Regular Meeting - 9/10/2024 6:30:00 PM

e e
welcome to town hall and thank you for
attending a Gilbert public meeting here
are a few things to know the meeting
will be held in the council chambers
should additional seating be needed you
may watch from our lobby if you would
like to speak at today's meeting you'll
find both agendas and speaker cards at
the front counter in the lobby our staff
is here to assist you fill out the cards
and find the corresponding agenda items
all speaker cards from the public must
be submitted prior to the start of the
meeting the Town Council is committed to
providing an environment where
everyone's voice is heard during public
meetings in an effort to preserve order
and the Quorum here are a few rules and
guidelines we ask everyone to follow
during the meeting you may bring signs
and similar items into the council
chambers but these items may not be held
above shoulder height or otherwise
obstruct the view or block the path of
members of the audience disruptions
impact the flow of discussion
potentially intimidate others and
detract from the purposes of the meeting
therefore disruptive behavior including
but not limited to cheering shouting
booing or the use of profanity is
prohibited Applause is only permissible
during the presentations and
proclamations portion of the agenda
threats directed toward any individual
or group are prohibited speakers may not
campaign or advocate for or against
candidates for office or ballot issues
or otherwise attempt to influence the
outcomes of Elections a full list of
meeting rules is displayed at the
entrance of the council chambers during
the public hearing portion of the agenda
and during Communications from citizens
when your name is called please come
forward to the podium then state your
name your town of residence and begin
speaking remarks shall be limited to 3
minutes citizens who are at the meeting
and wish to donate their time to a
single speaker must fill out an
individual card and then combine their
speaker cards in such an event one
person from the group shall be
designated to present their remarks
which shall be limited to 6 minutes if
one speaker is speaking on behalf of
others who are present the mayor or vice
mayor shall read into the record the
names of those whose time is combined no
person other than the individual
speaking shall enter into the discussion
officials on the Das may not respond to
any questions or comments during
Communications from citizens however the
council may ask questions during public
hearing items all comments and questions
shall be directed through the mayor or
presiding officer thank you again for
attending a Gilbert town meeting and for
your participation in local government
[Music]
e
e
e e
okay 30 second notice we'll get going
thank you I apologize that we're running
late e
good
evening I'll call to order the September
10th 2024 Gilbert Town council meeting
again I apologize for starting late
please silence your cell phones and
devices silence or shut them off for the
duration of our meeting I would
appreciate it this evening I will call
this meeting to order this evening with
the first item on our agenda is an
invocation by secretary Deborah p Smith
of the local Spiritual Assembly of Baja
is of Gilbert come on up to this Podium
right
here there's a button with a with a
sticker on it there you go you can pull
the mic closer to you please thank you
mayor Peterson yeah the invocation is on
behalf of the bahis of bilbert thank
thank you I didn't put my glasses on so
I I apologize that's better
oh my God oh my God unite the hearts of
thy servants and reveal to them thy
great purpose may they follow thy
Commandments and abide in thy law help
them oh God in their Endeavor and Grant
them strength to serve thee Oh God leave
them not to themselves but guide their
steps by the light of thy knowledge and
cheer their hearts by thy love verily
Thou Art their Helper and their lord
thank you Deborah we appreciate you
being here this evening and offering
that invocation next up we are going to
have the Pledge of Allegiance led by
Girl Scout Troop
3570 they were here earlier with me and
we went through a little practice run of
this and we did a long Q&A session they
had amazing questions for me and they
all asked me for my
autograph so if everybody please rise
and join us in the pledge of
Allegiance flag of the United States of
America to the for stands
Nation
indivisible thank you
we
we we posed and did a group photo before
when they were
here thank you girls it was so nice to
meet all of you and moms thank you moms
appreciate you bringing the girls out
tonight oh there's more in the back hi
moms thanks for being here today if I
could please ask the clerk to um offer
the roll call Mayor Bridget Peterson
here vice mayor Scott Anderson here
council member Chuck B Giovani here
council member Bobby Buckley here
council member young Kowski council
member Kathy tilky here and council
member Jim tasen here aquarum is present
thank you cheli first up is
presentations and proclamations and I
will head down to the
floor first up this evening is ovarian
cancer awareness month is month is
Rachel here hi
Rachel oh and you brought a friend come
around over
here last month last year I actually had
a purple dress on I had a different
dress on earlier today and I went home
and changed because I thought it was the
same one I had on last year and I wanted
to have a different teal dress on for
you so ovarian cancer awareness month
where as ovarian cancer are you making
these
smaller whereas ovarian cancer is the
fifth leading cause of death among women
and the American Cancer Society
estimates approximately
19,683 with almost 13,000 succumbing to
the disease Nationwide including 460 new
cases and 310 deaths in Arizona whereas
due to vague symptoms and the lack of
reliable early detection tests most
women are not diag noosed until stage
three or later when the cancer has
spread outside of the
pelvic whereas although the 5year
survival rate for stage 1 ovarian cancer
is over 90% only 15% of ovarian cancers
are diagnosed at this early stage
compared to the more often diagnosed
late stage ovarian cancer with a 5-year
survival rate below 30% whereas women's
lives will be saved through increased
public awareness ovarian cancer of
ovarian cancer and its risk factors
signs and symptoms whereas this month
Gilbert Arizona joins those who are
battling ovarian cancer honors those who
have lost their lives to it recognizes
the loved ones affected and admires our
our state's many dedicated healthcare
workers whose efforts Aid those
suffering brings awareness to us about
this silent killer and hope for better
diagnosis treatments and a cure now
therefore I Bridget Peterson mayor of
the town of Gilbert do hereby Proclaim
September 2024 as ovarian cancer
awareness month and I encourage all
residents of Gilbert to support ovarian
cancer awareness by educating themselves
and their loved ones and by visiting
their doctors regularly that's a key
there and Rachel would you like to
introduce yourself and tell us a little
about your story quickly and introduce
your friend Hi everyone and thank you
mayor Peterson I have a bracelet for you
um I'm Rachel pman I was diagnosed in
June 2020 uh with Stage 3A lowgrade cus
ovarian cancer um is a rare type of
ovarian cancer that disproportionately
impacts younger women it's recurrent
it's persistent and it's ultimately
fatal it has an 85% recurrence rate so
at four years out I am literally beating
the odds and um the thing that I just
really wanted to encourage you guys is
that talk to your doctors because I was
just living blissfully ignorant going to
my women's wellness exam thinking that
psmears detect um all the different
types of gynecological Cancers and they
do not psmears only detect cervical
cancer and I really push for this
because at the same time that I was
diagnosed with ovarian cancer a month
prior I was actually diagnosed with
breast cancer and it took four months
and two surgeries for me to get my
ovarian cancer diagnosed it took a week
to get my breast cancer diagnosed so we
like to say not all cancer is pink and
um this is my friend Andre she's here
and she's also another amazing Survivor
so I'll let her talk about yourself my
name is Andrea petto and I was diagnosed
in 2010 at the birth of my oldest son
who's here um he was an emergency
C-section and they pulled him out and
then there was a two-b tumor in my
pelvis that they had no idea about um
since then I've had four recurrences six
surgeries and I'm currently in chemo but
I'm cancer free and we're hoping that
the chemo will keep it that way I also
have a very rare subtype called CT leig
sex chord stromal tumor that only
affects Point only 5% of ovarian cancers
are this so the research is super
limited as are treatment indications and
so by doing more research about the more
prevalent types that trickles down to
the more rare forms so go get your
checkups and um help us raise awareness
thank
you thank you and um I hope you stay
cancer free I hope you both stay cancer
free and for you and I've heard your
story over and over again but I'm just
picking up different points tonight you
were diagnosed right at the beginning of
the pandemic essentially in 2020 and
that must have been a terrible time to
be having to go through this in a
hospital when you couldn't have people
with you I had six surgeries every
single one I was I had six surgeries
between April 2020 and October 2020 and
every one of those I was by myself so it
was yeah crazy time and and you know you
you with the whole mask thing people not
wearing masks I'm sitting there just
being like can we just have a mass so my
husband can come and be with me um you
know you hear the stories about people
passing away in the ICU by themselves
that was just the what went through my
head every single time every appointment
I was by myself I heard I have cancer
twice by myself yes so yeah it was crazy
time yeah wow yeah my heart goes out to
both of you and anybody suffering from
cancer lost my mom to breast cancer I
definitely know what it's like to have
this in your family and to have to
always be checked I've been checked my
whole entire life because of that and
we'd love to get a photo with both of
you here I will give you this to you and
we'll get in front of the middle right
here because it's the nicer spot for a
picture can I be in between you two
next year I hope there's power to the
water tower so we can turn it teal again
for this night because we've been AED to
do that every single
year and next up I feel like this is the
night of the woman tonight we have the
members of the Daughters of the American
Revolution that are here on behalf of
constitution week if you would all like
to come down and join
me hi ladies love to see you hi Kathy
it's so nice to see you whereas
September 17th 2024 marks the 237th
anniversary of the signing of the
Constitution of the United States of
