Regular Meeting - 2/25/2025 6:30:00 PM

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[Music]
e
e e
sometimes
so
I'll call to order the regular council
meeting of February 25th
2025 we'll start with the invocation and
Pledge of Allegiance the invocation
tonight will be by Pastor Michael Heiden
of Christ Greenfield Church Pastor
thank you so much for the honor of being
here and thank you guys for your service
for our city let us
pray Our Father Eternal Lord ruler of
all graciously regard those you have set
in position of authority Among Us that
Guided by your spirit maybe be high in
purpose wise in councel firm in good
resolution in unwavering in their Duty
so that under uh them and their
governance we
may live quiet and peaceful lives in
alignment and in the will of our Lord
Jesus Christ amen amen thank you Pastor
our Pledge of Allegiance will be led by
council member Buckland
tonight please join me I pledge Alle to
the flag of the United States of America
and to the repu for
na
indivis andice
for thank you roll
call Mayor Scott Anderson here vice
mayor Bobby Buckley here council member
Chuck bovani here council member Kenny
buckin here council member young Kowski
here council member Monty
Lions here and council member Jim toris
a a quorum is present thank you just as
a reminder since council member Lions is
not able to join us tonight he will be
virtual and all of our votes will be
voice votes we won't be using the board
tonight we have one recognition tonight
which we are proud to be able to do and
we've asked council member buckin to
lead that
Mr Peterson if you'd like to join me
so I am honored and it gives me great
joy to introduce Mr Frederick Peterson
to you a man who served our nation for
many years and I had the pleasure of
meeting him speaking with him for a few
minutes outside and also learning what a
good human being he
is Mr Frederick Peterson is set to
celebrate his 100th birthday on March
2nd
2025 Mr Peterson proudly served his
country with distinction for 2 4 years
in the United States Navy from 1943 to
1967 dedicating his life to defending
our nation during World War II the
Korean War and the Vietnam War Mr
Peterson's service began as a cook and
he later became a radio man
demonstrating his adaptability
leadership and commitment to Excellence
in every role he undertook he is a
grandmas Su in karate a title he earned
after bringing martial arts to the
United States in
1947 in addition to his distinguished
Naval career Mr Peterson was a champion
boxer during World War II in the Pacific
earning accolades and inspiring fellow
service members through his athleticism
through his athleticism and
tenacity folks do not mess with this
man today we are here to recognize Mr
Fredick Peterson for his 100 years of
life his extraordinary service to our
country his lasting impact on our
community we are proud to celebrate this
Milestone and express our gratitude for
his sacrifices and achievements in
service to our nation and the town of
Gilbert Mr Peterson would like to say a
few words we would love your wisdom sir
thank you so much thank you so much I I
didn't know anybody knew that much about
me having been to my house my house is a
museum in Gilbert and I I've been all
over the world many times and also my
wife my lovely wife is here too a leader
yeah and uh uh I was in the World War II
uh uh well let me start with my mother
and father I never saw my mother and
father they died when I was a baby I was
an orphan and uh my sister her and I and
she uh move married and I went to live
with her after I got fired on my job cuz
I didn't uh abide by the rules of not
going taking Christmas
off and uh I took it off because she
told me I couldn't and I did and then
she told me you a fireart so I laid
around my sister's house and when World
War II started I went in the Navy so uh
I served like he said in three
Wars uh South Pacific and then uh uh gu
canal and banville I was with the first
R Raiders backed them up medical I work
for the doctors in the daytime a be
night that's where I were why I we the
bronze star and uh the the Marg was
right next to our tent so I've seen all
parts of your
body the male of course and and also uh
uh I want to say to you that God said
for us to love our neighbor as ourself
and he didn't say what color to love and
uh I want to tell you you're very stupid
if you look at the person's skin and try
to see what color what nationality they
belong to because you look at me you see
I'm a pleasing tan but uh both of my
grandfather were white one from Alabama
and one from Georgia and the one from
Alabama was my father my mother's father
and uh he was married to a uh woman from
India and the uh one from uh Georgia
was my mother's father the Gibson family
and they love the ground she walked on
and she died both of them died in
Cincinnati Ohio okay he died he was in
World War I you probably heard of
General perishing okay and he served
under him but he got to bosis and Di to
bosis so he couldn't come near us now I
want to thank the mayor and I want to
thank the gentleman here all the council
members and all the people that are in
charge I can't call your names again
some of them try to think now but I want
to thank you for having me you know and
give me the recognition that I have
right now uh if anybody have any
questions I'd like to answer them for
you what's the secret for making it to
100 uh I am the oldest martial artist in
America
and even now even now I've been in six
hall of fames if you come to my house my
garage in my house will lock your eyes
out and if you're big don't come near me
I take you down with two
fingers so I mean if any of you like to
learn something come to my house come
and get my address for a leave I'll be
glad to have you come and you know I
love you you I love everybody okay all
right now uh thank you so much uh any
other
questions we're gonna get a picture sir
oh thank
you how about a standing o for this
man okay so if we could have the uh
veterans Advisory board come on up and
the family members come up we're going
to get some photos up here
we
than
[Music]
Patrick Patrick is he the same rank as
your your dad
was
oh thank you again everyone that was
here for that very special
we'll move on to our public hearing
section of the the
agenda um I'll ask the council if there
any of the items that you'd like to to
uh be heard separately I do know that
item number three has a request to speak
so we'll pull that one how about the
other items there's one that's requested
for continuance till March
25th we'll do that one separately I
guess yeah that'll be any others 12
please
12 that's on
consent
yeah if there are no
other items to be pulled off I'll open
the public hearing on items two
four four we'll take separately item 2
five six and seven I'll close the public
hearing on those and bring it to the
council for
Action make a motion to approve items
three five six and seven I'll second
that two five two two five six and seven
I'll second that
one motion by council member Capri
seconded by council member bovani please
uh vote by Voice
vote Voice vote all in favor I I I any
opposed motion carries
unanimously uh item number four I'll
open the
public second motion by the vice mayor
seconded by a council member caasi
please vote i i i i i any
opposed motion carries
go back to item number three I'll U open
the public hearing on item three on
Tustin Ranch and ask for staff
presentation on this item
right good evening Council Kristen
Divine senior planner um the cases I
have before you tonight are going to be
for a rezoning um pad Amendment request
as well as a general plan Amendment
request the site is located at the
southwest corner of field and poos roads
the applicant is proposing to amend
their pad and also amend their General
plan designation to better align with
the existing zoning a pre- application
um is also being reviewed concurrently
with this um rezoning and general plan
Amendment
application all right and the applicant
is requesting the general plan Amendment
from General commercial and general
office to residential one to2 dwelling
units per acre and also a pad amendment
to request deviations and incorporate a
previous outlier parcel into the
site right this site is just under 40
acres and was annexed into the town in
2000 under the land use category of 1
to2 dwelling units per acre the property
was also rezoned at that time from
County r43 to r110 and
r115 the land use and Zoning stayed in
effect until 2008 when a town initiated
General plan amendment was approved for
98 acers amending the residential land
use category of this site the business
park and Community commercial
General plan amendment was initiated due
to the increased interest in development
from the area after the Mercy Gilbert
Hospital in Santan freeway um had
developed this change required a
majority of the 21 Property Owners at
the time to be supportive of that
Amendment the land use categories of
Business Park and Community commercials
stayed in effect until 2020 when the
2020 uh Gilbert General plan was adopted
this plan updated the previous
categories to General commercial and
general office which is where they are
today
right and the current land used today
remains General commercial and general
office as approved in 2020 the requested
Amendment will convert the site back to
the original General plan designation of
residential 1 to2 dwelling units per
acre bringing that land use
classification back into alignment with
the zoning that has accompanied the site
since
2000 right and the site was owned sf15
and sf10 with a plan area development in
2000 the applicant is requesting to
amend that previously approved pad by
bringing bringing in a previous 1 and A2
acre outlier parcel they are requesting
to update their development plan as well
and add development standard deviations
the 1 and a half acre outlier parcel is
currently zoned sf35 and once
incorporated into the site will be
rezoned to
sf10 the updated development plans still
include 76
Lots but it will have a proposed density
of 1.9 dwelling units per acre instead
of the 1.97 dwelling units per acre as
previous ly approved in 2000 the plan on
the left of your screen is the original
uh approval and the plan on the right is
the updated
proposal as proposed there are two
primary entrances to the community one
from Greenfield Road and one from
Columbus Drive on the west the entrances
will be gated and the streets within the
community will be private both access
points are currently proposed as full
motion
access um the plan includes roughly 18%
of open space distributed between two
large amenity areas and a handful of
smaller attention areas throughout the
development and with this pad Amendment
the applicant is requesting deviations
from the previous approval seen here on
the screen outlined in red are the
requested deviations for the sf10 zoning
the applicant is requesting reduced
front and rear setbacks the front
setback was previously approved at a
staggered 25 to 30 ft the LDC does
require a 25t front setback for this
District but the applicant is now
proposing 15 ft for livable and 20 ft
for
garage the rear setback was previously
approved at 30 ft consistent with the
LDC and the applicant is requesting to
reduce that to 25
ft for the sf15 zoning District the
applicant is proposing reduced setbacks
and increased loot coverage no yep
increased lot coverage sorry the
previously approved front setback was a
staggered 30 to 35 feet in line with LDC
requirements of 30 ft the applicant is
proposing a 20ft livable and 25t garage
front
setbacks the previous approval also
required a
35t rear setback where the LDC only
requires 30
feet I'm sorry I lost my spot in my
notes um the applicant is requesting to
modify the previous approval and allow
30 foot rear setbacks to be consistent
with what the LDC currently permits in
addition to setback deviations for sf15
the applicant is also proposing to
increase the lot coverage percentage
from 35% to
40% also seen on this screen are items
outlined in green these are the items
that are exceeding our requirements the
minimum lot Dimensions proposed for sf10
are 90 by 120 where the LDC only
requires 85 by 110 the minimum
Dimensions being proposed for sf15 are
115 by 130 where the LDC only requires
110 by
120 in addition the open space
recommendation for single family
communities is 10% and the applicant is
exceeding that by almost double at
18% The Proposal also limits all homes
in the community to single story
level in addition to these development
deviation requests the applicant would
also request a modification to the 50ft
by 250t arterial landscape Corner um
they would still be utilizing the same
square footage they're just requesting a
little bit of flexibility on the
dimensions and this project was heard at
a study session item by the Planning
Commission in November uh the feedback
from the commission was that they
generally supported the density front
setback deviations and arterial
landscape deviations they did have
concerns with how many deviations were
being requested at the time of the study
session and also with the rear setback
deviation due to potential loss of
