Regular Meeting - 4/22/2025 6:30:00 PM

Welcome to town hall and thank you for
attending a Gilbert public meeting. Here
are a few things to know. The meeting
will be held in the council chambers.
Should additional seating be needed, you
may watch from our lobby. If you would
like to speak at today's meeting, you'll
find both agendas and speaker cards at
the front counter in the lobby. Our
staff is here to assist you fill out the
cards and find the corresponding agenda
items. All speaker cards from the public
must be submitted prior to the start of
the meeting. The town council is
committed to providing an environment
where everyone's voice is heard during
public meetings. In an effort to
preserve order and decorum, here are a
few rules and guidelines we ask everyone
to follow during the meeting. You may
bring signs and similar items into the
council chambers, but these items may
not be held above shoulder height or
otherwise obstruct the view or block the
path of members of the audience.
Disruptions impact the flow of
discussion, potentially intimidate
others, and detract from the purposes of
the meeting. Therefore, disruptive
behavior, including but not limited to
cheering, shouting, booing, or the use
of profanity, is prohibited. Applause is
only permissible during the
presentations and proclamations portion
of the agenda. Threats directed toward
any individual or group are prohibited.
Speakers may not campaign or advocate
for or against candidates for office, or
ballot issues, or otherwise attempt to
influence the outcomes of elections. A
full list of meeting rules is displayed
at the entrance of the council chambers.
During the public hearing portion of the
agenda and during communications from
citizens, when your name is called,
please come forward to the podium. Then
state your name, your town of residence,
and begin speaking. Remarks shall be
limited to 3 minutes. Citizens who are
at the meeting and wish to donate their
time to a single speaker must fill out
an individual card and then combine
their speaker cards. In such an event,
one person from the group shall be
designated to present their remarks,
which shall be limited to six minutes.
If one speaker is speaking on behalf of
others who are present, the mayor or
vice mayor shall read into the record
the names of those whose time is
combined. No person other than the
individual speaking shall enter into the
discussion. Officials on the dis may not
respond to any questions or comments
during communications from citizens.
However, the council may ask questions
during public hearing items. All
comments and questions shall be directed
through the mayor or presiding officer.
Thank you again for attending a Gilbert
town meeting and for your participation
in local government.
[Music]
Thank you for being here tonight. I'll
call to order now the regular meeting of
the Gilbert Town Council, April 22nd,
2025. Uh we'll start with an invocation
and pledge of allegiance. The invocation
will be by Brad Johnston from the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
the Gilbert Stapley
Stake.
Our father, we're grateful to meet this
evening as citizens of the town of
Gilbert. We pray that blessing upon
these proceedings. Grateful for those
who serve, who dedicate their time and
are civic-minded. We pray for all those
who participate who will recognize their
service and the contributions they make.
We are grateful for the efforts to build
our town, to increase uh unity and
harmony and the welfare of of all who
live here. We pray for those who will
speak and present their concerns to the
town council this evening that they'll
do so with a spirit of respect and pray
for a sense of wisdom and
um inspiration upon those who make the
decisions that affect our lives. And we
do so now, Father, in the name of Jesus
Christ. Amen. Amen. Thank
you. The pledge of allegiance will be
led by council member Kapowski. Please
stand and join me in the pledge.
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. We have one proclamation
tonight and I'll ask I make my way down
that anybody that is here for the
volunte or volunteer appreciation month
in April, please come on up to the
front.
Thank you all for being here. I'm going
to pass the uh mic on to each of you so
you can explain which board or
commission you're serving on.
My name is Brian Cannon. I'm the chair
of the parks and recreation advisory
board.
Hi, my name is Alan Cransburg. I'm the
vice president of the industrial
development
authority. I am Mary Dai and I'm on the
health trusts funds board.
Cassandra Updike, the redevelopment
commission vice chair.
Thank you all for your service. Um I do
know that we have about 69 different
boards and commissions and the time you
give represents about 950 hours given in
for your service to the town and we
greatly appreciate that. Let me read
this proclamation. And whereas
volunteers are inval invaluable to our
community, dedicating their time and
efforts to organizations such as the
Gilbert Police, Fire and Rescue, and
Parks and Recreation Departments, as
well as numerous boards, commissions,
committees, foundations, and nonprofit
organizations. And whereas volunteers
offer guidance to the town council on
critical initiatives shaping the future
of Gilbert and ensuring its continued
growth and success. Whereas volunteers
serve a dedication benefiting all
residents from youth to seniors and work
tirelessly to make Gilbert a place of
compassion, innovation, and community
support. Whereas the mayor and town
council extend their deepest gratitude
to the volunteers whose selfless service
strengthens and uplifts our community
there. Now, therefore, I, Scott
Anderson, mayor of the town of Gilbert,
do hereby proclaim April 2025 as
National Volunteer Month. And again,
thank you for your service and uh for
all that you do for the town. Let's give
them a round of applause.
She wouldn't let it go. She Okay.
I neglected to do roll call. Let's have
a roll call. Mayor Scott Anderson here.
Vice Mayor Bobby Buckley here. Council
member Chuck Boniovani here. Council
member Kenny Buckland here. Council
member Young Capowski here. Council
member Monty Lions here. And Council
Member Jim Toruson here. A quorum is
present.
Thank you. We'll now go to the public
hearing section of the agenda. We have
uh items three, four,
five, six, and seven. And it looks like
uh five is staff is requesting to be
continued to June 10th,
2025. Would any of the council like to
pull for separate discussion any of
these public hearing
items? I'm going to pull item four just
for discussion, just for a statement.
Any others? If not, I'll entertain a
motion for the balance other than item
four.
I make the motion.
Do you want a motion? Okay. For all
those items, including the one
postponement to June 10th.
Okay. So I I make a motion to approve.
Right. Items three, four. Not not four.
Not yet. Not four. Okay. Three, five,
six, and seven.
Not five. No. What? Which one? Five is
to be continued,
right? F. Well, five was pulled, right?
Well, we make them we'll move to
continue it to June 10th.
moved to Oh, okay. Five. Five was moved
to continue until
June 10th. June 2nd meeting 10.
I have a motion. Is there a second? I'll
give a second. Moved and seconded.
Please
vote. Motion carries 70.
I'll uh open the public hearing on item
four and uh just uh want to give a short
statement. Hawen, we probably don't need
a presentation on it. I'll just give a
short uh statement about this item
because it's not an insignificant item
uh that I think the public needs to know
about. This is adopting a resolution
that pays off debt early, which is
something we always like to do. And I
and I don't think the the uh residents
of the town realize that sometimes we do
pay this debt off and that's why we have
such a strong rating uh financial uh
rating in the town is because of actions
like this one. Resolution number
4554 allows the town to set aside money
to pay off debt. And uh this debt was
issued back in 2015. Is that it
Hawin? And it's going to be paid off
early. Um and it the uh it does several
things when we adopt this resolution.
