Formal Meeting · 23 September 2026

1. 0:16:34Councilwoman Guardado?

1. 0:16:36Councilwoman Hernandez?

1. 0:16:38Councilwoman O'Brien?

1. 0:16:40Councilwoman Pastor?

1. 0:16:42Councilman Robinson?

1. 0:16:43Councilwoman Stark?

1. 0:16:45Councilman Waring?

1. 0:16:47Vice Mayor Hodge Washington?

1. 0:16:49Mayor Gallego?

1. 0:16:57Yes, Mayor.
2. 0:16:58Thank you.
3. 0:16:58Good afternoon.
4. 0:16:59My name is Mario Barajas, and today I want to be working with Oscar Monroy as interpreters for our Spanish-speaking community.
5. 0:17:07I'll now take a moment to introduce ourselves to our Spanish-speaking community.
6. 0:17:11Buenas tardes, yo soy Mario Barajas y hoy día voy a estar trabajando con Oscar Monroy como intérpretes a los de habla español.
7. 0:17:20Quisiera mencionarles brevemente, repasar algunos puntos para poder facilitar la interpretación a los de habla hispana.
8. 0:17:27Primeramente, se les pide de que, si acaso van a estar dando un comentario público, se les pide de que
9. 0:17:33Thank you, Mayor.
10. 0:17:48Thank you so much.

Spoken in Spanish, transcribed as said

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

1. 0:17:53The titles of the following ordinance and resolution numbers on the agenda.
2. 0:17:56I found this on the web.
3. 0:17:57to the public at least 24 hours prior to this council meeting and therefore may be read by title or agenda item only.
4. 0:18:02Ordinance is numbered S53185 through 53224.

1. 0:18:08will the city attorney explain public comment please yes thank you mayor members of the public may speak for up to two minutes to comment on agenda items comments must be related to the agenda item in the action being considered by the council general comments that go beyond the scope of the agenda item should be made during the citizen comment session at the end of the agenda the city council and staff cannot discuss or comment on matters related to pending investigations claims or litigation
2. 0:18:34Additionally, 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.
3. 0:18:44The City Code states that speakers must express their comments respectfully and courteously.
4. 0:18:49Use of profane language, threats, or personal attacks on members of the public, Council members, or staff are not allowed.
5. 0:18:56Such comments are disruptive and unrelated to the Council's business.
6. 0:18:59Any person who violates these rules may lose their opportunity to speak further and could be asked to leave.
7. 0:19:04Thank you, Mayor.

1. 0:25:00Mayor, Vice Mayor, no other items to exclude.
2. 0:25:03Second.

1. 0:25:07Guardado?
2. 0:25:08Yes.
3. 0:25:09Hernandez?
4. 0:25:10Yes.
5. 0:25:11O'Brien?
6. 0:25:11Yes.
7. 0:25:12Pastor?

1. 0:25:14Robinson?

1. 0:25:17Waring?
2. 0:25:18Yes.
3. 0:25:18Hodge Washington?

1. 0:25:20Gallego?
2. 0:25:21Yes.
3. 0:25:22Passes 9-0.

1. 0:28:30Thank you, Mayor.

1. 0:28:32Guardado?
2. 0:28:33Yes.
3. 0:28:33Hernandez?
4. 0:28:34Yes.
5. 0:28:35O'Brien?
6. 0:28:35Yes.
7. 0:28:36Pastor?
8. 0:28:37Yes.
9. 0:28:37Robinson?
10. 0:28:38Yes.
11. 0:28:39Stark?
12. 0:28:40Yes.
13. 0:28:40Waring?
14. 0:28:41Yes.
15. 0:28:41Hodge Washington?
16. 0:28:43Yes.
17. 0:28:43Gallego?

1. 0:28:46Passes 9-0.

1. 0:30:04Roll call.
2. 0:30:06Guardado?
3. 0:30:07Yes.
4. 0:30:07Sorry.
5. 0:30:08I'll do a word explanation.
6. 0:30:10Hernandez?
7. 0:30:11May I explain my vote?

1. 0:30:50O'Brien?
2. 0:30:51Yes.
3. 0:30:52Pastor?
4. 0:30:52Yes.
5. 0:30:53Robinson?

