Regular Meeting - 6/10/2025 6:30:00 PM

Thank you again for attending a Gilbert
town meeting and for your participation
in local government.
[Music]
Welcome to town hall and thank you for
attending a Gilbert public meeting. Here
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Okay.
Thank you. I'll call to order the
regular meeting of the Gilbert Town
Council, June 10th, 2025.
We'll begin with an invocation by Pastor
Thor Ranhold of Valor Christian Center.
Pastor
Good evening. This time I figured out
how to work this microphone.
Uh, mayor, vice mayor, members of the
town council, thank you so much for
having me back. I'm I promise I won't
exceed my 92nd time here tonight. But
I'm excited about what's happening in
our world today, including what's
happening in our great city of of
Gilbert.
As as we go through life, we experience
many chal challenges. And hopefully, we
regain wisdom as we make our mistakes.
And I thank God for the miracles he's
done in my life. As I am closer now to
80 than I've ever been before, I have
learned and experienced many things
throughout my years. For example, up
until the time I was 17, I was raised in
seven different homes, had no family
roots, and I was an orphan of sorts. I
became a high school dropout. I joined
the military and was a Vietnam War Zone
veteran. I became what I call an
unconfessed alcoholic. To make my story
short, I know that through divine
intervention with God, God can turn our
mistakes into miracles and our losses
into gain. And that applies to every one
of us here.
When I finally turned my life over to
God, he took a total turnaround. And
through his grace, I got my high school
diploma. I went on to higher learning. I
became a doctor. I took care of patients
for 40 years and used my my practice as
a ministry to help many come to
salvation. In 2013, I thought I was
retiring. I tried to retire three times,
but it never took.
When I finally came here to Arizona from
California,
I became the associate pastor here of
Valor Christian Center right here in
Gilbert in 2014. I was actually ordained
in 1997. I learned that when it comes
time to make decisions in life, it's
time to talk to God and get his wisdom.
Proverbs 24:3 says that through wisdom a
house is built and by understanding it
is established. Let's pray.
Lord, I pray for our town council right
now. And I thank you, Lord, for you your
wisdom to rest upon each one of them
concerning the decisions about our great
town and how to make it an even greater
place to live and to do business.
Father, I thank you, Lord. You give them
wisdom beyond their years and all the
decisions that they have to make. And
Father God, we'll be careful to give you
all the praise, all the honor, and all
the glory for it. And they everyone
agreed by saying amen and amen. Thank
you. Thank you, pastor.
Our our pledge of allegiance will be led
by council member Toruson.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
Thank you. Uh, we'll have a roll call.
Mayor Scott Anderson here. Vice Mayor
Bobby Buckley here. Council member Chuck
Bonjiovani here. Council member Kenny
Buckland here. Council member Youngowski
here. Council member Monty Lions here.
And council member Jim Torus present. A
quorum is present. Thank you. Uh, we'll
move into presentations and
proclamations. I believe we have a video
we're going to show before we actually
read the proclamation tonight.
[Music]
I think one of the things that I've
struggled with is getting a good night's
rest.
It's constant.
It never goes away.
[Music]
Amy would get lost in this house. She
wouldn't be able to find the bathroom
or she'd get up in the middle of the
night and maybe walk out into the garage
or want to get out.
For me, it's the hardest job I've ever
had in my life.
[Music]
You have a choice when you hear news.
[Music]
I think one of the things that I've
struggled with is getting a good night's
test.
It's constant.
It never goes away.
Amy would get lost in this house. She
wouldn't be able to find the bathroom
or she'd get up in the middle of the
night and maybe walk out into the garage
or want to get out.
For me, it's the hardest job I've ever
had in my life.
[Music]
You have a choice when you hear news
like this that your most precious person
in your world has been diagnosed with a
terminal illness. You can take the high
road or you can take the low road. I
chose to take the high road. I felt like
the more people that knew about this
disease and how they can understand and
how to communicate with Amy and other
folks who also have Alzheimer's is one
thing that I can do.
They're walking the streets and are
probably folks with some form of
dementia that you run across every day.
[Music]
Uh my uncle Robert who lives in Oregon
had dementia. My mother was diagnosed
and suffered through Alzheimer's. We
frequently respond to homes uh of loved
ones and also care facilities that have
people suffering from dementia. Watching
the progressive nature of dementia take
over a loved one is devastating.
They look normal. They don't look as if
there's, you know, anything wrong with
them physically or even mentally, but
there really is. And if there was a way
that that the community or people could
recognize those people, um, it's going
to make it make it much easier for us to
get through maybe some challenging
situations. I thought, you know, the
town of Gilbert needs to know more about
Alzheimer's. What's another way to get
the community involved in this thing?
Well, how about we have a proclamation?
So what I did is I went through all the
process to get approved to have a
proclamation that the month of November
is going to be recognized as Alzheimer's
awareness and caregivers month for 2023.
And now therefore I Chuck Bonavani for
Bridget Peterson, mayor of the town of
Gilbert, Arizona, do hereby proclaim
November 2023 as Alzheimer's and
Caregiver Month.
I think the impact of Gilbert as a as a
town um being dementia friendly
certified, what that does is it helps
certainly our town employees understand
that to learn and recognize uh people
that might be suffering from dementia so
that we can better learn how to interact
with them uh to have a more successful
outcome. I think we as citizens have a
responsibility
to be sensitive to our communities. It
takes a community to take care of a
community. And I think bringing
awareness to this brings dignity to the
human beings that are affected by it
because these are people. They're not
they're not a waste of time. They're a
valuable use of your time when you know
what to do when you encounter them.
really a beautiful opportunity for us as
a town to come together and say this is
important and there's a lot we can do uh
to again be really show a lot of more
empathy uh for our whole community
that's suffering for this. I um made a
promise to myself that whatever I could
do to ease the process for another
person that's suffering out there that I
would do it. And if this is it then
thank you mom.
Thank you.
Council member Bonioani.
I'd like to ask everyone who helped make
this possible um to come on down.
Everyone who's Alzheimer's or dementia
has affected your life, please come on
up here with us.
mother. I mean, you should.
All right.
uh Gilbert, a dementia friendly city.
Whereas dementia is growing public
health concern that affects over six
million Americans and their families,
including many right here in Gilbert.
And whereas June is recognized as
Alzheimer's and brain awareness month. A
time to raise awareness, foster
understanding, and encourage community
action around Alzheimer's disease and
other forms of dementia. And whereas
Gilbert is committed to creating an
inclusive, a compassionate and
supportive environment for in
individuals living with dementia and
those who care for them. And whereas
becoming a dementia friendly city means
engaging the entire community, including
local government, healthcare providers,
first responders, businesses, and
residents to build awareness, reduce
stigma, and improve accessibility. And
whereas this designation reflects the
town of Gilbert's continuing efforts to
promote education and increase public
understanding, implement practices that
support aging in place with dignity. And
whereas Gilbert proudly joins a growing
national envir movement of cities
committed to enhancing quality of life
for people affected by dementia through
meaningful partnerships, thoughtful
planning, and community engagement.
Therefore, I, Chuck Bonjavani, for Mayor
Scott Anderson of the town of Gilbert,
do hereby proclaim June 2025 as Gilbert
a dementia friendly city and encourage
all residents, businesses, and
organizations to join in in supporting
individuals and families impacted by
dementia.
Steve, you want to say a word? Just a
couple. Um, I just want to say thank you
to the town, to the everyone that was
has been involved in this. This has been
going on for a year or so now. And I
remember a proclamation, I think, I
think it was a 2023 proclamation we
talked about at some point in time we're
going to be up here again and we're
going to have this award.
Sorry. Um
I'm just going to say thank you and I
just ask all of you to take the high
road with me. Thanks.
Council member Karasi is going to talk a
little bit more about the initiative and
then if uh we could just go around real
quick and just say how your life's been
affected whether it's your mother,
father, friend or something like someone
like that.
I feel that this initiative is very
important for the town of Gilbert to
take that leadership step forward. Um,
not only because we are a government
agency, but because we have employees,
first responders within our community
that can better understand this disease
and better serve our citizens and help
provide resources or links to each other
um to help provide greater compassion
and care to our um community members.
So, just want to thank everyone that has
been involved and look forward to the
future initiatives where we will have
training for our town employees in parks
and recreation in our police and fire
department um so that we can better
serve our community. And also want to
mention that some of our programming for
parks and recreation such as our Gilbert
Symphony Orchestra and our conductor
Martin Province is here. Um and being
able to modify those sessions to help be
more opening to um and welcoming to
people that may have um dementia.
My name is Herman Cook. I met Steve
Adams and got to know him really well at
the Sons of
American Legion post 39 at a lasagna
bake off for a lost friend of ours. And
then I got to know Amy and I've
tried to be there as a friend to help
him through what he's going through and
also this awareness. I've been a member
of the town of Gilbert, meaning a
citizen for over 25 years now, and this
is a great community, and we need to
come together and help those less
fortunate. Thank you.
Uh my mother.
Hi. Um I actually lost my mom in 2008,
and since then I've lost four other
family members. and I met Steve being a
part of the committee for the
Alzheimer's walk and we've become good
friends since then. So,
hi, my name is Pam Eisenberg. I work at
the Alzheimer's Association. Uh, I live
here in Gilbert and I'm very pleased to
know Steve and Amy and all the other
families. And if you didn't know, there
are over 161,000 people in Arizona that
are diagnosed right now. So yes, we need
all take the high road because it not
just affects this city, but it affects
all cities around Maricopa County and
all over this great state.
Hi, my name is Irene Dyer. I've lived in
Gilbert for 25 years and I'm a full-time
caregiver for my husband.
My name is Patty Velasquez and I lost my
husband to Alzheimer's in December of
last year.
John Hegman. um friend and and Steve's
neighbor. So, we were friends with Amy.
