Regular Meeting - 1/23/2024 6:30:00 PM

check one two check one two three test
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good even evening welcome to the January
23rd 2024 Gilbert toown council meeting
just a reminder to please turn off and
Silent cell phones and devices before
our meeting begins I will call this
meeting to order our first item on our
agenda is an invocation from student
Pastor Jeremiah Dennis of Redeemer Bible
Church come down to the podium please
and thank you for being here this
evening just push the microphone button
to turn the microphone on it will light
up when you get the button
right there we go thank
you well if you will uh bow with me for
a word of
prayer father we thank you for the gift
of government you tell us in the Bible
that all authority comes from you and
that you actually have given us our
leaders for our
benefit as such we are grateful for them
and Lord we know that in the scriptures
you command us to pray specifically for
our leaders in government so we want to
do that father we ask that you would
grant them wisdom and Grant them
discernment as they make decisions that
affect our
community pray that they would walk in
Integrity with the highest honor Lord
may they promote the well-being of all
of the folks and the people in our
community and we ask that as they do
that as they serve us that they would
derive tremendous Joy from their public
service and sacrifice may they honor you
Lord in all that they do in this
position of influence we ask this in the
name of your son Jesus
amen thank you Jeremiah we appreciate
that invocation next we'll have the
Pledge of Allegiance and it will be led
by council member Buckley please
stand please join me I pledge alance to
the flag of the United States of
America stand
naice next can I please have the town
clerk offer the roll call Mayor Bridget
Peterson here vice mayor Scott Anderson
here council member Chuck Bon Giovani
here council member Bobby Buckley here
council member Young Kowski here council
member Kathy tilki here and council
member Jim Tason here Quorum is present
thank you so much cheli moving into
presentations and proclamations we have
none on our agenda this evening so we'll
move to Communications from citizens and
I will pass the mic to you vice mayor
thank you
mayor Communications from citizens the
Gilbert Town Council Valu citizens
comments and input anyone wishing to
speak before the council must fill out a
request to speak 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 for 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
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 the
matter be put on a future agenda 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 and each person will
be given three minutes to
speak uh we did have some cards that
were filled out tonight for this portion
of the meeting but they're actually part
of the public hearing process and it'll
be a little bit later on the mayor will
address those first up
tonight will be Shane
krower Shane will be followed by Carol
cherry
all right good evening mayor Peterson
and council members thank you so much my
name is Shane krower my wife and I and
our kids I've been in here here in
Gilbert for quite some time as a young
boy working in downtown Gilbert as a
teenager in the 1980s my mom who is an
immigrant from Europe said this is not
only the hey capital of the world this
is the freest town in the country and I
think what's very clear now is that's
not the case anymore we have Rising
concerns with increase in crime we've
got a recent wave of town violence or
teen violence that we're concerned about
and we want to ensure that something
like the Preston Lord case doesn't ever
happen again but yet we have a mayor and
a council that has remained silent in
the face of much of this that's going on
and I look at the protocol of mayors
that are going on all over the country
just recently the mayors of Rochester
Jersey City and Atlanta have called
press conferences and talked about the
crime going on in their community and
making it clear to the public where
we're going just like last night the
Queen Creek mayor showed up at the Town
Hall and yet our mayor was absent and
mayor Peterson with all due respect the
ribbon cuttings that are quite often
done I think are important it's
important to have solid communication
and relationships with businesses coming
here that wish to remain here but far
more important than those relationships
is being a sound strong voice in the
midst of the chaos that's going on in
our community the anxiety that's being
experienced by so many why there is this
refusal to talk with the press or to
engage with the media is really Beyond
understanding in the community the
people here are concerned about this and
I think really what we're looking for is
just competent leadership and maybe even
more than that we're looking for the
individuals that were actually elected
to run the government Mr Banger Mr Payne
uh Chief soberg they were not elected
they are accountable to you and yet a
lot of folks have this appearance that
they're running the government and not
the council here and so there are a
couple of concerns that are going on
with regard to another individual that
we're very concerned about and a story
that just recently broke with regard to
the digital
Department uh Dana Burman if these
things are true I hope that this Council
acts aggressively because these things
are irresponsible from the town
government's perspective and they're
fundamentally illegal if they are true
number one
1.1
$1.1 million is absolutely irresponsible
I'm not suggesting that social media
from a government's perspective is not
important but it's not to be used as a
political platform it's be to be used as
an information outlet and there's
evidence that goes to point number two
it is being used as a political Outlet
Dana Burman again if the story is true
has her own political philosophy that is
being Advanced through a platform that's
funded by by the taxpayers of Gilbert
and she goes out on her own social media
platform and does the same thing yet is
governing what the employees that work
for the town are ultimately saying on
their platform itself this is illegal
and if the town doesn't do something
about it they will lose because the
courts will knock this down it's a
fundamental violation of the
Constitution it's a fundamental
violation of the rule of law please one
of our rules of decorum is to hold your
applause would you please indulge Us in
that and I may just finish thank you um
we're looking for a government that
follows the rules we're looking for a
government that equally applies the law
across the board and we're ultimately
looking for a government that we can
trust thank you next up is Carol
Cherry Carol will be called be followed
by Pam
sevil my name is Carol Cherry I chose
Gilbert as my home in 2008 back then it
was a safe familyfriendly town with
common sense
leadership fast forward to today and our
sadly our beautiful Community is hardly
recognizable and Common Sense is sorely
lacking our children are being
threatened with vicious beatings and
even death by the infam infamous Gilbert
goons and now now we find out that we
have another group of goons threatening
segments of our community that would be
the office of digital government these
dozen or so thought police order super
supervisors to confront any employee who
dares to speak against the progressive
narrative even if that speech is on a
personal social media account what's
more outrageous is that he like he just
said we're paying these people over a
million dollars a year to do that does
that make any
sense I urge the council to review your
priorities at the top of that list
should be upholding citizens
constitutional rights such as free
speech funding education and providing
basic services like water and trash
collection paying people to spy on
employees has no place on any
respectable towns priority list I'd like
to see this odg completely dismantled
and to funded immediately replace it
with a Communications Department that
has a clear mission statement that
follows constitutional principles and is
staffed by people who are capable of
leaving their personal political agendas
out of the workplace Thank
you Pam
Cil Pam will be followed by Monty
Lions thank you for giving us this
opportunity to speak I know it's part of
the standard format of these meetings
and I think it's excellent for people
such as myself I'm not as eloquent as
Carol and Shane but I think it's it's
really important for you to know that
even those of us who might not be quite
as gifted with our words are still very
concerned very motivated to help you
guys or to do whatever we need to
improve these issues for Gilbert both
the the painfully long time with the
Gilbert goon situation so many people
are concerned everybody I know that I
speak to is like oh yes you know people
who are not politically active know
about this talk about it worry about
about it and they can't understand how
it has taken so long I can't either then
I know with the the office of digital
governance that really shocked me and on
one level I know in the world things
like that are happening but at the same
time this is the US this is Gilbert it's
a violation of the Constitution and it's
a right that if the town of Gilbert
can't protect that or support that for
their own employees or Town Council then
what are we then we're going to totally
lose our reputation I know that many
people have really looked up to Gilbert
as an excellent place to live for many
reasons including safety and being a
constitutionally directed type of or um
government organization now both of
those are called into question so I
really am hoping to see in here that the
Town Council is going to
actively report back to us what are they
going to do about that incredible amount
of money being spent by the office of
digital governance a real accountability
not just like oh yeah we took care of
that then
also really looking forward to hearing
more about you know arrests and
appropriate Justice for those who been
impacted thank you thank you next Monty
[Applause]
Lions
yeah Monty will be followed by Gregory
beers
my name is Bonnie Lions I live here in
Gilbert um 820 North swallow Lane came
to you tonight to talk to you about the
office of digital governance the odg one
of the things that concerned me as I
looked at media presentations about the
town across the nation over the last few
weeks there's been three stories that
have came out of Gilbert all negative
and I don't think that's how we want our
town to be known prior to this time we
were known for being a safe City a great
City to come to a great city to live in
these kind of things do not bode well
for us as a leader in business anytime
something comes up that's an allegation
of any type of Mal feance or wrongdoing
or even questionable conduct we
typically put together a panel to take a
look at things to see if there's any
type of U Credence to those type of
allegations in this case what I'm
requesting of you is to do something
similar to that pull together a team a
third party to take a look and see if
there's any any evidence of any type of
impropriety with this particular entity
and if that is the case if there is any
any indication that something might be
there I think that the leader of that
organization should be put on
administrative leave as well as the head
of HR because they would not be able to
do the things they've been alleged to do
without their concurrence frankly and I
think that there needs to be a third
party brought in to take a look at this
suspend the operations of that
particular organization till we find out
whether or not the things that they were
doing are appropriate or not appropriate
if they weren't appropriate it needs to
be shut down immediately now for my
family I have a vested interest in this
because I've seen things like this
before and I've heard stories about it
before my wife's family spent time in
concentration camps in Germany and died
there they fled to Germany from Russia
because they saw the same things I've
heard stories time and again over the
holidays about the things that they
endured my sons myself my uncles and my
grandfather we all fought against
authoritarian regimes in the US military
I've seen people die my family has shed
blood for this it is something I'm very
passionate about it's something I have
deep feelings about and I think it needs
to be addressed and addressed quickly
and effectively and the best way to do
that is for you guys take this
seriously get somebody who's objective
to look at it and get it into
perspective quickly and get that
information out to us what's going on
because frankly if it is
infected and I look at the the uh
Gilbert logo and I see odg in it and my
question in the back of my mind is
because I've know that there's some
controversy around the development of
that logo but are they the power behind
the city
that's a thing that came to mind when I
thought about this and I read about it
and that can't be the case the power
behind the city sits right back here and
you guys represent us and we're asking
you to take a lead on this and correct
it so thank you appreciate it please
again I'll remind you again please
refrain from
clapping we have a a decorum that we
keep here in the council chambers and
clapping is not part of that
please Gregory
ladies and gentlemen of the council
Madame mayor I appreciate you giving me
the opportunity to have a few words with
you this evening uh I do have a couple
of questions that I'd ask you and I see
I'm not I'm in good company here on the
topic um do you guys think that
government should follow the rule law
should they follow the rule
book and and I'm seeing nods among the
crowd so I know I'm talking to the right
people here I I too want to talk about
this office of uh
digital
governance this department in my opinion
and from the sounds of it many others is
responsible for the abolishment of free
speech in the marketplace of
ideas I don't see any way that's a
recommended way for us to run our city
for our government to run and behave
internally right or if it happened in
the community there'd be a huge uproar
right um I I'd like to ask the members
here and Madam mayor I'd like to ask you
if you can tell me exactly where the
Authority for you to create such a
department comes
from we're not able to answer I I
understand it was rhetorical but I
wanted to look at your faces and your
heads and see what I got in response and
I appreciate that I'll help you out
since I kind of figured you wouldn't be
able to answer the answer is neither the
Arizona Constitution nor the United
States Constitution Grant you the
authority to create such a device it's
not there and if it's not written there
it's not feasible for you to do it's not
possible so I'd like to ask you please
put on the agenda as others have asked
to disband this group return the funds
that are being used for this group to
the coffers of the City of Gilbert thank
you thank you next up is Richard
young following Richard will be Mark
Jaris jinsky
Richard I'm a resident of Gilbert it's
going to be difficult to follow those
people I agree with every single one of
them the odg is a catastrophe uh what
was it designed by Putin is that where
it came from we've heard people say it's
illegal well what does that mean
obviously nobody seems to care let me
give you an idea why you should care
maybe when you read these reports you
should have called your lawyers when
your lawyers read it they should have
called you 42 USC section 1983 that's
the United States code used to be called
the Klux Clan act what that basically
says is if you as a person and a person
includes a town deprive someone of their
constitutional rights that would be
including the First Amendment you can be
sued you can be sued under 42 USC
section 1983 there is no question their
suits brought under that all the time
frequently against school districts
because they are tempted to go over the
line in interfering with free speech
so you can be sued for what well you can
be sued for U basic damages you can be
sued for punitive damages there can be
an injunction who can be sued you think
oh well it's going to be the taxpayers
who lose no no not necessarily because
under this statute it turns out it can
reach around to personal
individuals when you're rolling the dice
on this one you're not putting the
taxpayer money on the field on the on
the Bays you're rolling the dice with
your own assets potentially you can
personally be sued you can personally
have a judgment brought against you for
doing
this and if if you lose and there's a
judgment then somebody will come and
take your house and your savings
accounts and the rest of it you do not
