Formal Meeting · 8 April 2026

1. 0:01:49Councilwoman Guardado?

1. 0:01:50Councilwoman Hernandez?

1. 0:01:52Councilwoman O'Brien?

1. 0:01:54Councilwoman Pastor?

1. 0:01:57Councilman Robinson?

1. 0:01:58Councilwoman Stark?

1. 0:02:00Councilman Waring?

1. 0:02:02Vice Mayor Hodge Washington?

1. 0:02:04Mayor Gallego?

1. 0:02:24Yes, Mayor, thank you.
2. 0:02:26Good afternoon, my name is Mario Barajas.
3. 0:02:27I'll be teaming up today with Elsie Duarte, who will be serving as today's Spanish interpreters.
4. 0:02:34I'll now take a moment to introduce ourselves to our Spanish speaking audience.
5. 0:02:37Buenas tardes, yo soy Mario Barajas y voy a estar trabajando junto con Elsie Duarte como intérpretes a los de habla hispana.
6. 0:02:45Quisiéramos informarles de que si acaso van a estar dando un comentario público, favor de hablar de una manera clara, entendible y trate de evitar distracciones de fondo si es que lo están haciendo virtualmente.
7. 0:03:01De esa manera, haciéndolo así, podemos interpretarles de la mejor manera posible.
8. 0:03:06Muchas gracias.
9. 0:03:07Thank you, Mayor.

Spoken in Spanish, transcribed as said

Some lines may be an automatic translation of Spanish speech, not the speaker's own words

1. 0:03:13The titles of the following ordinance and resolution numbers on the agenda were available to the public at least 24 hours prior to this council meeting and therefore may be read by title or agenda item only.
2. 0:03:21Ordinance is number G7501 through 7507, S52698, 52727 through 52770, and resolutions 22367 through 22369.

1. 0:03:40Yes, thank you, Mayor.
2. 0:03:42Members of the public may speak for up to two minutes to comment on agenda items.
3. 0:03:45Comments must be related to the agenda item and the action being considered by the council.
4. 0:03:50General comments that go beyond the scope of the agenda item should be made during the citizen comment session at the end of the agenda.
5. 0:03:56The City Council and staff cannot discuss or comment on matters related to pending investigations, claims, or litigation.
6. 0:04:03Additionally, any member of the public who appears before the Council in their capacity as a lobbyist must, as required by Phoenix City Code, disclose this fact before addressing the Council.
7. 0:04:12City Code states that speakers must express their comments respectfully and courteously.
8. 0:04:17Use of profane language threats or personal attacks on members of the public, council members, or staff are not allowed.
9. 0:04:23Such comments are disruptive and unrelated to the council's business.
10. 0:04:27Any person who violates these rules may lose their opportunity to speak further and could be asked to leave.
11. 0:04:32Thank you.

1. 0:08:26Guardado?
2. 0:08:27Yes.
3. 0:08:28Hernandez?
4. 0:08:28Yes.
5. 0:08:29O'Brien?
6. 0:08:30Yes.
7. 0:08:31Pastor?
8. 0:08:31Yes.
9. 0:08:32Robinson?

1. 0:08:33Stark?

1. 0:08:35Waring?
2. 0:08:36Yes.
3. 0:08:36Hodge Washington?

1. 0:08:37Gallego?
2. 0:08:38Yes.

1. 0:08:44Yes, Mayor.

1. 0:09:17Yes, Mayor, Vice Mayor.
2. 0:09:18Also excluding item 54.

1. 0:09:20That's item 54.
2. 0:09:21Second.

1. 0:09:27Guardado?
2. 0:09:28Yes.
3. 0:09:29Hernandez?
4. 0:09:29Yes.
5. 0:09:30O'Brien?
6. 0:09:31Yes.
7. 0:09:31Pastor?

1. 0:09:33Robinson?
2. 0:09:34Yes.
3. 0:09:35Stark?

1. 0:09:36Waring?
2. 0:09:37No.
3. 0:09:37Hodge Washington?
4. 0:09:38Yes.
5. 0:09:39Fayego?
6. 0:09:39Yes.
7. 0:09:40Passes 9-0.

1. 0:28:27Mayor, members of the council, Councilman Hernandez, the funding for this program comes from the neighborhood block watch fund.
2. 0:28:33And so it would remain in that fund to be used for purposes specified for the fund, which include block watch grants or other programs intended to improve public safety.

