Sunday, August 16, 2020

NEW 15-PAGE TENTATIVE AGENDA: Mesa City Council Meeting Mon 08.24.2020

What's missing are any agendas for 2 Study Sessions before - one for this week on Thu  @ 07:30 a.m. 08.20.2020 and one for a Study Session scheduled just before the 08.24 regular meeting
City Council Meeting Agenda
Tentative Monday, August 24, 2020
5:45 PM
CITIZEN PARTICIPATION All citizens are permitted and encouraged to speak on agenda items including and preceding “Items from citizens present."
Public participation is available electronically.
If you want to provide a written comment or speak telephonically at the meeting, please submit an online comment card by going to Mesaaz.gov/bluecard at least 1 hour prior to the start of the meeting. 
If you want to speak at the meeting, you will need to indicate on the comment card that you would like to speak during the meeting, and you will need to call 888-788-0099 or 877-853-5247 (toll free) using meeting ID 5301232921 and following the prompts, prior to the start of the meeting.  You will be able to listen to the meeting; and when the item you have indicated that you want to speak on is before Council, your line will be taken off mute and you will be given an opportunity to speak.
For help with the online comment card, or for any other technical difficulties, please call 480-644-2099.
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CONSENT AGENDA
All items listed with an asterisk (*) will be considered as a group by the City Council and will be enacted with one motion.
There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a Councilmember or citizen requests, in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered as a separate item. If a citizen wants an item removed from the consent agenda, an online comment card will need to be completed by going to Mesaaz.gov/bluecard at least 1 hour prior to the start of the meeting and by following the instructions provided under “Citizen Participation” at the top of this page.
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MEETING DETAILS > 44 ITEMS
Meeting Name: City Council Agenda status: Tentative
Meeting date/time: 8/24/2020 5:45 PM Minutes status: Draft  
Meeting location: Virtual Platform
Published agenda: Agenda Agenda Published minutes: Not available  
Meeting video:  
Attachments:
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BIG BACKLOG
OF
APPROVED MINUTES
12 MEETINGS
File #: 20-0815   
Type: Minutes Status: Agenda Ready
In control: City Council
On agenda: 8/24/2020
Title: Approval of minutes of previous meetings as written.
Attachments: 1. May 4, 2020 Study, 2. May 21, 2020 Study, 3. May 28, 2020 Study, 4. June 1, 2020 Study, 5. June 4, 2020 Study, 6. June 11, 2020 Study, 7. June 15, 2020 Study, 8. June 19, 2020 Study, 9. June 25, 2020 Study, 10. July 1, 2020 Study, 11. July 8, 2020 Regular, 12. July 8, 2020 Study
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Please TAKE THE TIME TO GET INFORMED FIRST  
do your due diligence, scrutiny, oversight and homework beforehand
USE THIS LINK
AND
 