I'm Marty Province and as Chuck said,
I'm or Young said, I'm the conductor of
the Gilbert Symphony Orchestra. My dad
died of dementia a couple of years back
and had another good friend, Otis
Elliott, who many of you may have known
who lived in Gilbert, who I used to
visit once a week uh as he suffered with
Parkinson's. Um, Chuck did ask me to say
a couple of things about the orchestra,
so I made notes because Young knows I
talk too long if I don't have notes. Um,
first of all, full disclosure, I am not
a resident of Gilbert. I live in that
city just to the west of us. Uh, but I
was director of music at Gilbert
Methodist Church, First United Methodist
Church of Gilbert for 10 years. Um, I
actually quit that job so that I could
travel back home more often uh to North
Carolina and help my mom with my dad. Um
then COVID hit and I couldn't fly. So
I've driven to North Carolina about four
times a year for the last four or five
years. Um we would love to invite you to
the Gilbert Symphony Orchestra. We start
up again October the 12th and we are
debuting the Gilbert Symphony Chorus.
Anyone who likes to sing is welcome to
log onto our website and write to me. Uh
it will be an allameana concert. The
first piece, the audience will actually
end up singing the Star Spangle Banner.
Uh, the last piece on the concert is
when the chorus debuts, the words of
Thomas Jefferson to stirring music, the
opening line, the God who gave us life
gave us liberty at the same time. Uh, it
should be a wonderful concert, the first
of four for this year, and we would love
to see you there. It's free. You will
get your money's worth. Thank you. Um
Amy Ashworth, my father-in-law. Um he
passed uh several years ago and I was
his caretaker before he passed.
Hi Rob Dugen, fire chief. Um my
mother-in-law diagnosed early onset uh
Parkinson's. With that comes dementia
later in life for the last three years.
Really suffered through that and a lot
of support from the family. Uh my aunt
diagnosed with Louisbody which
essentially leads to a dementia-like
effect at the end of their life. uh that
my father uh just under a year ago
passed away uh from the effects of
dementia. So well connected to it. But
please understand your first responders,
they are trained, they are prepared uh
to take care of all of your loved ones
in this space. So please rest assured
that we are doing everything we can to
train and teach our individuals how to
manage uh this population.
This is going to go quick. Um my name is
Mark Young. I am a healthc care
provider. I've helped over 500 families
with some sort of dementia and cognitive
impairment. And most recently, I'm
assisting my my wife who's uh her
mother's struggling.
My name is Scott Kger. Um I'm neighbor
of Steve Adams. When I first moved into
the neighborhood 22 years ago, Steve was
the first person I actually met. I think
I actually met him before I actually
unloaded the truck. Um and I got to know
Steve and Amy extremely well. And then
when the news came about Amy's
situation, it really obviously it you
feel like you it's like a a dear friend
and a sister that it actually affects
you. So I'm with Steve and his
unconditional love to Amy. It's nice to
see what he's doing for her and for all
the people with dementia and
Alzheimer's.
I'm Larry Caulkins. My father passed in
2009 uh from the effects of vascular
dementia. and uh my mother took care of
him but I also helped my mother out by
bringing him to my home and uh caring
for him as well. So um I also uh have
recently started with the town of
Gilbert uh in terms of uh volunteering
for as a caregiver um group leader and
so um I'm happy to be here.
Hi, my name is Sonia Salam and I'm in um
home care. I got into it very recently.
I come from corporate America. As people
who look at me and say, "Why do you
dress so fancy?" Um uh the reason why I
got into home care is because my mom has
dementia. Um and I nearly lost her last
year. So that's the reason why I'm here.
And we've served multiple um you know,
patients who have dementia. um you know,
navigate this world with dignity and
compassion and that's my mission to
serve them. Thank you.
For the photo.
We're going to do a photo. If you guys
can all make a couple rounds.
[Applause]
Thank you all for being here tonight.
Next, we'll have a presentation and
update on the performance management
program. I think I see Eugene coming up.
Mary's here and
Amy.
Yes. Uh, thank you. Good evening, Mayor
and Council. Eugene Mia, chief AI
strategist and transformation officer in
the town manager's office. Uh, we're
excited to share some of our most recent
updates with the performance management
program. Um, there's been a lot of work
and effort done by our core performance
team as well as Amy Ashworth who is
going to be sharing the presentation
with you today. She is our core
performance management uh core
performance manager. Sorry about that.
Um but we wanted to uh kind of give you
a little refresher on what performance
management actually is before we jump
into that. And it's where we're
continuously using data and analytics to
set goals, measure progress, and make
informed decisions. Um, and with that,
as you may recall, we were here in
September of 2024 where we presented our
first set of public dashboards for
police and public works. Um, and since
that time, uh, we have onboarded four
more departments that have gone through
that process. Uh, there's been a lot of
of ongoing effort to build a robust
framework to really streamline those
processes as well as embrace iteration
to make it successful as we can to
really automate some of the things that
are happening behind the scenes. Um,
with that onboarding of those four
departments, which you're going to see
today in the presentation, we've been we
are getting close to launching 16 new
dashboards that'll be available uh very
soon as of tomorrow to the public, which
Amy's going to share with you. Um, and
with that, we have three uh sorry, three
yeah, three more departments that are in
an early phase of the onboarding right
now and then four additional departments
that'll be kicking off in the next few
weeks. So, just wanted to help provide
and share some of that background before
we really jump into the presentation.
But again, just the recognition and all
the effort that has gone in by Amy, the
core performance team, as well as a lot
of the stakeholders to really get us to
this point to use this information to
really drive us forward. So, with that,
I will turn it over to Amy.
Thank you, Eugene, for that uh
comprehensive update since our last
council. I'm excited to share important
updates on our performance management
program with you today. We will look at
our redesign dashboard portal, our
updated templates. Um we'll also
announce our new public dashboards and
our redesign of the PD public
dashboards.
These improvements really reaffirm our
commitment to uh transparency and
accountability
and ultimately cultivating a culture of
datadriven governance.
For those whom I haven't met, my name is
Amy Ash, the core performance manager
here at Gilbert. I joined the team in
June of 2023, so I'm actually on my uh
my second year here with the town. Very
excited um for all the work that we've
been doing. I bring over 20 years of
experience in technology and program
management. Um, today I'm excited to
represent our performance management
program and the dedicated team behind
it. Our core performance team consists
of 22 talented members who collaborate
to oversee daily operations and ensure
we maintain a high standards in our
performance management efforts.
As we explore the history of our program
and culture, let's appreciate the
progress that we've made since launching
the city of the future initiative in
2018. From 2019 to 2021, we developed
pilot programs and governance strategies
that have really laid the groundwork for
what we present today. Our core team was
formed in 2022, and the public release
of our first dashboards in 2023 and 2024
marked a significant milestone. In 2024,
we also focused on building our program
infrastructure, departmental onboarding,
and redesign of the performance
management portal. These steps again
pave the way for further integration
with our AI strategy and transformation
division. Each step is essential for
creating a transparent, efficient, and
data-informed environment for our
Gilbert community. We maintain that this
momentum as we discuss the performance
management portal.
So, as we dig in, I want to highlight
three key things that we're really
excited about for the performance
management portal. We simplified the
user experience. So, now performance
dashboards are organized by department,
enabling people to quickly uh gather the
data that they need. We've uh enhanced
uh and really prioritize consistent
update. So transparency into the program
uh onboarding process and when new
dashboards will be re released.
Additionally, we have uh enhanced our
per uh program information. So now that
you can find on the page that uh
information about our program, the
organizational structure and a mechanism
for feedback, we really value your input
and we want to make sure that our
communication goes two ways.
Sorry.
All right. So,
in all of this, we were really uh we
were really tasked with the town uh the
town manager's office to to unify our
designs across six performance
management departments that were
currently underway.
And so we uh gathered a task force of
diverse individuals, data stewards,
developers, tech uh tech leads and
communications engagement
communications engagement experts. And
really we were focused on uh
co-developing through multiple work uh
workshop sessions the um sorry is that
me
Sorry. Is that me? Sorry.
Sorry.
Is that mine? Sorry. Um, so through the
workshops, we really uh uh we worked
together to develop a dashboard template
that would emphasize accessibility,
functionality, visual consistency, and
user center focus. After finalizing
those templates, uh the dashboard uh
developers worked through uh
standardizing new and existing
dashboards and we'll continue this work
until all the public dashboards meet
this standard. This really showcases a
true partnership and I look forward to
demonstrating how these changes will
improve our uh current public
dashboards.
So as we delve into the new dashboard
design, first I want to focus on three
key aspects that will enhance the user
experience and engagement. We uh
prioritize clear contextual
storytelling.
Um our aim was to provide immediate
clarity to anyone who uh on service
performance uh ensuring residents and
website visitors can grasp key
information at a glance. Next, we uh
designed the the dashboards to be
intuitive. We wanted to make sure that
the navigation was crafted to be
straightforward, allowing users to
seamlessly explore visualizations. This
is crucial to ensuring that diverse
audiences, regardless of their
familiarity with the data, could uh find
what they need. Finally, we committed to
a modern aesthetic that aligns with our
Gilbert's branding standards. By
leveraging advanced technology um and
best practices, we not only engage users
um but we also elevate their experience
through visual appeal. Together, these
elements will transform how our
community interacts with performance
data, ensuring it's both insightful and
userfriendly. So, now let's explore some
of the elements of our public dashboard
design.
We've highlighted Gilbert branding to
ensure that our dashboards have clear,
concise titles for both the dashboard
and the visualization. This clarity is
essential for effective communication.
Next, we've added interactive elements
so users can engage with the data using
filters and accessing more detailed
information as needed. This interaction
makes the data more meaningful uh to our
audience. Finally, we created a
responsive design and layout that
includes color coding to indicate t
target target statuses. This not only
enhances
uh visual appeal but also quickly
conveys information
to our residents and website visitors.
This design will help everyone
understand surface performance at a
glance while still offering the
opportunity to explore the data further
aligning with our commitment for
transparency.
So we also wanted to talk through a
little bit about our dashboard process.
It's crucial to understand that while
every department undergoes the same
framework uh the amount of information
can vary significantly. So in our first
uh we'll outline the steps that are
involved in data governance and source
review. The these serve as our
foundation. We ensure and verify that
data we use is accurate and reliable. In
the selection of department goals phase,
we align metrics with each department
specific objectives, ensuring they're
relevant and clear. Creation of data
visualizations. That is where the magic
happens. We help to transform raw data
into visual formats that enable quick
comprehension. In phase four, we really
uh consolidate everything into a a
cohesive dashboard that is userfriendly
and visually appealing. It's important
to note that it's not just about the
visuals. We also help develop narratives
that explain the data's implications.
