Friday, January 15, 2021
7-Page TENTATIVE AGENDA: Mesa City Council Meeting on Mon 01.25.2021 @ 5:45 PM
HERE'S THE ENTIRE TENTATIVE AGENDA (as printed 01.14.2021)
City Council Meeting Agenda - Tentative Monday, January 25, 2021 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.
The City of Mesa is committed to making its public meetings accessible to persons with disabilities. For special accommodations, please contact the City Manager’s Office at 480-644-3333 or AZRelay 7-1-1 at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting.
Si necesita asistencia o traducción en español, favor de llamar al menos 48 horas antes de la reunión al 480-644-2767.
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.
Mayor John Giles Vice Mayor Jennifer Duff - District 4 Councilmember Mark Freeman - District 1 Councilmember Julie Spilsbury - District 2 Councilmember Francisco Heredia - District 3 Councilmember David Luna - District 5 Councilmember Kevin Thompson - District 6
January 25, 2021City Council Meeting Agenda - Tentative
Mayor's Welcome
Roll Call
Invocation: moment of silence.
Pledge of Allegiance
Awards, Recognitions and Announcements
1 Take action on all consent agenda items.
Items on the Consent Agenda
> 21-0107 Approval of minutes of previous meetings as written.*2
INSERT:
| File #: | 21-0107 |
| Type: | Minutes | Status: | Agenda Ready |
| In control: | City Council |
| On agenda: | 1/25/2021 |
| Title: | Approval of minutes of previous meetings as written. |
| Attachments: | 1. January 11, 2021 Regular |
3 Take action on the following liquor license applications:
> 21-0083 Hiatus
A bar is requesting a new Series 06 Bar License for JMMS Holdings LLC, 6429 East Main Street; Amy S. Nations, agent. There is no existing license at this location. (District 2)
*3-a
> 21-0086 Nicotine Source
A tobacco store is requesting a new Series 10 Beer and Wine Store License for Mt Baker Vapor LLC, 4355 East University Drive, Suite 108; James Ricky Thompson, agent. There is no existing license at this location. (District 2)
*3-b
> 21-0087 Herb N Smoke
A restaurant that serves lunch and dinner is requesting a new Series 12 Restaurant License for Herb N Smoke LLC, 123 West Main Street; Leo Andrew Chavez, agent. There is no existing license at this location. (District 4)
*3-c
> 21-0085 7-Eleven #26201D
A convenience store is requesting a new Series 10 Beer and Wine Store License for Main Bro JSC LLC, 2010 East Main Street; Jagdeep Singh Chatha, agent. The existing license held by Bambi & Friends Inc. will revert to the state. (District 4)
*3-d
Page 2 City of Mesa Printed on 1/14/2021
January 25, 2021City Council Meeting Agenda - Tentative
4 Take action on the following contracts:
> 21-0094 Ratification of Emergency Purchases made under the Mesa CARES Program (Mesa CARES Funds) (Citywide)
These purchases of materials and services were made and approved supporting the Mesa CARES programs; Feeding Mesa, Community Health and Safety, and Program Management during the period of August through December 2020. These items do not reflect all expenditures under Mesa CARES, but those that require Council approval under the City procurement policy.
The Business Services Department recommends ratifying these emergency purchases from The Mesa Chamber of Commerce, Northern Arizona University, Prestamos CDFI LLC, Visit Mesa, Amici Pizza, Artistic Touch Catering, CKE Downtown 12 West Main, Creative Hands Cuisine, Handle Bar Diner LLC, Gilded Gatherings LLC, Pacinos, 3 Taquitos on the Go LLC, Straight to the Plate, The Hub Grill and Bar, Naumann Hobbs Material, Personal Touch Catering, Mountain Vista Medical Center LP, SAFE Global Solutions LLC, Sonora Quest Laboratories, Trane US Incl, Apple Inc., and Dell Marketing LP, for a total of $3,379,985.46.
*4-a
> 21-0071 Three-Year Term Contract with Two Years of Renewal Options for Food Service for the Mesa Police Department Holding Facility (Competition Exemption) (Citywide)
This contract will provide sandwiches for detainees in the Mesa Police Department's holding facility. By City Procurement Policy, the City may partner with local non-profits for services. Copa Health (formerly Marc Community Resources, Inc.), a private non-profit organization located in Mesa, has been providing the Holding Facility with sandwiches for the last five years.
The Mesa Police Department and Purchasing recommend awarding the contract to Copa Health, at $40,000 annually, based on estimated usage.