One once is it authorizes paying it off
early. Second, it allows staff to take
all the required actions, the legal
actions to uh retire this debt. Um it
also sets aside the money to retire the
debt. And this is no small amount. It's
uh $29 million almost $30
million. a little over two million of
that coming from the debt service
reserve fund and the general fund about
$28 million. The $30 million is going to
retire the debt on the university
building in the downtown which we're
doing early and uh I think that's a
great achievement. It it shows the
financial management in the town uh how
strong it really is and I'm thankful for
that. Um, this reduces any future
interest costs and any financial
obligations that we would have
associated with this debt. So, we don't
have any other obligations and it
reflects, like I said, strong management
principles for the town of Gilbert. So,
very happy to make a motion to approve
item four.
That been moved and seconded. Please
vote. Motion Kevin carries
70. We'll move on to the consent
calendar. Vice Mayor,
thank you, Mayor
Anderson. To begin the consent calendar
portion of this meeting, I'm going to
pass the time over to our town manager,
Patrick Banger, to provide an overview
of the items on the consent calendar
this evening. Patrick. Thank you, mayor,
vice mayor, members of the council. I'll
run uh high level over any of the
consent agenda items. If you have
questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
As we move along, again, we categorize
them along our three pillars of focus.
Strong economy, prosperous community,
and exceptional built environment.
Starting in strong economy, it's agenda
item number 12. It's the payment of the
property tax from the class action
lawsuit that was filed. That has now
been settled and we know our final
amount. Uh it was originally estimated
to be 1.5. We're going to need
$245,000 additional now that they've
reconciled the full amount to pay that
off and that will complete our
obligation here. The one thing I'll note
we while sufficient fund balance exists
uh to provide for this item or fund
balance will be lower than we projected
at the spring retreat while holding our
property tax uh level at
98. Agenda item number 11 change order
for contract amount for celebrate
premium. This is uh a software that the
police department uses in digital
investigations and and facilities
collection, review and analysis of
evidentiary data. The cost has escalated
by roughly $33,000 a little bit over per
year. So this will be cover the costs of
that contract over the three-year period
that is paid for out of the general fund
budget. Agenda item number 13, the grant
application and acceptance for a NAMI
internship coordinator position. This
was an application to the tribal 12%
gaming grants in the amount of $140,000
to fund a Native American internship
coordinator position for the town. This
program was launched in 2013. It's been
very successful for the town. Not only
develops the professional and leadership
skills of the participating interns, but
provides town with additional support in
the advancement of additional uh
important projects and initiatives. The
position will help facilitate better
coordination and potential expansion of
the program and will be f fully funded
through the grant
award. Agenda item number 14 is risk
management claims report. Should have
that. If you have any questions, I would
direct them to found attorney Chris
Payne. Agenda item number 18 under
exceptional built environments a
rightway use agreement for a crown
castle pilot. This would be allow to
allow for a pilot in two locations for a
new technology they've uh described as
nanot trenching that would run fiber uh
in short um paths through the the
asphalt uh to reach small cell sites in
neighborhoods. So, we'll evaluate that
over the next year, year and a half in
those two locations and then we'll come
back with a recommendation as to whether
or not to allow um expansion of this
type of approach in the town of Gilbert.
Agenda item number nine under
exceptional built environments, an
amendment to the biomass power
partnership agreement. This amendment
allows the city of Aendale to uh join as
a partner in that effort. Uh, in
essence, this provides funds to help
with proper forest management in the
northern part of our state and the
thinning of those forests to reduce the
risk of fire uh firefighters, wildfires,
excuse me. Um, and that those wildfires
and helping to mitigate that is
important because the runoff from that
ash and other pollutants from those
fires run into the water shed and create
additional problems for our water
treatment plants in town. And these
these funds are supported by our water
rate
fund. Agenda item number 10 under
exceptional built environment services
for the inspection, cleaning, and
repairs of Gilbert's portable water
reservoirs. We've got 19 of those
ranging in size from 2 million to 8
million gallons. This is with workhorse
diving and salvage for three years under
a cooperative purchase agreement with
Applied Diving Services, Inc. of 5 years
for a total not to exceed 490,000 from
the water production and wells division
budgets which again is supported by the
town's water rates. And these would be
for divers to go into the reservoirs, do
visual inspections of the uh integrity
of those reservoirs
themselves. And that is the bulk of the
consent agenda items tonight.
Okay. Thank you very much. Uh does
anyone have any
questions? Okay. No questions at all.
Anybody down here? All right. Well, with
that, I will um make a motion to approve
the consent agenda items 8 through 15.
Can I have a second? Second. Seconded by
Council Member
Kowski. And please
vote. Okay, it's a 70
vote. And uh the motion is carried.
So it looks like I'm turning it back
over to you, mayor.
Thank you, Vice Mayor. We have two items
and
administrative items. First is council
administration six-month report out from
the Gilbert Police Department youth
community engagement officer. Emily, I
think is Oh, you don't look like Emily.
You'll see Emily in a
minute. All right. Uh, Mayor, Council,
Chief Mike Soulberg, and, uh, shortly
I'll be joined by Officer Emily King,
our youth community engagement officer.
So, we want to provide you with a
six-month update, um, to our youth
community engagement off officer and all
the programs and activities that she has
done before you you see our mission
statement. Um, but not going to read
that to you. What I want to do is talk
to you about the efforts that we do each
and every day to make our community
safe. Our goal obviously is to have a
safe community, not only for our
residents, but all of our visitors. And
we do everything we can each and every
day working with the community, working
with our partners in the community to
maintain that safety in our uh community
of Gilbert. with that. Um, we have done
everything we can and working with our
partners. Our our secret to our success,
I always say, is our community. We have
a very watchful community that calls us
whenever they see uh illegal behavior um
or activity that is concerning. And with
that partnership, we've got to continue
that and build that trust and work
together. With that being said, we saw
over the last couple years uh an
increase in uh youth teen violence. Um
it is not unique to Gilbert. Uh this is
something that we have seen not only in
Gilbert, we've seen in throughout the uh
east valley, throughout the county,
throughout the state and throughout the
nation. When you watch the news, if you
uh are on any social media, you are
seeing the disturbing trend that that
we're seeing of social media having a
negative impact on our youth. Not only
our youth, but our adults, but we're
focusing on our youth tonight. um that
social media impact, that bullying, that
peer pressure that is constant, um that
drive to always being involved and
knowing what's going on and sharing
information, sharing false information.
A lot of that happens each and every day
with social media and it has a negative
impact on our youth and with that um we
have focused on uh that problem and how
do we engage our youth. Um it is a large
problem and but not unique to us, not
unique to our area. So we have looked
outside of what are we doing but what is
that uh being done throughout the nation
and officer King will be talking to you
a little bit about
that. With our support of council and
management, we were able to create our
youth community engagement officer for
this fiscal year. Uh we did a
competitive recruitment. Officer King
was selected for that position and as
mentioned we're wrapping up her first
six months in that position and so we'll
be reporting out to you tonight um what
she has been doing and what she has been
focusing on. Our mission uh for this
position and for officer King is to
learn and implement meaningful
opportunities uh for Gilbert PD to
engage with youth and establish positive
and meaningful relationships with
Gilbert's youth and families. With that,
I will introduce to you Officer Emily
King. Sorry, I forgot my goals. Uh when
we established that mission for our
youth community engagement um and
bringing in Officer King, we obviously
looked at what are our goals. How are we
going to accomplish this? And a lot of
this has been discussed with our uh our
community engagement task force and with
all the meetings we had in the past
year. But our focus for our community
engagement officer was to support
existing programs and to engage our
community, research best practices, not
only what are police departments doing
um locally, but what are they doing
nationally and then establishing that
collaboration and partnership with our
community and that increasing the
visibility and accessibility and
building that trust and transparency
with our community. Now, with that, I
will introduce Officer Emily King, and
she will talk about what she's been
doing over the last six months, and then
I'll be back up to see you to wrap
up. Thank you, Chief. I am so proud and
excited to be the new youth community
engagement officer. As a police officer,
we focus on enforcement in the public
safety. This new role has opened up my
eyes in understanding the importance of
building lasting relationships and
partnerships within our community,
providing support and resources to our
parents, and most importantly,
empowering our youth. I'm excited to
talk about what we've been doing, what
we have planned, and what our research
has shown.
