Study Session - 1/28/2025 4:30:00 PM

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we're going to go ahead and get started
thank you for being here uh we're going
to start the study
session first item is call to order and
then roll
call Mayor Anderson here vice mayor
Buckley here council member buckin here
council member Bon Giovani here counc
member Kowski here council member
torguson here aarum is present thank you
we have two agenda items the first item
is presentation and discussion about
updates to council communication for for
Council agenda
packets
staff mayor I think we'll do the door
Trails one first if that's all right and
we'll we'll just switch the order that
works I think that' be better yeah
sounds good thank you presentation and
discussion related to Livestock in and
around the Ador Trails neighborhood
thank you all for being here
we'll ask the staff to do a
presentation good afternoon uh mayor and
Council my name is Mike angstead and I'm
an assistant chief with the Gilbert
Police Department I'm going to present
some information about a livestock issue
that we've been having uh in South
Gilbert and we'll be navigating
Arizona's open range laws and their
impact here on on our community in
Gilbert kind of a table of contents or
an agenda of the items we're going to uh
speak about today Con context and scope
of the problem the community
concerns some of the stakeholder
collaboration that we've participated in
police data from uh my department and
calls for
service state statutes and town code and
then uh uh a discuss about what a no
fence district is in
Arizona so the context and scope um
there's a paragraph here but uh roughly
speaking this has been a real issue for
the last uh almost 30 years that I've
worked here for the police department
we've dealt with cattle in South Gilbert
uh most of them emanating from a ranch
on the hila River Indian Community and
uh years ago we would encounter cattle
every now and again out on our main
roadways or if they've gotten into
somebody's property but we have had a
real influx of these cattle entering um
the subdivisions down south particularly
uh south of rigs Road in the Adora
Trails area we have had uh collaboration
between hila River the Department of
Agriculture um certainly our town the
county the state and we have uh had a
lot of dialogue with uh community
members I uh myself have had quite a bit
of dialogue in person in meetings and
over the telephone and um some of the
community concerns that are have been
clearly conveyed to the town are uh
issues surrounding Community safety as
you can see in these photos there are
cattle that are walking freely through
the Dora Trails community in this
picture um they're large cattle we're
not talking about dairy cattle the
friendly kind we're talking about uh big
steers with horns uh certainly they
damage a lot of property in speaking
with the a lot of the homeowners um not
only do they eat they love like date the
pygmy date palms and things like that
but they'll go onto uh residents front
yards onto their lawns onto their gravel
and as they Traverse over this their
private property they're damaging a lot
of the underwater lines and those are
really frustrating because anybody who's
had a line break under the ground uh not
only is it uh difficult to fix but it's
it's difficult to find often
times sanitation's in issue uh these
these cows leave cow pies all over the
place and the uh HOA has had to go to
Great Lengths to try and clean the
streets up in their in their private
areas uh nocturnal roaming so in our
collaboration with heila river and with
uh the State Department of Agriculture
and the observation of our own officers
we've learned that these cattle uh like
to move around uh early in the morning
and then later at night obviously cattle
roaming through neighborhoods uh
especially when they get close to rig's
road is is a safety
issue and then Landscaping uh as I said
before um it's not just what they eat on
the surface but they do a lot of uh
damage as I understand
underground so a quick uh discussion
about stakeholder collaboration and
cattle Management in our progress since
2023 uh the town of Gilbert has engaged
in meetings with the hila River in
Indian Community I have personally met
uh with representatives from hila River
uh down on the reservation to discuss
this issue the Department of Agriculture
uh and to the extent uh that we've had
uh contact and meetings with them
there's even a rep uh here tonight from
the Department of Agriculture we really
really appreciate the cooperation of
both of those agencies Maricopa County
and of course uh the residents in HOA of
Adora trails to discuss Solutions and
this has really been a pretty tough nut
to crack in this case um I can tell you
that most of the things that I deal with
as a police employee um normally are
either solved through cooperation or
civil or criminal
enforcement um this one is difficult
because uh in terms of enforcement uh
we're very limited and we'll speak to
that here in a minute but coordinating
with heila River Police Department to
address trespassing and ensure proper
fence maintenance uh at the south side