And finally, we embed these dashboards
into the departmental websites on the
performance management portal. This is
uh ensuring enhancing access for both
residents and stakeholders. By following
these steps, we can ensure that our
dashboards are not only functional but
also engaging and informative.
As part of our as part of our onboarding
process, each department has carefully
identified essential service line
information to share with the public,
demonstrating our commitment to
transparency and resident engagement. On
June 11th, as Eugene mentioned, we will
launch 16 performance dashboards through
the newly updated performance management
portal.
These dashboards will provide clear
insights into our operations and
priorities. Now, remember, these
indicators are not just numbers. They do
reflect real experiences and outcomes
for our residents. A key aspect of our
program is to continuously evaluate how
these elements work together to enhance
our service delivery. So now I'm going
to talk about the ongoing assessment of
our data through the police department
and the exciting updates to their
dashboards.
As we evaluate our data, it's essential
to emphasize the design practices
adopted. I really want to highlight the
Gilbert Police Department's journey.
They launched their stats program in
2020 and significantly advanced by
releasing their public dashboards in
late 23 and 24. Their efforts have
enhanced the performance management
program and they are a key partner to
our improvement process.
So in phase one, we sat down with them
and we assisted the department in
identifying key uh key dashboards for
relaunch, distinguishing those from
internal and external.
In the update phase, we collaborated
with the department's dashboard
designers to revise dashboards according
to the new design standards, including
metrics such as response times,
accountability standards, and benchmark.
On June 11th, utilizing our updated
portal, the PD will launch relaunch its
site with three redesigned
uh dashboards and one new public
dashboard with the goal of consistent
user experience across jurisdictions.
So, they really set forth a goal of
wanting to have consistency from when
you looked at Chandler PD to Gilbert to
Phoenix to Scottdale.
The work this work with the PD reflects
our commitment to transparency and
continuous improvement in presenting
data to the public.
And last but not least, our progress is
driven by the exceptional efforts of our
department dashboard developers who ma
who manage data with precision and
integrity, collaborate across
departments to create meaningful
actionable insights, embrace evolving
standards and technologies with agility.
Their dedication to transparency,
quality, and innovation forms the
foundation of the Gil of Gilbert's
performance management program. We
extend our sincere gratitude to each
team member for their resilience,
creativity, and service to the Gilbert
community. This work is truly
peoplepowered. While not all
contributors are listed here, our
developers along with the core
performance team, other internal
partners remain at the heart of our
continued success.
As we conclude our presentation, thank
you for your attention today. If you
have questions or would like more
information, please email us at core
performance atgilbertaz.gov.
We're here to support and enhance our
community's performance management. more
res resources are avail and updates are
available through our uh website links
provided and the portal will be live
June 11th without password restrictions.
So if you do go to that today because
you're curious um there are some
password restrictions on our performance
management portal until we have this
opportunity to speak to you. And thank
you again and I'll now open the floor
for any questions. Thank you Amy. Uh,
council, you have questions or comments?
Council member Kapowski.
Hi, Amy. Thanks for that presentation.
Um, I I think this data is really um
good for the town to have. My my comment
is that a lot of the data that that you
shared seems like they are key
performance indicators internally for
Gilbert and I wanted to understand if
there were going to be future iterations
that um had more regional, state and
national benchmarks.
Absolutely. We we are partnered with
VBC. I know um that OM does have
partnerships with them. We would love to
see additional regional benchmarking. Um
there are a lot of performance
management programs. We we had the
opportunity to go to uh transforming
local government conference. There are
uh we're building partnerships with
Glendel, city of Glendel with some of
the uh departments that are forming
around the city as well. So absolutely
and and one more question is um in terms
of the integration of maps or
data that's better represented visually
in a map format, do you see enhancements
or maybe connections or links to
availability of that type of data? Yeah,
absolutely. We do uh on some of the uh
dashboards that are being released, they
do have maps, uh 311 information. Um, we
obviously want to balance privacy with
uh with information that we're putting
out there because, you know, um, as much
as as we would like to share everything
and be incredibly transparent, uh, we
still have to ensure that we're
protecting the information of the
residents of Gilbert. So, um, for some
information, we'll be able to to get
down to block level. Um for others
especially things like when we start
working with fire um they have very
sensitive um HIPPA data and so we will
not be able to share map related
information for that. Thank you.
At least publicly internally absolutely
but but publicly thank you. Any other
questions comments?
Patrick this might be something to share
with the league at some point I think.
Yeah, a presentation of some kind.
Absolutely. And uh Mayor, Council Member
Krosi, to your point, there's quite a
few of them that have maps to where it
will uh geospatially uh represent the
data and then you can drill down and
there's a point when again to protect
privacy interests. It will only go so
far, but you'll you'll be able to see in
a lot of the dashboards that type of
information uh that you just mentioned.
And um we will continue to roll this out
across the organization. In PD, you're
going to see a lot of their dashboards
are things that are going to be of great
importance to the community around
different types of crime and severity
and and some of them time of day uh and
some heat maps on where that's
occurring. But I wanted to recognize Amy
and Eugene and Mary Goodman and the
entire team. They have done a really
good job with this and worked very hard
um with that team to create to pull this
information together to pull the data
sets together to create visualization
ways to visualize them that are easy to
understand in the various areas you're
looking at how we're doing or how a
certain aspect within our community is
doing like certain crime stats. Um, and
our hope with these dashboards, and
we've called them dashboards because
their goal is to be simple and easy to
understand like dashboard instruments on
your car and raise awareness and create
greater transparency for the community
on core areas importance whether it be
performance of the local government or
whether it be items of great importance
to our community. And then in addition
when we take actions and let's say we uh
put put in place a special initiative
and bring additional resources to bear
to create that connection for the
residents on why we're doing that
because there's a certain indicator
that's at a level that we feel is higher
than it should be. And this is why we're
expending additional dollars or putting
additional resources and effort in for
that. But they've just done a fantastic
job and it's an organizationwide effort
and I'm just very proud of the hard work
they've done.
Thank you. Yes, congratulations to the
whole team. Thank you very much, Amy.
Thank you.
Before we move on to the public hearing
section, I do have a statement to read
into the record about an item.
Zoning KZ24-22
Bellistoria Apartments was originally
continued by the town council to the
June 10th public hearing. However, this
item was not agendaized for today's
public hearing.
This zoning case will be considered at
the June 24th town council meeting. We
appreciate uh your patience as town
staff works closely with the applicant
to bring the project forward.
So it'll be on the 24th versus tonight.
Other public hearing items. Um are there
any items that any council members would
like to have pulled separately?
Understanding that item eight and 10,
staff is requesting continuence to the
24th with those two.
Any other items to pull?
We'll get to that one.
I'll open the public hearing
on items
three, four, five, six,
7,
9, and 11
and entertain a motion.
That's That's not That's Street lighted
improvement district.
Okay, we'll pull nine.
So, I'm looking for a motion including
postponement of 8 and 10 to the
June 24th meeting.
Mayor Anderson, could you close the
public hearing before the motion? Thank
you. public hearing. I'd like to make a
motion to uh accept 3, four, five, six,
7, continue item 8, discuss item nine,
continue item 10, and accept item 11.
There's a motion. Is there a second?
Second.
Motion by Council Member Torus, seconded
by Vice Mayor Buckley. Please vote.
Motion carries 70. We'll return then to
item nine
staff.
Thank you.
Good evening, mayor, members of the town
council. Nicole Russell, senior planner
with development services.
The applications before the town council
this evening are GP2406
and Z2417
for Sheffield Place.
The general plan amendment is requested
that is being requested is for a change
from residential 8 to 14 dwelling units
per acre to residential 5 to eight
dwelling units per acre. and a reszoning
with a P A from multifamily low to
single family detached. There are two
deviations that are being proposed, the
allowance of twotory homes along the
northern property boundary and the
allowance of 62% retention on the front
of the site where 50% is allowed.
Here is an aerial map showing where the
site is located. It's approximately 13
of a mile to the southeast of the
intersection of Gilbert Road and Civic
Center Drive. Just south of the the
Wyatt apartment complex, which is on the
next slide showing the MFM zoning to the
north, the MFL, the multif family large,
I apologize for the subject site, which
is asking to being requested to be
changed. This is the showing the
surrounding area. You've got uh single
family neighborhoods as predominantly to
the east and to the west. To the north,
like I said before, you've got an
apartment complex. Um and to the south,
you have the Laurens Institute for
Education.
Here is the development plan. The
applicant is requesting the minor
general plan amendment and reszone to
develop a 67 lot single family
development. As you can see in the red
box, that is the deviation request for
lots 121 through 124
to be twotory. Uh there is a portion of
the code that uh prohibits more than one
story next to multifamily medium zoning.
So that's why the applicant is
requesting a deviation. The applicant is
also requesting a deviation for the
retention on the front of the site
adjacent to Gilbert Road.
Here's the project data table showing
what the LDC standards are for the
single family detached zoning district
and the proposed uh changes the
deviations to the uh single family
detached P AD. The applicant has agreed
to limit the homes to two stories. to a
30-foot height. And again, we've got the
setbacks on there and the 62%
increase or this the increase in the
retention on the front of the property.
Here is the single family parking plan.
Um the applicant worked extensively with
staff uh to
alter the design in order to accommodate
the required parking on the site. As you
can see on your screen, on non-trash
days, parking provided in the community
will be 195 spaces.
Here are some of the entry the entry
gate monument signage and the typical
lot layouts and colors and materials.
A virtual public meeting was held on
June 20th of 2024. Um, as of this
meeting, staff has received seven
letters of support from neighbors in the
area and six letters of support from
neighbors, businesses in the area.
Should the town council find that this
is an appropriate designation for the
general plan and land use and change the
zoning, staff
provided stipulations or conditions of
approval in the staff report. I'm happy
to answer any questions. My applicant is
here and has a presentation should the
council wish to see it. Questions for
Nicole.
