Regular Meeting - 6/4/2024 6:30:00 PM (Full Recorded Version)

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good evening welcome to the June 4th
2024 Gilbert Town council meeting I will
call this meeting to order and we will
start with an invocation by vice mayor
Anderson thank
you our father in Heaven We Are so
grateful for the opportunity to be
gathered together this evening we're
thankful as members of this council
members of the public who are here to
participate in discussing the matters of
importance to this great town we pray
that thy spirit will be here that we
will feel inspired in the things that we
say and do and that we will be
comforting to one another will be
understanding
and be mindful of the means to find a
way to build this community and continue
to be
uh an excellent place for our families
and
for uh those who visit
to feel of our strength we pray that th
will help us to always be mindful of
thee and the help that we receive from
thee and we pray
for uh those who are seeking the at all
times that they may be touched by thy
Spirit again we thank thee for this time
together and we pray for the inspiration
that we needed to make these decisions
and to work with one another and we say
this in the name of Jesus Christ amen
amen nice mayor it looks like you're
also um leading the Pledge of Allegiance
yes you'll stand and join me in the
pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America and to
the Republic for stands one nation under
God indivisible with liy and justice for
all town clerk sh um sheli Herrera could
you please call the role mayor Bridget
Peterson here vice mayor Scott Anderson
here council member Chuck Bon Giovani
here council member Bobby Buckley here
council member young
Capri here council member Kathy Toki
here here and council member Jim
torguson a quorum is present thank you
cheli moving on we have no presentations
and proclamations for this evening which
is really unusual we'll move right into
our public hearing we have five items on
our public hearing agenda this evening
are there any items that the council
would like to have pulled off of the
public hearing agenda I'll open the
public
hearing seeing none I would accept an I
will close the public hearing and ask
for a motion to accept items 1 through
5 mayor I'll make a motion to accept
items one through
five I have a motion by council member
tilki seconded by council member Buckley
please
vote motion passes
70 moving on to our
our next portion of our agenda so I need
to recess our regular meeting and
convene in a special meeting we have
three items that we'll be discussing
number six is elections consider
adoption of resolution number
4477 item seven is the budget and and
ordinance number 20 2904 with the tax
levy for FY 2025 and item8 is the budget
starting with item six does anybody
request or require a presentation on
that or would someone like to make a
motion mayor um could we have just a
very quick presentation so that the
public would understand what the
selections for thank you sure thank
you see Kelly F approaching the podium
good evening
Kelly good evening mayor and Council
I'll just give a brief uh presentation
on this I know we had another public
hearing uh a couple weeks ago on this
topic perfect so this is on uh related
to the state imp poost expenditure limit
which
are rules from the 1970s and 80s in the
Arizona Constitution there are two
questions that will likely be on the
ballot uh depending on the vote that
Council does tonight one of them is a
permanent base adjustment and one of
them is a capital projects accumulation
fund voters will decide on both
questions they can't approve both it is
not an either or option um with the
state imposed expenditure limit the
state has rules that put a limit on the
amount that the town can spend each year
it is not related to the amount of
revenues that we have it is based off of
what our budget was in fiscal year 1980
and then it increases every year based
on inflation and population it does not
change for changes in service if the
town puts in a water plant instead of
Wells ads libraries ads Parks any of
that is not calculated into the
expenditure limitation calculation that
the state has so uh Gilbert's
expenditure limitation uh is calculated
and then we have to report back every
year what that is as you're aware
Gilbert has changed substantially since
1998 which is when voters last approved
a change a permanent base adjustment to
the state expenditure limitation um
we've added fire stations Wastewater
Water Treatment Plant Public Safety
buildings uh Environmental Compliance
pools libraries lots of things have
changed since
1998 with the permanent basement
adjustment that's being requested it
would change that base calculation
number up by $1.5 million uh and then
you can see on the graph here how that
would be compared to now if if the
fiscal 24
limitation had the change that's
requested in place Gilbert would still
be at the bottom we would have a per
capita expenditure limit of about $3,200
a
citizen right above Glendale but still
bottom up of the list compared to all of
the other communities in the valley so
this change is not a dramatic change
compared to what other cities are doing
around the
valley it is also not a tax increase it
will make no difference in the revenues
that Gilbert has uh or those are
different decisions that the council
would have to make this is a simply a
limit on expenditures themselves
the second question on the ballot and
this is what the public hearing tonight
uh was about uh is a capital projects
accumulation fund it allows for
expenditures on capital projects to not
count against the expenditure limit uh
if you cash fund projects if the Town
cash funds projects that cash counts
against the expenditure limit uh a way
around that is that projects can be
financed through Bond funding and then
the bond Finance projects don't count
against the expenditure limit but then
you have to pay interest and financing
costs associated with the bonds so
it's less effective with taxpayer
dollars but it is an option if the town
goes over the state imposed expenditure
limit there are heavy penalties uh the
state can withhold our state shared
income tax revenues and divide them out
to all of the other cities and towns not
including Gilbert uh with the amount of
money that the town gets from our state
shared revenues it could be a penalty up
to about 60 million
per year so a very large amount that we
would like to
avoid some quick myth MythBusters to
make sure that we are very clear these
questions are not tax increases they
will not change Gilbert's revenues at
all Gilbert will still be required to
maintain a balanced budget and we cannot
spend money that we don't have we can
only spend money that we do have these
questions also have nothing to do with
the federal debt ceiling um in case
you've heard any of those rumors
completely separate issues
timeline uh Council approved the
permanent base adjustment to go to the
voters on the May 7th meeting there are
the two public hearings required for
this item uh May 21st and then today and
now vote Council needs to take a vote on
whether to have this item go to the
ballot for voters to be able to decide
on at the November 5th
election we would like voters to be as
educated as possible on these odd rules
from the 70s um so there is information
on our website
gilbertaz.gov ballot guide for voters to
get more information we will continue to
do public Outreach um with that
educational material and it will be a
very long ballot coming up and so we do
encourage everybody to make sure to look
towards the end of the ballot to find
these two important questions for
Gilbert and fill them in as they feel
best with that are there any
questions I love the graphic I'm sorry I
was laughing at that because we have
been told that it's going to be a 30
four page long ballot for the general
election in November so we're not making
fun we're just trying to be a be
realistic about it any comments or
questions for
Kelly seeing none thank you Kelly we
appreciate
it would anyone like to make a
motion make sure you turn on your but
there you go thank you um I will would
like to make the motion on item six
elections to consider adoption of
resolution number 47
4477 proposing a capital project
accumulation fund exemption to the
expenditure limitation prescribed by
article nine thank you article 9 section
20 of the Constitution of Arizona be
submitted to the voters of the town of
Gilbert at the general election on
November 5th 2020 before I'll second
that I have a motion by council member
Buckley seconded by council member Bon
Giovani please
vote and the motion passed to 70 moving
on to item seven budget discussion on
ordinance number 2904 this is the
setting of the secondary property tax
levy for fy22 at 33 million excuse me 33
billion no million million $275
million
period any comments or questions I know
I had to look at the decimals on the any
would anyone like to hear from Kelly a
short presentation from Kelly Kelly can
you please make a short presentation on
the tax
levy very good for informational
purposes thank you mayor council would
it be all right if I did presentation on
budget and tax
together I think that would be great
perfect thank
you all right this is the night we do
our final budget
adoption uh Gilbert continues to be a
best-in-class city with lots of
accolades uh across all of the different
sectors that we work with um and we
continue to do our zerob base uh
budgeting where we look at a third of
the town every year make sure that we
dial in those numbers to what they need
to provide those services with inflation
the last couple of years we've actually
had to add money to the budgets um
because it's been a very tough couple of
years our budget process is long it
takes about a year to go through we kick
it off in September we have lots of
input from the Departments Financial
Retreat Town manager reviews the budget
and then we have study sessions with
Council preliminary budget adoption was
in May and then today is our final
budget adoption in
June there are 46 just over 46
recommended positions in the recommended
bud that's before you and your packets
earlier have had details on business
case for each of those positions the
largest part of our budget is the
capital Improvement projects it is about
$1.6 billion doar worth of all of the
spending that we do is that investment
in capital projects the largest areas
are our street improvements and our
water system improvements we've bonded
in both of those areas uh to help with
the projects that are needed
there if we look at carry forward versus
is new about $1.2 billion of the budget
or carry forward projects so projects
we've already started and are working on
and will continue to work on because
these are large projects they take more
than one year to complete and then about
$500,000 of additional projects are
added for new projects this year we have
Incorporated the changes that were
requested by council at the preliminary
budget adoption um which is the South
Gilbert rec center was moved out to
fiscal 29 and then the Gilbert pool was
reduced to a 30 million um budget and
was included in years 6 through 10 you
won't see any changes in the final
budget number because both of these
projects are out into the future years
for planning purposes so the number
Remains the Same um for the fiscal 25
budget fiscal 24 versus 25 there's about
$300 million worth of difference there
the majority of that is on that bottom
line the capital projects which is about
$225 million of that
difference for prop property tax that's
needed uh the levy is 300 or 33
m275
th000 uh and that does maintain the 98
Cent rate that we have had for this will
be the second year uh and that will
provide the money that's needed for The
Debt Service payments the county was
involved with a class action lawsuit and
has to make refunds on behalf of the
Town related to that lawsuit about $1.5
million so our fund balance will
actually go down in this Fund in order
order to make all of the payments that
are needed for next year the refunds
were a bit higher than we had initially
anticipated um but this tax rate will
allow us to make all of the things that
we need um plus the fund
balance the Milestones that we have um
May 7th was our study session and the
levy for property tax then we had our
preliminary budget and CIP review on May
21st this is the final step in the
adoption process which is final budget
adoption final CIP adoption and the
final tax levy
adoption any questions thank you Kelly
any questions or
comments this is item seven and item
eight that we're discussing this
evening seeing none would anyone like to
make a motion on item number
seven I'd like a to make a motion on
item number seven budget to consider
hearing and consider adoption of
ordinance number
2904 setting the secondary property tax
levy for fiscal year 2025 at
33,2
75,000 can I have a second second I have
a motion by council member Buckley
seconded by council member Koski please
vote motion passes 70 item eight
budget any comments questions concerns
that you'd like to discuss
on the
budget I'd like to make a motion to
accept budget item 8 with a resolution
as presented on the dis and I will read
the
resolution whereas ARS
9-2320 one provides the Town Council by
ordinance or resolution prescribe a
salary to be paid to the mayor and
council members of the town of for
performance of elected off official
duties and whereas the town whereas the
Gilbert Municipal Code section 1-39
provides that the compensation for
elected officers of the Town shall be
fixed by resolution of the Town Council
provided said compensation may not be
increased or decreased except in
conformance with the provisions of the
Arizona Constitution Article 4 part 2
Section 17 and whereas the Town Council
approved resolution 39 63 on April 5th
2018 setting the compensation for the
mayor at 43,6 31 per year and council
members at $
21,2 per year which amounts have not
changed since they were approved in 2018
and whereas the Town Council believes it
to be in the best interest of the
community to maintain Market
competitiveness to attract qualified
individuals for elected positions within
Gilbert and whereas the Town Council
desires the just compensation of the
mayor and council members as provided
herein in conformance with the Arizona
constitutional Article 4 part 2 Section
17 and where is to continue to ensure
Market competitiveness and the
attraction of qualified individuals for
elected positions within Gilbert a
modification to the compensation
received by the mayor and council
members is warranted that takes both
into account changes in the market and
meets the requirements of the Arizona
Constitution State law in town C now
there therefore be it resolved by the