backyard space for the
homeowners an additional concern was
with only having one access point and
there was some back and forth
conversation during the study session
regarding whether or not this site may
be overdeveloped um since then the
applicant has modified their
request they're no longer requesting um
a deviation on sf5 rear setbacks but
would like that setback to reflect the
35 I'm sorry the 30 foot permitted by
the LDC so it's a 5 foot reduction from
what their previous P allowed it just
brings it into compliance with the LDC
standards
currently they've also chosen to limit
the entire site to single story homes
and have increased the sf10 Lots by an
additional 10 ft in depth another
prominent change is that they have now
added two access points to the community
and Planning Commission had no
additional concerns at the public
hearing right at the public hearing um
earlier in February the res a handful of
residents did come out to speak um the
concerns that they voiced were with the
increased traffic that they felt this
community would bring to Greenfield Road
they were also concerned with the access
point on Columbus out to posos and that
it was not at the time full motion
access there was also a comment raised
that the residents would like for the
development um for the developer to
improve the entirety of Bonanza the road
to the south in as opposed to just the
north side of the road um they would
like the entirety of the road developed
to be uh brought into a better quality
than it currently exists today uh the
north side is the only required
responsibility of the developer but they
are working with the town to come to an
agreement um to get the entirety of
Bonanza
developed and due to the volume of
Resident concerns regarding the right in
write out only from posos that was shown
during the Planning Commission hearing
um the applicant has since made changes
for that access point to be a full
motion access this will be reflected in
the preppie application that is going to
Planning Commission um for review on
March
5th and with that staff does recommend
approval of z242 and GP 2405 and I am
available for any questions that you
have thank you Christ questions
Council council member bonani thank you
mayor can you bring up the map up again
I I want to see the entry point on Green
Field where is
it the one on the right is going to be
your um your new
proposal is that before or after we go
from three lanes to
two I don't have an answer for that it
should be even with Grand View across
the
street okay thank you
other questions council member
Kowski this location is really close to
the 202 Corridor which unlocks a lot of
potential for our business and
employment zoning so I'm wondering can
can you give us some history or
background on why staff is supportive of
the classification going from the
general office and General commercial to
residential
yeah absolutely so mayor Anderson
council member Kowski um the current
zoning on the site already exists is
sf15 and sf10 and it has since early
2000 um along the way the general plan
land use designation was changed
multiple times from that residential to
commercial but the zoning stayed the
same um there have been no additional
applications or preapps or anything on
this site to reflect that there has been
any additional interest at least as far
as the town is aware um so them amending
the general plan is really just to bring
it back into conformance with what the
zoning already
is understood thank you all right so I
understand the zoning is currently sf15
and sf10 it's not general office and
General commercial yes so mayor Anderson
council member ton that is correct um
the zoning is sf10 and
sf15 um with a small 1 and a half acre
piece of sf35 that was left out of the
previous approval in 2000 um so this
amendment that's coming forward today is
to incorporate that sf35 piece to be
sf10 um and actually upgraded to SF 10
or 15 yes SF 10 okay so we are not
nobody's asking to rezone commercial
correct residential correct it is
already zoned residential clear all
right thank you they could develop
residential on it like this as is the
general plan amendment is just to bring
it into
Conformity council member B
oh sorry about that mayor okay any other
questions just just to add I'm so sorry
just to add my response to council
member Kowski um it is compatible with
the surrounding land uses as well so
that's part of the reason why staff is
supportive of just modifying the I do
have one Scott the designations vice
mayor okay um so I have a question I'm a
little bit confused when when you're
saying that we're
not uh because this what I'm reading it
says that
um we are you want to change from
General office and General commercial to
residential and am I am I reading that
incorrect because that's what's written
here mayor um vice mayor um the
underlying zoning is currently single
family zoning that is not changing the
what is being changed is the general
plan designation on the property
occasionally through town there will be
different land uses that have a
different zoning than what the general
plan says the zoning is what runs with
the land so they are um completely
within their rights to redevelop or to
develop this property in a single family
fashion but through this development
they've chosen to amend the general plan
to match that existing zoning so what
you're reading is correct but it's
correct on a general plan level not a
zoning level and to council member
tason's point there is no reduction of
commercially zoned property um on this
site it's all at all it's all it's all
currently zon single family but but
you're saying on the general plan it is
zoned general office and the general
plan classification is um general office
so that's what it's supposed to
be well that's yeah that's why trying to
get under the double talk here right so
uh mayor vice mayor that's why the
zoning runs with the land the general
plan is what is is um showing the
classifications that were approved
previously but the zoning was never
changed at that time the zoning has
always remained single family okay so
and so that zoning has never ever been
changed no that since 2000 yeah so if
that's the case why why do we notate in
here that does that have to be notated
because it's on the general plan yeah we
what we would like to have is for the
general plan classifications to match
the zoning classifications and that's
what the applicant is doing in this in
this process making those two marry up
together so it's the same okay I I just
want to assure that we're not taking
commercial and general office land and
making it residential because it kind of
alludes to that in everything that's
written here so because we you know we I
I can't do that I can't you know
support changing anything from
commercial anymore because we mayor vice
mayor that is correct we Reas yeah yeah
yeah we are following council's previous
Direction and not changing any
commercial land use at all to a a
residential designation it's already a
resid residential designation okay all
right I I kind of I mean I get it but
I'm still not really comfortable with it
yeah sure another example is just down
the street at Greenfield in Germaine the
northeast corner that is developed
residentially right now but it's shown
on our our general plan as as something
else so there like I said there's a
couple different places in town where
for some reason the zoning and the
general plan don't align
um or if the general plan was being
changed previously like in this case the
the count or the the town initiated the
the um General plan Amendment the
property owners weren't on board with
changing the zoning at that time so it
always remained um as a single family
designation okay thank you which
oftentimes does happen every time we do
the general plan those kinds of things
happen right and mayor as you well know
that the zoning runs with the land
that's what in that's really what
entitles it and gives it the the
development um allowances
right I got I I have one more question
so if the the zoning runs with the land
why was it even put for commercial on
the plan back um oh it was probably 15
years ago or so there was a lot of
pressure going on um around the um the
hospital in this area we were getting a
lot of small Lots coming in that wanted
to change from residential to commercial
so we did an area master plan um that
extended from the hospital clear to
Greenfield and at that time um all these
Property Owners I think except one
agreed to make these changes to the
general plan not everybody changed their
zoning but everybody changed the general
plan so we went forward with that small
Master small area master plan and you
can see the development that's occurred
around the the hospital with doing that
on some of the the residential land um
this one stayed single family zoned
there was never any development pressure
on it um there was a previous um
development plan that was that was um
approved on it but it was never
constructed and so um the it just never
it just never materialized the way that
that small area plan had envisioned it
so this applicant is coming back forward
to exercise the rights under the
existing zoning um to to develop it
residentially
okay all right thank you council member
bonani thank you mayor can you go back
to the other slide you just had that's
what I really wanted to see the first
time there we go
okay so you're saying the entrance is
across from Grand View yes council
member bani that is correct so we're
going from three lanes to two lanes to
assuming that we're going to be stopping
in the right hand lane to make a right
hand turn and I know this area real well
cuz I'm usually the guy in the third
lane trying to cut in front of the
second lane so by the time you get to
that second lane you're going to have
traffic stopping and that that concerns
me greatly because that's a
bottleneck that I think someone should
have taken a look at
um
any any uh the well I guess we're not
going to change it to three lanes over
there but that just that concerns
me thanks
council member
Capri Kyle going back to the question of
the general plan um the work for the
general plan that ends up being a voter
approved document how do we in the
future better
align our properties to what that has or
like what are the steps that would be
best in terms of aligning properties
with the general plan sure mayor uh vice
mayor council M Kowski um as I mentioned
it doesn't happen that often there's
probably I can think of two properties
in the town where the general plan and
the zoning didn't match um this one got
a little bit out of Step because of the
small area General plan that we did
however then we did the 2020 um voter
approved General plan and at that time
we could have changed those to
um but didn't because of because of the
previous plan going forward when we look
at the general plan in 2030
um we will go back through the land use
maps and look at the zoning maps and
then see if we can see if there's any
others that are um not aligned and at
that point in time visit with the
property owners and see about making the
zoning and the general plan match up as
we adopt that new general
plan okay I just have a lot of concerns
with this particular parcel being such a
prime location um but could you remind
me when the
previous that's you um p was
approved sure so mayor Anderson council
member kosi uh it was approved in
2000 I don't have it on a slide I'm
sorry that's in my notes it was approved
in 2000 thank you and to council member
Bon jovani's question regarding the
entrance off of Green Field will this
site be building any um off-site
improvements for Greenfield Road and
will they be installing a dedic right
turn lane into their
development uh yes so they're doing a
right turn lane
um but no additional improvements as far
as I'm aware um the applicant might be
able to to elaborate on that answer they
do have a presentation as well excellent
thank
you council member Lions do you have any
questions for
staff not at this time I do
not thank thank
you we'll ask the applicant to come up
now thank
you there we go mayor council members my
name is Shan Lake 1744 South Val Vista
here on behalf of uh TriPoint homes we
appreciate the opportunity to be before
you uh I've got a Pres presentation that
I'll go through but we do have a right
turn dedicated right turn lane to come
into the project off of Greenfield so as
to not back up traffic onto Greenfield
as it does so I wanted to hit that one
right off the shoots um we appreciate
the the chance to be here as staff
pointed out this property is located
directly west of the LDS temple um this
area is a little bit different we got
the park on the North side we have
larger lot single family residential on
the west side we have larger lot single
family residential on the south side we
have the LDS temple and a master plan
residential community on the east side
uh Katy Corner you've got various
different developments including
residential developments but around
generally in this area uh you have it's
it's a different field than it is on the
other side of the freeway which is a