Council member Bonjifani. Um, I honestly
had to read this about four times
because um,
we're looking to go from apartments to
single family homes, right,
Mayor Anderson and Council Member Bonio.
Um, the the previous approval was for an
apartment complex that was going to be
rent to u rental homes, just the small
homes. Um, so yes, there was essentially
we consider that a multif family. It's
not quite an apartment complex, but it
was a multif family development. Thanks
for I thought I was dreaming. So, thank
you. You're welcome.
Other questions? Yes, Vice Mayor. Um, I
I just have a question. Can you go back
to the site plan? Um
yes, that one
where the outline in red that will be
the um is that twostory apartments
three or are those homes? I just want to
get back in my head what where
everything is. Mayor Anderson,
Vice Mayor Buckley,
I can understand how there would be
confusion with the language of that. I
apologize. The portion of the code
requires that any SFD development that's
adjacent to multif family, which is the
Wyatt apartment complex to the north,
they can't be more than a one-story
home. So, the applicant is requesting
the deviation to allow twostory homes
throughout the entire development
instead of having just the parcel or the
lots one through 24 be single story
while everything else is twotory. Does
that answer your question? Okay. Okay.
So
maybe I heard you wrong. Is this a
singles I mean a two-story
single family home development? There
are no part apartments in here. Town
homes. Did I hear that? Okay. Previous
approval was town homes. Okay. Gotcha.
So this is all I mean it's um it's not
commercial. It's already zoned and we're
just making amendments to that zoning.
Mayor Anderson, Vice Mayor Buckley, they
are requesting to change the land use
designation
from the multif from a higher
residential number to the smaller number
for the five to eight dwelling units per
acre in order to develop a single family
detached neighborhood. So they are
they're single family homes and they
will be for sale not for rent as I
understand it at this point. Okay. Well,
that that you you said it all in those
three words. Single family. Well, four
words attached neighborhood. So,
excellent.
Well, thank you.
I I just wanted to clarify something
that that you just mentioned versus
what's shown on the screen. Um what you
just mentioned was it all 67 lots could
be twostory homes or is it only the 24
lots adjacent to the apartment complex?
Mayor Anderson, Council Member Kapowski,
the single family detached zoning
district does allow for three-story
homes. The applicant is proposing
twostory homes throughout the
development. That deviation is requested
in order to for uniformity. So, they're
all going to be twotory.
Other questions? Council, would you like
to have a presentation by the applicant?
needed.
Thank you, Nicole.
I'll bring it back for discussion and or
a motion. Council
may council member Torres I just want to
find a little joy in the fact that this
is being zoned as single family rather
than multifamily and probably the first
time
in many years that we've seen something
like this and to have uh to have
somebody try and bring a little of that
spirit of home ownership back to
Gilbert. I I truly appreciate
think I again failed to close the public
hearing so I'll close the public
hearing. Any other comments
action?
Council member Torus. I'd like to move
to accept item nine as written. I'll
second that. And moved by council member
Torus, seconded by council member
Boniovani. Please vote.
Motion carries 70.
We'll move on to um items 12 and 13.
Chris, do we need an actual motion to
recess?
Yes. So, I'll take a motion to recess
the regular meeting and convene in
special meeting. So, moved. Second.
Moved by council member Boniovani,
seconded by council member Kapowski.
All in favor?
Any opposed?
We are in special meeting items 12 and
13, the budget.
Patrick, are you going to do this or is
Kelly? Mayor, I was curious which one
you were going to start with. If it's a
secondary property tax, we'll let Kelly
handle it. If it's the 13 the budget,
then I'll kick us off. Okay. 12. We'll
start with 12.
Thank you, Mayor and Council. We've got
one presentation for both. Um Patrick,
if you want to start the presentation,
we just do it together.
Okay. Good evening, mayor, members of
the council. You have heard this from me
before for those for for those of us
that are tuning in for the first time to
understand the proposed budget for
fiscal year 26. I'm going to run through
the information I covered in the study
session as well as the previous council
meeting where we adopted the preliminary
budget. And just it surrounds uh some
background and economic conditions in
Gilbert, a growing community. Every year
we are challenged with a community that
has more residents, more businesses, and
often the revenues uh follow that
growth. And so every year we're
stretched to do more with less. This
year we've got some special factors that
have made this budget process a much
more difficult one for the town and the
staff um to really understand where we
spend these dollars in the areas of
greatest importance because we have less
revenue to work with this year. Starting
with we in January of this year, it was
began the loss of the residential rental
dollars um to the town of Gilbert
because of actions by the state
legislature for the upcoming fiscal
year. That dollar amount is roughly $9
million in lost ongoing revenue for the
town of Gilbert. Also, this these LA
final phase of the state shared income
tax reduction will take a uh take effect
and that is a loss of roughly $4.5
million for the town of Gilbert. So, in
total somewhere between 13.5 and $14
million in funds that we will not have
available to us to fund things such as
police and fire and general government
services. We also have um this year, as
you're aware, we increased uh the sales
tax rate to fund projects of critical
importance to the community. So, we're
earmarking those dollars for uh the
purpose of constructing those projects,
and there's going to be a lot more over
the coming fiscal year as we uh move
through that process. We're continuing
to deal with inflation and supply chain
issues. They're not yet fully resolved.
There's also some uncertainty that's
been put in place by some of the
proposed tariffs and how that will
impact prices of materials and and um
construction items that are sourced from
outside the country. We continue to deal
with wage inflation and market
competition for our employees and
increased workload on staff. And so
we're trying to find every way possible
to balance that workload so that they
remain effective and um capable of doing
the job we need them to do for our
community, but it to make sure that we
also l don't lose them to neighboring
cities. Again, the competition for uh
employees is pretty tough right now in
the municipal sector. And there are many
positions um and people that we hire
that are unique to the public sector
that don't have private sector
equivalencies. So it is other cities in
our region that we compete with for that
talent.
We al also have a lot of aging
infrastructure that continues to put
pressure on our budgets to make sure
we're maintaining those to a level that
we need for this community for the
safety of the residents that are are
using that. Um and then there's a lot of
uncertainty about a potential recession
being called for potentially in the next
12 months because of various conditions
uh and various actions being taken. So,
we'll continue to monitor that. Uh, and
we'll continue to stay nimble and make
adjustments as necessary to stay within
the available funds we have to spend,
but we will um as we understand those
positions, we'll make sure and keep
council apprised of that for the various
actions that you will need to take or
the various things that we will need to
communicate to this community that may
impact them and the services they
receive from us.
Jumping into the next slide. This is
another thing we've talked about in
understanding some differences in our
revenue streams between Gilbert and
neighboring communities. One of those is
the vehicle license tax funds that we
receive. Gilbert is the only city of our
pure cities in the region that puts
those funds into our streets funds for
the maintenance of our streets and the
transportation infrastructure. All of
our other cities put those into their
general fund for general fund uses.
That's about $14 million that we don't
have available for general fund purposes
that other cities do have. Another thing
to understand, while we talk a lot about
rates and rates are are important,
how much money we bring in that we can
make available to the services in this
community. And if you look at our sales
tax per capita for fiscal year 24 actual
dollars, Gilbert brings in or has less
sales tax available per person to spend
on those residents than any of our pure
communities at $540.
The highest being Scottsdale at $1,379.
And then if you look at general fund
dollars available per capita, and this
this is fiscical year 25 budget because
it's not complete yet. Again, Gilbert
only has $999
available per resident, the lowest of
our peer communities, the highest being
Glendale at $1,784
per resident. And again, these are the
dollars that we use to fund police,
fire, parks, and recreation. A lot of
the internal service funds that support
those main services um that our
residents receive. We have less dollars
available to us to expend on our
residents.
So, we provide that as just some
background information into the budget
that's for you before you tonight for
final adoption um to help this community
understand some of the difficult
decisions that have had to be had to
have been made um to do the best job we
can in maintaining service levels and
and meeting their expectations. With
that, I'll turn it over to Kelly Fost uh
to walk you through the rest of the
presentation.
Thank you.
Thanks, Patrick.
Council, I'll be brief because I know
you've heard a lot of this information a
couple of times, but Gilbert continues
to be a best-in-class community. We work
really hard to provide high quality
services to our residents with the money
that we have. We do zerobased for a
third of the organization every year. We
continued to do that this year. We did
have to add some money into the budget
with zerobased because of inflation. It
just costs more to do the same things
that our um departments need to
accomplish.
budget process takes about a year and
today is the final step in the process
at final adoption.
In the recommended budget, there are
about 34 additional FTE positions,
full-time employees, and about 18 LTAs
or limited term agreement employees uh
across the whole town that are proposed
to help with service delivery.
With the capital improvement projects,
this is the largest part of the budget.
It's about $ 1.7 billion dollars with
the largest investments in our water
system, our street system, and then
parks and recreation.
If we can, most of the projects we're
continuing to work on. So, we're
carrying forward about $1.2 billion of
that funding as we continue to work on
projects that take more than a year. And
then we are adding about 500 million of
additional funds um for new projects or
additional scope on the projects that
are moving forward.
As you're aware, we do budget the full
amount of the projects so that we can
issue the contracts and so that we are
ensured that we have the funds to
complete projects that we start. Even
though we will not expend all of this
money in one year, the projects are too
large for that and the scope takes
several years to complete.
If we compare last year's budget with
the proposed budget for next year,
there's about $116 million difference.
Most of that difference is in our
capital improvement funding, that bottom
line, the infrastructure projects that
we're working on. You'll also note that
debt service is down by about a million
dollars. That's associated with the
university building debt getting paid
off. Very excited about that here in a
couple days. And uh property tax for
next year is um recommended to maintain
the rate at 98 cents, which has been the
rate for a couple of years. Levy would
be $34.8 million.
Milestones, we've had a budget study
session in April. uh we had preliminary
budget adoption which sets the maximum
amount at the May 20th meeting uh and
then the direction of council was to
continue uh and have the final budget
adoption here at June 10th. So the
documents have been prepared with the
direction council has given up to this
point and we have one more exciting
thing at the end. Final budget adoption
is usually when we give the uh debut of
the budget video which will go out to
the public tomorrow um depending on
council's direction tonight. So, if we
can go and kudos to our uh office of uh
outreach and communication digital
always does such an amazing job uh with
all of their videos and their talent.
