, but we did not actually solicit bids. We relied on professional opinions and unit pricing. SKILLICORN: Mayor, Director. My only concern is that maybe we're not addressing that correctly. Maybe it is something that going to bid and actually dealing with, you know, people that know a little more than ourselves might be a better way of going. That's all. WELDY: Understood. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilwoman. MCMAHON: Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to make a motion to approve Amendment Number 5 to the Cooperative Purchase Agreement 2022-062, with Mesa Energy Systems in the amount of $300,000, and authorizing for capital improvement and TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 70 of 76 authorizing any associated budget transfers. EARLE: I second that. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Roll call, please, clerk. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilwoman Earle. EARLE: Yes. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember Kalivianakis. KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilman Watts. WATTS: Yes. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember Skillicorn. SKILLICORN: Yes. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Councilmember McMahon. MCMAHON: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Vice Mayor Toth. TOTH: Aye. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Mayor Friedel. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Aye. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Motion passes unanimous. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Thank you. And our final agenda item, regular agenda item, is any conversation relating to the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, and Angela, did you get any comments on any of the -- PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Thank you, Mayor. We only received one written comment, and it was a position of against, and you can find that in your packet. MAYOR FRIEDEL: In the packet. Thank you. Councilman Skillicorn. SKILLICORN: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and part of this may be directed towards council and town manager. I did a day or two ago have a discussion with a -- I just want to look up their name here. The Arizona Municipal Water Users Association on a particular bill -- it's the HB 2299, and what this bill is, it's like a specific carve-out, and if we bear with me. I have to kind of read the detail to express it, but effectively, what it does is it TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 71 of 76 creates an emergency proclamation, and any emergency in the State of Arizona will actually -- takes away the voter citizen initiative to undo something. So it actually is part of our Constitution that the people cannot undo it, so it's very significant, and what it does is it allows applications that are submitted between January 26th, 2021, and May 31st, 2023, and what this pertains to is the governor created some water authority for certain areas, and there's a couple people that don't like this, and they want to get their applications approved via the legislature, kind of in a back door way. So this is a special carve-out for just a couple projects which kind of undermines state law and also some of the authority that our governor has in some of these issues, and even though we may agree or disagree on some of the things that our governor has done there, this is, like, a special carve-out for just two different applications. You know, and if we also look -- so after we took a look at the -- basically the industry standard for municipal water, they're against it, and you know, they put some time into talking to people about it, but the town of Gilbert is against it. The Sierra Club is against it. Avondale is against it. Glendale is against it. Mesa is against it. Phoenix is against it. Chandler is against it, et cetera, et cetera. Scottsdale is against it. I would recommend -- I would really encourage our council and our town managers to draft a letter opposing 2299, and I was just if -- I guess if we have someone object to it, feel free. I did ask if we could add it to the packet. I didn't get an updated email, so I'm going to guess it was too late, but -- oh, okay. I think it was -- today's -- all day is kind of (indiscernible). I believe it was yesterday morning that I sent over an email asking to add it to the packet because I know some people like to read over stuff like that, but you know, it appears that, you know, we get a lot of emails. GOODWIN: So if there's a consensus, we can certainly do that, and it's up to you guys. EARLE: I support it. KALIVIANAKIS: If I may, I would just like to restate what I said two weeks ago that if we're going to support or deny House bills, Senate bills, you know, I think that we should be noticed. I think that we should have a chance to look at the legislative TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 72 of 76 history, and so we can make an informed decision. I don't know anything about this bill other than what I just heard tonight, and so I hate to vote for things, whether yay or nay that I just haven't researched before. If I could have notice, even three days in advance, I could go to the legislative record. I could see, you know what my state reps are voting for, what the other state reps are voting for. I could do my research, and then I could sit here proudly and do a yes or no, up or down vote, and so it's the same thing, you know if we're -- and I said that last week, Mr. Mayor, that if we're going to do a cancer, you know, count me in, but if we're going to do complicated legislation, I just think that we just need the information so we can make a thoughtful vote. EARLE: Yes. Okay. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilwoman Earle. EARLE: Yes. Thank you. Mayor and councilmember -- Councilman Skillicorn. Excuse me. Was this discussed on the League phone calls on the Mondays? SKILLICORN: Mr. Mayor, Councilwoman Earle. The League does not take a position in water bills. That's why we -- there is the Arizona municipal water users that calls in on this, and to add -- there was another question about noticing making decisions. This very well could be put on the board tomorrow and passed the whole house, so just there's urgency. Waiting two weeks might be -- actually, you know, since we're at crossover time, two weeks could be too late. TOTH: May I ask a question? If we have a majority consensus, are we able to go through the same thing that we did with the food bill that was about cancer? GOODWIN: Certainly. TOTH: Thank you. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilwoman McMahon. MCMAHON: Please don't include me in the letter. Thank you. I want to prefer to do my homework and then weigh in on it. Thank you. KALIVIANAKIS: And Mr. Mayor, thank you. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Is it going to be short? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 73 of 76 KALIVIANAKIS: Very short. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Okay. I'm just kidding. KALIVIANAKIS: And just just just to clarify my point, if we got the information today and it was voted on tomorrow, I understand Councilmember Skillicorn's concerns that it's not going to be timely, but what I'm saying is, if this is something that we anticipated that it could have been sent to us, you know, four or five days ago, and then tonight, I would have been ready to -- you know, I'm not I'm not trying to jam you up by saying, you know, I want two-week delay and it's going to not be timely. It'll be moot by then. I'm just saying that if this is on your radar, if you're down in the legislature and you think, I think I want Fountain Hills to get on board with this, I think you could relay the information to the manager. She could relay it to the council. This is something we're going to be seeking guidance letter guidance on at the next council meeting, and then I think we'd all feel prepared, and I know I would, and then I would be willing to vote on it because Allen, I'm sure that what you're proposing is sound legislation. I don't deny that, but again, it's what I've been harping on all night long is how we got here, the procedure that we got here, and I just would appreciate it if I could just get a heads up so I can make a thoughtful decision. That's all I'm asking. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilman Watts. WATTS: Councilman Skillicorn, can you give me the cliff notes version one more time? I mean, it sounds like the sense of urgency is now, and I kind of get that, but I also think that I'd like to have a little more insight, so I'm going to rely on your cliff notes if you can do it one more time for me. SKILLICORN: Mr. Mayor, Councilmember Watts, and also to answer the other question. I was not aware of this until yesterday. That's why I tried to send the email with some details to the town manager, and you know, obviously, you know, we have to -- we're all human. So a little bit of the cliff notes is that -- I'll just go right back to the language, which is probably best, and it is 2299 if anyone wants to look it up online. First thing, it's an emergency measure, so there is no is no recourse. If the legislature passes this, it TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 74 of 76 cannot be changed. There's no citizen's initiative. In any other law that's passed, the citizens could get signatures and stop it. This (indiscernible) cannot, and what this does is that it allows applications that were submitted in between the date range of January 2021 and May of 2022, and it's a very specific -- a certificate of shared water supply in the Phoenix active management area, so there's very few of those applications that exist. So it's really just two carve-outs to effectively undermine what the governor did. You know, the irony is that I don't agree with what the governor did in these areas, but this is not the way to do this. The way to do it -- there is a proper way of doing it, not an emergency measure and not something that is just for these couple of applications. Is that enough information? WATTS: Yes, thank you. I think the concept of emergency motion says it all. If there's no recourse, then I've got a problem with that. SKILLICORN: Sure. WATTS: Thank you. MAYOR FRIEDEL: So Rachael, I think we probably have a majority of the council that supports it. Okay. We'll move on now to the council direction to the town manager. Councilwoman Earle. EARLE: Yes. I would like to direct staff to start working with P and Z to implement the changes for the sign code requirements during election season, business signage, utilizing direction that they've received from councilmembers, and bring it back to council for discussion and vote. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilwoman McMahon. MCMAHON: Thank you. I would like to see on the next agenda the information about the police committee and the veterans. I'd like to see when they're meeting, what they're talking about, and who are on the committee, and how they were selected. And in addition, are we going to know when the meetings for the committee that was just formed tonight are going to be available, and are any of these going to be open to the public and the public notice about them? Thank you. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 75 of 76 MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilman Watts. WATTS: And Town Manager Goodwin, as we spoke the other day, when we look at the budget, any of the things that are not absolute needs that become wants or desires, that money, I'm going to heavily lobby for addressing the washes. Having walked a couple of the washes, this washes this weekend, they're in a terrible state of disrepair, and I think we need to do something sooner than later. I know we just had $140,000, and after walking one of them, the one down by Sherwood, I don't know if you could do that one for $140,000 by itself because of not being able to afford a yard dumpster and the logistics of personnel. So as much as we can move into the washes, I'd like to focus on that, if we can. Thank you. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilman Skillicorn. SKILLICORN: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And technically, since we're on staff direction, I actually want to applaud staff because there's a couple of washes that I was down in, you know, down by Shea, and it's a different world. I mean, all the trees are gone. You know, I see stumps down there. I mean, I see that there has been maintenance done, and it was significant. I mean, very much so. So there was a lot that was done. I'm sure there's others that need it, right, but the ones that have been addressed, I was actually very impressed of the condition they were in, and frankly, the couple that I were in just recently -- there's two that are not maintained. I mean, I didn't see major fire hazards there, so I know that we're directing the staff resources, you know, where they're critical. So I just -- I was actually really impressed when I saw, especially south of Shea there. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilwoman. KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yeah, I'd kind of like to reinforce the new committees that were formed, I guess law enforcement, veterans, economic development. Yeah. I haven't had an email or a memo on that, and I would like that to be in future business, too. You know, and maybe even the three-person committee that we're assigning tonight could put it as part of the town code, you know, how do we pick the people? Are we doing it in collaboration with MCSO with the Economic TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 4, 2024 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 76 of 76 Development Committee? What are their goals, what's their mission statement, and how often will they be reporting and giving reports to council? MAYOR FRIEDEL: Don't overthink it. We don't have a mission statement. We're not writing a book. Anybody? Anything else? Can we get a motion to adjourn? WATTS: Move to adjourn. TOTH: Second. MAYOR FRIEDEL: All in favor? TOTH: Aye.