I hope this continues a
conversation that I cannot handle these
issues on my own. Gilbert PD cannot
handle these issues on their own. That
we have to work as a team, come
together. It's going to take time and
dedication to best support our youth.
Now, I'm excited to get into what we've
been going over. So, we'll go to roadmap
to success.
One of the first research documents that
I looked into was the Arizona Youth
Survey. This was administered every two
years to a sample of 8th, 10th, and 12th
graders throughout the state. We saw
some alarming numbers. Cyber bullying
and bullying is on the rise. 20% of
students don't feel safe at school. 45%
reported having seen someone bullied on
school property. 30% reported being
picked on or bullied on school property
and 22% reported having harassed or made
fun of another person online through
text at least once in the past
year. This shows that this is not just a
Gilbert issue. This is a statewide
issue. It is my goal to see that these
numbers decrease. And this also shows
that we have a great opportunity to
better support our schools, parents,
teachers, and most importantly the
students. We have a lot of work to do
and we there's room for improvement, but
I'd like to take a minute to talk about
what Gilbert has been doing. And I'm
proud to talk about all of these
engagements and events that Gilbert um
provides for our community. Our
community
engagement, our Cops and Goblins trunk
or treat event gets bigger every year.
We are consistent with Coffee with a
Cop. We are continued to be invited back
to neighborhood events, our Gilbert Days
parade, and we have a very successful,
busy holiday season with multiple drives
and events. and we are continuing to
implement new initiatives like our
back-toschool student welcome campaign
that I'm excited to talk about in a few
slides. I would also like to brag and
talk about our police department
programs. I'm going to play favorites
for a second and talk about our cadet
program and Aspire Academy. These two
programs I'm heavily involved with and
I'm very proud to be a part of them. Our
cadet program is for students ages 14
and 20 that are interested in being a
part of law enforcement someday. They
are a part of our town events. On
Tuesdays we go over all things law
enforcement. And currently we have two
cadetses that were just hired with
Gilbert. They are part of class 8 as
recruits. So my cadet mama heart is
stressed for them, but I'm excited to
see their success and their journey to
becoming police officers. So I am proud
to be a part of the cadet program. I've
seen the success and it continues to um
do very well. Our Aspire Academy we just
had in March at our uh beautiful
training facility. This is for high
school females who are interested in
either being fire or police. It's
completely ran by female police officers
and fire department um and the fire
departments across the valley and it's a
wonderful way to show these girls that
anything they put their mind to that
they can accomplish. So that's a very
fun weekend. Um and then this summer we
have the Gilbert Youth Leadership
Academy ran by our school resource
officers that I'm excited to be a part
of. And we also have the Citizens
Academy, Employee Academy, and the Teen
Court which is coming soon.
Operation Safe Breakak was a new
enforcement initiative that we started
on September 6. This initiative was
focused on locations frequented by youth
during fall break. Our officers, our
team of officers that were created, they
focused on calls for service just
involving juveniles. They went to
In-N-Outs, the mall, downtown just
focusing on these calls for service
regarding juveniles.
This operation was from September 6th to
October 8th. And these are the numbers
that we
saw. 70 reports were
taken, 45 juvenile diversions were
created, 81 civil
citations, and a total of 89 arrests.
This was a very successful initiative
and we are continuing to implement this
in future spring break and fall breaks
throughout the year.
I'd like to talk about a new initiative
that um was a huge success. It was so
rewarding and heartwarming. Um we were
able to assign officers to almost every
elementary school in the town of
Gilbert. It was a fantastic way to show
our support to these kids on their first
day of school, handing out stickers,
high fives. I loved complimenting their
new outfits. It was a huge hit. This
inspired officers to continue to show um
their support in the mornings. Parents
kept asking for us to come back and the
schools really appreciated us being
there. We're very excited for the new
year to start so we can uh implement
this new program
again. Okay, I'd like to talk about kind
of what I've been doing since I've
gotten into this new role. Right off the
bat, I met with PD and town leadership
to discuss goals and communive
initiatives. I'm very passionate about
continuing training. So, I uh attended
social media investigation training,
youth crime prevention training as well.
I was also honored to be invited to
participate in the community engagement
task force. I worked alongside community
members, students, and parents to
brainstorm ideas to better engage and
support our youth. These ideas and
recommendations were presented to the
mayor and council. One of the best days
that I've had so far in this position
was this picture. I was able to visit my
first grade teacher at Carol Ray
Elementary School. She's been teaching
in that same classroom for over 25
years. So, being able to walk in and see
her and meet her students, that was one
of the best
days. These are some of the community PD
uh engagement and PDE activities that
I've been a part of. our safe event at
Trader Joe's, the Gilbert uh
neighborhood events, Gilbert days
parade. My research has shown that
engaging youth in a neutral space is
very important. So, I hope to continue
to partner with parks and wreck. We had
a teen nerf war at Regional Park, which
was a huge success. And one of my
favorite events was Truck
Palooa. This was a massive, very fun
event. uh PD, we were able to pass out
almost 300 bicycle helmets to the
students. So, that was a lot of fun. And
then continuing monthly with our cadet
program, our Aspire Academy, which we
hold almost every year, uh typicop for
Special Olympics was a lot of fun. And
again, continuing with our busy holiday
season, um with the Blue Line holiday
toy drive was very
rewarding. Since I've been in this uh
position, I have approximately 64 hours
of research into youth community
engagement, 83 hours of service as the
lead cadet adviser, 18 hours of
collaboration with the school resource
officers, and I've attended
approximately 38
events. So, getting into the research,
this is one of my main duties,
researching national best practices for
youth engagement. Right now, we're
completing research and developing a
plan to implement best practices to
engage the youth in
Gilbert. This is not just a
Gilbert issue that we are facing. This
is nationwide. So, I really wanted to
reach out to other agencies across our
country to see what is working, what's
not working, are we is there a program
out there that we can copy and implement
in the town of Gilbert. So, it was
important for me to dive in and see
what's um happening across our country
to best engage our
youth. Research approach. The
information gathered involved a variety
of sources from news and academic
articles to outreach to external police
departments with similar demographics.
We broke this research up into three
categories. We looked into 10 police
department programs, four
community-based programs, and five
academic
studies. Getting into the research, it
was important for me to look into the
Gilbert benchmark report cities. These
are the comparable
agencies. These agencies are have uh
consistent cadet programs, coffee with a
cop, school resource officers, and youth
leadership academy. This is good news.