Gilbert is moving forward, expanding,
improving, and shaping a bright future.
And you are a big part of it. The
decisions we make today are all about
keeping Gilbert a great place to live,
work, and connect. Over the past year,
big things have happened. Water Tower
Plaza got a fresh new look with shaded
spaces, improved lighting, and an
upgraded splash pad. The Gilbert
Advocacy Center is officially underway,
creating a safe space for crime victims.
And thanks to you, Gilbert
sustainability efforts are thriving.
More than 60 tons of glass was recycled
at five new convenient dropoff
locations. We know costs are rising and
challenges outside our control make
things tough. That's why Gilbert is
focused on financial responsibility.
Paying off the university building debt
early saved taxpayers over $15 million
in interest, finishing the debt 20 years
ahead of schedule. That means lower
long-term costs and a more stable
future. And we're just getting started.
Freestone Park will break ground in
summer 2026 with a brand new pickle ball
complex and splash pad. Next phases of
Gilbert Regional Park and Desert Sky
Park are breaking ground in spring 2026,
bringing new gathering spaces and fun
for everyone. Public safety remains a
priority. Plans are advancing for the
next phases of the Gilbert Advocacy
Center along with a new police station
in South Gilbert, supporting crime
victims and strengthening
investigations. We're also adding 25 new
police positions and seven roles in fire
and rescue, ensuring our teams have the
resources they need to serve our
community. Through it all, Gilbert
remains committed to the services you
rely on. Investments in infrastructure,
sustainability, and financial
responsibility will keep our town
strong, prepared, and equipped for
what's ahead. Your support makes this
possible. Together, we're building the
future of Gilbert. Stay tuned as these
exciting projects take shape.
[Music]
And with that, happy to answer any
questions. Thank you, Kelly. Questions,
council? Council member Bonjiovani.
Kelly, mine's more of a comment. Um, I'm
not known to be sarcastic at all, but um
I want to thank the state for taking $14
million out of our budget um because it
hurts it hurts what we want to do. It
hurts where what we want to do for our
services, but most of all, I think it
hurts hurts our staff. Now, we have the
lowest number of staff members
per resident than any other city around
us. And I've been in this on this seat
for two and a half years and I still
have not met a staff member who I feel
is just doing their job. Our our our
staff is unbelievably professional,
dedicated, and always have a positive
attitude and they're working with less.
So, I just want to say that I appreciate
the staff. I know all of us do
appreciate every staff member that we
have and how hard they work. I'm I'm
I've been in business for 40 years and
I'm still shocked at the amount of work
and and professionalism and and
expertise that our staff has. And I can
only apologize for
not having the the revenue that we need
to bring that staffing level up to give
staff members a little bit of a breathe
a breather. and I I bottom of my heart
appreciate the staff for everything that
they do. Thank you, Council Member
Lions.
Um, Kelly, do you have the numbers off
the top of your head, the difference
between our staffing levels in say
Chandler or Gilbert? I mean, Chandler or
Glendale? I don't have it off the top of
my head. I'm sorry. Would it be fair to
say it's about 15% less than Well, we're
about 15% less than what they have. It
sounds like you've done the math. It
wouldn't surprise me. We are less and we
do provide trash which is what about 100
employees or about 8% of our staff. Does
that sound about right? Yeah. Where they
privatized it. So to second what uh
council member uh Bon Giovani was saying
uh we do do a lot more with less. And I
know you guys have came in and had a
request for additional full-time heads.
So I I would assume we're still even if
we fill all those positions well below
what the other communities in the area
have. All right. Thank you. Council
member Torus. Point of order. Mayor.
Yes. Council member, I actually have the
data that council member Lions asked for
with me. If if you want to share, want
to share that real quick? Sure.
While he's waiting for that, Kelly,
could you answer one question for me?
The difference in the general fund from
last year to what's requested this year
looks like it's about 16 million. What
is most of that? Most of that will be uh
the new request, the staffing, um some
additional contractual items for jail
fees, police overtime, those types of
things, some one-time items. So, last
year would have had one-time items that
finished. This year has additional new
onetime items and then the ongoing items
that we've listed. Okay. Thank you. Yep.
Thank you.
I'm gonna I'm gonna deviate from my
PowerPoint and start here to based on a
point of order to show you the data that
you had asked for.
Honorable mayor, vice mayor, council
members, residents,
since coming on council, since being
elected and and taking the seat in
January, I've been digging into lots and
lots of data. I worked here. Staffing
was low then. uh still felt that way but
data is what uh tells the truth not how
we feel. So based on all of the city's
acts as of June 30th 2024
this is the data of staffing per
thousand uh population
it was there it is
we are at 5.88 88. We're the lowest in
Maroba County. And I think a point of
note here with Chandler.
So, one, we are larger than all of the
cities shown here except for uh Phoenix
and Mesa.
We have more population, third in
Maricopa County, fourth largest in the
state. Now,
Chandler, it's a little smaller than us,
but Chandler, who uh has a larger staff
than us, does not provide their own
trash service. And I believe Jessica, we
have more than a hundred people,
about a hundred people that we staff for
a service. The Chandler does not, and
they still have more more staff than we
do. The average was like 8.39.
the high you can see at 11.99.
Um I'm not here to say that we should be
the highest. I certainly don't like us
being the lowest. Um but we do need to
find the sweet spot. We have been doing
more with less for decades on the backs
of our staff who are extremely tired.
And because we're staffed lean, I know
that higher you go up in the chain, the
broader the the span of control is
larger than it should be. And that
creates risk. And as we build uh you
know, we go into this budget with all of
this new CIP for the the quality of life
standards that we want to have for our
children and our grandchildren, we have
to make sure that we have leaders that
are leading the people and managing the
people on those projects. And we have to
have staff to do it. We have to be able
to pay for it. So this is the problem.
Um sorry, this is the problem right now.
Um and I can tell you it's been that way
for decades. when I left PD uh well from
2010 to 2016 when I left we remained at
the same staffing for those six years
but the population grew exponentially
and the problem remains the same. I know
we've done better in PD um we're not
where we need to be. We're not where we
need to be in public works. Uh it took
us I think eight years to inspect our
pipe when the goal was six because we
only had three people and one machine
with which to do it. It's not
acceptable. So we do need a plan moving
forward. But uh Council Member Lions,
does this help? Yeah, this is exactly
what I was wanting to know. Okay. And
just a couple other things,
Patrick, you had uh touched, you had
shown the general fund dollars per
capita. I think what's important note,
does this have a pointer on it
is right here,
right? There's there's funding sources
that go into the general fund that we do
not capture.
And you guys can look at that. We don't
have property tax. Uh I believe Patrick,
correct me if I'm wrong, but the reason
I think was important when you talked
about the VT money that we're using
towards streets, but everybody else is
using it towards general fund and that
can bring people. Correct me if I'm
wrong, but I think that's because we
don't have the special um transportation
tax that other cities have. So that ties
our hands. Is that accurate,
mayor? uh council members, council
member Buckland, um many of the cities
do. It's not universal that every one of
the peer cities that we benchmark
ourselves against does, but many of them
do and that would be accurate in that
case. Okay, thank you. So, I think
that's important to point out. I know
that we are constantly um reached out to
I know that the water uh the water
increases certainly was a sore subject
for our citizens. I feel it too. Um,
but we do not there's there's there's
there's funding that other cities are
utilizing to run their cities and have
appropriate staff that we're not.
In spite of all that,
we're still sitting at the lowest
cost for services in town with the water
rates, with the sales tax increase.
We're only behind Chandler.
And I think this is important as we
move into the future and we look at
where we are now, where we need to be.
But we also have to answer why. Why? Why
now? Why did the past council have to
raise the sales tax? Why did we have to
raise the water rates?
There's a lot of lot of information
there. I know I'm breaking the rules of
PowerPoint. Sorry.
We've talked about the legislative
actions that you see on the left there.
I think I'm hoping we're going to be
safe with the food tax. If not, that's a
problem.
But for 44 years, we were the very
lowest sales tax
in Maricopa County. We raised it 50%
from 1984
2000. We raised it to one and a half
where it remained until December when
the council had to raise it again. based
on the current situation. We don't have
a primary property tax. You can see some
of the numbers that other cities have um
with that Northwater treatment build. We
had to do it, right? We we built a lot
of infrastructure back in the 90s at the
same time. And now we're having to um
renovate it. We're having to rebuild.
We're having to grow based on population
growth and the needs to supply adequate
resources to our citizens. Inflation has
killed us. If I recall correctly, the
public safety building that we built in
2019 was about 61 million. That same
exact building now in Glendale will cost
over $130 million. So inflation is
killing us. Sewer system early
replacement certainly hurt. And you guys
can see the rest of that stuff there. We
didn't we didn't update our planning and
development fees for years. We just are
now in the process of doing that, which
is excellent. So I just wanted to point
these things out because I do think that
they matter. they're relevant um to why
we're where we are now. Um and it
really explains um as you mentioned, the
budget's really tight. We don't have a
lot of revenue. So, we do need we do
need to figure this out.
Thank you, Council Member.
Council member Toruson.
You know, I just wanted to uh ask Kelly
a couple things just for clarity.
One would be on u uh item 12.
And just to reiterate basically what you
did last time, you and I went over this
quite a bit. A reduction in the rate was
going to was going to increase our costs
of this over the lifetime of these bonds
over 10 million. Correct. Yes. Because
we would have to target a a lower rate
ongoing which would change the structure
of the future bonds and increase the
interest we would have to pay. And the
uh basically to simplify it if this this
credit card as long as it is borrowed
upon we have to make a payment on it.
This is not I've had past council people
refer to me, you know, say just say no,
but we have to pay it at some point and
a further reduction would be very
detrimental at this point. Yes, when we
do general obligation bonds, we pledge
the full faith and credit of the town
behind repaying those bonds.