 THERE ARE 44 ITEMS
26 Contracts Item *4
  6 Resolutions Item *5
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CONTRACTS
*4-e
File #: 20-0811   
Type: Contract Status: Agenda Ready
In control: City Council
On agenda: 8/24/2020
Title: Dollar-Limit Increase to the Term Contracts for HVAC Services and Equipment for the Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities Department as requested by the Office of Economic Development (Citywide)
The dollar-limit increase is needed for several upcoming chiller installation projects including a large replacement that is critical to the AZ Labs operations. 
Trane has provided a quote for the total project cost, at $1,316,000, inclusive of all labor charges for the chiller installations and replacements.
The Office of Economic Development, Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities Department and Purchasing recommend increasing the dollar-limit using the cooperative contracts: US Communities with Trane; Omnia Partners (formerly National IPA) with Comfort Systems USA, and HACI Service LLC; 1GPA with Midstate Energy, and Pueblo Mechanical & Controls;
by $1,316,000, from $2,700,000 to $4,016,000 annually, with an annual increase allowance of up to 5%, or the adjusted Consumer Price Ind...
Attachments: 1. Council Report
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*4-k SPECIAL OPERATIONS UNITS
File #: 20-0782   
Type: Contract Status: Agenda Ready
In control: City Council
On agenda: 8/24/2020
Title: Three-Year Term Contract with Two Years of Renewal Options for Ballistic Helmets and Headsets (Citywide) Members of Special Operations Units face high risk situations that require a high level of protection and features including internal padding, comfort when wearing electronic ear protection, ability to mount night vision goggles, rails that allow attachment of hands free lighting systems, and impact protection. This contract will provide ballistic helmets and headsets that integrate with the helmets. City staff recommends awarding the contract to the lowest, responsive, and responsible bidder, Gentex Corporation, at $75,000 annually, with an annual increase allowance of up to 5%, or the adjusted Consumer Price Index. The initial purchase is grant funded by Arizona Department of Homeland Security ($5,500) and the Department's Operating Budget ($24,397.47).
Attachments: 1. Council Report
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*4-l
File #: 20-0784   
Type: Contract Status: Agenda Ready
In control: City Council
On agenda: 8/24/2020
Title: Purchase of Dispatch Base Station Radio Equipment (Replacement) (Citywide) These radios are primarily used for mission-critical, two-way communications as emergency backup stations when infrastructure is off-line or during periods of network outages. This project will replace the existing twenty-one base station radios and antennas located at the dispatch building. The current equipment is eighteen years old, it does not support multiple encryption keys, and is no longer supported by the manufacturer. City staff recommends authorizing the purchase using the State of Arizona cooperative contract with Motorola Solutions, Inc., at $433,000, based on estimated requirements. This purchase is funded by Public Safety Sales Tax.
Attachments: 1. Council Report
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*4-m
File #: 20-0785   
Type: Contract Status: Agenda Ready
In control: City Council
On agenda: 8/24/2020
Title: Ratification of the Emergency Purchase of Bean Bag Rounds (Citywide)
This purchase was to restock low inventory levels of bean bang rounds and the rounds that were needed for the 2020 and 2021 training classes and recertifications. City staff recommends ratifying the purchase from the contract with Proforce Law Enforcement, at $49,776.44.
Attachments: 1. Council Report
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*4-r
File #: 20-0808   
Type: Contract Status: Agenda Ready
In control: City Council
On agenda: 8/24/2020
Title: Three-Year Term Contract with Two Years of Renewal Options for Closed Circuit Television Cameras (Replacement) for the Transportation Department (Citywide)
Transportation - Intelligent Transportation Systems group currently operates over 200 CCTV cameras that are used for real-time monitoring traffic conditions. This contract is for the replacement of existing cameras that are past their useful life expectancy and for the installation of new cameras at new locations, as needed. 
In addition, real-time traffic streaming may also be shared with the Mesa Police Department. The Transportation Department and Purchasing recommend awarding the contract to the lowest, responsive, and responsible bidder, Koro BAS, Inc., at $239,200 annually, with an annual increase allowance of up to 5%, or the adjusted Consumer Price Index. This project is funded by Lifecycle Project Funds.
Attachments: 1. Council Report
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*4-s
File #: 20-0796   
Type: Contract Status: Agenda Ready
In control: City Council
On agenda: 8/24/2020
Title: Dollar-Limit Increase to the Term Contract for Philips City Touch Streetlight Monitoring System for the Transportation Department (Sole Source) (Citywide)
Philips City Touch is a lighting management system for public lighting. In the City’s efforts to save energy and further customer service, Transportation Field Operations proposes expanding the pilot project with the Philips City Touch System to a complete Citywide installation. This increase is needed for the purchase of 6,000 additional nodes for the Citywide installation. The Transportation Department and Purchasing recommend increasing the dollar-limit with the sole source vendor, Arizona Electrical Distributors (a Mesa business), by $1,700,310, from $81,225 to $1,781,535 for Year 2, based on estimated usage. This increase is funded by the Local Streets Fund.
Attachments: 1. Council Report
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*4-v
File #: 20-0797   
Type: Contract Status: Agenda Ready
In control: City Council
On agenda: 8/24/2020
Title: Three-Year Term Contract with Two Years of Renewal Options for Powdered Activated Carbon for the Water Resources Department (Citywide)
This contract will provide powdered activated carbon used for the removal of total organic carbon, as well as taste and odor control for water received from the Central Arizona Project canal system for potable drinking water treatment at the Brown Road Plant. An evaluation committee recommends awarding the contract to the highest-scored proposals from Atlas Carbon, LLC (Primary); and Ingevity Corporation (Secondary); at $250,000 annually, with an annual increase allowance of up to 5%, or the adjusted Consumer Price Index.
Attachments: 1. Council Report
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*5-f
File #: 20-0823   
Type: Resolution Status: Agenda Ready
In control: City Council
On agenda: 8/24/2020
Title: Canvassing, declaring, and adopting the results of the Primary Election held on August 4, 2020. (Citywide)
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8 Take action on the following subdivision plats:
20-0760 “The Landings Phase 3” (District 6) 
Within the 7800 to 8300 blocks of East Ray Road (south side).  Located west of Hawes Road on the south side of Ray Road (58.9± acres).  Marwest Enterprises, LLC, Ray 39A, LLLP, Santan 74, LLLP, Ray 39C, LLLP, developer; James A. Brucci, Hunter Engineering, Inc., surveyor. *8-a
Page 13 City of Mesa Printed on 8/13/2020
August 24, 2020City Council Meeting Agenda - Tentative
20-0761 “Destination at Gateway - Phase 1” (District 6) 
Within the 11200 to 11600 blocks of East Williams Field Road (south side) and within the 6000 to 6400 blocks of South Mountain Road (east side).  Located west of Meridian Road and south of Williams Field Road (83.02± acres).  Ashton Woods Arizona, LLC, developer; Raymond S Munoz III, EPS Group, surveyor.
*8-b
20-0762 “Inspira at Mesa Gateway” (District 2) 
Within the 4500 block of East Banner Gateway Drive (south side).  Located north of Baseline Road and east of Greenfield Road (4.11± acres).  Langley Banner Gateway, LLC, developer; Brian J. Benedict, Hilgart Wilson, surveyor.
*8-c
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Items not on the Consent Agenda
9 Items from citizens present. (Maximum of three speakers for three minutes per speaker).
 