want this you do not want a 42 USC
section 1983 suit against any of you and
this includes everybody in that
Department you need to get in touch with
your lawyers you need to find out right
now what potential liability you have in
this I don't know because I haven't
explored the ins and outs of it but you
are potentially at risk they need to
look at it and in the meantime you
probably need to close that put them on
ad paid administrative leave but don't
let them do this stuff any longer spying
on your employees on their social media
and then coming back here and taking
action against them that is outrageous
if I were on a jury I would award
punitive damages on this count on it it
is simply outrageous it's
totalitarian and then once you've taken
a good look at it you probably need to
abolish this thing all together and you
need to probably take a good look at
whoever is responsible for creating this
organization and maybe that person
should be showing the door as well
because that was terrible dangerous
advice dangerous not only for for the
town for the town reputation for the
town assets and for the assets of the
individuals who are implementing this
program you need to end it you need to
end it
now next up Mark jinsky Mark will be
followed by Joanna jinsky
my name is Mark shinski and I'm a
resident of Gilbert Arizona
I deeply value my right to freedom of
speech and expression in our Republic it
has come to my attention that we have an
entire department of city employees the
office of digital
government that that is paid via
taxpayer dollars to monitor the online
speech of employees and elected
officials control all government
Communications online and enforce
Conformity with a progressive political
agenda the behavior of the office of
digital government is negligent and
represents a gross overreach of
government Authority in manipulating
public sentiment and suppressing
differing viewpoints that don't align
with the political agenda and talking
points of this
entity this is unacceptable in our town
government and the overreach of this
office should be swiftly and decisively
addressed by being disbanded in favor of
preserving the rights of the American
citizens in our town that are being
terrorized by its
tactics we demand transparency and
neutrality from our local government
offices they should serve all residents
equally without pushing any political
agendas we must ensure that every
Citizen's voice is heard and respected
regardless of their political or other
beliefs no one's right to free speech
should be cancelled and we all have a
responsibility to respect the opinions
of others
even when we
disagree that brings
Unity the first amendment guarantees us
freedom of speech a right that should be
upheld and respected by all government
entities please dismantle the office of
digital government in Gilbert and uphold
everyone's right to free speech without
governmental interference thank you for
your time thank you Mark
Joanna up next Joanna to be followed by
Steve
lavil
I am a resident of
Gilbert ma'am ma'am can you pull the mic
down closer to you thank you I have
recently become aware of an organization
in this town that monitors the opinions
of City officials if they deem that
another's right to free speech bumps up
against their ideology often political
they
react including censoring the opinions
of of these
Americans even on their own personal
social media
accounts they are the office of digital
government in Gilbert and we the
taxpayers pay their salaries to monitor
us they are taking hostage the First
Amendment rights of Our Own Town
officials and
citizens ironically the head of odg
locked up her own ex account
locked up her own account which I find
hypocritical this is government
overreach and an invasion of our first
amendment rights is the office of
digital government cyber bullies who
cannot handle the opinions of others is
this another tool of government to
suppress Free Speech who opened up this
agency and why should they be further
investigated
so many questions it seems to me that
it's time for this Town Council to
examine this agency much more closely
and take the appropriate action this
type of government overreach is very
divisive and detrimental to our entire
Community I would even say
orwellian as a city as City
officials you of all people should know
the freedom of speech is a principal
pillar of a free republic and should be
respected stalking accounts daily and
erasing someone else's rights to free
speech because it does not align with
government narratives is not what this
Republic was founded on Who Have We
Become this is destructive to a free
Society freedom of speech is a
Bedrock of a republic but the timid and
the fearful F seem held bent to suppress
It Free Speech should always be
protected always especially from the
government itself when necessary we
should all have the right to express our
opinions and be willing to accept
opposing views so let's bring this
hidden political agenda of the office of
digital government fully into the light
so we can have a chance at respect and
unity
again thank you thank
you Steve
lail Steve will be followed by Stacy
LV all right good evening uh my name is
Steve lval and I am here to uh Well
everybody's exposed odg so let's talk
about Mr Baner and the hiring practices
of the Gilbert uh town uh by the way I'm
sorry I left my black coffee outside
because I didn't want to be called
racist when I came in here tonight okay
uh false claims that's what you guys
said on the news the other night false
claims so Patrick Baner paid uh using
taxpayer money paid over $113,000 to
pierce Coleman back in 2021 I believe
to do a report on the hiring practices
of the fire
department I'm not going to get into the
details but in this it says nothing in
the evidence reviewed by the
investigating team indicated the town
changed traditional process or lowered
standards during this
process that's a
lie February 13 2020 an email
Christopher Buckingham to tamaa Hartman
she works for the HR department CC Ryan
K and Bob badget hi TOA follow-up
conversation today attached in the
interview sheets
uh we will invite uh through a test
score of 87 note that 87 big
number uh February 22nd Bob badget to
Jim jush former fire chief my former
boss this letter is to let Chris and I
uh this letter is to let Chris and I
agreed upon I support the message and
we'll let you know uh when we hear from
the committee the committee being the
committee of firefighters that are going
to do the interviews okay Chris's uh
email says on Thursday afternoon I was
informed that while the original cut off
for the first round of interviews score
of 87 or higher was established and and
we will continue to use that we are also
uh it says here uh it's being honored
excuse me there would be an additional
invite extended to other candidates who
scored below the cut off this will
increase our number by 10% 10% of 87 I
mean of of the 87% 10% of the number so
we're talking 10% of 220 you're talking
like 20 something 30 something people
not 400 that ended up coming uh February
24th Bob badget to Jim jush I wanted to
clarify a few details for your meeting I
was told that the decision to adjust the
list came from the manager's office that
would be Patrick Banger's
office uh the initial Pro proposal was
to remove 28 passing people and replace
them with a different
28 I told Nathan we would prefer to
expand the list by 28 Nathan being your
director of HR so as you can see you
have corruption through throughout your
entire organization there's your 28
people okay all 28 no names of course
right all 28 minorities and
women does that help taxpayers is that
better service just to follow this up on
February 25th Bob badget second in
command by the way the the guy Rob Dugen
the first guy in command knew all about
this too okay so he says in an email
with Tama Hartman who her responses are
in red he says uh Tama can you confirm
the number of interviews invitees we
have currently extended this would
include the scores of 87 and the extra
28 that were added by HR she says we
sent out
259 interesting
259 uh there's one more sorry Chris
Buckingham to uh Ryan Cen and Michael
Connor this is back in now may this is
months after that says uh Hey interviews
March 2nd through the 6 test scores of
80% to 87% plus the 28 selected by HR
259 invitees I don't know how Pierce
Coleman couldn't find that in their
investigation but I'd ask for my money
back because that's ridiculous okay I
have more to discuss and I think I'm out
of time yeah I would get to odg and I
have a bunch of crap about odg and I
have a bunch of stuff about the lack of
leadership in this organization and I
used to be employed here and I got fired
for saying black coffee that's it okay
un
unacceptable thank you next next is
Stacy
lavel Stacy will be followed by Dave
Burner you give it to
me can I take those three minutes can I
have the three
minutes yes or no the
council up to the council yes perfect go
ahead perfect let's get to some examples
then if I get the three minutes let's
quickly talk about your
personnel in your own town policies okay
the Town manager shall be responsible
for the proper administration of all
Affairs okay key staff members
Department directors they're responsible
for the compliance of these policies as
well so is the chief people's team's
officer so let's get
to uh let's see here
1-5 ethics it is the policy of Gilbert
to uphold promote and demand the highest
standards of Ethics from all employees
accordingly all employees shall maintain
the utmost standards of personal
integrity truthfulness honesty respect
and fairness in carrying out their
public duties avoid any improprieties
including but not limited to
discriminatory practices which is what I
just talked about discriminatory
practices the town should be sued uh
rights of citizens accept as otherwise
provided in this policy employees May
exercise their rights as Citizens to
Express Personal political
opinions and they're being denied that
right all your employees are I don't
care what side they sit on they're being
denied the right
use of position employees shall not
express political opinions in their role
as representatives of Gilbert Dana
Burman does that on a daily basis a
daily basis I have the proof right here
my guy that just got served again
another restraining order which is BS
here he is President Trump cardboard
cutout picture with a former engineer of
this town okay he gets written up for
this Gilbert ytown topa and Bernie
Sanders no one gets written up for this
okay Steve lval gets an email from Rob
Dugen your current chief and in his
message he says I think the message of
the counseling should be something like
and this is a quote I'm reading his
quote we noticed this picture and it's
fine that you support Trump or whoever
you want to support but you need to be
careful in the
future wow overreach right there all
right let's go on to the firetruck post
at Dana Burman she makes I don't know
what is it
$210,000 a year on August 21st 2020 she
says hey um I wanted to make you guys
aware that our firet trucks engine 257
drove by and turned on its Sirens to
support protesters at the back the blue
rally yesterday we're paying her that
much money for that that's unbelievable
okay uh let me just make sure I'm not
missing anything on that oh wait yes I
am look at that this is Dana birchman
posting okay black lives matter and she
literally says we hear you we stand with
you you however my engineer gets written
up for flying a blue line flag after the
uh Chandler officer and I have to I have
to show him respect so hold on a minute
I look at my notes because this is
important to
me on and I'll finish after this but on
April 30th of 2021 the tragic events
that took the off the life of Officer
Ferrara from Chandler PD and injured
officer Aranda and we flew a blue line
flag behind our truck and it was a Wii
because there was eight people at my
station that agreed to do that and Josh
Reynolds took the brunt of it and got
written up okay he got written up
because he used the word we Dana Burman
uses the word we and doesn't get written
up at all uh I have I have a lot more
where this came from I'll end it with
this I'll end it with this okay you all
took an oath of office so did I when I
came here so I'm going to read mine okay
I Steve Laval do solemnly swear that I
will support the Constitution of the
United States and the Constitution and
laws of the State of Arizona and the
ordinances of the town of Gilbert
Maricopa County Arizona that I will bear
true faith and allegiance to the same
and defend them against all enemies
foreign and domestic and that I will
faithfully and impartially discharge the
duties of the office of firefighter now
I sign that and I mean that okay and I
still take that oath very seriously okay
so you should take your OES very
seriously I'm going to leave you with
one last thing and this is it I'm sorry
but we elect We the People right we
elect you the citizens I mean we the
people and the citizens elect you the
coun council we want you to have the
guts to protect the firstman right of
the citizens and the employees are you
willing to fight the tyranny of the
federal and state and local governments
I know I'm willing uh I will continue to
stand in the Gap and speak for those who
can't like your employees and I will
fight for those who can't or won't but I
will not let the opportunities that were
afforded to me from the sacrifices of
the generations before me die without a
fight will you stand in the Gap and will
you pray stand speak and
act thank you Steve Dave
Burner Dave will be followed by Steve
[Applause]
Burman Dave
Burner followed by Steve
Burman
good evening thank you for this
opportunity as a former director of the
board of a corporation here in Gilbert
Arizona for over four years I understand
the challenges of being up there and
listening to
people Express their feelings and their
concerns so I do realize the importance
of it so I stand here before you this
evening with that
background and I also ask the Holy
Spirit to come here this evening and to
pray that he fills your hearts and your
minds with courage strength and
wisdom and I pray that you not just
listen to the comments of my fellow
Gilbert residents but you actually hear
their
concerns of what appears to be a total
violation
of the First Amendment rights of Gilbert
employees and potentially Gilbert's
residents you all know in your hearts
and Minds that the purpose of the office
of digital governance is just
wrong potentially illegal and definitely
immoral and I ask that you eliminate
this department thank you for the
opportunity to speak thank
you Steve Burman Steve will be followed
by
paulwe former mayor Steve Burman hi
Steve thank you need to be recognized
yes you know it's funny I spent so many
years on your side getting beat up by
people it's hard uh but sir turn I think
it's I'm not going to uh it's ironic
that the office of digital government
that accused our mayor Peterson of
creating a hostile work environment is
now spying on our citizens if that isn't
a hosle to work enironment I don't know
what it is uh what gives this department
the right to spy on anybody's Facebook
account and then report the results to
the town
manager the role of government is to
provide our citizens with things they
can't provide for themselves roads
sewers fire protection police protection
garbage and the like the office of
digital man management doesn't do any of
those things it it just spies on the
community reports to the city manager
now it's not the city manager's role to
worry about what people's political
opinions are I don't care if he is woke
or tea party that's just not his
job it would be very difficult for mayor
Peterson to take the lead on disbanding
this organization because since they
filed a complaint against her it'll look
like a reprisal so this one's on the
rest of you
guys what you need to do is at least
four of you is go and visit uh city
manager and say this department goes
away and that's all it
takes people
are people are going to hold you all
accountable for something that I don't
think any of you were a part of I would
like to see you disband the department
and take the money that's being paid now
and we can fund the salaries of 15 new
police officers for Gilbert I think you
find a lot of
people who'd rather spend the money on
more cops than on you know a secret
place that's you know uh spying on on
the on the employees thank you thank you
Steve Paul schen to be followed by Scott
Rundy Madame mayor appreciate it
appreciate the opportunity to speak this
evening want to start off by thanking
both Steve and Steve lvll well done some
really good information seems spot on uh
I kind of would like to go the opposite
