Community Investment Workshop - December 11, 2023

everyone go ahead and find our seats get
today's shop
start who
knows okay I hope everybody had a great
weekend we are moving into the holiday
season so if yours was like mine I'm
sure it's running around last minute
paying too much or not being able to
find what you want and ending up at
Walgreens in the ASO TV section so for
members of my family that seem a little
more annoyed with me after the holidays
you'll understand though that amazing
year wax cleaner feels like something no
one should live
without so today's Workshop is a part
two to the r Council Retreat
specifically on Capital project items
we're going to dive very deep in uh
projects of great importance with
various drivers for need with you today
the goal is to answer as many questions
as you have and help you understand
these projects to a much greater depth
so by way
of understand the topic um and then
we're going to have a lot
more with us you will help facilitate
our Retreat again today and then we'll
Dive Right into
things thanks Patrick good morning
everyone morning that sounded good but I
you do better good morning there we go
hey um I'm not going to repeat
everything that I said when we started
our Retreat last time but let me just
kind of go over some of the basics here
the first thing I asked you to do last
time when we were together was I'm going
to put this back in your mind to take
just a moment and think about something
that you appreciate in the town of
Gilbert today that exists thanks to the
efforts of people in this community more
than 10 years ago I'm assuming you are
not sitting with exactly the same people
you sat with at the last meeting I'm
going to give you about 45 seconds just
to compare notes among yourselves what
is something that you appreciate that
exists in our community today thanks to
the efforts of people here more than 10
years ago it can be a facility it might
be a program a project something that
exists that you appreciate today just
take a half a minute and exchange ideas
at your table right now
please
thank you for for doing that you know
the reason we do this exercise is just
to remind us that over the course of
today you're going to be setting
direction for Investments and decisions
in the town of Gilbert that 10 years 50
years from now or even f further into
the future people will be thinking back
and sending a thank you back in time for
the decisions that you're about to set
in motion and it's an important thing to
take a moment to send a thank you back
in time to the people who made the
decisions for the things that we enjoy
today even if we don't remember who they
are we know that there were people who
invested time and talent and treasure to
make things happen that we take for
granted that we enjoy that we appreciate
today
and so just by acknowledging their
efforts we thank them we send that thank
you back in
time so as we set up our meeting for
today there are three things that you
asked of me as your facilitator uh let
me just remind you what they are you
asked me that this meeting be about
Community First that this is about
recognizing the needs and meeting the
responsibilities of serving this town
and doing so without distraction we are
focused P today purely on on needs and
responsibilities the second thing you
asked me to do is to keep the
conversation future focused that this
meeting is about being true to the
town's brand of shaping a new tomorrow
today well right now this is the today
and the purpose of this Retreat is to be
mindful of the challenges that you've
inherited and to be purposeful about how
to address them going forward you've
also asked me to help you find consensus
and while this meeting isn't where final
decisions are being made it is the place
where the Town Council is responsible to
set in motion the choices and processes
and timelines by which those decisions
will be made so the agreement that we're
looking for today is Clarity on how to
proceed in consideration of these items
and I'm going to use exactly the same
process we did last time we're not doing
yes and no votes or yay and nays is I am
going to ask periodically for counsel to
give some clarity of feedback simply red
yellow green green means you're okay and
ready to advance but green doesn't mean
it has to be perfect it doesn't mean
that you have to love everything in it
it just means it's good enough to bring
forward yellow means that it's okay to
proceed with caution but you as a
council member might need something more
maybe some more information or
explanation or research or support
you're okay to proceed yellow is okay to
proceed but you're letting us know there
is something that you're going to need
later on to help you get comfortable
with that or help you to make a final
decision red and this is the most
important one red is a way to voice
strong concern or opposition it it's to
let you make sure that you have the
opportunity to be heard now going
forward I can't promise that in this
conversation today that every decision
everything is going to be red y that
everything's going to be green I can't
even promise that everything is going to
be green and yellow but let me say if
everything is green or if everything is
green and yellow we're good to go we've
got a consensus we're moving forward but
if there is a place where someone says I
am red on that that doesn't mean that
it's a fate compy it's done it means
that we have that we deserve that you
deserve the opportunity to slow down and
open up the conversation and actually
deliberate on it to actually talk to
each other and say tell me more what's
going on with you here and if you flash
red understand that the first thing I'm
likely to do is say what would you
propose different that would put you
into a green or yellow situation and we
can see how other people would respond
to that we're going to look for that
level of clarity so those are the things
that you've asked of me Community First
future focused and a way to find
consensus let me also respectfully
remind you of what I ask of you as your
facilitator first and foremost is let's
understand that disagreement isn't only
natural it's necessary the whole virtue
of having a council style of government
is to have seven people with different
life experience and different knowledge
and different perspectives and different
understandings of the way things work
and for all of us to sit down together
and deliberate about that it's not
enough to say that we have the ability
to speak candidly about our different
perspectives we also today have to talk
together thoughtfully and to listen to
each other patiently in order to find
ways to work together for the town's
best interests so we're not afraid of
disagreement but disagreement is a
chance for us to slow down F
conversation the second thing and I said
this last time I'm going to repeat it
it's so important don't shoot the
messenger and in this case there's a
there's always a distinction between the
role of staff and the role of councel
council decides what the the objectives
for the town should be over time staff
is responsible for figuring out how to
make that uh happen the difference
between what and how is generally
supposed to be pretty clear but in a
retreat like this this is as close as we
come to that middle line to staff
informing Council this is what's going
on and Council being responsible to
receive that in a way that um is factual
and clear and when Council receives it
they're they're doing it not just for
themselves but they're doing it as
proxies for everyone in the community
who needs to understand the issues and
and topics that are going on so when I
say don't shoot the messenger I'm also
saying please be patient with each other
be quick to listen but slow to judge be
quick to listen but slow to judge there
is a lot going on here and these are big
issues and it can take some time for
people to work together to find
alignment and the third thing that I ask
of you is to especially for Council
Members be willing to engage in the
discussion these are Big important and
times sensitive items and the answers
won't be found by playing your cards
close to the vest or retreating into
introspection or lamenting about what or
could or should have been done
previously you've invested we've all
invested in this day
together so that we can lean into each
other's knowledge and experience and do
the job that everyone in this room was
was either elected or appointed or hired
to do and that starts with being willing
to listen learn and deliberate together
so this is what I ask of you
disagreement isn't only natural it's
necessary don't shoot the messenger and
be willing to engage deeply in the
conversation my job as your moderator is
to keep our conversation productive
that's forward focused and on schedule
it is to keep it collaborative which
means we will be inclusive of people and
ideas and we will slow down and have
meaningful conversations if you're
willing to engage in that and we will be
thoughtful I will continually check in
to make sure that we as a whole are
being responsible creative and most of
all forward
focused one last technical bit before we
go unlike the Last Retreat where you had
microphones sitting on your table um we
don't have that set up in this room here
today we have a number of these kinds of
microphones I believe there were four of
them in the room but rather than leave
them on the table where they're going to
pick up every sound I and a couple other
people will walk around um because we
are still live streamed here it's
important that people who are watching
are able to hear what's going on here so
we'll try to if you give us a finger
wave or a hand or something we'll come
over to you and bring a microphone to
you so you can talk we can go rapidly
through this so just grab whoever is
near you but just remember that we have
to make sure that we are still talking
into a microphone at all times any
question questions before we
begin I'll bring the microphone to you
if you if you have
any okay with that we are ready for our
first agenda item
Patrick okay thank you Matt let also be
mindful of which finger we wave as we
seek
attention so um I'm going to start with
our quality of life responsibilities and
we were all uh this August we had a
retreat to dive very deep into the AR
district and all the needs down there we
had a gentleman who presented some
phenomenal information to us Joe from
Urban 3 and Joe um before it started he
came up to me and he asked me he said
hey do you know what the assessed value
of your community is I did not recall
what the current number is and he said
you should um because that's what you're
responsible and it's $65 billion and you
know the way he put that really made me
think and I've never looked at my role
as a city manager the same way ever
again that's that's truly what it's all
about I used to think about the budget
$2 billion the workforce 1,700 employees
grow Ser community over 200 lines of
service large and small and that's a lot
to manage and we strive for high quality
consistent outcomes in the most
efficient way possible but it really is
about this community and the valuation
of this community because that valuation
is a reflection on the quality of life
in large part that our residents enjoy
so every decision we make has an impact
on that number and if we make good
decisions smart decisions smart
Investments we can help that number to
continue to climb and if we make
decisions that are shortsighted or ill
informed and not what's Best in needed
for this community we can cause that
number to decline and when it starts to
decline a lot of other things start to
happen in a community um that are not
the kind of things you want for your
community so you really helped me
understand that responsibility and the
true responsibility of my role and
everybody's in
this and these Investments that we going
to to make in Gilbert really to have it
make a difference and have an impact on
that quality of life and creating that
Dem for what we've created in this
community which continues to bring in
new employers new residents and new
developments the other thing that I've
always believed is that we have
different roles Matt talked about our
elected officials but we're on the same
team we're just serving in different
capacities it's serving the residents of
Gilbert Arizona regard Police Chief Fire
Chief the mayor vice mayor council
member fire chief we're all doing our
best to understand the needs of this
community and to meet those needs and
enhance this quality of
life and these responsibilities we have
are coming at a time that's very
challenging um we all well aware of
what's currently happening in society in
our community in the region in the state
we dealt with some incredible
construction inflation um which
hopefully will be subsiding in the near
future but you know there's also never
any easy times are decis easy decisions
uh in these rooms in cing community
there's always challenges that we have
to Grapple with and overcome and then
one thing that I think all of us um can
appreciate is these things are never
going to get any cheaper the longer
delays things the more expensive you
make necessary and critical projects
serving very a number of different needs
in our community but they never get any
cheaper you may have periods where the
inflation isn't um as great but it never
goes down so with that let me jump
through and I just want to start with
highlighting numbers that we're all very
aware of we've seen them a number of
times but I think it's important to
never
forget just how amazing yber is and how
um much our residents enjoy an
incredible quality of life in just about
any category that's out there second
safest city in America second fastest
rising city out of all the 100 largest
cities in this country we were number
two they also highlighted 10 cities on
the decline and I think those cities
that are on that list we're generally
aware of them and they have real issues
that our residents don't have to
experience number nine best place to
raise a family number one place to live
in Arizona one number one median
household income number three a place
where unemployment rates are rebounding
to best in fact our employ friends are
free about it so well we have got a real
need for Workforce availability in this
community as you'll hear from the
chamber and many of our our major
employers we're also um by way of
Service delivery govern fire and rescue
is Insurance Services office class one
cpsc accredited that means that our
residents also enjoy the lowest possible
rates on their property insurance in
this community because of the
exceptional service our fire and rescue
crews do cactus yards has received the
USSA USSA National Park of the year and
has then the state G winner four years
in a row that's incredible you know when
I first started that facility was not
where it is today it was under the
operations of a private entity much more
expensive lower access to our residents
to where it is today Robert n team have
done a phenomenal job out there as they
have across all of our Park systems the
transportation master plan was awarded
the best transportation plan by the
Arizona chapter of the American Planning
Association again great work by Kyle and
his teams with support from many of the
elements within Jessica's uh Department
her District design guidelines received
the downtown achievement Pinnacle Award
the industry's highest honor
representing the most creative and
inspiring Innovations in the industry
again Dan's team was support by Kyle and
his teams have done an amazing job in
redeveloping our heritage district and
have created something that truly every
city within this region many cities
within the state many cities nationally
have come to visit it and see what we've
done uh in the quality PL down there and
then the 2020 3 aw integrated Water
Resources management award in the 2023 a
Water Association Water System project
of the year we've got a great team of
people Jessica as well as Lauren Hixon
who's our water resource manager have
done a phenomenal job planning for this
town's water and water supply as well as
providing a safe resilient stable water
supply in this community and again the
various professional associations out
there and bodies out there have
recognized that and given them much
deserved uh recognition and credit for
that and we can go on and on and on
across all of our departments the
amazing work that's been done that
benefits this community and so as we
dive into today and these capital
projects and they're big and there's a
number of them um but again they TI
directly to our quality of life and this
quote by stepen cubby the best way to
predict the futurist
created that nothing brings more true
than that the decisions we make create
the future of this community our tagline
shaping a new today shaping a new
tomorrow today really sums that up
decisions we made today are going to
shape our tomorrow decisions that have
been made as Matt indicated by previous
administrations and elected bodies have
really helped put us where we are today
in quality of life we enjoy so I want to
run through some of those that Gilbert
would be a much different place if these
decisions had not been made early on the
expansion to 67 square miles we started
out as one square mile we remained at
one square mile for the first 60 years
of our existence and then the council
and the mayor and place at the time
started seeing that need to expand our
boundaries adding the curve to the loop
202 this is something I just learned 202
was supposed to go to Gilbert barely
Street and we advocated put that curb in
which provided us eight additional miles
of Interstate Frontage in Gilbert which
allowed us to create even more
commercial activity within that area yet
land acquisition in the herit district
which started in the early 90s when this
town was transitioning from a Varan
based Community to a Pac community and
you know I'm guessing that those
decisions and those dollars had intense
competition for other needs we had in
this community and those decisions were
ones that weren't going to pay off for
decades 30 years that that investment in
buying land that allow allowed us to
consolidate properties to bring them
back to Market to prepare to redevelop
it into a a thriving downtown for a
suburban community incredible foresight
by that group and very tough challenging
decisions because that's when we really
started to grow and explode and intense
competition for those dollars straight
stade and streetcape standards we don't
need to overstate this but how many
times do you hear someone say you know
when you're in Gilbert and when you're
not in Gilbert and those Shad Street
keep State scard create a feeling in
this community that people greatly
appreciate and really adds to our our
the beautification of this community and
and people's enjoyment of it
implementation of impact fees something
we're talking about right now growth
paying for growth in residents and
businesses as they come in taking on a
shouldering a portion of the
responsibility to put the infrastructure
in place and amenities in place that
they will
enjoy Heritage Resource Center
conversion that was the town's first
Library it um was shut down sat vacant
for I don't know how many years about
like decades we used it this HED house
in Halloween we used it for storage but
it certainly wasn't providing much value
to the town nor the residents and it was
probably seven years ago Vision to
redevelop that building using some of
our cdbg funds and Pro with nonprofit
agencies who could then provide needed
and necessary services in our community
and and uh many of those services to
people that are living below the poverty
line and individuals IES that are in
distrust need help need access to
Services um just a wonderful wonderful
facility doing great things for us
University building where we are today
that decision to um which was several
fold Arizona is leads the nation in by
way of nursing shortages we have a more
acute nursing shortage than any other
state in the nation and that continues
to grow and that University Building um
also plug several other gaps for we now
have University of Arizona in here with
their medical programs and Park
University a general liberal arts
university with d uh 800 students
between the two universities right now
800 students UFA uh clamoring to get
more space to expand and medical
programs providing tremendous benefit to
this community as well as economic
impact within the district the co and
ambulance services it was about a decade
ago um the current ambulance provider
Nutro B for bankruptcy with no advanced
notice to any of the municipalities that
contract with them frood service and and
we really got caught put it and what
does this mean is it a financial
restructuring or is this a liquidation
and if it's a liquidation what are we
going to do when people make the most
important phone call of their lives
during a medical
emergency and honestly we we um had
innumerable conversations about this we
don't have the equipment to transport
them safely to a hospital we'd be
throwing them in engines and ladder
trucks and whatever we had in that time
of need and that's why we made the
decision we can't be in that position
again and we went forward with a CO in a
pretty intense environment for the
purposes of having we thought of it as a
backup Co get a couple ambulances
partner with our private sector provider
but then have operational experience
that we should ever need to expand or it
made sense for this community we moved
into that space we ended up doing that
and now we have um a an ambulance
service that is cheaper with faster
response times than the private sector
and we've got control over this aspect
of that need in our community uh so that
we'll never be in that position again of
putting the residents potentially In
Harm's Way by something happening to a
private sector
provider the 2021 Transportation bid
issue which is funding a number of
critical projects around our community
unfortunately it's not going as far as
we needed it to go and that ballot issue
itself did not even address all the
needs that we have identified in our CIP
but it was going to tackle and take down
a big portion of them and I will find
new ways to um revise scope um get the
projects as as economically efficient as
we can but if we didn't have those
dollars right now you and you can see
traffic congestion growing in this
community we' be in a pretty bad spot
northw T imp plant reconstruction and
expansion huge project complicated
project a number of driving beats there
from additional capacity so that we can
treat all of our our allocated water
supply for use in this community as well
as enhanced filtration systems because
the water quality the plant uses surp
water the water quality continues to get
worse from all the fires up north that
are sending Organics down into the water
to some of the chemicals that are
starting to show up in our water past
chemicals and others and this plant will
not have the capacity to handle all that
and hopefully take us through the next
50 years plus of the needs this
community has our sure resilient water
supply there's a number of things that
we've endeavored to do through the
decades to make sure we have an assured
100e water supply that allow this
community to uh build out to develop out
to its full potential as well as make
sure that we have capacity to meet the
needs um depending on what happens on
the drought on the Colorado River as
well as we just finalized last year the
renegotiated uh dwsa with
rwcd um which was a huge undertaking
very proud of all the teams involved
with that but rwcd and that Canal system
and their water supply again is a
critical part of our portfolio as well
as our water Delivery Systems within
this region the 99-year easement for nor
Regional Park you're going to hear more
about Robert Robert today about the next
phases of development there getting that
parcel which was the Chandler Heights uh
flood control Basin which was basically
just going to be a very 200 acre plus
tra to land of dirt that was going to
retain storm water in a 100-year plus
storm events it's now a going to be a
beautiful recreational amenity for this
community and it also allowed us to then
sell excess Park ground account to
develop the first phases of that Park as
well as Desert Sky and not have to issue
or take on any new debt to do
so and then and I only listed one here
and I'm sure there's other examples out
there some decisions that were made that
have had consequential impacts and the
town's decision to not Annex all the way
up to Interstate 60 in our North means
that the town is literally lost out will
lose out on hundreds of millions of
dollars in sales tax rather and property
tax tax revenues um into perpetuity
because what from what I understand at
the time the council did not want to
have land adjacent to the highway and
whatever perceived challenges or issues
that would create with the community we
lost out hundreds of millions of dollars
in Revenue by not 160 so our decisions
do have consequences good and bad um
that affect quality of life that our
community our residents enjoy when need
to Big the best ones they come
we can't even as challenging as the
environment is so timing considerations
you know I mentioned briefly about the
cost of things not getting any cheaper
and they're not they're just going to
continue to climb but beyond that
there's other issues that impact this
one operational impact you can hear the
chief and some others we are literally
at this point converting closets to put
uh public safety personnel in because we
are packing them in to our existing
facilities as we add bodies to meet the
needs of this growing Community it's
going to start creating is creating
operational impacts and those going to
grow uh much worse program imps our
Parks and Recreation Department in many
areas is hampered because parks are
oversubscribed and programs that need
the space in the parks are over
subscribed and that will continue to
grow worse as this community continues
to grow we're not going to be able to
meet those needs and those expectations
our residents have then lastly
reconstruction phase
if you recall when we went through our
city of the future initiative really
tried to understand where we came from
when we started growing what was driving
Neck Road and where we're heading
buildout and Beyond and one of the
things we identified is from the period
of 1985 to 2005 roughly 50% of the
infrastructure that's in place today was
put into that decade of of time and joe3
picked up on this as well roads are
single biggest category of
infrastructure asset an asphalt Street
in Arizona the FR bment can last about 4
years which is great because the same
was we would have killed gotten 40 years
out of an asphalt road lot of that's due
to the weather and and snow plowing and
putting down salt and calcium chloride
and everything they else they have to do
to create season traveling uh conditions
during the winter but we can get about
40 years if we maintain them right but
then the subgrade has deteriorated to a
point that you've got to completely
spray the road and rebuild it um to
maintain safe traveling conditions and
that period that that period of time
it's going to start about 2035 which is
just about a decade away and again we're
going to go through a lot of projects
that can't be done on once but for these
we we've got to hit ballots and we've
got to have successful ballot outcomes
and then we have to issue debt then we
have to do design and then we're enter
into construction and and you're going
to be amazed how quickly that 10 years
is going to go by and the blink an eye
if we don't make these decisions at the
appropriate time we're going to overlap
that period of time and we're going to
further compound the needs for dollars
um for projects um by competing with
with the new projects to meet the the
need for growing demand and growth in
our community and we've got an example
of U some stuff that did last 40 years
so it it's going to start probably
sooner than we
anticipated but now this to Lakes Road
Rec construction project it'll be a
reconstruction of all the public streets
in bista Lakes they did not last 40
years bista Lakes was developed between
87 and
92 and we've got to reconstruct those
roads today they didn't get to 40 years
and just one neighborhood that project
has
to just one neighborhood and we've got a
lot of neighborhoods in
Gilbert we've also got some major
arterials and some collectors that also
didn't reach 40 or didn't last 40 years
that we're going to have to do some
reconstruction on so it's already
starting that need and if we don't
address that need properly at the right
time this community will will start to
deteriorate or start taking the turn for
the worse and become a place that we
didn't recognize that we wouldn't
recognize today if we don't make the
best decisions so with that I'm going to
turn it over to Kelly she's going to run
through a comparative Revenue analysis
for us so we can kind of understand our
Revenue stream
where those come from revenue streams
that we're not currently capitalizing on
to then uh discuss that at the end of
the day we look the potential of sources
for funds for the projects we run today
so with that thank you m Kelly turn over
to
you so I can see the screen
too Patrick mentioned we're going to
talk some Revenue try to do some base uh
information
some slides from actually a couple years
ago we talked about this it's really
good to reiterate when you're talking
about revenues it is important to have
healthy balance usually we'll talk about
a three stool so the are coming from
distinct places um so if there's a
challenge to one of those areas it
doesn't desate your
entire you'll see this a lot in your
retirement planning they diversify put
it in different this is what Gilbert
looks
like like a head leg that's three leg
um sales tax uh 68% of our revenues come
from either tax or state shared sales
tax this is a very volatile Reven source
and so they're very far from the M which
is why we're always underestimating the
new sales taxes to kind protect against
that
volatility sales tax is actually growing
as we're becoming more and more
dependent on sales tax over time um we
had some federal revenues in the last
couple of years it's helped keep it down
a little bit but can see the trend is
continuing to get more and more
onelegged
schooled we look at our some some of our
neighbors these are some same sharts
that we looked at in
2019 you can see Gilbert Mesa has more
variety mostly because they trans money
from their funds um Chandler used to be
much more bued we looked at them in 2019
12% of their Revenue tax and that has
greatly changed over just couple so
their are get less
stally there are a lot of differences in
the revenues so each each Revenue Source
has different restrictions cities have
different Revenue sources you've seen
that we have different revenues than
Mesa does um but also the types differ
nationally when you talk about what
other cities are doing so on this chart
on the left there's different Revenue
sources
from cities over 250,000 nationally
Arizona we do not have individual income
tax we corporate income tax at the city
level those are some of the options that
are available to cities in other states
um there you can see general sales taxes
much smaller portion nationally compared
to us uh property
taxes now they'll do some user charges
and other includes things like for
royalties donations from private sources
and I wish we had that private Source
donation um net Lottery revenue or other
missing is there's a lot of variety
Gilbert just doesn't have a lot of
variety and even
locally
state so in our funds we have all of our
different checking accounts that are
used for different purpos
they have unique restrictions on each of
them most of the revenues that are
available to us listed here on the right
the revenue or Highway user Revenue
funds goes into their streets that one
dedicated at has to used for Street
Maintenance um vehicle license tax most
of the other cities in the state use VT
for their general fund Gilbert does not
we actually cars into the streets fund
so that is one of the big differences we
have one one Revenue Source less that we
are using for the general fund compared
to the rest
of primary property tax uh for the
cities that have it usually goes into
the general fund and helps pay for
General secondary property tax has to be
used for Debt Service and that's vter
author we got our sales tax which is
generally used for the general fund
across the state and in gobert that's
where we use it our state shared uh
sales tax and our state shared income
tax all go into our general fund those
resources are major revenues we
use we have system development fees
which we'll use for capital projects we
have Bond proceeds which we also use for
capital projects um grants go in a grant
F
figure what of the grant is restricted
for we have our utility bill Revenue
that goes get split out into our
utilities solid waste waste water and
water and then we'll have our user fees
like your parks and R fees and court
fines uh any those types of things which
would be in the general fund or in the
same area where wherever the activity is
getting paid for that's where the re
Rees get Lo we also have some transfers
so general fund will put money into the
replacement fund it's own separate
replacement fund Solid Waste has a
replacement fund water roast water
they're setting aside money that's not a
revenue stream that comes from outside
in that's funing um we'll use a portion
of revenues that come and support those
fund and peel it off specifically for
repair the other major transfer that we
do or is one of the larger ones is the
health trust each of the funds that have
people in it will transfer money over to
medical insurance dental insurance and
then the Health Trust keeps that
money so if we're going to talk about
what levers do we have to move if we
needed to have more Revenue come
in major types of taxes levers that we
have control over locally we sales tax
primary property tax and secondary
property tax the difference in them
sales tax is an ongoing Revenue stream
it is very volatile it changes with how
spending patterns change primary
property tax and secondary property tax
are very steady primary property tax can
be used for ongoing uh Revenue that's an
second
only differ there sales tax uh in order
to increase it it is recommended um
because of prop 126 that it get approved
by voters and then primary property tax
it has to be approved by voters in a May
election things um it is specified for
May uh secondary property tax does have
to be approved by voters also it doesn't
have to be