or the south portion of aor Trails it
abuts right up to the hila River Indian
Community there is a fence that is
maintained by uh the hila River um
Indian Community specifically their
Police Department uh for the residents
of Adora Trails you probably noticed an
influx of white big white police trucks
uh the heiler River Police Department
considers those rangers those rangers
have a a multitude of Duties some of
them are to protect archaeological sites
and uh Wildlife but they also go out and
actually maintain fences in terms of
speaking with the hila River uh police
department that fence that you see there
behind Adora Trails is primarily to keep
trespassers from ENT entering their
property but it does um attempt on some
level to try and keep cattle from
Crossing into Gilbert unfortunately what
we have all uh witnessed down there is
these cattle are persistent if they spot
any anomaly in that barbwire fence
maintained by hila River uh they exploit
that and make it through the fence and
end up ultimately in our community
Gilbert PD responded to service calls uh
working to address immediate concerns
and minimize disruption so whether you
call us about an elk or a Havalina or a
rattlesnake or a cow uh we come out and
we try to evaluate it and and try to
keep keep the community safe but again
uh we have received a lot of calls and
we are hardpressed for long-term
Solutions uh the Department of
Agriculture uh seized cattle
and part of their function under title
three of our Arizona laws allows them to
uh temporarily seize cattle to inspect
them part of it is to make sure that the
food supply in Arizona is safe uh part
of it is to determine ownership for
these cattle and in this case um
Department of
Agriculture uh did everything under
their power to include seizing uh some
cattle uh by placing pens on on a
private parcel near near Adora Trails uh
they were able to capture some of the um
the cattle do an inspection they have to
transport them down to Morana to the
Morana Stockyards do an inspection as
soon as they determine the owner by
state law they have to return the cattle
back to the owner some of these cattle
ultimately end up going to auction and
the owner often times ends up buying
even more cattle um as as was the case
here I believe the he the River Indian
Community um again they have repaired
fencing along hunt Highway all the way
from uh where there's a casino at
Gilbert Road All the Way East uh to uh
Higley Road so a whole lot of fence line
they are as I understand it uh a
community of um 500 square miles so
they're massive um and just my own
observations watching them do these
fence uh repair operations it it would
be difficult for them to maintain a
fence around 500 square miles but
certainly they they're trying to make an
attempt uh at it relates to the the area
we're speaking of and they also are
investigating trespass issues related to
fence damage um we have had some reports
of folks that uh are on the Gilbert side
cutting a fence to try and get off-road
vehicles through uh the the barbwire
fence to go and uh recreate on the heila
river in thean community and which is U
again like I said against the law um
unless you have permission from the
reservation you cannot enter their
property
uh in terms of my agency's response to
uh these issues um here recently in 2025
we've had 17 calls for service that have
been uh recorded specifically related to
cattle as you see in the picture there
the officer is trying to kind of
influence the cattle to get out of the
roadway um and when I say 17 calls that
doesn't mean only 17 people called us it
means on multiple occasions like we'll
have one event but a bunch of callers
but we've had 17 distinct different
events and in 2024 we had 74 calls for
service um we've had seven vehicle
collisions involving cattle and the most
um I guess uh concerning ones are the
ones out on rigs road we've had some in
the community low speeds and that
typically just injures the cattle but um
the concern out on rig's road is is you
know hitting a a fullsize cow with a
vehicle traveling 45 mph plus uh it's my
understanding we haven't had any
significant injuries yet but um we hear
the community loud and clear when uh you
voice safety concerns about that
issue incident types uh again range from
cattle roaming to collisions with
vehicles so we've gotten a multitude of
calls for different different reasons
and um our officers can attest to the
fact that these cattle are very
persistent right when you think maybe
they're going to go away they come back
and they come back in Mass
mayor council mayor and councel I'll
I'll speak to the law where we dealing
with the Confluence of uh Town
ordinances and state statutes with our
town code and then as Chief angst said
talked about um the the extra layer of
having a Sovereign Nation on that
southern border so the town of Gilbert
in that bottom left that you see the
town has an out at llarge ordinance
meaning livestock are prohibited from
roaming at large um within the
incorporate area Incorporated area of
the town and so while Gilbert has local
ordinances designed to protect against
livestock the difficulty here is these