very large master plan Community la ma
master plan commercial development with
a lot of commercial going in and around
that area kind of North and to the west
of this site
um the property is about 34 acres and
staff did a good job explaining uh what
we are proposing to
do um so I'll skip through these slides
the general plan we're just changing it
back to be consistent with the existing
zoning the legal right that currently
exists on the property that's what we're
doing as as this was not a a property
owner initiated General plan that
changed it to commercial it was the town
initiated General plan that was imposed
upon the property owners so that makes
it a little bit different uh as staff
pointed out really what we're doing is
we're trying to incorporate the carveout
piece so when this project was
originally planned and platted prelimary
platted the homestead was carved out the
homestead's not there anymore and so the
homestead's not being carved out so
we're incorporating that Homestead
Property into this plan and keeping the
existing zoning keeping the buffers
around the perimeter that were
originally part of the plan in 2000 over
the last quarter Century I'd like to say
that it's 25 years but quarter Century
sounds longer it's the same thing but
that's really what we're proposing is is
very something very similar to what was
previously approved you'll notice on
this uh old this old previous or this is
the our plat not sure how that snuck in
there but that's the let's go to this
site so this is the plan very similar to
what was approved in the 2000 the pre-
there's an access off of posos there's
an access off of Greenfield now let me
point out at Planning Commission there
was a lot of discussion about the access
on posos road currently our project will
go out to
Columbus and then Columbus has a access
out to Pacos road so we'll go from our
neighborhood to Columbus a collector
from Columbus out to posos Road there's
a raised median that currently exists in
posos Road a landscape median there
several neighbors showed up and wanted
us to modify the median to provide a
full turning movement and we committed
at that time which is condition number F
on the condition recommended conditions
of approval as recommended by staff and
the Planning Commission to work uh to
work not it's not F it's a different one
but to work with staff on that so we
have submitted a plan we show a proposed
you can see up in the corner if you
could read that I can't it's too far
away but up in the corner where that red
circle is we're proposing a full axis
turning movement if we can prove up with
the transportation department that we
can make the line of sight work which is
what the neighbors want us to do they
want us to have a left in a left out a
right in a right out we're okay with
modifying that if the
town pardon me will allow us to do that
in the town's right of way it's not our
RightWay it's the town's right away so
if the town will allow us and we can
meet uh all of the qualifications we
agree to do that and that was a primary
issue that the neighbors would like to
see from the Planning Commission so we
have updated the plan submitted it to
staff to show that uh proposed access
there staff went through the development
standards I wanted to go
through we do meet the mission of the
town
and and so we have gone through this and
I've listed
out I'm struggling here so I'm not going
to read every single one I apologize
normally I would but we do meet the
values of the town we have worked
extensively with the neighborhood group
and with the town staff um to try to
make a project that works there's a
current project that's approved at
1.97 units per acre we're trying to do
the exact same project at
1.9 so over 25 years we're reducing the
density effectively because we've added
more land to the same number of lots we
think this is a great project we think
the the feel in this area directly
adjacent to large lot residential right
across from the LDS temple which gives a
different feel is going to be a
tremendous project that I think people
will be proud of as they go in to look
at this high-end luxury Community with
very nice homes we think it will do very
very well in this area we think it's a
little bit different as you get closer
to the commercial I agree there's
there's a we need to to protect that
area over there but as you get further
and further towards the and up adjacent
to where we are by the temple we think
that creates a better a different feel
and we think the neighbors would support
this much better so we think this is a
good project we think it does meet the
values for the town the mission of
values for the town and it's a good
project and so we would request your
recommend or your approval of this
General plan and resoning case uh with
the conditions that staff and the
Planning Commission recommended so with
that I'd be happy to answer any
questions questions for the
applicant I'm broken council member bani
thank you mayor Mr Le how are you
tonight I'm doing fairly well good um
can you go back to your map
again okay I feel like being I'm a
traffic tonight I feel
like I'm concerned about leftand turns
now from from the Green Field again
we're going from three lanes to two
lanes and then a third lane for the
right hand turn but for the leftand turn
I don't believe there's a median
there
um I just have concerns about that left
hand just because I know this area very
very well you've got two L three lanes
merging into two lanes and now we're
going to have another Lane to turn right
that's awesome I'm glad you guys thought
of that but the left hand turn if you
have a car in the left hand left right
hand lane turning into the property you
have another
car turning left with someone in that
rightand lane they're going to be just
blind um on that turn is there any
consideration to making it a right-hand
Turn Only without messing up the traffic
studies mayor uh council member Bon aani
so are we talking about a Northbound
traffic taking a left into the project
talking about no leaving the project so
leaving the project road going to go
north on Greenfield Road so you will
notice our entrance aligns directly with
Grand View and all the offsite
improvements are complete to the town's
standards okay so there is a break in
the uh median at that point because
Grand View has a full turning movement
and so I'm not sure how you restrict one
side of the street to be a limited
access while the other side of the
street directly across has full access
uh we did do a traffic study and we
submitted to the town's traffic engineer
and there aren't failed turning
movements but as you get to the traffic
signal there will be breaks in traffic
that will be caused by the traffic
signal just up the road you're correct
that it does go from a from a three down
to a two and I'm not sure if it's at the
first e or the second e of Greenfield
Road on this map but it does go down to
part of the reasons why we have created
the full turning movement proposal up on
posos was that this was raised by The
Neighbors at the Planning Commission
meeting and so after that meeting we
agreed to go work with staff and to
modify that meeting and so that's what
we're working through right now with
staff so that you are able to have a
left out at posos and a left in and if
somebody doesn't want to do that
movement on Green GRE Field Road a left
out they can always go to Columbus take
a right on posos and then a left at a
controlled traffic intersection which is
a must much safer turning movement uh
quite frankly okay thank
you any other questions for the
applicant council member Lions you have
any questions no I think that they've
been answered thus far thank you thank
you thank you we'll ask you back up if
we need I got one more got May council
member bavani do you have you normally
you guys show us pictures of the homes
what they're going to look like do you
have anything like
that I can't remember if I put any in
this oh no I just put a video of
the the Bonanza to the South I don't
have any cop pictures of the homes
pricing of the homes what are we looking
at
yeah oh there we
go uh and mayor's member of the council
um they are um from 3500 to 4,800 Square
F feet and they'll be in the lad to midm
million starting could you identify who
you are I I'm Megan Neil with TriPoint
Holmes thank you
I'm good thank
you
questions thank you thank you I have one
uh request a speak card from Darren
Hughes Darren come forward and state
your name place of residence and you
have three
minutes good evening mayor and members
of the Town Council my name is Darren
Hughes and I live at 349 South 159th
Street which is directly a to this
proposed
development I commend Mr Lake and the
developer for listening to the residents
they have done that and they've taken
our comments and Incorporated them into
the community that they're
proposing I'm here tonight to urge you
to uphold the current zoning requirement
for the
sf15 of the rear setback of 35 ft along
the South and West boundaries of this
project they're requesting a reduction
to 30 ft but I strongly believe
maintaining the existing setback is in
the best interest of the community
here's why the neighborhoods to the
South and West consist of 1 acre home
sites when the original Zoning for the
development was established in the year
2000 it faced opposition to address
these concerns and create a transition
zone between the larger and the smaller
home sites specific specific zoning
accommodations were put in place these
included the larger home sites of a
third acre around the South and West
limiting them to single story homes and
a 35- ft rear
setback the developer is honoring the
first two conditions but is now seeking
to reduce the rear setbacks to 30 ft
this change is
unnecessary even with the current 35- ft
rear setback the Builder will still have
more than enough space exceeding the
buildable area on each of the lot by
over 600 square
ft the 35- Ft rear setback was a
critical component of the original
zoning agreement ensuring a smooth
transition between neighborhoods and
preserving the character of the
surrounding area the developer has no
practical need to change it I urge you
to honor the commitment made to the
residents and uphold the current zoning
and Preserve serve the 35 ft rear
setback for the 13 acre lots along the
South and West boundaries of the
community thank you for your time and
consideration thank you Mr Hughes any
questions bring the applicant back up
and have him address Mr hughes's
comments
mayor council members uh the 30f foot
rear yard setback was chosen because
that is what the code currently is today
it's the we do have the single story
around the perimeter and we have held to
that but the
sf5 zoning district has a 30 foot rear
yard setback and so that's what we had
selected but are you able to go to
35 we haven't looked at it quite
honestly
I'm I'm I'm looking to Megan for help
because these are all larger single
story homes and there might be some of
the bigger product that the larger homes
that won't be able to fit
that mayor members of the council we are
looking to fit a larger home that is
something we did hear from the neighbors
and that is that 4 4,800 foot home that
we're hoping to bring um as a single
family option these are deeper Lots um
that we were discussing um than what was
previously on the the previously
approved uh plat um or zoning um so we
were able to extend the depth of the
Lots on the the west side as
well and the south side and we're also
on the south side we will be developing
Bonanza we're not accessing Bonanza as
well so we're improving Bonanza so
outside of our wall we will have
Landscaping um sidewalk curb gutter this
the street with which we're going to uh
that's condition number F that I was
referring to over earlier we will be
milling and then re overlaying uh
Bonanza which we are not accessing we
don't use and will add zero traffic to
um and then finishing off the South edge
of the road with a ribbon curb to finish
off that road so we're making
substantial improvements and we'll have
Curb gutter sidewalk which is a pathway
Trail along uh Bonanza and Landscaping
until we get to our wall property line
and then we'll have that 30 ft uh of
setback so that was that's our request
we think that is is a fair and
reasonable given that that's the current
code and what's H transpiring after our
lot line after outside of our wall
creates a rather large
setback council member bonani thank you
mayor Mr lake is this is this a gated
community or just a good-looking picture
this this is a gated community okay
thank you
and a good-look
picture council member Kowski I have a
question for
staff St
Kristen and this may need to be answered
by Kyle I'm not sure but with the new
state legislation are these rear
setbacks that we're even talking about a
mute point regarding the accessory dwell
units uh mayor vice mayor council um
that's an excellent question I don't
know if any of that legislation has been
finalized at this point if it is I'm not
aware of it so I don't think that it
impacts this development at this time at
all ask Rob or Amy if they aware of