paid the sales tax can be used either to
cash run projects or we can use it to
repay debt either way we can use it to
your death and it is repaid by residents
or visitors anyone who comes into
Gilbert and spends
money primary property tax and secondary
property tax are different they are paid
only by Property Owners any of the
visitors to that stre property tax could
be used property
tax they have the same Bas um with the
property
but we have to bond would we use
secondary property ta we don't have to
bond if we had a primary property tax it
but it has other restri St only let
ta% other than new development or growth
once it's established and there is no
override or circuit breaker on that one
in just some aties interesting things
about each of those resources that you
should be aware of
I
see sorry about that like I'm very loud
now all right sales tax comparison so
these are uh just so you're aware and
have it in the back of your mind what
our sales tax looks like for the other
to the other communities the blue is
just our uh hotel and bed taxs so if you
are renting a hotel space
in Bas side you're going to pay the most
in taxes Gilbert is the lowest at the
4.3% combined retail sales in the red is
probably the one that we compare the
most that's if you go to any of the
shopping malls get a pair of shoes um
most of your just general sales and
things that happen um with the retail or
there we are tied at the bottom at 1.5%
with the
Chandler Mesa and Queen Creek are higher
they're at two and
2.25% Scot 10p are both higher than us
but kind of more uh in between at 1.75
and
1.8% and then um Chandler for Guilford
we always just say we have the 1.5%
sales tax because pretty much whatever
category Ed it's 1.5% that's not true of
the other communities and some of the
parts of things that you purchase they
charge a higher amount so for example
Chandler charges 1.5% for retail sales
but if you were on your phone bill
you're Communications through their
utilities your water bill they charge
2.75% because those are some more stable
parts of their revenue and so they get a
higher amount in those areas Mesa is
about
2.52% across the board but they also
charge sales tax on your Wastewater bill
um which most of the other communities
don't Scott sale also does so you can
see kind of the difference here on how
the different communities charge their
sales tax and where Gilbert fits
in
within that sales tax rate there are
dedicated special special sales taxes
that they charge for particular
purposes Gilbert does not have a sales
tax that is dedicated to a particular
purpose we use all of ours for General
operation most of them most of the
cities around us do have a dedicated
sales tax for transportation so they're
not using their BLT revenues vehicle
license tax revenues in their to support
their streets operations they are using
dedicated sales tax for that and then
they're using BLT to support their
General operations a difference for the
communities there's also dedicated sales
taxes for Public Safety um and several
for the Arts or culture uh in the
different communities around some of
them are quite extensive so Phoenix has
a 7/10 of a percent Street
Transportation sales tax that's giving
them $364 million
annually
are go figure um one of them that was
really interesting as well is in Peoria
they have a half cent sales tax that
they do for capital projects they don't
de designate um that some of that money
is used for Parks some of it's used for
Public Safety it's whatever debt or
capital projects they need in their
Community um that gives them some money
there let's look at property tax
comparison this is where Gilbert is with
several that uh communities across the
valley we are on the lower end um most
of the communities charge both a primary
and a secondary property tax Mesa and
Gilbert only charge a secondary property
tax Buckey and Queen Creek only charge a
primary property tax so just some
differences remember primary property
tax you can use for operations you can
also use it for capital projects you can
cash fund capital projects with it
secondary property tax you can only debt
Finance capital projects and repay it
with
it um so this is the comparison of where
they look across the valley
and there is a lot of of debt even
recently that's associated with capital
projects for different purposes in in
the property taxes you can see a list
here and as I was looking through the
different budgets also interesting
Glendale did a great job with the
colorful call out this is all of the
remaining authorization that they have
from voters that they haven't even
issued the debt for yet so this is a
significant part of their financing and
operation is getting voter authorized
IED approval for all of these different
purposes on Deb they plan to uh plan to
put
out there are some other differences um
that we should call out some unique
things that different cities are doing
Mesa increases the cost of their utility
bills and then does large transfers from
their utilities into their general fund
to help pay for their general fund
operations so fiscal 24 we're talking
$126 million of transfers into their
general fund recort their general fund
operations Chandler has Intel um and I
couldn't I don't know all of the details
on it in their financial statements in
their
budget uh their other receipts is
usually you know 10ish million dollars
and then it bumps up to 96 for fiscal 24
and the note just says this is revenues
for Intel's corporation's reimbursement
for operation of the aao r reduction
facility so there's some kind of a
partnership and things that are going on
there that they're getting private
revenue from Intel to help support
operations and things that are happening
so lots of differences in revenues
across the
organizations infrastructure investment
is happening Nationwide it's not just
something that we're looking at in
Arizona on the November 23 ballot that
just passed there was $2.8 billion doll
of
infrastructure investment that was
requested Across the Nation and 2.6
billion of that was approved by voters
so lots of investment
happening there's also a lot of
headlines um infrastructure is aging
Across the Nation um there's a police
department that got a grant to prevent
the dispatching infrastructure from
failing which was good there's one that
mentions it is the third time in two
months that they've shut down a road for
a
sinkhole so definitely some problems
with road infrastructure happening um
there are dams that are starting to show
failures other crisis voters are
improving tax increases es um and
they're looking at utility rate
increases because of Aging
infrastructure so all the cities are
grappling with how do we maintain that
quality of life and fund the
infrastructure they're looking at
increases to water bills they're looking
at you know a 12 billion doll
infrastructure list this that one of the
cities in Winnipeg is looking at um
looking at sewer infrastructure that
needs Investments Phoenix Lo has just
approved $500 million of bonds recently
so lots of things happening in
investment that's being looked at
nationwide at the last meeting Council
asked us to look at what's happening for
other Valley cities with uh Capital
Improvement projects and inflation I
just asked send an email out to the
budget these are the cities that
responded Chandler is seeing more
significant increases the past couple of
years they are looking uh infusing more
one-time funding to help offset some of
the project costs they're delaying
projects they're EXP storing partnering
options they are more heavily reliant on
their fund
balances so using some of their fund
balance to help fund that and they've
let their Council know that the recent
Bond authorization that was approved is
not going to last or go as far as they
had anticipated that it would
go porori is also experiencing large
increases it's been a problem for the
last few years they are eliminating some
projects entirely they're potentially
delaying projects they're looking at
rate increases for water and wastewater
and they're potentially bonding against
some Transportation tax they're also
looking at some interest only bonding as
an option um because they don't they're
trying to balance what their rates are
versus what what capacity they have
available Scottdale is also increasing
um seeing increase costs they're using
higher general fund
revenues to cover some of that and they
also sold about $20 million Bland and
use that to cover some of their CIP cost
increases so unfortunately we are not
alone lots of places across the valley
are also seeing that so that kind of
gives you an idea of what our revenues
look like in the full scope and what
some of the other communities are
experiencing any
questions I oh I'm not used to my voice
being loud
so
um on one of your charts you mentioned
that sales tax now has to go to the
voters if it's being changed when was
that changed there was a proposition 126
that passed in 2017 or
2018 and it doesn't
specifically require it but that is the
most conservative approach would be get
it approved by
voters realize that thank
you other questions
Jim
the uh the hotel tax I realized it got
knocked down for whatever reason is that
something now because it's part of a Cil
tax has to go forward to
voters it was knocked down prior to that
um prop I would look to Chris for a
specific legal opinion but
likely since I
can't is have look at it
okay other
questions hearing
none
Patrick not a question when Kelly comes
back up at the end of the day to look at
potential scenarios for funding for
these projects we've identified keep in
mind when we looked at our cities um
regionally at sales tax and property tax
and how we stack
up don't lose sight of the fact these
cities um that have secondary property
taxes funding bond issuances for capital
projects also have sales ta revenues
directly tied to uh funds to bond
capital projects so they have two
sources of revenue that they're doing
that through and kind of a balanced
approach on who's paying for that
where's we're only using secondary right
now other questions tell I have a
question um a number of the the
comparable cities you said um uh said
that uh because of increased costs they
were taking items off they were
withdrawing things from their CIP can
the city just even though it's been
approved by an election the city can at
some point like to not fund certain
things as a
result
so if you go back to the slide here so
um where it says eliminated projects
entirely for Poria what's the process
that the city has to go to to eliminate
a project that's been previously
approved by voters most of the projects
aren't previously approved by voters so
we have a whole Capital Improvement
project list um with various different
funding sources if for example the
Public Safety Training Facility reversed
5 years ago if we decided not to do that
after voters already approved money um
if they approved a ppit project then we
wouldn't be able to bond or use the
money associated with that restricted
area um but most of our money is not
restricted to a specific project like
that and so we can switch it out for
other more important Public Safety
projects or more important road projects
in general if and then still meet the
requirements of that funding source and
then Council looks at the capital
Improvement project um list that that is
recommended each year and we fund just
the first year of that list and what's
planned in the future so we can move
projects without voter authorization but
we would try not to do that with any of
the projects
that are critical to our infrastructure
and operating or that citizens are very
interested in having to come but we do
have to balance what can we afford to do
versus what do we what would we like to
do other questions this is last chance
to ask Kelly before we take a quick
break anyone else
question Kelly thank you great job U
according to our agenda we have a
15-minute break and we're moving a
little bit ahead and that's a good thing
we're going to keep everything moving
ahead so we're going to still do 15
minutes starting right
now Robert's going to take us into
facility and space needs
analysis floor is
yours
all right good morning I'm gonna stand
over by Nathan today so he doesn't feel
left out that everyone was standing on
the other side of the room so far um so
apologies in advance you're about to
enter into the next two hours with me uh
hearing my voice on these speakers for
two hours is brutal for all of us so I'm
sorry uh but this is uh really been
looking forward to this one this this is
a very important uh project for Gilbert
that's about to kick off so we wanted to
take some time talk through it talk
about all the different phases that are
that are involved and why it's going to
be so important you're also going to
hear from the Chiefs later on on why
some of these things are important um
within some of their space needs and I
think you're going to see really great
representations of that and and why we
need to uh take this item seriously so
we're going to talk about space needs
assessment and facility master
plan just to start us off um I asked
Milan to sit in the front row over here
to my left just in case Council has not
had a chance to meet meet Milan Milan if
you could stand up real quick this is
Milan peric he's our facilities manager
so if you haven't met Milan he's the one
you want to track down talk about what
the temperature is like or any of those
other things I do joke with him and I'm
just going to have him walk around with
a master control everywhere but I also
thank Milan on a daily basis because we
really don't understand our inventory
until you take a look at some of these
numbers so when you take a look and see
that Gilbert has over 1.1 million square
ft of facilities about 337
hvac's over a thousand different badge
readers and cameras spread out
throughout the system 50 chillers about
60 total facilities 1.5 billion in
assets and Milan maintains this with
about 11 facility technicians um that
focused on it so I thank Milan Dy um one
of the busiest people in Gilbert but he
does a good job and he's always smiling
too so if you ever see him not smiling
you know make sure to say
hi let's get to why is a space needs
assessment important so as we really
take a look at this you know what is the
space needs and Facilities master plan
the first one is we don't have a
facility master plan so Gilbert's you
know in a 100 years of existence we
don't have a facility master plan yet
and as we look at where we are now and
where we're going to the Future this is
one of the most important documents that
we can do for all of the teams in the
community because what that does is it
creates that road map that road map for
developing maintaining and improving our
public
spaces for the community standpoint
ensuring that the funds are directed
towards projects with the most
significant impact and that's one of the
really most important things you can do
with facilities because with 60
facilities spread out um you need to
make sure that those dollars go through
the most important impactful ones
because we want to make sure that we're
providing that transparency to the
community on funding and business cases
of how our teams are utilizing these
facilities but when we get into some of
the critical importance right now um
Patrick mentioned that infrastructure is
aging we've been very lucky because
Gilbert's facilities portfolio is
relatively young it's not young anymore
we're starting to see that average age
of our facilities at 24 years old um
when you start to see facilities have
the most amount of need it's between
years 20 and 30 so a lot of those
facilities came on right about 24 years
ago in the 20 to 30 year range we're
starting to see it you know you've spent
a lot of time at s so you can kind of
see the live you know the operate
bathroom at s every time we've done a uh
a retreat it's definitely you know
starting to show that age starting to
have those tiles be cracked you know
having to to change out some areas when
we look at flexibility of workspaces and
adapting to our Workforce you're going
to hear a lot about that from the Chiefs
later on but it's not just in public
safety we're facing this in all of our
areas um such as you know Fleet being a
good example of those Bays those
facilities do they have the prop proper
amount of space to do their job the way
it needs to be done in a safe uh and
efficient manner but then also how do we
look at the spaces and what they're used
for today and how do we plan for what
they need to look like in the
future that's going to be something that
this space needs in facility master plan
really focuses in on and then we kind of
talked about that project prioritization
and funding strategies when you have 60
different facilities spread out and you
have all the needs that we see today how
do we do that in a predictable future
forward thinking process to make sure
that we're focusing on the right ones at
the right time uh so that's something
that this assessment is really going to
help
us talk a little bit about the guiding
principles um you're not going to see
pretty pictures today you're going to
see that in the next presentation this
one you're going to see some of the real
behind the scenes things that we see um
that maybe not always everyone
recognizes but when we look at those
guiding principles and what's going to
guide this process for us one of those
is the resiliency and sustainability and
we're going to take a little bit of
examples here later on where we talk
about some of those sustainability
efforts we're making uh safety and
Technology are those facilities safe are
those INF safe you know this is a great
picture you know kind of showing the
crumbling concrete underneath you know
that a lot of people don't consider that
facilities all the time we're going to
talk a little bit about why it is part
of the facilities but we want every
facility anyone is ever in to be a safe
experience for all users not only the
public uh but the employees working
there and then technology what type of
Technology do we need to deploying all
these facilities um you know we're going
to hear more and more about it on on all
the different Smart Technologies that
you see in facilities later on but are
we having it in the right spots and do
we have the infrastructure in place um
when it comes to the fiber and other
things to have that technology at those
locations and then Energy Efficiency you
know one of those top things uh that I
think a lot of people are focused on um
when you have
337 different HVAC units when you have
those 50 chillers are they running
energy
efficient you know we'll take a look at
some of these not all of them are a lot
of those are at that 20e age range we're
seeing a lot of Replacements come up but
with those Replacements creates
opportunity we're going to get into that
in a minute couple other guiding
principles um the cost you know when we
look at that project prioritization
which ones kind of have that reasonable
cost to replace so when you see that
picture in the bottom leftand corner you
know those are pictures of sewer lines
that that should have technically a
longer lifespan but have some cracks in
it and all of a sudden you start to see
things seep up through the floor
facilities gets that frantic call you
know to go run and do well you have a
lifespan on that sewer line that should
be about 50 years and Patrick mentioned
that with roads ear we're starting to
see some of them not last all 50 years
so while we're doing projects in
facilities when we're renovating making
sure we're taking care of the
infrastructure that we need to in place
while we're already there Service
delivery we talked a little bit about
that with
Fleet understanding what the service
deliveries are everywhere and making
sure that they have everything they need
to be to be successful and then that
long-term
adaptability but we always start about
facilities being more than just a
building and that's this plan will kind
of go into talk about that vehicle
accommodations fet Services you know how
do the parking spaces look at all our
facilities how do those handicap spaces
look do we have enough vehicle Bays to
maintain the fleet in the order that we
need to appropriately for the fire
equipment for the police equipment for
the sanitation equipment that's
something we're going to be working
through the landscaping and Public
Access when you you know Pastor kind of
talked a little bit about earlier if you
know you're in Gilbert When You Reach
certain of those Landscaping spaces with
trees and the shad and the streetscape
are we applying that to our own
facilities that we're managing so when
the Public's coming up to mun one or mun
2 or North Area Service Center or South
area service center to have those
services do those Aesthetics match what
we want to be displaying in Gilbert you
know a lot of that infrastructure
irrigation planting material is still 20
25 years old it's going to need some
upgrades to to kind of make it where it
needs to be along with the wayf finding
uh for the customers uh Business
Delivery methods why are those customers
you know sorry Wireless customers
visiting the facilities and what's the
business function and does it all make
sense and can we look at that a little
bit better can I talk a little about
security and Technology uh storage um
this is a big one all the Departments
have need for storage and certain
departments have storage needs that are
assigned by different codes so if you
look at the clerk's office for example
um you can't just have a storage closet
there's certain requirements within the
state that you need to keep those
records in with certain type types of
features so going through all the
different departments understanding what
those storage needs are and those
requirements so that we can properly
make sure they have the spaces they need
uh into the
future so we kind of mentioned
sustainability uh this is something the
department has really been focusing on
the last one or two years um and it kind
of started with our first pilot program
at the Public Safety Training Facility
where you know when you're doing these
new facilities we're able to put the
right technology in place the right
dashboards the right monitoring systems
to be able to understand um how we're
utilizing that power so in the first
year of pstf we then went in and were
able to kind of tweak the system to make
it a little more efficient just with
that tweak over the last year you know
it's not just that $225,000 saved it's
the kilowatt hours and if you think
about that that's the equivalent of 39
homes per year and about 512,000 miles
driven by a vehicle you know when you're
thinking about that carbon emission
that's just one facility so as we start
to renovate these facilities with the
hvac's with the chillers with the
different units what's that going to
look like in a facility portfolio across
the entire network it's us making sure
we're being good stewards of that
sustainability
approach and then towel dispensers you
know that's one that we've um you know
changed out used to be that they were
all just sitting on the counter you can
grab as many as you you wanted um that
was not the most efficient use of paper
so changing to the more automatic
dispensers even though it sounds simple
across the facilities that's about 9,000
pounds of paper savings annually just
within the last year so these are all
just some of those sustainability
highlights that we think we can continue
um throughout the whole
system so let's talk about the phases of
the plan so we broke this up into three
different phases but all of them are
going to happen kind of simultaneously
so we have the facilities condition
assessment space needs and facility
master plan we're going to walk through
what each of those
means so that facility condition
assessment it's really understanding our
systems and our portfolio and our
infrastructure so that we know exactly
um all the different assets that are in
place throughout our facilities um what
kind of condition they're in currently
and also what's that replacement cost
and what's those maintenance standards
so we do have a lot of those maintenance
standards in place but with 11 facility
maintenance technicians to be able to
provide that over reliability portfolio
is a lot of um preventative maintenance
to get
to then we look at that life cycle
assessment and really look at those
renewal needs and we plan those out you
know 50 years plus into the future with
that that condition assessment with that
planning and what you're going to end up
seen um is that FCI is a number that we
talked with Council in 2019 about um
when you said that good Fair poor at the
time we really wanted to make sure we
kept an average FCI of 5% and below so
keeping our facilities in that good
condition rating at the time in 2019 we
were still at that 4.5 level we're going
to get a better idea of where we're at
now after the study uh but we expect
we're going to be somewhere between that
that high good range and and L faar
range just because of that 24e portfolio
versus 19 years um but we have made
great strides uh budgeting with the life
cycle replacement um we've been able to
replace a lot of those hbac over time
carpets things along those nature that
that you typically see um and we'll have
this for every facility in the
town and then we'll get into space needs
taking a look at those Department
interviews really understanding with all
the directors and their staff how
they're utilizing their existing spaces
what those operations are within and the
space needs take a look at the
benchmarking and breast practices from
similar operations uh in those same
spaces the Staffing projections you know
know we have our own you know Town
Staffing projections but just checking
in understanding what that looks like
the historical Trends um and storage
requirements and what that means after
all those interviews you really come up
with that space needs program to define
the existing space use currently
required but also projected we look at
that current projection we look at the
fiveyear the 10-e out to the 25 years so
that we could really make the best
possible decisions as we look at to
optimize those acies and service
deliveries then when that's all done
we'll get into the facility master plan
spot which really is about that Gap
analysis understanding from each and
every group where their gaps are within
their square footage develop a list of
Alternatives because we know as we
talked about earlier we probably can't
do all of them at once we need to make
sure it's defined prioritized method and
the way that we want to go through
planning our facilities out in the
future with each group but with this we
know we have immediate needs we're going
to hear a little bit about that later
from police and fire so while we are
projecting those 5 10 15 and 20e build
outs we have immediate needs today with
police and fire and Fleet and some other
services that we need to you know
prioritize a little quicker than we see
on the complete list and like I said
we'll get into those this
afternoon so with that when that's all
complete we get into that cost estimate
range where we really take a look at all
of those projects all of the maintenance
upgrades and Renovations because it's
not just about the space needs we got to
remember maintaining our facilities with
where they are at today where they're
going to be put all of that together
towards that facility's master
plan so where we're at now we're
currently been doing visioning uh
sessions with our stakeholders and and
some of our departments uh we expect
that contract to come to council at the
January 23rd Town council meeting uh the
selected provider is
fch then we'll start a about a 10-month
process uh where we'll be working with
stantech in all three of those phases um
most likely be completed in the summer
of 2024 but then with sort of as we go
to all the different boards and councils
and and collect those recommendations
we'd expect a final document to be ready
in the fall of
2024 but with that have be happy to
answer any questions like I said we're
not necessarily looking for a direction
today but wanted to make you aware
because this is a really important
project not just for Gilbert's current
needs but also guiding that future
look hey Rob um is there an insurance
product that we can purchase to cover
the
vendor claims regarding how long their
materials will
last so excellent question it really
depends on the type of project so we do
have some of our warranties uh in place
and insurances with certain amenities
you know when those are put into place
and those CIP projects um so on those
CIP projects you have that for a certain
amount of time on the infrastructure
itself like an HVAC we have that for a
couple of years but usually within those
standard you know warranty
periods Robert thanks for that
presentation um I have some concerns
with that FCI scale that you
displayed it went pretty quickly from
good condition to poor condition um is
there flexibility in that scale to have
a larger portion that is fair no it's a
it's a great question we looked at
generally the average of all the
facilities because we did when we looked
at it we had facilities that were in the
good range we had facilities that were
in the poor range in the fair range but
understanding what those spaces are used
for what the business needs are those
spaces we're kind of able to then
prioritize the projects and know maybe
it's okay for this facility to be in
that condition based on what's wrong
with it currently but there's others we
may you know we wouldn't want anywhere
near those percentages based on business
functions so we'll be able to break
those down and I think that's what helps
guide that future look when you look at
that 5 10 15 40e portfolio uh what's
okay to be maybe at the 10% or 15% and
then what do we want that 5% and below
but overall that's what we saw as but it
does grow quite a bit and what we saw in
2019 when we did that study was we were
going to hit a peak in about 2025 2026
that was pretty significant and at the
time Council and staff um made those
Investments to kind of create that LP
fund with the assistance of Kelly where
we've been able to put more money um
into those facilities than we had in
previous
years I think from my persp perspective
I just want to make sure that we're
thinking about um that functionality and
making sure that we're
not putting that investment into a place
where we could actually get a little bit
longer life out of it no absolutely and
I think uh that's why it's going to be
so beneficial is because we're going to
be able to have that in a prioritized
way but in a space needs way where we
understand the exact functions in each
and every location and what the staff
there need as well as the public needs
and be able to look at that holistically
and say what what's what is our best
approach moving forward as a town so
we're really looking forward to that
because I I agree with help
Kathy thank you Robert um my question
has to do with changing work
environments that we're experiencing and
I know that we have a hybrid model in
place today and so maybe it's more of a
policy level discussion but as we do
these inventories and we look at the
future hopefully your consultant has the
expertise in this area but
um understanding where even five years
from now the
workforce environment is changing and I
don't know if we're going backwards or
we're going forwards as far as less
people more people more shared space
could you just address that a little bit
yeah absolutely you know I think um we
were really excited to have stantech on
board as our provider because they
really are the leader not only in
municipalities with facilities Spas
needs and master plans but also in the
private sector they do all of it so I
think we're going to have a partner in
that that can do kind of across the
Spectrum and tell us what's going on
right now but also what they're seeing
and how businesses are designing and how
municipalities are designing for what
that looks like into the future um so I
I think we found the right partner to
help us go through that conversation but
that's also why it's so important that
we're going to be talking in depth with
every single department and every single
facility and really understanding what's
happening at all those locations
overall any other one any other
questions from council members make
anyone hearing none Robert I think it's
time to go to your second presentation
let take a little bit of like a we'll
call it like a costume change as they
change the uh screens here
all right I'm going to sneak back a
little bit in the
room
all right so this one uh a little
lengthier than perhaps facilities but
we're going to talk about Parks and
Recreation system development um we had
a little bit of a preview of this at
the on the changing screens anymore we
had a little bit of a preview of that at
the uh switch sides of the room the last
uh Council Retreat and as we look into
the future we're going to dive a little
bit more into depth on on some of these
projects and some of the data behind the
scenes so to start us off um we're going
to kick it off with just a little
60-second video on uh some of the
services that Parks and Recreation
provides and some of the participants
and as we're kind of looking at it you
know the quote on the right uh spoke a
lot to it of what really parks and R is
doing is providing those physical
activities social interaction and mental
health spaces and they really are what
keeps the community vibrant connected
and livable and as you look through it
you'll see there's not a demographic
that was currently not surveyed in the
department um and I want to thank Eva
kers bom who's in the room who's our
from digital government but s Le aison
in the department um who's always out
there taking videos and pictures and and
putting all of this together I really
appreciate her assistance but as you can
see that impact that all these programs
have um really touches all of
gild
all those kids were hopped up on
sugar um so they had just maybe had a
little bit of ice cream at one of our
local
establishments um but as we start to
look uh towards some of those themes um
you know last time we talked we talked
about the current conditions we talked
about quality of service the growth
rates the barriers to use we're just
going to do a quick um reminder of that
that the spaces are overcrowded we're at
maass capacity within our parks and our
programming since 2018 we mentioned
earlier we saw 63% increase in Aquatics
a 45% increase in special Amendment
special events and a 55% increase in
programming um the percentages don't
tell all the numbers if you look at the
numbers behind that that was an
equivalent of about 500,000 more people