livestock are originating from a
Sovereign Nation and so Chief anget has
a good example of like real life Chief
do you mind talking about your noise
example and then I'll I'll talk more
about that yes so mayor and Council we'
dealt with a similar issue and sometimes
it's it's easier if we put it in a
slightly different context at least it
makes more sense to me um we dealt with
a long Baseline Road near Greenfield we
dealt with a business uh nightclub
restaurant that had live music it was on
the Mesa side it was north of Baseline
Road and they would play music live
music till 11:30 midnight we would get
complaints from residents on the Gilbert
side south of Baseline and they would
call us and say hey you have a noise
ordinance and this business is in
violation I can't hear myself think uh
it's so so loud and it's so late at
night we would go out there and verify
that indeed um this appears to be a
violation of our Municipal Code uh we
tried the the nice way hey can you
please turn down the music they would
stop and then turn it back on kind of a
thing eventually we took the enforcement
route and cited the management of the uh
of this restaurant uh what we learned
when we entered the judicial branch of
government we went to court is that one
of the first things that uh a brand new
police officer learns is you have to
establish jurisdiction and in this case
uh the first question from the judge is
where was this person that you cited
when this happened uh they were in Mesa
they never actually entered Gilbert they
were producing music across the street
and while the sound waves were entering
Gilbert uh the person never did uh and
we can't site a soundwave right so very
similar in this instance these cattle
are branded to a ranch on the hila River
Indian Community to my knowledge I don't
have any particular knowledge about the
Rancher entering Gilbert and opening an
enclosure and freeing cattle uh
unfortunately all of that happens in The
Sovereign Nation and much like the sound
waves the cattle enter our our
jurisdiction but we do not uh have the
ability to take enforcement action
because of this jurisdiction issue thank
you Chief so that's that's the
difficulty here where we have a town
ordinance that prohibits roaming
livestock but there's no way to enforce
it against the owner of the
livestock tribal Nations have an
inherent sovereignty over their tribal
members and
just like that we could not site someone
living in a different country that's
effectively what it is at least for a
town ordinance and that's a difficulty
here even though there's violations of
the ordinance there's no way to hold the
person responsible liable unless they
happen to be in Gilbert and we know that
they release at that time there are a
number of State statutes that talk about
um the Open Range statutes and we have
some up there um these statutes they
fall within the jurisdiction um of the
Arizona Department of Agriculture
and that's who's charged with enforcing
um these open range
laws
yeah so we'll talk a little bit more
about these you you might hear about
open range laws or the no fence District
um but under the open range laws unless
you're located unless land is located
within a noof fence District which is an
area that's been designated by the
county or any one of the counties the
responsibility for keeping the livestock
off your property is on the property
owner and the concept goes back to
probably pre- territorial days or
pre-statehood days that it's much easier
for a property owner to fence their own
land than a rancher in hundreds of
square miles hundreds of thousands of
acres to to uh keep cattle within their
area so that's where we are on the open
range laws um some of the difficulty and
you'll see that where it says however um
this area this part of Gilbert
everything east of the Eastern Maricopa
blood way is within the no was it is
within the Open Range area it's kind of
backwards you think no fence District
that means that there's no open range
but so this part of Gilbert everything
east of the EMF is within that open
range area um but looking at the state
laws and we have spoken with the May
Copa County attorney neither Mar Copa
County attorney Maricopa County or the
town of Gilbert has authority to
establish a no fence District within the
boundaries over our Incorporated town
and what that would mean is then it's on
the owner of the livestock to keep their
cattle within but we're still in the
same situation the town has an ordinance
today that prohibits this but because of
the sovereignty of a tribal Nation
there's no way to site or hold the owner
of the cattle responsible Even If This
Were to become a no fence District the
same concerns are there the county would
have difficulty trying to site the
member of a Sovereign Nation unless
they're coming on to County lands or
coming outside the reservation um where
they could then exercise
jurisdiction um and then the last thing
I just want to say is that
um okay there we go sorry I lost I lost
my place on this
um the the Arizona Department of
Agriculture as uh Chief angstead has
spoken about they have jurisdiction over
the enforcement of these no fence areas