Gilbert is leading the way. We um are
doing a great job. So, it's nice to see
that we're not missing the mark and that
we are continuing to be creative and
innovative with our new
programs. An overview of the research.
Police department programs strengthbased
mentoring programs are very
successful in the research. Sports and
leadership programs also do very well.
cadet and explore programs we've seen is
very successful. In this last bullet
point, education courses on laws and
regulations. This bullet point, I feel
that we have an opportunity to provide
more resources and education to our
parents and our
students. Getting into the
community-based programs, what we saw
consistent were these community- based
programs partnered with nonprofits.
There were multiple after-school
programs that we looked into and there
were support and education programs for
parents. We looked into academic
studies. These scientific research
documents went over cognitive
development on youth. Research documents
on community level strategies to prevent
violence and how to gain trust within
our community. And these scientific
research documents went over deterrence
police
strategies. Okay. some key takeaways and
program
considerations. These programs need to
engage youth in a neutral space.
Refreshments, food and drinks to promote
a fun and safe environment. I know if
there's going to be a taco truck or a
coffee food truck, I will be there. And
group size and age between 15 to 20
participants. We can't have these
programs too big. We want to be able to
connect and mentor uh each individual
that is in these programs. In this next
bullet point, target middle school age
students. I'm very passionate about this
because trust is built early on. That is
what our research has shown. Middle
school age students that are at that Y
in the road. And if we're able to meet
them at that in at that Y before they go
to high school, provide education
encouragement, there's a greater chance
that once they get to high school,
they'll have that confidence and they'll
be able to make better decisions. So
providing programs and engaging the
middle school age students, I think is a
great opportunity.
time period engagement no longer than
two hours held monthly or once a week
for an hour and staffing volunteers
explore volunteer opportunities and I
would love to get our cadetses involved
in running these programs. Research has
shown that studentled programs are very
successful. When researching other
agencies across the country, this is a
there's universal challenges. Police
departments are still
learning youth violence and these issues
that are going in that are happening in
our schools. This is not a new story.
This has been going on and building
those community partnerships, building
that trust, staffing and funding. How do
we reach all youth? There's social media
comp complexities and there's outdated
academic studies. These are all
universal challenges.
I cannot solve these issues alone and
it's important that we get creative and
work together as a team. And my goal and
hope hope for this position is to expand
and hopefully a youth engagement unit.
The more people we have on this team,
we're able to reach the youth and engage
as many um students and children in our
um in our community. So, that's my hope
for this um position is to continue to
grow. Before I pass it back to Chief,
I'd like to go over some future events
that we have in the next six months that
I'm very excited about. We're going to
continue events with the cadetses. I
hope to see um some of you there. Uh
monthly community outreach events with
public affairs. We have the Gilbert
Youth Leadership Academy in June. We
have a Gilbert Teen Police Academy which
is going to focus on the middle school
age kids and that's going to start um
fall break. Our first day student
welcome is in July and our back to
school shopping event with Higgley
United is in August. And my next step is
going to be school outreach. So I'm
going to be deployed to schools to
identify youth who could use follow-up
mentorship. I'm going to work alongside
the school resource officers and build
those one-on-one relationships with
students that are needing extra support
and encouragement. So, I'm very excited
about that. Thank you so much for your
time and I'll pass it back over to
Chief.
Thank you, Officer King. Excellent job.
Should have had you done my part, too.
Uh in summary, uh Officer King hit a lot
of the highlights, but I'll I'll go over
them again of our conclusions. Uh first
is building trust in the community is
key. Uh youth are more likely to engage
when they feel empowered to shape the
the programs they're involved in. We
must create safe, non-judgmental spaces
where youth feel comfortable expressing
themselves. Staffing is limited, as you
have heard, and additional investments
will be necessary. The PD budget will
need to be increased in order to uh
provide additional opportunities uh for
our youth and for our youth engagement
officers. Our recommendations, as
Officer King mentioned, is to uh create
a Gilbert PD youth engagement unit. We
need to expand on our partnerships and
continue to build community support. Our
work towards reducing teen violence will
take time. We are trying to change
behaviors. These are not simple
solutions. This requires consistent and
intentional efforts with the community.
We must have continued support from the
council to expand the opportunities for
the youth in our community. And as
mentioned, PD cannot solve these
problems alone. It will require constant
evaluation and participation from
parents, the town, our nonprofit
organizations, our churches, and our
schools. As Gilbert Mayor John Lewis
said, what we do, we do
together. Tonight, we've provided you
with the overview and our
recommendations and our road map moving
forward. Uh we'll continue to implement
police department's recommendations as
we work with the town on implementing
the community engagement task force
recommendations. You saw a sneak peek of
the uh FY26 budget. We do not have
anything specific to advancing or
expanding our youth engagement other
than the programs that Officer King
mentioned. But as we continue this
research and and as we continue to
evaluate those next steps, not only for
ourselves and for the community
engagement task force, if we come across
ideas, we will be working towards FY27.
But there if there's anything we can
implement earlier, we will come back to
council with what those programs are and
opportunities, whether it's funding or
different participation. We'll continue
to look for opportunities over the next
year as we continue continue to expand
on that and we knew that going in that
one one person one position is not going
to be able to solve all the problems and
hit all the items. So, we will continue
to uh look for ways to expand within the
PD, but also looking for within the
town, parks and wreck and other
opportunities of where we can expand
that engagement of our youth and our
parents and involving the schools and
looking for different opportunities. And
we're open to other ideas as well. And
I'll just wrap up, excuse me, with two
main takeaways from our presentation. We
learned the importance of creating
proactive strategies.
And second, we must understand we are
making an investment in the future. And
this is a long-term investment. This is
not a simple solution. It's something
that's not just a PD issue. It's a
community issue. And with your support,
we'll continue to work on this and
combat this this
issue. With that, are there any
questions for myself for officer King?
Questions? This item is for discussion.
Who was first? Council member Lions, you
go ahead. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, Chief,
uh, Officer King, I want to thank you
both for the presentation. U, the
question I have, you you focused on the
middle school, uh, age group as an
inflection point in uh, a child's
development. And we talked about
proactive strategies. Have you laid out
uh and this may be the question for you.
Have you laid out or identified any
particular strategies that you would
like to bring forward and have fleshed
those out yet?
I think getting in the schools and
making myself available is what is going
to right now be the best approach for
that.
middle school age students, they're very
engaged and when I'm on campus, they
they have a million questions. They want
to know about what I'm wearing, like all
the gear that I have to carry, they're
very engaged. And I think that since
they're very excited still, um, that's
when we can hit them with programs and I
can go in and provide little educations
on about consequences on their actions
and making better decisions when they're
faced with challenging issues. So
hopefully partnering with the schools
and providing some programs and
education um, opportunities is what I'm
hoping for.
