Mayor Pizzillo called the meeting to order at 1:00 p.m.

Mayor Pizzillo turned the meeting over to City Manager Wynette Reed.  

Interim Finance Director Jared Askelson reviewed items to be covered, such as the 5-year forecast, financial policies, council priorities and the rate study update. He introduced Ryan Bittle, Finance Manager, Budget and Research. Mr. Bittle reviewed the economic outlook and the increased costs for things such as eggs and milk. He reviewed the global supply chain pressure index, interest rates, the impact mortgage rates had on home sales, and the growth in Goodyear. He added that the rate of inflation in the valley has softened faster than the rest of the U.S. and reviewed the Phoenix area Consumer Price Index changes. Mr. Bittle reviewed the number of building permits issued by the city over the last several years.

Mr. Bittle reviewed the forecast for the General Fund from ongoing sources such as primary property taxes, state shared revenues and development services related revenue. He spoke about the loss of the residential rental tax loss at approximately $5.2 million. He then reviewed the non-construction sales tax forecast, state shared revenues, primary property tax and assessed valuations.

Mr. Bittle reviewed the forecast considerations such as the financial policy compliance, fully funded asset management plans, and personnel cost increases for FY2025. He said that there was an expectation for normalized growth going forward. He then reviewed the retiree healthcare funding and dedicated transportation funding.  

Council spoke about their concern for retaining employees, single family prices and availability, home ownership, a parental leave policy, and a performing arts center.

Council recessed the Retreat at 2:54 p.m.

Mayor Pizzillo reconvened the Retreat at 3:11 p.m.

Mr. Askelson spoke about the enterprise rate study update. Mr. Bittle said there were no planned changes at this time and that there were built-in increases that were sufficient to cover costs.

Council inquired about the lack of recycling revenue. Mr. Bittle said there were no projections to add it back in. Mr. Askelson added that the rate study included the reduced recycling piece.

Mr. Bittle commented that there will be a rate study update for 2026-2029 which may include proposed increases. He reviewed the process that would be taken to adopt the rate plan for calendar year 2026 and 2027. He explained that by adopting the rates every two years allows the city to make adjustments more quickly. He added that forecasting would still extend out up to ten years.

City Engineer Steve Scinto introduced Deputy Director of Engineering - Transportation Chris Bridges and Traffic Engineer Hugh Bigalk.  

Mr. Bridges spoke about the 110 traffic signals that the city manages and the different actuating methods employed including camera detection - fully actuated, and camera detection - coordinated.  He spoke about the future and having adaptive traffic control systems.

Council discussed a real-time traffic control center that had cameras that could coordinate traffic. They discussed various intersections and roads and asked that intersections be coordinated as much as possible to allow for the free flow of traffic and allowing for adjustments for volume.

Council added the additional consideration of street racing occurring on the roadways.

Mr. Bridges spoke about the key considerations such as traffic volumes and movement, signal spacing, on-going construction, population and land-use changes, I-10 traffic impacts, population and land use changes and signal pre-emptions.

Mr. Bridges spoke about the approximate 400 times per day that an emergency vehicle was pre-empting the signal. He added that they were addressing it by coding the vehicles to provide more data about the use. He provided additional information about the internal controls to be implemented.

Mr. Scinto concluded the presentation that there was not one solution to the issues and that it would be an on-going process to coordinate traffic signals and address the additional items. He reviewed the objectives that they would be accomplishing in the near future.

Council was appreciative of the opportunity to discuss and added that the Transportation Master Plan was nice, and the presentation added information, but they would like a high level summary of the information with regular updates.

Council thanked staff for their time and efforts putting this retreat together and that they looked forward to future retreats.