common Council of the town of Gilbert
section one effective beginning the
first town employee pay period occurring
after the date of the first town council
meeting in January 25 the annual salary
of the office of Mayor will be adjusted
to
6927 554 per year and the annual salary
of the office of council members shall
be adjusted to
53288 88 per year section two beginning
in the year 2026 and every even numbered
year thereafter the annual salary of the
office of council members shall be
adjusted to equal the salary of the
lowest paid full-time salate employee of
the Town effective at the beginning of
the First full Town employee repay
period occurring after the date of the
first town council meeting in January
and in any odd-numbered year in which a
council member will commence a new term
of office section three beginning in 20
the year 2028 and every four years
thereafter the annual salary of the
office of Mayor shall be adjusted to 1.3
times the salary of the lowest paid
full-time salar employee at the Town
effective at the beginning of the First
full Town employee pay period occurring
after the date of the first town council
meeting in January and any OD numbered
year in which the mayor will commence a
new term of office four all resolutions
and endorse and ordinances and parts of
resolutions and ordinances in conflict
with provisions of this resolution are
hereby repealed section five if any
section subsection sentence Clause
phrase or portion of this resolution is
for any reason held to be invalid or
unconstitutional by the decision of any
Court of competent jurisdiction such
decision shall not affect the validity
of the remaining portions thereof
mayor yes I
think you need a second before we can
discuss I just want to ensure that we
have a chance to discuss this before we
go right to the vote yeah we need an
opportunity to discuss this so was
somebody planning on making a
second I'll second
that um so whenever you're ready maror
I'm ready to have a conversation please
thank you um start
first um for the public I just want you
to know this is the first time I've seen
this sitting in front of me today uh and
the first I've heard of these numbers
and so um I'm a little bit at a loss uh
by this um so I I think i' like to have
a conversation especially as it's tied
to the entire budget um so a couple of
my comments first and foremost is that
this um
I want to start by saying that this
Council the seven members sitting here
today are the most active Council that
I've seen in the 30 years that I've been
coming to these meetings as far
as attending so many meetings during the
week and into the night to learn
everything there is to learn and I think
um you can see the progress of that by
some of the votes that we've been able
to make on even the tax levy this year
that they they're very committed so I
don't ever want to take away from the
amount of time that's put into this
position
um it it can be a full-time job there's
no doubt it's up to each of us how much
time we want to put into it and I have U
no doubt put a full-time effort into
this
um saying that though this position
is paid um school boards aren't paid
there's a lot of other different
positions in our community that aren't
paid so um it this is not a
position that this is a career this is
not your salary that's going to make
sure that you can make a living and um
so I'm a little uncomfortable kind of
moving in that direction but
um I
was involved in this community for over
30 years actively involved in my role as
the chamber and I made the decision
knowing that myself that I am going to
put fulltime into and no matter what I
do even on a volunteer basis that's what
I will do and I knew I couldn't do that
and hold hold a full-time job I knew it
I couldn't put what I needed to do that
so I waited until I retired for that
very reason so that I knew that I had
time some people on this Council I know
have full-time jobs or they own their
own business and it is a detriment to
them I understand all of that but I
think that we all understood that going
in so that shouldn't have been a
surprise the
salary
um I know that anytime this has come up
in the past anybody up on this Das has
been almost crucified for having a
conversation about raising our taxes how
D us so the fact that it's coming
forward is is a surprise to me um and
it's not that I don't believe we should
look at compensation and we should be
looking at this long term um but it's
not why we're here
and I think the timing of this is very
unfortunate
because this Council has had to make
horribly hard decisions
that impact our everyday
citizens when it comes to the rates that
we're having to charge um because we
have to cover our cost and I think it is
a very bad look for us to ask our
residents to dig in their
pockets to help us pay for basic
Services that's what we're asking them
to pay for it's the basic services that
we provide while we give ourselves the
raise so I'm having a little problem
putting my arms around this because this
is the first time I've seen it so here's
here's the open transparent
conversations that everybody wants us to
have and it's right here I
believe
that if we feel this is
important um cuz I'm a no but I will
tell you I am trying to to find is there
a compromise in this in any way years
ago the
council um remove the ability for the
council to receive what is called CPI or
its inflation index every year and that
I could agree to coming back that there
should be an increase as it c as cost of
living I don't have a problem with that
and we could do that right
away if no no matter which way you Dice
it no matter which side of the argument
you are on
toight there's questions about are we
voting in a raise for ourselves and we
are I'm not going to be here so it
doesn't bother me one way or the other I
mean from a financial standpoint it's
not going to impact me one way or the
other however if we are truly
wanting to make this not about us
individually then I would
consider that
we change this ordinance or this
resolution so that it would
say
increases would go not the CPI CPI could
go in right away that the increases to
the salary that are recommended would go
into effect in January 20
27 which is after the not this election
the next election there won't be anybody
up here most likely that would benefit
from that could be but chances aren't
nobody on this dis would benefit from
that increase if we're really looking at
that argument about voting ourselves a
race so um I'm not comfortable I'd
rather not even vote on this today if
you're making me vote on it this is
where I am um and I I'll probably have
more to say after I hear from others
thank you thank you council member tilky
um for me it's it's really a
philosophical difference are we
here to provide a service to our
community which is what I feel that I am
here to do it it's not about the salary
it's never been about the salary when I
started in this community as a volunteer
on the Planning Commission I served 14
years as a volunteer attending
typically two meetings a month from 2000
to 2006 completely unpaid as a volunteer
and those meetings were 5 at 6 o'clock
at night till midnight 1:00 in the
morning that was a volunteer when I
decided to run for Council like council
member tilky mentioned I knew where I
was in life my daughter had graduated
high school it wasn't about the pay I
knew what the work was going to be and
it was never about what the pay was is
going to be ever
and we've had council members that have
sat here on this dis with me that have
said you shouldn't get paid anything and
I disagree with that but I do feel that
it needs to be kept in check and in this
community it is about serving the
community in the way that you choose to
serve and it's the first thing that I
typically talk to people about is you
give to the position what you choose to
give to the position and what you have
available to give to the position
um I I was shocked when I saw this
resolution ended to the end added to the
end of our budget packet at 5:30 last
night if I have to vote no on our budget
this year because of this
resolution that's going to really just
break my heart I I don't think it's fair
to the public the way that this was
added to our packet it wasn't done as an
addendum it was just added as two
additional pages to our packet like I
said at 5:30 last night as a resolution
it should have been put on separately we
should have had time to put this out as
notice to the community so that we can
be completely transparent and give
people the opportunity to come in and
speak about whether or not they think
the mayor and Council should be getting
raises um we removed the automatic
increase back in 2018 and we lowered the
council pay back to what it had been
previously and left the mayor's pay
where it was because it was agreed that
and I was a council member at the time
it was agreed that the mayor's job
really is a full-time job and I will
tell you I work probably 40 to 60 hours
a week in this position and I'm very
lucky that I have a very good husband at
home that we go without out so that I
can do this position I drive a
10-year-old car we live in a very modest
home I do not splurge on things and I
still choose not to take the insurance
under the town because I don't want to
cost the town more I don't want to cost
the taxpayers more I pay a lot of my own
travel because I choose to do that
because I see this as a service from my
heart and soul to this community and not
as a job this should never be viewed to
anybody as a job that you're looking at
it as an hourly wage and like council
member tilki said I won't be here in
January so whatever happens and goes
into effect isn't going to affect me but
it will affect the majority of the
people sitting up here we have literally
just increased water fees and garbage
fees for our residents we're increasing
our system development fees for our
development Community this is not the
appropriate time to be having this
conversation in my opinion and in this
budget we've included an increase in
travel for mayor and councel the other
thing because I just saw these numbers
just now as the council member read them
to
us this doesn't consider the compens
that we receive as mayor and councel
there's other things that are added on
to the actual pay and salary there is
retirement that the town is responsible
to pay there are Insurance fees that the
town is responsible to pay on top of
that we get a car allowance for 300 or
600 miles a month on top of that so even
though my salary is
$43,000 I'm getting an extra $4,800 a
year for the car allowance there's
retirement that the town has to pay on
my behalf like I said I choose not to
take the health benefits so I actually
pay have to pay my husband's company a
fine of $100 a month because I choose
not to take them but the benefits
package total for the mayor is like
$80,000 a year we need to take the full
compensation and benefits package into
consideration before we have the
conversation about what the salary is it
needs to be the whole picture and not
just the
$2,012 and the $43,000
I don't even know what I make $ 43,6 31
and if I have to vote no on the budget
tonight I will for the first time ever
because this re resolution was put in
with 24 hours notice and we weren't
given an opportunity to discuss and look
at all of the other options and
compensation along with it this is a
much bigger discussion than two pages
added to the end of our budget in my
opinion and it is not transparent to our
community that for the past two and a
half years we've been hearing
transparency is the number one thing
that everybody wants to hear and I'm not
seeing that here council member
Kowski thank you for your comment um I
am open to having this discussion but I
I don't like how
this was brought about sitting down here
at the desk having a resolution that had
blank spaces which were just filled in
when council member Torus read those
numbers it's very um it doesn't give us
enough time to look at options or
consider other items so Council M Tuson
could you explain how those numbers came
about that you presented today tonight
most certainly because I had been there
was a consensus to try and understand
what councils across the valley had been
making and someone had convinced someone
on staff that there wasn't a consensus I
had been pushing for numbers
for months after one of our last uh
Retreats most certainly council member
Anderson council member bovani
distinctly remember asking for this
never got it so what I had done is I had
uh finally gotten with someone on staff
we found what the uh the most
comparable uh
communities uh the the three above us
and three below us and took averages and
then we also looked at the lowest paid
full-time staff member who has those
same benefits that that we do and we
looked at it those numbers were very
similar but in thinking about it it
would be better since Phoenix and
Goodyear and all these these places are
looking at increases this year and some
of them are asking for very substantial
ones rather than leave it to every two
years to adjust which we do for salaries
all the time by benchmarking
to tie it to the lowest paid employee in
the town rather than make it a true
career position you make you tie it to
the lowest but it it it allows the pool
of possible candidates to open up too
many candidates when they realize the
time to put in to do it right is not 10
hours a week it's not as several of you
have said that you watched in the past
people not even read their packets some
of them would read it on the dis they
put so little time in and we need to
make sure we have people that that will
dedicate time that don't have uh either
wealth their own business or uh a spouse
willing to help uh we need those people
to be able to run and not be so elitist
in the way we're handling it this will
certainly work most most against me of
everyone here since I will be the one to
take the bullet I am asking to do
something that in that widens the pool
of people if I ran they would be running
against me I'm actually inviting
competition by doing this I am opening
this up so the average person in Gilbert
can consider doing this without
completely harming their home you have a
median salary of $104,000 a year it's
not like we're trying to be career
people and say give us 104 a year but to
tie us to the lowest seems much more
prudent than tying tying us to people
such as in Tucson they tried to get
$144,000 a year for Council that was
insane there's no service in that that's
that's that's a career uh but to open
the pool where people and we've all
heard it I can't afford to do it and
Kathy to what you said well you waited
till you were retired you're retired or
you're rich or someone's paying your way
that's not fair mayor you said if it