anything's going on with that
legislation would be
hello mayor and Council I do not believe
anything would directly impact this
that's passed previously or or even
anything that's necessarily in works now
because um it would more be for for
somebody that's looking to develop a
different type of of structure so so
this would still be um a product that
would that would be available or that
would be you know fully fully
developable um and and shouldn't be
impacted by by anything that out there
unless you had something specific
council member Kowski that you were
thinking
of I'm just thinking of with development
that is built this year and into the
future when these properties are then
sold does that owner have the right to
add to their property under the new
state legislation okay yeah mayor
council member Kowski so you're you're
thinking more of the accessory dwelling
units like within lot so yes so so with
the legislation that passed related to
the to the um accessory dwelling units
then exactly what you're saying down the
road then there there would be because
of the size of lot of the Lots there
would be um they would have the the um
ability to to put those accessory
dwelling units just like anybody else
would really throughout throughout the
town with with the size of the lot would
be able to develop those extra units if
they chose to do so thank you council
member
toris I'm assuming this is going to be
an HOA
Community correct mayor counc council
member targets yes this will be an HOA
Community would accessory dwelling means
because the only thing that can control
that would be an HOA correct accessory
dwelling units be allowed by the HOA or
forbidden by the
HOA the ccrs haven't been written I
don't think they've gone that far yet um
I'm just thinking thinking through no my
I live in a custom neighborhood and
and as we don't prohibit them um and
they don't have to comply with setbacks
adus in well there's limited it's a lot
more reduced setback and
so we we could talk all we want here
about 5 feet on a $1.5 million home and
then at the end of the day somebody
could just exercise their right under
the Adu statute and go put a detached
accessory
structure right near the property line
and then everybody goes kicking and
screaming when everybody in the state
now has that right so right so it's just
if it's it's just the HOA and what the
HOA decides to do and then the other
question I have is 35 or 30 feet it's a
number but what is it what is it trying
to actually IM what's the actual problem
the actual problem isn't 5 feet the
actual problem is
privacy is it noise what is the actual
problem when you the actual problem is
when you have single story homes they
have a larger building footprint and
when you start to you have a front yard
setback and you have a rear yard setback
and two side yard setbacks and you you
have to fit that building envelope
within those setbacks and so when you
start to reduce those sh set those
setbacks you have to shrink the home to
fit that and so you might not be able to
fit the 48 or the 45 or the 43 but you
can fit the
39 100 foot home I understand I'm
looking at from the other the other side
of it what is it that is bothering the
neighbors that you can mitigate that's
between 30 and 35 ft what is the what is
their concern because they really
probably don't care what the somebody
spending a million and a half dollars
I'm sure they're very cognizant of what
their backyard looks like but what is
the impact to the neighbors across
Bonanza that's a difference for them has
that been addressed at all to be we can
certainly talk with the neighbors
between now going forward I mean that's
going to be a continued process
particularly with the Improvement of
Bonanza of Bonanza Road and maybe what
we do is we look along Bonanza because
we're going to have a landscape strip
outside of our wall so and maybe we look
to install some Landscaping in trees
that have more of a dense foliage or a
different species of tree that
that creates that visual buffer block if
you will to the homes and so I think
that might be accomplished I'm not sure
the difference between 30 and 35 ft but
if we can put up a tree you're not going
to know and so I think that would be
something we'd be willing to work with
the neighbors on doing right my point is
the neighbors have some concern it's
something and most people walking around
can't see the difference between 30 and
35 ft so what is it that's bothering
them that needs to be addressed it's not
a foot issue it's something but it's not
actually a foot issue does that make
sense to you it it
does
okay thank
you other comments
questions council member Lions you have
any
questions no I think U Mr lake has
addressed them very well thank you thank
you thank you
all thank
you we close the public hearing and
bring it back to to the council for
discussion and possible
action mayor council member buin uh for
discussion or comments so in listening
to all
this I would love for that to be
commercial but it's not right it's zoned
for what they're asking um I hope that
we do align the general plan and the
zoning because I don't think that
um I think that creates confusion and
and uh fear of lack of transparency so I
think we'll Shore that up I'm glad it
was just a couple of things and it was
clarified here I think the bigger thing
that I'm seeing is that uh the property
owner is trying to do with their
property what it's zoned for and they
have made um not all of the concessions
but I think reasonable concessions
especially dropp to uh single story uh
which does require some compromise for
the square footage so I can understand
that very well I think um that um I like
the the dialogue that's gone back and
forth um listening to the surrounding
neighbors but at the end of the day I
think that the that I feel that the uh
property owner has made significant
concessions and it is their property uh
and it is zoned for that so I am
satisfied
another other
discussion mayor this is councilman
Lions iead may I yeah one of the things
that I I think we do need to look at
going forward to address uh councilman
Bon giovan's concern about traffic there
are certain streets within the town
where we have these Lane constrictions
and with the current flow of traffic and
the growth of the
community uh I I can see in seen you
know issues so as we look at these I
think it might be important for us to
take a look at the general
plan overall and identify those kind of
constraints and maybe be looking
at uh putting some type of study in
place to see where we can address those
deficiencies thank
you other discussion
anybody have a motion they'd like to
make I'll make a
motion I move I move that we approve as
written with the concessions that the
owner has agreed
to I second that been moved by council
member buckin seconded by the Vice vice
mayor please vote by S saying I I I I
any oppos I any opposed motion carries
70 thank
you we'll move on to the consent
calendar vice
mayor thank you
mayor so I received um a request from
council member torgenson for a brief
presentation from staff on items on the
consent
agenda and items number we're going to
pull right now items number 8 through 11
and items number 13 through
35 or 34 would yeah
35 so can I have a staff presentation
please if you staff if you could let me
know which items you're addressing so I
can check those off I would appreciate
that good evening mayor members of
council yes I will we will be covering
all of the items not in order on the
agenda but in so that each speaker can
speak to a group of items at the same
time instead of having like a merry of
people coming up so I'll let you know as
each person goes um they'll let you know
which items they're speaking to so I was
the designated introducer since I'm the
first one with an agenda item on there
um so the first item is item number
eight um and this is a CIP project to
address just several different um
Capital Improvements at the Greenfield
Water Reclamation plant um this is our
proportional share of those improvements
that are being made uh under an i IG
that we have with Mesa and Queen Creek
for the operation and maintenance of
that facility um this is just part of
our regular um maintenance and
replacement activ ities that happen
there um throughout the the course of
the plant um life cycle uh and is being
funded by both our water replacement
fund or Wastewater replacement fund and
the Wastewater Fund in
general the next item is item number 17
which is improvements at the McQueen and
Elliot intersection um this will be
adding different Lanes to that
intersection expanding it to add
capacity improve safety and um improve
gestion in that area um it's being
funded by our transportation bonds um
some funding through mag as well as
roads SDF to account for the added
capacity that will be um included with
that
project item number 18 is uh General
utilities job order contract so we have
several of these on the agenda tonight
and these are blanket contracts the that
we award to multiple contractors um that
have set pricing and set um activities
that they are selected for based on
their qualifications and it just gives
us a a set of contracts that we can go
to whenever we have a smaller job um
that we would like to procure or start
without um having to go through a
procurement process every single time
and we have a few of those that I'll
point out as we get on this agenda as
well but so this first batch of job
order contracts is um for General
utilities which are basically
underground water lines sewer lines
things of that nature um the these
contract themselves don't have any
funding sources tied to them until we
actually award task orders underneath
those J's so as those task orders then
still um will come to council for the
actual funding and which specific
funding source gets used for each of
those
projects the next item is item number 19
uh this is the signal at American Heroes
way and Gilbert Road um there's some
work happening right now to get the the
fiber and the poles installed then this
is a second um piece of that contract to
do the asphalt work to complete that um
that intersection and this is being to
allow for full um access in and out of
that with all the development that's
happening right on the corner it'll give
them another controlled access into that
development um and it's being funded by
our traffic signals system development
fees the next item is item number 20 and
this is another one of those Master job
order contracts and this this is just
for General Building and facility
services um so all the contractors under
this um particular J um have a specific
specialization in um building and
Facilities type projects um and again
there's no funding source tied to that
until task orders are awarded underneath
that um
J item number 21 is related to our water
resiliency our wells development program
so this is work that's going to be done
to um to design and install a pip line
that will allow one Well site to be
transmitted to another Well site to
allow for blending for water quality
improvement um this is part of our again
our ongoing Wells um water resiliency
program development um is being paid for
out of the water fund um this is one of
the wells at system development fees as
well um and then our water wmpc
bonds item number 22 is our rencho
delvery lift station improvements um
this is located down at Gilbert and Ray
um this is part of our Wastewater
Rehabilitation project for both our
Force Mains um that's part of the
ongoing conversations we've had around
our Wastewater infrastructure needs um
as well as making some improvements to
the the the structures that the
Wastewater flow into to help reduce
odors and things of that nature um this
is actually a project that's being
awarded under one of the previously
mentioned J's um because it's a a little
bit lower dollar value um project that
we can award more quickly and and get
moving um this is being funded out of
the Wastewater replacement
fund item number 23 is another one
you've heard a lot about this is uh
those four different locations where we
had the ductal iron pipe underneath the
freeway that's being rehabilitated um
this is also being awarded under a j
that's one of the benefits of the J's as
well is when we have emergency type
situations we already have contractors
selected that are qualified that we can
award contracts to um to help U
facilitate the the expedient um
completion of those projects so this is
the uh the total cost for that is $2.6
million as we mentioned these these
types of semi- emergency repairs can be
quite expensive but um the impact of a
catastrophic failure would be far
greater so this is the um the total
contract for construction engineering
and pmcm for those four um ductal Iron
Force M or not force Mains but ductal
iron lines that are running underneath
the freeway um that's also being funded
by Wastewater replacement
fund item number 24 is another uh set of
blanket Joc contracts and these are
related to water and wastewater
treatment and remote facilities which
would be our wells um reservoirs booster
pump stations things of that nature it's