America during the Constitutional
Convention in 1787 and whereas the
United States Constitution Remains the
Cornerstone of American democracy with
the responsibility to protect and defend
it f falling on the shoulders of all her
citizens and whereas remembering
recognizing and honoring this Bedrock
document that currently serves as the
longest surviving government Charter
will still in use in the world is
critical to our country's future
successes and whereas it is imperative
that we continue to educate ourselves
and our future Generations about the
Constitution and America's founding
principles for f federal and state
government individual liberty the
separation of powers between the
branches of government and whereas
Constitution week is celebrated annually
due to the advocacy efforts of the
Daughters of the American Revolution who
petitioned Congress in 1955 which
resulted in the adoption of a
congressional resolution and president
Dwight D Eisenhower's signing of the
ordinance of the Constitution week into
law on August 2nd 1956 and now therefore
I Bridget Peterson mayor of the town of
Gilbert Arizona on on behalf of Gilbert
toown council do Herby Proclaim
September 17th to the 23rd 2024 as
Constitution week and invite community
members young and old to learn and
affirm the ideals of the Constitution by
educating themselves about this historic
and living document its powers its
limits and its history would you like to
introduce yourself yes thank you very
much mayor my name is Diana Hines and I
am the Regent of the Governor George WP
hunt chapter of the American American
Daughters of the American Revolution and
this is your hometown chapter each town
or city will have a Daughters of the
American Revolution chapter so you're
looking at Representatives who represent
the town of Gilbert
so Kathy do you want to each introduce
yourself please I'm Kathy penella right
now I'm the treasurer of our
chapter uh Rosemary lion Fel I'm the
librarian historian for our
chapter I'm Mara macowski I'm on the the
board as the immediate past president of
the chapter past
Regent I'm Patty Zur and I'm the
registar so in if you ladies out there
want to join Dar give me a
call and I'm Anne Fischer and I'm the
vice Regent I love that you always have
to give a little plug right have to give
a little plug well let's get a photo
here who wants to hold the do you want
to hold this in the middle let's put you
next to me and L ladies Couple come on
this side excuse me okay Kathy knows me
well see each other at a lot of
events yes we
do thank you thank you for bringing this
to us our attention again this year we
appreciate it thanks for all you do in
our
community our
pleasure thank you
next up I'll invite vice mayor Anderson
down for a recognition of Miss Arizona
America
2024 Hillary
Parks we have a certificate for you to
read which one is
it
Hillary
congratulations as the mayor said this
is our Miss
Arizona uh America beauty queen for 20
24 so congratulations we've got a little
certificate for you it says uh it's
awarded to Hillary parks for your
community Spirit embodied in your by
your dedication to helping young
minority women overcome socioeconomic
challenges your spiritual Grace and
enthusiastic entrepreneurial spirit all
while serving as Miss Arizona for
America strong thank you so much
congratulations okay I'm G get it is go
ahead
to counc member tilki is next council
member tilki will recognize Mrs Arizona
America 2024 Candace
Decker we might
have no one's American and one's one's
American AR there we go they are
different they are a little
different's hi hi Candace so nice to
meet
you yes well welcome Candace so nice to
meet you and
congratulations you know I think think
one of the great things about being Mrs
Arizona is not only the beauty on the
outside but the beauty inside that you
share with others so thank you very much
you this certificate is awarded to
Candace Decker for your contribution to
Gilbert as a resident small business
owner Community volunteer at both a
local and National level an advocate for
Healthy Living while serving as Mrs
Arizona America 2024 thank you
congratulations
we get a photo taken didn't sign but oh
oh I didn't get those
signed Council member kosi will be
coming down to recognize Mrs Arizona
American 2024 Megan
Charney congratulations Megan we wish
you all the best in your national
competition um this certificate is
awarded to you Megan Charney for your
professionalism as a successful
entertainment executive your advocate
vacy for autism through your work with
sibling Advocates and siblings of high
needs individuals program your
dedication to your children and family
all while serving as Mrs Arizona americ
2024 thank you so
[Applause]
much congratulations
oh gosh do I feel short
now I mean I'm always short
but stand up really tall
Bridget thank you l
thank
[Applause]
you next up we'll move into our public
hearing items we
have 1 2 3 three
four we have items 5 through 12 on the
agenda I have a request to speak on item
nine otherwise I have no public hearing
requests for anyone to speak would
anyone like to pull any of the other yes
coun M no you don't want to pull
anything else um I'll open the public
hearing would anybody like to make a
motion on 5 6 7 8 10 11 and
12 I'll make the motion do I have a
second
second I have a motion by council member
Buckley seconded by vice mayor
Anderson please
vote council member torguson thank
you motion passes 6 to1 with council
member torguson dissenting next up we
have item n
General plan GP
23-13 Z
23-11 do we have a short presentation
from staff
Eva good evening mayor and Council I'll
be presenting this evening for Nicole
Russell I'm sorry I'm waiting for the
PowerPoint okay and and the presentation
tonight will be for a cobblestone
Express Auto
Spa and the request is a general plan
Amendment and a resoning from
neighborhood commercial to community
commercial for about an acre and a half
parcel the parcel is located south of
the southwest corner of Germaine Road
and Lindsay Road
and is surrounded by an approved
convenience store just to the north an
apartment complex to the West an office
complex to the South and then a single
family neighborhood beyond that
the approved convenience store would
work with the car wash they're often
together and the car wash would be
buffered by the apartment complex by the
canal and from the single family
neighborhood by the office
complex design review for the car wash
will go to the Planning Commission next
month we don't have to discuss this this
evening but I did want to show you the
conceptual site
plan and there was a neighborhood
meeting held in November nobody attended
that meeting and since that time staff
has received a petition of non
opposition from 10 surrounding
businesses
the recommended motion is to adopt the
resolution approving the general plan
Amendment and the second motion would be
to make the findings of fact and adopt
the ordinance approving the
rezoning thanks Ava any questions for
Ava at this time seeing none I want to
make sure that I said open the public
hearing open the public hearing on this
um thank you Eva I'll um if the
applicant is here and they would like to
say a few words Mr Mr Gilbert thank you
I said a few words Mr
Gilbert I've known you for a very long
time Mr Gilbert turn your turn your mic
on please push the button there we go
thank you thank you okay good thank you
uh I'm I have a full presentation but
frankly I think the key things are um
apparently someone filled out a card um
so I think it would be more efficient
maybe if I waited and heard what they
had to say and then respond would that
be okay mayor and that would be perfect
and of course you know I joke with you
about the few words you are able to say
as much as you would like but thank you
um yes and I agree with you thank you I
just wanted to give you the first
opportunity thank you thank you so I
will call up the person with the card
that has been submitted Christian
holworth Y come down to this Podium with
the microphone on please
Christian hi you'll have three minutes
to share your points with us thanks so
much all right my name is Christian
howth I live in Gilbert Arizona I'm from
that single family neighborhood just
south that was on the map before and I
saw those two beautiful yellow signs
saying there's a public hearing about a
cobblestone that was going to be
installed there and if you have a
concern come and speak so here I am um I
talked to a bunch of my Neighbors about
this we have a bus stop group in that
neighborhood and they all wish they
could be here but apparently there's a
big debate going on tonight that they
want it to attend instead so I'm
speaking on their behalf as well anyways
we feel that building a third car wash
within a 3M car radius of our homes is
maybe unnecessary um that on that map
that was shown that beautiful
presentation there's a there's a canal
right behind that car wash that our
families like to go for walks on the
weekend for for example building a car
wash there would bring a lot of noise
pollution we feel that might deter from
families going for walks in those areas
plus it might impact the home valuations
of that single family neighborhood as
well I know it's a minor detail but in
fact the reason why we live in that
single family neighborhood is because we
found a a beautiful place to live my
wife and I and then we discovered there
was a car wash across the street it
seems like that's a that's a big
business nowadays so we would like to
just um suggest that single family
neighborhood that we consider
alternative solutions to a car wash I
know it's probably late notice and it
sounds like grounds already being broken
and it sounds like there was a meeting
last year I wasn't really familiar with
um I wish I could have been there to
talk about it then but um so yeah that's
what I wanted to say and uh thank you
for your time appreciate it thank you
Christian thanks we appreciate you
coming out and sharing your thoughts
with us yeah thank you Mr Gilbert if you
would like to come back up and address
any of the concerns
thank you again for your record Paul
Gilbert 701 North 44 Street Phoenix uh
there appears to only be one concern and
that is noise I point out that the
people that live most closely to the
project and we've visited all of them
have signed petitions and support
secondly all of the machines are
internally focused so there won't be any
noise escaping from the uh facility of
any consequence we comply fully with
your noise ordinance here in the town
and there's only one motor that operates
the vacuum and so we don't have motors
from all the individual back vacuums
occurring at the same time the bottom
line simply put
is that this is a quiet
operation cobblestone is well known for
being among those that are the
state-of-the-art in car washes and we
feel that this is just an excellent
excellent use here we're at the
intersection virtually of two major
freeways Road arterial streets and that
