Thursday, May 21, 2020

Mesa City Council Study Session Thu 21 May 2020 @ 07:30 a.m. > Future Transportation Bond Program + Budget For $90,000,000 Federal COVID-19 FUNDS

Another early morning "study session" for you to wake up to and get informed. Million$$$$$$
are on-the-table.
Roll Call 
1 Presentations/Action Items: 
20-0608 Hear a presentation, discuss, and provide direction on a future Transportation Capital Improvement Bond Program, including transportation projects eligible for Proposition 400 funding. 1-a 
File #:20-0608   
Type:PresentationStatus:Agenda Ready
In control:City Council Study Session
On agenda:5/21/2020
Title:Hear a presentation, discuss, and provide direction on a future Transportation Capital Improvement Bond Program, including transportation projects eligible for Proposition 400 funding.

Attachments:1. Presentation 
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20-0611 Hear a presentation, discuss, and provide direction on a proposed budget and related programs supported by the federal funds received under the CARES Act. 1-b 
File #:20-0611   
Type:PresentationStatus:Agenda Ready
In control:City Council Study Session
On agenda:5/21/2020
Title:Hear a presentation, discuss, and provide direction on a proposed budget and related programs supported by the federal funds received under the CARES Act.

Attachments:1. Presentation
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Transportation Bond Presentation
City Council Study Session May 21, 2020 
RJ Zeder, Transportation Director 
Erik Guderian, Deputy Transportation Director




 > Planned Transportation Projects Prioritization of Projects
> Planned Transportation Projects Prioritization of Projects: $100M
> Planned Transportation Projects Prioritization of Projects: $150M
> Planned Transportation Projects Prioritization of Projects: $200M
> Interim Transportation Plan 2020-2022 
Priority Project Name Transportation Total (millions) Other/Utilities Total (millions) Total (millions) 
1 Signal Butte Road Improvements: Williams Field to Pecos1 $9.5 $0 $9.5 
2 Signal Butte Road Improvements: Pecos to Germann2 $02 $0 $02 
3 Streetlight LED Conversion Project $7.2 $0 $7.2 
4 Broadway Rd: Mesa to Stapley (Lesueur to Spur) 1 $17.5 $14.0 $31.5 
5 Southern Ave & Country Club Drive Roadways $0.9 $7.6 $8.5 
6 Design Funding for Potential 2022 Bond Projects1,3 $6.0 TBD $6.0 Total $41.1 $21.6 $62.7

 1. Eligible for ALCP reimbursement 
2. Funded by Town of Queen Creek up to $8.0M per IGA. Mesa to reimburse Queen Creek by 12/31/2030. 
3. Arterial Reconstructions, Ellsworth - From City Limit to SR24, Sossaman and Baseline, Val Vista Dr.: Pueblo to US 60
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City Council Study Session
May 21, 2020
Hear a presentation, discuss, and provide direction on a proposed budget and related programs supported by the federal funds received under the CARES Act
14 Power Point Slide-Presentation
The CARES Act provides that payments for the Fund may only be used to cover costs that - 
1. are necessary expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency with respect to COVID-19
2. were not accounted for in the budget most recently approved as of March 27, 2020 for the State or government and 
3. were incurred during the period that begins on March 1, 2020, and ends of December 30, 2020

Mesa CARES Outreach: ($150,000) 
• Conducted a community needs assessment related to the impacts of COVID-19 • Serves as a community resource to connect residents with COVID-19 emergency services • Provides call center support for the Small Business Reemergence Program.
Feeding Mesa-Food Distribution: ($10,000,000) 
• United Food Bank Support • United Food Bank Meal Distribution • Midwest Food Bank Support • Canned food drives • Restaurant buy-out program
Reimbursement for public safety and essential service response to the COVID-19 emergency: ($50,000,000) 
• Payroll expenses for public safety employees whose services are substantially dedicated to mitigating or responding to COVID-19 public health emergency.

 Utility Assistance Supplement (MesaCAN) ($1,000,000) 
• Increase financial support for utility costumers.