just a different type of specialization
for these contractors because they're
working in treatment facilities as
opposed to like horizontal um pipeline
type work they're they're more
specialized in nature and again no
funding source tied to these until task
orders are actually awarded underneath
um the J's for these
projects item number 25 is another J
this is for scada which is our
supervisory control and data acquisition
it's what allows us to remotely control
um all of the the water plants and the
remote well sites and things of that via
centralized computer system um so this
is just another set of specialized
contracts for that specific support
service for um both programming and um
instrumentation that allows us to um
communicate with those different remote
sites items number 26 and 27 um this is
related to the Southeast Regional
Library um location and the riparian
education center um as well as the
parking lot circulation so this is for a
master concept plan that will look at
the the the programming for the riparian
education center as well as um the site
as a whole um what the what the site
will look like where that facility will
go what additional parking is needed and
how the the parking that's already there
can be improved for better circulation
and improved um
capacity and these are being funded by
the general
fund item number 28 is a project at our
Neely Water Reclamation plant um this is
to do some rehab and replacement of the
Odor Control System that's at that
facility so we can be good neighbors to
the uh to the surrounding communities at
that facility um that Odor Control
system has reached the end of its useful
life um and is being um replaced also
under uh one of those job order
contracts is funded by our Wastewater
replacement
fund item number 29 is Arizona pump
resources this is just a Cooperative
purchasing it's uh adding some money to
a contract that we already have in our
water oper ation um they use this
company to Outsource when they have um
pump and motor maintenance that's kind
of outside of our staff's capabilities
it requires specialized equipment to
complete that we don't own because we
don't have to do it that often um or we
don't have the capacity just to to
workload so um this is just increasing
the amount of money on that contract um
due to cost escalation to make sure we
have enough money to cover that um and
it's paid for just out of our water
operating
fund I think this is my last one item
number 30 is the Von ventilator this is
a change order to the design contract
for this because we have the Von
ventilator which is the roadway itself
that's going to add that secondary
access point into the Heritage district
and improve circulation there part of
that project is also the relocation of
the storm water retention Basin that's
currently located um on Von Avenue to um
newly acquired property on the south
side of the railroad tracks um those
were two separate projects and this is
this change order is just adding the
design of that retention basin into the
Von ventilator project um and that storm
water is really important because it
centralizes the storm water management
in the Heritage district and and allows
for kind of optimum development of the
remaining land in that area um and this
is being funded by our transportation
bonds as part of the roadway um and the
storm water project is related to the
roadway and I'll turn it over to was
jica Sor was that item that was item 30
yes okay so that was item 30 that you
just did okay all right thank you okay
I'll turn it over to
Jason vice
mayor a
question I have a question
for oh okay Jessica uh Chuck with I'm
sorry council member Bon who would like
to ask a question apologies yes thank
you vice mayor um under some of some of
the funding sources now we all know what
a system development fee is you all know
what a system development fee is but I'm
willing to bet citizens don't know what
that is so could you please give us a
little rundown on what a system
development fee is sure the system
development fee is just a fee that any
new construction pays when they come
into town and it's based on their impact
um to our system they pay for but they
buy into the water system they buy into
the sewer system the one we talked about
here they they pay for the traffic
signals that are directly you know
related to the impact that they're
having on the transportation Network um
so that's just anything that new growth
whether it's a business or uh a single
family home when they get their permits
they they pay into that into that system
gas stations Apartments anything that
wants to get built pays this fee yes
thank
you Jessica I want to thank you for
taking your time because I know you're
here at night when you're normally not
here to do this but your explanations
were clear enough and concise enough and
this fulfills the point of why I wanted
you to say things because so many people
don't understand where the Wastewater
fee goes or the sewer fee or they see a
contract that says it's $15
million and they don't realize it's just
the ability to use up to that much it's
not there and it's it's allowing some
transparency to how how this works and I
appreciate you taking the time to this
it's never a question of whether you've
done a good job because I believe you're
you're a star to
me I just appreciate you took the time
to make it clear and concise so people
understand there's money going to this
so we can sleeve these things right away
we're putting money here and I really
appreciate you taking the time for that
because it also helps people more people
are getting more engaged and looking and
wondering what's happening and this used
to go with just a yes you you know 70
yes we we consent and just few moments
makes a lot of difference to a lot of
people so I thank you for taking the
time mayor council member tson thank you
I'm happy to do it and appreciate being
given the opportunity to highlight all
the the great work that our teams are
doing so okay does anyone else have a
question are we good all right thank you
Jessica thank
you mayor council uh number is the park
and ride IGA between us and Valley Metro
for design and construction of that Park
and Ride facility uh once the facility
is built it would provide Express
services for folks in southern Gilbert
to get two and from jobs in downtown
Phoenix uh the project the contract
itself is a not to exceed budget of 5.2
million and that is being paid with
regional funds there is no cost to the
town anticipated for this
project is that your only one yes it is
okay does anyone have a
question all right thank you very much
thank
you all right hawen Hanson Finance
director I've got the next three think
here so item 10 is where we're at uh
this is for a contract to allow staff to
purchase Goods Goods that they might
need from lows uh and so anytime we're
spending more than $100,000 Somewhere
over the year we have to have a contract
uh and so this does not obligate us to
use Lowe's to purchase it but it does uh
allow staff to uh leverage a much larger
contract and get pricing that is not
equal to someone who spends $100,000 so
this is actually an excellent thing to
help us there uh and and the
expenditures would be paid by whoever
whichever department is is using that
contract uh next item 11 um pfm Asset
Management these are investment advisors
so this is a consultant firm uh that
helps assist the town in managing uh its
cash on hand and investing it uh with
the focus on maintaining uh the security
of it so risk assessment making sure we
have access to it which is the liquidity
portion and then yes getting a return on
that investment uh this contract the
first year uh it was competitively bid
recently but there is cost Savings of
$250,000 over what we typically pay for
these Services uh and so good to resign
uh this contract and using that
competitively bid contract uh the
expenses are offset by Revenue earned
interest earned U and that is all
allocated out prata so whichever funds
have uh fund balances those can earn
interest if a fund does not have a fund
balance it would not be a part of
this item 12 Columbia Capital Management
this is a contract for financial
advisory Services Rel relating to the
municipal uh bond market is the easiest
so anything dealing with I'm sorry I
didn't mean to interrupt you I think
maybe um I'll don't have to ask the
mayor that um this is the one that
buckland's pulling
off
so okay sorry this one's been pulled off
of the agenda okay for a separate talk
so can if we can do that absolutely no
problem happy to those are the three so
happy to come back later and answer any
questions so okay anybody have any
questions questions
okay thank you so
much my
turn good evening mayor and Council I
have item number 13 so this is a
Cooperative purchasing contract to
provide landscape sprinkler and
irrigation Services materials and
equipment and allow the department to
streamline the purchasing process this
is a not to exceed contract so all of
the funds used to make these purchases
are in our current operating
budget questions
is that the only one for you okay does
anyone have any
questions all right thank you very much
thank
you uh good evening mayor and Council uh
the next contract is item 14 this is
with Comfort Systems USA they are a HVAC
vendor that we utilize for both
emergency repairs and preventive
measures in our uh mechanical systems
and all the town buildings and
Facilities these facilities include our
police stations fire stations Public
Works yards um libraries recreation
centers um so we fund any necessary
repairs out of each one of those
buildings repair and replacement
funds then the next item is similar
nature this is with valleywide generator
uh we're extending a contract that we
utilize uh that services our emergency
backup generators at all of our critical
buildings police station fire stations
things like that uh this work has to be
done by a licensed specialist and so
that's why we utilize this service it's
also funded from each one of those
buildings uh maintenance and operation
funds okay uh was that item 15 that yes
that was okay I want to make sure and is
that all for you okay does anyone have
any questions I council member B thank
you mayor Rocky so um how does one come
up with not to exceed 1.5 million is
that like past year
numbers how do you guys come up with
that yeah mayor council member so we
have an existing budget we do our best
to predict what we'll break but we also
have our LP funds so we kind of have a
combination of the both uh we do Trend
and do three-year data to make sure
we're doing our zero based accounting
every year and kind of have a predictive
a predictive idea of what's coming up we
also try to have a couple different
vendors so it's a not to exceed amount
but sometimes we use up our main vendor
a lot we need a backup vendor and we
just kind of use who's who's available
and can do the work and who can also
Source the equipment that we need when
it gets to Summertime sometimes you need
to get the the best service provider in
there as quickly as possible and so we
want to have a couple different options
so just because we seed 1.5 here it
could be
800,000 not the whole 1.5 yeah
absolutely yep great thank
you okay thank you very much
good evening mayor and Council I'll be
speaking to item number 16 which is a
donation agreement with seek thermal Inc
they have offered to donate three
thermal imaging cameras to Gilbert Fire
and Rescue Department uh with no uh
consideration from the town uh the
thermal imaging camera is a vital tool
in the delivery of our service by our
men and women in the fire department and
also an important training adjunct uh
the retail value of these ther Imaging
camera is about
$6,400 okay is is that the only item
that is the only item anyone have any
questions Council shouldn't we be
thanking them somehow because it's not
of people give the residents we are
certainly appreciative of uh this
opportunity uh to impact the safety and
the effectiveness of our crews all right
well thank you for taking your time
tonight thank you okay thank you very
much vice mayor
yes sir I Heard a Voice from above we
good okay we're good yeah no more no
more questions council member Lian is is
online okay pardon me council member Li
oh council member Lions uh do you have
any questions on the last one I did have
qu I did have a question for the
previous speaker I just wanted to
understand why out of the goodness of
their heart that they were donating to
us
forgot the
cameras uh you know I think it would be
speculative on my part to under uh to
state exactly why they want to do it I I
do know that they have a program um and
they offer this service to a number of
uh fire departments uh Across the Nation
um and they reached out to us and to
gauge our interest uh in
participating all right thank you thank
you um council member allines did you
have another question for someone else
no vice mayor that was it thank you okay
thank you good evening uh Mike sber
police chief uh mayor vice mayor council
three items for you uh the first slide
has two items item 31 and item 32 both