wasn't for a gracious husband who's
obviously he's a smart bread winner he
does very well you couldn't afford a
one-bedroom apartment in this town that
isn't the message we need to be sending
to candidates it's not the message for
anyone to hear and when we look at this
and if we look at it in a year as what
the Benchmark is The Benchmark is going
to be much higher than it is today to
tie it to the lowest paid employee is
absolutely the most prudent way to do
this I will be the most crucified of all
of us over this there's no chance I
won't be crucified for this there's
plenty of service I don't want to get
into the dollars I lose I it's not my
point I did agree to a salary I looked
at it and of course as we said in
Retreats no one told you the time to do
it right and the people that were
sitting there that wanted to knock this
down and do it for free as you said were
people that weren't even reading the
packets or they had were in support they
had businesses supporting them doing the
work during the day the first half of
their day one of them told me free lunch
they did all all their counsil work and
then they actually worked their job from
1 to 5 that isn't what we should we
relying on we need people an electrician
that can take off uh do 20 hours at
night and take off 20 in the day and not
go bankrupt doing it and that's quite
the the numbers we look at this from you
know we're in our our our 50s or 60s and
we're thinking wow these are huge
numbers they're not our lowest paid
staff member is is that number that 5
3,288 88 a month that's our lowest paid
staff member these aren't tremendously
large numbers they're large numbers in
context when you're thinking I worked
for $2.5 an hour in 1979 because I
did we're looking at these things
through the wrong lens we're need to
look through this is how do we get more
people to run better people to run more
engaged people to run more diverse
people to run and it is the only way can
we can do it and we not we need not to
be high enough to be an incentive to run
but it can't be so low that is a
disincentive run and we heard too many
candidates and people we've talked to
that interested in running they look at
the actual
responsibilities it's not worth it to
them Council Tuson thanks for your
comments
um I think you have some good points but
I'm not comfortable making a vote on
this exact piece of paper at this moment
or having this full
discussion you
have tied it in with the budget the
budget can't be raised at this point so
this would have to come out of
contingency funds I would propose that
we table
the full discussion and conversation
about the resolution to a meeting later
this year and have a vote no later than
November um on a final resolution after
we've had time to digest look at data
pull
information and look at a couple of
different
options um as council member tilky
suggested more of a CPI
versus as you proposed tying it to the
lowest paid full-time employee I believe
the mayor in in this position will
always work full-time it is a lot of
hours that that
position um has to spend I don't agree
that a council member they can work
full-time but there are some that
haven't and don't I believe this entire
Council Works their butt off and spends
a lot of time on all of our issues so
I'm not talking about anyone on this di
but there's a risk that in the future
there could be someone put in elected to
office that wouldn't spend as much time
and that would be wasteful as well
so I I want to have more more
information and a more robust
conversation but not at tonight's
meeting um are you comfortable with
tbling this to a future meeting knowing
that we can still use contingency funds
in the budget if we approve it tonight
no because it's been tanked and worked
around so many times and there's been so
much misinformation passed through that
I want to proceed with it now today is
the day I want to do this Chuck you look
like you want to say
something Vice May before me if he wants
to speak first no I was just going to
tell the mayor that I do have a
communication from citizen on this
item I don't know if you want to hear
from them if they're here this is um
special meeting I'm assuming it works
like public meeting that we can take
comments I didn't get that card so I
didn't know that it's on this topic yeah
it's on this topic yeah if we would like
to um invite the public May mayor
Peterson um just real quick it sounds
like the card was filled out incorrectly
but we do have a pending motion just as
a reminder there's a pending motion
before the council I think the council
needs to do something with that pending
motion and then you can resume that
conversation but the problem with doing
something with the pending motion is
it's a budget because somebody jumped in
and made a motion on the budget
including these two pages that some of
us just don't want to move forward
and so I struggle with what to do with
that I I don't agree that we should have
had this resolution at the end of the
budget discussion and I I think this has
put us in a really difficult position
and not voting on it tonight is not
going to change anything nothing can go
into effect until at least January of
2025 it's still going to have to use
contingency funds no matter what because
you can't increase tonight's budget
because we already had the preliminary
budget vote so not voting on these two
pages tonight will not change anything
until January at the soonest
and so I agree with council member
Kowski I move to amend the motion to
remove the resolution from item
8 with the motion being to approve the
budget as it stands
alone and I would need a
second I'll second I have a motion by
council member kosi seconded by Council
memberi to move and approve item number
eight budget removing the resolution
please vote
you can cancel can't you can you cancel
um is it too late for me to have my
opinion on this
or yeah he didn't even get to speak he
didn't get to speak because well because
we have a speaker and we wanted to move
forward with the budget vote and not the
resolution can you clear that before can
you
clear thank you
can we clarify what we're voting on then
I just did I'm sorry I just did that
would be just on the budget approving
the budget removing the resolution from
the budget vote it would just be the
budget itself as presented so would we
have a discussion on the resolution at
all we can discuss that and we have
somebody that would like to speak on it
too so that's why we were pulling it out
separately this
is okay
mayor if I can can jump in so there was
the pending motion was approval of the
budget with the resolution council
member cpri moved to amend there was a
second so what the council's voting on
is to amend the original motion to take
out the resolution so the only motion
that would be pending if this one were
to pass would be approval of the budget
so you vote here if this passes then you
would have to vote again to vote on the
amended motion which would be approval
of the budget
without the resolution have to vote
again to have discussion on it I think
the mayor you can still have that
discussion on the resolution because
this item is still out there so we have
to so we have to do
two correct the first one on the
amendment that council member kpri just
made which is to remove the resolution
from the motion of the budget and then
you would vote again on the amended
original motion or the original motion
as amended by this this amended thank
you I hate
amendments so this motion would be to
remove the resolution from the original
motion that was to vote for the budget
yes so we're just voting on removing the
resolution from the
motion please vote that was a motion in
a second already
that's a 52 vote passes to remove the
resolution from the motion that was
originally stated so we have a motion on
the floor to pass the budget would
anyone like to comment just on the
budget motion that was made I forgot who
made the motion on the
budget oh the original motion was
council member torguson right which h
his motion is with the resolution but
that's gone now that's gone now so
now it's just on the motion correct you
would be voting right now on the amended
motion which was just which is just the
P passing of the budget just the passing
of the
budget I think we're just voting because
we already have a motion in a second we
just need to vote you need to vote again
that's correct please can you clear the
again voting on the amended motion which
is passage of the budget
only which is a motion to approve the
budget please
vote the budget passes
61 now we can go back to a discussion on
the two-page resolution which again I
don't know how we discussed when it
wasn't actually on our agenda for the
public but um Council member I mean vice
mayor Anderson would you like to invite
the person down that asked to speak on
this item certainly Rod
Suave the
name don't see him here he did write
something on the back of this and asked
it to be read if they had to leave so
I'll read it very
quickly he says not sure why it has
taken one and a half years to advance
this discussion our elected members are
grossly underpaid and I believe it
impacts the diversity of members having
only retired or millionaires is not the
true diversity of our
town millionaire or
retired yes council member tilki mayor
um I think as many of us mentioned and
councilman V javani I know you want to
say something um I would um I I I think
this this is worthy of having a
conversation I that wasn't the concern I
had I think it was just not having an
opportunity to look at this um and look
at the different options um I I would
like to give a date certain for us to
have that conversation it would help if
we could do it in a study session first
so we can work it all out so we're not
doing it up here on the dis in the
future but um I'm open to a suggestion
on the date thank you thank you council
member ban
thank you
um you know I I I look at this and yes
it is a honor to
serve but who can
serve I mean let's take a look at the
current Council we have the rich the
retired and I represent the
beautiful I met seven years
ago um I couldn't afford to be on this
Council seven years ago probably would
have done a good job seven years ago but
I couldn't afford to
run and that shouldn't stop someone from
wanting to run for
office
um if I decide not to run in two
years I want to be replaced by a school
teacher I want to be replaced by a
single mom
I don't want someone not to be able to
run because they can't afford to get a
babysitter the only thing that
guarantees us from being up
here is having the pay so low that no
one else can afford the average citizen
couldn't afford to be here in the last
year and a half I met some incredible
citizens and many of them are sitting in
this room right now and it would be an
honor to sit with them on this Council
but they can't run
it cost me
$35,000 to run for this
seat if I run again maybe it'll cost me
$45,000 to run for this
seat and I don't want to shut out
people just because they they can't
afford to
run um this isn't about
us a pay raise is not going to affect my
life at all but it's about the guy who
sits here or the girl who sits in my
seat when I leave so we can have a
better
representative of of the community
what's our age 34 years something like
that um there's a young guy running for
Chandler I love it I think that's great
that he's really young and he's running
for Chandler hats off to him and gosh I
hope he wins but we can't do that here
we can't do it here because if you're a
brand new person now I know I ran as a
complete nobody but I had the finances
to run a complete nobody can't really do
that right now because they can't get
funded by developers or anyone else to
help them in their
campaign we're missing out on a lot of
good potential candidates when we ran
for our four seats here we had 10 people
running against all 10 people in total
running 10 who won those of us who own
businesses won
those who didn't who those who didn't
win they were working for other people
they couldn't afford to take a job we
had we had a what's two-day Financial
Retreat and by the way in that Financial
Retreat we did talk about this so we
cannot say that this was thrown at the
last second it was talked about four of
us said we want to have discussions on
it and somehow it got
buried mayor I'm speaking right now
please
the asking for more cost for us for
training some of us want to be better
some of us want to go to these
conferences not to sit and drink but to
learn from other Council people to learn
from other Mayors to learn from other
state representatives we want to be
better at our jobs I'm sorry if other
councils didn't want to do that I'm
sorry if other councils didn't want to
open up their packet they sat down down
here that's not my problem I'm committed
to this just like everyone up here is
and I'm proud of everyone up here for
the time that we commit for this job
because it's a job it's an honor to
serve but the honor shouldn't just be
for the
elite I'm able to come up here now
because I sold my company to private
Equity I could afford to be a nobody
throw money in and and tell people how I
felt about things to win this
seat but I can tell you that four out of
five people sitting here right now that
would do an incredible job can't do that
they can't there's no way they can do
that it's not fair it's not to me it's
it's not
democracy you know and if you want to
keep the elite up here then keep us at
$21,000 cu no one else can can sit up
here I'm pretty passionate about this
because
this wasn't transparent I mean this was
transparent it just got buried it got
buried somehow the story went to we had
we didn't have four of us saying that we
wanted to talk about this four of us
wanted to talk about
this and we couldn't bring it up until
this last second
here
um it's an honor to be up here and you
know the amount of pay isn't going to
keep me up here or not keep me up here
it's not me it's not about me and I
don't believe it's about anyone sitting
up here but it's about those who follow
us because we have a responsibility for
the people who follow us and we have a
responsibility for the people in this
town to have the best candidates up here
and that means paying the position so
they can afford to take days off they
can afford to miss vacations they can
afford to hire a babysitter to come to
meeting cuz folks I'm telling you
there's a lot of
meetings and if I didn't own a very
well-off company I couldn't be sitting
up here because I couldn't afford to
come to those meetings now you can get
by and not go to those
meetings you can do it I've seen it done
before you wouldn't be a really good
council member but you can get
by and I don't think that this town
deserves us to just to get by I think