and the cattle laws um the town of
Gilbert does not we have approached them
we've spoken with them about any type of
Partnerships that we could do and the
difficulty is way the statutes are
formed it provides very limited
jurisdiction to deal with cattle roaming
at large they're mainly concerned in
um cattle that are
unbranded and if they do catch branded
cattle or they capture them they have an
obligation to either release them back
to the owner or take them out
um to auction and then the monies go
back to the
owner one more so the last one I've got
is just fencing so there are
requirements for fencing in the Arizona
revised statutes um these statutes go
way back obviously when we're dealing
with spacing and material types so that
first section subsection a talks about
what's a lawful fence um in dealing with
livestock subsection B just basically
says fence is made of any other material
that's equally strong and effective are
also considered lawful and then the last
part is
where if someone does fence their area
and they're in an open range area that
shifts liability from a civil standpoint
from the property owner to the livestock
owner and basically what that last
section there says is if you're in an
open range area and you fence your
property and then livestock come in then
the owner of the livestock is civil
liable for any damage that's caused so
there is some type of civil remedy where
you've got enclosed
areas excuse me just to summarize uh and
kind of wrap this up the the town does
understand it shares the same safety
concerns related to the presence of
livestock and um we have taken
significant steps to address the issue
um you know not only just having
officers go out and respond to these
service calls but also really trying to
collaborate with the heila River Indian
Community the Department of Agriculture
and Maricopa County as um as Chris
alluded to the due to the Arizona's open
range laws and The Sovereign status of
heila river uh the town's ability to
take further action is limited um and
when I say that um you know most like
again most of the things that I deal
with um from a police side are are
enforcement related and most of the time
our tools work pretty well um
unfortunately in this case we're very
limited as you could imagine based on
this conversation but that doesn't
preclude us from still trying to seek
voluntary uh agreed upon collaborative
efforts especially with the Rancher if
he was amable to it or the heiler River
Indian Community so we're hopeful that
an act that a solution will come to
fruition just don't have that from a
police standpoint tonight uh the town is
ready to work with neighborhood to
expedite fencing permits and will
continue collaborating with residents
and key Partners on Solutions uh in the
meantime definitely drivers should
proceed with caution if cattle are on
the road for any safety concerns call
the police department it's almost like
um I grew up in rural Arizona where we'd
have to look out for elk and bear and
all kinds of crazy stuff uh same kind of
deal when driving at night just really
really have to be careful um the town
remains committed to Community Education
and enforcing state laws including
criminal damage and trespassing which
could do carry serious penalties in
conversations as our officers are out uh
in south of Adora Trails uh monitoring
those fences we if we do encounter
people we really try to emphasize please
whatever you do this catalysts is
serious um going onto the reservation
grounds is really really a bad idea they
they are very uh ProActive at catching
people on their property and and they do
have the ability to seize uh vehicles
and property so we definitely don't want
that kind of a issue
mayor that uh concludes my presentation
thank you Chief counselor are there
questions
discussion council member vanon gani
thank you mayor just to say that for the
first time very happy to do that um
Chief so I live in the area um I spent a
good amount of time driving the
neighborhood I was actually got out of
my car cuz I saw one steer and I was 10
feet away from another one that I didn't
see that my wife warned me about thank
you
um so far as we
understand I live I live off of a Velva
Alo so there's about 40 headed cattle
just across the street on aao and
there's a whole bunch the da Farm down
the street for me if those cows got out
our ordinance would be en forced we'd be
able to do something about those
correct mayor council member Bon Giovani
that's that is correct in fact uh from
time to time we will have livestock that
gets out of a a Corral goes out in the
roadway gets hit our officers respond
sometimes they have to put the animal
down absolutely um in our conversations
with livestock owners that live in
Gilbert they normally understand but we
will often explain that you are required
to do three things in Gilbert if you
have Livestock on your property you must
have a proper enclosure uh you must keep
them from roaming and you must clean up
after them are the three requirements of
our ordinance if this was if these
cattle were emanating from inside the
town of Gilbert I believe this issue
would have been resolved a long time ago