of these items are for ammunition we
have two different contracts one was
with mywall Corporation and that is for
our duty ammunition we will be using a
City Mesa contract uh for that the
second is uh for our practice ammunition
which is called frangible ammunition
that's item 32 and that is uh off a
state contract with the state of Arizona
uh both of these uh contracts allow us
to purchase ammunition that we need
throughout the year for both our
inservice uh for our carry for on duty
and as well as our training for both uh
the frangible and the what we' call a
live round or a duty round for both our
Academy training and our inservice
training that we do throughout the year
this uh required of us any questions on
that item okay anyone
okay my last item is our contingency
request uh 4.1 million
4175 and this is divided into two
different categories the first being our
overtime call out and standby uh high
level uh oversight on this is uh we have
seen an increasing Gap in our uh we have
not kept up our budget with our uh
expenses for our hourly rates so as
we've had uh increases in our pay we
have not been uh appr appr submitting
the budget packages that is not the
fault of budget um that is we have been
asking for money uh we go through that
budget process but in review of our uh
last three years we have not been asking
for the uh adequate amount to match the
Gap that we've had so that's why uh
you're seeing this before you and we've
addressed that in our FY 26 which you
will see in the near future to address
that uh for next year we have looked at
uh and we we will be doing zerob based
this summer um as we prepare for FY 27
but using that same methodology of
looking at our last three years that's
how we came up with this number and the
projection for next year's uh
anticipated budget for FY
26 a lot of the overtime is driven by
our vacancies um as we sit today we have
24 vacancies those numbers fluctuate
every week uh we have 24 sworn vacancies
and we have uh roughly 23 uh civilian
vacancies professional staff however the
good side of that is we are constantly
working on hiring uh we will have an
academy uh class that will be starting
next month and we have 20 recruits
scheduled to uh attend that so as of
March 7th our current vacancy rates will
go down to 12 sworn officers and uh
roughly 11 or 12 of professional staff
with the hiring that we're doing on that
end so a lot of the majority of the
overtime that you're seeing is due to
vacancy shortages we did break down uh
some of the special events uh roughly
87,000 um whether it's a holiday event
that it's a town sponsored event we uh
for the security and that the officers
that are working that that comes out of
the police department's budget um
additionally uh some special events are
fall break detail focusing on uh teen
violence and making sure our community
remains safe that is a small portion of
that amount as
well uh the big driving Factor as I
mentioned is that we have not been
keeping up with our our budget ass and
the approvals and we are working to
rectify that for next year and we will
continue to do that as we continue
forward with our zerob based budgeting
over this next year the last portion
that you see is the Maricopa County gel
and housing so we get uh we do our best
based on the estimates they provide us
usually around January late January they
give us um our uh actual cost uh for the
next year and so with our actual rate um
it's an average increase of 7.02 uh% in
our costs and and so with that that uh
increase which is into effect with this
budget year we are going to be short of
45628 for this uh year with that new
rate um we have made a budget request
for the next year of 583 th000 to
accommodate that increase but once again
that rate changes and we do our best to
work with the county on what that
projected rate increase will be and so
that rate for next year accommodates
that projected increase rate any
questions for me okay that that the last
part was item 3 item 33 uh 33 uh if and
you don't have item
34 okay all right does anyone have any
questions for the chief yeah I assume
we're going to see this in a couple of
the upcoming Financial Retreats some of
the things you're talking about here uh
not over the next few days no not this
topic you will see more details on the
overtime and the budget when we have the
uh briefings and the explanations and
the future Council meetings on the
budget thank
you all right thank you very much
council member
all Chief do we know how much savings we
would be able to realize in overtime if
we filled these staff positions so we we
had that discussion this year and we
have it each year the more people you
add um you can reduce some of that
overtime because you're filling those
vacancies you're filling those shortages
uh the two points on this one we will
never go below our staffing levels we
will always keep our officers safe our
community safe so if we're due to
military leave FMLA sick time training
time vacation time we manage that with
our officers and our professional staff
but uh especially for patrol if uh due
to circumstances we go below our
critical Staffing we will cover that
with with overtime so that's a driving
Factor uh but to your point if I add 10
10 officers or 15 officers or 20
officers that does reduce the overtime
once those people are trained which it
takes at least a year to hire them and
get them on their own and that comes
with uh an increase of overtime as we do
that uh training both in the academy and
in the field training so we should see a
reduction and when we've added positions
in the past we've kind of seen a roller
coaster with the overtime whereas we're
going through training and we're going
through uh field training we actually
see an increase in our overtime as they
get deployed solo officers we start to
see that overtime decrease and then it's
kind of cyclical every six months we're
doing an academy class so we're catching
up with our hiring so that's part of
that wave is as we hire every six months
and have a new class come out and the
classes fluctuate last class had four
we're looking at 20 this next one so it
depends on how many we can get in plus
we're bringing in laterals as well
that's constantly bringing that in so
ideally I would love to say 10 officers
would reduce over time by x%c but also
the the reality of bringing on 10 more
officers we do more work so it does the
work does not stop we have more people
that are able to be proactive so we have
our calls for service they're coming
from dispatch they're uh on average we
know what that number is but when we're
not getting a call asking us to respond
somewhere our officers should be out
looking for things to do looking for
Enforcement Education keeping our
community safe so that often while we've
got more people we're more active we're
seeing more violations whether it's
criminal or civil we take action some
sometimes that incurs overtime whether
it's Court we get held over a DUI
investigation and it goes past our time
so that's a very long answer but it does
help but it doesn't eliminate the
problem so let me see if I understand
then in a nutshell what you're saying is
if you do fill the positions you're
going to have more officers in the field
who are going to see more things which
would probably keep the overtime at the
current level that it's at or uh
relative to whatever's going on is that
fair to say so you should see a
reduction but you're not going to see
you know a set rate one officer equates
to a reduction of say 3% of overtime
it's it's very it fluctuates it's hard
to put a a pin on that and with with uh
Personnel they're assigned outside of
Patrol it's a little bit easier
detectives are still a little bit
difficult because if I add detectives
there's more cases we can work we reduce
the the case load on each of those
detectives they can pick up more cases
and do more which is what we want we
want them to be more productive we're uh
individuals like our gel our records our
our Dispatch they it's it's dependent
upon what's coming in from the community
and so that we can predict a little bit
more of applying more personnel and what
that impact uh for reducing overtime is
but when you're talking proactive and
operations in Patrol and our detectives
it's much more difficult to uh
predict I guess where my mindset is this
Chief is that this puts a lot of stress
on our officers to have them working a
tremendous amount of overtime I know
it's part of the culture but if we had
if you had adequate uh or more
recruitment uh funds possibly would that
help in drawing Talent faster and
getting them in the field F faster or do
you feel like you have an adequate
amount of money and the right program in
place for improvement mayor and council
member Lions um thank you for uh seeing
into the future you will be seeing uh
some budget packages to address that
issue um we could always use additional
resources as all of our departments
could uh to do more for our community
and that is one thing that we have
looked at for this next year of
increasing we have done things
differently this year with our
recruiting uh funds and that have we've
seen a increase in responses and our
hiring especially in the last four
months so we will continue to look for
opportunities to invest and uh reduce
that workload that stress that is is a
on our minds all the time of not
overworking our people um because when
you do they call out sick or they quit
and so we've got to have that work life
balance which at times when we're short
staffed is very difficult to uh have
that
balance okay thank you thank you okay um
are you Chris are who's going to speak
is anyone going to speak on item 34
would that be you Chris yes vice mayor
we we talked about item 34 in executive
session last night and I believe I
answered all the questions at that time
if Council has any additional questions
would I I would recommend we go back to
Executive session because it involves a
legal matter okay thank you thank you
very much um okay does there are there
any additional request from the mayor or
counsel and vice mayor okay yes I
withdrew
mine um I am going to recuse myself for
item 30 because the contract that this
change order is under is a contract that
my firm was included on prior to me
being appointed to counsel although this
seems like a separate project that was
under that contract because it's the
same contract I feel most comfortable
just recusing myself from item
30 okay thank you we'll pull that out
along with item number 12 are there any
other questions from anyone
okay well I had mine but I I got
everything resolved I'm good oh okay are
you okay uh council member Alliance do
you have any other
questions no I'm good at this time Vice
thank you thank you well with that um I
will make a move to approve items number
8 through1
13 through 29 and 31 through 35 unless
you 12 12 is p 12 was pulled yeah 12 was
pulled and so was
30 do I have a
second
second thank you um we'll now move on
to um call the vote vice mayor oh I'm
sorry I guess we do have to
vote yeah can can I have a vote please a
Voice vote uh favor all in favor say yes
I all
opposed okay so we
have council member lions were you an i
or an A I was an i okay yes all right so
we have a 70
vote now with that
I yeah yeah that's where I was going so
with that we'll um we'll vote on item
number 12 and and we'll uh you want to
tell us why yes mayor vice mayor fellow
council members I uh so although state
law does not require recusal in this
case I feel it's only ethical to recuse
myself as the company um that is um
referenced here Capital um
um forgot the name of the company but
anyways a uh is a friend of mine uh his
family and my family are friends I feel
it's only right that I step aside on
this one and that's what I'll
do
okay um okay we're GNA vote on this item
on item number I'll move to approve item
12 I'll second that thank you and now
we'll go to item number 30 call the vote
oh I keep forgetting we must
vote okay could I could I have a
a uh vote please all in favor say I I I
I all opposed so the a have it so it's a
71 70 vote
6 oh yeah because he's left okay so
where us chevel I'm keeping you on your
toes tonight a 60er vote thank you okay
so now we will do I have a motion does
anyone have any questions on 30 or is
there a motion move to approve 30 I'll
second it thank you and
uh we will now move to a vote all in all
appr all in
favor I I I I anyone
opposed okay so we have a six Z I mean
61 vote 6 60
sorry all right and that concludes the
consent of agenda so back to you mayor
I'm happy to give this back to you
tonight thank you vice
mayor we have one item in our
administrative items item 36 consider
adoption of the revised council meeting
scheduled for calendar year
2025 do I hear a
motion I second I'll second
it moved by council member toris and
seconded by council member Bon Giovani
all in favor please say I I any
opposed motion carries
70 back to you vice mayor
Communications I thank you
mayor okay so we are moving on to
Communications from citizens and I will
uh re the rules of decorum so we value
the participation of our community
members and and robust exchange of ideas