therefore there will be more noise being
generated from the adjacent roadways
than we will generate on our site for
these reasons we think the staff was
absolutely correct
in
suggesting approval of this
application and the fact that the
Planning Commission unanimously
underscored their approval I submit is a
good recommendation for you to follow
through on tonight I have a seven page
presentation but I think I've addressed
the one issue that seemed to be of
concern I think you addressed the issue
that we heard from the resident let me
ask Council if they have any questions
or you
council member
Kowski um I would just like to ask to
direct staff when this project goes to
design review to ensure that the comment
from the resident gets conveyed to the
Planning Commission in the event that
there's any consideration for the design
review but from the perspective of the
trail behind the
property yes mayor council member capras
I'll make sure that gets conveyed to the
commission I believe the design review
goes before the commission next month
and we'll take a look at it again to
make sure that any noise emitting
elements are directed away from the
trail thank
you and thank you were very willing to
do that and I might add that I trust my
brevity tonight will be
rewarded so I I do have much more I
could say that supports this application
you do have concerns we have another
question from council member tilki all
right thank you mayor um I just wanted
to um mention that uh that was a comment
that I was going to make council member
Kowski um perhaps Eva you could ensure
that our resident is notified of when
that meeting is so that they can come
and share the comments and and Mr
Gilbert I know that your your client
will work with staff to address those
concerns
um as we move forward and um I do agree
that that is a I don't want to say noisy
um intersection but there is a lot of
lot going on
there thank
you any other comments or questions from
Mr
Gilbert thank you Mr Gilbert we
appreciate the
brevity I I hope that appreciation
manifest itself shortly we will see we
will see
sir I will um close the public here
hearing bring it back to the dis for
discussion and or motions motions CU we
have to have
two it's not how this process works Guys
somebody has to do
something I will make a motion to for
both A and B I believe it was I think we
have do we have to do them separately or
can we do them together that' probably
be a Chris question
mayor council they could be done
together as long as it's clear that both
are being approved do we have a motion
to approve um 9 A and B 9 A and B in the
interest of keeping the man of many
words to
brevity second I have a sec I have a
second by vice mayor please
vote motion passes
70 thank you Mr Gilbert Mr Hoth thank
you for attending and giving your input
we we do appreciate it um moving on to
the consent calendar vice mayor thank
you mayor we have uh two items to pull
off item number 16 and item number
18 and then we'll be adding and I will
um we'll be adding item 21 to the
consent calendar and I'll go over that
when we when I get to it but I'd like to
move approval um item 17A is also going
to be
separate it's a request to table that
item could be made in the motion with
consent agenda okay 17 17 a 17A it's
it's requested to be tables
yeah which means there won't be a date
certain to
that so I'll make a motion to uh approve
items 13 14 15
17 and 17A to be
tabled
1920 and item 21 which will be a motion
to appoint to the Planning Commission
Brian Anderson and Lewis de gravina as
regular members with terms beginning
September 30th
2024 and ending September 29th
2028 and Kyle Cole and Jenna lion has
alternate members with terms beginning
September 30th 2024 and ending September
29th
2025 I have a motion by vice mayor
Anderson I second that I have a second
by Council M Buckley please
vote motion passes
70 item 16 council member
torgenson I I was hoping just to get a a
very
short man of few words presentation on
the necessity of uh this purchase
contract assistant chief Bob badget
brevity is the key term tonight thank
you mayor council um council member tus
the uh the item in front of you tonight
is for a kind of a mobile command van um
it's in support of our emerging
Technologies division mainly used to uh
opt up a place to put our drone operator
out of the heat currently they're
operating at the back of a pickup truck
and over the this past summer we've had
multiple times where they were in the
air and had to shut down early because
of the degradation to the battery life
of the Heat and also having our people
stand out in the sun um with the
purchase of this this vehicle um it'll
it'll go a long way to to allowing um
the use of our drones to protect our
citizens and our Public Safety members
um in a continuous manner without having
to shut down periodically to to cool
themselves and their equipment down um
the van that we purchase is specifically
designed for that and it will um it'll
able wind wind shuts us down no matter
what but rain um heat and others it'll
allow us to uh to do to continue to do
some of the amazing stuff we've been
doing with that that drone program over
the last
year fantastic I just I felt it was
important for people to know why this
was there and and I know council member
Bon Giovanni is enthralled with the uh
the Drone program and I just what wanted
people to hear what it was for it's not
just to do it there's a very specific
purpose for a very very successful
program thank you sir thank you for
allowing me to brag about our drone
program
too and very well done on the brevity
assistant chief
badget would someone like to make a
motion on that
item I'll I'll make the motion oh are
you I was just going to make a motion to
accept item 16 as written okay I'll
second that we have a motion by council
member torguson seconded by council
member Buckley please vote
motion passes
70 vice mayor one more right yes item 18
council member
torguson and I know I do this almost
every meeting but I want somebody to to
sit there and give me this
reassurance sit there and use your use
and we're going to use brevity but we're
going to use the big words so we can get
small you know shorter and promise me we
have no strings attached to any one of
these things
hi Jason Hi mayor mayor council member I
cannot promise you there are no strings
attached however all the strings
attached are uh perfectly within our
capability of
completing could you explain what those
strings attached are sure uh just like
most federal grants we've got to follow
certain things like dbe title 6 Ada and
the federal procurement process uh in
order to make sure that we do follow
follow those processes appropriately
we've contracted with ADOT to manage
this project on our behalf if we are
awarded the grant there are some unique
things that we have to follow based on
this being a Federal Railroad
Administration grant that we haven't I
personally haven't dealt with before
maybe the town has prior to me um some
of those things are in the study we have
to consider job quality and labor rights
so we'll have to include that as part of
the uh results of the study and then we
have to report to F quarterly on the
progress of the study as well as the
expenditures of funds and then we have
to submit the final document to F so I
think that all of those strings are well
within our capabilities and are not out
of bounds it stays within the policy we
have of okay I'm good thank you correct
counc May bonani thank you mayor uh
Jason will this will our cost be more
than the uh actual
funding uh mayor council member the cost
of the town is approximately
$600,000 um strings attached I mean oh
no no
than cost is out of go bonds that have
already been designated for this too
council member
Kowski um Jason I know that the mopa
county will have proposition 479 on the
ballot this November and
and voters in Gilbert should know that
some of the projects or most of the
projects that Gilbert has that would be
included in that proposition are related
to some of these railroad crossings um
is there any additional information you
can share about the how this grant is
related to that those potential future
projects funded by that Regional sales
tax extension mayor council member yeah
that's a really good point so uh the we
currently as part of prop 479 the town
has identified three locations where we
would want to do grade separated
Crossings and to that end we would use
Regional funds to pay for those projects
uh the hope of this study is to a verify
that the three locations that we've
identified are the best three locations
and then
ultimately hopefully if we're awarded
this will will also set us up to apply
for federal rail funding for design and
construction of these projects which
would allow us to shift those funds to
other important projects within the town
so essentially if awarded staff would
want to pursue additional funds of this
sort for design and construction and
then allow us to use those Regional
funds on other important projects in the
town thank you for explaining that and I
know that a lot of these big Capital
Improvement projects um they they really
take a long time and this is planning
the seed for those future projects so
thank
you any other questions Jason thank you
for the explanation for the Public's
knowledge this is you're getting our
approval to actually just apply for the
grant that's part of our process here
with the town of gilberton Mayor that's
correct thank you appreciate that thanks
for the update on the prop 479 that you
just offered to thank you bring it back
to the DI any
would anyone like to make a
motion I'll make a motion to accept item
18 as written
second I have a motion by council member
torguson seconded by council member
Capri please
vote motion passes
70 great moving on to administrative
items we've already handled item 21 item
22 is discussion and update from the
community engagement town Force council
member
tilki thank you mayor um we will be
meeting on Monday and I'm very excited
to say that we will have the um results
from the Teen survey um being presented
at that time but at the last meeting I
asked if you would like to um hear a
little bit more about Maricopa County
Attorney's Office the report don't
repost a campaign that our Police
Department was a as well as others in
the community
um work together to put together um I
think there's a video right so we'll
just go right into the video if that's
okay we need to talk about teen violence
it's hurting our kids and our
communities I worry every day about the
impact of violence on our children's
lives it affects everyone seeing how
violence impacts our kids is
heartbreaking we need to step up our
kids need us in so many ways right now
it's teen violence that's tearing our
communities apart if your child witness
is a fight remind them don't record it
report it call the local police never
assume someone else will call you can
report anonymously if you feel unsafe