total just in a 5year span and when we
really talk
to the customers and residents with our
statistically valid survey that went out
through the master plan we saw that over
25% cited programs being too full as the
reason they're not utilizing their
services about 28% of the parks being
too full when you look at the national
average of what they see when they do
this in thousands of communities those
numbers don't climb above 4% so Gilbert
is far
outpacing um our parks and our programs
being full uh compared to uh the rest of
the country and when we look at the
quality of service 93% of the
participants rated their experiences as
excellent or good national average on
that is uh about 75% so we're outpacing
that by about 18% which is why every
time I have a microphone that team that
you see in the the corner over there I
have to take some time to say thank you
because they really take pride in making
sure that they put on the best best
possible programs events and the safest
and highest quality pars uh that you can
expect but with that that system is at
capacity which is why we're going to
have that conversation a little deeper
today so quick recap on master plan you
know we kind of already talked we had
that historic Community input and you
know on record the highest engagement
previously was about 30,000 in Texas um
those 60 ,000 engagements those are
statistically ballot so that is
individuals that we had interactions
with at all these different engagement
events who participated who shared their
thoughts and what that shows is it
wasn't just the staff who were
passionate about what they were doing
the community was passionate you don't
get to 60,000 without the community
being fully bought into to wanting those
Parks and Recreation services and being
excited to share that feedback and when
you look at even just social media
impressions
you know close to 275,000 plus this was
only during a 3-month period um so you
can kind of see you know the community
was was telling me to talk about this
subject then we'll get a little about
Resident
prioritization um you know a lot of uh
what we do is focused on the residents
so we see that you know res residents
typically have lower registration fees
across the board um we open the
registration for residents earlier than
non-residents um so they get a couple of
day ahead start um and it is they do
sell out rather fast so you have to be
even shaking her head in the back we try
to give everyone as much time ahead in
advance but as soon as our programs go
live U many are sold out within the
first few days um and then we'll talk
about the youth sports Coalition a
little bit for those of you that don't
know about the youth sports Coalition
that is nine different uh Youth Sports
programs that utilize our field so
instead of gilber providing those sports
leagues in those certain areas uh we
have the nonprofits that we partner with
to be a member of the Coalition you have
to have an 80% and above uh resident
rate and that number is audited um by
our special event staff so they go
through and audit all those Sports
coalitions
currently that Coalition is at 85%
residents 15% non-residents with 24,000
plus users
so it's a pretty large sample size of
those residents utilizing the fields if
you look at our Sports field usage over
85% of our current reservations are from
that Coalition which means if you're a
non-coalition number because of the
limited amount of fields we have in
Gilbert there's only about 5,000 hours
total available so just last week um I
saw a Facebook post where someone had
written uh I am in need of a sports
field and bber is not available to have
a field until I believe it was March or
April um just to kind of give you an
idea so if you're looking for field
space you are most likely out of luck
for a four to five month period um
before that's going to become available
but we are serving a majority of the
residents with those Sports field usages
and then when we look at just our
program breakdown 76% are residents 24
are non or non-residents
uh the average typically in there is
6535 when you look at municipalities
around the valley because we are so
close we share a lot of the same border
so we are definitely outpacing the fact
that more of our residents uh take
place when we look at non-coalition
rentals so we know we already know that
85% of those sports coalitions are the
renters the 15 or the 15% that are left
over you see that 64 to 36%
breakdown
the other item that we really focused on
with resident engagement was to make
sure we canvas the entire Community you
can kind of see the map on the left
about all the different areas where we
either held an event attended an event
did some Community feedback and in that
statistically ballot survey that's sort
of a National Standard within the way
that they do Master plans for Parks uh
the residents are asked their level of
support for what types of projects
they'd be looking for in the future and
you can see an overwhelming amount of
our residents support whether it's
facility and park development the
improvements multi-use path development
multi-use path improvements so the
residents were very engaged in knowing
that those you know four to five main
focus areas are ones they're highly
supportive of and ones that we need to
make sure we're matching our projects of
U into the
future so we'll call it the top 10 but
these are the top 10 high priorities so
of those ,000 engagements these are the
ones that we heard the most about but
that list goes on so even if you looked
at the medium priorities there's about
15 to 20 different amenities that were
under those and some of the lower
priorities but when we look at that top
10 the themes we consistently continue
to see Park development aquatic
facilities and splash pads the rec
center in southeast Gilbert we'll talk a
little bit more in depth but that was
something we heard a lot about because
most of the rec centers are all located
across either
Guadalupe or Elliott in Northern gilberg
additional Sports Fields you just saw
the data that even the sports coalitions
that have 85% of our rentals have
waiting lists where kids cannot get into
those used sports nonprofit programs
because there's not enough lighted field
space for them to have proper hours just
kind of give you an idea of what that
capacity looks like the multiuse task M
spaces dog parks pickle ball and then
the shap public art components so we
really you know took a look at this top
10 list as we started to go through all
the different projects that the
department was looking at over the next
few
years but not all the data is great so
last time we talked we looked at uh a
lot of these examples of some of the the
better data in the community um today
we're going to talk about a little bit
about showing our system being at
capacity what where we stand in those
National benchmarks and what some of the
other communities are doing to invest in
the system one of the things that we did
share last time that Still Remains very
high and we don't want to lose side of
is that multi-use path um system so when
you take a look users of that multiuse
path system you still 23% of Gilbert
using it multiple times per week um 16%
multiple times per month about 9% once
per week once per month once per year we
only had about 20%
that are not utilizing it so you think
about 80% of our residents are utilizing
that multiuse class system U monthly if
not several times per month um and when
you look at how
important the quality of life in is in
Gilbert with multiuse cath parks that
was a 96
94% um of people who looked at those two
amenities and said those are some of the
highest uh things they look for when
they look at the quality of life
so during the master plan engagement um
this number was staggering to me we
didn't have this last time we met but um
we did place our AI data at every Park
and Fa and uh Recreational facility and
multiuse path we couldn't do every
single multiuse path we had to do
sections of multiuse
paths overall that's 5.3 million visits
to our Parks recreational facilities or
trails in 2022
that is a staggering number when you
think of how many people that's serving
on an annual basis and we looked at some
of the comparisons just because we were
having fun in the the department how to
live this up a little bit how many
people do we think go to a Cardinals
game annually how many people go to a
son's home game Diamondback's home game
if you added in all those um amenities
which are you know obviously bring in
people from all over the country um and
are economic drivers they don't even
come close to that 5.3 million visits
and then if we look at Arizona's most
famous Park the Grand Canyon there are 5
million annual visits and Gilbert's
outpacing those within our system right
now and being that
capacity what's that number going to
look like as we to gross and so this is
just sort of a a benchmark to see what
how many other visitors are utilizing
some of these that were more familiar
with so uh among the 100 most populated
cities in the country Gilbert's
currently ranked last in our Park system
in terms of amenities that our Park
system provides um this isn't always the
thing we love to talk about but this is
the standard with the trust for public
land that all the Parks and Recreation
agencies around the country utilize and
when we look at that they take a look at
some of the amenities I'm just going to
give you a few of them um you know
something like basketball hoops you're
at 1.3 for 10,000 residents playgrounds
one playground per 10,000 residents uh
the rec center one was pretty stacking
as well with3 rec centers per
20,000 um and we can kind of go on the
dock Park one as well 7 per 100,000
residents along with the splash pads
this also takes into account how many
parks you have how many acres you have
that are developed and out of those top
100 most populated cities uh Gilbert was
significantly
behind um while we do do very well in
quality uh we don't always hit those
marks
Benchmark wise in quantity you know for
our
residents amongst
uh in the country for recreation we did
90th out of 100 those most most
populated based on the amount of
programs were offered the amount of
spaces uh that are available we were
last among Arizona cities for recreation
you know like I said before this isn't a
lack of try because we are at Mass
capacity we've just reached that
capacity level which we can provide
those services that the residents are
requesting and wanting more of and we
look at that Sports field need analysis
this from
2014 um we are updating that right now
uh spoil alert I think our deficit is
going to grow even a little more based
on the the numbers that we're seeing
today we should have that soon but even
in our Sports field analysis that looked
at the full buildout of gilberg uh we
are deficit of about seven baseball
softball fields six multiuse fields and
uh cricket and why that number is going
to be important um you saw earlier that
we have people on waiting list
throughout the community just to
participate in these Youth Sports and
adult sports and uh that limited growth
for the future is there and this just
kind of gives you an idea of how many
fields need to be added to start to meet
those needs and the biggest key to that
is this me is lighted Fields so there's
a big distinction because if you look at
the prime usage of fields um yes you're
going to see them more open from that
you know 8:00 am to 300 p.m time period
but you're not going to see them open
from 4 pm to 900 p.m. and so those
lighted lighted field uh are very
important so about 3% of our Gilbert
land is Parkson Recreation um compared
to the national average of 15% and
amongst the valley Benchmark cities we
are third worst for developed Park acri
per thousand residents in the valley and
that num is growing we're going to see
uh in a minute on the next slide how
that compares to everyone so this is in
order from left to right uh Buckeye and
Queen Creek are both um developing some
significant Park projects as we speak um
we can very well start to see ourselves
um creep lower down that list once's
Frontier family park and the second
phase of Vel Carter and some of those in
Buckeye are developing so this is just
the valid benchmarks of of how these
different cities developed and where
Gilbert stands within our developed Park
a bridge
currently so what's developing in the
valley so we have a over the parks
recreation system cities are looking at
investing about 750 million in Parks and
Recreation projects over the next three
years um on the right you're going to
see some of the projects that were
recently completed uh with about a $400
million investment over the last two
years uh to three years so you're going
to see good years
um Recreation Park Campus there on the
left in the top you'll see Manel Carter
and uh Chandler you know kind of redid
the Veterans Park over at the top right
I know that's an interest that Gilbert
would like to see a Veterans Memorial
type facility into the future um then
you can see Paloma Park in Poria and uh
the skate park so this is just a few
examples but communities are um
understanding the significant impact
that Parks migration has in their
communities you're starting to see that
investment uh grow over the next few
years so then we'll talk a little bit
about what happens when communities
don't invest in their parks and rack
systems so we look at that physical and
mental health as being one of the top
things that parks recreation provides
for community
members and communities overall uh with
the national Recreation and park
Association they partnered with the
National Institute of Health and a few
others and took a look and said with
every Community across the country that
was in the top 100 what would happen if
we had more parksin a 10-minute walk
where ises that due to the annual health
care expenses uh within Gilbert
specifically that reduced uh by
approximately about 22 million um
annually with more people having access
to those parks and open spaces and rec
centers when we talk about social
connection when you saw that video that
social connection is so important to how
people are utilizing the parks and
Facilities on a daily
basis if people are not have access to
more of those and we have those parks
and programs being full you start to see
that increase in childhood obesity when
we see the increase in crime um we
mentioned that we have a wonderful
partnership with PD and fire um couldn't
ask for a better one but what you see
with crime rates When there's less parks
recreation available there's less areas
to go to there's less places to recreate
where you see more problems is areas
that are open and don't have as many
amenities nearby
so when you have parks that are a little
more vacant without popular amenities
nearby you start to see that increase in
crime and when you don't have those
trees and other spaces you start to see
that heat island effect um increase
there just some of those examples that
um cities across the country have
experienced there's some pretty lengthy
studies um in New York in La some of the
other Suburban communities that have
tracked
different um zip codes and area codes
within their communities to track this
and the numbers are pretty staggering
when you get to see all of it
together we also look at those economic
benefits so overall in 2019 um Arizona
Parks and Rec agencies contributed to
more than three billion in economic
activities what does Parks and
Recreation VI when you have a thriving
system you start to see those home
buyers increased property values now I
kind of mentioned the other day if you
live within a couple of miles of
Regional or Freestone or any of those
District parks and you're on Zillow uh
looking for a house um you're 90% going
to see that listed in that description
of how what that proximity looks like uh
to one of these parks and why that
attracts home buyers because they want
to be close to them when we see
businesses looking to relocate coming
into gilberg one of the top things
businesses look at is what's the quality
of life for those residents what type of
access to parks to recreation centers to
multi paths do they have look at that
tourism and sales activity which is not
our main goal but does happen based on
some of the events that we do throughout
the year those lower Public Health costs
and increased sustainability so we don't
have a separate slide today on
sustainability but you start to see a
little bit of it with facilities this is
one of the top things we're going to be
focusing on as we look at the future
development what does that green
infrastructure look like as we go to
develop the remaining space within the
park system whether that's a Parks or
whether that's a center how are we
properly using that irrigation how are
we properly using the water are we using
bios SPS are we using those materials
that are recyclable so that's something
that uh is at the top of mind for us as
we enter this next
phase so what we did is we took a look
at the resident request and support our
approach the resources and what that
delivery look like and we took a look at
that alignment with the projects that
were in CIP or some of those that the
community mentioned um we have a list of
projects we're kind of going to walk
through today now this does not uh show
every single project in the future Parks
and Recreation development this is a
highlight of some of that um that kind
of rose up in terms of priority levels
uh or we're unfunded uh in future years
so we're going to go through each and
every category and take a look at what's
the community impact uh for each of
those projects but before we get there
we're going to take a look at the
development history so you can kind of
see a little bit of a trend uh when I
was looking back at it uh when you take
a look at that 88 to 94 when you had
47,000 people in gilberg Freestone came
online M SK Aquatic Center and then you
fast forward to 96 2000 when you saw The
Preserve in the library and Activity
Center come on board you're about
117,000 then you saw that big boom
between 2002 2008 where you doubled in
population almost and you saw Freestone
and Cosmo and the pools and the water
tower all come online then that 2019
boom which we saw gilberg Regional
Desert Sky and Cactus yards um so every
you know8 to 10 years or so is that next
round of investment uh into Gilbert
parks recreation system and when you
take a look at that map on your right
which is why we liked having these
slides together in a lot of these you
can start to see that placement of the
major amenities
so when you take a look at the district
Parks you take a look at the pools the
ref
centers um geographically they are very
centered towards uh Northern Central
Gilbert not as dispersed as you
typically see in a Parks integration
system uh just based on how they
developing with and we know with the
future buildout from 2019 to now a lot
of that development is happening in
southern Gober so how do we best prepare
for that as we move
forward so this one um I debated back
and forth on when I'd share the total
number with you then we decided you know
what we're just going to throw it before
every project so we don't look at every
project and see the cost so we have it
hidden right now it's a larger number
but what I want to share with Council on
the team this is just a listing of all
those projects as we go through the
different projects and we understand the
community impacts and the interests um
we can better suit a uh sort of an
assortment of of needs through this BAS
on Console feedback so that total number
right now of unfunded projects um is at
about 723
million um wanted to get that out in the
air first so that we can kind of focus
on the projects uh one by one so we're
going to start with Gilbert Regional
Park so Gilbert Regional Park is
currently at about 50 acres um what that
does when we look at the community
impact for gilber regional um and a lot
of this was done through a conceptional
master plan plan that completed in 2020
a lot of community engagement one of the
top things we hear all the time about G
Regional Park we get emails uh weekly
and Eva is replying on social media as
well why did you stop
construction um that was just the first
50 acres we're going to get a good view
of that here in a minute um but what it
does it brings a lot of necessary
amenities to South gilberg we're going
to walk through what some of those
amenities are we look at that Sports
field needs Gap uh starting to close
that a little little bit um added a fun
picture for you just on the right so you
can see what it looks like when there's
a a true concert there as well bringing
that economic impact on top of just the
resident impact you have on a daily
basis so this is the best visual we
could think of when you take a look and
you say we did 50 acres of development
at gilber Regional that's that little
pocket that you're seing uh towards the
the bottom of the slide on the left um
the dirt area that you see on the right
those are all available for public
private Partnerships and when you look
at what's remaining that's 185 Acres
still undeveloped and it's really hard
when you're out there to kind of
understand the the feel of it and we're
going to go on a little drone video fly
over here in a minute but think about
the impact that that 50 acres of gilber
regional park development had in Phase
One and phase 1A and what's left there
and the type of impact that could be had
on the right we see what that conceptual
master plan brought out we have those
multiuse fields we have the baseball and
softball complex which we know there's a
deficit in the community of we have
those Community spaces we know that we
needed a skate park a pump tra
additional dog park um some of those
kind of flex areas those Community
remata spaces because there's only 10
ratas in the current phase of gild
regional park you have to rent those
ratas four months in advance if you want
to get in uh because they're usually
Reserve that far out in advance
obviously all the months except some of
the summer months then as you keep going
back you know some of those areas of
those nature spaces having those nature
Loops that open environment the
trails and uh we're going to get into
that a little bit deeper as we go
through
here so let's break down the potential
amenities within the conceptual master
plan that baseball and softball complex
that was 10 different uh baseball and
softball fields um which we had a
deficit of and one of those fields uh
we're very interested in doing our first
Challenger field uh for the Adaptive uh
baseball and softball Community Gilbert
doesn't currently have one this would be
an excellent location for that down the
road uh adding in the trail head uh
gilber Regional Park is a main Hub of
multie pass and trails the entire Valley
being able to have that trail head
component where people can start and and
uh stop from the skate park and pump
track the the only other state park in
Gilbert is located at
Freestone so for the all the residents
that are not in that Freestone vicinity
we don't currently have one um and skate
park and pump track were highly
requested amenities not just from the
master plan that we just completed but
also that 2020 conceptual master plan um
the multi-use fields you know having a
couple of more of those the repairing in
nature area that southern part that you
can see on the right hand side um that
looping of trails that provides
you know access and hopefully what
you're seeing there is this not this is
not a park built for one User Group this
is a park built for everybody in Gilbert
no matter what your interest level is no
matter what your um physical
capabilities are uh you have a space to
recreate and call your own within this
park those multi-use path connections
there' be you know three to five miles
of of trails and Loops just within the
space that dog parking community space
um you know we only have the Cosmo Dog
Park and Crossroads dog park early with
Van Gilbert um dog park was a very
popular request not just from the
conceptual master plan but also the
master plan
engagement um and for those of you uh
who utilize those dog parks with only
Cosmo is is over subscribed at capacity
uh Crossroads doesn't have nearly as
many amenities but also kind of reaches
that capacity limit that read that
leaves a lot of limited spaces available
to go to right now and then public art
and shade um gilber Regional will
provide a lot of opportunities for that
moving forward so as we go into this
next slot we're going to take a little
virtual tour of what that open space
looks like um on the left when you start
to look at it and what that developed
master plan conceptual space looks like
on the right I'm G to narrate a little
bit and go through that baseball and
softball complex to kind of get an idea
of what that space could be you know for
Gilbert knowing that we had that Sports
field deficit within the community
towards build
down I'm always kind of still at odd how
much open space there is on the left as
it flies through um it's kind of
overwhelming when you start to look at
it um but seeing it on the right of what
could
be um you know more of those food truck
events a lot of those You Know Field
spaces is just added
bonuses those M multi-use fields that
flexible space as we go into the trail
head location on the
right um utilizing the fact that we
still have a lot of dirt out there so
when we talk about elevated spaces
that's not adding cost that's utilizing
the dirt in an appropriate way because
it's a flood
Basin and making sure we handle it
appropriately uh a ropes course is
always been considered in a climbing
Mall those have always been considered
more as public private partnership
options um with possibly having outside
groups um be able to come in and do some
of these as they were requested amenity
by the community um quite
heavily take a little journey over here
towards the pump track for those of you
that don't know what a pump track is um
you can get a kind of a view of it here
but uh this popular amenity is is kind
of going through across the country we
currently do not have one but it's one
where you're you're pedaling just a
little bit but actively it's more of a
pump and movement of your body as you go
through um now being under a bridge adds
a whole other element of uh excitement
in terms of the skate plaza as well you
kind of see we're nearing the end of the
Drone video on the left but still going
here on the right couldn't quite pair up
those times perfectly uh but you're
starting to get a good feel for the fact
of what type of amenities could be
brought in uh for the community within
the future development of regional and
we're going to get into some of those
Community
spaces um nature Loop spaces um so that
you really have something that everyone
in the community can benefit from here
how do you think we can advance um the
interest of
time but that's just Gober Regional Park
I said about 185 Acres remaining of
development so when we take a look at
Desert Sky Park uh D Sky Park was 30
Acres uh three and a half acre Lake
obstacle course for lot us um and four
multi-use fields that could be used from
everything from football to soccer to
Lacrosse uh designed in a way that
um you know it's very impactful one of
the things I forgot to mention with
regional and desert scab both the lakes
that are currently of both parks were
designed to handle the full buildout of
each Park so that water that re reclaim
water within was designed so that we
wouldn't have to do any future upgrades
and it can irrigate any of the turf that
would be in future
designs so what does Desert Sky bring to
the
community it really reduces that deficit
of multiuse fields if you remember the
multiuse field deficit for buildout just
from 2014 numbers which we expect to
grow was 16 so Desert Sky park has about
12 available remaining with that Gilbert
Regional Park of around four um start to
meet those needs a little bit more um
the economic impact of being able to
have Community use Fields but then also
be able to uh host other events outside
of that and that multi-use path
connection so as we scroll through here
uh we're going to get into the amenities
um one of the most popular requests
we've had um not only from the community
but some of our private Partners in the
area which I think are a really good
opportunity for a public private
partnership is the championship field
where we can host slightly larger um
we're not talking you know 50,000 we're
talking more of that 500 to 1500 which
uh Dan and I know in our conversations
with a lot of the groups uh locally in
some of the universities that there's a
gap in uh being able to add 12
additional multi-use fields that trail
head does just Sky Park is also a major
connection Hub to several uh hundreds of
miles of trails within the Val where we
don't currently have Trail hits um one
of the things we love the most is that
led technology so in the time that
Desert Sky park has been opened and as
you know it's right next to that
neighborhoods over there we've had zero
light complaints in that entire time
based on the fact we spent a lot of time
looking at that led technology and
making sure the lights on those fields
were directionally based only on those
fields and didn't have the spill over so
being able to continue that as we
develop the rest of the park adding in
amenities like sensory playground you
know why is Desert Sky Park a really
nice location for this well it's
generally quieter during the day so you
have some of those daytime hours um and
spaces available where you have a little
bit more opportunity to have a robust uh
sensory playground but there's also room
for about two or three more additional
playgrounds based on the amount of
people and families that utilize that
location having a plaza and splash pad
additional entry and exit points in that
public Argent shade you know I think the
first phase of Desert Sky was really
more multi-use Fields as we look at what
that development can turn into it is an
assortment of all sorts of activities
and opportunities and spaces that are
going to activate that location uh more
than we even see today and are in real
need in the community based on the lack
of multi-use fields and Trail heads and
sort of the plazas Splash
guyss so we're take a real quick fly
through on the left you're going to see
that's only the developed acreage that
30 Acres of desert skot you can see the
public safety training facility is our
neighbor there they've been excellent
neighbors uh kids love to be able to be
at that Park and take a glance over and
see what the Chiefs are training on
especially on the driving track um but
as you start to take a fly through you
can see you know sort of what a
championship field could look like what
a splash pad and Plaza how those
multiuse fields could align um those LED
technology lighting poles different
playgrounds and
amenities this should be an activated
space all throughout the year in gilberg
and really meet that deficit of needs we
have um in a lot of these categories
that we saw in previous
slides so it's just to kind of give you
an overview and an idea of of what that
could end up becoming one
day
all right I don't know may be halfway
there uh repairing education center um
we're slated to begin design on the
repair and education center we're going
to do some kickoff meetings in January
um really a critical Hub of outdoor
sustainability and education in gilberg
so when we look at the repairing uh
Community it's bigger than just Gilbert
we have a lot of gilberg residents that
U utilize that location on a daily basis
but the repairing preserve is also known
globally for the amount of species and
birds that that um preserve brings in
close to 300 um different species and
when you look at the amount of
sustainability education and programming
um that could be provided an education
center like this and when you think
about what are some of the most
important topics in Arizona right now
around that education and programming of
sustainability and how we're utilizing
water and other resources there um this
is all an area that could be used for
additional field trips all the people
that are coming to see The Preserve
understand how those uh recharge pwns
are being utilized in the different
Wildlife um this has been a request not
only through our master plan process but
through uh previous conceptual Master
plans uh the idea right now is it would
be an addition to the Southeast Regional
Library um right around 3,000 square
feet uh give or take um and the
Southeast Regional Library is the most
visited library in the entire am OFA
County system so we're we're seeing uh
people pour through that location uh
daily all right rec center in southeast
Gilbert so we we kind of talked a lot
about um all of the centers currently in
gilberg are in the Elliott Road and
North section of gilberg which you which
means most of our citizens in that
southern Gilbert are driving 30 minutes
or more to reach a recreation center
within Gilbert um we have zero indoor
facilities in the southern section uh we
already talked about a lot of our
programming uh at our rec centers and
community centers or past
capacity um and the community is really
looking for you know where Rec Center
could be located in that Southeast
region um been a request in our Outreach
for our master plan efforts um and also
just through some of our conceptual
master plan Outreach
efforts um I snuck in a picture of my my
daughter here just to break it up she's
on the rock wall there it's a little
six-year-old she tries to hit the top
every single time and has a smile on her
face every time she does it that uh
makes you you know just want to see her
continue to challenge your over and over
again um but really one of those
amenities that overall um Gilbert is
lacking in that region in our community
is very interested in having additional
uh facilities for that to happen um just
on a sad note Freestone uh reached its
highest numbers ever uh last year both
in revenue and with u members um so that
is not slowing down that's continuing to
increase when we look at a Aquatic
Center in in South Gilbert just to kind
of remind everyone in the room how the
pool agreements work we have four
different igas with school districts
across um Gilbert we uh only have access
to those in the summer months and a lot
of these school districts now are doing
the year round schedule which means our
area has even you know decreased with
the amount of programming time we have
available so we have maybe a month and a
half to two months overall to do a lot
of that summer programming for swim
lessons swim teams um this was a top
requested amenity from the community
throughout the master plan process most
of those pools are located um Central