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Saturday, August 15, 2020

Missing The Signals? All-You-Can-Eat Metrics > The Buffett Valuation Indicator

Over the past two decades, global markets have taken big hits on three occasions after the ratio broke into triple digits — In 2000, 2008 and again in 2018. . .
Meanwhile, drilling down into the market in the U.S., where stocks are holding up strong in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, shows the indicator is up in all-time record territory.

Warren Buffett said this metric signaled the 2001 crash — now it’s sounding the alarm on global markets
Shawn Langlois
"Warren Buffett once wrote that investors would have seen the dot-com crash coming from a mile away had they paid attention to what he described in a Fortune article in 2001 as “probably the best single measure of where valuations stand at any given moment.”
The Buffett Indicator DJIA Market Cap Divided By US GDP (1970-2015 ...
Known in investing circles as the “Buffett Indicator,” the measure is simply the total market cap of all U.S. stocks relative to the country’s GDP.
> When it’s in the 70% to 80% range, it’s time to throw cash at the market.
> When it moves above 100%, it’s time to lean toward risk-off.

Apply that yardstick worldwide, and, as you can see by this chart from Die Welt market analyst Holger Zschaepitz, a sell signal is flashing.
In fact, the indicator just broke through a 30-month high:
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From The Motley Fool :
Warren Buffett: A Market Crash Is Imminent
Ambrose O'Callaghan | August 15, 2020
"Warren Buffett has been unusually quiet in 2020. In July, I’d discussed whether investors should expect a market crash going by his value investing principles. Today, I want to revisit that supposition and look at a market that has continued to experience ballooning valuations into August.

Warren Buffett: One model that shows stocks are overpriced

The Buffett indicator takes the combined market capitalizations of publicly traded stocks worldwide and divides it by global gross domestic product. It has been popularized as the favoured indicator of Warren Buffett. If the indicator reads more than 100%, this suggests that the global stock market is overvalued relative to the world economy.
This indicator climbed to a 30-month high in August. The investing community has been on edge when it comes to high valuations since the beginning of the summer. There are concerns about the diversion between a red-hot market and a still-struggling domestic and global economy.
Investors should never rely on one single indicator to drive their perceptions. However, investors on the hunt for value do have their work cut out for them right now . . ."
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BEWARE