direction I kind of want to go to 30,000
feet here I I know there's a lot rumors
and upset people about this
department uh I myself find it
disturbing and uh a serious overreach
but in all fairness to this process I
think the public deserves some answers
to some very very simple questions like
number one what was the driving force
behind the creation of this
department I mean what why why was it
put together I I I look online I don't
find any anything and and I'm wondering
what what are what are the goals what
what are the what what I mean this is a
clear intrusion and infringement on the
freedom of speech it's it's just so
clear I literally decided to look and
try to find out what are the goals and
and and do you guys think those goals
have been
met and if they haven't well then
disband it and this recommendation to to
have police yeah why don't we take the
money and use it for something that you
can be praised for I'm I'm just I just
can't believe I live you know by the way
Paul I live I live here in Gilbert and I
I'm just so surprised and and quite
honestly just
disappointed because all of you are
really smart people and you work so hard
to create a a community that that we we
love and you love and I see people that
are being Torn to Pieces over some of
the silliest policy so I want to know
what the driving force is why was this
created was it a policy was it an
incident was it uh a think than that got
together and thought this was a good
idea I think we deserve to know that
much what are the goals were the goals
met and and what about the people that
are that are doing these observations I
mean what qualifies them and what what
are they you know the reporting they're
doing I mean it's doing damage to a lot
of lives and I just think at 30,000 fet
we deserve answers to some very very
simple questions thank you very much
thank you Scott
[Applause]
Rundy Scott
Rundy he'll be followed by teresia
Arnold Carissa Arnold
sorry good evening my name is Scott
Rundy I am the chair of the Town Council
watch committee for legislative district
14 and I came here tonight because
because in 1972 I took an oath to this
US Constitution and the Declaration of
Independence it's an oath you all took
also you should take
seriously all of my CI fellow citizens
have spoken to this office of digital
governance and it's something you need
to take care of immediately I want it
disbanded I want the funds redirected
something useful say a water project
like the water treatment plant that were
lacking so many things happened in the
article that was referenced by all the
other speakers it's
unbelievable so as a citizen as a
veteran as a first responder I ask you
please get rid of this now thank
you Carissa Arnold Carissa will be
follow followed by Christine Brennan
thank you for your service sir
sorry if this gets a little emotional
um close to the mic thank you in January
of 2021 my daughter was sexually
assaulted multiple times by a student at
our high
school we went through and press
charges um what would later come with
intense bullying my kids livestock my
son got pulled into the situation my
kid's livestock was teased on the high
school campus we we had property
vandalism on the high school campus we
had it is a situation that we are still
dealing with today three years
later my daughter is not the only one he
went after he targeted her and he
targeted at least three other
girls our situation involved a huge
group of kids at our high school one of
which has been publicly named in the
death Preston
Lord a weapon was used on our high
school
campus and I'm going to say a weapon
should never be used in play but it was
done in
play
and one of the kids who was the culprit
and and using this
weapon was a football player and none of
these kids were
prosecuted We Believe fully that that
weapon was also used on my daughter's
goat at the high school we have video of
panic attacks when this certain kid
would come into the
barn my family has endured so much
through this entire situation and we
have fought like crazy to get Justice
from my daughter when charges finally
went to the County prosecutor because we
had a partial confession in court we
were told that because it was a
firsttime offense from their side the
charges got dropped and he walked away
and three more girls have since been
assaulted and because of everything
everything that has happened to us these
girls are terrified to come forward and
to my knowledge we are the first people
speaking out about sexual assaults and
based on all of the research work that's
been done there's no doubt in my mind
that this is connected back to the gang
that everybody has been talking about
with the violence there are multiple
girls who have been assaulted in these
situations
my big thing here is I trying to
understand how our schools are getting
the opportunity to decide which kids are
and are not prosecuted when crimes are
happening on campus because we had
vandalism we had we had all of this
stuff going on and our
principal was interfering and getting to
make some of the decisions on this and
so this one kid who was involved in
Preston's death my question comes back
and I've asked our school district this
if you guys had stopped and prosecuted
this kid and to taken this case
seriously Preston might still be alive
today
thank you for
coming Christine
Brennan she'll be followed by Katherine
speaks
hi ladies and gentlemen I'm Christine
Brennan I am also one of the moms that
runs the Lily Waterfield page on
Facebook I want to talk about action and
inaction last night Gilbert Town Council
had a meeting at the same time as
channel 12's Community town hall and
team
violence three members of the Town
Council took action and left that
meeting early to attend Chuck Scott and
Jim your
actions your actions and your presence
was noticed and it is
appreciated what was thank you what was
also noticed and not appreciated at was
the absence and
inaction of Bobby Kathy young and
Bridget our very own Gilbert mayor who
was invited by Channel 12 your ongoing
lack of apparent care and inaction
around is honestly
shameful your inaction of and lack of
community engagement LED you to claim it
took you over 30 days to find out about
Preston Lord's murder your inaction has
led to a lack of action from our Police
Department your inaction continues to
allow teen gangs to run rampant and
cause fear and harm within our
community your inaction means that none
of the community events in support of
the Lords and our teens have seen
neither neither your your support nor
your presence in fact the only action
we've seen from you miss mayor is your
obvious attempt to derail the creation
of the teen violence
subcommittee so I ask you today do the
right thing take some action resign and
let somebody else lead our community and
take the right action thank you thank
you for
next up Katherine speaks Katherine will
be followed by Jeff
Manny Katherine speaks citizen of
Gilbert for over 30 years I raised my
son here was a great Community when I
moved here now what do we have over the
houses circling helicopters continually
and that is scary to me I moved out of
Mesa to Gilbert to avoid that kind of
crime
and I see that the crime is getting
stronger and stronger here and what are
we doing about it what's the town of
Gilbert doing about it what's the police
department doing about it mayor Peterson
We the citizenry of Gilbert are a
constitutional republic not Communists
we will not tolerate the
Communists from the office of digital
government nor will we tolerate the odg
violating the town of Gilbert
employees and elected officials First
Amendment which is listed in the Bill of
Rights which you might want to
review over $1 million annually has been
wasted on monitoring and
forcing
employees and officials to change their
social media
accounts according to the almighty
office of digital
government I
request you Madame mayor eliminate the
odg and return the millions of dollars
back to the town and the
citizens the citizens would like to know
where you and chief soberg were last
night when the town hall on team
violence was
held the other thing we want to know is
why will you not communicate with the
press or have any press
releases it is our town we deserve it it
is your job you took an
oath and held your hand up to and took
that oath to for the citizens of Gilbert
and you are not completing or finishing
or living up to that
oath
Madame mayor you are not the Queen of
Sheba town man ma manager Banger is not
the king of Farooq we are Americans
living in a constitutional republic
which includes the Bill of Rights and
protected by the Constitution which you
might want to review enjoy your last few
months as mayor because we the citizens
are going to vote you
out please please
Jeff
Manny Jeff is to be followed by
Natalie
deard de
Berard de Bernardo sorry D Bernardo de
Bernardo sorry go good evening um so I
haven't been to one of these Town
Council meetings in probably over a year
um and from some of the things I've
heard and one of the topics which I'll
talk about it's kind of sad to see
things the way our that the state our
city is in and and the problems we're
facing
um I'm uh kind of a child of the 80s I
mean I grew up pretty pretty much in the
80s and I just think back then if you
and I think most people here by the
looks of gray hair and and the wrinkles
we all have that uh we most of you
probably grew up in the 80s and boy if
you think about back back then what a
great time it was to be alive I mean we
had there were some problems but nothing
on the scale of what is going on today
and I'll say you know Gilbert I think is
still a good town I mean they're towns
that are a lot worse if you you know if
you do a lot of reading and research but
you know lot these problems are coming
to Gilbert and uh and hopefully we can
uh get to the bottom of this because
it's it's tough to see the city um kind
of getting torn apart um the way it is
and I I've been here since 2002 I moved
here from
Chandler
um I'm here to specifically talk a
little bit about the
the uh office of digital government
um recently I pulled out my yearbook
grew up in uh in the suburbs of a town
in Ohio graduated in
1985 and
uh I had one of the you know we all have
uh maybe fond memories of certain
teachers one of the fond memories of a
teacher I had was my senior English
teacher a lady named Mary Lou Moore and
she really taught me well how to
critically think and how we went and
dissected novels we went through well
early on in my senior year it was 1984
and we just happen to read the the novel
1984 by George
Orwell so if you've read
1984 you recall it was a dystopian World
um of author government
authoritarianism and one of the ways
they enforced that
authoritarianism was an agency called
the ministry of Truth
told you what to think and you dare not
criticize the
state so it was kind of shocking to see
these articles come out about this what
this office of digital government you
know that our town um that's part of our
town is doing um they're monitoring what
city workers say online they're pushing
political left narratives and they're
stifling contrary speech they're
disciplining city workers who don't tow
the line and they're interrogating them
too I'll read you some examples of what
they allegedly did from an
article records also reveal that OG
would spend business hours documenting
the nitty-gritty of Gilbert employees
social media activity even down to what
they liked post critical of
odg the same day of the January 6 breach
of the capital burchman sent an internal
group message at tasking her employees
with hunting down and tracking the
personal social media posts of one town
employee critical of them in that same
conversation burchman alluded that she
maintained a dosier of other Town
employees social media
posts burman's social media often delves
into the political her posts over the
years openly declared her support of
democratic candidates and Progressive
issues such as abortion gun control and
same-sex
marriage a bunch of old white guys not
interested wrote Burman in in response
to former president Trump's potential
cabinet selections so I I'll I'll stop
at that
um this is on American folks as some
people have already alluded to I mean
this violates free
speech um we have 10 to 12 employees in
this organization that are costing
taxpayers over $1
million and as people alluded to I think
this money could be better well spent uh
addressing some of the more real
pressing problems um asking the council
despite maybe some of your political
differences to unify and investigate
this odg I think everyone will agree
everyone up there hopefully agree that
this uh is
unamerican um you'll investigate the
origin of this agency when it was formed
what's its Charter was and how it's
evolved um I will note the response from
the odg in the article regarding these
allegations was basically to double down
in leftist fashion deny wrongdoings and
blame the problem employees sad horrible
Jeff are you about to wrap up I am about
to wrap up yes I'm asking you guys
to as others have had to dig into this
unify dig into this and I think you got
agree this is this is overreach put an
end to this unconstitutional
overreach and if these these allegations
against Miss burchman are true no no
leave of absence fire
her
Natalie de Bernardo Natalie just be
followed by Kevin
Bishop hi okay I'm Natalie de Bernardo I
have been a resident of Gilbert for
almost 20 years I have three teenagers
and I have Buried one of my children
here I lost her in 2017 to an act of
violence and I was going to say some
things but forgive me I'm going to go
off topic a little bit um and forgive me
if I'm nervous because like so many that
are afraid to speak up I too have been
bullied in by people in this room half
of the members that spoke tonight about
odg and about Facebook and about all
this have also done that to me when I
ran for office and they bully women this
subcommittee that we created I had high
hopes for it and as I watched it I
realized how off Bas and how out of
touch you guys are with really what's
going on parents like myself and this
wonderful woman that spoke we have been
working on this and been saying it's
been a problem it's a problem it's a
problem and this subcommittee what you
have done is you really created a
division committee because the reason
why none of our female Town councilmen
spoke is because the minute that
subcommittee was created open meeting
laws apply and now none of the women can
speak we've silenced the voices of the
mothers yet again and I am asking you
this is my formal request to put this as
an agenda item so that we can hear
everyone's opinion on it and to reopen
the discussion about making it an issue
that the community task force handles
because the subject is so broad we have
now I mean Rachel before these cameras
came we had Rachel Hansen she died a
year and a half ago my dear friend was
shot in her apartment her murder still
unsolved we have women being beat we
every time a child cuts themselves we
have teenagers committing suicide at at
an unprecedent rate and when we had the
T when I watched the um teen uh
subcommittee you guys are at Ground Zero
and and a lot of us are already way past
that and it needs to be brought over
there it you guys created a division
committee for us and I'm asking you to
please put your political beef aside
because this is not political for me
this is not political for these moms
this is real and it affects us long when
these cameras are gone long when all of
you are out of office Bob Miss Miss
Buckley sat at the last meeting when we
talked about creating the subcommittee
and said I want to be a part of the
committee she lost a child as well and
she got steamrolled nobody even asked
her if she wanted to be on it and she
had valuable valuable things to bring to
that committee so I am asking you as
not as Natalie de Bernardo that you know
I'm asking you as Natalie de Bernardo
the mother of a dead child which there's
no justice for that no no finding
Preston's killer doesn't do justice
there's no justice the only Justice is
bringing him back and that's not
possible so the only thing that we can
do to even make it somewhat right is to
prevent this from happening again and
that problem is so big and it requires
mental health specialist and it provides
the support of our Police Department all
of which the subcommittee cannot do so I
am asking you please please to
reconsider making this a community task
force issue and please add it to your
agenda so that the community can hear
from you and the community can be
involved and so that the mothers of our
Council aren't silenced
anymore thank
you Kevin Kevin will be followed by
April
tornquist good even thank you for