this town deserv serves us to all do our
very best and I guess Forest pump that's
all I'm going to say about
that I don't know who is
next counc vice mayor Anderson thank you
mayor um I I'm one of the the signatures
on that uh piece of paper you all
received and I still do feel strongly in
the resolution I'm patient enough to
know that we need to may need to discuss
it some more but I want that to happen
sooner rather than later um I agree with
council member bonani that this has been
around for a
while and I'm willing to discuss the the
things that council member tilki or
council member Kowski have talked about
I think that's important that we air
that out and we talk about it but again
I'll reiterate sooner rather than later
I'm willing to be patient with
that um I agree with um what's been
mentioned by the council members that
right now the pool of
candidates for Council are either the
independently
wealthy um the U independent business
owners
and I'm affectionately referred to in
the social media as the cryp keeper so I
guess cryp keepers are part of the group
too the those who are
retired that's who serves for the most
part on the council we need
to get to the point where there are
others who will as council member Bon
Giovani said that they're willing to put
their names in for
consideration as are has always been the
the purpose of Representative de
democracy is to have everybody
represented and um I want to
see um that we and Gilbert uh are making
that available to those who want to do
this uh so I am willing that's why I
voted and we can't work without a budget
we have to have a budget so we need to
have that budget but this this needs to
be discussed sooner rather than later
and I'd say whatever we want to date
certain make it
soon thank
you Council M torguson were you next or
did you leave your mic on uh I don't
know if I was next I don't have to be
next it's up go ahead the last two
Mayors left this position for better
paying positions John Lewis and Jen
Daniels several counciling people left
years ago to run where one was appointed
to assessor took the job as as he
admitted to me yes overpay another one
became the justice of the peace left
early because he saw an opening for the
pay uh and of course you left to be uh
to be
mayor uh to
watch to realize that you see people
that you think would be great that just
can't do that and as we sit up here the
youngest of us being young the rest of
us in our mid late 50s on
up uh businessmen retired
people uh this isn't uh it's not a
crosssection of this town when you
compare it and you Benchmark it to any
other community it is woefully
inadequate it's disrespectful and I
think that that's picked up by a lot of
people they look at some people look at
you like you're an idiot to serve Why
would you put up with that uh I want
people that want to be that idiot I want
people that go okay it's enough for me
to give up my a little bit of my freedom
my time my money I I maybe I'm not whole
but I'm not cut in half
uh certainly nobody's going to make uh
Elon Musk hole if he provides 30 40 or
50 hours a week but when we're talking
you couldn't get uh the average server
couldn't afford to take the time off to
do this and when you know if you were to
approach the mayor as a full-time
position without a spouse supporting you
you couldn't live in
Gilbert that's not an appropriate number
and it doesn't speak well of the office
and it does need to be
handled uh I'm sorry it had to come to a
point where uh I interjected this as
forcefully as I did but I didn't
appreciate how things kept getting
turned when four people and there was a
consensus to discuss this and then they
were someone in staff was dissuaded from
that
and the things behind the scenes and the
lack of discussion and we've talked
about this before
and it's not gone anywhere we have to
talk about it
now and it needs to be handled the we
have four people running for uh Council
seats I don't know if there are there's
two of them that you're absolute
favorites and you're happy to I would
like to have seen 10 but I know that the
people that could do it I'm concerned
about one of them not having the time
because they don't own their business I
know a couple of them are retired uh so
I don't know how we're progressing and
making sure that we're representing
people the town is having proper
representation when we continue to kick
this can down and I for one was willing
to take the bullet because I am going to
be seen as the bad guy and I'm more than
willing to take that bullet but sooner
or later it has to be dealt with not
everyone can afford to serve but
nobody's talking about career money here
nobody up here is looking to make make
this a career and serve on Council for
30 years
uh and some in the past certainly they
served a long time some people 14 16
years they had a retirement program for
them State retirement program that's not
something that we have anymore thank God
uh but we have to address this
and I we can't talk about it
individually because we've I've talked
to Chuck I've talked to Scott now I
can't talk to anybody else else so to
say we're kicking it down the curb to
talk about
it where where is that going to make a
difference that's my where does that
make a difference we're in public as
transparent as possible we've called
everything out where can we be more
transparent behind the scenes and
breaking open meeting law is that what
we're going to do
now I'm sorry are you finished for now
council member tilki thank you mayor um
I'd like to wrap this conversation up
with
um direction to bring this um topic back
in a study session format uh the last
meeting in August can I interrupt one
second point of order council member
Council you see her mic from I'm sorry I
was just going to interrupt council
member council member tilki and let her
know that council member Buckley would
like to speak and she hasn't said
anything yet so oh did you call me I
thought you called me I did call you I'm
sorry but I didn't know you were going
to move right into a recommendation I
thought you were going to comment and so
I wanted to give council member Buckley
the opportunity to speak all right thank
you council member Buckley okay I I
haven't I did not see the resolution or
anything but I I agree with Scott um in
that you know I don't know I'm I'm kind
of at a loss for words on this on this
whole thing but I I do agree with Jim I
agree with Chuck and uh I also I'm in
agreement with Scott and young that
perhaps this should be done at a
different time and place and do we do
that as a study session again and is
that going to be necessary again to go
through all this is my thought there
we we did have a study session on this
topic all of the items that were around
mayor and Council for costs and
everything at one study session and I
think council member tilki had
recommended bringing it back to or
council member I can't remember one of
them said bring it back to a study
session
because we've been handed numbers
tonight or read numbers tonight that we
had no idea about and I think a couple
of us have mentioned compensation so
what does that look like get and do we
want to sit here at the Das and do that
probably not it's better to do it at a
study session so that we can come to a
consensus for a full filled out
resolution to come to us to vote for on
this dis during a regular meeting right
well I I have another is Rob here is is
is he here that he could give a
presentation where where these numbers
came from and but do we want to get into
that much detail tonight if we're going
to just move this forward because I
think we're we've discussed discussed it
to the point where some of us are to the
point of just moving it Forward I don't
I don't think it I did not appreciate
the process that it went through and I
would like to move this forward to a
future date so that we can bring it back
and I'm fine I've always been fine with
having the conversation I've been
waiting for the conversation I had
slides with the clerk's office last
meeting thinking we were going to have
this conversation but it never came up
and so I'm fine with having the
conversation it doesn't have to be
tonight if it's going to come out of
contingency anyway
and can't go into effect till January so
we're not in a rush to pass this it can
be passed at any time between now in
December and still goes into effect in
January or the future that council
member tilki was discussing I'm just
laying it all out there okay so well I I
think for transparency since we're this
far into this that if Rob could go ahead
so we all have that information and and
let us know you know all the research
you've done on this and where these
numbers come from and how you came about
them I think Rob emailed all of that
information to us tonight too yeah mayor
and Council you did receive an email
with that information tonight so um the
vast majority of the information that
was in that email was from the uh
November Retreat when when we discussed
it there was a presentation that covered
like several different um areas I guess
Council related areas and one of those
was a discussion about about salaries um
so so it's really just information we
collected from the region and then um
did kind of average that out based on
you know what the what collectively the
average among the cities looks like and
how that compares to to Gilbert mayor
and Council
salaries okay so so those numbers that
council member tgus and gave earlier did
they come from that information that you
had is yeah the one thing we also
included top seven population cities in
Arizona and what that average looked
like would be the one thing that was
added um with with the most recent
numbers that that he
shared okay all right thank you very
much now I apologize council member Toki
thank you mayor
um I I just want everybody on this dis
to know that I understand the passion I
understand the reasoning for why you're
wanting to bring this forward I can only
personally apologize if there
was a thought that this was coming
forward in a different format at a
different time I wasn't aware of that so
um I wasn't involved in squelching this
by any means but um just um I think I I
hope that we can find a way
within open meeting laws to have
conversations when we feel something's
not coming forward when it should be
coming forward I hope we can find that
way so that we're not surprised in the
future I think that's what I am hopeful
for this is an important topic
everything that you all have talked
about the reasonings why all of that is
very very important I I would just like
time to have a a conversation where we
have all that information in front of us
so so I'm asking for CU I don't think I
can make a motion on this I think it
will just be direction to um staff that
we bring back all of the this resolution
with backup documentation and maybe
reach out to us for other options that
we would be thinking about to come
forward in a study session the last
meeting in August which would allow us
to vote in September on a resolution and
I think um when you're looking at timing
for people to consider running in the
next election that gives them plenty of
time to know what what would be
happening or not so um I'd like to kind
of move this on if that's
agreeable mayor yes council member
Kowski I I thank you council member tki
I just wanted to add that as direction
to staff information that I'd like to
see in that further
discussion is um one or two more options
on how the salary would change over time
currently it's benchmarked to the lowest
paid full-time salaried employee of the
town and I like to see a couple other
options I think that would give me
enough information and data along with
the information already provided um to
have that
discussion May if I may um to include
the CPI and what that index would do to
salaries if that was included that would
be
helpful also full compensation I want to
see Benefits full compensation that
includes retirement Insurance anything
that would be considered your full
benefits if we go to our own um Total
Rewards page or whatever it's called on
the system it shows us a full outline of
what our benefits are and we're not
talking about those and I really think
it's important to pull it all together
so that we see what we're talking about
in
full and as far as elections go this
isn't going to affect the people that
are running this year council member
tilki just mentioned it'll it'll
potentially affect people in the future
running
but politics and elections have changed
so much over the past four 6 eight years
when I ran for counil the first time it
cost me
$7,000 and then the second time I ran it
was $10,000 when I ran for from mayir in
2020 it was $63,000 and the other two
people were that ran spent 106 and
125 um you see a difference in running
for office today than you saw years ago
and to run well you probably have to
have a couple of screws loose first of
all because it's not the easiest thing
to do and I say that with all affection
for everybody sitting up here but um I
have seen all kinds of different people
serve on this Das as council members
private business people young people
stay-at-home moms single women um people
that worked on for their own businesses
people that worked for family businesses
people that worked for big businesses
it's been a it has run the gamut over
the years and it I have not seen it have
an effect on the people that have run
here like is being is being discussed
I've had one person say to me over the
past year that they didn't think they
could afford to to run for comp because
the pay was so low but that's not
rampant it's not what I'm hearing over
and over again vice mayor Anderson you
have your mic on yes thank you mayor
um I'm I I realize that we can't do
anything later this month and we don't
meet in July but I'd like the first
meeting in August I want this sooner
rather than
later I was going to I was going to say
two weeks I was going to say June 18th
but um I don't know I'm fine with June
18 we have all the slides and all of the
information I just didn't I didn't like
not having the information to sit here
and look at and digest between last
night and tonight and I don't think we
have all of the information I think it
needs more council member Bon Giovani
yeah i' like to for staff include the
um um since council member tus wanted to
link it to the lowest paid full-time
employee um I'd like to see their
compensation also healthc care and all
that kind of stuff uh same as the the is
requested for us please thank
you council member
Buckley um I I just wanted to mention
that even though there there is
additional package and benefit not all
of us take those and use those um I I
don't take that you know I don't use the
insurance the they do have a retirement
that we can you know that we contribute