however it's essential that this
discourse remains respectful and
constructive reflecting the
professionalism expected in such forms
misinformation and personal attacks
undermine the collective efforts and do
not contribute to productive dialogue
necessary for our Town's progress this
is an opportunity for the public to
address the Town Council direct directly
about issues impacting the town
accordingly the Town Council will not
allow for moments of silence or the
playing of music or other recorded
material which could distract from the
meeting decorum or violate copyrights
while we understand and appreciate the
passion our community members bring to
this season 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
distract from the respectful atmosphere
we strive to maintain tonight we will
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 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 and our first speaker will be
um is it I believe it's Rowan
wood hello mayor vice mayor council
members my name is is Rayanne
wood I'm a resident of
Gilbert tonight I'd like to address the
College Park Estates Landscape
Maintenance neighborhood meeting that
was presented in February of 24 one year
ago on page four bullet point number
three the presentation
states to date Gilbert streets has
maintained approximately 40 trees in the
College Park Estates uh along Riata
Street and Country
Plaza my question is if Gilbert has been
responsible for maintaining these trees
for over 50 years why is it now being
claimed that the responsibility no
longer
applies on page number
seven the presentation included an image
of a fallen tree with exposed roots that
was not located in our
neighborhood after this discrepancy was
pointed out to the Gilbert staff the
image was removed from the slides
presented in December of 24 at the Town
council
meeting it seems to be misle a
misleading image and has no relevance
with
archeries on p on page
eight the first sentence references code
4306 but this is an outdated
code the correct reference should be
5.4.0 this eror was corrected after it
was brought to the Gilbert staff
attention
additionally staff has been citing
adjacent Property
Owners based on the they were citing
that based on the outdated code when the
actual wording now States AB budding
properties AB budding Property
Owners this raises concerns about the
accuracy of their
claims on page 10 bullet point number
two the slide was entitled what are our
options
option number one was a pkid option
number two individual resident
responsibilities regarding option two
individual resident
responsibilities there are concerns
about how this idea has been
portrayed at the December 2024 Town
council meeting Jessica Marlo claimed
that a property owner originally
suggested that residents take
responsibility for the
trees and during the previous mayors
recap also stated that it was the
property owners owner's
idea however you can clearly see on page
12 of the slide
presentation that it was introduced by
the Gilbert staff not by a
resident why have multiple Town
Representatives repeated the same false
information this misrepresentation
misleads both residents and town council
members
thank you for your
time please do the right thing look at
all the facts look at the true data no
misleading information and let's get
this issue resolved and behind us we all
have better things to do with our time
thank you again thank you very
much our next speaker is Dan Reynolds
my name is Dan Reynolds I've been a
resident here since uh 1987 so I've been
here a while also a a former
employee um want to congratulate mayor
on your election councilman Buckland and
um
U Mr Lions um I question your sanity but
I appreciate your service so um last
time I was here I told you a story about
how I let uh your current fire chief Rob
dougen do ride alongs with us um which
he if you ask him honestly he'll tell
you that I was one of the people that he
credits for getting hired here so for
that um deed he was able to to get my
son to resign as a firefighter of about
19 and 1 12
years but in his defense he sold his
soul to the devil to get that spot so
it's kind of hard to blame him but you
got to blame
him
um one of the things they did after this
was they put an injunction of harassment
on him for two consecutive years well
that injunction is gone now joshu will
be coming here to talk to you guys in
person so you can see just just exactly
how scary he was for them to put an
injunction for two uh years in a
row
um the uh the people that put the
injunction on him Dana burchman is no
longer
here
um Leah reinheimer the assistant Town
manager uh was a big fan of of Rob and
getting him his position
um Nathan Williams your Human Resources
guy also uh was part of the uh uh
injunction along with Rob
dougen Josh actually fought one of these
injunctions and the judge actually threw
out Leah reimer's claim I'll let you
decide why he threw that claim out I'm
not going to tell you why I think it is
but I'll let you guys decide
um he looks forward to coming here and
telling his
story so you guys know exactly what's
going on here with our
leadership and so we can clean some of
the stuff up I think if you look at what
happened here nationally on November 5th
and look at the town of
Gilbert and the views we have I think
they're uh very similar so hopefully
some of the stuff that happened
nationally that's getting cleaned up
will get cleaned up here
thank you for allowing me to come here
today appreciate it thank you our next
speaker is Darren
Hughes mayor council members and fellow
residents thanks for allowing me to
speak twice
tonight so over the past year the town
of Gilbert has significantly raised tax
taxes and cost on essential Services
placing a heavy financial burden on
residents consider these increases sales
tax rate changed from 1 and a half% to
2% a 33% increase water and Trash
Services increased by $25 a month last
year a nearly 50% hike water rates
changed again here in April coming up
another 25% increase bringing the the
2-year total increase on water and trash
to nearly
75% from the last council meeting the
tough decision to raise Wastewater rates
I watched that with a lot of interest an
88%
increase and then talk about system
development fees and impact fees Gilbert
is currently at
$35,000 per home and although it doesn't
impact me directly cuz I'm already a
homeowner here it's the highest in the
valley by far and it's just indicative
of the spending issues that there are in
Gilbert Just high cost and I don't think
Gilbert has a revenue problem I think
Gilbert has a spending problem even
former mayor Bridget Peterson who voted
against the sales tax hike recognized
the problem stating the projects I think
I have have been out of hand how did we
get to over $1 billion in projects all
of a sudden she's right and let's just
look at three of these costly projects
listed on the Gilbert town website at
under the the banner our priority
projects the first one Gilbert Regional
Park buildout
$267
million Desert Sky Park buildout
$116
million Marathon Trails improvements
it's an 8m Trail to connect these two
parks $49 million that is $6 million a
mile these projects alone total 432
million it's no surprise that Gilbert's
Parks impact fee is now a shocking
$9,400 per single family home to put
this into perspective the average impact
fee for all Valley cities for Parks is
just $1,400 per home Gilbert's fee is
seven times higher than the regional
average meanwhile Queen Creek is
actually lowering its Parks impact fee
from 3,000 to
2,000 I could go on but my message is
clear enough is enough tonight I urge
the new mayor and Council to take
decisive action make it your legacy to
reduce cost reain in spending and
reverse these burdensome increases as
you head into your financial Retreat
over the next couple of days I hope your
focus will be on cutting waste
controlling expenses and prioritizing
fiscal
responsibility thank you for your
service and for allowing me to
speak thank you our next speaker will be
Sharon are you here
good evening mayor council staff my name
is Sharon katsas I'm a gilber
resident and I am here to speak uh
regarding the gilber community
engagement task force presentation uh
dated December
17th during that presentation there were
some recommendations
that
included activities for teens 13 and
up free
concerts free
food and safe places for our teens to
hang out after school and during the
weekends before the S December 17th
report I want to applaud the efforts
from our Gilbert Police
Department who took the initiative to
hire the town's first youth Community
engagement officer officer Emily
King I also want to applaud the efforts
from our Town's Park uh Parks and
Recreation uh for extending some of
their programming that was only offered
for summer um camp and adding new
programming so that our youth and
families could enjoy a safe place
to have free
activities all those
events had already been in the planning
before the December
17th
meeting after that there were other
concerts December 30th they had a youth
activity at the gilberg regional park
for high schoolers to enjoy a Nerf
battle free
tacos and music
February 7th at the desert sky park
there was a free concert by gilber
musicians ages 13 through
18th they had food trucks photo booths
it was a free
concert there is an upcoming activity on
Saturday April 5th at the mosquit
Aquatic Center
uh that will offer music games and
challenges glow inthar
themes and free
food so all of that aims to address the
need for a positive outlet and positive
interaction with our teens so today I
want to say thank you to all the parties
involved for implementing some of the
things that have been proposed for
thinking outside the box for listening
for establishing new initiatives and
activities and events for our Gilbert
teams thank you very much our next
speaker is Scott
September good evening my name is Scott
September I'm a Gilbert resident and I'm
here tonight representing not in our
city.org
um we had an an we have our annual night
of Hope and and Sunday night we had our
seventh annual night of Hope at Grace
Community Church um the town of Gilbert
signed a proclamation taking a stand
against human trafficking and that's
what notar city.org does we take a stand
we raise awareness we work with
jurisdictions to find Solutions law
enforcement elected officials churches
and we had this wonderful event and I
just wanted to thank the town of Gilbert
for their involvement in that Gilbert
took the lead in this um yourtown
attorney actually wrote the proclamation
that is being signed by dozens of
jurisdictions around the state
um I also want to thank council member
Bon Giovani council member Buckland um
Patrick Banger the town manager Elena
Bay Chief soberg and assistant chief
bigley for attending the event Sunday
night we had an opportunity to honor
them and thank them for their efforts in
this fight um we are working to protect
the vulnerable prosecute the guilty and
support the survivors of trafficking we
had Congressman bigs state senator
Warren Peterson Senator JD mesnard and
County attorney Rachel Mitchell attend
and they they had a panel where they
talked about uh these issues and uh it
was wonderful Senator um Peterson
announced that he is going to initiate a
task force to quantify the problem and
to come up with solutions to raise
Arizona's level from the grade F that we
per that we currently have to a grade A
and so we're excited about that but I
just wanted to be here tonight and thank
all of you for being a part of the
solution have a good evening thank you
Scott uh our next speaker speaker is
Steve Laval and Stacy Laval is sending
uh uh giving him her three minutes so
you will have six minutes to speak
mayor council members it's
Laval uh welcome congratulations Mr
buckin Mr Lions to uh joining this board
I want to remind you though you're
sitting in
seats uh where Patrick Baner and Nathan
Williams right there and Rob Dugen all
wanted to hire people based on race and
gender and I'm not going to let that go
because no one's been held accountable
to it so we will continue to come up and
we'll continue to speak truth some good
words by former council member September
about uh the trafficking going on and
support from Gilbert I got to give you
some Kudos on that it's kind of ironic
we get a change at the national level we
actually get a border back in this
country and all of a sudden Gilbert is
doing some things in the right direction
kind of shocking I'm just curious have
we gotten rid of De Andi yet out of the
town are we still wasting any money on
dni Patrick are we still putting putting
our police officers through training for
de is all that still going on or we are
we are we going to cut that money back
and give it back to the citizens uh this
gentleman right here I don't know his
name but he did a really really good job
about how much spending this town does
and how frivolous you are with our money
but then you turn around right away and
you come right back to us and you want
us to fund your your frivolous
spending with with our hard ear money
instead of instead of reducing your