I'm the father of teenagers I know
firsthand the worries parents carry when
our kids are out in the community when
our kids witness a fight they need to
know what to do encourage them to report
it not record it it's the reason why I'm
doing this to help us all make our
community safer reporting to law
enforcement can make a real difference
remember you can't be held liable
together we can create a safer community
so report don't
repost thanks ladies for making that
available tonight um we'll have more
updates you know after our next meeting
but I I think this is a great first step
in trying to get the message out not
only to teens but our parents as well
the importance of reporting the crime
directly to our Police Department thanks
mayor thank you for sharing that we did
ask for the for the video to be shared
this time and um it was I loved watching
the press conference with Maricopa
County attorney Rachel Mitchell with all
of those Chiefs or or their
representatives standing there
supporting her in this report don't
repost and we see it so many times I see
so many people report things on social
media that they're not reporting and it
doesn't matter what it is there a car
accident at the corner and they're
posting it on Facebook instead of
calling 911 I mean please this is the
most important thing that we can
encourage you to do and reposting just
stir people up and the and very negative
ways and so let's get this stuff
reported where it needs to be thank you
moving on to our next um item on our
agenda presentation on the Performance
Management
program who do we have up
good evening my name is Amy Ashworth I'm
the interim Chief performance officer
for the town it's been about a year
since we've provided an update to
Council on the Performance Management
program so let's get started brevity
right brevity is key brevity is key so
we'll get through this pretty quickly
today we're going to cover a program
progress Department updates and what's
next for our core
team our program is one of the
cornerstones of the city of the future
initiative providing a framework for
analyzing data setting goals and
tracking progress towards a prosperous
future in the past year the core
performance team has supported two
Department stat programs launched public
dashboards kicked off onboarding for
seven departments One Division and
rolled out powerbi
training Performance Management enhances
strategy alignment transparency Employee
Engagement and continuous Improvement
driving productivity and
accountability however the heart of our
program is the Department's commitment
to setting goals tracking progress and
adjusting as needed to improve
performance and meet organizational
objectives tonight we'll highlight some
of these some of these
departments and it is my pleasure to
have our first speaker um chief of
police Michael
sber good evening mayor and Council uh
it's been a year as Amy mentioned since
we last
reported uh you'll see two different
colors and what this uh designates is
the ones in Orange are the ones that are
going to be published to the public the
the ones in blue are our internal facing
dashboards uh I'm not going to go
through all these uh but you will see up
there we talked last year about uh
several of these some of which being
domestic violence as we prepare for our
Advocacy Center and our crisis response
team one that just got completed by
Amy's team a couple months ago is our
Professional Standards dashboard so this
in the next slide that I'll show you is
focusing on use of force and our Focus
here is the amount of force compared to
the number of contacts we have with the
public
um you'll see a high uh number on the
left side of the use of horse types most
of the high levels are ones where we're
not actually touching someone it's um
displaying a handgun displaying tasers
um and then control holds your strikes
your punches your taser use are minimal
on this scale so this will be live so
you can toggle time frames this sample
is here is just all uh data from 2024
the next slide is the uh complaint slide
uh once again this is a sample from 2024
and you can uh toggle to the different
time frames you want to look at the
source of complaints the outcome of the
complaints and you'll see on this the
the majority of of our complaints uh
come in uh internally and most of those
are uh result in being sustained because
we're either self-reporting or we're
seeing a violation of our policies and
creating what we call a blue team which
initiates the invest investigation um
that is available to the public as
well the here are a couple samples of
what we're doing with our part one
crimes so we have a part one crimes
dashboard where we're tracking our uh
violent crime and our property crime so
Chief angstead who is our chief over
operations with Patrol they were looking
at the data and noticed a trend an
increase in
shopliftings and that is a frequent call
that our Patrol officers go to so they
use this data to focus a operations plan
looking at uh how can Patrol better uh
combat um uh the shopliftings that were
occurring and a lot of that was just
being visible and so they were directed
to be
um patrolling parked doing report
writing being visible um at these
locations and in that uh once we
implemented that we saw an a 13%
reduction 13.4% reduction uh from April
to May and then a uh as we continue that
a slight decrease from uh 74 and so
that's just one sample of how we're use
utilizing this data they're currently
they're still working on that but
they're currently working on Commercial
burglaries we saw an increase in
commercial burglaries uh during the
nighttime and so that's their current
Focus so this data allows us to look at
at current trends live uh it's refreshed
each one uh has a different purpose
obviously and allows us to to use data
to make informed decisions uh this last
last slide for me is where we're looking
next uh Amy's team and and it have done
an excellent job of doing our dashboards
and we have a lot of ass along with the
other department so we are looking at
how how we can further use this data to
make informed decisions not only in the
budget but in uh deployment of our
employees um specifically we're looking
at 911 calls at our dashboard making
sure we're um meeting our our goals and
the national standards of how quickly we
uh answer a 9011 call and how quickly
respond and arrive uh working on our
counseling dashboards of how many are
current GT Youth and adult resources how
many uh clients they're seeing and in
which capacity uh are they court ordered
are they walk-ins are they referrals and
then our hiring dashboard looking at
where are we making sure we are
effective and efficient in our hiring
where are we losing candidates in that
hiring process and then the just Foya is
a new one that we've added on our list
to to look at we uh in the last year
found out that we lead the nation in
just foyer request for the police
department um uh which for our obviously
we're not the largest Department in the
country but we lead the nation in the
number of public records requests that
come into our department so we will be
looking at a dashboard looking at the
just for you of how we can take that
data and further analyze where what's
our current delay and is there a way to
streamline that and reduce that with
that I'll turn it over to
Amy thanks
Chief well we greatly appreciate that
Amy and Amy before we go back Chief um
we should probably see if anyone has any
questions council member ban Giovani
absolutely thank you Amy sorry no
worries Chief you brief I'll be brief um
you showed the 14% or 13.5% reduction in
shoplifting during that time and another
one another 7% is that ACC cumulative 7%
or 7% for a total of 15% or is that just
a 1% reduction from June and July that
74 so 13.46%
any other questions any other questions
for chief this time no thanks thank you
thank you
Amy thanks chief for showing how data
can um change the way that you actually
do your operations so up next we have
Jennifer Graves from Economic
Development good evening mayor members
of Council Jennifer Graves deputy
director for economic development I am
delighted to be here with you tonight um
so let's get started with economic
development performance
measures so Gilbert's office of Economic
Development has been monitoring and
Reporting on performance for nearly two
decades through important Town documents
like the budget book The comprehensive
financial report as well as the
Benchmark report this new Performance
Management process provided a platform
for the team to renew our focus and
bring all lines of service together to
develop a unified Mission as well as an
opportunity to collaborate with other
departments and hear their perspectives
as we focus on defining the work of each
line of service in the department and
summarizing that work into core
performance areas with these areas
defined the team refined our programs
and activities that support each key
performance area which enabled us to
confirm those outcome measures that will
be achieved in support of our key
performance areas
within the business development
Redevelopment and tourism lines of
service work is generally focused on
engagement with core Partners like site
selectors businesses community members
developers and visitors to build an
experience and relationships while
delivering service to help them all
Thrive and ultimately increase the
economic well-being of our
community this work is also aligned to
show progress for the community in
several key per performance areas which
are summarized here on your screen
things like retaining and growing
Gilbert based businesses attracting new
investment and connecting visitors to
entertainment and recreational
opportunities the economic development
Performance Management dashboard will
feature these metrics chosen to measure
progress in those key performance areas
for business development which is what
you're seeing on your screen right now
there are two output and two outcome
metrics that are focused on things like
lead generation business engagement as
well as job growth in stem and STEM
related occupations and the total number
of jobs in
Gilbert the Redevelopment line of
service is showcasing three outcome
metrics that are focused on uh Trends in
land valuations Trends in sales tax
revenue for the Heritage district and
the community sentiments around safety
in the Heritage District
and the tourism dashboard is also
showcasing three outcome metrics on the
uh focused on Trends in room demand for
both uh
traditional accommodation venues as well
as short-term rentals and the visitor
spending
Trends there were also several new
metrics that are shown here on the
screen that were identified in the
performance management process that the
office of Economic Development will
start reporting on in fiscal
25 happy to take any questions if you
have any Jen gravity that was lovely we
said we were happy it was you and not