yes sir thank you
sir other questions
comments council member
tenson so if I if I heard this correctly
if a door Trails were to be fenced
in that would leave the the Rancher as
liable for the damages done there rather
than right now their respons responsible
for the damages the Rancher does is that
correct so mayor council member toison
yes under state law that would be
correct the state law would put civil
liability on the Rancher and then you
still get in the question about from a
civil standpoint can you file a lawsuit
in state court against a tribal member
but that's a jurisdiction issue that the
Civil Court would have to deal with but
yes under state law that's
correct council member Kowski thank you
mayor Chief angstead have is this issue
affecting other neighborhoods in Gilbert
or in the area as
well mayor and U council member caasi
yes it these cattle have I in my uh
conversations with the different
residents down south uh the majority of
the cattle end up in theora Trails but
there is uh I know specifically a gated
community just to the East and res
residents have reported having cattle
out uh on their property as well it's
gated for vehicles and such so it's a
little tougher to get into but these
cattle have nothing but time um in our
conversations with the door with the
Department of Agriculture the drought
has really caused this as Department of
a drives through the reservation there
is an absolute lack of grass and water
and um they will do what they have to do
to survive and you mentioned there was
something called a no fence area but
that does not Encompass the Adora
Trail's neighborhood but even if that
was
extended does that apply to Gilbert
neighborhoods so in my analysis the
state would still run into the same
problem that the town of Gilbert does in
determining jurisdiction and going into
court and saying that the um that the
owner
um committed an action uh outside of the
reservation and to cause uh some type of
criminal or civil action
um that would be my best guess on that
without probably have to refer to the
Department of a for specifics but that
that would be my guess thank you Council
M pry if I could also add that the way
the statutes the no fence um District
statutes are crafted that the county
even the County Board of Supervisors
were to say hey everything Easter that
Eastern amopa floodway um go through the
process to create a no fence District
that would only apply to unincorporate
areas they cannot create a no fence
District within an incorporated
community so that portion of Gilbert
Queen Creek any any portion of the
county there that's been Incorporated
would not be encompassed in that
understate
law thank
you council member manani thank you
mayor um Patrick or Chris or chief I
understand there's been some movement in
the last couple of days can someone
speak about that
mayor K member bonanni are you referring
to uh the fence that Ador Trails is
looking at constructing yes yeah so
we've had myself calz I've had
discussions with Dawn uh from the HOA
handling ad door trails and they are
looking at my understanding constructing
a rod iron fence um to seal up the areas
I believe on the Eastern Southern
portions of Adora trails and Kyle has
personally spoken with them letting them
know as soon as we receive that we will
FastTrack that permit and get it back
out the door so they can begin work
thank
you vice mayor
Buckley um I I have a question I want to
back up to the the fence issue and I
don't recall if it was council member
torguson or Bon Giovani that mentioned
it if the community the HOA puts up a f
fence and I think I heard correctly that
they they can do that because we're an
incorporated area is that if if
something legal comes up
um is that fence put put on the Gilbert
side do it can or can it be split down
the middle like most fences
are and and what I'm trying to get at is
is where that fence is placed is going
to dictate who's liable for what
correct yeah so my understanding would
be if a community any Community decided
to put offence up on their own property
uh I I don't think we would stand in in
the way of that especially in this
circumstance um but in terms of the law
that um that Chris read earlier
it seems to indicate that a the owner of
the fence could take civil action
against a Rancher if the cattle
penetrated that fence and caused damage
because at that point that Resident or
that Community has done their part to
erect a fence to keep the cattle
out okay so would that would would they
but since the reservation is a Sovereign
Nation can they still file against them
so council member Buckley
um I'm not quite sure the answer we're
talking about civil liability versus
like a violation of a town code or a
state law and so you could certainly
file in State Court the question will be
service a process could you serve
someone that's you know in a Sovereign
Nation and I'm not I'm not sure the
answer on that the state statute would
certainly allow that to happen and the
question will be whether the court will
accept jurisdiction over a defendant in
this case that's a member of a Sovereign
Nation and never entered you know never
left you know the confines of the of of