listening to me and thank you for
service Hey Kevin make sure you're
speaking right into the mic okay you
have a soft voice thank you yeah I get
told that all the time I don't know what
the deal is when I was younger I had a
better voice um I think all of you know
me and uh for the people in the room I I
run a hway management company based less
than a mile from here Ray and Lindsay we
manage a little over 45 communities in
the east Valley uh most of which are
Gilbert
based and so recently uh we've been made
aware that the town plans to increase
the large volume water
rates to that will affect HOAs by 50% in
April and so I wanted to discuss that
with you so that you understand I
realize that you're going to have some
round taes and I attend on participating
in those but I I just want to bring it
home and and and help us understand that
an HOA is required to produce a budget
that it makes available to its
membership generally no later than
December we start making that budget in
April I'm I'm sorry in August that
budget process starts it starts being
presented to boards in September
hopefully approved in October and set in
stone in November so it can be
communicated to the membership in
December
100% of the time the second largest
expense on that budget is
water and so now as we contemplate a 50%
increase in that water with our budget
set for
2024 we have no way to pay
it there is no mechanism in the
association's budget
process uh and in most of them there's
no mechanism to go back and say hey we
need to increase assessments to pay for
this extra water that's going to be
imposed upon the association so just a
few that we manage right around the
corner Rancho delverde has to come up
with
$25,000 uh during 2024 out of a zerob
based budget there's nowhere to take
that
money um Devon that's just down the road
here small Association they've got to
come up with
$8,750
out of their budget that they don't have
and they can't go to the membership mid
year and say we need more
money uh another example settler Meadows
just around the corner here as well uh
$16,250 they will have to come up with
out of thin air in their budget if this
increase is imposed in April as
planned and so my my voice you'll hear
it ring uh is that we Forstall that
increase until January give us a chance
to budget for it give us a chance to
increase assessments right now we're
looking at an assessment increase of
approximately $100 per home for those
who use potable water in the town of
Gilbert and so we would ask your
Indulgence just to push that back till
January so we can properly budget for it
and make the funds available thank you
thank you April tornquist
hi uh my name is excuse me my name is
April Turnquist I've got a couple of
items and I'll be very quick the first
is the water rate increase um I realize
that there's a legitimate uh reason for
a potential increase before you make a
decision on that I would like to see a
full audit of uh Water Resources here in
Gilbert and uh the uh the results of
that and let's just look at some other
options and uh the the second one is
related to uh the office of odg I've
lived in Gilbert for over 20 years I've
raised my kids here and uh I have I I
lived just a few uh miles away my entire
life I would visit my cousins who lived
in downtown Gilbert in the 1970s and as
you can imagine has changed a lot since
then
um the official Gilbert Communications
has taken
uh uh an inappropriate Direction and I
don't know exactly when it started uh
but the first thing that grabbed my
attention were post supporting uh the
black lives matter
organization it is improper for the
public relations department or the
office of digital Management in this
case of any town or city to promote or
show favoritism to any partisan
organization an example of good Public
Communication can be found uh from a
government entity can be found at
Central Arizona
project I'm a board member there and so
because of that I read all of their
Communications and their social media
posts and one would not be able to
determine their political leanings uh by
reading their
posts
I was recently informed that the
personal social media posts of town
staff are monitored and police I would
like to know if this is true and this
Behavior should not be tolerated we
should know better than to adopt the
rules of old socialist Russia and
communist
Germany this needs to be addressed there
are many individuals both here and not
here who are upset about the direction
that Gilbert is heading and motivated to
become much more vocal and involved
our logo which used to be beautiful is
now a guy sitting on a
toilet I hope this is not indicative of
the direction of Gilbert Gilbert was
special let's get back to
that thank you that that concludes
tonight's uh comments thank you all for
the comments you had mayor turn it back
to you yeah thank you vice mayor um is
there anyone that would like to comment
on anything this evening council members
Tuson yeah I would like to see if we
could have a future agenda item to
discuss the mission scope influence
funding post content public messaging
and even the name of the office of
digital government and if anybody would
like to join me on that I'll pass it
down
any other followup that anyone would
like to
offer B gani yeah I'll thank you mayor
I'll Reserve mine for um when I talk
about the uh teen violence
group thank you um there will be a recap
on that
um as stated I have to be very careful
because this is Communications from
citizens so we have to be very careful
and how we respond as stated Personnel
matters fall under the purview of our
town manager so I would ask that the
town manager um look into the
situation and report back to us if you
would choose to have that as a council
we can put this down the Das like you've
asked
um and at this time before we move on we
would like to ask Chief soberg to come
up and give us a
statement
good evening mayor and councel and
members of the
community I know our community is
hurting right now my heart is broken for
the pain and anguish that Preston Lord's
family must be experiencing through all
of this and and we will continue to
wholeheartedly support the Queen Creek
police department and the Maricopa
County Attorney's Office in their
pursuit of justice for Preston and his
family since his death the parents
families and Friends of additional
victims of teen violence throughout the
East Valley including here in Gilbert
are hurting and voicing their
frustration and concern many want to
know why is this happening why isn't our
Police Department doing more there are
many reasons as to why teen violence is
occurring and many hands will be needed
to help create meaningful long-term
Solutions the council subcommittee is
identifying communitybased Solutions and
strategies and we we the Gilbert Police
Department are fully committed to doing
our part and
more let me be clear the Gilbert Police
Department will not tolerate any act of
violence and we will continue to
investigate reports of crime and hold
any and all offenders accountable teen
or
otherwise over the past two years we
have made 23 arrests related to teen
violence including 10 in the past two
weeks and one of which just occurred
this
morning and there will be more more
arrests are coming as I stated in last
week's press conference in order for any
of these arrests to have been made our
detectives have to thoroughly review all
evidence associated with the crime
conduct interviews with all of the
individuals involved obtain multiple
search warrants complete digital
forensics examinations including
researching and verifying the
authenticity and accuracy of any social
media and when necessary submit evidence
to the crime lab all of this takes takes
time achieving Justice in the form of
successful prosecution of any offenders
takes time we hear the community's
frustration and desire for expedited
Justice and that is very much top of
mind while we are also committed to the
process of doing this right and we
appreciate the Public's and the media's
continued assistance in these
investigations what our community needs
to know is that our Gilbert officers and
detectives have been and continue
working tirelessly behind the scenes to
achieve these arrests all of our Focus
has been on these investigative efforts
behind the scenes as stated last week I
understand the community wants to hear
more from the police department and we
are committed to providing additional
information last week in addition to my
prior public statements we held our
first press conference on our
investigations into teen violence in
Gilbert we will continue to hold excuse
me we will be holding another one this
Thursday afternoon our goal is to
establish a weekly cas in sharing
information to help dispel inaccurate
information and provide greater
transparency to the media and ultimately
to our community we may not always be
able to provide answers due to ongoing
investigative efforts but we will do
what we can to facilitate greater
openness and
visibility in the meantime every parent
and every young person in Gilbert needs
to know this Gilbert is one of the
safest cities in the country continuing
to be ranked second safest city amongst
cities our size
if you know of or suspect any prior
active teen violence or of a potential
future act of violence please have the
courage to step forward and we will do
everything within our power to
investigate those and support the
successful prosecution of any offenders
most important of all we support you we
will not cease in our efforts to
continue pursuing identified alleged
suspects and perpetrators of violence we
will continue to do all we can to ensure
Gilbert remains safe for you and your
family thank
you thank you
Chief moving on to our consent agenda
back to you vice
mayor thank you
mayor uh we've been requested to pull
items four and eight are there any
additional items to be
pulled if not I will move approval of
items one
two 3
five item six I'll read the motion a
motion to appoint Jeremy McDonald to the
public facilities Municipal property
Corporation with a term beginning
January 23rd 2024 and ending January 1st
2027 item seven I'll make a motion to
appoint James Graham and Nicholas
Macaluso to the Water Resources
Municipal property Corporation of two
regular two regular members with full
terms beginning January 23rd 2024 and
ending January 11th
2027 and item
nine I have a motion by the vice mayor I
second seconded by council member
tilki please
vote motion passes
70 item four council member tor
I just had a few questions on the uh the
bond s summary
uh council member torguson before you
before you keep going could I request a
motion to move this to our public
hearing portion of our agenda so that we
can actually do more discussion have a
presentation and public comment I'd love
that yeah thank you would you like to
move what I just said that I would like
to move to take consent agenda item four
and move it to the regular agenda thank
you I will second that can we please
vote motion passes 70 so that handles
item number four vice mayor item number
eight councilman
torgenson
um find this I'm
sorry what I was was looking at some of
the risk management on the quarterly
report
and I was just I was curious because I I
I'm not seeing certain things but there
was something that I had read earlier
about a a concrete slide and I had SE i'
seen it several times online and I was
wondering if I could have a little
explanation of how this reads into our
quarterly report on
claims is there somebody from staff that
could address that
please mayor council member torguson I'm
not quite sure I understand the question
the this report is a report of all the
claims that are made and paid out and so
I'm not quite sure what you're asking
with regard to I the claims for there
was people saying there were several
claims on a concrete slide in parks and
R and I wanted to know how it was
reflected in the report as all okay
council member torison so this this
report is a summary of the claims that
were incurred made and then paid in the
last quarter um to my knowledge there
have been three
claims with regard to the concrete
sliding G Regional Park two of which
were made a number of years ago I know
there was one made recently I don't
recall if it was in January so would not
reflect on this report or if it was made
in the past quarter I can get that
information to you I appreciate it thank
you when anyone else care to make a
motion on that
item I move to accept that item I have a
motion by council member torus do I have
a second a second council member ban
Giovani second please
vote motion passes
70 that concludes the consent agenda we
will move to the public hearing portion
of our agenda items will be heard at one
public hearing at this time anyone
wishing to comment on a public hearing
item may do so we have moved item number
four which is our fees item to public
hearing and I do have two slips to speak
but I know that um the person would like
extended time based on those two
slips for item four I will open the
public hearing
would we like a short presentation from
staff
please Kelly Kelly FST director of
budget budget management is that the
right title sorry yes thank you I just
say budget all the
time Kelly thank
you thank you mayor and councel glad to
be here tonight I think several of the
people to speak on this item they could
find a seat hopefully we've got a packed
house tonight
we've talked about this item several
times so I'll be very brief um just give
some overview information this is our
system development fees which are impact
fees or growth related fees tonight is
discussing the land use assumptions and
the infrastructure Improvement plan so
the growth we expect in the town and the
infrastructure we need to be able to
build in order to serve growth these
fees do have to be updated every five
years according to State Statute and
this is the five years so we are
required to go through through this
process at this time these are paid by
new commercial and residential
development they are not paid by any of
our existing residents or businesses
it's only a growth related
fee the timeline we started in September
um with the notice of intention we've
been working with our Stak excuse me
we've been working with our stakeholders
to be able to get their feedback and
revise the study which is what you have
in your packet tonight um we do
appreciate council's uh indulging Us in
helping continue this item from the
planned January meeting so that we could
get additional stakeholder feedback in
time with them we were able to meet with
our chamber public policy committee
Gilbert or the Home Builders Association
and the multif Family Association you'll
remember that the Gilbert chamber um did
provide a letter of support for the
system development fee update um with
the knowledge that they have never
delightful to increase fees but they
know the importance of the
infrastructure for our
community notable changes since the
November meeting we updated the projects
to the most current cost estimates and
then reduced the inflation assumptions
to the 3% per year for the future years
provided more detail on Park police fire
and intersection projects we removed
topaz costs from the police and fire
system development fees and then on the
traffic signals we uh State Statute
would allow 18 we chose to only include
10 um as we're working to make sure we
provide just what's needed in the study
for the 10year
period so on these chart you can see the
current rates uh on the far left in the
middle is what the fees were proposed to
be at the November 28th meeting and then
after that stakeholder feedback you can
see that they have decreased um somewhat
over that period of time similar on the
commercial side although commercial has
many variables square foot size the type
of meter um and if it's office
industrial or other types of uses
there's different amounts for the feast
so it's harder to compare apples to
apples on
those a lot of the increase over this
period period of time is related to
construction costs so with the Arizona
Department of Transportation they track
construction cost increases the last
study went into place uh in about July
of 2019 and so you can see or July of
2018 fiscal 19 um during that period of
time it shows an 88% increase if you
were to do the project at the that time
versus now 88% cost for the same project
so in our study if we were to do the
same typ types of infrastructure we
planned in the PRI previous study we
would anticipate an 88% increase to do
the same types of things that would be
needed now another just checkin to
double check what's happening in the
market versus our fees uh compared to
the median home value in 2019 when the
last study was put into place the fees