to but um not
everybody uses all of the benefits that
are available and I just wanted to bring
that
up council member torison yeah the
intent with the uh tying it to the
lowest paid uh employee is that that
number generally will receive some sort
of CPI some sort of cost of living
adjustment but it's it should never go
rampant whereas I've seen like I said I
saw Tucson trying to give themselves
$144,000 a year uh which is just such a
huge amount of money that it is a it's
an attraction it's crazy money uh and I
wanted to keep it humble and I thought
attaching ourselves to the lowest paid
employee was much more humble than what
will happen and from what Patrick and if
he wishes to chime in said he had heard
some communities talking about very
large increases that are being proposed
with their councils I didn't want this
to go rampant I wanted to keep it in a
much more humble low-key place that it's
not uh it's not going to be affected by
large fluctuations of people that may
self-served that may uh feel that
144,000 is is appropriate which I find
completely inappropriate uh and I didn't
want to be subject to that in that sense
I thought the humility of saying I'm the
lowest paid salar person here was much
more
effective and made more sense especially
since that person can't probably afford
to live in Gilbert either and Patrick is
there anything that you can say about
what you had heard in that
meeting mayor council member Tuson yes
uh city manager Jeff Barton of Phoenix U
mentioned that Phoenix will be bringing
something to the ballot this fall as
they required by Charter to their voters
um I'm going to phone a friend and ask
Rob um bour if he has those actual
numbers I've got a general bark bark
idea but I want to make sure we're
accurate on that and
correct so mayor and Council yeah City
of Phoenix has a a citizen commission
that makes
recommendations um about Council mayor
and council salary increase
and I know the percentage but I'll have
to find the actual number but I know was
it equated to uh an 18% increase for
mayor and a 25% increase for uh
councel so if you give me just one
second I apologize
uh so the numbers ended up being so the
current mayor's salary I believe is
88,000 and that would go up to
13840 and the current council salary is
61,63 that would go up to 77,000 if
approved thanks Rob Phoenix is the fifth
largest city in the country
right may I believe that's correct the
largest city in the state of Arizona and
the fifth largest in the country I
believe and um I was shocked to know
that the mayor only made
$888,000 for that City the the council
members districts are the size of
gilberton population I believe or close
to so each district is about the size of
the town they win their elections with
under 10,000 votes and that's really sad
but I just wanted to say because I don't
want Tom blet to put in the paper that I
am rich or retired because I am neither
rich nor retired and I don't want my
husband getting wind that I'm retired
because I have not retired yet and um I
don't have a sugar daddy either um and I
know that that was brought up today too
and the the reason that I use the
mayor's pay wouldn't be able to afford
to pay the rent in the town of Gilbert
is because we so often hear from our
residents that every apartment unit in
Gilbert is section eight and the rent in
Gilbert is not affordable if the mayor's
salary of $43,000 isn't enough to afford
an apartment in Gilbert that's the only
reason that I use that you need to make
probably 4 to $50,000 to rent an
apartment in Gilbert right now um but
that's why I use that comparison not
saying that it's because this job
doesn't pay enough but because we hear
so often that every apartment is Section
8 and that's just not the case and so we
will will be moving this on to June 18th
to come back date certain continued um
vice mayor did you have something else
no I was just going to try and get us to
that pointk let's go to June 18th June
18th follow up thank you we will adjourn
the special meeting and reconvene our
regular meeting moving to our consent
calendar vice mayor yes mayor we don't
have any requests to pull anything so I
would move that we approve items 9
through 31 on the consent calendar
that I'm sorry real quick before you
vote I apologize so you want it on for
June 18th study session for further
discussion do you want anything
agendized for the June 18th council
meeting so I would do both I would put
it on the study session and agendize it
to the meeting because we've talked
about it at length this evening and then
that night we could firm everything up
and um potentially vote on it that night
thanks Patrick for the clarification um
my email must not have gone through I do
want to have a quick discussion on
26 26 oh sorry
consent so approve items 9 through 31
with the exception of item
26 can I get a second to approve items n
okay thank you I have a motion by vice
mayor Anderson seconded by council
member Buckley please
vote didn't go there weit
yes on that uh oh how was a yes on
that I can go ahead and redo it really
quick please
revote fat fingered that one maybe
finger motion passes 70 so item 26
26 sorry yeah sorry um saw somebody
walking down I thought was no sorry our
town attorney Chris Payne had to leave
so Elena HZ is joining us as Town
attorney from this point forward
tonight okay
so I should I suppose asked uh in in
number 26 with the hsip I wanted to see
a couple things a how that relates back
to the federal government because of the
state's requirements and reporting that
and the other part would be if it is
have we really considered how prudent it
is to narrow that turn lane at higgling
Guadalupe
when it it might not be helping the
final situation does any can anybody
give me information on
that can't see that far and it's so dark
over there oh I still can't see my
glasses are filthy
sorry oh it's Yao hi
y turning the mic on there we go good
evening mayor council members um we have
Aon pinkleton online he's able to speak
on those two questions regarding item
number 26 so give me a second and then
see if he can kind of log in okay he's
at home right now
is Aaron on
WebEx I'm
assuming for
my apologies he's call we're going to
call him on teams right now so please
stay with
us good afternoon mayor or evening mayor
and Council can you hear me yes Aaron
thank you yeah sorry almost 10 in person
I was like well didn't seem like it
didn't expect the question tonight sorry
about that um so to clarify the question
said there was two questions one of them
was how this pertains to the federal
guidelines um with this being hsip is
administered by ADOT and so ADOT would
um handles all the make sure we're in
alignment with the
federal requirements and guidelines um
I'm not sure if that's if there's
something
different in particular you're wondering
about that Council M tanon you like to
clarify your question I was wondering if
it tied us into any other Federal
programs regarding Traffic Safety uh
that kind of thing uh was there anything
else that we'd be responsible for back
to the federal government by not
performing what they consider properly
on our end of that
deal no um the way it works is during
the application process we show that the
the purpose of the project is adhering
to certain safety improvements and is um
through competitive process based off
the the different safety this is the
safety improvements and the impact of
those
improvements um
therefore adhering to those requirements
that a bro the broad requirement of
improving safety um we could dive into
the actual description of the hsip but
in to summarize it it's for the overall
Improvement of safety in adherence to
the
um John BL the document that ad
references but the in instance the
safety safety and purposes all right and
you're sure this does not uh tie back to
other Federal programs like safe Safe
Streets for all that kind of
thing this is not an enti no this is a
standalone um it's a federal the hsip is
a federal
um Grant thing that each state has their
own funding to administer locally so
this is the Arizona hsip so they manage
it by themselves it's not tied back to
any other F larger Federal grant as far
as the requirements um it's a standalone
okay I appreciate that and do you have
information on as I believe we're we're
altering some turn Lanes is is that
correct um I I'm trying to remember so
the turn ler ones that it's it's
improvements as per the direction in the
um the project themselves in the
two um CIP
projects and those turn Lanes it's based
off of safety analysises and traffic
volumes we've looked at um I
believe the one you're referring to it's
going to a dual left scenario M based on
the traffic existing traffic volumes all
right and that and you don't feel the
narrowing of the the turn Lanes is uh
you think it's acceptable that the the
speed and the and the uh the use of that
area the actual traffic use it's not
we're not pushing our luck sorry I'm
looking saying narro the turn Lanes why
aren't we narrowing the turn Lanes by a
foot I
think I I we narrowing the turn lane or
are we narrowing the median in the turn
lane yeah I'm not I'm not totally Aon
Aaron is it the situation where we're
narrowing the median in the turn lanane
to that new system that we're using
maybe yeah so we're yeah so there's I
guess there's there's a couple different
projects and so going up the top of my
mind um we're adding a right turn lane
and we are modifying the left turns so
we have a more positive off offset that
way when you're you you can see past the
oncoming left vehicle okay that I think
I understand now I just wanted to
clarify that because it didn't come
across as completely clear to me
initially I appreciate we're not we're
not changing if we yeah we wouldn't be
changing the the width of the lanes
unless we were adding an additional Lane
um and in that case still we' adhere to
our standard drawing our standard
details for Lane widths got it all right
I appreciate your time sir
councilman terson just to clarify that
your first point of of Grants typically
the grants are specific for whether it's
air quality or safety it doesn't then
affect other grants or other larger um
Federal projects so it's very specific
as far as what we need to do as far as
if it's a safety issue then it gets
vetted out through ADOT and mag as far
as the safety aspects of it and then the
second part is that um if you look at a
lot of our intersection that are in the
North part of the V of of our town it it
was designed earlier so a lot of times
our design criteria has changed over
time and based on volume there is offset
issues where if you look at Straight
Ahead there's other traffic across from
you making a left turn that you can't
see the other one so that's why we're
phasing a lot of these intersection
Improvement using hsip funds understood
thank
you I'd like to make a motion to accept
item 26 the grant as written for
resolution number
4483 I have a motion can I have a second
second I have a motion by council member
tus and seconded by council member
Buckley please
vote motion passes
70 that concludes thank you Aaron
concludes our consent agenda moving on
to our administrative items we have a
boards and commissions discussion that
we need to have and um actually I'm
going to request that we recess the
council meeting and take us up into an
exec session we don't need staff because
this is a board and commission issue
that we just need to go up and discuss
I'm looking right at our staff and
attorneys um so I'd like to recess our
meeting while we go up into exec
session
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I'll go ahead and bring this meeting
back to order next on our agenda is item
number 32 boards and commissions
consider appointment to the community
engagement task force I'll turn it over
to council member
tilki thank you mayor um I'd like to
make a motion to
appoint the following members to the
community engagement task force uh
focusing on teen
violence um their terms will begin June
4th 2024 and ending after advising is
completed on the assigned projects and
issues if no other task are assigned by
the
council the task force members names
Natasha Ash Mark Beasley Justin thinkink
Dena
Lao
Lisa hatlin sorry Lisa I can't say your
middle don't yeah Angela Rogers Katie
Walter Kelly
Westerberg uh Brandon braidman is at
rtin Owen foro is r and Max Udall is our
te reps and Courtney sound
and
NAA auu
wama are our alternate members along
with Andrew Lewis and Isabelle Bryce as
our mayak alternate me
Members I'll second
that have a motion by council member
tilki seconded by council member Bon
Giovani please vote
motion passes
70 thank you mayor um just as uh
information only we have um worked with
various members of our um community and
had advisory members to the teen
violence task force uh representing
Gilbert Public Schools is
Susan gadina Higley Unified School
District James Walker Chandler Unified
School District Mark H Santan Charter
Shane
Stucky um American Leadership Academy
Dan
Panza Gilbert Christian School Holly
Garza from our Police Department Levi
Leba and from mayak is Andrew Lewis and
Isabelle Bryce you'll notice that they
uh in their role they will serve as
alternates if some of our teens don't
attend so I wanted to make sure you had
the information of the entire task force
and our advisory members our first
meeting will be on June 10th and uh to
begin the we have to go through all the
rules and regulations of serving on a uh
task force and so that'll be the
majority of that meeting and bringing
introducing everybody we'll start our
work in August um as a reminder um we've
started to put some of our agenda items
together um it is our intent to come
back um monthly so if we could make sure
that that's an item on the agenda for me
to give a report out or if you feel it's
best just to do that during Council
reports just tell me which way you want
to do that um just to give the public an
update on the different types of things
that we're doing um also uh a reminder
to our Council
liaison um for our school districts uh
we have you slated for September 16th to
come in and talk about how those
conversations are going just as a
reminder for you and the public because
it's been a long time since we had that
conversation um I know that you meet
individually with the school districts
but hoping that maybe you could pull a
meeting all together together with the
three of you in the three districts to
talk about how we can expand our role
together and how we can um meet uh on a
regular basis so that as issues come up
we can get ahead of those and that's
kind of the premise for that meeting and
if there's anything that comes out of
that to present to our task force to
consider so um Patrick I'm going to ask
if um your staff could work with me and
um get information out to the council