the
nation okay I I what I'm thinking is if
they come in they damage the fence that
was put up by the
residents I mean you know you get three
of those steer together and they decide
they're going somewhere they usually go
even though I know this will be a rod
iron section um that that's what where
I'm trying to to go and find out is you
know just the questions there so the
statute talks about not just uh damage
to a fence but damaged any property
inside that what they call a lawfully
enclosed fence so any damage that
happens inside whether it's a community
that's fenced or someone's property
that's fenced then there there would be
civil liability under state law that
would attach to the owner of the
livestock
okay kind of the answer I was looking
for thank
you council member
buckin hey chief so if the Rancher is
not cooperating with any negotiations
and if I understood you correctly going
so far as to possibly using Department
of Agriculture to auction off their
cattle and buy more
going back to my police days we had
certain animals at large laws uh with
punitive U actions does the tribe have
any laws on the books regarding at large
you know for their animals particularly
in this case for livestock where they
can help us in enforcing some laws
against that
Rancher you know I'm not an expert in
the Tribal Law down there or what local
uh codes they have in our conversations
with the heiler River Police Department
they seem to uh be under the
understanding that this this Rancher is
not breaking any laws in fact he's doing
exactly what the law Arizona law uh
prescribes in terms of Open Range so I
do not I I did not get the feeling that
they had concerns about any uh laws
being broken down
there council member lions and this
question is for our U Town manager am my
understanding correctly that the HOA is
looking at putting u a fence in you said
a rot iron fence is that correct that is
my understanding yes is there a way if
they do move forward with that that um
we could potentially expedite the um
permitting process and wave the fees uh
to kind of help them get this moved
along uh in regards to waving the fees I
don't have that Authority um but we will
absolutely U make this uh permit we'll
get it pushed out the door the second we
received it
okay who would have the ability to wave
the fees would that be us
or yeah mayor and Council would have
that Authority I don't think want wait
that
long council member torguson when we
were discussing things the other night
there was something about uh when a when
cattle had to be herded taken in there
was a a a reasonable fee for checking
them out storage that kind of thing am I
correct on
that yes mayor and council member
torguson that that is correct so title
three of Arizona state law with regard
to the Department of Agriculture um they
can uh in they can Cowboy cattle they
can Wrangle them and they can inspect
them for a number of reasons again it
has to do with food supply safety and
ownership but when they do and they
transport and haul the cattle to the
Stockyards closest one being Morana um
the Rancher ultimately ends up having to
pay the for the the hay for the care of
the animal just like we would a dog if
it was at large um so there are some
nominal fees but the entire statute is
set up for the success of the Rancher
quite frankly to guarantee the food
supply so it's it's very minimal in fact
the Department of Agriculture can't
charge for the labor that it took to
Cowboy all the uh the cattle to the
stockyard and then by extension it
couldn't take let's say if you were
awarded damages it couldn't tag that to
the weight of the animal during
Slaughter there's nothing under State
Statute that would indicate so no sir
assistant chief angstead maybe we have a
member a representative from the
Department of Agriculture here tonight
maybe we can have him come and and
explain in more detail to the mayor and
Council of how the law currently works
and and the limits of their
Authority you absolutely uh my name is
Ed Morales I'm a lieutenant Department
of Agriculture and the animal services
division specifically
um I I'm the central region supervisor
for um livestock
officers um everything has been pretty
accurate uh it's not very accurate in
terms of um the understanding of the
laws and and the difficulties of
enforcing that because of that
jurisdictional
boundary um I don't know if there's any
specific questions that have gone
unanswered that I that I could answer
but if there are willing to do that
council member bonani you have M for
chief I'm sorry you have one for the
chief yeah for the chief yeah does
anybody have any questions
for thank
you Chief I want to um make sure I heard
you correctly
so in the past we've crowed these
cows um they've auctioned some off and
the Rancher actually would sell one cow
and buy two
calves yes okay thank you that kind of
defeats that whole purpose thank you sir
yes sir council member torus and it
actually profits him
because we pay or the state pays to
bring the cow there and he doesn't pay
transport so the business model is set
up as you said for
him yes mayor and council member
torguson that and and not only is it bad