1. 0:56:23Mayor, I can speak to that.
2. 0:56:24Mayor, members of the council, the way that this discussion and this program and ultimately the RFP came to be was
3. 0:56:33actually born out of the work that was done in response to the Department of Justice report.
4. 0:56:40It was part of a larger effort to address the report and ultimately culminated in a presentation to the council on what the staff was recommending that we do to respond to the DOJ report at the time, but also to build upon
5. 0:57:01and many years of work that the council and the community had been working on to make improvements within the police department and public safety in general.
6. 0:57:09And so there had been many discussions leading up to that point.
7. 0:57:14The police department, in response to the Department of Justice investigation and report, did build a team called the Organizational Integrity Bureau, which is still in place today, and that team
8. 0:57:27in response to the components of the report having to do with youth did much research related to best practices and how to build police related policies with youth but the other component that we wanted to look at were preventative measures with youth and how do we get ahead of some of the incidents that happen with juveniles in our community and so as we started to do that
9. 0:57:53police did do some preliminary research on it and looked at best practices but then ultimately we realized this is not the right department to be conducting this research and we really need to ask human services to get involved and that's when Jacqueline and her team got involved and her assistant director Nicole was very instrumental in developing the scope of the RFP and figuring out what it was that we were trying to accomplish based on the council's direction and based on
10. 0:58:21And so that's how the RFP itself came to be.
11. 0:58:28There were many, many factors that played into the inputs into even making that recommendation in the first place, some of which came from this council body.
12. 0:58:43Councilwoman Pastor and Councilwoman O'Brien, who both have education backgrounds.
13. 0:58:47They've mentioned multiple times, you know, how valuable it is to engage with youth positively.
14. 0:58:52We have many other members of the Council, you know, Mayor, yourself included, who are very passionate about serving youth in our community.
15. 0:59:00And so we wanted to make sure that we incorporated that positive, proactive approach into the Public Safety Improvement Plan so that it wasn't just reactionary.
16. 0:59:10and former city manager Barton and I had many conversations about how we did that.
17. 0:59:14And there were many groups, the council, community members, members of our staff who provided input on what that plan should look like.
18. 0:59:25And while I do want to acknowledge Mr. Harris and the Justice Coalition that we've been working with, and that was actually in place many years before I was in this role,
19. 0:59:38That group did provide input, but it was not the sole input that led to the recommendation to the council.
20. 0:59:46It was one component of stakeholder input, and there were many other factors that played into staff's recommendation to conduct exploration into youth prevention programming, and then ultimately leading to the RFP when we were able to identify funding through the block watch funds.
21. 1:00:04so I hope that provides some context.

1. 1:00:14Mayor, members of the council that is the first time that I know that there was a formal recommendation approved related to youth prevention programming however there have been multiple conversations you know that I can recall over the years where council has
2. 1:00:31emphasized the importance of serving youth in our community.
3. 1:00:35So I wouldn't say that was the only time it's ever been mentioned, but that was certainly the first formal approval of a recommendation related to this particular program.

1. 1:01:05Certainly, Mayor, members of the Council, we would be happy to do that.
2. 1:01:09I will just mention that this program and this proposal for the RFP was, not the program itself, but the proposal for the RFP and the best practices and the evidence-based practices were presented to the Public Safety and Justice Subcommittee last year and the intent
3. 1:01:26you know with that was to garner that feedback we also have included those updates in our quarterly updates to the full council and so we thought that we were providing you know updates on what staff was working on and unfortunately did not gather the level of feedback that that mayor and council would have liked and so we're hearing that loud and clear and happy to
4. 1:01:52make any adjustments you would like us to make and revise the procurement if you would like us to.
5. 1:01:59But we were making a good faith effort to incorporate what we believe the council direction was and to bring forward a product that was addressing that direction.
6. 1:02:14And if it is not the direction that you would like us to go in, we are more than happy to change direction and to update the process.
7. 1:02:23Thank you.
8. 1:02:25Councilman Hernandez.

1. 1:05:42Mayor, Vice Mayor, it does make sense.
2. 1:05:44I think I'd ask the city attorney, we may actually want to frame the motion just slightly differently.
3. 1:05:49It will accomplish, I think, what you're seeking, but to what you're saying about the process.
4. 1:05:56So Julie.