and and north of Gilbert not a lot in
the South and they're really interested
a yearlong availability to an Aquatic
Facility trail system lightning so
Patrick mentioned that Shaden Street
skate master plan you know when you're
in gilberg this is where that works
against us because when it comes to
trail system lighting you also know when
you're in gilberg because a lot of the
lighting stops on the trails so that's
not something that we always talk about
but our partners in in Mesa and Chandler
have a lot of lighting on their Trail
systems then you get to Gilbert and it
sort of goes darker and when we look at
what the impact is you know that safety
of those multi-use paths being in
Arizona extending the hours of usage so
it's not just during the daytime hours
in the summer we can extend a little bit
later uh when the temperatures you know
drop from 115 to
105 100 gives you a little bit more you
know access and it's been something that
the community continually requests
whether it be through social media or
master plan Outreach um we have 70
different miles of of Trail corridors
and multi-use paths so how do we best um
make sure that we are able to highlight
those in the medi and people able to
utilize those year
round we could have done a full day
workshop on multiuse path projects alone
probably would have been about a 3 to
four hour um Workshop based on the fact
we still have 70 miles of multiuse paths
that are undeveloped and the priorities
of those but when we look at the 70 we
currently have those 70 that are
undeveloped there's 38 potential
projects um with multi-use pass
currently in the system we look at what
those multi-use pass provide um you know
we know that these are utilized not just
once in a while they're used multiple
times per week several times per month
um by our community members to get
different locations to be able to have
that Recreation amenity um on the right
we'll see various opportunities such as
a Santan Vista Trail safety Crossings uh
Marathon trail that Mar F trail with
connect gild the regional park Desert
Sky Park um just as an example and
Beyond um so at a future date we do know
that those multiuse CS have a
significant amount of development needed
um and some uh Investments that are
going to need to be made to reach the
full potential of of where they can be
for the
communi getting a little closer uh
freest Stone Park improvements so 1988
was Freestone Park and and when we start
to look at how we not only take care of
the residents in South Gober with some
of those newer amenities how do we make
sure that our existing amenities don't
fall too far behind where they should be
so when we take a look at Freestone
pickle ball courts to Residents in North
Gilbert we have that tennis location
there's a perfect spot there to add some
of the pickleball courts the only other
pickleball courts are located at Gilbert
Regional Park if you are not there when
the park opens at 6:00 a.m. you
automatically going to be on a loading
list to get onto a court um they stay
busy throughout the entire day um we
even had to put speed limits and a
couple of speed bumps in there just to
lower um the races that would happen to
get through the pickleball courts
first uh Splash padge you know we have
the splash pad at Water Tower Plaza you
have the splash pad at Gilbert Regional
um but there's not another recreational
amenity type Splash Pad like you see it
Regional in our system right now so if
you wanted the more Play features the
movable features interactive features
you have to go down to Gilbert Regional
Park the top request from the community
is to build one up in the northern
section of Gilbert there's some space
and Freestone um but really making sure
that we provide those amenities to
everyone uh in our
community so that is the total list of
all of them put together um we when we
look through there you what that overall
capital investment is um really what
we're looking for is some those interest
levels that Council may have in in
various projects and answer any
questions on the specifics of some of
those projects but when we look at the
potential potential project map on the
right it's also about making sure we're
spreading these projects around to all
of Dilbert it's not just benefiting one
Community it's benefiting all so we look
at having a recreation center in that
southern section having that repair and
education center you know to the north
which is the rec center you see up there
um really improving those district and
Regional Parks that we currently have
but you see it's not just as simple as
ad in the park it's 185 Acres of Gilbert
Regional it's uh 80 acres of Desert Sky
adding an additional Aquatic Facility
having those multiuse paths spread out
throughout the system to be able to have
safe connections throughout the
community then if we take a look um at
what that timeline looks like so we see
the impact of 2019 so when Den Regional
Desert Sky Cactus yards came on
those added a ton of excitement and a
ton of new opportunities for the
community it really put Gilbert on the
map uh regionally locally nationally and
a lot of that development that you see
other communities doing stem from what
Gilbert did in 2019 of adding those
amenities on and it really um got a lot
of development going on the rest of the
valley because it started to see what
their numbers look like with their uh
parks and uh development in terms of
acres and everything looked like and as
we looked at it and said you know in
2019 we had 254,000 uh people population
wise that was the last development we've
had of any new systems as we sit here
today in 2024 we know we're at Max
Capacity right now 288,000
people so we're starting the design of
Gil Regional Park Desert Sky Park and
repairing education center right now the
earliest any of the construction can
happen or any of these to be completed
is being between 2026 and 2030 if we
look at that buildout potentially being
around 2030 with a population of 330,000
what does that look like if we're at
capacity now at 288 with our current
system and what that buildout looks like
at 230 of 330 and how do we plan for the
fact we have 50,000 additional people
utilizing infrastructuring system and
how do we best prepare for that as we
think future
forward
and with that on behalf of the entire uh
Department we just want to say thank you
and uh happy to answer any
questions Robert thank you I'm gonna ask
for question in just a second I want to
First say um as a huge amount of
information and thank you for spreading
that over two sceds was exceptional be
able to absorb all of that uh
Chu Robert does the 723 million include
public private budgets
that does not include public private
Partnerships so kind of the way we
approach those is we will look at
various spaces of land that may be
available and carve those out and say
you know what can that bring in terms of
public private partnership and put out
those
rfqs um and be able to to gain that
feedback similar to what you saw P surf
Park when we put out that 25 acres it's
sort of grown but that's another good
example of uh $100 million plus
investment that's going to be coming to
the community we might see that number
lower in the future sorry I couldn't
hear you we might see that 723 lower in
the future possibly it could you know
what I'll say with public private
Partnerships they're they're tricky and
I think if you ask all the investors
right now they're struggling with some
of their investment dollars and being
able to have the capital to be able to
do it um but by all means if there's
opportunities that we see for different
amenities to possibly done by a public
private partnership you know we are
always looking to explore those and
understand what the market may be able
to handle
um so we're we're all four always
looking at those but we have seen a lot
less opportunities recently just based
on the current state of things
thanks thank you Robert for the
presentation of all of those future
potential facilities I think it's really
important a piece of the quality of life
in Guilford and has you know been really
Valu valuable to our residents one of
the things I wanted to I guess ask and
mention is how are like some of the cost
recovery Models Incorporated into the
budgeting because things like the
championship field or the recreation
facility in south in southern Gilbert
those would have some kind of cost
recovery in the future how does that
come into play oh excellent question so
that's something we track very closely
and so I'll kind of give you a rund down
of some of the different cost covers so
during the master plan efforts we
benchmarked ourselves against the rest
of the country for Revenue versus
operation expenditures just to kind of
start off the question so overall in
terms of our benchmarks we were um 36
37% somewhere in there and when you
think about all the maintenance that's
required among most parks and all those
facilities that number was significantly
higher than most communities across the
country so we were way out of the
average of the national benchmarks when
it comes to more of the more uh
immediate things when we look at CCE
yards as being one of those facilities
that has the community benefit the
national benefit that one is is at about
an 80% plus you know cost recovery um so
you know that subsid is you know in the
500 to $600,000 range right now um which
like I said is a is a market that
doesn't exist in the country we're
setting the standard for being able to
have the cost recovery when you look at
uh fre Stone Rec Center our uh being at
the impact we had over the last year uh
Lane you can correct me if I'm wrong I
think our subsidies below a million
dollars for the first time in the
history of that Rec Center most
subsidies for recreation centers when
you look at a national average are well
above you know two and three you know
million so overall um we feel and we
take it very seriously we approach it
like a business that we try to do our
best possible job to reduce the subsidy
at all cost for our residents while also
providing that high level quality of
service for everybody so from a
standpoint of of where we stand from a
Revenue to operations expenditure we do
outpace most of the country in that
category but it is something that um
we're always you know tracking very
closely really good to hear I think
that's something I'd like to continue
seeing is seeing how we're operating
these as a as a business with as much
cost recovery as possible um This lends
lends itself to my next comment is I saw
on the Gilbert regional park there was
some space for tenants
um and food trucks and vendors for those
food and drink opportunities and I think
that's something that we don't always
think about but it's really important
when we visit any of these spaces to
have a spot where um people can also get
food and beverage um how is that being
incorporated into places like the
riparian education center at Desert Sky
Park yeah so I think the the old
concession model model is is not there
anymore really when you look at how new
parks are being designed the one the one
exception is that you see with some of
the little Lees um nearby they still
have some of those older concession
buildings that they can operate during
the day when they're utilizing them
through agreements but when you see how
parks are really developing for yearr
round usage um you star to see more of
those pla spaces and hookups so Desert
Sky Parks is is a great example where we
didn't build a concession building in
Phase One what we did is we added those
hookups as you first walk up that Park
so when people are hosting those events
um whether it's us whether it's the
little leag you can contract out having
those food trucks available there for
the day usually providing well one a
higher cost recovery instead of
providing a an older building um that
usually only gets used certain times of
the year but it expands the food and
beverage options for the community so
Gilbert Regional anytime we bring out
food trucks there and put them there in
the spots that are designed for them
just on those Fridays Saturdays Sundays
during spring breaks in those time
periods uh they usually sell out because
there's a lot of people looking uh for
food when you look at the repair and
education center and in a lot of these
different locations I think there's a
lot of excellent opportunities for those
Partnerships and the perfect example of
it is the sliders and Cactus yards so we
don't want to be in the business
necessarily the food and beverage
business but being able to partner with
someone like sliders you know they're
doing it's some 2 and a half million to
3 million somewhere in that range per
year of sales and you we uh do surveys
and all the community members like use
that they have the highest rated
feedback when it comes back of quality
of options um they can do it better than
we can so it's providing those spaces
but picking the right locations and
operators and partners that can do it
even better um and that brings more
people in to places like Regional Desert
Sky repair and education center uh
freestyle so that's something that we
spent a lot of time you know looking at
uh to make sure that when you're there
you have options that we plan for the
future as
well for the Gilbert um or for the
riparian education center um has it been
considered to have more of like a
cafeteria style restaurant seating with
views of the
reran are we really looking at a mix or
variety and really looking at maybe
innovative business model from that
perspective um that's the perfect type
of feedback to receive today so we
appreciate you bringing that up because
as we go into design um I can even
remember you know I came to a town
around 2018 2019 one of the first
conversations I had was a request for an
outdoor area to repairing where there
could be a food truck located uh low
impacts to the repair itself but having
a VI in area so I think as we look at
design and as we look at some of these
spaces that's the type of feedback
that's in Valu we'll be able to kind of
look at that into the spaces of the
design and see if it's possible and
provide counsel with options throughout
the process and um I think there'd be a
lot of very qualified providers who' be
interested in something like that and
the
community I've got Kathy over here and
then
June thanks Robert that was really great
information
um I don't know if this is the time that
we should start talking about priorities
or any of that okay
um so first I would just make a note
that it work I think I would goal Park
and it's probably four or five of those
dots on the south southern part because
really the size of it and the amenities
are so different than what we're
providing elsewhere so just on the map
because it does kind of look like
there's nothing going on down there but
that's our Crown Jewel you know at the
end of the day so
um I I go back to Young that said at The
Last Retreat and that and it had to do
with um townwide not just Parks but you
know we have to keep our eye on the
smaller projects as well because when
you add them together that's what makes
Gilbert and so I was really happy to see
the
multi-rail um projects listed I feel
like they've kind of taken a backseat in
many cases and I'd like to see those
moved up because it the connectivity and
all that for our community
um it's a big
number I was expecting all the air to
suck out of the room but it didn't so I
guess you felt good you didn't fall down
from that but um if I were to look at
this I think I would have to think of it
in a couple different ways
one this is um this isn't just to build
out it's being buildout and I think
that's something we need to keep in mind
that all of these projects are important
but when we think about packaging for
bonding perhaps we package the high
priorities now knowing we're going to
have to go out later because I just I'm
not sure we can capture all of that now
especially if we're talking about Public
Safety at the same time so in saying
that
um we have
127,000 and 100 I wish thousands
millions of um
the aquatics in the rec center to me I
would prefer that be pushed out on a
different bond in the future and take
care of some of these things that we
currently have um including expanding
and finishing out the regional park one
of the comments that was made at the
last um Retreat that really stuck with
me is that how understaffed we are so
when I think about priorities I would
like to know that we were fully staffed
on what we have and what we want to do
before we add a huge new component that
we're going to have to STA and so if I
were going to prioritize I we put those
on the next Bond take care of these
issues that we need on on this one let's
staff our people up let's um create that
Innovation that maybe can help us
upskill different people as their jobs
go away but um those are my comments now
thank you thank you and that was really
helpful just to share on the multi past
because we we agree um that with 38
projects in that multi path and probably
even more to come we have a team from
Transportation Planning CIP and Parkson
Rec we are going to be working around
the clock over the next two months to
help prioritize those in a way that we
can better package them to show U
because it is very overwhelming I kind
of meant it I think we'd have to have a
whole separate like workshop for a day
where we broke down every section
because it is it is a lot uh but can't
agree more with the you know how
important they are into our system and
we know we're showing that larger number
um and I think you know the impact and
that's why I appreciate all the feedback
is because we can break those things
down we can move and play even something
like y Regional Park when you have 185
Acres or Desert Sky um there's ways we
can design and develop that uh in a way
that's that's probable as we Mo for as
well Robert I know Jim has a comment and
then Bobby but let me just before Jim if
you don't mind let me just make sure I
understand your answer to uh to Kathy so
in terms of the price tag um you would
mind putting that back up on the screen
for us for a second I just need to know
do you actually need direction from
Council today in terms of what is the
overall priority of these things is
there some grouping of them or is it
okay that we just kind of give you
individual anecdotal feedback on what
we're seeing here my understanding
unless I'm incorrect is that uh any
feedback you like give is very helpful
and I think from that priority list
you're sort of seeing it in a in a way
that we generally prioritized initially
but knowing that um if there's
priorities you feel need to move up or
need to move down that's what's really
helpful to understand and I kind of
mentioned I'll explain it better was
something like dber regional park
because it is so big I I didn't want to
we don't want to break it down for you
now and sort of pieced out amenities
that could be there could not be there
um but as we go through design we're
going to do design in a way that you can
have phasing options as we go so that we
provide all the the right feedback but
this is the all in if you if you did it
all at the same time let's leave this
screen up for the moment Jim and then
we'll go to Bobby so cost recovery
doesn't account for the initial Capital
invest and we're looking at this we're
starting in debt we're worried about
paying just for the upkeep on let alone
the debt we're
starting I gotta think that it's going
to be as much as it's it's tough
stretching to a public private
partnership on all these things is much
healthier for us because we're looking
at an incredible amount of upkeep as a
town own and an incredible amount of
debt as a town own and spreading this
out at least starting with public
private Partnerships and then moving and
completing it with bonding would be a a
preferable way to approach it because
that's let's just say it's the whole ask
it's three4 of a billion
and that's a lot and I I've got to think
taking a step
back reminding ourselves that this
there's a capital investment and we're
only talking about losing x amount per
acre per
month we're talking a losing proposition
financially no matter what and that's
the nature of the
beast but let's take a look at these
less intrusive methods the things where
we are uh like the water park for that
we're making money we're at least not
losing 20 something upkeep is that
something we could take a look at before
coming back to this I think a couple of
them you know as you look through
there's there's always options for
public private Partnerships um we'd have
to go through and sort of itemize that a
little bit more but I will say that some
of them are going to be would be much
harder sells than others when you look
at some of the development of some of
the future Parks um you technically
wouldn't see a lot of those in public
private Partnerships but you could see
certain amenities like you know that
climbing area was a good example or the
flex field where we said okay that would
be a great example where we wouldn't
want to take that on as the town but if
the community wants it that's a great
public private partnership when we look
at things just going through the list
like multiuse past definitely you don't
see public private Partnerships
typically with those but there are some
things here that that we could take a
look at uh for that and we can
understand the market a little better
and have that available for a future
conversation
Council then if I could I want to make
sure I understand your point and that
we're all clear on this you're looking
at this overall thing and you're saying
you know is there some way that there's
a public private partnership that
relieves some of the expense of this and
can we prove that out before we have to
pay for all of this on our own as the
town is that is that your essential
Point yes sir okay and I'm just looking
Patrick I'm looking at you I'm looking
at mayor do you want to comment on that
is that there something about that
assumption that we should talk about
yeah just that you know the town
historically I think has probably been
one of the most Progressive cities when
it looks for feed free opportunities
we've got a ice we've got the original
approach to Big BL dreams even though we
build and paid for that facility
ourselves unlike a ice and soon to uh
come surf park in that some of the
elements here U and we certainly
continue to always look for them some of
them don't lend themselves to public
private Partnerships like the trail
system some of the basic infrastructure
going into the regional park and desert
sky Park um with the fields themselves
one thing to keep in mind in that
Balancing Act is uh being run as private
for-profit operations is going to
increase the cost to for use and
families um which be something that we'd
want to be thoughtful about as we weigh
whether or not that's a good path or
approach but I do want to EMP say we
know this is a big number we do not
believe that we can take this on all at
once it would have to be a phased
approach and and there was a lot here
today so while each of us have
priorities and probably things that are
more passionate about that's what we
want to hear back from you to help us
weigh prioritization of that and then
what is a ballot issue bond issue look
like what's the potential funding source
Kelly touched upon it we're going to end
today with historically we used
secondary property tax you don't always
have to use a secondary property tax we
could look at sales tax as something to
fund some of these by and thereby people
that come into our community to buy
goods and services would also help
support some of these amenities that
we'd be putting in because they'd
certainly be using them as well but
there's a lot here we will always look
for those P3 opportunities but I think
um some of this a good portion of this
are not things that lend themselves to
P3 opportunities with but we'll
certainly always look into that every
chance we have and and bring you those
options so we can weigh what we feel as
best in the
community we
completely understand that um the cost
of these and how that gets born U by
whether it be sales tax based or
property tax based is important but we
can't lose sight of the fact that
nationally and locally we're ranked
towards the bottom of the pack when it
comes to these types of amenities uh for
a community and that will impact the
quality of life to our community if it's
not addressed in some way and while
we're all hopeful construction inflation
dies down I don't think we're going to
see the price of any of these projects
go down I think we're all we're only
going to see them increase over
time Jim follow or discuss that at all
no okay thank you thank you Patrick
Bobby
please okay so where where I'm at with
this it is a big number but I I
understand why why that number is there
I'm I want to Advocate though for South
gilber we've been ignored for a very
very long time in my opinion I don't I
don't know not particularly purposely
because now it's getting populated and
the population was probably not there
before but I you know my feelings are I
really would like to see the Aquatic
Center and the rec center for South
Gilbert we need those down there I guess
get calls quite often for from parents
that have children that are you know
they want to be Olympic swimmers but
there's nowhere for them to swim we need
an an Olympic pool if we have a Aquatic
Center out there we need something where
these kids can train as well as you know
go and play so I don't know those are
the things and the regional park of
course I I
have forever wanted us to see that
finished but it's an
astronomical um project to to get done
and I agree with what Patrick said
obviously this has to be a phased out
system and it depends on you know we all
might have a different need and I don't
want but mine is to see more activity in
South Gilbert for the residents
there
Robert I wonder if I could just ask you
to address Bobby's question with if you
were drawing a a line across at some
level to just show I'm not holding it to
you but your personal clubs of where
where the first priorities are above the
line can you just tell us where that is
and then because I'm I don't live in
Gilbert so I don't know this help us
identify which of the items that are
above the line would be South Gilbert to
answer the council member's question
yeah of course
um well I'm going to give you a very
candid answer my line would be at the
very bottom but I say that thinking in
this way we know we can't do all those
at the same time and I I would never say
you should go and do all them but the
way that we're showing it we're showing
you the all-in pieces of all of them
there's there's ways you can kind of cut
off and phase different portions of it
where you can still provide a Maximum
Impact to Gilbert but maybe not all at
the ex exact same time so I say that not
you know saying you shouldn't do any of
it but there's ways we can phase and
build out an approach where you make
maximum impacts with smart Investments
so if we look at what's in South Gilbert
you see Gilbert Regional Park Desert Sky
Park the rec center the pool Trail
lighting really helps everybody um along
with a lot of those multi-use path
projects um and then you have the
Freestone projects and so I know for
South Gilbert you're really looking at
the top four lines the but all those
multiuse path projects do really help
everybody because they connect system
lines so you can get from North Gilbert
to South gilberg on a path and so I
think that's important but really uh
priority wise we did sort of list it but
that's basically master plan feedback
what we've been hearing from the
community over the last five years what
we understand their needs and their you
know their desires of are but I I say it
once again that we do have the
opportunity as we go through design with
a lot of these to design them in a way
where we're providing option options
where you don't have to develop every
single amenity we can create an approach
that's um beneficial to all of Gilbert
or sou gber you know at the same time
but let me make sure I understand it's
not all or nothing on each row correct
and the first four maybe five items are
all South gilberg things and Bobby does
that does that help you be feel
comfortable with the way this list is
laid
out oh
here
robt hang on one second CH let me just
make sure bobby gets in okay sorry uh no
I I did see that and but I wanted to
make my statement to make sure that
everyone knows where I'm at that I'm
advocating for South Gilbert we need
those amenities there and I'd like to
see them stay where they are no thank
you for the feedback
appreciate okay Chu please you know um
with recovery so you don't
ask
currently yeah so it's a really great
question off the top of my head so I
will tell you something like boots in
the park just to give you you know brief
synopsis you know 12,000 people U 3,000
to 4,000 out of state all the hotel
rooms associated with it uh plus food
and beverage over a 2 three day period
um we don't have that exact number uh
there was a study that Economic
Development Parks were doing for an
event like that um that we could you
know share you know shortly you know
I'll have to talk to the team and get
that but that just gives you a general
idea of what that does and we also look
at it you know more from boots in the
park boots in the Park's a one day event
but we have things like the you know
Scottish Highland Games the other
community events that we put on that
bring in 20 30,000 people on a weekend
but also you saw just the daily visits
um to the parks and centers are
substantially high but with the place or
AI data we're able to see a little bit
more so a day like boots in the park you
can actually see where a lot of people
were going to afterwards where they were
filling up on gas stations where they
were eating um it's pretty significant
the amount of data that we have and
collect and can have that available at a
future discussion I just want to make
sure we're not losing any current
potentials of cost covery if we had more
conerts
uh if that's potential for us to bring
more Revenue economic Place why not
compared to you know maybe it'll offset
a little
bit Yeah parks recreation historically
is one of those cost recovery numbers
where you see it from the standpoint of
what you actually enrolled for that
program what you don't see is where you
were before after when you have a team
in town for the weekend and they are
spaying in Gilbert hotels which we've
seen since 2019 and Dan probably knows
the numbers betterer than when we've had
these amenities in Gilbert Hotel nights
continue to go up and up and up and
people stay in longer periods of time
and utilizing it as well as their own
Community residents having more spaces
they can recreate
up I've got Scott and then the
mayor I'm a little bit uncomfortable
with trying to prioritize this
presentation when we have two others
that are coming up that are asking for
money
also and so I'd like to be able to
consider there's only one project up
there that I can tell you right now that
I for sure want to see done and I think
you know what that
is Anderson reparan we don't have to say
it out loud we don't have to say it but
um I'd like to be able to to hear what
other requests we have before
considering these um I'd like to see it
as a total package before we decide what
the priorities are here yeah Council
Anderson I think that's an excellent
point I think I couldn't agree more I
think police and fire has some very
substantial needs I think we talked
about that in the presentation where we
all presented together at the last one
you know we wanted to show you the
overall scope of it knowing that the
town has significant needs in a lot of
areas and we be all means um want to
make sure uh everyone globally gets to
where they need to be what this helps us
do is when we come back for future
presentations understand maybe some of
that priority how we can narrow it down
how we can develop some more designs
moving forward um so that we can match
all three together as we as we go
through the bck
let me just answer that as well this is
one of those things where there's a lot
of moving Parts here we're trying to
figure out how this Sol fit together
today it may be enough just to be able
to look at this and just say is it
pending all the other decisions need to
be made does this order even make sense
does these priorities reflect what what
needs to be done is
that okay
mayor thank you um the first thing that
comes to my mind is the council as a
whole a few several years ago really
decided that we weren't going to focus
on aquatic facilities they're very
expensive to build they're very
expensive to run and so I think
that since we have a almost a whole new
Council that's probably the first thing
that we have to decide is whether or not
we want to move forward with aquatic
facilities before we give you priorities
on everything um Freestone was supposed
to have an a pool and that was removed
from the plan
and my gut tells me that if we build a
recck center with a pool in South
Gilbert that we better focus on building
a pool connected to Freestone Rec Center
also because with the pools changing
because of the school districts changing
their calendars we have less time in
those pools you mentioned it at the
beginning of the presentation and then
you'd have a situation where you have a
rec center with a pool and Sou Gilbert
and the one in North Gilbert was never
completed so I think that would be
definitely our residents would notice
something like that so I guess my first
thought is we have to decide if we want
to get into the Aquatic Facility
business because it's a big business to
be in
and how do we phase these projects
according to what our residents wants
and I know aquatic facilities was number
two on the list that always is to me the
more important items are the parks and
Fields so that we can at least provide
the opportunity for those Sports to be
played I think that's where the focus of
our residents are and then the lighting
of our Trails because we see how much
our trails are
used um after we decide what we'll be
doing with an Aquatic Facility potential
Aquatic Facility but I also would like
to see as we're working on Gilbert
Regional and desert sky I would like to
see pickle ball added to Freestyle
I think it's important to balance what
we're doing within the community and I
know it it it seems like South Gilbert
has been ignored but quite honestly the
Gilbert Regional Park Park Pro process
didn't even start until what five years
ago um and so we've just been moving
forward and of course had a pandemic in
the middle of that and it had to follow
the rooftops which we didn't have down
in south gilber at the time so that's