1. 0:30:55Stark?
2. 0:30:56Yes.
3. 0:30:56Waring?
4. 0:30:57Yes.
5. 0:30:58Hodge Washington?
6. 0:30:58Yes.
7. 0:30:59Gallego?

1. 0:31:02Passes 9-0.

1. 0:32:46Guardado.
2. 0:32:47Yes.
3. 0:32:47Hernandez.
4. 0:32:48Yes.
5. 0:32:49O'Brien.
6. 0:32:49Yes.
7. 0:32:50Pastor.
8. 0:32:51Yes.
9. 0:32:51Robinson.
10. 0:32:52Yes.
11. 0:32:53Stark.
12. 0:32:53Yes.
13. 0:32:54As a senior, yes.
14. 0:32:56Waring?
15. 0:32:58Hodge Washington?
16. 0:32:59Yes.
17. 0:33:00Gallego?

1. 0:33:02Passes 9-0.

1. 0:33:28Thank you, Mayor.
2. 0:33:29Good afternoon, Mayor, members of the Council, and I will introduce the team that will be coming to the table to provide a short presentation on a proposal to address the backlog mentioned by the Mayor and to discuss the public records and services fee proposal for the Police Department as well as
3. 0:33:47A request for increased staffing to address the backlog as mentioned.
4. 0:33:52The team who is joining me as we speak is Assistant Director Court Hood with the Police Department and Police Administrator Amy Runquist and both of them are experts in this field and will be providing a short presentation and we'll start with Court.

1. 1:07:14Mayor, members of the council, Councilwoman Hernandez, I think I can maybe shed some light on what you're asking by using a little bit different language, and this is the policy as I understand it, so please correct me if I'm wrong, Director Hood, but if any involved party to an incident, no matter how they're listed on a report, if they request a record, they would receive that record free of charge.

1. 1:07:36So if they are an involved party, they would receive that record or if they are a representative of that involved party.
2. 1:07:43So for example, the example that you're using, if the attorney representing the individual was to make that request, that record will be provided free of charge also.

1. 1:08:07Yes, Mayor, members of the council, Councilman Hernandez, that is what our policy will reflect.

1. 1:08:59Mayor, members of the council, Councilwoman Hernandez, I'll speak to that, and then if there's anything that Director Hood or Ms. Rehnquist would like to add, they can do that.
2. 1:09:07What I would say to that is that this fee schedule should actually, and the staffing level should actually make it easier for people to receive records that would be related to their First Amendment rights.
3. 1:09:18It will make it faster for people to receive records, whether that be documents or videos.
4. 1:09:24and it will also allow for that video, the first video submission to be the medium blur that allows folks to quickly receive the video, look at it and identify if there's a portion of it that they would like to have not blurred and redacted with standard redactions.
5. 1:09:43That process will be much quicker and will allow for folks to
6. 1:09:46get the information related to their First Amendment rights more quickly than they're able to do today.

1. 1:10:34Mayor, members of the council, Councilwoman Hernandez, you are correct.
2. 1:10:37We have been adding funds to the police public records budget as court summarized.
3. 1:10:43We've been doing many things over the last few years, including this budget year to address the backlog, technology enhancements and other things.
4. 1:10:51However, to your point, that has not been enough to address the increase in demand.
5. 1:10:56And so in order to address the backlog and sustain the success after we address the backlog within a year,
6. 1:11:03We need to now add positions.
7. 1:11:05The thing that I will note, however, is that the cost of those positions will be covered by the increased revenues, and the vast majority of those increased revenues will be paid by commercial users.
8. 1:11:16Okay.

1. 1:12:35Mayor, members of the council, Councilwoman Hernandez, I don't recall which slide it was on, but there is actually a combination of things that we are doing to address the issue.
2. 1:12:45The request for 10 new positions is new ongoing funding, which will be covered by the revenues created through the updated fee schedule provided that's approved today.
3. 1:12:54The six additional positions are being added through reallocations of positions from elsewhere in the police department.
4. 1:13:03So we are transferring positions from elsewhere in the department to add to the Public Records and Services Bureau.
5. 1:13:09And then we are adding 19 new temporary positions
6. 1:13:13employees or FTE to cover that backlog and those positions will be funded with the existing police budget.
7. 1:13:21So we are doing a combination of exactly what you suggested between funding positions through the new revenues, transferring positions from elsewhere in the department and using funds from one-time savings within the police department budget to fund the temporary positions to address the backlog.