1. 1:05:57So Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, I think the discussion is are you, you're declining the contract rather than, so you're disapproving the contract, not the particular, you know, not Father Matters specifically.
2. 1:06:14Well, that was the motion that was presented.
3. 1:06:15And you do have options.
4. 1:06:16You could also continue it if you wanted to review the scope in more detail.
5. 1:06:22So you do have some options.
6. 1:06:24If you decline to approve it at this point, you can direct staff to go back to do further work and to basically cancel the RFP and resubmit it.
7. 1:06:36Or you can cancel it outright and the funds go back to, it sounds like, to the block watch program.

1. 1:06:43I think my recommendation from hearing the conversation would be to cancel the RFP, reject the RFP, cancel it, direct staff to come back
2. 1:06:54we're working with each of you to reissue an RFP in the future after conversation with the Council.

1. 1:07:14Blackwatch.
2. 1:07:15Yes, it's the neighborhood Blackwatch grant program.

1. 1:07:55Mayor, members of the council, vice mayor, the process that we just went through started in October and recently concluded.
2. 1:08:03It went a little bit longer because there were some administrative issues at the end that needed to be worked out, but the timeframe was about six months.
3. 1:08:15It could be slightly faster than that, but if it was reissued, it would not be likely that it would be able to start for the new school year.
4. 1:08:26Okay.

1. 1:08:48Mayor, members of council, vice mayor.
2. 1:08:51So the request is to authorize to enter into a contract.
3. 1:08:57So you would either approve or you would not approve that contract.
4. 1:09:05And direct staff to go back and...
5. 1:09:10review the RFP process and reissue.

1. 1:09:14I think the issue is if you continue it, it has to come back at a future date exactly like it is now.
2. 1:09:19That's not what I'm hearing from you that you want.
3. 1:09:22If you but I think you're seeking
4. 1:09:25Let's not do this RFP as it stands.
5. 1:09:27Let's just cancel it.
6. 1:09:29Start over by having a robust engagement process with the mayor and the council to develop a new RFP.
7. 1:09:37I think that's what I would say would be the sum of a motion to accomplish what I heard you say.

1. 1:10:21With direction.
2. 1:10:22Mayor, Vice Mayor, that is correct.
3. 1:10:23So if you continue the item, it would have to come back as is.
4. 1:10:27In order to make changes to the RFP, we have to cancel the RFP and reissue at this stage.
5. 1:10:36and all of the
6. 1:10:39applicants or those that proposed would still be eligible to propose to a new RFP so this doesn't affect.

1. 1:11:16I think that works and I would just commit to you I think what we would do in this case because it's had such robust conversation from you all is we would actually bring it back and have you authorize us issuing the RFP again so that you would see what it was and what the evaluation criteria were before it even went out to the public.
2. 1:11:34that would give you the most insight into.

1. 1:12:24Does that seem plausible?
2. 1:12:28Mayor, Councilwoman O'Brien, members of the council, that seems doable, thank you.

1. 1:13:50Guardado?
2. 1:13:51Yes.
3. 1:13:51Hernandez?
4. 1:13:52Yes.
5. 1:13:53O'Brien?
6. 1:13:53Yes.
7. 1:13:54Pastor?
8. 1:13:55Yes.
9. 1:13:55Robinson?
10. 1:13:56Yes.
11. 1:13:57Stark?

1. 1:14:07Waring?
2. 1:14:08Hodge Washington?
3. 1:14:09Yes.

1. 1:18:21Guardado?
2. 1:18:22Yes.
3. 1:18:23Hernandez?
4. 1:18:23Yes.
5. 1:18:24O'Brien?
6. 1:18:25Yes.
7. 1:18:25Pastor?
8. 1:18:26Yes.
9. 1:18:27Robinson?
10. 1:18:27Yes.
11. 1:18:28Stark?

1. 1:18:29Waring?
2. 1:18:30Yes.
3. 1:18:31Hodge Washington?

1. 1:18:32Gallego?
2. 1:18:33Yes.
3. 1:18:33Passes 9-0.

1. 1:19:01Guardado?
2. 1:19:02Yes.
3. 1:19:02Hernandez?
4. 1:19:03No.
5. 1:19:04O'Brien?
6. 1:19:05Yes.
7. 1:19:06Pastor?

1. 1:19:08Robinson.
2. 1:19:09Yes.
3. 1:19:09Stark.
4. 1:19:10Yes.
5. 1:19:11Waring.
6. 1:19:11Yes.
7. 1:19:12Hodge Washington.

1. 1:19:13Gallego.