liaison so they know exactly uh what
what we're you know asking them to do
and and um giving the date of September
16th so happy to work with you on that
okay thank you thank you mayor I'm I'm
I'm very excited if I could just say
that um this was a very hard decision to
get down to the number of people that we
appointed based on the numbers that we
had put out there
I continue to be
amazed um especially as we look at
Community issues and we ask our um
residents to come forward the caliber of
people in this
community the expertise that they can
bring in so many different um levels of
of things that are going on but they're
willingness to help and I I'm just so
thankful for everybody who stepped up
and hopefully uh uh others will want to
continue to be involved um I'm I'm happy
that we are moving very quickly I think
faster than any other city I'm not sure
but I I I I it is our intent to take
this very seriously and to bring um good
feedback back to the council thank you
so I'm going to make the recommendation
that we add Community engagement task
force to every agenda under
administrative items like we did with
the subcommittee just because that gives
us the opportunity to actually to
discuss what's going with the community
engagement Task Force if we leave it to
the end when council member tilki does
her report out then all you can do is
report out and so this way it'll leave
it open for us to actually ask you
questions offer feedback anything that
might come up did you get thank you
cheli I see a head nod over there thank
you cheli for that um and yeah I just
want to reiterate
the when you're looking at two nights of
interviews
we were here what 4:30 to 7:30 two
nights in a row and I'm so sorry cuz you
were ill but so you had to be virtual
I'm sorry I hope you don't mind me
mentioning that but um I know that makes
it harder on you when you're virtual but
when you're looking at two nights of
interviews for 3 hours of 11 or 12 or 13
people each night it it's daunting right
I think at best when you think about
having to come and sit and interview
every 15 minutes a new person but um I
really enjoyed it the the people that we
got to meet and the people that we got
to talk to and you're right the caliber
of people and I would say our teens were
the best they were weren't they not
amazing young men and um just to have
that opportunity to sit and talk to
those people for those 15 minutes each
person was just um really just a
pleasure so thank you to everybody that
applied and you know we can't take
everyone unfortunately but we got it
down to a really great group moving on
to item did anybody have any other
comments thank you um moving on to item
33 Council Administration consider
adoption of resolution number 4484
designating the chief fiscal officer to
submit the FY 2024 2025 expenditure
limit report does anybody need a
presentation or discussion on
this seeing none would someone like to
make a motion to adopt resolution number
4484 I'll make a motion I have a motion
by council member Buckley second
seconded by vice mayor Anderson please
vote motion passes 70 moving on to item
34 policy number 2023 d03 consider
approval of revisions to council policy
number 20
23-3 regarding the code of conduct would
anybody like a presentation on this it
was pretty straightforward
any comments
questions somebody like to make a motion
mayor I'll make a motion to approve um
item 34 and for the public it it was
just changing an one item in there
instead of it being called point of
privilege it's called point of order
that's the only change that was made I
second that I have a motion by council
member tilki seconded by council member
Buckley please vote
one
more passes 70 thank you moving on to
Communications from citizens um vice
mayor before I turn it over to you I
wanted to just make a statement about
our parking garage safety enhancements
as always we appreciate the continued
feedback and participation of our
community members in supporting
Gilbert's safety and community
livability and I have an update
regarding the safety efforts in
Gilbert's garages in the Heritage
District um as some of you may not know
Gilbert Heritage District receives
approximately 5.5 million visits from an
estimated 1.6 million visitors each year
due to its robust offerings to families
teens and adults to effectively serve
this Dynamic population over the past
several years the Gart police department
has deployed seven bike Patrol officers
and a sergeant assigned exclusively
Patrol to patrol the Heritage District
supported by one to three Patrol
officers who Patrol the beat that
includes the
district the town of Gilbert has already
been in the process of completing an
upgrade to the existing security cameras
at the two Heritage District parking
garages and I know someone had spoken on
these a few weeks ago and we had them
checked no wires were cut everything was
safe everything was working but the
upgrades that we have coming will
improve the video quality from low
resolution to high traffic resolution we
are able to report that the heway garage
upgrade is nearly complete and the Ash
Street Garage upgrade will be completed
very shortly thereafter it is important
to note that the security
cameras in both Heritage District
parking garages are and have been
operational in response to increased
youth related activity in the Downtown
parking garages the Gilbert Police
Department developed an additional
proactive detail of two additional
Patrol officers specifically assigned to
the two garages between the hours of
8:00 p.m. and 2: a.m. every Friday and
Saturday to effectively maintain this
additional level of Staffing it was
necessary to from existing Patrol units
in the area which is not a sustainable
long-term
solution therefore Gilbert staff has
formed a working group to research and
evaluate additional potential
opportunities for further safety
enhancements tonight the council is able
to share that staff is bringing forward
at the June 18th 2024 council meeting an
agenda item to implement additional
on-site security at the garage during
Peak evening hours this additional
presence of private uniformed security
during during Peak evening hours will
assist with ensuring the garages remain
a safe place for all visitors to use in
addition active monitoring of the
downtown garage cameras will occur
during the town's regular business hours
again we thank our community members for
their input and engagement and we will
continue to evaluate any additional
safety enhancements vice
mayor thank you mayor the Gilbert Town
Council values citizen comments and
input anyone wishing to speak before the
council must fill out a request to speak
card for each item they wish to speak on
and submit it to the town clerk or place
it in the bin provided prior to the
start of the meeting the communications
from citizens portion on the agenda
provide citizens an opportunity to
identify the town coun to the Town
Council matters of Interest or concern
related to town government under the
provisions of the Arizona open meeting
law the Town Council is prohibited from
responding to issues that have not been
properly noticed
therefore the Town Council may only
listen to citizens who wish to address
them and at the conclusion of the open
call to the to public response is
limited to individual members of the
council responding to criticism made by
those who have addressed the public body
asking staff to review a matter or
asking that a matter be put on a future
agenda while we understand and
appreciate the passion on community
members bring to these sessions we must
remind everyone that clapping during the
meeting is not acceptable this practice
can disrupt the flow of discussion
potentially intimidate others and
detract from the respectful atmosphere
we strive to
maintain the town asks that when your
name is called you come forward to the
podium state your name and place of
residence and then begin speaking for
your allotted time our first Speaker
tonight is Kristen
mandley excuse me ma'am would be this
Podium over here Podium thank you
sorry hi my name is Kristen mandley and
I'm a resident in Morrison Ranch in
Gilbert Arizona I am a business owner
and a m mom of two beautiful children
and um I'm coming before the council
today to state that um and and say thank
you for allowing me to take two minutes
and speaking on behalf of the East mle
East Valley Mom's demand action I became
involved with moms when a family member
was shot in a school shooting um and now
we live with the effects of gun violence
in our family um with everything that's
going on in our community it's something
that everything everybody should be
aware of and address the
situation um all of June is gun violence
prevention month and it should be at the
top of everyone's agenda to prevent gun
violence in our community um as it is
the number one cause of death of teens
and children in America
um I will read part of a proclamation
that was emailed to the council um
without a response and so I thought that
it might be important to bring it to
your attention um with everything that's
going on in our community um the
proclamation declares that the first
Friday of June to be um National Gun
Violence Awareness Day in the Town
Council in honor um and remember in
remembrance of all victims and survivors
of gun violence um and to declare that
um we as a town and a country must do
more to end this Public Health crisis um
whereas every day more than 120
Americans are killed by gun violence and
more than 200 are shot and wounded on an
average of more than
44,4 gun deaths each year whereas
Americans are 26 more times likely to
die by gun violence and homicide than
other people in high inome countries and
um Arizona has um
1,290 gun deaths every year with a rate
of 7.2 deaths per 100,000 people a
crisis that cost the state
15.9 billion each year um of which um
protecting Public Safety in communities
that we serve um should be the mayor's
um highest um
responsibility and um gun violence
prevention is more important than ever
as we see an increase in fire um arm
homicides and suicides non-fatal
shootings across the country
um we would love to continue this
conversation to protect our children so
they can grow up in a safe Community our
community in morison ranch is not safe
we witness every weekend what is going
on and it's disturbing and so I would
like to um know what the next steps
would be um and would love to meet with
um the board on a later
date thank you thank
you next is Scott Meyers who has cont
donated his time to Bridget Vega
good evening the first comment will be
read on behalf of Katie mcferson however
I do want to share an audio clip from
Gilbert chamber criticism that comes
with the office but the uh I count for
instance I'd say right now what we've
been doing the subcommittee work on teen
violence I count that as success because
we've been able to take a very rowdy
crowd that has some serious issues and I
have to hand it to them that they're
very U sincere about it but uh I feel
like they have come around now to the
point that they feel like they've been
listened to uh they're not uh and to me
that success in the town when I can talk
to a constituent they they say they
understand where we're coming from
or they
say so with that Rowdy was a cheer I did
in high school loved it it's also what
our vice mayor called concerned parents
and citizens that came forward to
address brutal attacks that split open
schools children using and dealing
Fentanyl and cocaine in our schools and
community and holding an arsenal of
weapons and ski mask on porches what has
transpired in our town is a deep seated
Mental Health crisis under all the rage
and under all the rage and violence you
have young men in deep crisis as of
today Chief soberg is unwilling to name
the goons only a group of violent young
adults it is as if it didn't even happen
proximity matters and the continual lack
of plans to mitigate risk and the lack
ofical approach to brutality to innocent
young women and men signals a more
serious kind of concern it is being
bystander and byst standards allowing
violence and bullying to flourish it
validates the behavior why are we not
concerned about the root cause of all of
this instead of blaming parents and
taxpayers for being approximate
appropriately horrified young men with
grievances access to firearms and
escalating Behavior continue to signal
for help in the cities and towns
Nationwide yaldi Oxford and Parkland to
name a few I will once again sound the
alarm I am unwilling willing to whistle
by the graveyard I've done what I can as
a mom to support our community I wish
you had
too and then this should roll over I
think mine goes next mayor and Council
so if we can add the three three more
minutes mayor and Council Chief and
Banger you don't get to look the other
way on this issue innocent children have
died and been brutally assaulted on your
watch two weeks ago a child fell off the
rooftop of Gilbert garage and died yet
crickets because of town of Gilbert's
approach it made it clear that a
19-year-old was under the influence so
what it's not your problem instead of
saying condolences to the teenagers
family how did we get here what safety
measures do we have in place in this
town mayor Chuck Banger suberg when will
people start being ticketed so you will
see change vers just telling them to
leave as the officers have continued to
do so we need you as leadership to step
up to be proactive yet your leadership
continues to perpetuate and inflict harm
on the community by not taking a clear
stand against team vience Chief let's
make this clear a gang is a gang Gilbert
goons is a gang that has inflicted harm
across the East Valley and Gilbert you
have a gang problem do you not want to
say Gilbert goons are gang because it
would affect the real estate which it
should never be profit over people we
demand accountability this is our second
Community public request as the families
have requested multiple times Gilbert
releases the records of Tristan Keener
and Connor Jarnigan as they were both
brutally assaulted by Gilbert goons
Chief and gang or the gang unit we ask
for press conferences to come back to
discuss what your plans are for the
summer especially all the goons have
been released and there are so many more
who continue to cause further vandalism
and harm to the community yet no one's
been arrested or accountable held
accountable as a community we want K9
unit a can9 dog to be added to surface
the garages along with paid parking as
we personally spent five months downtown
at the garages we demand an external
investigation as the public has a right
to know that one of the internal affairs
investigations were completed and not
taken serious as stated there was no VI
no evidence of violation or policy or