Dan don't tell him I think he just heard
you may members of council we're just
kidding Dan we're just kidding thank you
Jen any questions for Jen at this
time all right thank you so much thank
you thank you Jennifer for your um for
your notes and economic development is
incredibly vital to our community so we
we look forward to seeing what you build
next up next we have Robert Carmona from
the parks and wreck and Facilities
Department all right good evening uh
mayor and Council the interest of
brevity mayor I'm going to cut it down
from 10 minutes to about two you know
that I I love to talk so much um but
overall uh our journey really started uh
when Patrick set that goal of becoming
the city of the future the department
set in 2020 our own Department of the
future initiative which was our kind of
Engagement and Performance Management
where knowing the master plan was going
to be coming up we really focused
internally to make sure that we talk to
our own staff about how they were
feeling of where that future was headed
and what they needed from us uh to
prepare them to be successful when that
time came uh through that that took us
to our master plan strategic initiative
which uh Council knows um you know we
spent about a year and a half really
engaging with the community at record
levels to understand what they really
needed from us what they were
experiencing and how we could best turn
that into a game plan moving forward and
as we saw these were the six main
categories that came out of that and I
think one of the things that's missing
but we've talked about uh quite at
length is that our programs our parks
are at Max Capacity as as we've seen
throughout it but the other important
things is preserving those assets you
know creating that connected Community
sh sh ing the story and developing our
team is sort of going to be a common
theme as we go through our our
performance dashboards tonight uh with
that some of those highlights and these
numbers would to provide context for
what you're going to be seeing in the
dashboard coming up so knowing that in
21 and 22 we provided about 24,000
different programs and events uh those
numbers I think were even staggering to
our team when we first saw them at the
master plan when they did that deep dive
into to how many programs are available
and on top of that knowing that the
cancellation rate on these programs was
only 3% further showed that need that
the community is really utilizing all
these events uh and facilities and
programs at a rate of about 289,000
overall participants and we know from
that master plan in place or I data that
overall we're serving about 5.1 million
uh people a year at our our Parks
programs and facilities and within that
when we started that process in 2020 and
really worked with our team on what the
community needed from us we saw a 20% uh
increase in 21 and 22 for the amount of
activities being offered uh and the
community members that were taking
advantage of it so that's just kind of
telling a little bit of the story of
what happened in 2020 up until now so as
we go through uh Performance Management
we're very thankful for the performance
management team the IT team um and then
we have two members from our team that
primarily spend a lot of our time their
time doing this Heidi kishu couldn't be
here this morning and Rebecca casaro is
in the audience tonight just to
embarrass them a little bit uh really
what you're seeing tonight was because
of the effort they put in in
2022 uh cuz if you go back to 2020 all
of our surveys that we would get back
were pieces of paper that you were
collecting from an instructor uh didn't
always know where those pieces of paper
went to uh after those those classes
were finished so in 2022 uh surve you
know shortening that survey making it
personalized so that anybody who takes a
program or a class or goes to an event
or has a rental gets a personalized
email when they are completed um asking
for their feedback on how that went in a
in a statistically valid way
um and in doing that uh which kind of
leads us to today uh we're able to add
an additional question for wellness
Improvement so what you're going to see
is taking all of those um these are kind
of four dashboards into one screen but
to talk a little bit more about them um
you know understanding when we look back
that we had 24,000 programs you know
offered in those two years that we have
close to 300,000 people utilizing those
programs um very proud to say that the
team's you know almost at that 90%
program recommendation from the
participants that are that are taking
those instructor recommendation at 90%
facility satisfaction at 95% when you
think about the amount of facilities
that are being utilized you're talking
about 40 plus whether it's a park or
facility that are that our residents are
taking these services and that Wellness
Improvement providing that mental
physical and social health Improvement
uh in our customers lives at that
86% to put a little more context into it
the national average for program
recommendation and facility satisfaction
is about 70%
and we know that from our master plan so
incredibly proud of the efforts our team
is doing uh not only to make the
customers that we have happy but making
them return customers um as well and
these can be toggled through the uh
facility itself um so as a as a team
we're able to make some pretty important
decisions uh also happy to say that the
team was able to turn this into a mobile
version um so it it is available through
the uh performance management system in
a in a mobile setting
in the interest of time we're going to
talk about a few uh decisions that have
taken place from it so when you take a
look at the amount of feedback and
surveys coming back um with that many
programs with that many instructors it
can be hard for our smaller team to be
able to take stock on everything that is
happening so as a recent example we have
independent contractors that we contract
with to provide some of those classes uh
receiving negative feedback in a
particular one of them for a couple of
sessions in a row and it wasn't
consistent feedback but it was enough to
trigger us to say okay what's really
happening in this program or there
things we need to talk about being able
to then reach out to those independent
contractors and say Hey you know we want
to share this information with you this
is some of the things we're providing or
we're getting provided from our
customers um in return that owner being
able to say you know what we're going to
send you our best our best instructor
and ever since then having those
positive experiences and seeing those
participation levels and percentage
scores um increase dramatically so those
are those those things utilizing this
that we're able to to make very quick
decisions to be able to serve our
customers another quick uh item is is in
the facility side so being able to
receive feedback right away from someone
that says they were trying to use one of
our restrooms at one of the Aquatic
facilities without having a changing
table in the restroom and that's one
that you don't need to wait very long
for we're able to get that feedback
right away talk to our facilities team
uh do a quick audit on which of our
facilities do and don't have some of
those and making sure we're able to do
that leading to those happy customers
with those quick responses um and being
able to provide that service faster than
we would have uh been able to in the
past and then one of my favorite parts
of it is also we talk about developing
our team so in the past uh when you have
that many people taking classes and we
have as many instructors and independent
contractors as we do very difficult to
be able to give them the proper praise
so through the Survey System we're able
to pull that every time we get those
surveys back understand what our
customers are saying um about those
instructors and be able to provide that
positive feedback back to them those
kudos to them uh which keeps that morale
level high as we move
forward uh with that we're barely
getting started we've only been in the
program for a few months uh but we have
uh several functioning dashboards
already up and running uh with a few
more uh coming along the way so if you
have any questions I'd be happy to
answer them thanks Robert any questions
for Robert at this time seeing none
great presentation thank you thank
you thank you Robert for sharing those
very impactful data stories our last
speaker is Kyle miris from development
services good evening mayor and Council
um like Robert's group we haven't been
in the program very long so we're sort
of at the beginning stages of gathering
the data and making the dashboards but
um like the other departments we have a
ton of data whether it's turnaround
times or permitting times or um Code
Compliance cases or land use issues
uh we've got a lot of um a lot of data
that we've been Gathering and putting
into um different uh into the dashboards
and and continuing to build them um the
data is going to help us fuel a lot more
decisions that that we um bring to to
Planning Commission and mayor and
Council um a lot of times we've been
asked for land use information and we're
able to pull it from GIS but it takes a
little bit of time and and then we have
got to uh put it into a spreadsheet and
then bring It Forward um with these
dashboards we're able to show them right
away we can show developers where we're
at with land use decisions um and really
kind of um push the data forward much
better and make those decisions so some
of the things we've heard and and you've
asked about them in the past you know
what's the balance of land use in our
community and that's been very important
as we talk to different developers who
want to make land use changes and let's
say go from a regional commercial zoning
District to a multif family zoning
District we've heard your direction in
the past we're able to show them um with
these dashboards exactly the the land
use breakdown that we have and why that
decision is so important um how long to
build out uh how much of the property is
occupied versus vacant and then for our
second dashboard we started talking
about um Code Compliance cases and are
we getting to them in a timely manner
how long is it taking to close the cases
what are the trends we're seeing what
are the areas we're seeing and so as we
start to ask these questions and build
these dashboards I don't think there's
anything that we can't we can't do so um
what other questions can we answer with
the data we currently have is something
we ask ourselves a lot and and pull that
data um bill chelini is our um data
content strategist and it's just amazing
with finding the data and having the
ideas to uh move forward um challenges
along the way so one of the things that
we ran into and you saw it this summer
was uh legislation so we had to turn
things around very quickly to um either
get ordinances passed or get um housing