Chief, I'd like if you guys can over the
next few months maybe bring forward some
examples of programs you'd like to move
forward with. Okay. Yeah, we do. And
there are some actually that that
officer King mentioned that are new
programs. Um the uh the fall break with
the uh teen citizen police academy
engaging them. Um uh Officer King has
done a great job with all her work and
with her research. She's been itching to
get out there and be with the kids. So,
we're getting close and uh so once we're
past this step, um we're going to set
her free and uh there's a lot she can
do, but we're going to need some
additional resources. And that's where
the community engagement task force
recommendations will also weave in
nicely because it's not just focusing on
PD but the schools what opportunities a
lot of mentor programs that were
mentioned in that as well and that's a
passion of hers as well of developing
mentor programs and also giving the the
youth the ability to create what
programs they think would be beneficial
and guiding them.
Yep. Council member Kapowski.
That leads me right into my question. It
was regarding community mentors. Like if
there were people from the community
that wanted to participate as mentors,
has that program been established or is
there a way they can sign up for
something like that? Uh, mayor and
council member Kapowski, it has not been
established yet, but that's what we will
look in those next steps of how can PD
be a part of that. Um, but also how can
the town, how can our businesses, our
nonprofits, our schools partner in
creating those mentorship programs.
Okay. Thank you. And I just wanted to
comment that I really liked um thank you
for the presentation and I liked hearing
about all the research and work that has
been done. Um I'd like to continue to
see PD providing bike helmets at the
different events and hopefully getting
the grants to cover that. Um and through
the Gilbert Parks Foundation grants. Um
and in terms of education on laws, I
think that that makes a lot of sense,
but I think there are certain things
that don't have laws necessarily. So it
might just be education on the
prevention of bullying, violence, or
injury. Yes. And if you want to speak
up, you can. Uh I'll just add that um we
do currently a uh some online CL online
safety class at our crime prevention. Um
a lot of that's focused more on sex
tortion, but we're looking at ways to
expanding that into the bullying and not
only what can we provide, but what can
the schools help us provide and the
obviously the experts out there that
deal with this each and every day.
Anything else you want to add? Okay. So,
we'll continue to look for that uh
different opportunities and that's part
of where that uh that uh fall teen
citizen police academy is from. We what
we saw in the community engagement task
force. They a lot of the parents and the
teens wanted to know about the laws, the
rules, whether it's curfew, ebikes, uh
what can they do, what can't they do,
where can they do it, and so we'll
incorporate that between classes and
excuse me, uh different things we can
provide through the schools and what we
can provide through our events as well.
Thank you, Council Member Bonioani.
Thank you, Mayor. uh in a world of um
solve all the problems overnight. I'm
glad that you guys took your time and
spent the time on um on research. And
you know, my first thought was you got
to get right in the schools right away.
But I like how you guys did it. You took
your time, you did the research, you you
you figured out what's working, what
isn't working in other cities and such.
And I'm very happy to hear that you'll
be making that next step with the SRO's
and identifying some kids that need help
because I was thinking the whole time,
what are we doing that? When are we
doing that? I'm a little quick. So, I I
I was really happy to see you guys take
your time on that. And I look forward to
um future reports and look forward to
supporting uh expansion of of the unit.
Council member Buckland. Thank you,
Mayor Chief Emily. I don't have a
question but rather a comment. So I
retired from PD this police department
nine years ago and and the children used
to ask for our autographs and then last
year campaigning for for this seat
talking with different teachers from
different schools. Finding out their
fourth, fifth, and sixth graders uh
don't trust the police shouldn't be a
surprise. Uh the youth violence trends
you mentioned shouldn't be a surprise.
All you have to do is look at adult
human behavior in the last five years.
Um, post pandemic, the explosion of
social media, children having access to
so much information uh that they're
really not even ready for. Um, even
adults hostile, angry, high emotional,
just go to social media and see. It's
why I try to avoid
it. But it's teaching our children. And
if they're seeing that from our
adults, if you're not meeting them where
they are, and I like why you where you
said, you need to be at those schools
cuz that's where they are. You can show
them that we are trustworthy, that that
you our bad apples are minuscule. Uh and
um the drama and um you know, people can
say anything they want doesn't have to
be true. and uh sitting behind a te a uh
a phone or a computer to do it makes it
very easy to do. So I love where you're
headed. Love the direction. I will be a
big advocate for getting this unit
because you cannot do it alone, right?
This is a large community u a vulnerable
youth uh that we do need to protect and
hopefully um our children will be able
to make strides to even help their
parents. uh we can all return back to
respect and civility is what I hope
happens. So really commend you. You have
a tough job. Very proud of what you're
doing. Um kudos.
Mayor and uh council member Buckland.
Thank you for those comments. And I'll
just reiterate uh Emily highlighted a
little bit about the first day. U we
have 12 SRO's and we're at the junior
highs and the high schools, but um we're
not always at the elementary schools.
And so it was intentional to be there at
the beginning of school, but we saw how
positive that activity and that uh
impacted the youth and the parents uh
the the the grade school kids. And so
that's something that we've continued to
do not only with Emily, Officer King, uh
but also with our patrol officers. You
know, they each have a beat. They have
schools. They have different uh whether
it's elementary school, charter schools.
Uh so they have tried to at least once a
month but preferably at least once a
week stopping by on either drop off
pickup recess lunch and just being
visible whether it's eating lunch with
them whether it's their kids school or
just their beat. Uh so they've been
doing that as well and we've got a lot
of positive uh feedback from that as
well. So, we'll continue to not only do
what we can from the public affairs
office and the youth community
engagement unit, uh that will become a
unit, um but making sure the patrol is
focusing on what they can do each and
every day.
Vice Mayor,
um hi there. I I don't really have any
questions because most of them have been
asked unanswered, but I'm a a huge
advocate for what you guys are doing
and you had a monumental
task and you you've started and this
program is so
impressive. So, I just want to say thank
you because it makes me emotional
thinking about what you guys have had to
go through.
And so anyway, thank you.
Thank you, Vice Mayor. Let me just uh
comment that this the presentation you
made tonight, thank you for that. And it
just underscores to me again that we're
leading the comm the whole valley in
addressing a situation that was was
terrible at the time. And we were
accused of not addressing the situation.
And I don't know of another community
that has taken the same steps that we've
taken. So, congratulations for that.
You're doing a great job. Quick question
for Officer King. The the first
um graphics that you showed us were
statewide statistics on different
things. Yes, sir. Is there any way to
get those broken down into a community
into just Gilbert? Yes. Um we do have
those broken down into Gilbert stats.
Good. I'd like to see those like to if
you could share those with us at some
time. Yes, mayor. Thank you.
U Mayor, that's uh due to your part um
getting the uh asking I think it was ASU
that who did it. Um so we did get those
results. So we will get that to you.
We've got the statewide results and we
have our Gilbert schools results as
well. Thank you. So we'll get that to
you. Council member Torres, I
just having dealt with this with Chuck
and Scott early on and seeing what
you've done.
The point that Scott was making, I
think, is is an extremely important
point for people that live in this
community because it we're trying to
maintain community in a small town feel
and show that we're that we do care that
not the council, but the town itself,
the residents, the people care, and it's
an investment. It is. It's not doesn't
come free and it doesn't come out come
without criticism. But uh certainly I
appreciate everything you've done here.