in in that situation but word gets out
uh so you'll have other ranchers who
expect the Department of Agriculture to
go out and cowboy uh cattle and uh get
free labor so um sometimes unintended
consequences we can we can if we're not
careful make the situation worse now you
realize I don't like any of your answers
they might be truthful and right I'm
just not happy with them yes
sir any further questions comments
thank you Chief um I'd like to just uh
for for those of you that are attending
is I hope that you've all um listened to
the conversation I'd like to underscore
what Chief angstead is saying is that
the town is ready to work with the
neighborhood we want to continue working
with you we want to continue working
with all of the stakeholders in this
which are various and many uh I just
listed a few which is the Department of
Agriculture the
River Indian Community your homeowners
association the town of Gilbert Maricopa
County and the Rancher himself so there
are many different moving parts to this
but we are committed to finding a
solution to this and want to continue
working with you and we'll do all in our
power to to help where we can and that's
what I'm hearing from the councils that
their interest is to help where we can
but hang in there with us as we deal
with a lot of moving Parts on this
thank
you we'll move to item number
two presentation and discussion about
updates to council communication form
for Council agenda
packets May mayor councel this is just a
quick update um we've made some made a
change to your Council communication you
may have noticed it
um and then we're also going to talk
about phase approvals which is a new
Option um that will will show up on um
these agenda
items so just want to explain the law
when it comes to purchasing and
procurement so all expenditures of
public funds regardless of the source or
whether it was made directly or
indirectly they're subject to our town
purchasing code the section is there we
obviously have a person purchasing
manager Jim Campion um who oversees
staff and works with each department and
uring every Department complies with our
purchasing code with any types of
purchase there are different thresholds
depending on who has Authority um to
purchase certain items sometimes it's a
director a department director and pass
a certain certain threshold it'll go to
Jim Campion then obviously the council a
higher threshold above $100,000 comes to
council for your consideration there's
also title 34 which deals with
procurement and that's dealing with
construction projects and then there's
Federal procurement requirements as well
when we have um Federal monies involved
so this is just a quick
um summary of what the formal purchase
procedure is when the town is going out
to acquire widgets there's a process the
department will work with our purchasing
department and go through um these
different criteria published in RFP
request for proposal get those back
there'll be evaluation committee a
selection will be made award will be
made in contract approval um sometimes
that comes to the council if it's above
the threshold if not it's done
internally under our code and then there
are some exceptions to the town
procurement code like I said one is
construction contracts that falls under
title 34 there's still procurement
requirements they're just different than
what the code requires there's
Cooperative
contracts um Soul Source contracts
emergency procurements and then
Professional Services agreements
intergovernmental agreements and these
facility relocation
agreements so here's where we are and
why we're doing this so uh I've been
working with legal and purchasing been
working together and we came up with the
concept and sat down with the manager's
office about adding a new section into
the council communication for each
agenda item that's coming before the
council anything dealing with
acquisition purchase of services
purchase of real um any tangible goods
so the purpose here is to ensure
transparency compliance and
accountability with the purchasing
requirements we're doing this because we
want to make sure it's easy for the
council to see how this item that you're
about to consider or potentially approve
has been procured we want to make sure
you understand that we follow the
procurement code and what that method
was and we want to make sure as well
that it's there sure fair and Equitable
treatment of everyone that wants to do
business with the town everyone has the
fair opportunity to compete for the
businesses and the service and the
contracts that the Town Awards and also
have the open and transparent
competition um so this is kind of what
you see down there is kind of the
threshold that our procurement process
is set up for those are the questions
that they ask to make sure that we have
Fair competitive process it's open to
everyone and that the procurement code
is complied with so what we've added in
the council communication for each item
that's dealing with purchase of a good
or service now you'll see a new section
and this is the general information that
we'll show up when a staff member starts
to enter an item in the agenda manager