represented about 8% of an average home
price in Gilbert with the new fees
housing prices have doubled and the fees
have also increased it represents a 7%
ratio of the house price as
well one of the council members when we
were talking requested some information
about how much our system development
fees are as a part of all of our
projects so in our whole um CIP or
Capital Improvement plan system
development fees are about
12% definitely a significant part of our
infrastructure plan and the funding that
we do for those projects but not uh a
complete view it's not the only money we
use on the projects for infrastructure
this is only the growth related portion
one of the other things that's important
to note is State Statute does have some
very strong grandfathering Provisions so
that developments if they're already in
process they have 24 months to be able
to use the old fees or the lower fees um
before the new ones would go into place
if they're new into the development uh
after July 1 then they would use the um
New fees but it does give this period of
time for development that's already in
process to be able to finish out with
the fees that were in place when they
started
so our next steps tonight is adoption or
consideration of adoption for our land
use assumptions and infrastructure
Improvement plan uh and then depending
on council's feedback and instructions
the next step in the process would be to
notice a public hearing for March 5th
which would be uh discussion and
feedback of the actual fees themselves
so it's a long process but this is what
state statute has with that I'm uh happy
to answer questions we have the
Consultants online as well and many
staff available thank you Kelly any
questions for staff at this time council
member torguson yeah I'm I'm curious how
did how did it come that the inflation
rates that you had put in the initial
are gone like from 20% down to
zero yeah so when we started this
process because it's such a long process
we only had the cost estimates for the
fiscal 24 CIP or Capital Improvement
projects as we've gone through the study
period um and after that public hearing
uh we have have updated costs from our
CIP group that they've worked to develop
for our upcoming fiscal 25 so instead of
using the Assumption based of what they
were seeing in the market of a 20%
overall increase we switched out and
used a project by project numbers for
what they estimated for each individual
project in current dollars and then
instead of um using the dollars from
last year's
CIP okay and then you said you went from
18 intersections down to 10 and I think
my concern there would be are we going
to be spending for 18 and only recouping
for
10 I again Jessica can probably help we
worked with our um subject matter
experts and our traffic engineer um on
what they believe would be needed in
this period of time we'll let Jessica
speak to
that thank you mayor members of council
council member torguson um currently we
are building two to three uh new signals
each year but as we get closer to
buildout um we are estimating that we
can
um identify the right locations for the
new signals and do one each year um and
if that assumption changes this will be
updated again in five years so we can
revisit that assumption and those needs
at that
time I'm going to think on it a little
bit and oh council member
Kowski
thank you for the update um I agree with
the update that was made to bring all
the construction costs to the 2025
projections and then the 3% inflation
rate um I
do have an issue with the reduction in
the Assumption for traffic signals from
18 to
10 I was going to propose a reduction in
a different area and I feel that traffic
traffic signals is something that we
know is our number one like traffic
mitigation is the number one priority of
our residents and I feel that the the
reduction should not be in this area
specifically because that need is likely
going to be the most urgent and within
this fiveyear
period I do agree that there um I'm glad
to see a reduction since the last time
this was presented and so I would
propose to have the assumptions change
back to the full amount of traffic
signals allowed but then have a
reduction in the same dollar value um
reflected under Parks and Recreation in
the areas of aquatic facilities and uh
the remaining portion from recreation
centers because I feel that in previous
conversation Council has indicated
Aquatic Center is not something that we
fully support and that a recreation
center would be outside this fiveyear
window
thank you council member
comments council member to to is this
the time to make those comments or after
public hearing would you like to ask
Kelly anything or make any comments on
anything or do you want to hear public
comment and then we can bring it back
for
discussion yeah I'll wait you wait okay
counc M Tuson and just so I'm not
confused here uh when we've gone from 18
down to 10 but the track traffic signal
base costs go up to 32 million in
that from
17 council member terson I don't know
off the top of my head I can look at
that I'm just notar off the top my
head any other questions for Kelly at
this time we can bring her back up after
the public
comment okay thank you Kelly thank you
for that and we will I have two slips to
speak one from Brennan Ray and one from
Madison Le and Madison has donated her
time to Brennan so Brennan last time I
gave you five minutes so I'm going to
give you five minutes again so Brennan
Ray if you could introduce yourself
please please brenon and you might want
to lift it up towards you a little
higher because yeah you're tall you know
you figured you guys would get a Podium
that would raise up too that's
okay for six four people like you or
whatever you are yeah y um so good
evening uh mayor members of the council
Brennan Ray 18 50 North Central here on
behalf of the Home Builders Association
of central Arizona first and foremost
I'd like to commend um your staff um for
um the expediency in which they've taken
time to address some of our questions
clearly the last time we were here was
November 28th and that was right before
the Christmas holiday and I don't know
about you all but uh the development
World kind of takes a break for the two
weeks between Christmas and New Year's
which always makes it extremely
challenging for work to get done but
nevertheless we're able to have some
good conversations with them staff
provided us with their updated report we
provided them prior to I think a day or
two before receiving their report we had
provided um the town attorney's office
with our kind of legal analysis of some
of the concerns that we had based on
that and that resulted in the revisions
that were before you we haven't had an
opportunity to run through everything uh
in that uh a subsequent report um I do
have a number of questions for it but I
thought I had a presentation somewhere
that I
awesome thank you hopefully this delay
in time will not count against my five
minute but be that as it may um we look
forward for the opportunity to uh
continue to work with staff and visit
with them about some of the questions
that we have we're certainly um grateful
for the reduction in fees however um
with the change in the fees and looking
at new numbers new figures um trying to
understand where that all comes from um
has generated some additional questions
that we believe are important to be
asked and
so perfect thank you um you can see and
I very purposely I'm not going to run
through all the questions that are on
the slide um on your screens and for the
public as well but you can see as we go
through and break down the various um
various individual fee components of it
there are a number of questions and we
certainly look forward to the
opportunity to be able to talk to staff
about this obviously as was mentioned
there are some legal considerations the
town attorney as well of this but
certainly from a state statute
perspective one of the balancing acts
that must always be done is the benefit
um and the burden placed on new
development versus a benefit that is
conferred on existing development and
there is no bright line test for that
but that is nevertheless something that
is relegated uh and regulated by State
Statute as well as the recent uh state
supreme court case uh against the town
of Morana the bonds that's another issue
I won't go into it in the interest of
time but there's statutory requirements
based on what funds can be used to B to
pay for uh existing bonds and
infrastructure um and we still need some
additional thing I believe that when you
guys look at this and adopt it there are
some additional policy consider
considerations that need to be made as
you look on this I put a summary of them
but the bottom line
is um Gilbert uh if this proposed fee
goes through um would become the highest
in the Phoenix Metro region and that may
just be where everyone else is going as
they update their fees um because not
only does the town bear the burden of
inflated costs the home builders
developers everybody shoulders that
burden of inflated costs and
nevertheless in a desire to remain in a
competitive environment it's certainly
something to consider looking at the
increase of fees and stuff like like
that um and I can go into more but
you've had an opportunity to stare at
that so practical considerations if we
look at this and this is for Arizona
specifically um not specific to Gilbert
but if we look on some practical
consideration for raising fees and this
is taken you can see there from the
Federal Reserve economic data you can
see that over the course of really since
2010 uh were um wages and home prices
were um pretty much consistent we saw
home prices dip but you see there the
green line is the wage line increase and
wages have only increased
41% uh yet you see an incre an increase
in the home prices of
157% uh and so when we look at that um
and add these fees up the total fees and
that includes not only um police fire
signals roads and Parks but that throws
in the meter fees as well and you can
see the very delineation you can see the
impact and I did this math myself on
mortgage calculator so if there's any
errors in it I blame it on the website
in using that to determine the true
impact of what this fee that you choose
to adopt today is on future homeowners
and where those costs are passed through
um because I mentioned at the last
hearing it is a line item pass through
cost um that goes to the ultimate price
of the home
um and so with that again I can go into
a lot more detail I'm sensitive of the
time that you have been up here already
tonight um and again we um know that you
all might take an action tonight but um
know that the action that you take we
still plan on following up with staff
and I actually had a conversation with
the town attorney today that if when we
go through this additional grind and
turn on it if there are some changes
that need to be made why we might be
able to to do that through a subsequent
Amendment because I know the timing of
getting these fees adopted is important
to staff it's important to you all and
we certainly don't want to derail that
but want an opportunity for more time to
digest this hopefully that was five
minutes I don't know if it was but I'm
within margins I don't even know I don't
even know if you are being timed Brenan
so you got lucky right now um thank you
does anyone have any questions for
Brennan while he's up at the
podium seeing none I appreciate your
time thanks Brennan thank
you I will bring the discussion back to
the podium and to the dis excuse me and
um who would like to kick it off council
member tilki I think it's you okay thank
thanks mayor um I want to start out by
um just sharing some appreciation to the
stakeholders for coming forward and our
staff for working together and
re-evaluating the assumption ions that
we first received in the first draft
um before I have my statement I I I
guess I need to ask Kelly a question
sorry the more I thought about it and um
council member
caasi um mentioned the difference
between 10 and 18 of the traffic signals
my question
is are we moving out eight of the
traffic signals
beyond the the time limit for this SDF
or are we not charging those eight
signals for or um for system development
fees because they're not related to
growth I'm just trying to figure out why
it disappeared sure uh mayor council
member Tikki in the calculations of this
study only eight only 10 signals would
be used um the eight or the 10 that we
would build would be based on which ones
meet the traffic warrants first so there
is a list of the 18 signals in there we
believe that those will be the most
likely ones if it if there was a change
from that list then we would need to do
a minor amendment to be able to switch
out a project um we've done something
similar on a water project in the past
it requires a council meeting and some
public process okay so um if I'm
understanding council member Kowski you
were talking about the priority of
moving those projects up faster and not
taking um taking them out and then
having to add them in later if I'm
understand okay yes thank you
um so
um that changes up my my little
statement I had here so I'm trying to
figure out how to put that in there but
um the first thing um I I want to
recommend is that the assumptions that
include the pools and the um regarding
your Aquatic Center and the rec center
that they be removed from the
assumptions I I feel that
um if they are included in our um CIP
for the future that we could put them in
without any dollar figures and have a
discussion later um saying that I think
this Council has already said we're not
getting in the quatics business and so
maybe that's a good sign just to take
that one out um the rec center wasn't um
probably vetted maybe as as well that
day but I I don't believe that we should
be including that in our CIP at this
point um it's
127 million is that right
120 so the with the system development
Fe study only 3,000 square feet would be
allowed so the as related to growth
related so it is a smaller portion of
the study and then there would have to
be discussion about what the full
building would need to look like but I
think when we got the the the uh during
our Workshop the the two projects were
about 127 million is that right I
remember 127 that's what I remember but
anyway but anyway we would be able to
take that out of these assumptions which
would would reduce the the fees not only
for system development fees but for our
Capital Improvement projects in the
future and um I'm just mentioning that
because by making that decision on these
assumptions if we agree tonight I want
to make sure that translates into as we
update our CIP project for the upcoming
year that those projects are not in
included in in the dollar figures for
that
um before we get back to the the traffic
signals and adding that back in so um
the um reductions that um I I just
mentioned and the um adjustments that
were made after stakeholder input was a
reduction of 20% or
8,513 if I did my math right um so I
think that that to me is um is actually
what we want when we get citizen input
and we can make adjustments that still
provide the uh service that our um
Community deserves I think that um I do
appreciate Mr Brennan's comments about
the cost uh to a brand new homeowner but
I think the other side of that is we
have a growth pays for
growth um Financial policy that we've
had in place every since system
development fees were available and I
think sometimes what gets lost in that
conversation is if we don't have new
growth paying for some of that
infrastructure Improvement then all of
us that are here today are going to be
paying for that through our own property
taxes and so it's a balance it's a it's
a hard discussion but um that's the
reality the the projects are going to
have to be done and somebody has to pay
for them and so we're trying to do our
best to make sure that we have balanced
all of that together and um so uh I I'm
interested in um removing the the pools
for The Aquatic Center and the rec
center from these
calculations evaluate the cost of
including those eight traffic
signals um so that we don't have to come
back later um to include that in those
calculations so that's not a motion I
know we're just discussing but anyway
that's my thoughts thank you thank you
um council member silki I almost did the
vice mayor thing I gotta get used to
that still um I see council member Bon
Giovani has her excuse me council member
Buckley has her microphone on I just
wanted to point out too that we are
discussing and voting tonight on the
land use assumptions and projects that
we are approving not the fees themselves
and Kelly said it earlier but I just
want to keep reiterating that so council