I appreciate all the slings and arrows
that you personally took during this
this process and u I look forward to
seeing results from this and hopefully I
can divert more money to the department
to help with that. So thank you.
Thank you. This is for information. and
thank you again for the presentation and
all your
work. Next administrative item is
presentation of the annual audited
financial report for the fiscal year
ending June 30th,
2024 and then consider adoption of a
resolution number
4555 confirming compliance with the ARS.
Hawin. Hi Mayor and council. I'm excited
to end this portion of the meeting
with financial reports and
audit. Everybody's favorite topic. Uh
our team works so very hard on this. Uh
and this is a requirement as a part of
the audit to present these findings to
council. Uh our auditors are not here
tonight. Uh but they send their wishes
and their information is in the booklet
and I'll just breeze through this. So
again, kind of focusing on the role of
accounting, what we do, why we're here.
We record everything everything that
that the town does, we look to record.
Uh we then create reports on that. We
manage the internal controls uh across
all the financial aspects of the town
and many other areas as well. Um we're a
key internal service provider. And then
we focus on that integrity,
accountability and transparency.
So then what is in this annual
comprehensive financial report and what
value does it have? One, it's required,
but two, it is a stamp that has been
audited that says this is what happened
in the town during this
period. It provides that accountability.
It gives management tools to to review
and look uh analyze. Uh the public has
access to it. they can look and
understand where the money went and
understand that that was ratified by by
a third-party auditor auditing firm and
then uh very importantly our investors
look at the at these numbers very
closely and are a key part of our AAA
credit
ratings just a table of contents of what
you will find inside the ACER document
itself um the the key item that we'll
focus on here is that independent
auditor's report but understand that in
Here are the basic financial statements,
notes that are required, uh everything
that's required to meet our statutory uh
reporting requirements, uh and then some
additional things for clarity, for
additional
transparency. Always appreciate the
opportunity to highlight uh that we have
once again received uh for the 33rd year
in a row. Uh and I'm going to read the
title of this uh carefully to make sure
I I don't trip on my words here. Uh but
this is a certificate in achievement for
excellence in financial reporting and
you see 33 years in a row and you might
think okay this is a rubber stamp right
you turn this in and and and you get
your your your award that is not the
case uh these are peer-reviewed uh by
GFOA which is the government finance
officers association uh and there are
extensive requirements that go into this
and being able to receive this
achievement and excellence in in our
financial reporting uh is what we strive
for every day in the finance team,
accounting team. Uh and just thrilled to
to show this again, 33 years running and
we continue. We will do everything we
can to keep this streak
going. So then our auditors are not
here. They were preoccupied and and we
couldn't reschedu with them. Uh I won't
speak for them. Their documents are in
the are are in the materials, but I will
highlight directly from that
uh you see on the screen in our opinion
financial statements referred to above
presented fairly in all material
respects. This means that we received a
clean audit opinion uh that there are no
marks uh that there are no material
items that uh change any of their
opinion in what they looked at all of
the different data that that we present.
uh they review transactions, they review
uh our policies and procedures. Uh they
go through an extensive amount of work.
What you see here is a clean audit
opinion which is our
goal. Parallel to that we have single
audit results. This is an audit related
to any grants that are federal in
nature. And so again just to focus on
the highlights here that the top line
type of auditor report issued is an
unmodified opinion which means again
clean. This is that is the highest grade
that you want in an audit. Uh other
things to note here internal controls
over financial reporting no significant
deficiencies no material weaknesses.
Internal controls over major programs no
significant deficiencies no material
weaknesses. So again, excellent,
excellent news, excellent work. Uh
highlighting the work from from my team,
recognizing Tanya Wright and her
leadership. Uh but Anthony St. George,
uh Emily Harmon and Matthew Masters are
is the leadership team and there are
many others that are involved in this.
Um and with that, that is my
presentation. Are there any questions?
Thank you. Questions of Hawin.
Thank you Hawin.
Congratulations. I'll entertain a motion
for adoption of resolution number 4555
confirming compliance with ARS.
I'll make a motion to accept as written.
It's been moved by council member Torres
and seconded by the vice
mayor. Please vote.
Motion passes
70. That ends the administrative items.
We're ready to go to communications from
citizens. Vice
Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. Um to start our
communications from citizens, I'll be
reading the rules of
decorum. So, we value the participation
of our community members and robust
exchange of ideas. However, it's
essential that this discourse uh remains
respectful and constructive, reflecting
the professionalism expected in such
forums. Misinformation and personal
attacks undermine our collective efforts
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. Accordingly, the town council will
not allow for moments of silence or
playing of music or other recorded
materials which could distract from
meeting from meeting 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'll
invite you 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. In the current 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 want to remind you we are
unable to provide responses to public
comments during this meeting. So please
be assured that your comment, your
concerns and input are heard and very
valued. So with that, our first speaker
speaker will be Lind Lisa
Richard. My name is Lisa Richard.
res can you turn your mic on? There you
go.
Oh, awesome. Thank you. Good evening. My
name is Lisa Richard. I reside in
Gilbert. Um, I have a couple things I
wanted to talk about, but first I wanted
to thank the chief and officer um King.
Was it Emily King? My daughter
participated in the Aspire program that
was um held in March and it provided
everything that they said it provided.
she came home more empowered and
confident and I wanted to thank you for
that. Um, what I had on the list to
speak about were two things. One, a
couple weeks ago at the last meeting,
several of my neighbors uh spoke about a
house in the neighborhood. I believe the
address is 601 Winthrop in Spring
Meadows, the Spring Meadows development.
And um, that property has continued to
park several cars, some that they just
don't move. their cars that are um uh
just being worked on. Um it's operating
as an auto shop right in the
neighborhood and it's it's an eyesore.
It's unsafe. It's by the school's bus
school bus stop. So my kids are coming
off the bus. They can't see around the
corner. I have another child who rides
her bike home. She can't see when she's
turning the corner. It's just a very
dangerous situation and it nothing has
happened since the last meeting. So, um,
wanted to see, I know you can't respond,
but wanted to see if that could be put
on the agenda and, um, investigated for
a possible zoning, um, violation. And
then the second thing, um, again, I know
you can't respond, but there's been
these loud booming noises in the
neighborhood ongoing for a couple of
months. Uh, happens around 12:31 in the
morning. And um it's I live on Lindsay
and Warner, so I don't know where if
everyone what the radius is of people
who can hear it, but it's pretty loud,
pretty disturbing. Don't know what's
going on, but very concerned about that
as well. And that's it. Thank you. Okay,
thank you very
much. Our next speaker is Josh Reynolds.