I wanted that clarity for that for
people because unfortunately as much as
I despise property tax especially
primary let alone sec at least secondary
is self-inflicted and we have to pay the
bill. I just wanted a clarity for that
for people in general. Um but I do have
an item on the budget itself that I
wanted a singular item. We've gone
through what people don't see is we've
gone through an awful lot of discussion.
Staff has its own method of going
through things. Council brings things
forward to add or subtract during the
year. But there's one item I believe is
still lingering and we discussed it the
last time and that is add 2631
that has not been changed in the budget,
has it? The money is still in the
budget. Um that's for the lightning
truck for the environmental service uh
residential. Uh and council, it wouldn't
change any of the numbers in the budget,
but council could give direction tonight
or at any time that you want that
purchased as a different vehicle or you
want it held until we have the study
session to talk about electric vehicles
and then you could give direction at
that time. Um or you can pass the budget
without any direction and we would move
forward with the lightning vehicle
replacement as or new purchase as
planned. I would I would like to propose
to everybody here because there would
seem to be a consensus that that
particular item is changed over to a
diesel or an XLT a light duty truck even
because I don't believe a lightning was
intended to tow or haul any substantial
weight.
So, I would like that to be changed
because there was a seeming consensus on
not investing in electric vehicles. That
could just be as part of the motion
passed the budget with uh the
instruction to do that. Thank you. The
idea behind that
we discuss
electric vehicles in general at a at a
retreat or at a later date, but we do
not commit to this being an electric
vehicle now. commit. We at least commit
to a a diesel or whatever would fill
that role. Yeah. And obviously if
there's a a change in policy that could
affect it later, but I would like that
to reflect something that we talked
about and had a general consensus on.
I'd like to hold that conversation or
that decision until we have our study
session on that on the topic.
Yeah. I will be a no without it.
Okay, we'll go forward. Council member
Lions, I just wanted to um ask a
question. Kelly, you said that the uh um
our our credit rating is what ensures
that we get the good cost as it relates
to the interest rates. Correct. And
Patrick, uh, correct me if I'm wrong,
but can you give me a um, our credit
rating for the town is extremely well as
it relates to the rest of the country.
Is that correct? That is correct. So, we
have AAA ratings for our general
obligation bonded debt by all three
agencies. We also have AAA ratings for
our revenue backed debt. We also have a
AAA rating for our excise backed debt.
Uh and that puts us probably uh within
50 cities nationally out of over 19,000
with AAA ratings across the board. And
what what constitutes us being able to
receive that kind of rating? What
behaviors drive that? There's a
multitude of factors that go into it.
And I would lean on our uh finance
director, although Hawin isn't here
tonight. Kelly could could also assist.
They're looking at the financial
policies that are in place for the town.
They're looking at town leadership and
management and and the decisions that
are made. They look at our fund
balances, our reserve funds. There's
also a lot of factors that play into it
within the community itself in regards
to corporations that are present and
other criteria that they were uh they
rate the creditworthiness of Gilbert on.
But I would say to answer your question
from a high level, it's making um very
smart, sound fiscal decisions for the
community by this government in service
to our residents. Um that factors into
our credit rating. So I noted recently
in national news our own country had its
credit rating adjusted, but in your
opinion and Kelly's opinion, and I don't
know which one could give it, how much
does this credit rating save us in
interest potentially? And I know it
would be speculation, but I would like
to know. I believe when Hawin last
looked at it, it was what 10ish basis
points for a a downgrade step. So,
depends on how much debt we issue, how
much we save, but it is
very much worth keeping aa credit
rating. So, would you say that it would
be enough of a savings to fund a project
or two that we're looking at? Uh, yes.
depends on the size of the project, but
we have quite a bit of um debt that's
planned associated with the water
projects. Um some of the quality of life
projects will need some debt financing
for cash flow purposes. Um so it is
very important for the residents. Yeah.
And and what it means is that when we do
issue debt, more of our dollars go
towards the project itself and not
interest on that debt. Okay. That's very
good. And I I just wanted to make that
point that the staff has done a
phenomenal job in keeping that there and
how much that's actually saving us,
allowing to use that dollars for other
things that are coming up rather than
issuing additional debt that we need to
carry, which does impact our our tax
rates. Is that fair to say? And that's a
collaboration with staff and council and
the decision- making uh over a long
period of time. So, all right. Thank you
very much. Appreciate it.
Council member Banji. Thank you, Mayor.
Uh, I just want to thank staff for um
understanding that we had a we had an
issue last year with the we raised water
rates and we only had a a fund of
$10,000 to assist people that are
seniors are on fixed income and I'm
happy to see that we did raise that to
150,000 I believe this year. That sounds
Yeah. Um and because some of our seniors
and some of our people that are on fixed
incomes are really struggling with the
with the water bill. So, I appreciate
you guys listening to us uh for that.
Thank you. Um I think that's all the
questions, comments. Thank you, Kelly.
Let's address item 12 first. I'll
entertain
uh discussion and or a motion
which is property tax levy. I'll move to
approve item 12, setting the secondary
property tax levy for fiscal year 2026
at
34,838,000.
Second.
It's been moved and seconded that we
adopt item number 12. Please vote.
Motion carries 70. Let's move to item
13.
I'll move to approve item 13 um adopting
the final budget for the period of July
1st, 2025 to June 30th, 2026 with the uh
purchase of the Ford Lightning to be
held until council has had an
opportunity to um have our study
session. I second that. It's been moved
by council member Caproski, seconded by
the vice mayor. Please vote. Can I make
one quick comment just to correct
spelling on 2261 and 2776?
If we could correct the spelling on
those two lines, it'd be awesome. I just
happened to notice that. So, the motion
is to approve with the discussion in the
future about that purchase.
The truck the truck is being held out
until we have that discussion. Thank
Thank you. I Please vote.
Motion carries. 70.
Thank you, Kelly. Thank you, Patrick.
Congratulations. Well done.
Good job. I'll entertain a motion to
adjourn the special meeting and
reconvene regular meeting. So moved.
Second.
Been moved and seconded. Please uh vote
by voice vote. All in favor say I. I.
Any opposed?
Motion carries. 70. We're back on the
regular agenda. We'll go to the consent
calendar. Vice Mayor,
thank you, Mayor Anderson.
Okay. To begin our consent calendar
portion of the meeting, I will pass the
time over to our town manager, Patrick
Banger, to provide an overview of the
items on the consent calendar this
evening. Patrick, over to you. Thank
you, mayor, vice mayor, members of the
council. I'm going to run through the
items on the consent agenda. Again, as
always, if you have questions, don't
hesitate to ask. If I can't u get
provide the specific information, we'll
pull up the appropriate staff member to
do so. A change from uh tonight from
previous council meetings is we are
going in chronological order this time
um to follow through with your agenda
and to make it easier for you to follow
through with the agenda. Again we you
will uh see notations on each one which
area falls under strong economy,
prosperous community and exceptional
built environment. Starting with agenda
item number 14 which is the annexation
of Aato between Val Vista and
Greenfield. I'm going to summarize this
um most simply this is just a
transaction between Maricopa County and
the town of Gilbert to consolidate all
the ride ofway along this road so it's
within the town's jurisdiction and
responsibility so we don't have two
different agencies with various levels
of responsibility for the road
agenda item number 15 the refuge fleet
cleaning contract under exceptional
built environment um high level our we
had a truck cleaning facility as part of
our fleet maintenance facility. It has
been inoperable for quite some time. We
use that for storage now for their needs
and we contract with a service to clean
our trucks. It's roughly $55,000 per
year and will not exceed $275,000 over
five years and the funding source for
that is the solid waste and recycling
residential rates paid by the the
residents uh receiving that service.
Agenda item number 16, administration of
the retirement health savings program
under prosperous community. It's a
motion to approve an agreement with the
International City Management
Association retirement corporation for
administration of retirement health
savings program providing a benefit that
enhances employee retention and
recruitment initiatives. There is no
financial impact to the town as our a
RHS is funded via employee
participation.
Agenda item number 17 is the purchase of
two fire department pumpers apparatus
under Prosperous Community. This would
be a contract with Pierce Manufacturing
for the purchase of the two pumpers to
support the department's service
provision of response to emergency
incidents in the community. Five of the
seven fire department reserve pumpers
are currently at the end of a designated
15-year service life. This item helps
ensure the department is equipped with
reliable apparatus to meet the needs of
the service. This item is supported
through the general replacement fund
with $2 roughly $4 million in the fiscal
25 budget and $330,000 in contingency
from the general replacement fund for
upfit and make ready work. And again, uh
this fund is from the general dollars
that we bring into the general fund to
provide for fiber services. Also want to
make a special notation that the town of
Gilbert representatives from the town
manager's office and fire leadership
negotiated a much shorter uh delivery
time for these pumpers than is normally
the case and it was great work on their
part because those delivery times are
getting quite long.
Agenda item number 18 pool repairs and
renovation under exceptional built
environment. It's a contingency request
and cooperative purchase J O with Shasty
Industries for Greenfield pool repairs
and renovations. The pool is in need of
structural repairs and renovation after
20 years of use. Additionally, updated
code requirements require ADA compliant
and accessibility features. The project
entails $1.4 million of CIP outside
sources and general replacement funds
and 325,000s of general replacement
funds to do that work. Agen item number
19 is a community services grant award
under Prosperous Community. It's a
motion to approve a contract with Ascend
neighborhood assistant program, a local
nonprofit to provide rental and utility
assistant to Gilbert residents in need
for $155,000.
This item is part of the community
services an annual nonprofit grant
program and is supported through the
general fund.
Agenda item number 20, the water meter
infrastructure and AMI maintenance
service contract under exceptional built
environment. It's contract with Ferguson
Enterprises LLC in the amount not to
exceed roughly $6.4 million per year for
the next five years that will facilitate
the maintenance of water meter
infrastructure in the AMI system. This
item is partially rate supported through
the water metering account as well as
grant funded with 1.9 million from the
water smart efficiency grant and 3.8
million 3.08 million from the bucket to
lower Colorado River conservation grant.
And I want to recognize the great work
of the staff in securing those grants to
help uh pay for this project.