where my mind is at the moment with
everything you've presented so
far um before we go on May I have a
question I want to sure I'm hearing you
correctly I understand you're saying
past councils have not wanted to be in
the Aquatic business as you look at this
today I'll ask everyone else question
but as you look at it today is there a
renewed interest in being in the Aquatic
business going forward not for me not
for me I know it's the the number two
thing that our residents ask for but it
is a very high dollar project to build
build and to maintain and vice mayor
even mentioned Staffing a project like
that and again it's something that we've
already removed from Freestone re Center
so I think it's very difficult to say
okay now today we're going to build this
down in South Gilbert because the
residents are asking for it what
happened to the residents that have been
here in North Gilbert for two decades
that didn't get the Aquatic
Facility there's B there's some balance
there other cers want to go to I'm
really curious on the aquatic thing
first I'll come back I know you got
something else you want to talk about
but can we talk about the Aquatic for a
second that's part of what I was going
to say please go ahead I actually really
appreciate what what the marage is
brought up and it gives some historical
perspective to it she's right she's dead
right and the other part fact I don't
think I'm getting any volume out of this
all right she hurt me she had a
smile she lik it say it again on the
louder microphone say it recording you
not hear it again uh she's right um and
I appreciate the fact that she's got the
history of that and she's remembered it
accurately uh the other part I wanted to
bring up is we sit on a lot of property
as a town such as this
building if this building let just throw
a number at it $60
million that pays for almost Recreation
C have we thought about shifting some of
these assets so that we can pay for
things without having to go back to the
public it's actually internal you shied
an asset let's again let's say this
building and it turns into a recreation
center I I have less objection to doing
that than because of
costs has anybody thought of
that yeah and what I will just say and
one I forgot to mention when I threw
that number out there I appreciate all
you not throwing the candy in your bowls
out me I was a little worried about that
but you know I think the town when they
did dou Regional Park in Desert Sky Park
the first time around looked at they can
Parkland and there's a lot of people in
this room Mary and others who's who
spent a lot of time creating that
opportunity um that was an opportunity
because there was some vacant Parkland
based on what we were able to build at
gilber Regional Desert Sky and others um
we don't have as much of that vacant
land left but one of the things I will
mention is throughout the facility
master plan and space these assessment
we we'll still be looking at some of
those vacant lands that we have it
hasn't been a a conversation to this
point um because it crosses a lot of
different departments but understanding
that feedback um it would just take some
time internally to I think have a deeper
discussion and be able to report back in
a later
date well um young want let me let me
ask young and then I'll come to you Pat
wanted to weigh in on the aquatics
conversation I tend to agree with the Le
said in terms of class councils haven't
supported it they're expensive
facilities just from my perspective and
knowledge um the private sector helped
Shore that up in terms of we have um
golf plan Sunsplash I mean that's like
over $25 a day to get in and then when
you think about places in chanler Queen
Creek is building an aquatic center we
have Cactus surf park in Mesa there's
another surf Park so power I went to a
kids birthday party that was using a
Mesa Aquatic Center and those entrance
fees are only $3 and I understand that
there's some subsidy there and there's
um providing that service but I feel
like I would only be supportive of an
aquatic center if we're going to get
that cost recovery that's more aligned
with market
conditions go to Patrick and then to
ch
back okay thank you yeah Jim to your
point if there were facilities um we
would certainly look at repurchasing
that as we looked at available land
facilities there's just not much left
but we certainly try to get as cre we
can to mitigate that that cost exposure
to our community and for all the
comments on the Aquatic Center thank you
we appreciate getting that corre
feedback so we understand it and and
Robert said it please know we're just
bringing you what the community told us
they want in their system um to then
have a dialogue with you as to what we
prioritize what we bring forward in
advance
Chuck I are on the same pathway today
cost recovery um I personally would need
more
data cost those kind of things for the
prodcts to make into any kind of
recommendation yeah no thank you and
that's very helpful because we'll we'll
have that available at the next
discussion on that
specifically thank you Matt the reason I
ran for Council in 2014 13 14 I heard a
council member at the time speaking to
the Gilbert leadership class it was
actually the class that Patrick was in
and he told people that he would shut
Freestone recck Center down because it
was only 80% sustainable at the time and
the town was picking up 20% of it and I
thought how insane is something like
that when you have a facility that's
booming that people love that was built
paid for that people use every single
day and that was literally the reason
that I ran for councel so I think cost
recovery is very important when it comes
to park projects but it's not ever going
to be something that we are going to
completely recover on because it's an
amenity to our residents and that in my
opinion has to come first but when we're
talking about building new facilities
and looking at longterm how that goes
out historically and maintaining them
and the Staffing for them that's a
different part of that discussion so
just want to be
clear thank you and mayor I appreciate
your comments at the beginning um in
regards to the aquatics um business
should we be in the business and I'm
glad that you asked fars to have that
conversation um I'm on the side of no I
think that we have other priorities that
I think are better served uh I agree
with Y and the others on the cost
recovery and and all that so I'm going
know on
that
Bobby I I just want to clarify a little
bit uh from what I said earlier because
that and it's seems like and I did say
South Gilbert I'm I'm saying South
Gilbert would be a good place for the
aquatics and the recreation center
because there's probably more land
available out there for something like
that and we still have room in the
regional park I mean what a great two
facilities to put there and we have the
land
available um and it's not just for use
on South Gilbert it's everyone would use
it because people right now are from
South Gilbert have to go to North
Gilbert to use those facilities so I'm
not meaning it just strictly for South
Gilbert but I think the land is there it
it it's a possibility and and I agree
that the cost aspect and and the budget
aspect of that is another thing we need
to look at but I would like to see those
and I just kind of want to clarify that
I'm I'm not advocating just for South
gilber because obviously I want all the
residents to be able to use those
facilities
Scott I think we're seeing that the
private sector is filling in where we
may not be able to handle uh desert surf
Park is going to to provide the kind of
Aquatics that I think South Gilbert or
anybody in Gilbert I think the private
sector will continue to do that if we
don't make that one of our priorities
others will if there's a market for
it so Rob let me see if I can't just
summarize this I think you're ready to
get to a conclusion I want to make sure
at least on the Aquatic side of this we
said at the very beginning of our
meeting say we're not making any final
decisions here today so I think what
we're doing though is sending a message
of right a message of of a lack of
enthusias M about Aquatics we're not
saying no we're not saying that we're
shutting down future conversation with
our community about the the
opportunities and possibilities here but
based on initial preliminary discussions
that's an area that seems to sink uh in
terms of of the overall priorities is
that a fair council members I'm looking
at you is that a fair summary of the of
the I'm getting head nods and thumbs up
I didn't ask for the red yellow green
great yeah we're we're generally not not
that excited about that that's what the
message is or or less do you have a
final conclusion of anything else or
else you want to know about this no and
I think uh the feedback was very
valuable I really can't thank you enough
for the time to take through it and and
give your feedback I know these are hard
numbers to digest and these are really
hard decisions we're bringing at you but
thank you for the time and consideration
that you spent with it and I'd be remiss
if I have to say a thank you real quick
before I get up the microphone for the
day uh whenever you do presentations
like this there's a team behind it that
puts in a a lot of work and effort and I
have to just say a quick thank you uh to
the team to my left here uh there's a
row in the back of a lot of Parks and
Recreation facilities members uh who are
here and uh just a quick special shout
out uh jenica from the town manager's
office uh Heidi uh who's our data
strategist and our our management team
here they put in a lot of time and
effort to help get the presentations to
a part we can be today and I just thank
them for all their efforts and it and uh
don for helping us out the way as well
so thank you to everyone I appreciate
your time I know two hours plus with me
is a lot but that value the feedback you
gave was valuable and we'll be ready for
the next conversation with a lot of the
data and request you had we thank you
very much Rob thank you very much okay
with that we are running 30 minutes
ahead of schedule but I am told that
Lunch is ready and we can take our lunch
break now so that's what we're going to
do
it occurs to me I may have forgotten to
remind you all that if you needed the
logal Wi-Fi it's 92 West or was West 92
whichever one of those is it's open WiFi
if you need to get on to it you can do
that
here sorry I meant to do that earlier
got out of my
bra that's not an excuse to go check
your
email okay we are just after 1:00 so we
are running 15 minutes ahead of schedule
and we are ready for Public Safety in
the Police Department chief I turn the
floor over to you all right thank
you all right um update from what you
saw in Retreat talking today about the
police department Capital need
projects so uh we refreshed our stats if
you notice the last time we talked we
were the four safest city our 2022 stats
were released by the FBI and we are
happy to say we are back being the
second safest city in the country and
that is based on the 100 largest cities
or another way to look at it is
population's over
200,000 200,000 yeah we're number two in
both those categories so um obviously
Gilbert is a very safe Community we want
it to remain a very safe community so
you're going to hear this theme over and
over over again from myself and from R
um the safety and the quality of service
to our community and making sure that we
are making
Investments for what the future to not
only maintain but continue to improve on
our safety status and it's not just
about the crime numbers it's that
feeling of our community of feeling safe
within our
community so while I bragged about our
crime going down and this is consistent
for this year our crime our current
numbers are down 5% overall on part one
crimes however our violent crime is up
and so this is uh roughly the last nine
years uh just looking at our violent
crime this is from the FBI's uh data and
you can see that we had a decrease in
2015 and then fairly consistent each
year we have had an increase now our
numbers are still small so keep bit that
in relative terms to our population our
crimes per 1,000 are still very small
the uh 21 and 22 are pretty close we
identical um but we do expect that to go
up because we're roughly about 12% up
this year compared to last year as of
the end of November so while it's good
it's still safe our overall part one
crimes are going down but the driving
factor in that is our property crimes
but our violent crime is concerning that
your your murder rape aggravated assault
robberies for your primary categories
nest and those have consistently gone up
for the last nine
years uh so overall our community as I
mentioned in the beginning our community
feels safe um there's several surveys uh
which have stated that over 90% of our
community members positively rated
overall feeling of safety in Gilbert a
lot of these are little snapshots um we
had the two homicides on Father's Day uh
unrelated earlier this year um I put out
a statement and these are a lot of the
comments and and this has been fairly
consistent that that the community those
who are commenting on our our social
media they feel safe here they want us
to they want to be here because they
feel safe they see a good response from
the police department they want to make
sure that that
continues and we have um a program
called fighter Tech which we do each day
it's a random uh it's a survey when you
call in you get a
survey based on particular crimes not
all but almost all uh crimes it'll do a
survey and with that on a fivepoint
scale we average about 4.7 satisfaction
rate and a 4. four out of five overall
feeling a safety from the community um
on those surveys so that's done daily
then we get we get those daily updates
and then we get a monthly update from
spider tech indicating how are we doing
that rates our officers of performance
our dispatch's performance so overall we
continue to show a positive
uh influence on the community and
they're uh showing that they still safe
in our
community so just some snapshots uh from
some Gilbert events over the past year
as I mentioned Gilbert it's Anonymous
with safety and we want that to continue
we've got we've had support for Public
Safety which is um and it's not just the
police department it's everything from
streets we talked about streets and
shadescapes and whatnot the whole
environment in Gober gives you that
Hometown fill of safety and so we want
to continue to have that safety
throughout the town of
gilber so today I'm going to talk to you
about our five CIP projects and
technically advy Center which I'll
explain is there's two phases so there's
six items for you to look
at the first one the Gilbert Advocacy
Center we've talked I think this is
probably my fourth or fifth presentation
on the aacy
center it's important to note that this
has evolved and I'll kind of explain how
that as I mentioned in this previous
slide about our violent crime going up
We are continuing to see um just in the
last two years this is our domestic
violence and our sex crimes between
children and adults it's uh Rising
uh the 2023 data this is as of the end
of November and so we anticipate it's
going to be pretty close um at least on
the adults uh to be about the same but
we are seeing um an increase in the um
in the domestic violence for children
and in in some of the sex cases so we
want to
keep uh our resources focused to make
sure that we're addressing the part one
crimes specifically the violent crime
and the Advocacy Center is a key
component to this with our current
process um with the Advocacy Center we
do Investigations out the field we do
investigations at the station we do
investigations at the Chandler Advocacy
Center we go to the Mesa Advocacy Center
sometimes we go to phix to child help so
we're kind of all over the place the
victims are going from their home to our
place to the doctor's office to
different locations and what we're
trying to do is streamline that process
to minimize the trauma to the victims so
that they only have to tell the story
want they can be familiar with the
people and the
location and with the Navy
Center we get that centralized location
focusing on the victim the victim is at
the center of everything and all the
resources that are available are making
sure that that tragic incident that
occurred what whatever it may have been
it's getting the proper resources to
make sure that the victim and survivors
are taken care
of an Advocacy Center team approach um
you'll hear me mention um the
multi-disciplinary team or MDT and I'll
explain that in a little bit um but law
enforcement Child Protective Services
the prosecutors Mental Health Medical
and Victim Advocacy focusing on the
victims working in collaboration to make
sure the forensic interviews are done
properly
medical exams are done properly evidence
is collected and we're also taking care
of the victim not only guiding through
the investigative process but also
getting them prepared for the future of
what's going to come and also to recover
from the incident they just
experienced so in a multi-disciplinary
team approach the AY Center being the
core where everyone is uh involved we've
got as I mentioned law enforcement and
that's everything from the super
supervisors to the investigators to our
crime scene checks everyone from law
enforcement focusing on the victim the
department of child safety we already
have them embedded in our department now
this keeps them embedded within the
Advocacy Center we've got a location for
the prosecutor office um for both our um
our city uh prosecutors and then also
the county attorney for a drop in our
forensic Services making sure that we
can collect evidence and store the
evidence properly and then provide
mental health and counseling services to
our victims I'll explain a little bit
this in the next slide on the counseling
but that's a key component of being
successful within Advocacy Center and
then providing medical uh professionals
so a space for the nurses to do their
forensic examinations collect the
evidence hand them over to us and then
we can process them through the crime
lab and then uh Victim Advocacy Services
we've had victim advocates for just over
two years now signed to the police
department and we've seen a huge success
in getting the victims the resources
they need specifically in the cases that
they haven't been filed yet we're
working on filing cases we had that Gap
and the victim Advocates have been able
to provide that gap between the initial
case have been uh reported to when it's
been accepted by either the county or
the city uh for prosecution and those
victim Advocates have been a key to that
success so the benefits of an advocacy
uh Center um it's all about the victim
we want to reduce the trauma to the
victim as I mentioned we want to uh
avoid doing multiple
interview uh the friends of interviews
and medical examin exams are expedited
we would have them at the same location
improved communication collaboration
between all those the MDT team members
that I mentioned U they will brief a
case before they start it then they'll
after the case is done make sure we we
captured everything and also look for
ways for to improve the other benefit it
saves us time and the the victim's time
um because you're going to one location
rather than multiple locations it
reduces travel time for our
investigators and you can see an
increase prosecution rates and also this
gives us the ability to do some
additional education and prevention with
the Advocacy Center with our
community so one of the places that we
toured was Colin County in Texas and we
simple terms we fell in love with their
location and we still borrowed a lot of
their ideas um but through their
approach um they have found that when
the multidisiplinary team approach is
used and charges are filed they have
experienced a 98% conviction right our
cases now this is just children they
don't do adults at Colin County it's
just children but that is extremely
important and that is what we're trying
to get to is that had success so that
the victims AR
revictimized they do that through um NDT
they help through the throughout the
investigation they help through the
healing process and they help through
the guidance and education to the
community so some of the tragic examples
that we' just seen in the last six weeks
in Gilbert these two homicide cases both
domestic violence
related um is just another example of
what we're trying to prevent um
everything we can
do uh to prevent this type of tragedy
from occurring we want the resources to
provide to our victims and to the
families so that they can escape
situations where they're in danger or
they're in
harm you'll have some random ones um
there wasn't that going details of the
case sometimes there're not a a history
that we know of and sometimes with the
other example there was a long history
between the couples you just don't know
um but domestic violence can obviously
turn tragic and I'll show you some more
examples
later so when we did our
evaluation our initial programming we
were focusing you've heard me doing my
presentations to you we were focused on
the investigation side making sure that
we had proper investigation we collected
evidence and so that's how we started
the planning and that's where our budget
reflected a little amount than what
you're going to see
today um but as I mentioned the Victim
Advocacy Center it helps survivors it
helps them move through the judicial
process with dignity and a screamline
screamline Services throughout the the
process the vision of an Advocacy Center
has evolved through our research of best
practices discussion with prom experts
and a Critical examination of the needs
present in yog so we traveled to several
locations in Texas we went to Nashville
we went to San Diego and we looked at
what asked the question of what works
doesn't what doesn't work what would you
do differently and I mentioned Colin
County um because it was kind of an eye
openening
approach
um when my mind was said just doing the
investigation but after we T that the
first time we end up going back the
second time uh but the first time it
just opened
uh my eyes to the possibility of how we
can be that Best in Class provide the
services to our community Beyond just
doing an investigation how do we make
sure that this doesn't happen again how
do we Empower our victims and our
survivors to take those positive steps
forward and uh make sure that they have
the resources they need so that it
doesn't happen again to them
and so that is what changed from just
focusing on investigations and that
initial
review of taking this and making sure
that through Counseling Services now
that we on site can provide that initial
counseling Outreach to both our youth
the kids and the adults in the same
location similar and you'll see the J
here in a minute but when you come in
for aus do the investigation they would
come back but a different side of the
building so they're familiar with the
location but they don't have to go to
the same place where they experience
their trauma the first time they'll come
to the counseling side and do that
recovery process so everything we have
done has been um trauma informed
resign making sure that when we do the
flow of the building and how everything
from the way the building is constructed
the flow of the people how they enter
how they exit make make sure they don't
cross path with others that is what has
been driving our design and that's that
expanded scope has expanded our cost so
as I mentioned before um having
dedicated fic interviewers having the
counseling and the therapy services
available on site partnering with a
nonprofit to be a part of the accuracy
Center and provide employee Wellness
this is a very stressful job job for our
um for our employees both our sworn and
our professional staff they have to deal
with these uh tragic traumatic incidents
so we want to make sure that we're
providing a facility that takes care of
them will it as well as taking care of
the
victims so um in fy22 when I did our our
one of our I think that was a second
presentation um we had a projected
budget of 17 million just 17 million and
about 19,000 Square ft that was as I
mentioned focused just on doing the
investigations making sure we had
everything there uh to do the
investigations cost escalation and FY 23
and 24 started to drive up that price we
did our research we actually got go into
the planning of the building of how
everything would flow what we needed
there and that obviously has greatly
increased it's a little fuzzy which is
good because that's a rough number
um 85 million is what would be
required um so I'll show you a little
diagram to explain phase one and phase
two and phase three but keep in mind the
phase one is currently funded we have
$43 million set aside for phase one uh
22 of that is from arpa funding we took
10 million from the central the public
safety building project and moved it
over to this it was needed now and we're
still working on the other plan which
you'll see in a minute and then the
other 10 we're able to get from general
fund so we are currently sitting at 43
million which will take care of phase
one phase
two does
not excuse me phase two includes all of
the
employees the work location so phase one
just takes care of the victim but we
wanted to make sure we didn't phase
phase one so we made sure that phase one
has everything we need at buildout to
take care of the victims but what is
left out of that in phase two and phase
three is the actual work locations for
our employees that will be working at
the Advocacy Center and phase three
being a multi-purpose room which I'll
explain in a
minute so a timeline of how we got to
where we were as I mentioned in previous
uh presentations in 2019 our community
needs assessment similar similarly as we
talked about with parks and wreck the
community wanted provide they wanted
safety and they wanted to provide
services for human trafficking sexual
assaults and uh human trafficking and
domestic violence I think might have
said those
twice um and so that's was the support
we needed to um we knew we needed it but
that helped validate our our
justification so we started with a
pre-design with that preliminary
discussion we received the arpa funding
and what was important with that is it
restricted us it's restricted money we
have to start building Phase One by uh
January of 25 and we have to be done by
December of 26 to be in compliance with
arund and there's some procedural with
the contract of the process that goes
through but that is why need phases
rather than coming to you with just one
so we have evolved to where we are now
um we as I mentioned in September we uh
started working on the budget for that
expanded spoke and with that is where we
are now is asking for uh direction from
Council on how we can fund phase two and
phase three and our timeline as I
mentioned we have to start construction
in January of 25 so on phase one we will
continue to work on that design and the
contracts and that's what you'll see in
the summer uh for approval once we go
out to our contracts for
construction so the ABY Center just a
little preview of what it's going to
look like you can kind of see so phase
one there's another map that I'll show
you in a second which outlines it a
little bit better but phase one is the
advoc advocacy and counseling side of it
so it's on the northwest sorry northeast
corner of um our complex on the
southwest corner of American Heroes way
and Civic Center so the existing parking
lot we add a little bit of parking and
then phase one is directly uh to the
South phase phe two is which is not
funded we'll actually connect to phase
one so when it's done it'll look at one
building but we designed it to where we
could go with phase one knowing that
phase two we've got to wait for the
funding that can be added on easily uh
to be one building once we're finding
time phase three being the training and
Conference space that it's
essential um we just didn't have enough
money um to put it into phase one or
phase two plus there's space constraints
and I'll show you the master plan let me
do that now so you can see the master
plan the draft of what the rest of the
buildings and uh parking would look like
at the public safety
complex you've got the existing building
uh to the left here in the center phase
one in red would be the advocacy in the
counseling phase two is where all the
employees and the employee Wellness
would go um attached to phase one
now it's important to note that phase
three um that is the max capacity of
that
space fire has a project which you'll
hear about they need to expand and
remodel their Administration but they
also have other needs so that could
potentially be phase three a
multi-purpose room plus additional needs
of fire or any other needs the city may
have um and then there is space for
another building down here um nothing is
planned for that yet but there is space
for that but it's important to note that
if or when we add either of these two
buildings anything beyond these two
phase one and phase two is going to
going to require another parking
gr that is not in the current budget
that is not what we're discussing today
but just an awareness is as we continue
to expand we're going to run out per
code enough parking spaces for everybody
as we get to build
out so once again the importance of the
Advocacy Center uh we want to prevent
circumstances like this these are three
other examples of domestic violence
within uh our community all resulting in
deaths um uh that is our goal is to make
sure in the future this is a blank
slate so the budget and the ask and like
we talked with the others um you don't
need to give me a green light today but
i' appreciate it later in the afternoon
um but advocacy the phase one is taking
care of phase two $42 million that is a
higher priority for us phase three it's
essential to um the Advocacy Center
being successful part of the
accreditation process is we need a
meeting space for the MDT team to meet
pre and post um uh conference uh for for
a case but also we do quarterly uh kind
of risk assessments we do evaluations
and those travel throughout all the
different advocacy centers and we be a
part of that mix so that we need meeting
space for up to 100 people uh to meet
and discuss uh issues going on with
Advocacy Center everything from sex
domestic violence homicide whatnot so
this is the budget we're currently at
the 13.8 uh when I showed you that 85
million with the star the star is a 13.8
85 million phase two and phase one and
then the 13.8 being phase three that
adds up to 55.8 that we would need to
complete the
center all
right next Primal aage needs assessment
so hopefully you all enjoyed the uh
report that we gave you at the last at
The Retreat and you thoroughly read
through it I'll give you some reminders
on um the crime lb and some of the
consequences of not having a successful
crime lab we talked the beginning of my
presentation about the safety and the
expectations of the community of having
uh the proper resources to keep our
community safe the crime lab is an
essential piece just like the Advocacy
Center to make sure that we have the
proper tools and resources to provide
for our community these are just some
examples of cases some locally some not
in where crime lab mistakes or errors or
backlogs have resulted in additional
victims of being victimized cases not
being prosecuted cases being dismissed
because there were uh evidence was
either lost or never tested or
improperly tested we don't want that to
happen to
us so the history of our crme La
services so since 2012 we have partnered
with uh Mesa PD uh with their crime LA
to provide services for us in 2017 we
extended that uh IGA uh for a five-year
contract we started the crime lab needs
assessment in 20120 took us a little bit
to get it done um we in 2022 we extended
the IGA with Mesa we did get some better
terms in that prior to that we had a
one-year out clause on eitherway which
was was very concerning for us because
they could tell us tomorrow that hey end
of next year you're out and our only
option would be to go to DPS and that is
not an option which I explain from
that so we have completed the needs
analysis and um that you received that
at the fall Retreat and that is where
we're at
now the crime lab services um we
currently so prior to 2012 as I
mentioned there was no cost the state
DPS is required to arrive provide those
services to us we do our own fingerprint
identification digital forensics and
process our crime scenes um we're
starting to do some of our
fire in 21 22 um our our cost uh so we
went to Mesa um
and we have partnered with them on some
of the fingerprint we had some vacancies
we had to have them pick up our
fingerprint identification but for the
most part um they did the majority
majority of our services and we just did
finger print identification anding
processing and that's where we're at
today uh it's important to note and this
is on another slide in this year 23 um
our price went up roughly 25% we went to
76,000 for those same
services so this is a snapshot of the
forensic uh Mesa PDS forensic lab
turnaround time and what you'll see is a
little bit of well it causes me concern
as you're seeing each year it's going up
our our um response time to get stuff
turned around from the lab is going up
now there's some anom here in the
Firearms we started doing some of our
Firearms testing that's why it was
greatly reduced because of that backlog
um some of our employees were certified
we've been using Chandler's um Sho tank
um to uh do our own fire testing so
that's why that was great but there is a
concern that this continues to rise and
another slide I'll explain
why
so um we have our IG with Mesa um some
of the concerns with that we have we
don't have the ability to prioritize
cases that come through now obviously if
there's a homicide or a rape we can ask
them to prioritize that and normally
they will but it's out of our control
but anything else it's you're going to
have to wait and queue um and I show you
those timelines so maybe two three
months till you get stuff
processed but with having someone else
to our Crime Lab Services we have to
rely on them to decide what our priority
is and that is the large concern for
us um our current service levels may
become unsustainable Mesa add good
partners and overall population
continues to increase uh since we were
the the initially the only ones with
Mesa but now Queen Creek PD and temp PD
are also Contracting out services with
mesd so mesd still does a great job they
take care of all of us but that's where
I talked about those slow increases in
the timelines my belief is that because
they're adding more work and they're
taking more time plus as we're all