*4-b
Page 3 City of Mesa Printed on 1/14/2021
January 25, 2021City Council Meeting Agenda - Tentative
> 21-0082 Purchase Ten, BMW R 1250 RT-P Police Motorcycles (Replacements) for the Mesa Police Department (Citywide)
This purchase is part of the Vehicle Replacement Program and will replace 10 motorcycles purchased in 2010. The motorcycles being replaced are no longer operating at peak performance and need to be replaced.
The Mesa Police Department, Fleet Services Department, and Purchasing recommend authorizing the purchase from the lowest, responsive, and responsible bidder, RideNow Powersports, at $267,176.
*4-c
> 21-0027 3-1/2 Year Term Contract with Five Years of Renewal Options for Wireless Voice, Data, Equipment, Products, and Services for Citywide Use (Citywide)
This contract provides for the purchase of a wide variety of wireless devices and services used by City departments. This includes cell phones, data cards, and vehicle locator services. Through the program, City devices draw from the Citywide voice or data allowance if usage exceeds an individual plan’s limit, mitigating overage charges. In addition, the program allows equipment upgrades facilitating the replacement of aging or failing devices as needed.
The Department of Innovation and Technology, Mesa Fire and Medical, Mesa Police, Energy Resources, and Water Resources Departments and Purchasing recommend authorizing the purchase using the NASPO/State of Arizona cooperative contracts with AT&T, DiscountCell, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless, at $1,755,000 annually, based on estimated usage.
*4-d
> 21-0089 Purchase of a Mechanical Street Sweeper (Addition) for the Transportation Department (Citywide)
The City was awarded a Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) grant for the purchase of one PM-10 certified street sweeper through the Maricopa Association of Governments. This purchase complies with FHWA procurement requirements.
The Transportation and Fleet Services Departments and Purchasing recommend authorizing the purchase using the Arizona Department of Transportation cooperative contract with Balar Equipment, at $265,000. This purchase is funded by Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) Funds ($236,009) with a City match of 5.7% minimum ($28,991).
*4-e
Page 4 City of Mesa Printed on 1/14/2021
January 25, 2021City Council Meeting Agenda - Tentative
> 21-0081 One-Year Renewal with a One-Year Renewal Option to the Term Contract for Bio-Solids Removal and Reuse/Disposal Services for the Water Resources Department (Citywide)
This contract provides materials, equipment, and labor to load, transport, and reuse/dispose of dewatered bio-solids from Mesa's Northwest and Greenfield Water Reclamation Plants. Dewatered bio-solids are removed from the plant site daily.
The Water Resources Department and Purchasing recommend authorizing the renewal with Denali Water Solutions, LLC, at $480,000 annually, with an increase allowance of up to 5%, or the adjusted Consumer Price Index.
*4-f
> 21-0080 Three-Year Term Contract with Two Years of Renewal Options for Bronze Water Service Valves, Fittings and Hydrants for the Materials and Supply Warehouse (for the Water Resources Department) (Citywide)
This contract will provide a variety of valves, fittings, hydrants, and repair parts stocked in the Materials and Supply Warehouse for use by Water Resources for the maintenance of the City's water distribution system and City-owned fire hydrants.
The Business Services Department and Purchasing recommend awarding the contract to the lowest, responsive, and responsible bidders: Arizona Water Works Supply; Core and Main LP; Dana Kepner Co. Inc.; Ferguson Enterprises LLC, dba Ferguson Waterworks; and Fortiline Waterworks Inc. (a Mesa business), at $751,000 annually, based on estimated requirements with an annual increase of up to 5%, or the adjusted Producer Price Index.
*4-g
> 21-0069 Three-Year Term Contract with Two Years of Renewal Options for the Purchase of Wastewater Grinder Equipment, Parts and Services for the Water Resources Department (Citywide)
This contract will provide a supply of wastewater grinder equipment, parts, and services for the City's three wastewater reclamation plants. Equipment, parts, and services are essential to maintaining these critical assets in good working order.
The Water Resources Department and Purchasing recommend awarding the contract to the two proposals received: Hennesy Mechanical Sales, LLC and JWC Environmental, Inc., at $175,000 annually, based on estimated requirements with an annual increase allowance of up to 5%, or the adjusted Consumer Price Index.