data back to um the legislators um so
with building these dashboards we're
able to do this much quickly we're able
to anticipate exactly what we're going
to need to turn in uh and we can do that
uh very well Staffing um we've got
Staffing studies in the town and being
able to see the amount of permits that's
going on the locations that we need to
apply the resources we can really start
to hone in and and make sure that we're
uh identifying our staffy needs to to
better serve the
community this is the land use framework
um dashboard that we've got so you can
see Gilbert buildout we've uh Gilbert in
total is 72.6 square miles which is 46 ,
296 total Acres um occupied is
42131 vacant is
4,165 so we only have about 9% of
Gilbert that's left um when you look at
the totality and then as you look at the
acreage by land use and the acreage by
zoning District it's very easy to tell
that we are a very um residential
Community something that you know we've
talked about in the past but you can
really start to see the numbers um on
this when you when you look at these
dashboards and then I point about
halfway down on the chart on the right
where it talks about acreage by zoning
District you can see how much uh
commercial we have left there's not a
great deal so as we have meetings with
developers and we bring forth uh land
use uh recommendations we'll absolutely
be using more of this type of uh uh this
more of this type of
information I'm going
to the Code Compliance a lot of this
information is coming out of Gilbert 311
uh you can say we had 786 six uh open
requests the bottom left there shows the
different request types um so we can
really start to look at at what's the
trend um what are we seeing as far as is
it veget vegetation is is the biggest
one um but what are we seeing that we
need to maybe focus a little bit more on
or select some resources the chart in
the Middle with the dots is is more of
our heat map so we can plot out each one
of those count requests by type where
they are happening in the community see
where there's Trends see where we need
to put those resources um and you can
see kind of in this case that a lot of
the stuff is happening in the northwest
quter of the of the community so um
having the the community preservation
ordinance and being able to really kind
of look and see where we need to focus
things is really really going to be
helpful and then the far right is the
average work days to acknowledge an
inquiry um the goal is four days or less
um and you can see that the team is is
um sort of Johnny on the spot with uh um
acknowledging 311 inquiries and and
opening up different um cases and moving
forward Kyle can I ask you a question
about that Pi on the left bottom left
corner yes where it says other do we try
to determine if there actually is a
category that those could be moved to if
they're just CLI other yeah that's one
of the questions bill and I talked about
today um it would be nice to have a
little bit better specificity on that um
I think this is one of those things
where we found the data and we brought
it back and we realized we may have a
gap so you you know maybe one of the co-
compliance inspectors is they're just
marking other because it's something off
for a little bit strange I think there's
probably plenty of room on this graph U
to put some of those other uh other
items in but yeah that's one of the
things that the data shows is you know
maybe we're missing something so that's
that's really good to pick up and I was
thinking that our residents might just
be clicking other because they don't
understand our terminology and gilber
311 something so they're picking the
easiest solution yeah and we may need to
fix 311 and some of the things that were
in there as well yeah no that's
great uh so what are we doing to move
forward we're going to do the plan
review time frame tracking so let's see
how fast we're turning around the the
permits I keep telling you guys we're
the fastest in the in the valley um this
will definitely prove it out uh flood
plane permit issuance count and location
that will really help us with some of
our insurance rates as we do our uh
audits every year um as we get
additional points we're able to reduce
the amount of flood insurance to the
homeowners so if we can track this and
provide that um that should really help
us out um much like ecv and and some of
the other things you've seen permit
valuation I think will be important for
us to see too um whether it goes up with
um better buildings I don't say better
buildings but if it goes up with larger
buildings and things of that nature or
does it start to decrease because we're
not in uh issuing as many building
permits and the valuation begins to fall
it'll be an interesting um kind of trend
to to watch and see and then obviously
we want to do all of our different
inspections track our inspections see
where the hot spots are again and and
kind of figure out you know where we can
put resources and what we need to do in
that
Arena oh I'm sorry were there any
questions thanks Kyle any questions for
Kyle council member tilki thanks mayor
um Kyle I can't remember what report I
saw recently but I thought I noticed
that the
um online inspection numbers are going
down is this something you'll be
tracking and kind of understanding why
that's happening youan are you um
referring to the um virtual inspections
yeah thanks yeah than it what to call it
yeah th those have really kind of fallen
off for us um we're not getting near as
many calls on those um so we we will
track it as part of um the the next
dashboard that we build but we've seen
that dramatically uh drop off since Co
yeah thank you
they seemed PR popular for so long and
now they seem to be dropping off yeah
yeah interesting well and I think a lot
of it too depends upon the nature of the
inspection and if they're on site
sometimes it's easier just to do
them thank you oh any other council
member Buckley I just have a quick
question can you go back to the pie that
you had back there
um on on the one that says down toward
the bottom it's a red dot illegal
parking I'm maybe that's an orange dot
yes and okay so that's quite a large and
do you think that's a large number of
illegally parked
cars or different vehicles or buses or
what um it's going to be illegal parking
in in neighborhoods or um uh people
parking in parking lots overnight or
something they're not supposed to stay
at the the large orange that you see on
the pie chart is for is for other so
that's um that's one that's um that's
when we need to dig down a little bit
further that one would be the little
sliver right there oh okay no the I was
wonder what the big orange slice was
yeah that's the one we got to find is
other where we're identifying a gap and
and either what 311 is doing or how um
we're jotting down the notes as we we I
was concerned if that was the one for
illegally parked Vehicles yes okay all
right thank you so much thank you any
other questions for Kyle thanks Kyle
thank
you
Kyle uh thank you to all of our speakers
for coming up here today we really
appreciate them and we're really excited
to see where their programs evolve as
you can see every single one of them uh
takes a different approach because each
one has a different set of goals uh the
different way that they they do business
um so in looking forward the core
performance team will complete
onboarding um we're going to publish our
data stories and our dashboards so you
guys got the first look at some of these
new dashboards that are coming out um
and then we're going to launch the
townwide uh stat meeting to uh to share
insights across the town all of the
Departments to build that collaboration
and develop action plans for the
future in closing we thank the council
the town manager's office and the
department leaders for their guidance
and support together we're building a
more a a stronger more transparent and
accountable
organization and we look forward to the
future as we build value for our
community thank you so much um we're
ready for any questions or feedback
thank you so much any questions or
feedback council member Koski I just
want to provide some feedback I know
it's been um heavy lift to kind of get
all of these dashboards going for all
the different departments
and I think that it's adding a lot of
value uh I appreciate the update and I
would continue to support support this
initiative thank you thank you Council
Council M Bon gani thank you mayor so
I've been up here a little over a year
and a half and I'm still Blown Away by
the dedication of our staff in this town
it's amazing I mean when you get this
much information it's really easy to get
get paralysis by analysis and just sit
there and not do anything about it but
when I take a look at these dashboards
um you guys have done a fantastic job
you can actually make decisions based on
the dashboards as opposed to just having
data because if you just have data and
you can't analyze it you just have data
but then you can sit there and just
stare at the data forever and not do
anything but I I'm I'm just amazed at
the at at our at our town staff and and
Patrick and your team and I'm amazed
it's you guys are doing an incredible
job thank you Council council member
torguson I'm just hoping that we find a
very effective way of getting the the
public facing part of this to the public
so so many of those questions can be
answered because people make so many
suppositions and if they had this
resource available maybe they'd
understand some of what they think
they're seeing they're not seeing or
vice versa yeah absolutely so is there a
plan to get that very public we are we
actually are we have a sub team that's
going on in our core performance uh
group that we are looking at redesigning
and redeveloping our um our public side
one of the ideas that we've come up with
is kind of an our toown scorecard you
see that across a lot of um a lot of
different organizations who have rolled
out Performance Management Programs um I
would love to uh hear feedback from the
council and and mayor and town manager's
office on what types of things
um you guys have uh you guys would like
to see in that scorecard so it's a an
easy to read um sort of uh space to go
um and then when they want to know more
information they can click in and see
those those really impactful data
stories yeah thank you so much any other
comments or questions seeing none I oh
yes tell manager Baner thank you mayor
council I just wanted to um extend my
appreciation to Amy
um and Our IT department in the last six
to seven months um they have worked they
have ingested 1100 different tables of
data from more than 50 different data
sources what you're seeing here there's
been an incredible amount of work that
goes on behind the scenes to format the
data to make it accessible to create
these viewers that make the data uh at
to your point council member banani not
just data but put it in a format that