spending maybe we need to get a doge
officer right here in Gilbert and really
get into the budget we have a police
chief who just told us his budget is
going to be $4.3 million over on
overtime but nobody's held accountable
to that it's not budget's fault it's not
his fault nobody's accountable that's
the problem we have in the organization
nobody's accountable all right we have
people that hire based on race and then
Dan Reynold's son who gave 19 plus
hard-earned years not one complaint from
a citizen gets chased out of here cuz he
does a skit with a black firefighter on
black coffee and the racist people back
there thinks it's they think it's racist
not funny because they look at skin
color you just had a gentleman sit right
here 100 years old World War II vet
Korean vet uh Vietnam vet what's the
first word he said do you guys
remember don't judge a person by their
skin color all
right gets pretty basic right there
there's a man that's seen a lot been
through a lot a lot of wisdom right
there from that man but yet we still
hire 30 for 30 you know about that you
were in the police police department Mr
Buckland 30 for 30 we're still
prioritizing hiring women trying to get
our Workforce to be 30% women or an
increase of 30% why why aren't we just
going on
Merit I will continue to ask these
questions until we actually hold Patrick
and his upper upper management staff
accountable the budget with the police
department the Fiasco that that's in all
under Leah reinheimer no one's held
accountable so I'm looking forward to
having my good friend and former
engineer come back and speak and speak
the truth there's a couple things that
he he didn't bring up Josh Reynolds did
a
podcast with a lady that that did
podcasts for retired or former
firefighters to find out what their
lives were like now and what they were
doing and your fire chief contacted that
District Fire Chief and said I don't
want you to play that he didn't hear it
he didn't hear anything about it he saw
a little clip about it and he used his
position to reach out to a former to
another fire chief of a fire district
and had them stop a
podcast so you guys know what's going on
in where's my time at do you guys know
what's going on in in uh Germany right
now anybody anybody see 60 minutes did
you not that 60 Minutes tells you the
truth because they completely changed K
Harris's answers but 60 Minutes in
Germany ran a story they followed they
followed the German
police to a to an apartment at 6 o'clock
in the morning and they knocked on the
door to get this really bad person do
you know what this really bad person did
this really bad person tweeted something
and they took that person's phone and
they took that person's uh laptop and
then they spoke to the Das the lawyers
and they said yes you can't have hate
speech do you guys know what hate speech
is hate speech is legal legal jargon to
try to control speech okay I have a
right to tell you anything I want to
tell you I don't have a right to harm
you though so a crime is not a hate
crime if you commit a CRI primed for
someone I'm sure it's not out of
love all right but we in this country
try to spin these words around and we
take our freedoms too lightly so my
engineer had his first amendment right
taken away from this organization and
from that man from Nathan from Rob Dugen
and I'm not going to stop until we
restore those rights when you can't go
on a podcast and have your podcast
played because some fire chief thinks
he's going to talk bad about somebody he
has a right he has an opinion he can say
it and by the way that guy that guy and
his wife went to a wedding and they ran
into Dan and his wife and so
imagine imagine your wife or your
husband was so threatened by Josh
Reynolds that you had a restraining
order against them and then you go to a
wedding your wife goes up to his wife
tries to give her a big hug and say
let's take a group picture together does
that sound like a woman that was scared
of of his son I don't think it so the
lady with the tree said you have people
being dishonest it's called lying
they're lying these guys lie you have a
lying problem I'm going to leave you
with this it's not a lack of knowledge
on this on this Podium here it's a lack
of Courage you have to have courage to
hold these people accountable we elect
you to hold the unelected accountable
from the town manager the town lawyer
and all the upper management so please I
ask you to start holding these people
accountable thank you thank you and
Stacy I'm sorry I just wanted you to
acknowledge I forgot to ask you that so
thank you uh our next speaker is uh
Randon wood and Allison hogra thank you
by the way uh
is
okay good evening mayor and council
members my name is Brendan wood I'm a
resident of College Park Country
Estates here once again to discuss the
proposed removal of the trees within the
public rideway of our
community I understand that safety is a
is a concern and it's true a limb did
fall from one of the trees and cause
damage safety should always be a
priority and I don't dispute
that but I have to wonder is the problem
really the trees or is it the way that
they've been
managed the streets department did the
right thing by commissioning an ARB
report to assess the
trees but that was only done after the
res residents demanded
it if the safety of our community was
the priority why wasn't this report
initiated
sooner and once the report was completed
why were its recommendations
ignored the ARB report classified the
trees as low risk it didn't recommend
removal instead it outlines specific
maintenance actions to reduce potential
hazards it states and I quote by losing
a branch the load distribution within
the tree is changed and makes the tree
more susceptible to Future
failures the industry recognize
mitigation is to increase the frequency
of Maintenance to these
trees as it has been observed that trees
on a more frequent maintenance regimen
have less occurrence of failures
structurally pruned trees on a frequent
basis are less likely to fail
when there is a long period between
pruning it is more likely to experience
sudden Branch drop and warm weather end
quote if the industry standard is to
reduce risk to reduce risk is more
frequent maintenance why didn't that
happen why was there a 2-year Gap in
maintenance and when the first limb fell
why wasn't the tree trimmed like the
Arbus recommended to prev to prevent
future Branch drops
could it be that the additional two
limbs that fell afterwards weren't
because the tree was inherently
dangerous but because the streets
department failed to follow the expert's
guidance if that's the case then I have
to ask is the liability here really with
the
trees or is it with the management
decisions made by the streets
department if the streets department is
willing to disregard the recommendations
of their own hired expert how can we as
a community trust their decision-making
if they're not willing to follow
industry standards how can we believe
that Public Safety is truly their
priority this isn't just about trees
it's about accountability and
Trust if sa if safety is the primary
concern shouldn't the first step be to
ensure that the street department is
maintaining these trees responsibly
according to expert
recommendations I asked the council are
we looking at the right problem
is it easier to blame the trees than to
acknowledge the possibility of
mismanagement before any more trees are
removed shouldn't we investigate why
recommendations were ignored shouldn't
we demand accountability from those
responsible for maintaining Public
Safety I urge you to look Beyond The
Narrative of dangerous
trees and examine the root
cause let's demand responsible
leadership and proper maintenance
practices
thank you again for your time and
consideration okay thank you very much
with that that concludes the
communications from citizens and back to
you mayor thank
you we go to uh future agenda items
we've got several things listed there
that we'll follow up on with possible
study sessions in the future
communications report rep from the town
manager Chris why don't you sing us a
song while we're
waiting I can tap dance too if you'd
like thank you mayor members of the
council we will also get dates set for
those items on future meeting agendas
for you before the next meeting um two
items tonight under Town manager report
first I'd like to recognize and
congratulate the retirement of John
Powell John Powell is retiring from
Gilbert after 29 years of service as our
GIS
supervisor John's Journey with Gilbert
began with him serving as the town's
only GIS expert as the town grew so did
John's responsibilities as a supervisor
in managing the day-to-day operations of
the gis Division and its six team
members over the years John's work has
been instrumental in the town's growth
and success he provided Mission critical
mapping data including 2.76 million
mapped features and 594 th000 lrip
features LP for those who aren't
familiar with that term is our longrange
infrastructure plan for services that
included Land Development Water Systems
sewer systems storm water reclaim water
planning Parks base Maps street rideways
Public Safety it assets Economic
Development and Facilities while John
provided important mapping services for
the town needs he continued to motivate
and Mentor his team to develop new and
Cutting Edge Solutions such as the
what's developing your bu app the bulk
trash pickup app and digital twins to
name just a few during John's years of
service he has embodied Gilbert's
mission to anticipate change create
Solutions and help people wish John the
very best in his next chapter of life
knowing that he leaves an indelible mark
on Gilbert and a legacy that will serve
the town and its citizens for years to
come we had a retirement celebration
today for Tom John and I did my best
over the last couple of months to
convince John to not retire but he will
be sincerely missed he was an
exceptionally talented individual who
embodied all the values of our
organization was just a a pleasure and a
joy to work with we wish him the best on
a well- earned
retirement next i' like to congratulate
David fa Fabiano he received the 2025
Lifetime Achievement Award he's the
assistant Public Works director and um
I'm sorry I read the title now I'm
reading the verbage so it was awarded to
him from the Arizona chapter of the
National Society of Professional
Engineers each year the award recipient
is selected based on their significant
contributions to and promotion of the
social and Prof professional interests
of the engineering profession in the
state of Arizona his passion to
supporting the growth and development of
the new Engineers unwavering ethical
standards an exceptional initiative and
commitment to sharing his passion and
knowledge of engineering leadership and
service with others throughout the
community made David the clear selection
for this year's Awards and we
congratulate David on that well-deserved
recognition that's all I have tonight
mayor thank you thank you report from
the council council member Pani thank
you mayor from the U Parks Rec join us
for the k for the Kapow superhero
Adventure Run families are invited to
participate in this fun-filled event
featuring over 20 exciting obstacles for
you and your little superheroes to
conquer the uh adventure begins on March
22nd 2025 at Freestone Park with waves
starting every 15 minutes from 8 a.m. to
10:00 a.m. participants are encouraged
to Dawn their favorite superhero
costumes and embrace the spirit of the
day also join us for the smoke the smoke
Show event settle up for an
unforgettable day of Barbe ice cold
drinks and get country Tunes the smoke
Show event will take place on Saturday
March 22nd at the Gilbert Regional Park
and it Set uh it's set to be an event
you won't forget the concert will
feature a stellar lineup of performers
highlighted by Old Dominion and Chris
Young the legendary Joe D massina Gavin
M degra and many
more thank you council member Kowski
I just wanted to highlight that um the
Gilbert Symphony Orchestra had a
fantastic concert last week it was one
of their best shows they had the a solo
celloist who is a instructor at U OFA
and it was fantastic um but upcoming
there's another concert it'll be the
final in this season it is Monday March
31st and its theme is more of a family
night um classical music from classic
cartoons so music will be
from familiar um pieces like Fantasia or
Bugs Bunny um things like that it'll be
at 7 p.m at the hickley Center for
Performing Arts and it is a free event
it is also part of Gilbert's dementia
friendly initiative thank
you any others report for the mayor I
only had one thing to U Remind people
about the uh HD South not at the Museum
Gayla fundraiser which is this Saturday
evening this is an annual event to when
they raise funds they're doing it
offsite this year because we've got some
construction going on on site which is
really a positive thing that's happening
there on site but that is this Saturday
night at the Hilton Double
Tree don't have anything else in Council
I'll entertain a motion to adjourn I
make a motion
to we are adjourned for