Mitigation and Care for Homeless Pop. ($500,000) 
• Expand overnight sheltering options • Enforce social distancing requirements • Operation Off-the-Streets • Consider permanent sheltering options currently not included in budget ($3,500,000 -$5,000,000 )
Small Business Reemergence: ($20,000,000) 
• Utility Assistance • Facility and Rental Assistance • Technical Assistance, Marketing • Founding Partners (Arts & Culture)
Healthy Buildings Retrofit: ($2,500,000) 
• Installation of barriers • Handsfree improvements • Sanitizing stations • Air filtering systems
Business Continuity and Remote Access: ($2,500,000) 
• Support employees with all technology needed to work from home. 
• Channel 11 digital broadcasting of public meetings. 
• Increased demand in supporting remote business access for the public. 
• Consider educational remote learning technology for mesa students. 
Currently not included in the budget.

 Employee Health and Wellness: ($250,000) 
• Employee testing for COVID-19 • Serology testing for public safety and essential service employees • Expenses of providing paid sick and paid family and medical leave to employees to enable compliance with COVID-19 public health precautions
Community Health & Safety: ($500,000) 
• PPE for employees and customers • Additional cleaning supplies • Increased contractual services for facility cleaning
COVID-19 Emergency Contingency: ($2,600,000) 
• Reserve for unanticipated emergency COVID-19 expenses.
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2 Acknowledge receipt of minutes of various boards and committees. 
2-a 20-0605 Judicial Advisory Board meeting held on April 29, 2020. 
File #:20-0605   
Type:MinutesStatus:Agenda Ready
In control:City Council Study Session
On agenda:5/21/2020
Title:Judicial Advisory Board meeting held on April 29, 2020.

Attachments:1. April 29, 2020 Judicial Advisory Board

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3 Current events summary including meetings and conferences attended. 

 4 Scheduling of meetings.
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City of Mesa Food Buy-Out Program (What the City's News Room has to say)

Not many details and short on substance, but that's very typical for sure . . . what restaurants are patronized? What's the deal?

May 20, 2020 at 4:09 pm
One of the components of the Feeding Mesa program is the restaurant kitchen “Food Buy Out” program, which is generating additional business for Mesa restaurants by providing meals for the community. 

The “Food Buy Out” began May 11 with several participating restaurants providing meals to senior living facilities.The City created the Feeding Mesa program as part of the Mesa CARES Initiative to meet community needs resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Funding for the Feeding Mesa program is from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act approved by Congress March 27. Food distribution is one of the main priorities of the CARES Act.
_________________________________________________________
Public Information and Communications
Contact: Kevin Christopher
Tel. 480-644-4699
kevin.christopher@mesaaz.gov
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Tuesday, May 19, 2020

A Feature Post From "High Country News >> Who Claims The GadsdenFlag?


HCN Logo
THE MAGAZINESUBSCRIBEDONATE NOWTwitterFacebook
The Gadsden flag is a symbol. But whose?
The Gadsden flag is a symbol. But whose?
How a Revolutionary War-era flag evolved into an anti-government symbol.
The Gadsden flag is a symbol. But whose?
COVID-19 impacts every corner of the Navajo Nation
Front-line workers confront the world’s newest deadly malady.
How to protect nature during uncertain times
COVID-19 pushed Seattle to provide housing for homeless people
Advocates hope to lock in this assistance beyond the pandemic.
MORE NEWS
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Glowing New Report Cited by The Rose Law Group ...Ooops! Using Data Before The COVID-19 Economic Crisis

Data in the report forms the last snapshot of Opportunity Zone home prices before the major economic impact of the worldwide Coronavirus pandemic.





Your source for news that matters to Arizona
(Yup, that's what RLG Reporter says about itself)
_________________________________________________________________
More "news" can be found below - something they are calling 
AZ Business Magazine | AZBigMedia
Home prices continue rising in two-thirds of Opportunity Zones
ATTOM Data Solutions, curator of the nation’s premier property database and first property data provider of Data-as-a-Service (DaaS), today released its first-quarter 2020 special report analyzing qualified Opportunity Zones established by Congress in the Tax Cuts and Jobs act of 2017 (see full methodology below). In this report, ATTOM looked at about 3,000 zones with sufficient sales data to analyze, meaning they had at least five home sales in each quarter from 2005 through the first quarter of 2020. 
The report found that 45 percent of the zones saw median home prices rise by more than the national increase of 11.3 percent from the first quarter of 2019 to the first quarter of 2020, where sufficient data was available. That was down slightly from the 47 percent of zones that bested the 9.4 percent annual change from the fourth quarter of 2018 to the same period in 2019. 
The report also shows that 78 percent of the zones had median home prices in the first quarter of 2020 that were less than the national median of $265,900.
“The fact that median home prices in 45 percent of opportunity zones increased year over year more than the national average is evidence communities in opportunity zones are seeing strong demand and growth, due in no small part to opportunity zone investors.” ~ Dan Gauthier, Attorney at Rose Law Group
Rose Law Group Reporter
Rose Law Group’s New Economy (Virtual) Power Lunch…If you missed it, watch here!...Featuring John Carlson, President of Mark-Taylor Residential, Elliott Pollack, Arizona’s Top Economist, and other all-star leaders…stay tuned for the next power lunch happening May 29th!
Afraid to return work? Rose Law Group Co-Founder Court Rich talks HeathyVerify Certification with 12News (Disclosure: RLG represents HeathyVerify Certification.)