administrative law the allegations were
found that the complaint was closed
mayor and councel and chief I find it
disturbing as a mother and a community
advocate that as a town I've watched
count you've watched countless videos
and pictures of an officer backtack
nights same pattern engaged for legal
purposes what appeared based on my
opinion and observation to have a powwow
with three alleged miners leaned in an
officer's car taking selfies questional
beh questionable behavior for over 30
minutes at the rooftop and then went
down to the alley behind Culinary
Dropout after calling him out about
education hour being over meanwhile
teenagers were loing smoking weed and
underage drinking openly but that's also
the same officer who told
us that other calls had to be taken in
his beat we didn't know what he does and
then it doesn't stop there he would get
out of his vehicle just before curfewed
to say bye to them we have a duty to
protect the innocent and Gilbert you
have blood on your hands to the youth
I'm sorry we're here for you you are
enough your voice matters we see you we
hear you we stand by you please continue
to keep the Lord family and all of the
youth in your prayers rise up
Gilbert and we printed all the pictures
out for you thank
you next is uh Don Edwards and Crystal's
donated her time to him so he'll have
six
minutes good evening Madam mayor Mr vice
mayor and esteemed council members my
name is Don Edwards and I was recently
forced to retire from the fire
department after being retaliated
against for filing a complaint I'm here
tonight to continue my effort to shine a
light on the people who are currently in
charge of your fire department and the
culture they have developed some things
to keep in mind about the incident I'm
going to talk about this was in 2021 at
the height of covid and Staffing our
fire trucks was a nightmare at also at
that time we had somewhere between 8 and
10 people off the truck due to injury
and
lastly uh this involves BC Barton the
same supervisor who told me I deserve to
be attacked at a fire station by a
3center on Wednesday May 5th 2021 my
crew was one of four crews that was to
participate in high-rise training being
run for that quarter my crew was singled
out from every other crew in my
Battalion and I know this because I
spoke to every other captain in my
Battalion and was not switched out to
participate in any other stations during
that
training during my second time through
the exact same Evolution I felt a twinge
in my knee I told the engineer who was
moding monitoring that part of the drill
he's the $200,000 engineer that I was
going to skip the simulated high-rise
climb and meet them inside to go over
the actual training part of
training this this is where the previous
information becomes relevant between the
staffing issues and the amount of guys
off the truck our employee Wellness
division recently put out a directive to
be more aware of injuries they
specifically mentioned listening to your
body during PT and training those two
things combine with the fact that people
have always been able to skip portions
of training due to nagging injuries led
me to believe there would be no issues I
was wrong Balian Chief Barton had asked
assistant chief Gerard to come out of
his office and come down to the training
ground where they both talked to me I
explained to them what happened and that
I had only skipped a grand total of
three flights of stairs on my second
time through this
Evolution the following day a Thursday I
worked 24 hours of OT the days of the
week matter on Friday the 7th BC Barton
came to my station delivered a
typewritten letter not a form not a
supervisor's report of injury a typed up
letter it was typed up because there was
no policy that was violated and
therefore no form everyone who works for
the town of Gilbert knows there's a form
for everything and the fact that there
was no form again leads into the fact
that there was no policy violation the
letter stated that quote he was
concerned with my ability to perform the
physical functions of my job what wasn't
in the letter was the fact that he
called me a derogatory term for a
woman's genitals that rhymes with
wussy he didn't give me this later this
letter after the training exercise when
I would have been able to contact the
person he designated for me to contact I
was allowed to work the last 20 hours of
that shift he also didn't give me that
letter the next day when I was a when I
would have been able to contact the
design when I was scheduled to work 24
hours of overtime on one of of those
fire trucks that we had a hard time
Staffing was it because of that fact
that we couldn't staff our
trucks
uh what he did do was he waited 44 hours
after being so concerned about my
ability to work that I had to go to a
doctor a cost that the town incurred to
send me to Ed where uh I I had to burn
48 Hours of sick time because by now it
was Friday and my next shift was Sunday
and as you know the office personnel and
Gilbert work 410 or in off Fridays so I
had to end up burning 48 Hours a sick
time come Monday I was on a conference
call with the HR person who was
designated who by the way again no
surprise is no longer with the town
because we run through HR Personnel like
a hot knife through butter uh BC
schwitzer from the EMP employee Wellness
Division and my union rep everyone on
everybody on that call was uncertain how
to proceed because none of them had ever
seen something like this needless to say
I was cleared within 10 minutes of
seeing the doctor I cannot stress to you
how odd this was if you were to talk to
anyone who was involved with training as
part of the Training Division they will
tell you since the beginning of time
time immemorial people have been allowed
to skip certain parts of training due to
nagging injuries but unfortunately for
me I was not part of the training Cadre
the guys we talked about before as I've
stated before if you're not part of this
particular click you will be treated
differently you will lose out on
promotions and overtime opportunities
and you may just see your career
derailed as always I thank you for the
opportunity to allow me to speak tonight
and again I ask you to speak to your
firefighters don't just take my word for
it you'll probably hear a pretty simp
ilar story and I'll see you guys in two
weeks thank
you thank you Don Carissa
Arthur thank you for your time tonight I
want to address the park and garage
situation again and just to explain why
your security situation is not going to
work I don't know that any of you guys
have been down in the garage during the
day or at night because when you have
kids that are out for the summer that
place has been a hangout and so when
you're looking at Staffing in that
garage only peak times that means your
Thursday your Friday and your Saturday
which has been tendency has had a
tendency to be your peak times the kid
fell off the garage at 11:00 at night on
a Monday night that was not a peak hour
whatsoever and to go back to the
officers unfortunately what's happening
is that your bike Patrol I don't know if
you're aware of this but we have brought
it in we have seen them multiple times
standing around so to go back a week and
a half ago my friend and I went to
downtown Gilbert for dinner my friend's
husband is also an officer and uh we she
went to go drop me off in the parking
lot just south of Joe's this was 9:00 at
night on a Friday night there were at
least 8 to 10 officers all standing in a
row just talking they weren't in a
huddle discussing any sort of law
enforcement they were standing straight
in a row and as soon as they saw me they
turned around and they took off and they
all left and I explained to the
lieutenant that I spoke with this looks
really suspicious because it looks like
your officers aren't doing anything so
you're paying to staff Patrol officers
who are doing their jobs at the top of
the garage while your bike officers are
standing on the ground not patrolling
your city these are the same officers
that were standing at Whiskey Row
talking for over an hour in front of
there with the bouncers going on some of
the very same officers your sergeant was
in the middle of this group so I don't
know how there's going to become a
resolution ution to this unless things
start getting cracked down on it is
really important that our kids have a
safe place here and when we have we've
seen the things that we have with the in
and out the um sorry the cars going in
and out of the garage we know that
they're being notified when officers are
coming up and down they're going to
figure out a different way to work
around this and especially when they
figure out what your security Staffing
is like I recently visited a different
garage here in Gilbert and it's it is a
private garage but there wasn't one
issue at night with any teenagers
sitting up in the garage and and that
garage had much more capability for
people to hide in and so why there's
such a draw to this garage I don't know
but it has been an issue for a while and
you need to do something more and that
push for us is that there be paid
parking and allow your patrons to get it
validated when they go to a business
because the kids who were up here
hanging out they're not going to want to
pay for parking if you do that thank
you thank you Dan
Reynolds good evening mayor and Council
um my name is Dan Reynolds I'm a
longtime resident of Gilbert and uh
former
employee I want to talk to you guys
tonight about my relationship with some
of you um
some of you I just
met tonight for the first time um some
I've never met um but I want to I want
to do this because I want to explain
something um um mayor Peterson I've
known you for I'm goingon to guess over
15 years 20 years I've been very
supportive I've voted for you um I think
when the people were trying to outed you
early on in your career I was still very
supportive and didn't agree with it um
vice mayor Anderson um for people who
don't know he worked for the Town 35
years ago 30 years ago um I've known you
since then always thought the world of
you got along very well with you um
never had a problem I hope you feel the
same way um councilwoman tilky I knew
you before you were actually a tilky um
and uh I've always had a good
relationship with you I've known your
husband when he worked for the town the
reason I'm saying that
is because I don't have an axe to grind
I'm not here to start trouble um and I
want people to understand that some of
you other folks I can't uh wait to to
get to know you a little better so I can
explain some of the stuff that I've been
coming up here to to uh share with
you so I'm going to give you a phrase
and I don't want you to get upset and I
don't want you to think I'm aiming at
you but I call it ad admonishing The
Sinner and I'm not saying you're Sinners
please don't get upset with that
but um this this phrase is kind of lets
me explain this is to help me understand
or help you understand the info that
we've brought forward it's how we can be
honest with you guys and even if it's
not easy it's it's to help us from
making mistakes and holding people in
this town accountable that's what I mean
by that hopefully you understand that
makes sense um I I think it was last
council meeting mayor you you you were
upset with I I think me you were you
looking my direction and I'm going to
paraphrase this but you said something
to the effect of if you can't come here
and say something nice maybe you
shouldn't say something at all um I I
get what you were saying because town of
Gilbert's getting hammered with all
kinds of bad things being
said so my thoughts are
this we need to address the problem i'
I've brought in information you folks
and and maybe you don't have maybe
you're not obligated to reach out to me
but I know you can find me if you want
to because there's things that are going
on in this town that we have information
on I think you guys should know about
it
um Bob Dylan wrote a
song and it says you got to serve
somebody that's why why we elected you
folks is is to serve the citizens and
and I believe I need to serve you guys
too it's not a one-way Street I get
that um I'll I'll wrap it
up um please don't get upset when I
bring you this information look into
what we're saying what I'm saying and
make your own judgment based on the
information I'm giving you and you do
some research and find out I don't want
you to think I'm lying because I'm not
there's things that are going on in this
town by some of our leadership people
that need to be addressed
so I'm going to leave you with
this if our founding fathers and the
citizens didn't speak up for the truth
and the freedoms that we have
today we'd probably all be speaking with
a British accent and I don't think we
want that so I want to say I appreciate
your time and um let your conscience be
your guide thank you very much thank you
Dan Stacy lavel
hi good evening so I'd like to address
um and recap the statement that the
mayor read at the end of the
communications from citizens at the Town
council meeting two weeks ago it was a
pre-written statement may be meant to
make those of us speaking up look like
bad guys for invoking our first
amendment rights or maybe to try to
discredit us either way I'd like to
thank Steve Dan and Don and the rest of
you for continuing to speak up since you
pre-wrote that statement mayor it tells
me you knew that we were coming to speak
each week and that in itself is a win I
look forward to your closing statement
again tonight my guess is that it will
sound a lot like the one from two weeks
ago which I'm about to
discuss you stated you were quote
concerned with potential Damage Done to
Gilbert's name heart and town
organization by continued efforts of a
few to highlight allegations opin ions
and false claims quote first of all yes
we are a few there would probably be
more but many of them are protecting
their jobs and identity so we the few
will continue to try to write the wrongs
you refuse to
address also let me remind you that we
have the proof behind everything we
discuss therefore you are inflicting
potential damage by insinuating that our
claims are allegations opinions and
false we have all the proof in forms of
foyer requests remember I'm sure you're
all familiar continued efforts to
highlight me and my fellow speakers as
other than honest and true as defamation
of
character another quote the spoken word
has the capacity to inflict damage
unquote you know what else has the
capacity to inflict damage continuing to
pretend nothing is wrong continuing to
ignore the issues and refusing to
address them head-on continuing to be a
part of the problem and not part of the
solution also has the capacity to
inflict
damage the next quote this community is
facing pressing issues unquote you're
absolutely right so instead of trying to