growing they're continuing to grow um
we're adding more volume to L's
plate so I mentioned uh in fi23 we had a
25% price increase uh initially the
first uh 10 years or so it was somewhat
status quo um but we saw an increase and
each year they give us an evaluation to
determine whether U the price will go up
so far I haven't seen anything yet for
this year but we anticipate it's
coming our other option I mentioned is
lack of Alternatives so DPS by law has
to provide those services but DPS does
not provide
all those Services a great example that
I always give is Mesa does this and it's
what we would do with our lab is that if
we have a property crime and there's DNA
collected DPS doesn't have the time or
resources to test that so we could
identify somebody we could identify the
suspect but they don't have time or the
money to do that therefore they won't
even bother looking at it with Mesa and
with gilberg our intent would be to
process uh DNA
on property crimes what that does it
helps you obviously identify suspects
but a lot of times those uh criminals
that evolve into rape robbery uh home
invasions they're starting with property
crimes and so by getting them
identified and uh ideally getting them
arrested you're preventing that future
more serious crime from happening so
that's a very important component for
both our vehicle burds our residential
and Commercial burglaries that we're
processing proc processing those for all
evidence not just
fingerprints we did look at um private
and federal Labs Federal will help us
out if it's a major incident um
especially if it's terrorism related um
private we found uh one Pennsylvania but
just the cost analysis and the report
explains this that it's just not
feasible to send evidence across the
country have a processed and then have
it sent back and then when it does go to
trial they have to fly out their
consultants and test I on behal it's
just Cost
brok um so I mentioned our the PPP the
Public Public private partnership um
that is not an option based on the cost
that we saw and the issues with the
evidence DPS as I mentioned they provide
the services but they don't provide all
those Services we want or need um plus
you have a huge turnaround time um
Chandler lab I'll explain Chandler here
in a minute but Chandler is working on
their lab but it's kind of the same Bas
and Chandler are the same situation as
Chandler gets their lab as Mesa has
their lab we still do not control our
destiny so to speak so when I've done
some of these presentations in the past
um I've talked about Mesa does a good
job I'm worried about the future so I
want to tweak that to say I'm worried
about the future Mesa does still do a
good job but my concern is is as we look
at the buildout of gilber we look at our
violent crime rate going up I do not
want to be in a situation where we are
letting our citizens down we're not
providing the services that they need
because we're relying on somebody else
plus
the Dark Cloud over us that who knows
what the future's going to bring some of
those examples that we talked to you
before about with the training academy
um I mentioned that um thank God we got
our training facil done because right
when we opened Phoenix told us sorry we
don't have the capacity to train anymore
you guys are out along with everyone
else just talking to the Mesa Chief over
the weekend they're at full capacity so
now they're telling the other agencies
they can't take them on as well so we've
got other agencies we already provide
those Services they're now coming to us
saying hey we need help I don't want
that to be us knocking on doors in five
years asking other crime labs to please
let Us in and take care of us so we have
the opportunity now to invest in the
future it's I'll get into the time frame
it's going to take us a while to get
where we need to be um but just like you
go to the doctor and you get some bad
results you got some pops or you got
some cyst you don't just ignore it well
we'll see what happens in Fr years we'll
see we'll deal with it then we see on
the horizon a problem we're letting you
know it's coming we're asking for your
help to make sure that we're prepared to
handle it when it gets here
so East Valley population growth I
mentioned all five cities are continuing
to grow these are all the cities that we
looked at well Scott still we didn't
look at as a partner um but just to show
you their example of their population
growth they have we have seen I got look
at my notes because we 831 per increase
in our population from 1990 to
2021 um we have seen an annual average
increase of 7.3 six in our population
over that same time period when you
average it out so we're growing we're
going to continue to grow we know that
um Queen Creek is going to continue to
grow B still has some growth as just
channeled so we are growing the demand's
only going to continue to increase so
just as a little snapshot we talk a
little bit more about this uh on one of
the prior presentations but the impact
of forensic evidence uh just three
examples cases without forensic evidence
you're 21 times more likely to be
charged obviously if you have forensic
evidence as opposed to no forensic
evidence in rap cases that they're
getting convictions roughly 20% more
convictions when we have forensic
evidence that can be processed by the
lab compared to those that don't robbery
cases almost a 30% over a 30% increase
um in cases that he resolved in
conviction either through ple or through
conviction so the impact of physical
evidence is
enormous so in our crime lab partnership
we looked at um several Partners us tpd
Maricopa Queen Creek Chandler and Apache
Junction all of them um as I mentioned
before were saying yeah we're we're
willing to look at the
partnership keep in mind that that's
with no investment that they're more
than willing to um come to us if we
provide services so as we uh did the
report we broke down what each scenario
would look like we we did this K clear
approach where we could plug into play
these different
agencies um with Chandler PD in
2022 I think it was they got their bond
passed um roughly 41 or 42 million uh
for their crime lab um we're hearing
that it's as we expected not enough um
to fund what they need um but they are
uh in the presentation that we're
showing you they're not part of the mix
because they have the the funding for a
crime lab and that's the direction
they're going um our most viable um
partners that we saw would be Queen
Creek and Apache Junction based
primarily on location and cost uh 10 PPD
has a large volume and so they do have a
large impact if we include them um we're
still talking to them about the
possibility but with what we haven't
told them is the price tag for
operational costs which is going to be
much higher than what they're paying
right
now so looking at just Gilbert PD um the
cost now these numbers are assuming we
did a bond election next year it got
approved but keep in mind it's going to
take five years to build the lab we have
not done any planning other than the
needs assessment report we have not
started designing so we need money to
start the design so we know the full
scope of the project but based on our
estimates of what we anticipate we need
uh $70 million is what we would need
just for go PD if the bond was approved
and you'll see if each year that we wait
to put it on the bond election it
roughly adds about $5 million per year
that you weigh the operating cost um
just for Gilbert is uh 3.2 million per
year Prime labs are not cheap to operate
um there's a lot of technology that goes
into that a lot of the supplies between
utilities and the supplies it's an
expensive uh process but it's an
essential process to make sure that we
keep our communi safe and that we
properly investigate document and
prosecute our cases a three agency model
as I mentioned presuming that Apache
Junction in Queen Creek we a part of it
that increases our cost the blue line is
what I talked to you before so our cost
would go up roughly $1 million so $81
million if we approved it next year the
uh staff can see the projection of how
many staff we would need
um we are
recommending the the the three agency
model for two reasons one it takes care
of our needs but also it takes care of
some of our neighbors but it gives us
additional room for growth in case crime
increases more than what we're seeing
now
and as we continue to grow in the
population it gives us a safety net so
to speak it takes care of our needs but
it also gives us the ability to expand
our needs if we have that worst case Nar
where uh increase in crime just put it
that way so that is our recommendation
is the 81
million um construction budget forecast
as I mentioned that's basically the same
information just in this slide of 881
million it goes up roughly 5 million per
year so the timeline just as I mentioned
it's a fiveyear process whether it's
this 24 25 or 26 whenever one start that
process if we approve bonds next year
our more likely our opening dat would be
around 23rd so we are ways out but the
longer we delay the higher the cost goes
out so this is just a forast of what
that calendar will look like for Bond
approval in Construction and
design and then uh what sorry what 25
will look like the cost in the timeline
and then a bond election in 26 the cost
in the in the uh
schedule once again just reiterating the
fact that our community feels safe
Gilbert we want to keep
that safe environment within Gilbert
making sure that we're focusing on all
of our crimes the Advocacy Center is a
key component of that that crime is a
key component
that what we don't want here's four
different examples other examples where
inadequate Crime Lab Services resulted
in um additional victims and suspects
being released because evidence was not
property
processed so the budget as I mentioned
um Gilbert only 70 million 81 million is
what we're recommending to go with that
approach of providing additional um room
for growth for us but also in the
meantime we could take care of some of
our
neighbors all right Public Safety so I
need a
drink I may
start all right if anyone needs to stand
up and stretch your legs now's a good
halfway point about
halfway I'm good we're at 40 minutes so
you still got time all right so the next
projects are our existing buildings so
our public safety building
expansion we are uh this is basically
Central as we call it central Patrol but
it's all everything in uh PD admin or
Detention Facility everything this is
again the master plan everything
highlighted in red is what is currently
considered um our the police side of the
public safety building complex this is
the courts up here just for reference um
the North half of this building is now
the EOC and fire admin and then um we've
got three training rooms left out of the
Southside so when we talk about the
public safety complex we're just talking
police you'll hear from fire on their on
their plans Court's good we need to
remodel a few things where judge we need
to flip a few rooms so he needs a couple
dollars here and there um but this is
just
P um but to give you an example of the
building we're in now in 2003 is when
that building opened the cor PDM fire at
that time we had
28.25 employees in PD all working out of
that station since that time over the
next 21 years um we are now at just
under 500 total employees
33.5 working out of the Central Station
122 down south at SanTan which I'll talk
about in a minute 23 at offsite
locations 15 out of the training
facility and then eight at the um out at
the property and evidence
Warehouse that is a just looking at the
PSB building that is a
58.7% increase over those 21 years now
granted keep in mind like we're doing
now they planed for the future they had
some additional space at that time but
we are at our limit we have outgrown the
facility at this location and at
SanTan um give you some examples here
before I get an examples sorry so some
of the consequences uh when the
community and police staff sorry
consequences to the community and police
staff when communities fell to fund
police facilities so increased response
times what you will see is that as we
run out of room we have to start moving
people to different locations whether
it's trailers
um other uh locations whether it's Sanda
Central or an old fire station or
wherever we can put a trailer we're
going to have to spread out our
resources because there is not enough
room for them to be in one location and
so when you do that you are increasing
your response times you increase your
response times and there's a few studies
I have here U when you increase your
response times you're results in
increased crime increased accidents
increased fatalities it's that slow
gradation of services your facilities
start to Decay you start to run out of
room and then that has a net effect of
transplanting some of your resources and
thus delaying the resources to the
community um part of that degradation of
services increase and police Personnel
vacancies we have seen in other
departments where you do not provide
proper resources whether it's equipment
building um Innovative technology
techology people start to leave and so
they you start to see that increase of
vacancy both on the Swarm side and the
professional staff side and we have seen
with our training facility at least on
the FD side I'm assuming on the fire
side that that is a recruiting tool
having state-of-the-art nice facilities
plenty of room for you to comfortably
work within your work location that is
an attractive thing especially when we
look at lateral employees especially
from Back East where they are totally
over cramped they're never going to see
a new building because of their budgets
they come here and they see I actually
have room to spread out my arms I can
actually work at my location and so it
just it's that Circle where as you start
to grade your facilities the uh
mentality of your employees they start
to get stressed these are the last two
points they get fatigued they get
stressed they feel cramped there's not
space to work out there's not a place to
relax um we've got our meditation our
Wellness rooms our nurseries everything
we can to make sure that we're taking
care of our employees those start to go
away as you run out of
room so now this is this is the example
that Patrick keep giving of we turned a
closet it's it is a large closet but it
was a storage closet that we turned into
an office and I'll show you some
examples that at sanan where we've been
very unique and making more
room but the scope of the central
building the remodel the public safety
building remodel it's basically
everything that we haven't already done
so we just did the EOC we just did the
PD admin which includes hiring Internal
Affairs and counseling and towing and
our dispatch expansion so those are good
but everything else needs to be expanded
and remodeled some of the new items that
we don't currently have a realtime crime
Center and areas for our employee
Wellness at that location so while we're
looking at what do we currently have we
are looking for the future of what do we
need and how much space do we need and
so that would be inclusive of this
project of including not only do we what
do we need now and for future grow and
what do we need for future
programs oops so the public safety
building this is just examples of uh we
crammed uh cubicles in anywhere
everywhere we can this was an open work
area we've had to add lockers and this
is upstairs the C area the criminal
investigations area where we've added
Locker space um for uh their gear
putting them in the middle of the
hallways there's our Quarter Master it's
we're we ran out of room we are
currently using the garage to store half
of their equipment that we uh store uh
for for offers this is again upstairs
this is the briefing room some of when
we have a double Squad day we will have
anywhere from about 15 to 25 people
depending on the day there are not
enough report writing stations for them
to to work in the report in the briefing
room we're at capacity for report
writing or over capacity there's more
bodies than are places to work so they
they got to find somewhere else to go or
go back out in the car and do their
reports which makes it more difficult
we've added uh storage lockers um filing
cabinets everywhere we can we've shoved
more into there but we are out of
room so the public safety building
expansion um the cost for that is
estimated to be $ 41.6 million just for
the central
location so Santan down south so at the
South area service center the Santan
patrol station que
station we this thicker Orange uh
outline that is the space that we
currently occupy at the Santan station
the center is um the lobby training room
um primar uh this all public works and
Fleet um that occupy the building and
this is where Rob will be talking about
fire Fleet um but we're out of space not
only for V and for personnel but for
harest we are out of the space um we are
looking we own this 15 acre lot that's
in red which is just in between uh the
mortuary and our haard is place here so
that is owned by the town now and we
would need roughly six acres um out of
that 15 to put our police station there
so that is our recommended
location so this is um a photo from our
locker room and uh you can see how we
stove additional lockers we are we we
ran out of space about 3 years ago um we
looked at Remodeling and it was going to
be about just over $2 million to remodel
the locker rooms but we knew that was
just a drop in the bucket of what we
needed so we did not spend the 2 million
knowing that we were going to have to
rip it out within a couple years so we
may do I'll show
you all right so this is an old office
that we turn into a locker room so um
facilities um Bel on at this crew uh did
a great job outfitting this they put uh
everything we needed into it but even
with this additional space we are at
capacity so this allowed us to get to
capacity we were over capacity before if
we add any more officers which depending
on how the budget goes there's a plan to
add more offers down there um we will be
once again over capacity for locker room
space this is their briefing room you
can see how cramped they are um this is
a double squat day um as we continue
Grant
uh as we continue to add more bodies we
will continue to have run out of room uh
their Fitness room it's okay um a small
space a lot of stuff shov in there
report writing is entirely inadequate I
showed you the one for Central where
there's roughly about 12 spots they have
uh two four
six uh riding locations and you look at
I've got more than six hosters out there
so same thing they're find theying the
writing um at the Sergeant's cubicles
that the Sergeant's not there or they're
riding out in their car or they're
finding some Starbucks or wherever they
can write their paper they're going
somewhere else uh back to our list
similar to what I mentioned up at
Central everything down here needs to be
remodeled reamp that's why our
recommendation is a new building not a
rem additional photos of what we've done
with the locker rooms cramming more in
there like I said we're just at capacity
so the recommendation for Santan is a
new station um Public Works occupies the
other half of the building um they're
still evaluating their needs based on
the space needs assessment that Robert
talked about um but it's just not
feasible with the amount of space we
would need to expand into into there so
the more viable location or option would
be for us to build a new building the
positive side we haven't repurposed the
building but that allows us to repurpose
where we're currently at for other City
needs which we'll identify through the
space needs
assessment all right the last one uh
police Heritage District Community
office mentioned this briefly last time
and some of this got expanded when we
did our tours of Phoenix and Scottdale
and Mesa looking at uh what they provide
and also factoring in the possibility of
an ambassador program or a tourism
within so this is focused on PD but it
does have the ability to be more of a
community a town gilber community office
in the Heritage District there's not a
specific location identified but we
wanted to get this out there in the idea
of right now at the second Garage on v
um or I what the address is for that one
per and
B um we have a small office in there the
both pedan fire can use Fire doesn't use
it because it's too cramped our bike
officers are always in there um but
that's where our bike officers they're
they are housed out of central but then
they come to that garage and that's
where they operate at them there's just
not enough space there's eight of them
plus the sergeant there's just not
enough space now and we have plans to
Triple that size at buildout of our
number of bike officers so we need more
room plus the idea of having a centrally
located location where the public knew
to come if they were a victim or if they
need information they're lost they lost
their kid they want to know where to go
to eat that's why we talked about the
ability of having ambassadors in there
whether it's p or volunteers that they
could easily be incorporated into the
building so if um people want to come in
and get a map find out where to go eat
where to park they can come here if they
got their car broken into they can come
in and make the report from there so
it's primarily for bikes but it also
provides a neighborhood office for them
to come into it's not a full service
station like the other two I just talked
about but it's neighborhood office was
somewhere either to the south of here or
to the north of us it would be easily um
identifiable and uh for both us and the
community to
access um I got a holding Cale don't
worry it's not a Detention Facility it's
just if we process if we make a duest
it's a lot easier to take them one block
rather than taking them three miles to
the South we could easily process them
right from that holding cell do the
blood and getting right back out um to a
taxi or an Uber for someone else who
pick
some so the cost for that is $18.6
million for a undisposed location uh
within the Heritage
District so talked a lot hopefully you
stayed away from most of it um but our
total projects and I took the liberty of
prioritizing these based on our needs
and I'll explain them a little bit the
advocacy is our top priority that second
half um we we can get by for a year or
so while we wait for the funding for
phase two but phase uh one is funded
phase two is instrumental not only to
the Advocacy Center but everything below
it because I can't do the public safety
building expansion until I move 80
people out of the building into the
phase two so that I have room to remodel
at the public safety building expansion
so I put Santan as our number Pew
priority because we're already over
capacity we're a couple years into being
over capacity so that's why it's our
second Central Patrol the public safety
building expansion that is next because
we are at capacity where San over
capacity that is next in priority crime
lab as I mentioned is very important to
us it is a five-year plan so while 81
million is what I have listed there
there are ways for us to start that
investment in the crime lab while we
work on the top three
the last uh sorry uh the fifth one being
the Advocacy Center the multi-purpose
room that would potentially that number
will come down assuming we merge it with
another project whether it's fire admin
or whether it's another need of the city
there's a possibility that that number
that is the price for a standalone
multi-purpose room on the public safety
complex hiring everything from the
contractor on that's why that price was
so high so that would come down if we
merging with another project the last
one is the police Heritage District
Community office at 18.6 that's lower
priority because we haven't
identified the location we have the need
not as demanding as the others but we
have the need and it gives us the
opportunity is whether it's a public
private partnership or whether it's
something that we're building and owning
it gives us the opportunity as we
develop the rest of Heritage to input
that into those
PLS that is all
any questions or
discussion it's an overwhelming but I'm
just look at Clarity for five granted it
might be able to be shared but the cost
will be the cost whether it's just
police police and fire whatever that's
$2300 square foot that's an amazingly
High number how are we getting the $23 s
foot million
so I I kind of alluded to that that that
is budgeted as a standalone project
hiring contractors the planning um
everything that we would do for any
other project that is not included that
price includes all those Contract
Services to give you a real estimate if
we just built that that's what the cost
would be now we think we can bring that
number down significantly by merging
with another project that's going to
have all those administrative costs with
it but we can reduce it because it's
part of that scope of of an additional
project but yes it is a high number one
number we extracted out um on the Santan
area service center just an FYI when we
looked initially we own 10 acres on the
North End of the South area area service
Cent we switched our plans because if we
put it there between us Fleet and public
work we would have to build a parking
garage a parking garage our estimate for
what space we needed was 42 million just
for a parking
which as your point it's astronomical
it's
crazy keep in mind the cost escalation
of everything is going up that's why
these numbers are so much more than what
they were three years ago when we first
talked to you about the majority of
these yes that's a high number but that
one Gren down but number six 18.6
million how big is that building 10,000
square feet is that
$1,860 a square foot to building that's
yes now keep in mind very I don't know
if it's aggressive or conservative what
the right word is but cost escalation
25% 55 over three years and then um once
again that cost though for number six
could come down if we incorporate it
into a parking garage or if we
incorporate it into a storefront or some
other project so yes it's a high number
because it's a standalone by itself
that's how much it would cost for us to
build a $1,000 square foot box in the
Heritage district and that's with the
assumption that we own that land where
we put the Box um so that's it's ey
number I acknowledge that but we can get
that number down by merging with the
other projects have you considered when
some of the ghost leases in town where
people are paying leases on empty
buildings change in the workforce maybe
that could take it not for these we do
have for some of our resources we do
have a lease for some of our resources
we helped alleviate some of the need of
Public Safety we moved out 30 people
into an offside location very similar to
what you when I talk about the 23 they
were working off site that's where
they're at so we have done that based on
the operational needs of those areas um
but similarly when we looked at the
Advocacy Center we looked at the options
of buying we looked at the option of
buying and
remodeling um renovating an
existing um and just Leasing when we did
the long term over a 20-year lease it
was more cost effective to build than it
was to renovate Andor um lease for 20
plus
years if I could Jim could you help us
before you give the microphone just give
us a frame of reference from your
perspective what's a cost per square
foot that you would expect based on your
experience for building and building not
knowing the exact exactly what's going
to go in there including what's inside
of the building but I know that the last
High School I saw get buil was $320 a
square foot all in I know that your
homes are probably all in the 240 range
to rebuild right now so you're talking
things that are 10 times that 8 times
that seven times that it's a lot and
just it understanding also we're working
with the speed of government because
people have to jump through different
GRS to justify and have there's a
process there an expensive process
process to go through it is just a dagly
high number to look at 6,000 sare ft for
13.8 million
and it's it's going to take an entire
education for me to understand how to
justify
that was it 10,000 square feet it was I
know I said six but I'm trying to
remember if it was 10,000 or 6,000
square F feet Chief Solberg so the uh
line item five thank thank you CH C oh
sorry yes you're right you're talking
advocacy I thought you're talking the
community center I'm sorry Center
10ac so 6,000
feet the this this uh this addition
space three will literally uh assume as
a ground up Standalone 6,000 ft space
which would we would never do we that
would be incorporated in some other
product based on that model I believe we
use5 or $600 square fet plus sof Cost
Plus escalation
plus
technology and ended up with this this
number this would not be a number to
spend as the budget um as on any other
project we would try to find any
efficiency uh which could be available
there thank
you one quick thing to add as well is
these buildings are are fundamentally
just so different from a typical maybe
classroom construction or a new home
build where the the type of construction
that needs to occur and the technology
investment um especially with security
concerns needs to be significantly
greater and so there it's a like an
apples and oranges or apples and pears
at the very least in terms of comparing
building costs but there is a very
healthy
um estimation for cost escalation
since our projects have been so
significantly impacted over the past
several years and that trend is starting
to stabilize but it is not going back
down
necessarily I just wonder if it if it
offers the suggestion that since this is
such specialized kind of construction
that perhaps somewhere in the yellow
light area there's a comparison to
similar constructions in other cities
that lets us know that what we're doing
is on par with what's expected for this
kind of construction because our frame
of reference is just so different Jim is
that pretty much what you're saying take
mic no that's corre I I can refer to a
high school which has more needs than a
home but if you're call 300 for the high
school 2300 on an advocacy setting I got
to figure out what's going on with that
$2,000 per square foot right per square
foot this big
$2,000 I need to understand how that
occur
it's it's all about frame of reference
is what you're saying it's a very
legitimate Point um there other question
comment Chuck did you have okay I'm
sorry
okay chief I may have missed it did you
say where the crime lab would be located
I did give you a map but we have two
locations so the primary location would
be you know where fire station one is
and our property evence Warehouse in the
sou to the north there at Williamsville
just east of
202 that there is that dirt lot where
they fill the sandbag so that lot would
accompany it have to be a two-story
building but that lot would accomp uh
it's big enough to take the crime lab
and that's an important location for us
because it saves US money long term
because we can just carp the evidence
across the parking lot rather than
having to load it up and drive it like
we do now the Mesa where we're doing
either a daily run or two or three times
going back and forth and picking up and
dropping off evidence it's a simple the
evidence Tech takes it over to the crme
lab they check it in they process it
when it's done we go pick it back out a
lot quicker so that's our primary
location a secondary location would be
that future public safety building that
I showed you on the master complex on
that South End we could put it there but
our our ideal choice is on Williamsville
next to fire station one okay thanks
um just looking at my notes real
quick is there opportunity to phas some
of the
other um desires like you're doing the
appy Center to help spread the
cost there's always the potential give
you the politically correct answer um
advocacy we can't dice up anymore on
what we already have um for Santan and
the public safety building expansion
like I mentioned with Santan we looked
at a fixing the locker room issue cost
about 2.2 million
that was that three years ago um it's
probably 4 million now um so we could
look and dissect that but you're going
to end up spending over the long term
more money than what you would now to
fix the problem get them what they need
to take care of their needs now into our
future needs at full buildout so yes you
could always split up uh one of these
problems and pay for a little bit now
but it only how far does that get you it
gets you maybe a year or two and then
are we going to go get money again to do
another piece so we've done an example
is we did dispatch EOC and the PD admin
and counseling area so yes we did do
pieces of the building now we could
continue to do pieces of the uh the
building in the future but it's just
going to increase your cost
so doesn't your your end goal you're
better off you're saving money in the
long run just like if you delay it one
two three years we're adding 5 million
per year to all these projects it'd be
the same thing if you dissect it just do
a quarter of what we need now a quarter
in two years a quarter in three years
the end result we're probably tripling
our our budget I'm just guessing the
number
um obviously Senator obviously is still
my number one priority um I think I
would need to see Fire's presentation
before I could start prioritizing others
from there yep yeah and we appreciate
that and we understand that parks and
wreck I would love to go all in on all
parks and Wreck All In on robs the total
big picture there's just not enough
money so that'll be our project at the
end of the day of what can we afford to
do and we appreciate we're not trying to
put each other one against the other
they're all very important projects and
all have a piece of making this a
comfortable safe place that everyone
wants to be me if I know that Bobby
wants to ask a question but let me just
clarify something that you just said a
second ago when Rob did his presentation
and we looked at this he said it's not
all or nothing on each row we can phase
these things so we can kind of go a
little bit deeper did I just hear you
say that's not the way that you're
presented here that really this is you
know each roow lives on its own yes um
with the exception of phase three of the
Advocacy Center um we could get that in
later with another project but s 10
we're out of room we've got to do
something now public safety we're out of
room we need to do something now
advocacy center phase 2 is extremely
important because it's instrumental to
make phase one work we've got a plan to
get by but hopefully not more than a
year that we have to get by just so this