Uh, mayor, members of the council,
thanks for your uh, thanks for your
time. My name is Josh Reynolds. I do
reside in Gilbert. I was an employee
here for 20 years until I retired uh,
two and a half years ago. Uh, what I
want to bring up tonight is um, my
frustrations and my confusion with some
of the actions of your fire chief. I'm
going to bring uph four events. Those
are four events all happened after I
retired. So this is uh what your fire
chief has done to me as a citizen and as
a retiree from your fire department on
January 23rd of 2024. So about 15 months
ago, I came to this this council
chambers to speak and about uh two or
three minutes into me walking in, your
fire chief picks up his phone and then
within about 30 minutes of that, I had
four police officers surround me by this
back corner escort me out and hand me a
piece of paperwork. Um, to this day I'm
a little confused on what it was, if it
was a injunction, harassment, a
trespassing. Um, was tried to look it up
and I can't find it anymore. I think
because I challenged it in court and it
was thrown out, but I I I can't give any
more information on what that was. But I
stayed away for a year. Okay. Then to
fast forward Janu, I'm sorry, February
27th of 2025. So about 13 months later,
I went to a firefighters retirement
party at our public safety building. No
issues. I was there for about an hour
and a half. Uh, your fire chief uh was
the MC, so he was there. I was there. no
issues. Okay. Um March 20th, about a
month later of this year, 2025, a month
from that previous event, I went to a
pancake breakfast um at a fire station
and within 5 minutes of being there, the
fire chief grabbed his phone. He
actually approached me first and he
said, "Josh, I'm going to ask you to
leave and if you don't leave, I'm going
to call uh Gilbert police." And I told
him, I said, "Rob, I have every reason
or every right to be here and I'm not
going to leave." He called Gilbert PD,
which I got to tell you, they were
extremely professional. I feel very
sorry that they got put in the middle of
this. There was an officer, then a
second officer, a sergeant, a
lieutenant. It escalated quickly and
they were all extremely professional and
again I feel sorry that they got in the
middle of this, but I agreed to leave
and after about 45 minutes, they were
helpful and they answered a lot of
questions for me, but again, kicked out
of a fire station at a retiree
breakfast. Um, and then 5 days after
that, so March 25th, 2025, just a month
ago, when I first came and spoke with
you guys, I came here and I was lucky
enough to get to speak. So, I'm
frustrated and uh confused because of
what the Rob Dugen, your fire chief, has
done to me. I don't know what am I going
to be here? Can I speak? Can I not
speak? Can I go to a fire station? Can I
not? Um so, I'm confused by him and it's
frustrating to me and I want to bring
that to your attention. Um the
inconsistency and the patterns of your
fire chief is clearly targeting and
harassing. His personal vendettas are
going to cost taxpayers one day. Um
thank you for the opportunity tonight to
speak. Um that's all. Thank you guys.
Okay, thank
you. Our next speaker is um Steve Lavell
and I believe Stacy. You're you're here,
correct? And she Stacy will be giving
Steve her three minutes. So, you will
have six minutes to speak. Mayor, mayor
and council, uh I'm here tonight to uh I
I kind of uh agree with you about what's
going on with the uh the youth and the
the truth is really important with that
as well. We need to speak truth to our
youth. And so it's very important that
we start to be truthful here. So, I want
to take us back to
um the beginning of the COVID stuff
where um certain people in this
organization, the fire department,
myself included, were were targeted for
resisting wearing masks. And I want you
guys to remember that the information
out there about the virus was that it
was 0.5 microns and that N9 I mean.3
microns, N95 masks, not.5 microns and
larger. It was public information out
there. didn't matter. It didn't matter
if I came to them and talked about that
stuff. It we had we were forced to wear
these masks and if we didn't, well, we
were disciplined. Or if somebody wore
the wrong mask, they were sent home by
Chief Badget. And then Chief Badget
never got in any trouble or any
discipline for his actions that were
completely outside the scope of the the
uh policies of this of this
organization. I bring all this up
because we now know masks and and uh
social distancing were all a lie by our
federal government and no one in this
organization would critically think or
listen to anybody that was critically
thinking. They all just followed along
and they didn't speak the truth. The
role of the fire department and the
police department is public
safety. Okay? So, they must dive in,
understand, and look out for the
public's interest. shutting down
businesses, having your social your
social media uh office of digital
government put up lies and what you call
misinformation as you still say that in
your
preamble. Well, no one's been held
accountable to that other than Dana
Burchman who who I believe was
rightfully removed from her position,
but that department has been changed a
little bit, my understanding, but they
still have an individual there that
carries the same ideology as Dana did.
believed in shutting down businesses,
believed in social distancing, believed
in masks, believed in the clot shot.
Those are all lies. It's like it's like
it's kind of
like it's kind of like saying a man can
become a woman or a woman can become a
man. We all know that's a lie. We all
know it. But yet, we allow a a man in
this fire department to continue to use
female restrooms, but we want to rave
about the Inspire Academy. You can't
have it both ways. You just have to the
organization has to start speaking the
truth. Under that man's leadership,
they're not speaking the truth. So, I
want to go back in. That's kind of
something in general I want to hit on
because definitely we were targeted for
things that we posted during the the uh
uh pandemic like like I'm not going to
wear a mask unless I'm on duty. And then
the Office of Digital Government would,
you know, say, "Oh, this this here he's
at it again. we're spying on our
employees, which we've been down this
road. But I I have to hit on that
because if we're going to sit here and
and praise this organization like we
have tonight, then we need to speak
truth about it, too. I think what
they're doing is great with the youth,
but it's also very important to be
truthful with youth. Maybe we got to go
back to sticks and stones may break my
bones, but names will never hurt me.
Maybe we need to start teaching these
kids like I taught my kids that I coach
football in. You know what? Everything's
not going to be perfect, right? Stick up
for people who are being picked on. Be
nice. Let me get back to some basics.
Just just a thought I had. The last
thing I want to get into
is I came up here, well, it was a month
ago and I spoke to you guys about the
electric fire trucks, $3.3 million worth
of fire trucks that they were going to
purchase electrically. Now, I believe
they always used to tell us we need to
be good stewards of the taxpayers money.
And I've seen taxes raised five times by
this body in the last roughly 20 months.
$3.3 million raise was not being a good
steward of the taxpayer money. But now
I've heard that it's actually been
removed from the proposed budget. So I
got to ask you guys because I don't
believe I don't believe this this body
right here is being told the truth
because I've lived the lies of the
organization. I've been told them and I
don't think you're being told the truth.
So I'm going to ask you as a body to
dive into that and ask why. Why was the
fire trucks removed? Now, I mean, I kind
of know why. I I I definitely have
additional
information, but it's been removed. And
you have to ask yourself, why did Chief
Dugen and Chief Gerard remove the fire
trucks from the budget after I came up
and spoke and I want to tell you that it
wasn't it it wasn't just me. There there
was plenty of information. They have
what they call an apparatus committee in
the fire department. That apparatus
committee had people with all different
political affiliations. They have people
that love electric cars, big fans of
them, and people that don't, people that
want to, you know, drive four-wheel
drives. But they were recommending no to
the electronic truck after one year of
that
um trial. Okay. But the chiefs didn't
listen to the they didn't listen to
their own people. And then they gave you
guys information that these trucks were
were really good and they were they were
they were good for the environment and
they were good for our city and they
were a good economic investment and
they're not. They're not. It's obvious
they're not. They pulled them. So the
important thing for me is that you guys
dive back in. Don't just take that. But
please, you're not being given all the
proper information to make educated
decisions. And then that reflects on you
guys when you have to run for office
again. So start please diving in and
asking questions like why why did they
pull that and and dive a little deeper
into that issue. I I thank you for your
time tonight. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you very much. And with that
that concludes the communications from
citizens. So back to you mayor. Thank
you Vice Mayor. Uh you can read on the
agenda future meeting consideration for
a study session. We'll go to
communications. Communications from the
town manager.