1. 1:15:10Mayor, members of the council, Council Member Hernandez, I think those are important questions.
2. 1:15:14I guess I'd offer another way to look at it.
3. 1:15:17A couple things here.
4. 1:15:18First of all, this is really trying to shift the burden from the non-commercial public who's standing in line today behind people who are trying to use videos to monetize on YouTube
5. 1:15:31is shifting the cost to those commercial users.
6. 1:15:34So I think we'd all agree that if you're making money off of our public records, you should pay more for that than people you mentioned involved parties.
7. 1:15:45And so that's largely what this is trying to do.
8. 1:15:48Thank you.
9. 1:15:51Thank you.
10. 1:16:10at 3125, we should see our overtime be more in line.
11. 1:16:15So it's really we're compensating for less officers available until we can hire that full number.
12. 1:16:22And then the last thing I just say is we really work hard in the budget and research department through the entire year to ensure that there aren't big pockets of money that are unallocated within all of our department budgets.
13. 1:16:36So we shouldn't have $800,000
14. 1:16:39I just wanted to offer that
15. 1:16:54to kind of put some light to the questions you're asking as well.

1. 1:18:22in some form.
2. 1:18:23Mayor, members of the council, Councilman Hernandez, the vast majority of fees for non-commercial users are actually going down.
3. 1:18:30Most documents are available electronically and those documents would be available free of charge to non-commercial users.
4. 1:18:38The fee that is increasing is the video fee and that is to specifically recover the cost, which is very high to redact those body-worn camera videos.
5. 1:18:48But again,
6. 1:18:50a non-commercial user can receive the medium blur video to be able to identify if there's a portion of that video that they want to have redacted with standard redactions and they would only pay if they request those standard redactions.

1. 1:38:01And Mayor, Vice Mayor, if I may add to your question and also to Councilman Guardado's question, the way that we can keep the council informed and the public informed of our progress on this initiative is the Public Records and Services Bureau does produce a report that identifies where we are at as far as the number of backlogged requests, the number of current requests coming in and the types of those requests, in addition to the turnaround times on each of those types of requests.
2. 1:38:30there are nuances within each type of request it will depend on if it's a non-commercial versus commercial request it'll depend on if it's an involved party or an uninvolved party but there are at least ranges of average turnaround times for each of those requests we can provide that to the council and to the public in a gen info packet on a regular basis so that you and the the members of the public can track the progress that we're making on this initiative if that would be helpful thank you so much for that that is helpful and I

1. 1:47:55Roll call.
2. 1:47:59Yes.
3. 1:48:00Hernandez?
4. 1:48:01Yes.
5. 1:48:02No.
6. 1:48:02Sorry.
7. 1:48:05O'Brien?
8. 1:48:06Yes.
9. 1:48:07Pastor?
10. 1:48:07Yes.
11. 1:48:08Robinson?
12. 1:48:10Yes.
13. 1:48:11Thank you.
14. 1:48:12Stark?
15. 1:48:13Yes.
16. 1:48:14Waring?
17. 1:48:15Yes.
18. 1:48:15Hodge Washington?
19. 1:48:16Yes.
20. 1:48:17Gallego?
21. 1:48:18Yes.
22. 1:48:19Passes 8-1.

1. 1:48:26Thank you, Mayor.

1. 1:48:27During citizen comment, members of the public may speak to the City Council for up to three minutes on issues of interest or concern.
2. 1:48:33However, the matters addressed must be within the jurisdiction of the Phoenix City Council and on which the Council has the authority to act.
3. 1:48:40The citizen comment session is limited to 30 minutes.
4. 1:48:44The Arizona Open Meeting Law allows the City Council to listen to comments, but prohibits Council members from discussing or acting on the issues presented.
5. 1:48:52However, Council members may .
6. 1:48:54Thank you, Mayor.