is not this wasn't just like your
preference this is like the urgency in
the community is such that we have to
deal with these things and we have to
solve the entire challenge that has they
presented correct wanted to make sure I
heard you correctly Bobby okay I I think
you guys probably answered my my comment
but I did want to bring up that phase
one is already paid for correct correct
yes 43 million 40 43 43 million 43
million yeah so we already have invested
in this $43
million and you know if we can phase it
in and like you mentioned earlier if if
I recall correctly phase three is
something that is not totally needed to
make phase one and two work we can do
that in a year or two years or three
years yeah we we can get by with the
delay on phase three it is essential to
the success of ADV Advocacy Center but
we can use other resources until we get
that completed right the long term it's
essential in the immediate need that is
not the highest priority based being
that b to is right right I mean it it is
obviously from things you showed us a
priority and one I think you didn't
mention either was you know the woman
that committed suicide in one of the
parks had we had something like this
available those are things that could be
prevented hopefully yeah okay well I
just thought it was important to note
that Phase One is paid for and bring
that to the Forefront yes thank you
appreciate it one that's paid for is not
part of this it's already it's already
assumed for this chart yeah correct
young I agree with the priority number
one I think that makes a lot of
sense the phase three I'm not convinced
as Council M forguson pointed out that
seems quite excessive for 6,000 square
feet of meeting space and I'd like you
to consider utilizing other resources
like the meeting space available in m
one thinking about mun one and two
buildings as a whole campus package
right because of its
proximity um the Santan police station I
think that does make a lot of sense it
seems like that's you know been planned
we're exceeding the space there my
question Chief to you is can more people
be shifted to the Santan police station
and um avoiding the public safety
building expansion and increasing the
Santan police station so are you saying
if we build a new Santan station could I
move more there um potentially and
that's when we with the two project
because there's some variables our SRO
our Traffic Division and there's a few
others that they could be at either
location and that's how we're getting by
now we've moved people from One station
to the other there Ros half of them are
at SanTan half of them are at Central
traffic is still there but that's my
next move um because as I need more
space I got to move traffic somewhere I
don't know where yet um but that would
be my next move so yes some of those
parts are interchangeable so as we
progress on either one or both of them
we can design it for what that future
needs of what really who should be there
and that may be we build for that growth
and so I can move a couple pieces from
Central to there if if that project ISE
of the other ideally they're on the same
track and we can make sure that between
the two of them that're properly
outfitted people are on the right
locations at both and so that they kind
of they're congruent that they um we're
not missing anything because if we do
one then anything we missed is going to
have to go in the second one vice versa
either way right it just there are some
it it it just seems like it might be
more efficient if you can do that one
construction because it's raw land raw
building you're doing all the site
improvements could that be more
efficient than doing the expansion of
the current Center especially because of
the parking needs and then that you
don't even have the parking structure
here which I think should probably be
avoided at all cost uh because of the
cost that that's going to add to it
um my my last comment is regarding the
Heritage District community office and
kind of goes to I think some comment
that was made earlier regarding have you
looked at the commercial space that's
available within the town maybe at
Gilbert Guadalupe in areas that could be
repurposed or utilized for that versus
again doing a brand new building
so no we haven't looked there yet now
part of the reason why we haven't went
there our goal is to have something at
the central core of Heritage something
that if someone some 's visiting they
know to go there or if they need help
they know to go there we looked at when
we first started talking we talked about
the senior center you know and we're not
trying to kick them out but we looked at
what what do we own we looked at the
South lot the old Christmas tree lot I
forget what it's going it's going to be
the store and whatnot so we did look at
the North and South ends but ideally and
that could work if we can't get
something here but ideally we'd have
something centrally located that people
are more like to walk up to makes it
easier for us to deploy out of a central
located because we get to any location
with inheritage and a shorter amount of
time if we're centrally located as
opposed to having to go from the North
End to South or vice versa um but the
main Drive is something centrally
located not only for us but for the
public as well so that is a possibility
on the exteriors but ideally the
interior that makes me think of the
Heritage North development where they
don't want to build their office
building because
they don't feel like they have enough
you know interest and something like
that could there be that public private
Partnership of building there and using
a few floors of that building I say yes
and that's why I threw it out there but
that's up to you guys to decide but that
ideally um neighborhood offices like
I've seen them in New York and DC and a
few other locations where they're just
you know you got a store here a coffee
shop here the police station there and
it's just part of the fabric that's why
we call a neighborhood
office we want it to be a part of the
neighborhood we we're just another
tenant if you will in the neighborhood
so I'm totally on board with it being
mixed in with retail or offices I just
want to make sure that it's publicly
accessible not inconvenient it's easy to
find um whether they're a victim or
whether they just want to know where to
eat that we've got an easy location for
them to come
into my preference is to try to
integrate with some other development
that's already being planned in the here
to Heritage District um but I fully
support the phase two Advocacy Center
I'm in support of the crime
lab but there's a couple of things you
presented like that phase three where
I'd like more information and just
making sure that everything's fully
vetted and that there's some creative um
thought behind ensuring why we aren't
you know looking at other spaces or uh
using our own municipal buildings their
full potential
let me make sure that I also understand
correctly what I think I just heard you
say was in addition to Jim's point that
we need to understand the scale of what
what we're building and why it's so
expensive Cent everything else even if
you could adjust to that you're saying
yeah but even if that's legit let's go
look at other spaces that are available
and see if there's a less expensive way
to accomplish the aims that are here
without having to build from scratch
everything at this higher cost am I
hearing you correctly yes
yes um
name loud um I the soft one Tor me down
a little bit so completely on board with
the advocacy center phase two definitely
the one thing that I think shocked me
the most on this list is the San police
station at 92 million we just built a
whole public safety training facility
for what 105 million oh L's not was 96
yeah came in under budget right and I
know construction costs have changed a
lot since we finished the Public Safety
Training Facility but to build a new
station on land that we
own that is a police station for more
than what you're predicting the crime
lab will cost so I'm really that those
two shock me today with the differences
in the cost there um I I love What U
council member kabosi said about if we
are spending $92 million for the Santan
police station do we need the public
safety building expansion can we move
some of the staff to that location um
the Advocacy Center 3 phase three can
potentially be merged in with something
that fire is going to present to us I'm
I'm very I would be very pleased to see
that if there's a way to do that and the
conversation that's been had about the
Heritage District Community office being
able to merge that into another
development would be my pref refence in
downtown I understand the need of what
you're saying to have it right in
downtown I've watched the public
interact with our officers in downtown
and I think it's really important the
crime lab I'm still I still have a lot
of heartburn over um I was a lot easier
to convince on the Public Safety
Training Facility than I have been on
the crime lab I I see the need I see us
building it and paying for it and our
taxpayers paying it back and the
secondary property tax while AJ and
Queen Creek are also using it so we have
to make sure that the fees are
comparable for that if we're going to
build this and bring them into use it
and I'm glad that you're looking at both
of those police departments as as the
potential Partners so why is the cost of
the santam police station so high did
you ever answer maybe you and Leah
together I don't know yeah all I can say
is based on the the cost per square foot
the scope and I forget the square foot
um we're adding 12,000 or was it so
Chief 45,000 ft facility
45,000 6 acre development 3.33 acre
development site thank you
the um so yes about 45,000 Square ft U
office space for p so it's a little bit
different space techical office uh some
some safety security measures as well as
the um
uh I 6.3 acre development right now we
are estimating 1.3 to$ 1.4 million for
per acre of development with tring in
the utilities it has uh parking for I
believe 300 vehicles and I think we
assume some canopies there to protect
the assets long term with some even um
uh the solar FS if if the post Prof fora
returnal investment would check during
the predesign phase I'm trying to think
what other features are there these are
these are main features about I believe
$600 per square fet of the vertical
building plus FF
technology uh soft cost and of course
significant contingency for escalation
we hear that escalation is improving we
don't see it but if we hear it it means
that it will come it's a effect it will
start up on those contingency they are
not power to spend they're just Sil in
our budgets and we will be removing them
or shaping them off as we come closer to
dates and the scope if that helps and to
follow up on two of your points um Jack
and I have talked about this we're
talking about this morning we're going
to ask core if they could just give us
comparison if they built the training
facility today how much would it cost
we're guessing 3 to 400 million based on
the escalations we're seeing with
everything three times as much yeah look
at the Advocacy Center that that went
from 20 million to 88 85 with phase one
and two but your scope changed we added
scope but the cost is just so
astronomical compared to what it was in
2018 when we got the bond approved for
the public safety training facility so
times have changed we want to get that
just to get a comparison because I I
look at that and like I could have with
almost well the aaz center and with
Santan I could have built the training
facility I could have built two more but
it's just a different time different
different budget um you mentioned AJ and
Queen Creek or whichever agency we plug
in there one difference for us is that
whoever we bring in we've estimated the
operating costs our intent is to pass on
those actual operating costs to them we
don't necessarily do that now with Mesa
we're not paying all their operating
costs we're paying personnel fees and
that's it but that's where when we look
at it we want more of a return on
investment if we're giving you something
for free you're going to have to pay to
operate in the least yeah they'll
they'll benefit from having the building
there but you know Jack just talked
about basically an office building for
the santon police station and I
understand there's security and
Technology built into that and I'm
talking surface parking for 300 vehicles
with some covered parking 92 million
just still seems very excessive for that
kind of a building um even with today's
cost so um who does AJ use now I can't
remember if you had that on your for
their crime lab yeah uh they're using
the state oh they're using okay the
state thank you just something that's St
so I I do like your order of priorities
though and I do agree with your ORD
order priorities and the way that you
have it um laid out today but I'd really
like us to look at that Sant police
station and see about that cost because
that's way high in my opinion thank you
Chuck that total agreement with
everything's been said so far with
emphasis on number two uh okay that
seems very sensive for me too and number
six um are really like the potential
idea part with someone on
that get that cost down
um the other thing that I would I'm sure
we're going to talk about this later is
are we looking at you don't have to
answer I mean I was looking at one bond
for all of this stuff looking at
different bonds um for pro pro back and
police and all different times that
would have a big effect on how I would
look at this also
get that's what this afternoon's
for
head thank chck we'll go to Jim and I'll
come up to look at number two again
that's over $2,000 a square foot this is
a much side of square foot right here
$2,000 a square foot you could buy an
empty office building you could put a
10t wall That's electrified with gun
turrets around for less than half of it
easily we have to if this is what's
coming back to us this cost we need to
look at different construction companies
period I don't care who's been doing
business for how long coming in with
numbers this high on land we own is not
acceptable
there is no way police office bu should
not cost $2,000 square foot you could
line each one of those with a
bulletproof piece of of poly layered
Plastics in when comes to a third of
that so I I I want people to go back to
drawing boards anything I can't in good
conscience tell people well it's just
kind of the where it is it's not we have
to find unturn overturn every single
stom to find where we're going to be
able to afford this and if we put on
almost 300 million there almost three4
of a billion on Parts Lord knows what
the fire department want that's let's
say it's a billion two what is that
about $8 million a
month 8 million a month in extra
expenses that doesn't get recouped
that's our that's our our our bill La I
I can't get there Jim let me see if I
can't move our conversation I know young
still wants to speak but let me just see
if I can't summarize what I've heard so
far and tell me if I'm in the right vein
in terms of what the priorities are
recognizing the needs for for the for
police and Public Safety I haven't heard
anyone say that any of these things are
are bad you're allergic offended opposed
to to this I've heard a lot of
discussion about the relative costs of
it I've heard questions of are there
more economical ways of doing it which
would get you to a yellow or even to a
very deep orange on some of these items
and I just want to make sure that that
I'm I'm hearing you all correctly so we
can make sure that we're moving forward
is that kind of the summation so far in
their
conversation I'm saying send it back and
look at it I'm I'm red you're red but is
it over these these
top over excessive cost I understand but
I'm trying to separate these two things
so star call it de recognizing these
priorities seems to no one's opposed
those yet so I'm making sure I'm hearing
from you these priorities resonate for
you yes the costs of them raise all
kinds of concerns and that's what you're
saying there's got to be some further
research some further options on the
table that's what council is asking
for that's what I want to make sure that
we've heard clearly but then we can move
our conversation
forward I'm looking around just to make
sure Scott give me a nod my my
recognizing very good um young I didn't
mean to cut you off but what else would
you want to add to this for this one was
the
software I just had one more question
about the existing Public Safety
Training Facility building and what kind
of cost recovery are we getting on that
and because that facility could not be
built for that same price and we have so
many different partner agencies using it
are we getting cost recovery that can be
then leveraged to help our other areas
of Public
Safety ran I saw a report couple weeks
ago it's extremely minimal on the
revenue that the training facility is
generating we charge $2500 per recruit
for outside agencies U we do two classes
a year roughly um 20 to 25 outside
recruits um per class of 50 um times 250
we bring in what
100,000 um fire from I don't think you
guys most of fires have been in kind
exchanges so they will exchange training
time at our location for training time
somewhere else or in collaboration with
each other and we don't charge in that
situation so we haven't generated a lot
of revenue from the train facility and
that wasn't the intend way we trying to
cover some comp our projection just on
Academy is roughly probably 20 grand per
recruit and we recruit 25 part of that
was based on the state model of what
they were charging um and paying out at
the time um but we're we're not making a
lot of money there's a little bit of
money that comes in and it goes into the
general fund it's part of the big
pool let me ask you at this point if
there's any other points related to this
that we haven't addressed
yet
Chief anything else from you nope I
moonwalk but I'll break it
my and in that case I'm going to say we
we've accomplished the objectives of
this section we are still 15 minutes
ahead of our schedule we will take our
15minute break now and resume promptly
at uh
2:45 thank you thank you Chief we to get
started this is Ultimate second
last uh presentation of the day and
discussion and we're going to talk about
public safety and the fire department I
want to make sure I have everyone's
attention so I'm not going to hand it
over to you until we have everyone
sitting
down if I could invite you to take your
seats and we'll get
started
give it 15 more
seconds okay it's time for us to get
started you trusted me with your
schedule and
I take that
seriously Chief dougen the floor is
yours thank you back appreciate it uh
I'm going to offer a spoiler alert right
off the beginning so we can settle
everyone's
mind
unconventionally and for the first time
in the history of fire departments we
are going to provide you a
number that is less than everyone else's
so just a little teaser of what's
coming well now we're getting step too
far we're going to walk you through it
uh part of what I'm going to talk a
little bit up here also is uh I was my
daughter's math tutor from first grade
all the way up through high school um
junior high is where it turns the corner
um so she's not good at math so I would
do math for us so we'll total things out
as we're going along the way so it's
kind of like the price is right it'll
build through the presentation so as we
talked about before repeat of what we've
seen before but with a lot more detail
um on some of the wies and also specific
costs on these and we always talk these
are the known projects that space needs
analysis is starting we know there's
going to be additional projects related
to that some of those are going to be
covered in this presentation but we just
always like to temper and realize that
we want to do as best we can towards
buildout um as we go through this I
think this is my
clicker and I'm
assuming Perfect all right um we're
gonna spend just a little bit of time on
this First Fundamental slide uh because
this kind of sets the table for the why
and the purpose behind all the fire
department projects so we're going to
spend a little bit of time talking
through this and really the three
fundamentals it's all about people um in
our response
which is three fundamentals maintain
service levels protection of our people
and our community and impact to the
community and I want to First want to
talk about what maintained service
levels means for a fire department first
and foremost response times we're
measured to those Benchmark our
Benchmark standard that we have at the
town of Giver to attempt to achieve four
minutes 40 seconds some cities use five
minutes we try to exceed that always
attemp 4 minutes 40 seconds to get a
fire truck engine ladder to someone's
house the time to leave the fire station
Ambulance Service are certificate of
necessity or seal in requirements 9
Minutes 90% of the time so those are the
two primary standards we're measured as
we measure our service level for the
fire department as it relates to
response times the other side of that
coin response Effectiveness how
effective are we when we get there now
the first one of those response times is
primarily dependent on the right asset
in the right place with a reliable
vehicle you need those three things to
maintain low response times response
Effectiveness primarily has to do with
do we have the proper training and
equipment to do the job when we get
there and also have that reliable
vehicle so we put all that together
maintain service levels we have the
right asset in the right place with a
reliable vehicle the training equipment
to perform well when we get there you're
going to hear that theme throughout this
presentation I try to tie back each of
the projects to one of these
fundamentals protection of our people
and our community we break this down to
do we have safe working conditions for
our employees beyond safe working
conditions for our employees do we have
fair and Equitable working conditions
for our employees we're going to
specifically call this out when we look
at the fire station 1 and three
Renovations uh later on in this Slide
the other aspect of protecting our
people are Community is we often focus
on mitigation efforts after the
emergency occurs a lot of this is the
prevention measures the most effective
use of resources on emergency is to
prevent it from occurring in the first
place so we have an entire prevention
division team that goes occupancy
inspections that make sure each building
is built with proper fire protection
systems and alerting systems we also
have our community risk reduction team
that's looking to identify risk in our
community and eliminating things like
Falls which is our number one call for
service what can we do to mitigate Falls
how can we mitigate someone's bleeding
to stop the bleed campaign ad
these are the types of things prevented
admin try to do to try to reduce risk in
our
community uh last impact to the
community what that means well in in a
simplest sense we look at fire loss we
talked about that before which is fairly
easy math equation when we arrived to a
house fire we tried if it's an active
fire working fire we try to stop that
fire before it escapes the room of
origin if we can stop it there that'll
protect everything else in the house we
can go in and catch if the room of
contents space if it breaches that
compartment extends to the attic and the
rest of the house now we're risking all
the other contents inside we can save
the house often times but we might not
be able to say what's inside because
it's been damaged from heat smoke and
water we run a fire hopefully we get
there within our 4 minute 40 second
we're equipped well the apparat is
worked well we're trained well we
mitigate that emergency we have a math
equation for every fire how much was
lost how much was saved that's a basic
math equation based on on value of the
house square footage but it really just
has a general term on contents not
specific but really looking at the
square footage we're based on how
effective we were on that loss versus
save
data it's important to note impact of
the community
wise there's a large impact that's not
reflected in that loss and save ratio
and when I give talks to community
groups I do this exercise we'll kind of
do it here today for those of you
haven't heard it before and what I ask
people is imagine you're your home I
knock on the door and I say okay you
have two minutes outside of people and
pets what's the most precious thing to
you in this house right now you have two
minutes to remove it from your house as
you think about that if different for
every business owner sometimes it's a
computer that has all the information
for business I have to have there some
people a lot of times has pictures that
are on their walls or scrapbooks that
made or family heirlooms whatever guns
comes up not infrequently in Gilbert
that's something they want out of the
house I get that particular it's a law
enforcement person they want their guns
totally get it so as you think I won't
ask individually but think to yourself
what's that one thing I'll share with
mine as you're thinking about it before
we move to the next slide mine is my
kitchen
table that's an odd thing to remove from
your house but as I mentioned earlier I
was my daughter's math tutor she's
terrible at math still terrible at math
she should have had a better
tutor but I was inexpensive and
firefighters are cheap so I was the best
she had but for my daughter if it was 20
minutes of math for every other kid it
was at least an hour for her every day
after school we sat at the kitchen table
and did math it wasn't always easy there
were a lot of
Tears sometimes mine mayor as you know I
probably will up here today too my old
age I cry all the time I appreciate you
I am um so but that's where we spend
time when you look at the table just
right in the light you can see thousands
of numbers and letters patched in the
surface of that
table and that to me is kind of that
physical manifestation of time I spent
with my daughter and now she's off to
college and I'm hoping that somewhere in
the back or the front of her brain
she'll know that my dad was there for me
as she mes on in life wherever she goes
so it's a silly thing to think of a
kitchen table but that that's my thing
so as you kind of think to yourself it's
an interesting study you got two minutes
what are you going to pull out of your
house I won't call in anyone but
individually think that's what happens
what's the most precious thing to you in
your house yes
sir sure I can assure you you're not in
the top
10 yes I we we've seen this in fact you
might be pushed back
into the structure in this particular
case so what's most precious to you and
I want to thank uh Dana Burman and her
team um for bringing this
forward uh this is a very relevant
experience just happened this week uh
Arizona wilderness Brewing had a large
Service delivery truck smash into their
hay caused structural damage or was
structurally unstable for them to open
their business also damaged the
sprinkler system so now the fire
protection of the building was
inoperable the initial quote the night
this happened they were anticipating to
be out a service for three weeks until
they could get a company Comm in to
shore this up effectively and to restore
the Building
Systems our crews were there town of
gilberg were there and said not on our
watch we already had Mesa crew Mesa fire
department responded as part of the
collapse that is our technical rescue
team so essentially we spent the
evening Shoring that work was done
in concert with Gilbert and Mesa
department they were able to short up
our building officials came out and
deemed Yep this is shorted up
appropriately to where you can reopen
the business we work with our prevention
team we get the sprinkler system back on
open the next
morning so this is to them What mattered
most was being open you can imagine a
restaurant bar being closed for three
weeks two weeks before Christmas and
over New Year's
what that would have cost their business
the impact of the employees that were
counting on this income those three
weeks this is the type of impact of the
community as we read through some of
these and again thank you Danny and your
team for putting this together quick
this happen really really fast but also
how social media now can help us spread
the impact to the
community so lots of opportunity again
this is an example of what was most
important in this business and what we
do for the fire department and the
town there are lots of talks about
having some sort of event for the
firefighters in a place that serves beer
that's a bad idea we won't let that
out uh but they're again deeply
appreciative of what we're able to do
outside of this we typically know saving
lies response is what we do um another
brief story I'll tell you about this
happened also recently this is one of
the trips me mar we had a recent
firefighter who suffered a very severe
respiratory illness so much so had a
home health process stopped breathing
and his heart
stopped so caregivers started CPR called
911 our crews did not know they were
responding to one of their fellow
firefighters until they
arrived the apparatus started and ran
because it's in good working condition
they got there in less than four minutes
and 40 seconds and perhaps adding to the
story they were trained knew what to do
and performed spectacularly and saved
his life he's currently now working
light duty he's back to light duty work
expected full recovery we're hopeful the
next few months we'll be back to full
Duty on a fire truck so that's miracles
happen but it's also a lot of work in
the back end we had the right unit in
the right place with the reliable vle
the training to get the job done that's
what we do and how we do it on the
community engagement is the last bit
I'll talk about with um engaging the
community when we look at all the events
we do we have the rise Santa recently
connects kids to the fir truck and the
firefighters annual event we've been
doing about 10 years now kids get to
ride on the truck around the parking lot
with the appropriate waivers or
chis oh he's not here oh I set it up for
him oh No Just for the kids we had
waivers for all the kids we added that
this year which is probably a good idea
um but that's how we connect to the
community we teach our courses classes
of the community Autism Awareness you'll
see some of these Community pictures
pictures um on the next presentation
hopefully soon dementia awareness is
another area of opportunity for us
hopeful to be able to impact so all this
is about how we connect to the community
so a little bit of time on those slides
but it kind of sets the
table for what we cover through
this now what happens if we don't
maintain service levels these are from
this year Phoenix fire depart this is in
all the Publications on all the news
channels there are areas of Phoenix that
have average 9 Minute
responses 9 Minutes Phoenix has been
very slow to build their infrastructure
and add stations this is the result so
you're wondering well what's the
difference between 4 minutes and 40
seconds and 9 Minutes typically house
fire room contents fire if we get there
four or five minutes about the six
minute Mark it's going to start to
breach the the room and going to start
to impact the rest of the house eight 9
minutes it's involved the entire house 9
Minutes on a ruin contents fire it's a
fully involved fire we're going to lose
all the contents in the house
unacceptable we're going now 4 minutes
and 40 seconds is a long time when
you're struggling to breathe 9 minutes
is an
eternity had our firefighter had The
Misfortune of living in a first du area
with a 9 Minute response time he would
not have survived if he did manage to
survive would have tremendous deficits
as a result of that time of brain
without oxygen even with
CPR so we believe this is what we cannot
become they just P excuse me just passed
a bond in November I don't know exactly
how many dollars are going to Public
Safety so they're going to start to
build up infrastructure and additional
stations residents and businesses in
these 9 Minute response areas probably
still another three years of enduring 9
Minute response times when they should
be there in half that time
so this is a story what we don't want to
become if we don't have the right asset
the right place with a reliable vehicle
in proper training so this is example
what we don't want to
become okay we're going to get into the
projects now and I'll try to give an
intro to you to the fire admin remodel
we talked about response Times fire
admin remodel primarily impacts response
Effectiveness and we'll talk a little
bit as we go through through the slides
and why that's this currently is a
picture again that we took a page out of
PD's book and we put offices in store
rooms this is one of the old store rooms
in the remaining part of our admin this
is Tim Simington our fire marshal his
office I don't know if you know Tim he
is one of the nicest people on the
planet and we have shoved him into a
closet so this would give another view
of the same space this is the only part
right now that fire is currently using
in what's left of fire admin um these
are the two investigator stations so as
we can see not a lot of space for the
people let alone the equipment let alone
the storage needs they have so this is
their present workspace I took this
picture uh last week and in kind of the
the why or how we ended up out of fire
admin is we're talking about a little
bit in that we went through the pandemic
and civil unrest a couple years ago we
had the longest standing activation of
our EOC in the history of eoc's over a
year and it really highlighted and
demonstrated how the existing space we
had was not effective in managing large
scale deployment
like we had so we had the opportunity to
recognize higher priority was a rebuild
and expand the gr Operation Center and
also our Dispatch Center fire department
we're giving Souls so we said okay we're
going to have to expand it understand
you have to expand into fire admin space
we'll move out so temporarily relocate
the Public Safety Training Facility
temporary move uh fire EOC is completed
we're going to talk about what's left to
fire admin but we're finding out now is
we're going to going to have to leave
pstf for fire admin and right now we
don't have anywhere to go so we have to
look at what the long-term solution is
for fire admin and where we're going to
land it's possible if we don't have a
solution we might be back in the trailer
conversation we had back in the
community one project started has
potential I think back then it was about