people can understand all of these
dashboards that you looked at are also
Dynamic so you can click on virtually
any aspect of that and drill down into
Data see it either geographically
represented on a map by issues or better
understand zoning issues and and where
things are occurring and they're just um
it's just the tip of the iceberg they're
just scraping the surface of uh surface
of what um this is going to allow us to
do um as we continue to roll this
through all of our departments and the
Departments that have been through it
continue to ask question questions
increase curiosity and create more
dashboards to create more transparency
and Clarity for our residents as well as
for you our governing board as you make
decisions of importance for this
community I'm not aware of any other
city in the nation that's doing it in
the manner that we're doing and it's not
an easy task because there's a lot going
on in this town where the 76th largest
city in the country and still growing
this has been an extra Duty on all of
them so I I just can't thank our
assistant managers again Amy all of our
directors and all of the team members
who have worked really really hard um to
bring this to where it is today and
there's a lot more
coming vice mayor I just wanted to
piggyback on what council member
torguson was saying I think it's
important as we are approaching buildout
that our residents understand why we're
making the decisions that we're making
and these dashboards will certainly bear
that out and I think it's important and
we'd be able to share that with the
public
absolutely thank you um
oh Concor bonjan one more one more okay
thanks I'll keep it brevity I think
we're past that pointed yeah I took I
took a class in my master's program in
how to lie with Statistics and when I
take a look at the
dashboards um not only do they bring
transparency but they also bring
vulnerability and I I I took a look at
some of the dashboards you were doing
and it it you're not trying to hide data
it it's really brought out more to uh to
to bring out points how we can be how we
can be better you know for example uh
well no I'm going give you an example
cuz it goes back to C orus and this kind
of thing when I when I did some quick
math and we took a look at multif family
it was like 1% of the total amount of
acreage maybe I did my math wrong but um
things like that is are some things that
I would love to see moving forward to
bring to the public uh so we can help
explain some of the things that we're
we're doing absolutely we we really do
encourage every single one of the
Departments to not be afraid of the data
to understand that sometimes we we go
into it and we don't know what the data
is or what it's going to show us and to
just really like you said be vulnerable
and understand that there is always room
for growth there's always room to
improve and as as you've seen here um
you know they they've found their gaps
it's much easier to find the gaps when
you when you visualize it in this way
thankk you I I was going to say I always
do a disclaimer when we talk about the
city of the future I mayor's going to
laugh um so every time we talk about the
city of the future people get all riled
up and talk about the fact that we're
going to try and change the town of
Gilbert to the City of Gilbert and
that's not the intention the intention
of the city of the future is to make
sure that we don't fall into the gaps
that cities that have come before us
have fallen into and we make sure that
we're continuing on a forward moving
path for this community and not going
backwards as we're trying to get to
build out but I've been volunteering in
Gilbert since 1997 and we've been
talking about buildout every month since
then right when are we going to get
there oh it was going to be 2000 then it
was going to be 2010 and it was going to
be 2020 and here we are at 2024 so we're
still we're still on our way we're still
finding our way as a community and
here's a little sarcasm I know all of
our departments are busy but we pick
like the busiest to start this dashboard
process with right that I mean you
couldn't find busier departments than
parks and ws and PD and development
services in this community I mean but
other than like public works right it's
it's it is what it is and being able to
share this information I agree that it
it is it's it is offering up
transparency but vulnerability is a
great is a great term for that because
we are showing everything that is going
on in the town of Gilbert on a daily
basis and yes 76th largest city in the
United States largest town in the United
States fifth maybe fourth largest city
in the state of Arizona we have a lot
going on here and you all should be very
proud of what you do every single day so
thank you for that thank you Mar and
thanks for taking this over and handling
it yeah absolutely thank you great
presentation thank you so much thank you
have a great evening thanks you
too next we will move on to
Communications from citizens vice mayor
thank you mayor
uh yes this is an important part of the
meeting when the public has the
opportunity to communicate with the
council and for state law we cannot
respond but uh we do value the
communication uh we value the
participation of all community members
and the robust exchange of ideas however
it's essential that this this discourse
remains respectful and constructive
reflecting the
professionalism expected in such Forum
we'd ask that uh as your name is called
you come up to the podium state your
name and your place of
residence and uh we have one comment
card this tonight with Steve Laval Steve
will have six minutes Stacy has
dedicated her three minutes to
Steve all right good evening uh here's
an email from your fire chief Rob Dugen
to a potential candidate attached are
lots and lots of questions to review en
jooy I also want you to consider what
makes you different from other
applicants this is very important in the
firefighter interviews the boards will
likely sit through interview after
interview and everything will sound
early similar in the end no one
remembers names they remember something
unique about you for example during the
panel I was on this statement was made
quote we got to hire a guy whose wife
sells size 13 shoes to transvestites end
quote
that's the best story he could tell of
potential recruit in in coming there uh
to Gilbert so I have a couple questions
for that first of all does every
candidate get the same hundred questions
that Chief Dugen gave to this candidate
would you call that
favoritism uh there's a policy in the or
it might be directive in the fire
department that does not allow any
candidates to go into the Fire
Department stations and talk to people
while they're on duty if they're
candidates why is the why is the fire
chief using his job
on online using his work email to
communicate with candidates I don't know
sounds like favoritism to me speaking of
the transvestite so let's get into that
you have one transgender firefighter in
your in your fire department he's a male
he has male genitalia he uses a female
restroom he's used it for the last 9 to
10 years they've done nothing about it
he makes up the bathroom he controls the
whole area is that respectful to your
female firefighters what about their
rights what about their
protections uh that same guy goes out in
the public and uses female restrooms in
the public and his captain supposedly
was told by Chief Dugen that if you get
any inquiries give him my phone number
well I'm inquiring right now it's wrong
he's a male he should not be in a female
restroom if my daughter or my wife's in
that building I will take him out of
that restroom or I will not let him in
if any of you females are in that
restroom or if any females are in that
restroom I will not let him in it is
wrong
it is flat out wrong I'm not playing
that game all right which leads me down
to another road now on that subject I'm
going to go back Bob badget I'm glad
he's here because he's writing people up
right now matter of fact you lost two
firefighters who'd rather go to a place
where they'd rather be valued than heing
Gilbert uh but he's writing people up
for unethical Behavior I want to remind
you February 2024 Bob badget to Jim jush
uh I was told the decision came from the
manager's office $331,000 manager right
there the initial proposal was to remove
28 people and replace them with a
different
28 Nathan uh I told Nathan I would
prefer to expend it to 28 that's
unethical very unethical okay you guys
know that's in there I sent it to all
you you doubled down on the Pierce
Coleman report so is he that report was
dated December 9th 2021 well this email
is dated June 28th 2023
dug into Bob
badget Bob I'm working with the digital
team to recreate an old photo of the
original station we took a test run the
picture looked great but we need to
re-shoot the picture to make it awesome
in the perfect world we would place a
firefighter I'll leave it at that on
engine 252 on the 11th he is currently
roving he supports our efforts to show
more people of color in our outward
facing images and volunteer to help
whenever possible hm
uh he says I will contact Chief Caden
also compliant in this to see if he can
pre-fill the spot with said firefighter
if that doesn't work I would suggest we
place that's right female firefighter a
or female firefighter B on that
truck why are we picking people in this
department based on their color or their
gender for photo shoots what's wrong
with the people that are assigned to
that truck why can't they go and take
this who cares what they look like why
are we hiring people based like this why
are we continuing to do this is this
favoritism is it is it based in race and
gender still is still there is this D
and is this what it is because that's
discrimination if you ask
me so the town of Queen Creek last night
oyed D and leaders in the state of
Arizona the first town to do it and you
guys had the opportunity to beat him
there I've been harping on you about it
it took courage from those people do you
guys have courage I'm asking you all
right so here's the deal are how are you
going to protect your female
firefighters how are you going to
protect females in this community how
are you going to protect their rights
all right how you going to do that both
in the station and in the public that's
your jobs now I'm making you well aware
of it how are you going to do this and
you're going to
address the double standard and the
favoritism going on in the fire
department along with segregation in
your own Department your own
organization under that man's leadership
okay what
happened to what Martin Luther King said
what happened to let's judge a man or a
woman for that matter on the content of
their character and not the color of
their skin or their
gender why do we not do that in this
organization thank you
thank you Steve that's the only card we
have tonight
mayor um thank you vice mayor um Chris
pain you and I talked about I'm asking