protect management at the expense of
citizens and employees how about you
hold them
accountable next quote I respect and
welcome any and all efforts and energies
that work to bring us together as a
community not those that divide us end
quote I appreciate that you respect the
time and energy that we put into
speaking thank you because we are here
to unite the community not divide it
we're here to bring the community
together by speaking truth exposing lies
and most importantly we're here to try
to light a fire underneath you to do the
hard work that needs to be
done last quote I challenge us to be
better humans to each other end quote I
accept your challenge as I think there's
always room for kindness and
encouragement and in return I challenge
you to end your mayoral term on a high
note making the citizens proud to have
elected a mayor that doesn't just follow
but asks hard questions makes tough de
decisions and protects everyone's rights
whether you agree with them or not thank
you thank you Steve
Laval good evening mayor and Council uh
if you've been watching the news you've
seen the the supposed Dr fouchi speak
and uh we all
know they pushed a bunch of lies on us
covid lies vaccine lies it's not a
vaccine it's a clot shot more people are
getting harmed physically by that shot
and uh we know that government the
federal government the state government
and our local government are the ones
pushing the Miss and disinformation at
us the people and we the people are
standing up to it so therefore we get
the resistance from our government who's
supposed to represent us
okay along with mainstream media and the
office of digital government that
misinformation got pushed and pushed and
pushed and the people who resisted it
like my fire engineer and spoke the
truth well they got pink slips get on of
town you got to
leave so you guys keep reporting back to
a a document you call it a third party
okay it's called Pierce colan Patrick
hired them with contract with the town
it's not a third party it's contracted
with the town that document I have
continually shot holes in and all you
guys say is it's just it exonerates you
but you never address any of the holes I
shoot I've sent you some of the
documents you continue to say it
exonerate you that document does not
exonerate you that document is full of
lies not misinformation they're lies you
guys are lying it's called lying before
we ever had had misinformation we had
lying okay BLM you were supporting BLM
you did support BLM the town supported
BLM the police chief supported BLM he
took a knee for him so here's the deal
I'm going to give you guys an
opportunity Chief soberg Rob Dugen
Patrick maner
councel officer targos and officer Sho
Handler gave their lives in this
community and there's a lot of police
officers to given their lives across
this country for their communities so
I'm going to I'm going to offer you guys
an to come up here and take a knee with
me for officer sh Handler and officer
taros thank
you to the officers in this room first
of all ma'am thank you very much for
that I appreciate your support for the
officers in this room that's your
leadership that's your management those
are the ones that have your
back okay don't forget that nobody
nobody came down here for that but
you'll take a knee for George Floyd a
felon uh the last thing I'll say
is it would be good for you guys to
start just looking for the truth and
speaking the truth and doing the
research that needs to be done like my
wife said there's a lot of hard work to
be done here the healing starts when
accountability starts and that
accountability starts with truth thank
you thank you mayor that concludes the
uh Communications from
citizens you got
it thank you vice mayor anyone else want
to comment on anything they've heard
during Communications thank you speakers
continue to utilize the oneway citizen
comment section of the Town Council
meetings to share their opinions
regarding the office of digital
government Town
leadership continuing to highlight
claims that were thoroughly investigated
internally than externally by a third
party investigator who found the
accusations had no merit I'm concerned
with the potential Damage Done to
Gilbert's name heart and the town
organization by these continued efforts
of a few to highlight allegations
opinions and claims the spoken word has
the capacity to inflict damage this
community is facing many pressing issues
I respect and welcome any and all
efforts and energies that work to
bringing us together as a community not
those that divide us any that moves us
forward in a positive manner any that
honor the town's small town rots we all
know and love those neighborly attitudes
that were the very reason many of us
moved to Gilbert I challenge us to be
better humans to each other moving on to
Future meetings anything that anyone
would like to discuss for future
meetings
seeing none Communications report from
the town
manager thank you mayor members of the
council Judy if I could have you bring
up we've prepared a short video uh that
highlights the budget that was adopted
tonight for the upcoming fiscal
year videos are always harder aren't
they
Judy I know
to the town the Gilbert Fire and Rescue
Department implemented its first
electric fir truck as a Frontline
apparatus it's the third electric fir
truck in the nation and the first one to
be implemented in Arizona construction
on the new and improved water tower plot
began and is expected to be
completed hey Gilbert ever wonder how
our town is planning for the future the
decisions we make today will shape our
community for years to come let's take a
look at some of the Improvement last
year's budget brought to the town the
Gilbert Fire and Rescue Department
implemented its first electric fir Tru
as a Frontline apparatus it's the third
electric firet truck in the nation and
the first one to be implemented in
Arizona construction on the new and
improved Water Tower Plaza began and is
expected to be completed in the fall of
2024 new additions like a shaded and
water efficient Splash Pad new restroom
facilities an event lawn and landscaping
and lighting improvements will add to
the already vibrant Heritage District we
also added shade to the dugouts at
McQueen Park and playground equipment is
scheduled to be replaced at Cactus yards
freeone recreation center and Sonora
Town Park we remain focused on Gilbert's
future water needs with work continuing
on the expansion of Gilbert's North
Water treatment plan which upon
completion will provide water to More
than 70% of Gilbert homes and businesses
work also started on several new
drinking water well sites across the
community to enhance system reliability
and Safeguard against future challenges
so what will next year's budget bring
over the next fiscal year we will begin
designing the future phases of Gilbert
Regional and desert sky parks to add
more opportunities for play in the
community construction will also start
on the aao bridge and an additional
access road at Gilbert Regional Park to
improve traffic flow and Public Safety
response times in the area Gilbert will
be expanding the use of drone technology
to improve the town's five and police
response and better support our Public
Safety teams the town will be adding
about 46 new positions including a youth
Community engagement officer for the
Gilbert Police Department to help Foster
relationships and trust between Youth
and the police department and in
partnership with the Gilbert Chamber of
Commerce we will be opening the Gilbert
business resource center to help
businesses throughout the community
that's not all construction is scheduled
to begin on the Gilbert Advocacy Center
which will provide comprehensive Support
Services to victims of domestic violence
child abuse sexual assault and other
forms of interpersonal violence as our
town approaches build out we're focused
on keeping the thriving community that
Gilbert is today well into the future
join us as we're shaping a new tomorrow
today that's all I have tonight May
that's all Patrick video and that's it
thank you next report from the council
everybody okay so um I wanted to
announce that I was selected for the um
Chandler Unified School District teen
violence Advisory Board we had our first
meeting um today and we plan on meeting
uh a number of times over the next year
to take a look at what's happening in
the Chandler Unified School District and
um and how we can use um some of the uh
data to uh change some of the things
going on in the schools so with that I
have my so have my parks and wreck
happening for the week here we go summer
camps are starting up many of our summer
camps began this week learn to fly a
drone try try a new sport like lacrosse
refine refine your dance technique craft
the summer what craft the summer away or
even star in your own movie we also
offer summer preschool at the Gilbert
Community Center whatever your child is
interested in we have something for them
sign up now skate with the pros I'm
gonna kill this person's name but join
us for an exciting evening on Monday
June 10th from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm at
Freestone Skate Park this is a unique
opportunity to skate along alongside two
of the world's top professional
skateboarders Cody McIntyre and Julia
buner enjoy an evening of fun and
inspiration with fellow skateboarding
enthus enthusiasts while also sharing
feedback on the future skate park at
gilber Regional Park don't miss this
chance to learn from the pros and
continue your ideas to develop the new
skate park in
Gilbert and there's no
more anyone else have comments from
thank you council member toris said well
I just wanted to say that uh Friday
night uh Chuck and I took upon ourselves
to check out our parking lots
at oh well I was going to get there I
was going to get there son if you want
to talk you can do it the but uh we took
it upon ourselves Bobby Bobby joined us
and of course she was pure as the driven
white snow because Bobby doesn't do
anything wrong but as we sat up there uh
four officers who had we didn't know
didn't know us uh informed us we were
loitering it's not allowed it was time
to leave uh took my ID and
information uh and so I do think that
that they're up there doing their job
and then we went to we thought we'd
sneak to the next parking lot uh which
we found an officer at so we didn't get
out of the car and smoke a cigar there
because we knew we were going to get
thrown out right away so our what we
thought would be a couple hour Excursion
really turned out to be more of like 45
minutes before we just exhausted all our
possibilities but we did see police
actively uh
patrolling and engaging and talking and
one of them actually she said he'd
probably see us at Fox and get a cigar
later so but uh I just wanted to say we
took our time to really look and it
won't be the last time but it was kind
of fun to get my ID pulled at 59 years
of
age anyone else have comments from coun
yes Council Buckley sorry I well I just
I just wanted to comment on that on my
way down town um I did see at the stop
sign I was going to turn left I think it
was on V maybe or Paige but I was
turning left to meet these two guys here
and on the corner were four of the
bicycle officers that were patrolling
downtown they were getting to the other
side of the street so they are there and
I don't know if I can make this comment
now but the young lady that said the
officers were just standing in a the
line at the bottom of the parking garage
my guess is they were standing there for
the presentence that they would present
to keep these kids cuz what kids are
going to walk past the line of police
officers they had the ones on the top in
case some did get through that's just my
thought but they're out there and
they're down there and I've seen them
I've seen numerous of them and they're I
think they're doing everything they they
can
do any other reports from
Council none okay then I'll move on to
report for mayor so this morning or this
afternoon we had a report on FOX 10
Phoenix that interviewed one of our
Solid Waste operators I just wanted to
mention that because it's a really cool
story about an act of kindness he did
last week for our young Gilbert boy the
boy's mother made a post on Facebook and
um provided a picture of our staff
member stopping to talk to her son and
it said and she said the um Public Works
um member really made this the boy's day
and just wanted to say thank you to that
driver he's a garbage truck driver and I
know what it takes for them to drive
those trucks and the motion that they go
through all day long and to stop and get
out of his truck and to I'm I'm I
haven't seen the video yet because I've
been here but I'm hoping that he
probably gave him a little truck or
something cuz we have those great little
Gilbert um garbage truck so I'm hoping
that that's what that was but I want to
say thank you to that employee and I
closed my email before I got to his name
that was um Joe right Joe yeah Jeff Jeff
oberin so I just want to thank Jeff for
going out of his way and doing something
so kind for a young boy in our community
and our garbage truck drivers really are
they're the best like seriously the best
um and if you know a high school age
team and Gilbert that's interested in
learning about local government and
Leadership while volunteering mayor's
youth advisory committee is the perfect
fit we are accepting applications for
the 2024 2025 mayak until 11:59 p.m. on
June 30th we had to move that date up
earlier this year because of other
situations that are coming up with other
opportunities for our youth involved in
U mayor's Youth and um we have our
Gilbert veterans advisory board had put
out a request for people to purchase
banners to honor their Heroes and those
banners were hung in downtown Gilbert in
the Heritage District on Gilbert Road
and they were hung prior to Memorial Day
and they will stay up until just after
Independence Day recognizing those
Heroes and they'll come down on July 8th
but they will go back up again for
Veterans Day so just want to say thank
you to everyone that attended our
Memorial Day event here at Town Hall and
if you get a chance to get downtown and
take a look at those banners that are
hanging on the light poles in in the
Heritage district and take a moment to
think of the people that have given
their lives for us to serve this country
and thank you to the American Legion
Post 39 for um being part of our
ceremony on Monday Memorial Day and then
hosting us down there for a little while
following that for breakfast and that's
all I have thank you I'll take a motion
to
adjourn make a motion tojn council
member Buckley all in favor
I meeting adjourned
You' done good I can't see you from up
there I thought you left yeah
children
I can
feel I just I