Agenda item number 21A services for CIP
trail systems connectivity study under
exceptional built environment. It's a
services contract with Dibble and
Associates Consultant Engineering for
the CIP project at Queen Creek in the
Sinoi Wash Trail which provide a study
to assess connectivity from the existing
trail system in the town of Queen Creek
to Gilbert Regional Park. This item is
supported via the general fund for the
amount of $165,000.
Agenda item number 22 is a change order
for a license plate reader program in
exceptional built environment. It's a
change order with Flock Group to expand
the existing program of license plate
readers in the community by adding 17
additional units that will in part add
coverage to the Heritage District garage
and that would be both of the garages in
the Heritage District as well as other
areas of the town and serving as a
proactive for force multiplier to
identify vehicle suspects wanted for
crimes. The item is $142,000 per year
for up to five years for the procurement
of the readers and related services for
a total of roughly $630,000
and is supported by the general fund.
Agenda on item number 23, a change order
for police uniforms and equipment
contract and purchase approval under
exceptional built environment. Change
order of the contract with Curtis Blue
Line to provide police uniforms and
equipment that is used to support
delivery of public safety lines of
service. This item increases the
contracted purchase amount by $260,000
for two fiscal years. Motion to approve
the expenditure of 332,000 in fiscal
year 25 and 400,000 in fis fiscal 26
pending budget approval which you just
granted for the purchase of the uniforms
and equipment from the general fund.
Agenda item number 24 preeemption
traffic signals equipment grant funds
and contingency under exceptional built
environment. Motion for grant fund
contingency in the amount of 171,000
andund and roadway maintenance fund
contingency in the amount of just over
10,000 over fiscal year 25 and 26 to
support the purchase and installation of
preeemption equipment on traffic signals
to update approximately 214
intersections that will improve public
safety response to emergencies in the
community. For those of you not aware of
what what preeemption equipment is,
that's the uh equipment that our police
officers and our firefighters use when
responding to calls that will change the
intersection to allow them to sa safely
move through that as well as for the
residents that are using that
intersection at the same time. Gilbert
has participated in federal and state
grant programs supporting this
initiative since 2022. The $10,344
of roadway maintenance fund contingency
is the match requirement of the grant.
all all other terms and condition of the
grant as are normal uh and they all uh
uh have been historically in the past.
Excuse me. Agenda item number 25,
workers compensation fund contingency
under prosperous community. Motion to
approve you the use of up to $750,000 in
tip contingency with a work workers comp
fund balance as the funding source for
the self-insured workers compensation
fund for claims. The current year has
seen higher than expected costs
associated with treatment of employee
injuries. And the town's excess loss
coverage does not engage until a
$750,000 deductible has been met. This
item will support costs through the
remainder of fiscal year 25.
Agenda item number
27. It's jumping ahead. The appointment
of proemperor
proempor municipal judge under
prosperous community. It's a motion to
approve the appointment of Bruce R.
Owens as judge. Prom for the Gilbert
Municipal Court following his retirement
as a full-time judge from the court in
July 2025.
Agenda item number 28, purchase of
insurance coverage, renewal policies
under prosperous community. Motion to
authorize the purchase of property and
equipment, public entity liability,
excess liability, workers compensation,
cyber storage tank, crime, drone,
fiduciary, malicious attack, pollution
and contractors equipment insurance for
the town, an amount not to exceed 4.45
million through Marsh insurance
brokerage for the coming fiscal year.
This item is supported from the general
fund. And that is all the items on the
consent calendar tonight.
All
right. Thank you, Patrick. Appreciate
it. Do I have any questions? All right.
Let's see. Um, so Council Member
Coprowski,
Patrick, I and Vice Mayor, I just wanted
to confirm that item 18 for the new
Greenfield pool renovation. I I believe
I saw that um because this is one of our
public private partnerships that Gilbert
public schools will be funding 50% of
this project. Mayor, vice mayor, council
member Kroski, that is correct. That is
a shared pool by both agencies and we
share the costs for the maintenance and
and any repairs equally.
Um okay. So, Council Member Bon Giovani.
Thank you, Vice Mayor. Uh Patrick, um
number 14,
is that um north side of the road, south
side of the road, both sides of the
road?
Mayor, council member Bonjivani, I'm
going to ask who is putting on a coat.
Kyle Mirez.
My vision's going to come up and the
corner of the
I'm sorry. want to say that part that
last part again is are we talking about
the north side of Aato the south side
both or it'll be a little bit of
everything. Yeah, it's it's about uh
0.85 miles long. It's a strip along um
the roadway for the construction of
Okato and to make the um the boundaries
um even between the the two communities.
Some is town and some is county. So
we're cutting we put it all together and
then that's how we uh take care of
public safety along route too. Thank
you. didn't have to run up here.
All right, Council Member Lions. Um, I
guess this question would be for
Patrick. The uh or uh Joe, the license
plate readers that we have, are these in
addition to what we already have in
place?
You have Mayor uh council member Lines.
Yes, that is correct. These would be to
supplement what we already have in
place. Okay. Just a point from my
perspective, I I I do have privacy
concerns when it looks at utilizing
technology like this. And uh I want to
make sure we have policies in place to
ensure those technologies aren't abused.
As you know, I get ads for Hello Kitty
stuff every time I talk to my wife about
presents for my granddaughter. So, I I
just want to make sure we have things in
place that we're not abusing the uh
technology in any way and to protect the
privacy of ourselves. Yes. Mayor, vice
mayor or mayor, council member lines.
Yes, we actually had a long discussion
before we started employing uh
technology like this and put policies in
place to that. Uh and Chief Soulberg
also reached out to a lot of the
agencies that monitor and track this
kind of activity that let them know of
the the move we would be making in this
space to answer any questions or address
any concerns they had uh ahead of doing
so. Um, and we have had received no
concerns up to this point in our use of
the technology. Okay. Thank you,
Council Member Toruson. I just wanted to
confirm although uh Councilman Lions
said it number 17, those Pierce trucks
are not the electric trucks we were
discussing earlier in the year. Correct.
These are diesel trucks. Okay.
Excellent.
Do we have any other questions from
anyone? I'm good with everything else.
Council member Torus, are you I'm just
talking to Scott. That's all. Okay.
You're light.
I'm just going to vote against it.
Okay. All right. If there's no other
questions, then I will um move to
approve the consent agenda items number
14 through 29. Can I have a second? I
will second that with the caveat. Uh
number 22, I would like to pull for a
separate vote.
Um you want to pull item 22? 22.
All right. Um, so do you have a question
that Scott? How do we what you want to
do with that?
Pardon me.
Okay.
Okay. So, I will make a motion to
approve items number
14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24,
25, 26, 27, 28, and 29. Do I have a
second? Second. Okay. Seconded by
council member Corprowski.
And please vote.
Okay, the motion carried 70.
And
now we'll I'll move to approve item 22.
Right. The se the separate item. Yeah.
Okay. So, um, do we have questions?
Apparently, council member Torusen has a
question on we're bringing up item 22. I
have no question. I'm just a no.
Okay. So, all right. Well, then uh I
make a motion to vote on item number 22
um on the consent agenda. Do I have a
second? Second the approval of item 22
or
just Okay. Uh seconded by council member
Boniovani. Please vote.
And the motion carried by five yes and
two no.
So with that I believe I'm finished and
I'll give this back to I'll give it
right back to you. There are no
administrative items on the agenda. So
okay communications that sounds good to
me.
Um all right then I will start with
communications from citizens
and um to begin I will read the rules of
decorum.
Oh excuse me. Okay with we value the
participation of our community members
and robust exchange of ideas. However,
it is essential that this discourse
remains respectful and constructive
reflecting the professionalism expected
in such forms. Misinformation and
personal attacks undermine the
collective efforts. We do not and we and
do not contribute to the productive
dialogue necessary for our town's
progress. This is an opportunity for the
public to address the town council
directly about issues impacting the
town. According accordingly, the town
council will not allow for moments of
silence or playing of music or other
recorded materials which could distract
from the meeting from beating decorum or
violate copyrights. While we understand
and appreciate the passion our community
members bring to this session, we remind
everyone that clapping during the
meeting is not acceptable. This practice
can disrupt the flow of discussion,
potentially intimidate others, and
detract from the respectful atmosphere
we strive to maintain. Tonight, we will
invite you up to come up to the podium.
When you come up to the podium, state
your name and your city of residence,
and you will have three minutes to
directly address the town council unless
otherwise indicated. If the current
speaker will be using three minutes of
another person's time, that person
should state their name, the city they
reside in, and acknowledge that they are
donating their three minutes to the
current speaker. In accordance with
state law, we are unable unable to
provide responses to the public um
regarding comments during this meeting.
Please be assured that your concerns and
input are heard and valued.
So our first speaker, we actually we
have one speaker will be um Frank B and
uh Red Thomas is donating his three
minutes. So um
uh yeah, if Red could Yeah, he he can
acknowledge from his seat if you want.
That's fine. And um All right, you
you'll have six minutes. a president of
Mesa and I would like to donate my time
to Frank.
All right, that is that I thought I
could cheat. My name is Red Thomas. I am
a resident of Mesa and I donate my time
to Frank. All right, thank you, Red.
Hello, Frank.
Hello, I'm Frank Banicheski. Um, I'm
resident of Gilbert. I am the commander
of the American Legion Post 39. Um I've
uh been in charge for uh three years
now. Just so you guys know, American
Legion Post has over a thousand
veterans. It's one of the youngest
veterans post in the whole state in the
country. Actually, we also have 400 sons
and 500 auxiliary members, almost 2,000
members. Uh we've also donated over
$100,000 to charities in a year. Um, so
and and we also help participate in
preventing suicides of our veterans just
like this Tuesday where I helped disarm
a veteran. Um, why am I here? Uh, we
have two concerns. Uh, one is there's a
road improvement project next to the
Legion post that will take out our
property. Um, several parking spaces
that will affect our post there and we
have grave concerns that will that will
hinder us and the veteran community. um
where you guys may have heard about the
road going through that parking area.
We've already seen the building from the
furniture store taken down for that. The
second is we would like a a war monument
uh begin the process of that either in
Veterans Park or the I believe it's
called the kids park right next to us.