this as a followup to this because I can
direct staff to do things after
Communications from citizens you and I
talked about the discussion in Queen
Creek about de Andi and how it was not
what it was perceived to be in the so in
media so I was asking you to follow up
on that and get that information to the
Town Council please thank you
you next we will move on to Future
meetings um the council still has one
item on our agenda that is Council
Retreat item related to status update of
go bonds and then Communications report
from the town manager and I know you
have something special tonight
Patrick thank you mayor members of the
council just a second to bring our
presentation up
okay I'm going to start with some great
news we received from Moody's one of the
national rating agencies that reviews
Gilbert's Financial condition and
outstanding debt Moody has performed a
ratings review and upgrade of the town's
public facility MPC bonds from Able A1
to AAA they've also upgraded the town
subordinate lean bonds to AAA as well
it's quite quite rare to have a sub
ordinate pledge received the same rating
as the senior pledged bonds Moody's
noted in the report the AAA issuer
rating reflects the town's thriving
suburban community that will continue to
expand supported by its favorable
location within the Southeast Valley of
the Phoenix MSA a growing population and
ongoing additions to housing and
Commercial investment these ratings
mirror the investment Market's
perspective on Gilbert not only does
this reflect the town's financial and
economic robustness but it also
underscores the effective leadership
from the Town Council Pro prioritizing
wisely and adhering to prudent fiscal
policies additional credit Goes to Town
management for their Visionary goals and
to the entire Gilbert team for their
unwavering execution day in and day out
so just a huge um recognition of the
great work being done not only in
finance and budget but the entire
organization that works very hard to
make ratings like this
possible and then next up did we not get
a slide in from for Stefan
I can just read this for you mayor and
I'll I'll forward on so Stephan Watson
I'm sure many of you have met him he's
the town's water and energy resources
planning advisor has been actively
deployed since January in the Middle
East during his deployment he's been
able to serve a humanitarian mission in
Israel and was promoted to Master
Sergeant for the military police for any
of you that have had any family members
or loved ones who have been deployed it
is common to send care packages to
support them what is not as common is a
service member sending something back
home Master Sergeant Walston is one of
those people who took it upon himself to
fly the United States flag on behalf of
the town of Gilbert we are grateful for
the example he sets as a public servant
and to all of our veterans and look
forward to the safe return of all
deployed we have a number of employees
right now deployed locally within our
country as well as various hotspots
around the world and we're very grateful
for their service and we look forward to
their safe return to their families and
our community in our organization with
that I've got a flag and a certificate
uh from Stefan to the mayor in Town
Council um that was flown over his base
in the Middle
East
e
e e
thank you Patrick and thank you to
Stefan and be safe wherever you are and
whatever you're doing please um next up
will be report from Council Members
council member Bon gani here we go thank
you mayor our uh dementia friendly
initiative application will be turned in
this week so we can begin planning on
training staff and Community businesses
to make Gilbert officially recog I as a
dementia friendly um city also U from
Gilbert Parks and Recreation they
inviting um residents to engage in the
next phases of re of development for
Gilbert regional park at two
neighborhood Outreach events in
September 2024 Thursday September 12th
2024 The Barn at Power Ranch located
3685 south Autumn Drive from 5 p.m. to 7
p.m. Thursday September 19th cafeteria
at Bridges Elementary School located at
5205 South
Soo yeah Street uh 6:00 p.m. to 8:00
p.m. this community-driven event will
showcase the exciting new amenities
planned for the park including Ballfield
complex Flex house and Fields Trail Hub
Adventure Land all-wheel Plaza Dog Park
Backyard games attendees will have the
opportunity to V to view detailed plans
ask questions provide valuable feedback
on the parks Parks future amenities
participation is crucial uh in creating
something special that meets the needs
of Gilbert's growing Community attendees
will also be entered into a drawing to
win free tickets to Gilbert's newest
events sound bites music and food
festival featuring The Jin blossoms uh
these events are free and open to the
public council member
Kowski thank you I just wanted to add on
to um what council member Bon Giovani
mentioned about the town um committing
for the dementia friendly initiative um
this
is an alliance that will be formed
between employees Community leaders
Health Care Providers caregivers and
individuals living with dementia and an
example of this initiative in action is
with the Gilbert Symphony Orchestra
which provides free dementia friendly
concerts for the community uh members of
all ages and the next concert Save the
Day date is Saturday October 12th 300
p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and a lot of people
ask me what makes the Gilbert Symphony
Orchestra dementia friendly what is
modified and I think you'll see as I
mentioned a couple of these items that
it also makes it friendly for people
that may have school AED children in
Bandon Strings program or even um people
with other disabilities or
Autism um so how we make it a more
inclusive and supportive environment is
the conductor will do introductions of
all the pieces of music to kind of give
context and background for um each piece
of music the do open 30 minutes prior to
the concert and there are wheelchair
spaces available and we have brighter
Lighting in the auditorium um I'm
usually there with my daughter in the
front of house to help assist anyone
that may need that um we have a lot of
flexibility in the auditorium attendees
are encouraged um to move about if they
need to they can enter and exit at any
time and it's a very like relaxed
atmosphere it's not very formal and if
someone does need to escape the concert
hall and kind of find a more quiet space
we we have a few chairs um in a quiet
area for anyone that may need to do that
so um thank you council member bonani
for including me in the initiative for
the demure friendly and I'm glad we
could um make progress on
that any other comment ments from
Council
Members seeing none then I'll move into
comments from the mayor as you can see
on your screen we have a great photo
from um williamsfield High School First
Responders night I was there with Chief
Michael soberg and chief Rob Dugen and
then we had members of the police
department a couple of sro's and um
members from the Gilbert Fire Department
station one I believe it was and we were
able to head out onto the field and join
the captain of the football team as they
were kicking off this game and right
behind me in this photo is Lieutenant
Pete Wrangle and he will be retiring in
January with 31 years on the police
force and I have a video that I would
like to
share thank you for your service
so the reason that I wanted to share
that one was to recognize liutenant
Wrangle I think that he was really
thrilled to be invited to um toss the
coin no pressure um they give you
instructions on how to do it he had his
wife Amy there with him last Thursday
night too but I wanted you to see the
reaction of those football players the
the boys that you saw clapping their
hands and and congratulating him were
the opposing team and I just was
thrilled by the response from teen boys
in this community as we were walking up
to join the captains one of the young
captains turned around and took my hand
and said May Peterson it's so nice to
meet you and then as we were coming off
the field um dodging football players
because they were running at us one came
running at me and I got a big huge bear
hug from them and I just want you to
know that those teens are out there and
they're doing these great things in this
community and I wanted to send a big
thank you to athletic director Daryl
stangle because every year he does this
First Responders night right around 911
to make sure that we are thanking our
First Responders in the community and
thank you to Chiefs for being there and
your teams and thank you for lieutenant
Wrangle coming out and offering him that
opportunity to toss that coin and then I
think I have my um schedule from the
past couple weeks because I've been
sharing that now at our Council meetings
and we attended all of us attended a
league of Arizona cities in Town's
conference which is one of my favorite
things to do each year but in light of
brevity I will move on to um another
recognition that I wanted to do for
staff the government Finance Officers
Association of the United States and
Canada has awarded certificate of
achievement for excellence in financial
reporting to the town of Gilberts for
his annual comprehensive financial
report for the fiscal year that ended
June 30th 2023 this is the 33rd year in
a row that Gilbert has received this
award the report has been judged by an
impartial panel to meet the high
standards of the program which includes
demonstrating a constructive Spirit of
full disclosure to clearly communicate
its Financial story and motivate
potential users and user groups to read
the report the certificate of
achievement is the highest form of
recognition in the area of governmental
accounting and financial reporting and
its attainment represents a significant
accomplishment by government and its
management and this award represents the
highest form of recognition so I wanted
to say thank you to our team for
everything that they do and making sure
that the town is always well represented
and just one more note
um if you don't know today is also World
Suicide Prevention Day and if you or if
you or someone you know is struggling
there are options available to help you
cope call the 98 988 Lifeline to connect
with someone and receive emotional
support or text 988 or chat with someone
at chat. 988 lifeline.org
247 in the United States that it was
important to mention um that's all I
have for this evening and I will take a
motion to oh c k sorry um just wanted to
mention the town of Gilbert 911 memorial
ceremony is tomorrow at it begins at
6:30 p.m. with a tribute in light um
from 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. and that's
here at the 911 Memorial Plaza here at
the town hall building thank you for
remembering that I had it in my original
notes and somehow I lost
it take a motion toward your
own all in favor I motion meeting ad
jour