The New York Times reports Clearview has hired a prominent First Amendment lawyer -- one that has defended the paper in the past -- to make the argument that selling government agencies data scraped from the web is protected speech.
Floyd Abrams, one of the most prominent First Amendment lawyers in the country, has a new client: the facial recognition company Clearview AI.
[...]
“Floyd Abrams is without peer as the nation’s pre-eminent First Amendment attorney, and it is clear that there are potentially groundbreaking First Amendment issues relating to the cases involving Clearview AI,” said Lisa Linden, a spokeswoman for the company.
Abrams is the lawyer who gave us the Citizens United decision -- the one that allows companies and other "non-persons" to express their political beliefs through unrestricted campaign donations. If the arguments fall along these lines, Abrams will be claiming that Clearview has the First Amendment right to "talk" about other people to government agencies and private customers. If people want to talk about themselves on the open web, Clearview can't be prevented from "discussing" what it's observed with anyone who asks questions about who these people are. Of course, Abrams was also a lawyer for Hollywood who insisted that copyright being used to take down websites, while possibly censoring speech, wasn't really a 1st Amendment concern, which has always raised questions about how committed he is to the 1st Amendment as opposed to just supporting the interests of his clients.
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TECHDIRT:Heads Up ...What???

Just As The Postal Service Is Being Dismantled To Prevent The Handling Of Mail In Ballots, It Tries To Patent Blockchain Voting By Mail

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the i...-uh...-what? dept

Fri, Aug 14th 2020 7:39pm — Mike Masnick
We are living in truly dystopian times. As you may have heard, this week there have been a bunch of stories regarding the somewhat systematic dismantling of US Postal Service operations in what appears to be a coordinated effort by this administration to foil the process of sending and collecting mail-in ballots. But, apparently, rather than ensuring its own ability to handle mail-in ballots for this election, the US Postal service is trying to... patent blockchain-based voting?
As you almost certainly know, President Trump has been -- without any factual basis at all -- decrying mail-in ballots, despite the fact that they have been proven safe and effective. As we're in the middle of a pandemic -- made significantly worse by this administration's own incompetence -- whose made mode of transmission is gathering indoors, the need for more mail-in ballots is obvious to anyone who cares about a functioning democracy. Instead
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UPDATE: Stuart Stevens Back-In-The-News

IT'S ALL AT the heart of the debate going on right now between disaffected Never Trumpers and other conservative Republicans about the fate of the party post-Trump. 
Some Never Trumpers argue that the GOP must be burned down. 
As the longtime Republican strategist Stuart Stevens argues in his new book, "It Was All a Lie," the GOP is irredeemable. 
Trump is the culmination of a party that has been built on white grievance and racism for decades. Other anti-Trump conservatives see hope for rebuilding the GOP after Trump is gone . . .
THE NATIONAL CIRCUS 

Against Harris, Trump Tries to Run the Birther Playbook

By 
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". . . Almost as soon as Harris had been named to the ticket, she became the target of increased attacks from Donald Trump and others on the right, focused largely on her race and gender. Will these comments energize Trump’s base, or are they a sign of a flailing campaign not sure of what might stick? . . .
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Can a leopard change its spots after working on Romney's losing presidential campaign.?
It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump by [Stuart Stevens]It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump
  • Amazon Kindle Edition
  • Stevens, Stuart (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 09/14/2020 (Publication Date) - Knopf (Publisher)

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UPDATES

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VP Pence In Mesa :: Images From Marriott Delta Hotel Campaign Launch Event "Latter-Day Saints for Trump

Mike Pence in Mesa ....but first here's the story from

Latter-day Saints for Trump group seeks to ‘mobilize’ church members to reelect president

Coalition co-chaired by former Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch
By Dennis Romboy  Updated 

Vice President Mike Pence is greeted by Ariz. Gov. Doug Ducey before speaking to supporters at a "Latter-day Saints for Trump" campaign event in Mesa, Ariz. August 11, 2020. It was his second stop in the battle ground state after visiting Tucson earlier in the day.
Michael Chow / The Arizona Republic

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Vice President Mike Pence signs a hat for a supporter at a "Latter-day Saints for Trump" campaign event in Mesa, Ariz. August 11, 2020. It was his second stop in the battle ground state after visiting Tucson earlier in the day.

Michael Chow / The Arizona Republic
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READ MORE > Click or Tap Here
Arizona's elections chief claims Trump is sabotaging mail-in voting

Aug 14, 2020


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Zelensky Calls for a European Army as He Slams EU Leaders’ Response

      Jan 23, 2026 During the EU Summit yesterday, the EU leaders ...