member Buckley okay thank you do you
have questions for Kelly I just before
okay well I I do um I believe well I
have a question for that um Mr Brenan
had brought up earlier did I say that
correct his last name okay I it's
Brennan Ray it's Mr Ray but yes I know
Mr Ray okay okay um I I just had yeah
it's it's really discussion what I I'm
gonna ask about the question to Kelly
first and that
is um you know on having on removing the
pools and you and I chatted about this
briefly uh earlier if we remove the
pools in the Aquatic Aquatic Center and
the re Center if we remove that
completely do we have to go through a
new process if let's say five years from
now and the economy is really good and
and everything is going well I I want
to somehow make sure that we can bring
those back and discuss them again if uh
you know if they're not going to be
approved tonight and and if you remove
the amount so is there a way to do that
that we can remove the amount but yet
leave them in there for future
discussion uh council member Buckley if
we remove it from the study the council
could still choose to build a pool or
not in the future but there couldn't be
any system development fee of growth
related money that would go towards the
project if Council re-evaluated and
decided that they wanted growth to be
able to pay AB portion then we can
update the study we have to do it in
five years we could do it sooner than
that Council gave direction to say we
and we do want to build a pool and we
want growth to pay for it and we could
just update the parks portion midcycle
not all of them uh at council's
Direction so those are possibilities
that are still open okay so so if we do
remove them then there is a way that we
could bring them back without having to
do a full study again but we wouldn't
have to do full all of the areas we
could just narrow it to the parks yes
yeah okay okay okay thank you that that
answered my question there uh and I'm
I'm not sure
um
when and mayor I don't know maybe you
can help with this when when Mr Ray was
talking about uh possibly the amendment
and you probably answered this question
but if uh so we're not actually voting
on the fees tonight okay so that answers
my question because I wanted to make
sure that legalities were there we were
going to do Amendment okay yes at this
point we are discussing the land use
assumptions and the projects for those
potential fees in the Future and Kelly
will be coming back at March 5th is that
the date you said March 5th with the
fees for discussion perfect okay thank
you council member ban gani thank you
mayor um I don't have anything further
to add other than I look at my notes and
everything is exactly what um council
member tokki said but she said it so
much better than I possibly could so
there you
go that's why I had her go first
see because I knew she would do a great
job summing it up vice mayor do you have
any comments no no comments council
member Kowski I just want to add that I
had a few numbers um in my email that I
kind of just checked I appreciated the
fact that council member tilky mentioned
that um with her Rec
recommendation it would have brought the
I know we're not doing the voting on the
fees right now but what we do decide
today will impact the highest fee we
could um Implement and she mentioned
that with those improvements it would uh
be a reduction of 20% from the number
that was presented to us last I did a
quick calculation of bringing the
traffic signals from 10 back to 18 and I
believe it would still be about an 18 a
little over 18% reduction from that uh
previous number so it's a it's a small
amount but I think it's important
to show the public and the community
that growth pays for growth and that we
recognize that traffic is one of those
areas that's going to be impacted and to
not limit ourselves in that
area thank you yeah and that's a great
point that um traffic is probably the
number one complaint that we get and so
to make sure that our focus is is on
that is very important did you have
anything else council member
Tuson okay and um thank you for doing
the rough math on um going from the 10
traffic signals to the 18 traffic
signals and historically this Council
has has said that we are not going into
the aquatics business Kelly I don't have
any questions for you so please feel
free to sit down I'll close the public
hearing bring it back to the Das this
will be the end of our discussion and
then if somebody wants to make a motion
um
historically we have said that we didn't
want to go into the aquatics business
it's very expensive to build Aquatics
centers pools and to maintain them and
so that has been but it's not of
course that doesn't affect the future
because other councils may decide other
things in the future so that's always a
possibility it's just up to this point
this is what we've thought and to remove
the recreation center and based on what
can actually be paid for out of sdfs
it's not a very high portion of a ration
Center or pools so if it is a plan that
we want to move forward with in the
future it's still a possibility and a
viable option for the
community so would somebody like to
attempt a motion you want to try it
council member tilki
yes I'll make a motion to approve the
land use assumption and infrastructure
Improvement plan as updated and with the
removal of pools in the new community
center from the Assumption calculations
but to include the 18 traffic
signals I second that motion I have a
motion by council member tilki seconded
by council member torguson please
vote motion passes
70 thank you to the stakeholders and to
everybody that's been involved in this
conversation Mr Ray in your group and I
know that you will continue to be
involved d as we move forward with
this our next item on our public hearing
agenda is a liquor license so I will
open the public hearing on that
item I don't think anybody needs a
presentation close the public hearing
would someone like to make a motion on
that please so moved I have a motion by
council member
tilki seconded by council member
torguson please
vote this is just item number 10 the Li
ER
license our next items on the agenda
will hear at one time it's item number
11 annexation a
22-04 and item 12 GP
22-15
z225 both of these items have been
requested to be continued to the
February 6th 2024 meeting I will open
the public hearing on them we have
requested that our planning department
make a short presentation a for us on
this item and um I see s and Kyle Maris
s is this your first time presenting to
the council or did you present once
other one other time I believe this may
be my second time your second time okay
thank
you it's all yours thank
you mayor council good evening um this
item uh these three items the annexation
the general plan and the rezoning
application
have all been requested by the applicant
to be continued to the February 6th
meeting uh so at the February 6th
meeting the council will hold a formal
public hearing and um make the
determination on the agenda items at
that time um s is here as as the mayor
um mentioned to give a background on the
project um so you have a little more um
uh a little more background and and
Foundation um as we move forward um
tonight and then into the meeting on
February 6th uh again we'll s give a
presentation then we'll be here if you
have any um questions or comments for us
thanks thank you Kyle and and for the
audience sake we don't typically do a
presentation when we have a request for
continuance but I thought because of the
topic that we're discussing it would be
better for the public if we did a short
presentation so Sally appreciate you
being ready to jump in for this tonight
absolutely guys and thank
you all righty so first of all I just
want to say good evening uh to you all
mayor and Council it's good to see you
all again uh and as Kyle mentioned the
project we'll be looking at is a trident
of applications it's going to be the
indexation general plan Amendment as
well as the rezoning for the
property so looking at the site itself
the property is located at the southeast
corner of Lindsay Road in Lexington
Street uh the gross area of the parcel
is 2.7 acres and is just east of rivulon
as Kyle mentioned as well uh the request
for the property is a minor General plan
Amendment from General office to General
commercial and the resoning is from the
current Maricopa County uh rural
residential r43 which would become the
most comparable zoning district with the
town of Gilbert post annexation which
would be SF 43 single family 43
to town of Gilbert General commercial so
that's what we're looking at for the
resoning
application so one of the main topics of
discussion tonight is actually the uh
Lexington Street itself that runs East
West uh just north of the of the
property and it's just an important
thing to call out here that this
particular area has been uh called out
in our general plan as the uh 202 growth
area which is specifically designed to
uh focus on an economic growth through
business and employment
opportunities and with due to the high
nature of employment in the area it was
determined that the Lexington Street
itself would be a uh major
collector and here on the screen are a
couple images from our general plan
calling out the location within the 202
Loop growth area as well as that
highlighted portion in purple um on top
there is Lexington Street itself calling
out its connection from where we
currently are to the motor Plex just to
the east there so there is quite a bit
of a vision for this Lexington
connection for the potential of this
employment uh growth in the
area and building off that thought as
well it's important to bring up the
previous circulation study that was uh
presented back in
2017 which classified Lexington Street
as that major collector um in here that
red section on the the map is our
Lexington Street interchange there and
we can see in the legend that it was
classified as a major collector um for
the
future so just wrapping everything up
here with pulling the pieces in together
uh you can see on the map our parcel
shown with the proposed RightWay of the
40 ft um that is just below the already
purchase RightWay from the from the
previous uh application here with the
town and we can see that the the 40 feet
is measured from the center line and as
we move to the Eastern portion of the
property it tends to dip into that 12T
range since the other portion of the
rideway was already purchased in the
past in
dedicated and with that um as Kyle
already mentioned the applicant has
requested to continue the project to the
February 6 2024 council meeting and that
is the quick presentation we have for
you all tonight thank you cell does
anyone have any questions for S at this
time council member Koski hi s is the 40
feet um for a minor collector or major
collector mayor Peterson uh council
member Capri the 40 foot half Street
dedication is for a major collector so
the full right of way would be 80 feet
the half Street dedication would be 40
feet and for a minor collector that
would be half Street dedication of 33
feet and a total of 66 so with this
being a major collector the 40 foot
right ofwe dedication is our typical
standard here with the
town thank you any other questions for
sale seeing none thanks S I appreciate
you of course thank you
guys now we have a few comments from the
public and I didn't have any comments
online this evening um communication
excuse me for the for this item and the
first speaker will be Gina
shu
me too Gina I don't think I've seen that
before been here many a years and I've
never seen it so thank you very much uh
first and foremost before I move on to
my personal matters I would take a like
to take a moment
to think about the family of Preston
Lord and the family and the friends and
how they have been impacted by this huge
tragedy before I move on to personal
business I've been watching as I go
through through my own thing and it's
hard to watch that in addition to
everything I've been going through and
I'm sorry I can't see you guys over
there so maybe the location should be
changed um anyway to the Town Council
sitting in front of me I'm here to ask
you to not force me to donate $400,000
worth of property but instead be paid
for what is rightfully mine in 2012 I
bought a home in Gilbert and soon after
remodeled the home to be fully witer
accessible I spent my life savings
modifying this home to be tailored to my
disability just six years later the town
of gilber came to me and requested to
buy some land around me so they could
expand as you can see the new lensy exit
was going to dump traffic right at my
property and the New Lexington Road was
going to be merely feet from my front
door making my home
uninhabitable there really was no way of
stopping development so I agreed to sell
the land around me shortly after the
town bought the land they approached me
about the fact that they would need to
spend funds to build an access road to
my home and asked if I would tear down
my home and in exchange for commercial
zoning in order to make up for the loss
of my home I agreed to do so I tore down
my home in shortly three weeks in just
three weeks with your construction
company and I spent
$440,000 over a year and a half ago I
started those proceedings to rezone and
I found out that I was going to have to
donate
$400,000 worth of land through a right
of-way
dedication dedication as in give it to
you for
free this has been extremely challenging
for me because this will greatly
diminish the value of my property and I
get nothing from it the town is basing
this off a claim that I'm a developer
the town is basing this off of the fact
that I'm seeking to to rezone I am
responsible for paying for the town's
infrastructure I'm not a developer I've
never developed anything I am a resident
who was pushed out of my home that I
love dearly and now I'm being punished
for it the most condeming part of all of
it though is the report that you were
using to base this Ro off of is from
before you bought land from me a year
before you bought land from me you knew
you were going to do this the reason why
you guys didn't do the right thing from
the beginning is that property line from
that r r would have gone through my
house you would have had to pay me for
my home and you would have had to pay me
to tear it down but instead I was
manipulated into doing so and I fell for
it I'm asking you to pay me for what's
rightfully mind and what this whole
major thing major collector there's no
term for major collector it's a future
collector you guys could be taking 33
feet but you're taking the
maximum I just can't believe this is
happening and I'm just asking to be paid
for my land I'm a
resident I shouldn't be paying for your
infrastructure thank
you thank you
[Applause]
Gina folks I know that you're here to
support Gina we don't accept Applause
during the Town Council meetings we have
it listed in our public hearing decorum
and everything so I appreciate that
Crystal maderas would be the next
speaker
please and you may need to pull that mic
down towards you Crystal yes thank you
and push the button and it'll light up
red there you go can you hear me okay I
am Gina's big sister I'm Crystal madas
and I'm here past my bedtime and so are
a lot of her friends thank you okay um
I've lived in Gilbert since 2011 and I
love this town uh however the town
officials tasked with acquiring a
portion of my sister's land they dangled
a carrot in exchange for her full
cooperation they implied and they acted
in a manner that they'd reson her
residence to commercial land they asked
her to knock down her home so they
wouldn't have to work around it
she wouldn't need it just across the
street was rivulon the brand new 250
acre multi-use development all those new
flashy buildings she didn't realize she
was clearing the way for her land to be
acquired more easily and at no cost to
the town it turns out those officials
never held the power to rezone my
sister's land she trusted the wrong
people this fight has been costly to my
sister and she's already been through a
lot we're here to ask you to help make
this right her home is gone let her
reone in hopes of generating income and
please don't let the town take your land
without paying for it thank
you thank you Crystal next will be
Joseph sind if I said that correctly I
apologize just like to say thank you for
letting me speak and I don't envy your
jobs thank you Joseph very can can we
maybe hand Joseph the mic so it's closer
to him is it it's very it's difficult to
hear you and I want to make sure we can
perfect that's perfect and can you shut
the other mic off too please thank you
thank you I don't think I need to
regurgitate all the information that
Gina and her sister just gave it's
pretty obvious but being disabled and