*4-h
Page 5 City of Mesa Printed on 1/14/2021
January 25, 2021City Council Meeting Agenda - Tentative
> 21-0063 Historic Post Office Project - Pre-Construction Services and Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) (District 4)
The Historical Post Office, formerly known as the Federal Building, was conveyed to the City of Mesa by the Federal Government for public use in 2002. The building has been vacant, except for the basement, which contains storage for the Arizona Museum of Natural History. The proposed improvements will focus on the reconstruction of all three floors of the existing building’s interior. The exterior work will include limited landscaping upgrades and improvements to address American Disability Act (ADA) compliant access to the site Staff recommends selecting ForeSite Design & Construction, Inc. as the CMAR for this project, and awarding a pre-construction services contract in the amount of $75,843. This project is funded by 2012 and 2018 General Obligation Bonds.
*4-i
5 Take action on the following resolutions:
21-0091 Approving and authorizing the City Manager to enter into a Lease Agreement with Maricopa County for the lease of a portion of the City-owned surface parking lot, for a ten-year term with three optional additional terms of five years each, located at 240 North Pasadena. (District 4) *5-a
21-0100 Approving and authorizing the City Manager to enter into a Lease Agreement with a hotel located in east Mesa, effective January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2021, for the purpose of providing temporary shelter to the City’s homeless population during the COVID-19 public health emergency and funded through a federal grant, Emergency Solutions Grant-Coronavirus. (Citywide) *5-b
> 21-0105 Approving and authorizing the City Manager to enter into a Fourth Amendment to the Lease Agreement with Option to Purchase with Benedictine University, for City-owned property generally located at 225 East Main Street. The Fourth Amendment increases the City’s funding cap for the design and build-out of approximately 10,000 square feet to support the innovative educational partnership between Benedictine University and CO+HOOTS from $2,000,000 to $2,150,000. (District 4) *5-c
Page 6 City of Mesa Printed on 1/14/2021
January 25, 2021City Council Meeting Agenda - Tentative
> 21-0106 Authorizing the City Manager to approve individual job orders under Council approved Job Order Master Contracts of up to $1,500,000 with notification to City Council and authorizing City Manager to approve individual job orders in excess of $1,500,000 and up to $2,000,000, provided City Manager obtains the Council’s prior approval for the specific job order through Council resolution; and authorizing the City Manager to execute an individual job order under Job Order Master Contract with a value of $1,700,000 for the build-out of approximately 10,000 square feet of the City-owned property at 225 East Main to support the innovative educational partnership between Benedictine University and CO+HOOTS. (District 4)
*5-d
Items not on the Consent Agenda
6 Items from citizens present. (Maximum of three speakers for three minutes per speaker). 7 Adjournment.¹
¹ Prior to adjournment, at this Council meeting, the City Council may vote to go into executive session for legal advice on any item listed on this agenda pursuant to A.R.S. §38-431.03(A)(3); this notice is given pursuant to A.R.S. §38-431.02 to the members of the City Council and the public.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Small Business Update: Filling-In "The Old Donut-Hole" Here In Downtown Mesa
These mom-and-pops—and along with them the distinctive urban villages they enliven—face a potentially devastating threat in the COVID-19 pandemic. For many, help has come in the form of a nimble little organization called RAIL (that’s for rail, arts, innovation, and livability) Community Development Corporation.
By midsummer 2020, just a few months into the pandemic, RAIL had provided technical assistance to more than 200 local businesses, the vast majority owned by people of color. With RAIL’s help these hard-put small-business proprietors of Mesa and Tempe had jumped through the various hoops required to access some $2.4 million in public funds—relief money that, perversely, flows more readily to bigger, richer companies well-served by banks, accountants, and lawyers.
RAIL is a decidedly place-based business development organization, and that feeds its core strength: “We are one of the only groups that does old-school door knocking, face to face, wearing your shoes out,” says Ryan Winkle, RAIL co-founder and board chair. RAIL’s first and only full-time employee, Executive Director Laura Suarez, had been in the position just five months when COVID-related business restrictions began in March. But she’s worked hand in hand with longtime consultant Augie Gastelum and board members like Winkle. “All of them love their city, know the light rail corridors, and are very involved,” says Suarez.
Making connections to meet a crisis
Early in the pandemic, a grant from U.S. Bank Foundation via LISC seeded RAIL’s effort, providing $20,000 to augment organizational capacity and $40,000 for dispersal as small grants to businesses in Tempe and Mesa. Also via LISC, Bell Bank contacted RAIL for help distributing federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) forgivable loans to underserved businesses in need. And when the City of Mesa, using funds made available by the CARES Act, started a program providing three months’ utilities and rent to businesses suffering COVID-related losses, says Suarez, “we called the city and said we would love to help, we want to reach out to places we know are not being reached.”