Fashion brand with purpose sees 700% sales growth during COVID-19

What is the Public Charge Rule? RLG Immigration Chair Darius Amiri explains [VIDEO]

Home prices continue rising in O-Zones; Dan Gauthier, RLG transactional attorney handling many Opportunity Zone investments, comments

The Monday Morning Commute: Ask the traffic engineer

Latest updates on cities around Arizona and their operations during the virus chaos


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Workers in Defense & Weapons Industries Are Raising Concerns Over Workplace Safety

Mesa is ground zero for a large military-defense- industrial complex. 
Unlike other cities there are no reports in the media over workers testing positive for the COVID-19 virus. 
Issues reported elsewhere are not public here

DEFENSE WORKERS, DEEMED “ESSENTIAL,” PROTEST CONDITIONS AS OVERSEAS WEAPONS SALES CONTINUE


May 18 2020, 4:00 a.m.
WITH MOST OF the United States on lockdown in late April, the State Department approved billions of dollars in possible weapons sales. Workers at the manufacturing plants that would supply those sales, deemed “essential workers” toward the end of March thanks to the defense industry’s sprawling lobbying apparatus, have been forced to show up to work — even as a number of workers at those factories have tested positive for coronavirus. 
The transactions approved by the State Department include $2.2 billion in possible weapons sales to India, Morocco, and the Philippines, and $150 million in blanket funds to the United Arab Emirates for order requisitions to repair and support aircraft fleets and do other related work.  . . 
The facilities in question belong to some of the world’s largest defense contractors, like Lockheed Martin and Boeing. At Lockheed Martin’s plant in Forth Worth, Texas, workers have protested the reopening of their facility, saying they were concerned about exposing family members to the virus, and that the company wasn’t properly cleaning facilities. Other workers have said that steps being taken to mitigate risk don’t go far enough. Asked about the spread or potential spread of Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, at their plants, the contractors generally demurred and declined to answer questions, instead referring The Intercept to company websites, many of which have stopped publicly reporting Covid-19 cases. 
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From Forbes: Fed Reserve Bank President Jay Powell Appears with Treasury Secretary Mnuchin

In front of the Senate Banking Committee today

TOPLINE

CARES Act Testimony: Powell Questions Whether Federal Policy Response Is ‘Enough’

Sarah Hansen
Sarah HansenForbes Staff
Markets
I cover breaking news.
"Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell faced the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday to answer questions about their role in managing $500 billion in funding for emergency rescue loans—it’s the first accountability hearing since the passage of the historic CARES Act in March.

KEY FACTS

The hearing comes the day after a Congressional oversight committee found that the Treasury Department has spent very little of a $500 billion fund designed to help businesses and local governments weather the crisis. 
The Treasury has not distributed any of the $46 billion allocated to the airline or other distressed industries, for example, and very little of the other $454 billion, intended to prop up Federal Reserve lending programs, has been spent. 
In his prepared remarks, Mnuchin, who is sure to face questions over his handling of the embattled Paycheck Protection Program, emphasized the Treasury’s spending so far: “we have committed up to $195 billion in credit support under the CARES Act,” he said, and added that he is fully prepared to allocate all of that $500 billion.
Mnuchin also addressed the issue of the Treasury Department taking on a certain level of risk in backstopping loans: “We are fully prepared to take losses” in certain scenarios, he said. . . " 
READ MORE > https://www.forbes.com


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U.S.-China Relations Have Fallen Off a Cliff, Says Strategist


May.19 -- The U.S. recently put additional restrictions on Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co. Anja Manuel, co-founder of the strategic consulting firm Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel, discusses this latest ratcheting up of tensions between the U.S. and China on "Bloomberg Technology."
330 views
•May 19, 2020
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