before the packet is created there's a
form they start to fill in that
information right the motion information
the subject what it's about what the
discussion part the background there's
this new section that's right before the
um Finance section that talks about the
purchase information so there the
Department's going to need to identify
the procurement
type how how this was procured what type
what code did you apply with um and some
examples request for proposal invitation
for bids um there we go request for
qualifications Cooperative purchase
contracts and then the contract term we
put that in there when you read these
packets you can dig down deep and see
what the contract term is we're adding
there to make it easy for the council to
see how long the contract is that you're
approving and then the purchase was
reviewed by there is where the
purchasing manager or one of Jim's
employees will say hey I verified this
this is correct so I put an example here
this is actually one of the items on
your Council agenda tonight um it's the
acquisition of um sha International
provide grammarly so I I just pulled
this out of the council agenda packet I
don't know if you noticed that but this
is what this new section looks like some
of the items most of the items I went
back looking through the packet for
tonight's agenda most of them don't have
this purchase information in there and
that's because they were entered um a
few weeks ago before we made this ch CH
to the form so going forward any any
item any Council communication is going
to have that purchase information
section there and you can see what it
says procurement type contract term and
then fiscal impact like it's always been
there the budget does that side so just
wanted to bring that to your attention
no Direction needed more of an FYI
you're going to see this change going
forward and we hope it will help the the
council understand the compliance with
each item that you're looking at for
procurement terms and the length of the
contract so any questions on that
section okay we'll move on so um real
quick we got just a couple more slides
um we've had conversations about change
orders there are times when um staff is
bringing something to council and it's
been called a change order you'll see in
the council communication it sees it's
called a change order when it's actually
not a change order um so there's the
definition in our code of what a change
order is you're changing the scope
quantity time per performance so there
are change orders that happen they
happen for various reasons and at times
when change orders happen they've got to
come back to council for Council
approval but there's also in certain
types of contracts and mainly
construction contracts for semar
contracts construction manager at risk
contracts these contracts were set up
from the beginning to operate in
multiple phases so you'll have your gmp1
your guaranteed maximum price one the
council will approve the contract you'll
approve the entire project but then the
phases are going to come before the
council so the first phase may be for x
amount of dollars and then a year and a
half later you come back to do the
second phase and the council you will
have to approve the second phase so
internally in our system or it we've
called it a change order because we had
no other drop- down category to call it
so we've added a new category for those
type of contracts where they're not
change orders they're going to be called
phase approvals so we just want to bring
this to your attention when you start to
see phase approvals again most ly for
most of the time these are going to be
construction type contracts that are in
multiple phases over a long term we're
not going to call them change orders
because that's not what they are they'll
be called phase
approvals and so this is just a picture
I don't know if you can't see it but
this is the drop- down menu when it when
somebody is entering an item into agenda
manager when staff is entering item we
want we would like Council to approve
the second phase of this project instead
of now saying change order there's now a
new drop down that's going to say phase
approval um again an FYI a council
you'll start seeing that language on the
appropriate type of contracts when
they're coming before the council and
again the idea here is for transparency
openness and and to help the council
understand when we have change orders
there actually change orders and phase
approvals that are not change orders we
don't want to be misclassified like they
have been so any questions on
that okay that's it thank
you thank you that concludes the uh
agenda for our study
session I need uh we do formal uh motion
to adjourn study session
Chris yes mayor under the rules we do a
formal motion with a second okay I'll
take
a motion to adjourn the study session so
moved second it's been moved and
seconded that we adjourn the study
session please please vote
mayor for this can we do a Voice vote we
don't have the voting machine up this
part all in favor please any opposed
motion
carries o back here at six o'clock for
student
awards okay can I have here it is here
it is follow