Um and third, I heard Jim, Councilman
Jim speak today about um the the homes
and having homes in the community. I can
tell you as a resident, we are tired of
rental properties and completely support
gym and having more either town houses,
condos or a um actually just residential
thing. A lot of people feel that way and
I'm speaking from someone that's in the
community constantly talking to members
of our community. So, I appreciate Jim
and uh you speaking about that. So,
thank you very much and I know you can't
respond to this. So, thank you. Okay.
Thank you. We we can respond. And this
entire council thanks you because they
unanimously voted for that. Not just me.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Jim.
Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor.
uh future meetings. You can see that we
have a couple of study sessions, special
meetings related to certain items. One
is the board and commission application
process. The other is having to do with
electric vehicles and the process of
doing that. So, we'll have those
scheduled in the future. We'll go to
communications. First, the report from
the town manager.
Thank you, mayor, members of the
council. My apologies from having to
hear from me so much today. Uh we also
have another uh future meeting item uh
that was submitted regarding uh citizen
comments. So we'll get that added to the
agenda as well and and get that
scheduled
tonight. Uh for manager's update, I've
got a we'll start with department
division highlights. Up first is Monday,
June 16th is artificial intelligence
appreciation day. Yes, there is an
appreciation day appreciation day for
everything. Now Monday the 16th is AI
appreciation day and we've done a lot in
that space as you are well aware and
much more to come up that is being led
by our Eugene Mahia our AI strategy and
transformation officer and he's done a
lot of work in the last fiscal year
around uh aligning our vision and
establishing the strategy and vision for
our approach the governance and
framework that we'll operate under and
innovation and evaluation. of the many
products that are being developed um
that continue to grow by the day. To
date, the organizational impact is we've
deployed seven generative AI tools in
the past 18 months. Grammarly, Microsoft
365 Copilot, Adobe Express, Adobe
Firefly, Adobe AI Assistant, Canva, and
Marketplace. City. We've piloted six te
technology solutions while exploring six
additional pilots. We've launched
organizationwide trainings in
partnership with the organizational
development team and we've created
digital tools learning hub for employee
training.
Also within this space is our
performance management program that you
heard from Amy Ashworth this evening as
well as Eugene in the upcoming
dashboards that will be made public
tomorrow. And that team has done
incredible work and I won't repeat
everything that Amy said today but
cross- departmental collaboration the
data informed decision-making and the
strategical goal tracking which is so
important not only for this organization
but the community on the whole and I
highly encourage all of you when you get
the chance to to dive into those
dashboards and and see what we've made
public for our community. We've created
156 PowerBI reports. PowerBI for those
of you who are not familiar with that
technology. It's a Microsoft product and
it's the tool we use to create those
dashboards. We've created over 100 uh
department goals, metrics, and targets
approved and in the pro process and
we've had over 30 department stat
meetings held just in fiscal year 24.
We've improved cross departmental
alignment with coaching sessions and
onboarding materials. We've launched
performance management portals for
consistent data visualization. We've
soft soft launched our wig tracking app
for streamlined and measured tracking.
And we launched 15 new public dashboards
and relaunched three redesigned
dashboards to make that information that
we have to communicate uh more easily
understandable by our average resident.
Moving on to retirements, recognitions
and awards. And I start by
congratulating recruit recruit class
25-01.
Uh we had 12 recruits com uh
successfully complete the 16-week
academy. The recruits began working on
our engines and ladders on Monday and
the recruits will spend the next nine
months in the field as probationary
firefighters. But congratulations to our
new recruits. The next academy is
already about to launch as we have a lot
of positions uh to bring on board. But
congratulations to those recruits. They
did an exceptional job and we think
they'll be a great addition uh to our
fire and rescue teams. Also want to rec
recognize some retirements. It says
happy retirement, but I can tell you
with the the leaders that we are uh
saying goodbye to in our police
department, we're not overly happy about
it, but we're very grateful for the work
and service they provided this community
over decades. Beginning with Lieutenant
Chris Timmons. Many Chris is familiar to
many of us. Chris and his wife Autumn
have launched a nonprofit that provides
autism training to first responders. The
Governor Police Department was the very
first agency that was trained and
certified by them. They are continuing
to now provide that training across the
state and are even branching branching
out nationally. Chris a longtime leader
in our police department and he will be
sorely missed um by everybody who had
the opportunity to work with him through
the years. And Chris was in our peer
support and employee wellness unit and
the hiring unit. Next, Detective Ken
Shipley. He retired on May 29th of 2025.
He was in internal affairs. Officer
Craig Avery retired on May 30th. He was
a school resource officer. Detective
Kyle Green retired on June 5th. He was
in our property crimes unit. And officer
Gary Weerhold retire will retire on June
12th. And he's a bike officer in our
heritage district. We wish them the what
uh the best of luck in retirement. And
again, we thank them for all their years
of service to our community.
We want to recognize the office of
communications and engagements. They
received a 2025 video awards. For the
2025 State of the Town video, they won
the platinum award. And for the Discover
Gilbert commercial, they won a gold
award. Uh there was tremendous work by
that team. We're very proud of the work
they do, and it's great to see them get
recognition that is welld deserved for
the quality of of what they do. Moving
on to organizational accomplishments,
government was re recently recognized
and ranked as the third safest city in
Arizona in the 2025 safest cities report
issued by Safewise. If you get a chance
to look in that, you're also seeing
Gilbert is far and away the largest
city. Um the other two cities that are
one and two are much much smaller than
Gilbert. So we're very proud of that,
very proud to have a safe community and
again very proud of everybody who plays
a role in that uh especially our police
department. And with that, that's all I
have this evening. Mayor,
thank you. With that video award, I'm
going to ask for a larger contract.
Patrick,
residual. Yeah. Yeah.
Um, reports from the council. Council
member Lions, I know he has one. I do.
Thank you. I just wanted to uh say thank
you for everybody that supported the
Veterans Advisory Board and our Memorial
Day service u out here on the town lawn.
Uh we had a turnout of about 370 in
attendance which was the largest we've
had so far and we really appreciated the
families especially the gold star
families and veterans who came out to
honor our nation's fallen. Um at the
same time um up here on the next slide
should be a QR code. Uh if you guys
would like to get involved we're looking
for volunteers. Uh people are welcome to
come to any of our board meetings and
sit in and observe. um we want to do a
more proactive outreach into the
community and um so there's
opportunities there to get involved and
to help out. So u scan the code if you
have any questions please feel free to
get with me and I'd be glad to talk to
anyone who has any questions. Thank you.
Council member Bonjiovani. Thank you
mayor. Uh this morning um most of the
morning I was trained uh to teach uh
dementia friendly into businesses. So,
I'll be working with the uh Chamber of
Commercees, Chamber of Commerce to um
train some of our uh great businesses
here in Gilbert um how to run a Gilbert
I mean a dementia friendly um
organization.
So, now from Parks and Wreck, we're
having our senior center luau. Join us
on Friday, June 13th from 2:00 p.m. to
400 p.m. at the Gilbert Community Center
for the Senior Luau. It will be a fun
afternoon of dancing, delicious treats,
endless fun, and memorable snapshots.
There'll also be giveaways and raffles.
Aloha,
Vice Mayor.
Okay. I um I wanted to talk a little bit
about
a project that we are doing that Gilbert
is doing and economic development is
doing and it's our new project. uh just
got approved after years of of uh work
from prior councils to get this done is
the new heritage park. So, I don't know
how many of you have heard about that,
but I'm going to give you a little bit
of information. So, we officially broke
ground, they officially broke ground on
May 22nd. And this is in the heritage
district and it is a full I believe and
Patrick correct me if I'm wrong. I
believe it's a full city block
and uh and and I welcome any comments
from you as well and um so it it's
marking the beginning of an 800,000
square foot mixeduse development and the
milestones launch the first phase. It'll
be done, I believe, in three phases. And
um so it'll mark the downtown
destination designed to enhance the
vibrancy of Gilbert with a dynamic mix
of restaurants, retail, residential
spaces, and a community focused square.
Heritage Park spans an entire city
block. So that answered my question at
Gilbert Road and Junifer Avenue. It's
creating a hub for engagement and
growth. The initial phase will introduce
approximately 47,000 square feet of
retail and dining options, a multifamily
residential community featuring 288
residences, more than 300 surface
parking spaces, and a welcoming public
square. And that public square is huge.
It's really, really going to be
something when this is done. The central
plaza will show showcase water features,
mature landscaping, public at art
installations, and dedicated walking and
buying paths, fostering a lively and
interactive atmosphere. Heritage Park
has already announced three new
restaurants with additional dining,
retail tenants to be revealed. Uh future
FA phases will further expand the
development with a 125 room hotel,
office space, and additional parking,
solidifying Heritage Park
as a premier destination in downtown
Gilbert. So that's just one of the
really great things that are happening
in Heritage District. And I'm I myself
I'm so excited to see all this come in
and and um everyone getting to take
advantage of this.
Thank you. Any other reports?
Council member Torres. I just wanted to
say quickly regarding that the uh that
property was owned by two families that
had a long history in Gilbert and I'd
say about nine years ago they had agreed
the Chapman and Horn families had agreed
the highest and best use that they could
agree on was to allow the town of
Gilbert to buy that property to help
create something in the downtown. And
it's it's been a long time since that
discussion happened, but uh obviously
the town has been involved and gotten uh
I believe a return that those families
are probably going to be very proud of
in selling their property to the town,
which in turn sells that to uh the
developer. I just wanted to recognize
those families for what they did for us
several years ago.
Thank you.
Um, from the office of the mayor, I
haven't got anything in particular
except to again express my gratitude and
thanks to the staff for all the work
that you do. For as many years as I've
been affiliated with Gilbert in one way
or another, I my impression has always
been with the staff uh working in
Gilbert is that they refuse to fail.
whether we're the smallest um group in
the in the state or the largest,
whatever. But that's what I've always
noticed is they refuse to fail in the
work that they do. So, thank you for
everything that you do for us. Um
with that, I'll entertain a motion to
adjurnn.
I make Well,
I'll make a motion to adjurnn.
We are adjourned.