having investing that much money into a
home then to do the same thing today
would be astronomical and all she's
asking for is to be paid fair market
value for her house that being taken you
know um the way you look at a society
itself you know I think muhamad Gandhi
said this that uh the most how we treat
our most vulnerable is how we judge a
society and being one of those most
vulnerable it just bothers me to think
this town would one manipulate somebody
into giving their property away so that
kind of saddens me a little bit and I'm
hoping that now that this is brought to
your attention that you guys will look
into it and take care of it thank you
thanks Joseph appreciate your
time I'll go ahead and close the public
hearing I don't have any other slips for
anyone to speak I'll go go ahead and
close the public hearing and bring it
back to the dis the
um the case in front of us this evening
has been requested to be continued to
February 6th 2024 uh for the annexation
and for the gpn zoning and I would need
two I would ask for two separate motions
for that please one for the annexation
and one for the GPZ if anybody would
like to make one I'll give it a try
thank you um I'd like to make a motion
to continue item number 11 annexation
a224 through February
6th a second thank you I have a motion
by council member tilki seconded by
council member Buckley please
vote motion passes 70 if someone would
like to attempt the I'll continue mayor
if that's right thank you um I'd like to
make a motion to
approve um item 12 General plan GP 2215
zoning
z225 to be continued to February
6th did we get that correctly because I
said I know she said approved but she
got continue in there so do I need to
restate it I'd like to continue okay I
think it's okay okay thank you and you
said both GP and Zoning correct thank
you I have a motion by council member
Tikki I second seconded by council
member Buckley please vote just want to
make sure for the record that we have it
correct thank you both motions pass we
will hear this case again at the
February 6th 2024 meeting thank you
thanks Gina moving on to that ends our
public hearing portion of our agenda
moving on to our administrative items we
have a discussion and possible action
related to the status update from the
Council subcommittee on teen
violence um vice mayor would you like to
take that yes thank you mayor um I want
to give just a few brief comments and I
think I'll ask the two committee members
if they would like to make some comments
also I know Council me member bonani has
some a little bit bothered that there
was um an insinuation that anybody was
frozen out of this
committee um we heard from the citizens
quite loudly in the previous council
meeting that we needed to take
action and it's been our intent all
along uh for this to eventually end up
at probably a larger task force but we
need to take some action now and thus
the creation of this subcommittee we've
had our first committee meeting we do
have some actionable items I don't know
if we want to do anything with them
tonight but we haven't set our second
meeting yet because we wanted to
um ask the council how they felt if we
were to change the venue and and change
the time the uh meeting that we had
previously was 3: to 5: in the afternoon
I know that's difficult for people to to
attend so we're talking about a
different time and maybe a different
place where we can actually go out into
the community so that's something we
should think about um but just an
example that some of the things I wrote
down after attending the
uh uh the town hall last night it
confirms some of the ideas that we heard
at the subcommittee meeting uh that and
we felt very good about some of the
actions that we think that we can take
and uh some of those um were mentioned
last night and and we've talked about
them
previously um especially about parental
support and teacher support both
discussed last night and we we have some
thoughts about the importance of both of
those uh and also schools and getting
them involved as well as with the local
government we may need to look at some
policy changes as some um but those are
actionable items which is what we didn't
want to just be a listening group we
wanted to have actionable items and
that's why I think these are important
I've even had one suggestion from a
parent that we established in East
Valley youth safety group similar to the
East Valley partnership that is
organized for businesses only this uh
group would be made up a school
Representatives the police Town
Representatives kids and parent
Representatives which could be very
successful I think that's something we
can consider but the most important
thing that we're really wanting to uh
let the council know about tonight as an
actionable item is the survey of
students and I'm going to ask council
member bonani to to pick up on that and
talk about that thank you vice mayor um
I have a comment first
um every woman on this Das cares about
teen
violence uh and they all have valuable
ideas to share and I look forward to
seeing them in in future
events it bothers me that the comment
was made because uh I am married to the
strongest woman on this planet and she
has to be just to put up with me I'm
reminded daily of the value and the
powerful perspective of a woman's
voice here is how I decided to approach
other council
members I served with Kathy on a
subcommittee before I serve with young
on a on the dementia friendly initiative
I'm looking forward to working with the
mayor and with Bobby on future
subcommittees I didn't approach this
based on sex or political reasons I
approached it based on around Robin and
expediency and we've gotten a lot done
in this past week that I don't think a
task force could get done in a week this
may eventually go to a task force and
that's what some of our discussions have
been about but I'd like to share with
you our five ideas and what has been
done in this past week one is schools we
don't over we we have no oversight of
schools whatsoever we have to get their
permission to interact and do things
with them as vice mayor mentioned um we
are asking the town to hire a company to
uh come up with a a survey um about
around teen violence around their
experiences because we haven't heard
from the kids and that's the audience
that we need to hear from
within this past week within the last
seven days I've met with superintendent
of Gilbert met with the superintendent
of Chandler and I'm meeting with the
superintendent of hidley tomorrow to get
permission to do a survey with them
because we need parental per permission
for a student to take uh a test or take
a survey we can't just walk into a
school that we don't oversee and say you
all are going to be taking a survey
can't do
that number two Let legislation like the
vice mayor mentioned um I spoke with
Senator kavan's office this morning he
will be putting in a um a ban a bill on
the ban of of brass knuckles within the
next week or two I started a website
petition today no brass knuckles. org to
sign up for that petition so we can give
them to some senators and
representatives because I've spoken to
some senators and representatives in the
past week and you know their concern was
it may not pass so I want to put some
Grassroots pressure on them to
understand how important this is and why
it needs to
pass uh Community we spoke about working
with volunteers churches and
organizations to create or expand a
mentorship program to help these broken
teens so they can see some positive role
models I've spoken to Big Brother Big
Sister and some other organizations and
we will further take a look at other
organizations that can help us with that
businesses one of our ideas were to
investigate potential options with
businesses that close to kids at 6
pm and I understand they want to have a
parent there and maybe we can have some
ideas of having an entrance fee for
those kids to be there at night and
maybe they use that money to hire an
off-duty police officer or two to make
it a safe environment rather than having
the kids outside in the parking lot
somewhere or somewhere
else then vice mayor mentioned uh
parents so we'll be looking into um some
parental support groups because you know
these these kids are broken doesn't mean
all their parents are horrible okay I've
worked with teens in a mental health
Institution for seven years some of the
really good parents have kids that are
broken and so looking to create some
established programs to help teenagers
have a voice and be able to trust
adults to tell them when they're being
threatened or something that they may
know about something else so um we've
done a lot in the last week and I do
look forward to continuing doing what
we're doing and including the task force
but something that's important to
remember that people spoke during our
meeting now mind you it was a wrong time
I think we're not going to shut down
anyone from speaking during that meeting
we want to hear from everyone and when
it gets to a point where we've outlined
exactly what we want to do and it's
moving forward my guess is we will bring
it over to a task force so that's what I
wanted to share with everyone tonight
we've worked hard this week and we're
moving the
ball Chris are we allowed to ask
questions I'm not sure how this works
because we haven't done this before so
are we allowed to ask for clarification
on something yes mayor what was noticed
was discussion public okay possible
actions on the subcommittee so yes you
can have a full discussion thank you I'm
sorry we just haven't done this this way
before so I just wanted to double check
could you explain the on the shutting
down of the businesses at 6 PM I think
I'm missing something sure sure I was
told some of the businesses um arcades I
guess you could say them um close at I'm
just gonna say six o'clock um for four
teens without adults okay so I thought
if they could have an entrance fee five
bucks I don't know that's up to the
business enough to afford an off-duty
police officer to be in that building to
make it the safer environment okay I
would thank you for the clarification I
it's been a long time since I've had a
teen and when I had a teen we didn't
have any of those places in Gilbert the
first one that was built was the bowling
alley across the street here when she
was a senior in high school junior in
high school so um thank you I didn't
understand that did you want to add
something Council M
Tuson just a couple things because this
was actually much it was a great
learning experience in some way just to
hear everyone uh I too I'm a little you
know irked at mom shut out because every
one of us is a father also and some of
the some of the victims their fathers
were speaking last night at that town
hall
and one of the things that really struck
me was I talked to a teacher was
permanently disabled by a
kid the kid got a three-day in school
suspension and was told the the teacher
was told you cost money he brings us
money maybe she's making that up but
she's permanently disabled and I don't
think she's making it up uh so there's
other factors at play that are that are
allowing things to Foster and move
forward that most of us wouldn't think
about
um and it's going to take a little
longer to to help more nobody here has
has the answer the best answers will
come out of these kids but every
person's intent whether it's the
subcommittee or this entire council is
to
help and to
uh to diminish that in any way is is sad
but I do appreciate the incredible
effort that Chuck's put in and and uh
vice mayor Anderson you know I've made
my shareff calls
uh to put this things together and I do
anticipate this growing far beyond just
the the town limits of
Gilbert thank you council member counc
bonanni thank you mayor something I
forgot uh um survey question for example
it doesn't mean made to be punitive for
example i' I'd like to know what the
trust level is with the kids in the
school with their with their
SRO and if there's one school that
knocks out of the park and their s SRO
is highly trusted I'd love to have the
chief talk to that SRO and find out what
he or she is doing just be and and the
other way if there's a school that has a
a lower trust level there may be things
involved there for example that person
might have been hired a month ago and
hasn't been able to develop that trust
yet so we want to look at multiple
things on on the survey do they you know
if if they were threatened well first of
all if you know were they threatened in
the last 12 months questions like that
but if they were threatened did they
tell anyone who did they tell did they
keep it to themselves did they tell a
friend did they tell a school counselor
did they talk to an SRO who did they
talk to and that'll give us an idea of
where we need to move forward with
recommendations and suggestions but
again like like council member torgenson
said we're not going to solve this
problem overnight you know we need
everyone to help to solve this uh to
solve this issue and um I was happy to
see a lot of people at the um at the
event last night and I'm I'm happy to
see people here also
um but we're going to move this together
as a team in some way shape or form
everyone on this Das is going to be part
of this team especially if we move
forward with the task force but you know
reality is we're going to dig in and try
to make a difference here and we need
your help in order to do
that thank you council member bonani
council member tilki thank you mayor um
thank you for the work that's already
been put in for this um subcommittee and
I appreciate the update I think it's
really important um this is a topic top
of mine for our community and the more
that we can share information with all
of us since we're not going to be able
to participate in in much of what you do
um just based on open meeting laws and
we're going to be very cautious with
that um I appreciate you mentioning that
how important this is to everybody on
this Das and um the format that we chose
is the format that we're going to live
by and so thank you for bringing forward
this information in a public form um I
have three things I just wanted to
mention since I get to and I don't get
to otherwise so um first um I received
um a reach out to me for uh a couple of
opportunities for people to be involved
so one um Pastor Andre Miller reached
out to me I I've met him Mar and I met
with him many years ago um but he does
have an interest in if we're doing
something CommunityWide to help lead any
conversations or be active in that so I
just want to share that with you and I
have his contact information if you
would like it but he does have expertise
dealing with teens and um this type of
behavior so wanted to share that also I
had a foundation reach out to me who
said that if we are needing
dollars um for the type of activities
that we're looking at that they were
very much interested in um helping us um
saying that they'll need a scope of work
and they need to know what they're
giving money to and I think that's
reasonable but um as we get closer to
that I will share that information and I
think they're they're very um excited
about being involved um my third thing
is um we met uh uh council member Kowski
and I met with um several of the East
Valley Council Members recently and
obviously team violence came up and um
we talked a little bit amongst ourselves
but then we were um reflecting on one
some of the comments that were made at
the the council meeting before that
um I as we look at what are solutions
for the
future I I hope that we'll be looking at
resources that help our police
departments work together have some kind
of technology that allows these types of
things to pop up sooner and have those
discussions sooner in the in the future
and so I I was hoping that as part of
your scope of work you would be looking
at those type of resources for the
future and so those are my three points
thank
you thank you council member
Koski thank you I'm I'm very glad to be
able to partic ipate in this
conversation so thank you for putting it
on tonight's agenda and thank you for
your work thus far on the
subcommittee um Chuck you
mentioned having support for parent
groups and in some discussions that with
um some others there was me it has been
mentioned to me that there's also the
potential for a more formal Parent
Academy that would focus not only on
violence but on social media and
substance of abuse and that there is an
app available the bark app that might
support parents um in
that um so I think maybe just thinking
about expanding uh those or that that
topic I'm glad to hear you have
involvement with the school districts
that's obviously very important but you
mentioned maybe some limitations in