RAIL folks pounded the pavement, encouraging business owners to go after these and other resources, then coached them through arduous applications. Language was a barrier for many. Businesses that had been established for years and are “great at what they do,” says Suarez, didn’t have systems in place to spit out ownership documents, financial statements, and payroll figures, or to arrange for electronic deposits when a grant came through. Gastelum worked over a weekend with local CPAs to help nine businesses complete required tax filings. . .
What’s past is prologue
RAIL’s readiness to hit the ground running when COVID emerged reflects a decade of legwork and investment. With the light rail’s extension into downtown Mesa imminent in 2012, LISC Phoenix, working with partners, launched a multi-million-dollar program of equitable transit-oriented development along the corridor, as well as mural painting, musical events, and other creative placemaking projects to activate the corridor and stem business losses during construction. RAIL was born in 2012 to invite diverse local voices into the process, with Winkle as lead organizer. “For years,” Winkle recalls, “it was literally me, walking in and out of businesses saying, ‘Hey, how’s business today? What are you missing?’” He’d refer their needs to Gastelum or another local expert for specific assistance.
The overall goal, substantially met, was to ensure the new light rail wouldn’t plow under the existing community of ethnically diverse businesses as so many transit projects have done in the past, but instead bring revitalization and new opportunity. Not incidentally, its years of organizing also built the capacity of RAIL itself, growing an on-the-ground organization equipped to sustain and enrich the local business ecosystem in the even more dire situation of mass contagion.
Something special on Main Street
With the group’s help one business, a Venezuelan food enterprise called Que Chevere, even managed to launch a bricks-and-mortar restaurant in downtown Mesa—in the very midst of a broiling Arizona summer marked by pandemic.
Husband-and-wife team Maria Fernanda and Orvid Cutler had run a successful food truck for four years, and Fernanda, the more conservative of the two, had finally quit her day job to go all-in on offering the authentic Venezuelan recipes she’s learned from her mother and grandmother to the people of Mesa and beyond. But in May Cutler came down with COVID and Fernanda was worried. Their business account was dwindling fast, the food truck’s corporate lunchtime traffic at a drastic ebb. “What are we going to do?” she asked her husband.
“Augie [Gastelum],” says Cutler, “has helped us out every time.” RAIL walked the couple through successful applications for a PPP loan, so they could pay four new hires to work the restaurant they opened in June, and for a $20,000 Lowe’s grant through LISC they’re planning to put toward a fenced-in outdoor space with shade and misters to freshen diners in Arizona’s 100-plus-degree summer heat.
Now, as winter comes on, the space is comfortable and business is surprisingly good, says Cutler. “We’re never going to get rich doing this,” he says, “but I absolutely love it. The community is amazing. And I love my wife’s food. I’ve told her it’s special. It’s truly something special.”
America’s millions of small businesses are essential to the country’s functioning and to its diverse ways of life. They create jobs and keep consumer dollars circulating within local economies. Along with goods and services they bring distinctiveness and variety to Main Streets both urban or rural. And while it’s no small feat to create a thriving business in the face of structural inequities, independent entrepreneurship is the vehicle by which many people of color, women, and immigrants build wealth for their families and communities.
With independence, of course, comes risk. The coronavirus pandemic has had a harsh and disproportionate impact on the country’s smaller businesses, especially restaurants and nightspots, retail shops, and providers of personal services including neighborhood barbershops and beauty salons—and particularly among enterprises owned by people of color. In one survey of small business owners taken in early April, more than half said if the COVID crisis lasted four months they didn’t expect to be in business by the end of the year.
Small businesses can’t be expected to go it all alone. They may need support to get on their feet and grow in normal times, and to weather economic shocks like the COVID pandemic. That’s where a lesser-known entity comes in: the business development organization, or BDO.
Since the pandemic began in March LISC has deployed nearly $100 million in private funds to buoy the suffering small-business sector, with dedicated support from partners including Lowe’s, Verizon, U.S. Bank Foundation, Sam’s Club, Truist and many others who have contributed to our COVID-19 relief and recovery efforts. Those investments include direct grants to some 4,000 small businesses, money that may help proprietors cover rent and utilities, pay employees and suppliers, or mount an online marketing campaign. And it includes over $4.8 million in assistance to some 130 BDOs across the country that since the onslaught of COVID have been running on all cylinders to address sharply increased demand for advice and resources.
Facts Are Hard-To-Find: There's A Curiosity Carry-Over For Questions From One Year To The Next
| |||||
|
-
Flash News: Ukraine Intercepts Russian Kh-59 Cruise Missile Using US VAMPIRE Air Defense System Mounted on Boat. Ukrainian forces have made ...