Thank you, mayor, members of the
council. Give us just a second. We'll
pull the presentation
up. Okay. Uh, I want to start by um also
recognizing Chief Soulberg and Officer
King for the great work they've done.
Are you engagement activities? There's
more to come. We've got the uh
recommendations from the community
engagement uh task force that we are
working on as well. So, we'll have more
updates in you with for you in the
future as we continue to advance our
efforts in that area. Also, just wanted
to recognize and highlight with the uh
repayment of the university debt early,
uh we're achieving $15.4 million in
interest savings on that that is avoided
by retiring that debt early. So, great
work to everybody involved with that.
Starting with our department and
division highlights tonight. April is
National Volunteer Month as we're all
aware and there have been a number of
activities all around our community that
we've been involved with. So I'm going
to take the opportunity to highlight our
volunteer and community resources
division which does a lot of great work
for this community in this area. that's
led by Melanie Dystra, who I think all
of us are very familiar with and
appreciate all of her great work, and uh
Linda and Robert and the other members
of the teams and volunteers who help do
a lot of great things. Our volunteer and
engagement opportunities. I won't run
through all of these, but they do a lot
uh with volunteer programs and
partnerships, days of service to
seniors, our communitywide food drives,
which many of you participate in, heat
relief activities. They just do a
phenomenal job in a number of key areas
of importance. In support services, they
do a lot of special and provide a lot of
specialized services for seniors,
veterans, and in individuals experienced
homelessness. We've got our neighbor to
neighbor program in our town store. And
I want to highlight that in fiscal year
24-25, the neighborto neighbor program
raised just under
$134,000 that we used to support our
nonprofits. And our online store uh made
$7,000 in profits that we all uh use
that we use to uh support the many
programs um that our nonprofits and that
this group uh
undertakes. Housing and financial
assistance. We've got emergency rental
and utility payment assistance,
affordable housing initiatives, and home
repair service services as well. To
highlight some of the community impact
from all of this, starting with
nonprofits, we had third 30 23, sorry,
partners,
$382,000 funded,
17,62 residents assisted and 36,000
hours of service. Our utility discount
program has 125 residents we've assisted
and as we're aware we are raising the
amount of the assistant of that program
from $10 to
$40. Our 911 day of service involved
over
3,851 volunteers,
6,32 hours of service and 42 different
organizations who participated in that.
Jumping up to our emergency minor home
repair. We served 45 households and 35%
of the repairs were related to HVAC
systems. Domestic violence awareness, we
had nine volunteers, 20 hours of service
and raised $1,850 in donations towards a
new leaf. And uh permanent affordable
housing units. We have 22 rental homes
and three community land trust
properties.
Jumping over to upcoming events, we've
got a volunteer appreciation breakfast
on April 24th from 7:00 a.m. to 8:30
a.m. at our McQueen Park Activity
Center, the Heat Relief Network. From
May 12th through September 19th, we'll
have various heat relief locations and
donation sites. And if you'd like to
learn more about the Heat Relief
Network, there's a QR code on here which
you can scan and find out more.
Jumping over to retirements recognitions
and awards, we want to highlight Sandra
Childers who received her American
Institute of Certified Planner
Certificate Certification, AICP. Um that
is a um great recognition of Sandra's
understanding and knowledge within her
field. We're very grateful to have her
service to our community. And then we
want to recognize Juan Tavazon who is
retiring after 25 years of dedicated
service to the town of Gilbert. And he
started Juan started in 2000 when
Gilbert's population was 117,000
residents compared to the 292,000 of
today. Juan drove over 65,000 miles to
service 3 million containers. Rain or
shine, his commitment ensured waste
collection ran smoothly, benefiting
residents and maintaining the town's
cleanliness. One's professionalism and
hard work leave a lasting impact,
earning the admiration and respect of
his colleagues and residents. We want to
thank Juan for his service to our
community and wish him the best of luck
in his retirement. And with that, mayor,
that is the report for tonight. Thank
you. Reports from the
council. Council member Bonjivani. Thank
you, mayor. Let's talk parks and wrecks.
Okay. Gilbert Cinemas, bring your
blankets and lawn chairs and come and
enjoy Moana 2 on May. Did I say that
right? Moana. Is that right? That movie.
It's a kids movie. Oh, okay. Mahana 2 on
May 2nd at 6:30 on the Civic Center
lawn. Space available for first come,
first serve basis. Feel free to bring
your own food and drinks or grab a bite
to eat at one of our available food
trucks. Let's talk about our Mother's
Day team. Come join us on May 3rd at 10
a.m. dressed in your best outfit and
favorite springtime hat for a wonderful
Saturday brunch at our Mother's Tea
Mother's Day tea event at the Gilbert
Community Center. There will be crafts
for the children, finger food, tea, and
a photo booth to capture the moment.
Everyone attending this event must
register online, so register today and
see you there.
Thank you, Council Member Buckland.
Thank you, Mayor. Just happy to report
to the council that the uh Valley Metro
board of uh directors met last week and
our park and ride police station was
approved unanimously. So, it will uh be
ready to
undergo build.
Vice Mayor.
All right. A little note from economic
development and
tourism. So, Discover Gilbert welcomes
notable French tour operator to Gilbert
in in partnership with the Arizona
Office of Tourism. Discover Gilbert
recently hosted notable French tour
operator. And I I knew I would not be
able to pronounce this. And no, it looks
like world dia. Um, showcasing some of
Gilbert's top experiences. Highlights
included Agritopia, the Perry and
Preserve at Water Ranch, and the
Heritage District. These efforts aimed
to position Gilbert as a potential
Phoenix metro stop, offering opportunity
to increase our town's market share in
the $4.4 or million dollar visitor
generated revenue that world dia brings
yearly to
Arizona and that's it.
Yes, council member to the I'm the
liaison to the RDC, the uh heritage
district and today was pretty fun
because I I stood across the street at
the Circle K grabbing a cup of coffee
and watching that Burger King finally go
down. So, the Heritage North project,
which is the largest project in the
Heritage District so far, will be uh
it's starting now. There'll be a
groundbreaking shortly, but I started an
Instagram the other day. A young man
named Joseph said I had to do it. And I
know he put it up there. So, if you
actually want to see part of that
building, come down. It's on there. And
it's uh they'll be doing a lot of stuff.
There's to be hopefully a hotel, a lot
of uh retail. There'll probably be
brunch there, but I won't wear my best
spring outfit or hatch, Chuck. I'm
sorry, but uh it's just great to see
that project finally get off the ground.
And I don't know if the uh the town has
got a a video of it, but I got 11
seconds of it cuz I was drinking my
coffee and on my way to work. So,
anyhow, thank you.
Thank you. Uh report from the mayor. I
only have one item. I want to
congratulate Gilbert leadership class 33
for their u fine efforts in conducting a
mock council meeting. Council member
Boniovani coached them on to
victory but uh they did a good job and
and I thank them for those
efforts. Thank you. I'll entertain a
motion to adjurnn. I make a motion to
adjurnn.
So we are adjourned.