being able to survey students through
the school districts if for some reason
that was a challenge or not able to be
made um I think it would be good to
understand what the subcommittee feels
is a good response for a survey and
potentially having a just a a town
community survey um and of course it
wouldn't be as qualified in terms of
knowing whether that respondent was a
teen but I think that um based on some
responses you might get um good response
there and then if if you also want to
get a really good idea of experiences of
teenagers another idea is to potentially
um host a writing competition for
teenagers where they could um provide
their thoughts on certain subjects um or
just keep it very general and then
perhaps the town could provide
incentives or prizes for that um both to
understand experiences and to maybe
allow those community members to to
share their stories if they so wish
thank
youc um thank you council member um
tilki I keep runting to say something
and council member kpri thank you for
your for your ideas and and please give
me that that contact and and the app uh
information also I you know we're not
getting push back from the school so far
they they both superintend I met with
were were okay they just want to see
what the uh survey looks like and I'll
find out tomorrow from from Higley they
did mention to me that um they would
feel more comfortable also if we got uh
input from students in both private
schools and in the charter schools
that'll be our next step to to meet with
those uh those people also they did say
that they would uh they would support
superintendents would call each other
and would support uh Us in this um in
this uh survey that we want to
do council member Roski did you name
that app just now I think I missed it
the app that I named was called The Bark
app the bark bark bark like a dog yep
bark like a dog and so I think their
logo is actually a dog barking and it's
installed on a teenager's phone and
it'll alert the parent if it um finds
certain phrases in their communication
um that would trigger kind of an alert
to so a bark is an alert by a dog that
makes sense okay makes sense yeah I got
it yeah thank you I had never heard of
that yes council member torguson and I
just want to say that that our
legislative uh Team uh specifically
Lauren Hendricks has introduced a bill
to allow more conversation for
subcommittees because there is it's very
strange that you would try and restrict
just three members of a counil from
talking to be able to present something
whereas if there wasn't a subcommittee
three members of a council could work
completely in secret and present
something so even it it doesn't uh he's
going to make he's attempting to make it
so there's much more transparency and
we're allowed to communicate more fully
and there is one failure of
communication that I believe the town
has had and it's and I would hope that
people could find the grace to to give
both to the mayor and the
chief certain Communications didn't
happen like I know the chief will be
giving uh several uh up dates on things
in the future but if we could take this
instead of focusing on on something that
that looks improper uh let's move
forward from from this date forward and
allow our chief and our mayor to be able
to communicate in a way and not read
into something that's happened in the
past because of way the way things have
been communicated and specifically our
our chief has done they've done a lot of
work that you probably are unaware of
and if you follow some of the releases
the press releases he's made and the
updates that he'll be making you'll see
he's done quite an impressive job
actually so I just hope you guys can
give both of them a little bit of
Grace thank you council member
appreciate that um yeah because it's
been said many times that um last
night's panel I was not invited to last
night's panel Channel 12 reached out to
the three of you as members of the
subcommittee and because of open meeting
law we which we are council member tilli
just said a minute ago that we are very
cautious of open meeting law we don't
want to violate that I don't want to
violate the law and I was not invited to
be part of the panel last evening and we
did have meetings scheduled last night
had that had been scheduled for weeks in
advance and you did leave early to go to
those and I appreciated that you went
and attended that panel um thank you for
all the work that you've done so far
it's uh it's impressive and um
um I my only question about the schools
is and I don't know if the
superintendent shared this with you or
not is do you think
that the questions that are created will
have to go past their their um boards
because they all of school boards
individual School boards possibly but
you compared to the yeah survey that
they give out yearly it was like I saw
it yesterday like 20 something Pages
what and ours is like 25 questions so I
I I would hope that they would you know
they would uh look at that and and
approve that and for the record mayor
just because it's raing outside is not
the mayor's fault
okay yes it is what um thank you council
member um yeah I just wasn't sure if
they would need to approve the questions
because they do have their own governing
boards and like you pointed out the
schools are not under the purview of the
town of Gilbert and so I didn't know if
they would want to see those questions
ahead of time before they would agree to
do it and um I very much appreciate them
working with the town on this because it
does affect all of us and um thank you
for the comments and council member tus
and you and I have not been known to get
along you know so well and I appreciate
your comments because it is not easy
being in this position and being the
fault of everything yeah so thank you
for all of that um do you you need
direction from oh sorry council member
Buckley you have your microphone on
thank you Scott oh vice mayor did you
want to say I just wanted to ask how you
all felt about us taking this on the
road instead of doing this here in the
council chambers and thank you for
addressing that because I actually was
very uncomfortable with you sitting up
here I thought that it looked
uncomfortable I was watching it um and
it and I bet you felt uncomfortable um I
would have thought it would have been
more comfortable to be sitting down on
the floor someplace that you could and I
think I even see said that at the last
meeting some place that it's easier to
communicate and um so yes I agree with
that for sure other comments anybody yes
counc member Toki said yes council
member Kowski shaking her head council
member Buckley do you think that they
should take it to different locations
than just here in the council chambers I
do yes Absol and at different times of
day too different times of day too that
I think that goes together kind goes
hand in hand yes um what else did you
need from us for feedback for
tonight I think that's it um you know
you've listened to the things we've been
considering up to
now um as council member bani mentioned
will'll continue to form this into
something that we can present to you
that we can take action
on either refer it on to a task force or
to uh just take action on the items that
we have on a plan of some kind going
forward
yeah Council bonani I thank you mayor I
I don't know if we need Council
permission
to hire a firm to make the survey for us
or Patrick can just approve
that I think Patrick has the ability to
approve that based on the cost based on
the cost um would the council be more
comfortable giving a head not or
approval to the subcommittee that it's
okay to hire a company to to do the
survey con
tilky I I know you're thinking so I I'm
sorry I I I just want to make sure that
it's very transparent and that we don't
get criticized later that you guys went
off on your own so in that particular
vein I think maybe it would be good to
take an action and improve an
expenditure it's just that I have no
idea what that is and so I don't know if
we should give not to exceed um or if it
exceed a certain amount you have to come
back maybe that's a better
way do you have any
idea I'm sure Patrick would but we want
to make sure it's statistically valid
right yes just reason yeah yeah
absolutely Patrick do you have any idea
what that cost might be has anybody had
a chance to look into that mayor members
of the council my spending Authority um
I don't think the contract uh that we
would be looking for would exceed that
um but in regards to the scope of work
that we have them do I think maybe
that's something that it sounds like
that that's where the interest lies
there um so whatever you you decide to
do there just let us know and we'll work
with the subcommittee and and have them
proceed
accordingly council member tilki I can
see you thinking again I I know you too
well
um how about reminding me what your
limit is that might help me 100,000 May
100,000 or council
member wowe Zoe okay
um would you like to set a top limit as
what you would be acceptable yeah but
um I don't know um what what's
acceptable
but why don't we why don't we bring up I
was gonna say can they do a little bit
of investigative work between now and
the next meeting and we would like to
put a standing item under administrative
items to have an update from the
subcommittee so in two weeks when we
come back from I'm looking at cheli
sorry I'm looking at cheli because I'm
channeling to her um that we put this as
an update at the next meeting and maybe
we get a little work done so that we
have an idea of something like that yeah
we can also continue to talk to the
schools to get an idea that everyone's
still interested and uh we have a good
you know good number of schools yeah and
that'll give you time to talk to Higley
tomorrow and yes is that acceptable to
everybody that makes me feel better than
just putting a number out there willing
Milly I know it would and we we are
having Financial discussions in the
community right now and how we're
spending money and where we're spending
money so it's very important to
understand how much it's going to be yes
council buley did you have something
else uh your microphone's on from from
earlier discussion I did want to say
thank you to the committee for what
they're doing and what they have done
and uh they have done a lot you know
from from all the all the information
that Chuck has given so I I wanted I did
want to bring up to uh I did not first
of all you know hopefully I think some
of you don't realize that you know due
to open meeting laws and the mayor
mentioned that earlier but we cannot
attend the the due to open meeting laws
because if there's more than three of us
in the same area even then we're
violating the law we're violating open
meeting law so when you haven't seen me
or young or Kathy there or the mayor is
because if you did see us there then
we're breaking a law by making a quorum
because a quorum is for people so please
don't still don't think that we aren't
trying to to do things you know that
just like Kathy uh had talked to people
and she gave them that information if we
have information we'll pass it along to
them but I just want everyone to know
that that we um you know we can't be
there I mean even though we want to be
there we can't be there unless the laws
are changed and by the time that's
changed we probably won't even be on
Council anymore if it were ever changed
so I I did want to bring that up I I did
not get a an email
invite of any kind from Channel 12 to be
to be there I couldn't have we couldn't
have been there anyway because of open
meeting well and and we we could if we
notice it but we weren't invited three
members of the council were specifically
invited to be on that panel and so it
was different because it was an
invitation only kind of situation that's
how I took it anyway so yes right right
yeah sorry I didn't mean to interrupt
you I wanted to help you with your
conversation thank you thank thank you
for that uh that's just all I wanted to
to mention and and I do appreciate what
the three of them are doing and I think
it I think it's going to help and I
think it will make a difference and I
plan on hopefully adding what I can and
give them information as
well thank you yeah I think we all feel
the same way this isn't something that
any of us want to see in this community
and we're all emotional
and impassioned by it and we hear that
from the community and the members of
the community that are coming to speak
but it's also so very hurtful from from
every aspect for every single one of us
sitting up here
and it's very hard to get through every
single time
and I appreciate the
comments these are real people sitting
up here too beside me and it gets very
difficult c m b gan I'd like to just
mention one more time that uh petition
website is uh no brass knuckles. org and
if we get a lot of people you know
filling that petition and we'll make
sure we'll give it to uh Senator
Kavanaugh so he can share it with any
any opposition uh that he may see on the
state level Senator Kavanagh is a good
choice considering he's retired law
enforcement so um good good luck with
that one too I know that
um weapons of any typer and always an
interesting discussion when it comes to
the legislature so I think that
concludes this discussion safe to say
yes so I will go ahead and move on to
the next portion of our agenda which is
Communications did I miss something I we
don't have any policy items no future
meetings to discuss Communications
report from the town manager thank you
mayor nothing's tonight thank you
Patrick um report from the council well
we just had a lot but does anybody have
anything council member Buckley um okay
so I have uh as you know I'm Thea on for
tourism so I have a few numbers to give
you guys tonight but uh Gilbert
continues to grow as a tourism
destination and in uh calendar year
203 we welcomed 5.4 million visitors to
Gilbert and all of these all of these
visitors buy things they spend their
money and we get sales tax money from
from them so it helps us in our budget
it helps us with uh the amount of money
that we have that we can spend as well
but the 54 5.4 million doll million
visitors coming to Gilbert is growing
quickly as 2024 gets
underway uh January marks the kickoff to
event season in Phoenix Metro area and
especially the East Valley here in
Gilbert we are looking forward to
another lineup of great events including
including baseball tournaments at Cactus
yards concerts out at the Gilbert
Regional Park and I can tell you there
are just some of you have probably been
there but there are thousands and
thousands of people that come to those
concerts it's you know it's pretty cool
and uh the new uh LPGA tournament uh uh
the Arizona Championship is being held
in Seville this year which is South
Gilbert and um so that's going to be in
March so that would be a great event to
attend as well thank
you thank you council member Council
bonani I have my Parks and Rec
announcements Freestone recreational
center Message Board the Freestone
recreational center recently installed a
new LED Message Board along with along
Guadalupe Road so next time you're
driving by check out the advertisements
for the newest classes and programs
fatherdaughter dance the annual
fatherdaughter dance will have two
sessions this year because they were so
busy on Friday February 2nd and Saturday
February 3rd at the community center
participants get to dance to their
favorite music enjoy dinner and make
crafts it is an it is open to all ladies
ages 2 to 19 and their dad favorite
uncle grandpa or male family friend
register to uh registered now at Gilbert
recreation.com
did you say open to to females 2 to 19
hey man two twoy olds have fathers too
they want to dance with wow I I just
didn't realize that thank you council
member
kosi I just like to make an um a note
about an upcoming event which is the
Gilbert Symphony Orchestra this was a
rescheduled event that had to be
postponed last November it has been
rescheduled and will be performed on
February 7th that is a um Wednesday
evening at 700 p.m. it'll be a belated
100th birthday celebration for the town
of Gilbert at the Higley Center for
Performing Arts it's free general
admission and it's also going to be the
first official dementia friendly event
in the community and that'll be
important as we continue in our dementia
friendly initiatives to show that we're
having these types of events so we hope
that we have your support and that you
can mark your calendars for February 7th
at 700 p.m. at the Higley Center for
Performing Arts thank
you thank you any other comments from
Council Members um report for mayor I
actually don't have anything tonight
it's very late thank you for sticking it
out and meeting
adjourned
for