a million dollars a month or a
year project million for the project my
bad um we don't have the head count but
inflation we're not quite sure but again
that's a potential that we might have to
be so it was left to fire admin and we
talked about the encroachment and it's a
short-term
solution so this two pictures side by
side from one end uh both ends of fire
admin so what you're seeing here um on
the
left you can see where the wall
encroached on what already was an
insufficient number of square footage
that remains for what's left of fire
admin one of The Oddities of this
building from the original design you
can see this from the picture on the
right it's shaped like a wedge the door
stop
I don't know why they designed it that
way but it's incredibly inefficient to
put Square offices in a wedge but that's
the design that was built back in the
day um the offices are oversized by
today's standards which reduces our
headcount Lal lighting is very minimal
which employees have told us they really
enjoy uh through the process so this is
kind of the space that's left um
inefficient space already had
inefficient square footage um and is not
doesn't have the space we're going to
need um for fire admin to come back
to okay talking a little bit about the
impact with fire admin how do it impact
your operational effectiveness I talked
earlier about this is about response uh
capability When we arrive on scene um
obviously we need the space for our
positions now also looking to build out
we work in the scoping phase right now
program we want to program this one time
the build out of of Gilbert's future is
just over the horizon and we we feel
pretty good we want to scope and program
this and build this so a fire chief 15
years from now doesn't have to go what
was Doug in thinking why do we have to
redo our fire admin that we did 15 years
ago trying to have a scope and a
programming to not do that cost even
more dollars Downstream one of the newer
um aspects we're finding is support of
advancing Technologies this is a new
thing in the fire service we're just on
the front edge of I'll talk a little bit
about this is right now we're getting to
the point where we already have man
drones as we can fly we have robots that
we operate soon probably the business of
autonomous drones that are providing
footage all our equipment now future
next generation of scva self-contained
breathing apparatus we wear we're going
to have XY coordinates so we know where
our firefighters are well we know where
the air pack is so if they where they
know where their air pack is we know
where they are build into that 3D
modeling of all of our pre-plans so we
can actually put those firefighters in a
3D model in building and track where
they're at not far off from having
biometric information so we can track
temperature parate these are all things
that are coming in the next 15 years and
all of us are looking at how do we
support all that information is too much
information for a battalion chief and a
safety officer to manage so we're
looking at do we need to create a
central location that we can help manage
that almost as a tactical operations
center we would stand up if we had a
major event that's where the business is
heading there's so much information
coming in it can't be managed so you
still have your BC safety officer
managing what's in front of them and
perhaps you have your tax Operation
Center of fire admin that's tracking
where the people are where in the
building they are hair level and things
like that so we want to try to make sure
we Design This understanding we're going
to have to support that level of
information coming into the fire
department uh Community Support we want
fire admin to be a place where the
community coms for training we talked
about the impact of the preventative
side matter of balance classes Falls
home safety inspections uh potentially
dementia awareness Autism Awareness all
these types of classes and courses
that's important for us now the
retirement Cliff I've talked about this
a few times especially during my tenure
the cliff we're on the Leading Edge of
it right now uh by FY 26
85% captains and above are eligible for
retirement 85% odds are will retire by
FY 32 so we have a significant number of
captains Engineers Italian Chiefs we're
going to have to replace call it our
nextg um opportunity to make sure it's
next personel also focus on recruiting
to training of
firefighters um right now with fire
admin being a public safety training
facility we are limiting the
effectiveness of that facility because
we're limiting the number of training
staff we need to train our captains
train our Battalion Chiefs train our
Engineers Advanced officer training we
are limiting our ability to train the
next gen we're running out of time this
is an area we're running out of time
when the cliff comes we have to be ready
for it paramedics is another aspect
we're looking at critical that we
replace and train all those individuals
through that process uh I believe that
part of a large part of legacy of my
time as fire chief is how we manage the
cliff and how effective are we to
replace everyone through that process we
really can't fail because if we fail we
reduce and fail to maintain our surface
levels that's part of the reason we talk
about response Effectiveness as it
relates to fire admin because of the
negative impact we're having Public
Safety Training Facility and the mission
of that
building okay start to build out the
costs um and the way we did this cost is
we took 5,000 square fet of what was
left to fire adment and we added another
5,000 square feet how that would arrange
haven't determined but that's how we
built the project scope at
15.6 for this
project uh as you'll see when I have the
cost pictures always includes some of
that Community impact so one of the
early years of one of our rescues in the
gobert Days parade was the first year we
had the rescues as part of the community
so you'll see that when we have all of
our cost of
tools all right next one fire station 4
rebuil uh primary impact fundamental
with this again maintaining service
levels by maintaining response times
also involves a little bit about
protecting our employees by creating
safe working conditions and fair and
equitable working
conditions all right so the issues in
the scope we have station four I've got
a couple different um slides that will
show this essentially the station was
built in 1999 and was not built with
built out in mind and that it only has
two small Bays four bedrooms
insufficient parking does not have the
space we need to accommodate the today's
needs of Gilbert and then let alone in
the future um this talks about a little
particularly
Hazmat and our ambulance location are
ideal for this location we did our cpsc
accreditation back in 2019 we identified
with pretty specific data that our
ambulance should be located here and we
should have our HazMat team located here
we can't because they don't have space
the second small Bay they have they
utilizes their Fitness room so we don't
have that second Bay available for a
vehicle doubles the problem because as
we know diesel exhaust causes problems
and contributes to cancer and
firefighters so our firefighters are
forced to work out in space where
they're exposed of diesel exhaust so
again not ideal in many many ways how we
serve our
people all right talk a little bit about
what these two pictures represent this
is some of the data we use visually to
determine where assets need to be to the
left um the center diamond for those
that might be color challenge there's a
green diamond in the middle right at top
of station four the green portion
attributes to a 4minute response time
the next time Diamond down is yellow
which is 6 minutes the outer Diamond red
8 minutes so that essentially shows you
how much of an area they could cover
units responding from station four in a
four six and 8 Minute Target so we're
thinking of hazzat and we're thinking of
ambulance transportation again with a 9
Minute response time to the right shows
essentially a heat map or a density of
where our calls were occurring so this
we call this a heat P where calls are
occurring and as we can see when we take
that outer ring 8 Minute response time
we put it over the density of calls we
find the station 4 covers a lot and most
of those High area responses so that's
where we feel Hazmat should be here
because that'll reduce time to get
Hazmat on some of our highest risk calls
it's also where our ground robots deploy
and also some of our aial drones to get
those in service quickly transportation
again I would cover a lot of the
responses to help us with our
certificate necessity by reducing
ambulance response time we cannot risk
losing our Co that's not an option so
this gives some example why station 4 we
think is where that should be we pride
ourselves on data driven decisions I
can't put the right asset in the right
place because I don't have the facility
to support it that's where this is
limiting our ability to do that and some
of the data we use to drive those
decisions just a quick aerial view of
station 4 and station n uh these are the
same um scale but just visually
represent the difference between what we
did in 1999 and our most recent fire
station and change of scope we need what
you see on the right is a square footage
we need four large Bays 10 bedrooms fuel
station um everything we need to operate
again station four is just simply
doesn't suit our needs limited parking
difficult in and out and then the two
small Baye just doesn't serve our needs
anymore which is why this project was
scoped for a tear down and rebuild of
the 10 bedroom three four bay station so
just kind of visually shows the short
fall of station
four wrapping at begin we talked about
most of these I'll go quick on this does
impact operational effectivess we talk
about response times particularly for
HazMat ground robots that are on there
as well and ambulance and will'll also
improve our SE complies build into our
today's standard gets us ready for
buildout we're going to talk a little
bit later in some of the later slides
about how we need to be flexible in
where we put our assets and the type of
assets we put throughout the
town
project cost on this
20.6 so now we're up to
32.2 uh Community picture to the left uh
this was from a fire station 5 this is
the dwali event we had a Hindu group
that comes out every year and they have
blessings they do every year and they
also come out and talk about their
culture and they make bracelets and
flowers for everyone I think Quinn still
has hers that she has on the little bit
that she wears does a good Community
event shows Community engagement for us
and others and the wonderful group of
people uh really need to learn more
about Hindu their culture uh and their
beliefs so just kind of a nice Community
picture interlaced with the
costs okay fire Fleet building uh this
was a a new project and this one is
directly going to relate back uh to our
fundamentals about maintaining response
times because it maintains reliable
apparatus it also has to do with
protecting our people by having a safe
working environment for our employees
uh this is the same slide we looked at
back in November uh it talks about the
shortcomings of the existing Fleet
building only having two bays the very
limited parking and uh open no covered
so UV exposure for all of our expensive
apparatus uh that are parked outside
some of the complicating factors have
really highlighted that the growing need
uh for fire Fleet building additional
Fleet space is what's happening in the
Market at lead times uh we're looking at
we've talked about three years in some
cases for a fire three to five years for
fire trucks environmental trucks I think
we're still struggling get even get
ordered if we get one for CG I still
don't think we can order we may may be
able to order some diesel but again so
we don't even know the lead time yet for
the CG Fleet on the environmental side
um so what that means is our mechanics
are going to be working on older
apparatus and more of those older
apparatus we hold on to this problem is
not going to go away in three or four
years we're going to see issues related
supply chain and length of having to
extend the life of apparatus probably at
least for the next 10 years so older
vehicles for us once they head about
year 15 16 we see a dramatic increase in
out of service time because we struggle
to maintain those Vehicles we struggle
to get parts for those Vehicles so this
supply chain issue has become the new
normal for us we don't yet know when
it's going to stabilize so the issue
with fleet's going to have a lot more
pressure on our mechanics and our spaces
probably over the next 10
years
okay so a couple pictures I saw some of
this earlier these were taken last week
uh this is on the I sometimes refer to
the fire side as the red Fleet we have
red fire trucks um but also talking a
little bit um on the white side which
would be the environmental side through
the process um so this is a view uh from
the south side of the base on the left B
we've got three apparatus and then two
on the right um it's worth noting that
two of the vehicles ined 252 on the left
and then the white truck on the right
are parked outside because the bay are
filled now this time of year isn't as
much of an issue but you could imagine
the four months out of the Year where
it's oppressively hot our mechanics are
working
outside which I don't think there
conditions that are appropriate for our
mechanics to be working in uh We've
responded several times the 911 calls
for our mechanics in the summertime
because of heat stroke and heat related
issues because of having to work outside
um in this environment which is
difficult the ceiling Heights are a
little too low our Aerials if we have to
do work we have to raise the aerial we
can't do that in these Bays some we're
back outside if it's raining that day
they're going to get wet if it's 115
that day it's going to be 115 so it's
examples of shortfalls um with the
current Fleet building setup got another
picture on the inside to the right side
couple things about this slide um engine
256 is on one of the lifts um kind of a
legacy lift system it's great this will
lift a ladder truck up and air the
problem is only one truck can fit in
there because of that lift the new
systems are mobile so they roll in lift
the truck up when you need it move it
out of the way so we can really only get
one truck in given time on the second
day so really limits our ability there
Additionally you can see we have heill
fitted and not enough storage unit for
our specialty Parts more often than not
they end up having to use the the floor
the bay floor of the apparatus area to
store Parts and Equipment which again
also is is unfavorable
now if you're wondering what does the
White Fleet side look like same day
almost identical pictures truly almost
identical pictures on the white side uh
we have five apparatus being worked on
two of which are outside and so this is
this is a daily occurrence the same
issue with parts same issue with storage
same issue not having enough Bays to
keep them inside and climate controlled
for our crews so this is kind of the
state of uh where we're at and kind of
representative of the opportunities we
have uh to provide some support for
firef Fleet building uh this one scoped
out at
23.8 um one of the opportunities we have
here is a potential Public Safety Bond
if we have a dedicated fire Fleet
building that allows us to utilize
Public Safety Bond money uh because the
fleet Enterprise fund does not have
current capacity to build an additional
building right now the thought being if
we have a separate Fleet fire Fleet
building probably with three Bays then
the white side of the fleet
environmental would take over the
remaining two which would increase their
capabilities as well so really in this
case Fleet and fire all benefit um
because it has additional capacity
funded through a mechanism that a fleet
might not have had
normally so this is a good example of of
utilizing that uh again diser ladder 253
again from the uh one of the Gilbert
days parades uh showing a little bit
Community involvement great day how much
the the public loves
seeing the fire proofs the fire truck
and something I mentioned ear I forgot
to mention earlier is that as far Asun
Community engagement goes I believe that
fire department has the best brand of
any brand in the country what I mean by
that is every person in the country
knows when that fire truck is responding
what their mission is what they're going
to do save lives save property and
engage the public and it's just shows
this immunity pictures kind of show how
important that is and it's a lot of work
by a lot of people here at the town over
Generations that we've earned that level
of trust and at the end of the day I
like to think people sleep good at night
knowing that we're there for there with
the right apparatus in the right place
reliable apparatus the training to do
the job PD as well ready to respond
Parson wreck serving every day as well I
believe that's who we
are okay uh fire Renovations we lump
these together um through the process
and all of these Renovations tied
together maintaining service levels
improving response times right asset in
the right place with a reliable
vehicle so that's where the focus of the
renovations for these is primarily going
to
line so limiting factors we're going to
talk about stations 286 and five first
uh these we did a much better job with
these stations in scoping getting ready
for Gilbert's buildout we missed it by
just a bit what I mean by that is they
were only built with eight bedrooms we
need 10 and we'll talk a little bit
about why we need 10 in each of these so
we need to add some square footage uh to
these stations uh right now we're going
to look at some call volume in the next
slide that talks about how many call
crews are running call volume would say
I need to put potentially another Engine
with four people at station two station
two has an engine and has a medic unit
I've only got two bedrooms left so I
don't have the capacity in the square
footage of the bedroom assets I need a
station to to deploy the assets that I
need to so again data driven
decisions limited by bedroom decisions
and that's the challenge we've got we're
also going to convert uh we want to
convert our Legacy locker rooms into
individual bathrooms I'll spend some
time with this item when we talk about
station one and three uh Renovations and
then again as we're adding uh Vehicles
additional apparatus infrastructure
support additional apparatus at the
stations
okay so deployment data this is kind of
the why behind the renovation projects
let me kind of walk you through the top
I already mentioned engine 252 out of
Station 2 um when they reach 3,000 calls
that's probably going to happen FY 26 or
27 in parenthesis is the number of calls
they ran in calendar 22 so each calendar
year we look at the number we forecast
5% above that to see roughly what the
growth looks like and then we track that
every year sometimes it's five sometimes
it's
10% sometimes it's a little bit less but
that's how we forecast so the first
question most people ask is well why do
the residents and businesses care if
engine two is running 3,000
calls that I don't see how that matters
to me it matters to you if you happen to
reside in station 2's area because when
you hit about 3,000 calls that's when we
start to see a degradation in response
times because what happens with
increasing
frequency Station 2 is on a call in
their area and another call kicks out in
their area when that happens either
engine ladder three engine 210 in Mesa
or engine 256 and Gilbert has to respond
now that 4 minute 40 response time that
engine two could do for you now is going
to be six or eight minutes depending
with we' already talked about where
Phoenix is at with 9 Minute response
times that will increase in frequency as
we get to 300 000 calls so we look to
deploy additional assets to help offset
call volume so that we can
protect our response times so that's why
3,000 calls is important to the
residents and business of those areas
Station 8 our next busiest we think
about FY 28 we're probably going to hit
um okay this is interactive portion any
guess why stations 2 and8 power our
busiest coolest people not the coolest
people although they may be old
oldest partly
true healthc care corns 15 years ago we
didn't have the healthcare corridors 2
and eight were not our busiest stations
what's happened is we developed the
healthcare corridors what has sprung up
around
them congregate care
facilities in surprising quantity that's
the primary reason two and eight are
going to be our busiest companies the
market is Shifting the needs of us to
put specific apparat right apparat in
the right place shifted with the when
Conger care came to gilber that's
happening to every jurisdiction across
the country we'll talk a little bit more
about that in a future slide um seven
and 10 will hit next good news they
already have 10 bedrooms and enough base
so no renovations there and individual
bathrooms so County goes down the list
we prioritized our Renovations based on
this data here so that we can get relief
to the stations before they hit their
3,000 calls that's the priorities we did
as we put together the renovation
list okay talk a little bit about this
it's kind of a two fun slide to well fun
in my room left side shows basic where
the response areas are for each of our
fire stations if you're color challenge
that one probably looks like a big gray
mess because the colors aren't that
distinct sorry Dan U but we did
highlight the specific stations 265 and
8 to the right is the heat map that you
saw pre L what's very interesting about
these heat Maps is when you run them
every year they change so you can
actually see how the town is Shifting
with where it calls we already talked
about congregate care now why is that
such a big deal well you could have a
thousand people move in to single family
homes you'll get increasing call number
but not dramatic thousand people move in
even into Department complex multif
family about the same increase in call
volume congregate care a th people it's
about
10:1 so it's almost a 10:1 ratio because
the pressure on that congregate Care
Facility because of the age complex
medical conditions we run there a lot
gravity is Relentless and never stops
and it's waiting for you and when it
teams up with
Karma people fall and that's a tremend
number one uh call type and has a
tremendous impact on our finances
individual finances our health care
System then pay a offering for
individualist next our neighbor to me
moved in two weeks ago four generations
of families wife called me last week she
turned the corner there's a fire truck
in front of her house I go okay I'm
pretty sure someone would have called me
those Crews know where I live so I have
an 85-year-old great grandmother first
two weeks in the house fell broke her
hip turned trip fell broke her hip um
and now I'm going through that process
again this happens on a daily basis for
us now not part of the congregate care
home but just the Frailty and how much
damage come from Falls so talking a
little bit about this slide this
particular heat map from a couple years
ago you can see the concentrations where
some of our Healthcare quarters are now
in the future how's this map going to
change well um we talked a lot about
Southeast Regional there's not a lot of
cluster down there but as that builds as
we have more events and as there's more
people coming to play pickle ball those
people are crazy about pickle ball I
don't know if you've ever been out
there they're awesome people but the
passion you wouldn't believe
um we start to see incidents down there
uh station six is area up top um light
industrial is coming a lot of it we
don't yet know how that's going to
impact call volume but it's going to
change this map the Investments we're
doing in the Northwest growth area
corridors increase the number of den of
D work in Economic Development to
revitalize that area to bring tremendous
dollars to our community it's going to
impact the call volume there potentially
increase our Hazmat calls there
depending what industry comes that's
just part of what comes with industry
our ability to protect our
community um increasing density is what
we're going to see in the Heritage
district with the mixed used high
density develop which we need because
the economic
development it's going to change this
map station coming out of the
ground now with increase of densities
going to change this map rivy in the
future beyond that so my point to the
story is that this map changes
and what I believe we need is we need
our all of our fire stations to be able
to be flexible and pivot as we need to
to match that need datadriven decisions
what we believe in right now we limited
by the number of bedrooms and fire
stations I don't think that's the
appropriate way to maintain service
levels and maintain our response times
and our Effectiveness so that's why we
kind of look at these maps to see how
we're changing over the years and they
need to be
flexible okay stations one and
three um good news uh these stations are
maxed out with square footage so we
don't have any square footage uh these
projects are primarily about in
protecting our people and ensuring we
have fair and Equitable service levels
for our employees I mentioned before the
previous four conversions or um
Renovations include a conversion of
Legacy bathrooms or Legacy locker rooms
into individual bathrooms we're going to
make the change to one and three as well
um no additional square footage and
really with driving this shifting
demographics of our Workforce uh what
we're finding is there's a much larger
number of talented capable and qualified
young women out there that are applying
to the fire department and we believe
it's important to be representative for
all of our employees and that all of our
employees share the same level of
service in our fire stations and a
commitment to that uh for example our
the Legacy locker rooms we built it's
about a 4:1 ratio so if you were to go
into a male locker room four showers
four HS go to the female
side
one and that's a desparate I believe
desparate treatment of our employees
particularly knowing that demographics
are changing and that ratio is no longer
valid and that we need to provide the
same level of service operationally
where this impacts us is um everything
we've done uh for our cancer prevention
and we are deeply appreciative of the
Town manager's office purchasing um and
Council for supporting things like a
second set of turnouts and increasing
help with medical coverage as we combat
cancer and as we basically attempt to
eradicate that uh from future
generations of firefighters after the
first fire we bag up those turnouts they
don't make it back on the truck those
turnouts are taken to be laundered at a
resource building units stay out of
service come immediately back to the
station first thing they do is shower to
get whatever particulates are on them
that cause cancer off
well if you happen to be a male
firefighter we have enough reses for you
to hop right in the shower and get
cleaned up if you happen to be on a
truck that has one male firefighter and
three female firefighters you wait in
line not the appropriate message nor is
it the way we can have the most
Equitable and safest treatment of our
employees so we do feel conversion um to
individual bathrooms is the right thing
to do it also sends the right message to
our existing firefighters and any future
fir letters that want to help diversify
and come to Gilbert saying this is who
we are we believe in treating all of our
employees the same so that's a heavy
emphasis on the uh Renovations for why
we're converting the locker rooms
individual
bathrooms okay uh so we lumped all these
together and we ended up at
19.3 over the year these are not all in
one year we have them phased again
prioritized based on call volume and
call type
information Community picture I chose
for this one this was the unveiling of
our 911 memorial U an amazing project we
were able to accomplish 10 years after
the 911 attack um people come all across
the valley for our annual event here uh
for us and PD and parks and rack and
helps put this on there's not a lot of
agencies that still hold a 911 memorial
so we get quite a bit of outpouring from
our community in respect that we still
do this event how much our not just our
community but neighboring communities
appreciate what we do so again just a
little bit about that Community
engagement that we like to talk
about more good news this is the last
project and I've got to be ahead of time
right
yes maybe we'll give you the gift of
time with you may have a lot of
questions so I might want to reserve
that so station 11 like the other
Renovations this one has a remodel uh
this is about maintaining service
levels um with maintaining response
times also about protecting our people
by having a safe working environment and
a fair working environment uh the
difference with this
project is again it covers additional uh
two bedrooms uh this particular station
uh conversion locker rooms was not built
with a dedicated Fitness room why do we
care about that again firefighters are
working out in the Bays with the with
diesel exhaust and four months out of
the year working out in a fire apparatus
pay is not pleasant and could actually
be harmful because of the heat um again
additional infrastructure what's
different about this is this also
includes a full remodel of the station
both of those projects will be done at
the same time we would not do those as
separate projects we talked earlier the
efficiency of combining projects um the
remodel in
33 um this is one of the other changes
be made and working with office of
budget Kelly's team initially for the
repair and replacement fund or
Renovations for our or remodel would
occur at year 25 of the life of the
station looking at most all of our
stations they're built very well and in
support of kind of stretching the
general fund dollars and repair and
replacement funds we pushed all the
remodels to year 30 of the lifespan we
may have some little projects in between
uh that we have to fix before year 30
but this is an area that we programmed
at year 30 instead of year 25 again this
is just part of working and realizing
where they were at the repair a
placement fund and the next you know 10
years of general fund dollars it just
seemed like the most prudent thing to do
is to stretch those remodels out to year
30 instead year 25 so it's just worth
noting on this particular
side okay so station 11
20.5 grand
total double digits barly
99.8 total cost for all of our R CIP
projects um I got to talk about this
picture one of my favorite I think best
visual displays of the town of gilber
what we do not just Public Safety parks
in W is a part of this event although
they're not pictured I've got sworn
PD civilian FD sworn FD Parks and Rec a
part of this this was one of our autism
events at Laura's Institute for
Education this is one of the patrons
there um and for her this is one of the
only opportunities she's ever going to
have to interact with firefighters and
police officers so the goals we always
do with these events is to get them
familiar again people connect to the
uniform they connect to the truck so
every chance we have to connect with the
community creates that Goodwill lets
people sleep at night and understand
that brand because someday this little
girl we may have to respond to her and
the fact that she's seen us before she
knows what we look like helps us on the
call and more
importantly look at the SP in picture
I'm talking about our staff this is
community engagement and we here we go
again mayor they get as much out of this
because we do we sometimes get more out
of being a part of things like this and
having Parson wreck as a partner and PD
as a partner really is a force
multiplier and everything that we do so
I just love this picture because of
whose picture here just to look on all
their faces so thanks for let me spend a
little bit of time
there okay so the ask let's get to the
ask then we'll talk about the picture
the ask on this again is continued
support we've had tremendous support
from Council and town manager's office
ensuring our ability uh to maintain
service levels I've repeated this a lot
and I'll say it one last time the right
asset in the right place with a reliable
vehicle the proper training and
Equipment this discussion isn't about
equipment but it's certainly about the
right asset and the right place for the
proper training last picture that shows
the incredible collaboration our Public
Safety and police
in fire I just want to make sure I get a
good love cor she
silver look at the smile on that police
officer's
face it's it doesn't matter it was a
fire look at that face that is pure joy
that got to play firefighter we allowed
him to play firefighter this day uh it's
proof in the pudding every cop deep down
wants to be a
firefight let this picture says it all
yeah uh but again we know we know the
relationship here Hofer just a little
you guys this has been some difficult
discussion today hard items I just
thought it was nice to finish with just
a bit of levity um and have some fun out
there because it's okay to have fun to
and clearly the crew had fun with this a
small fire that really didn't have any
life pres let's let the police officer
Play
Firefighter they asked to take the gun
and play cop but he said
no uh and last just want to say thank
you picture from I think it's last
year's Ren R of Santa event um through
that again there the last kind of
community engagement picture our
recruits out Force for this one as we
put the kids on the truck um and I have
to give a shout out Kirsten uh had
provided a tremendous amount of support
uh for putting this presentation
together in the information and the
messaging and really kind of the
strategy of the approach Jen as well had
a lot to do with it and I just can't go
without saying thank you to them um and
I'll offer up um having those two in the
town manager's office the support we get
as directors has been amazing truly a
false mul Force multiplier in what we do
and getting things done and we really
appreciate I'm not the only director
that thinks that so thank both of you
again uh for your assistance on this and
with
that I will take the questions great job
Chief um jenck and I both have the
microphones and can I just ask to go
back to the slide with the final price
tag on everything for us please who
wants to uh speak
first
comments
go at the expense of repeating myself on
na a a remodel the remodel of the uh uh
what is it the fire Administration comes
the remodel is $1,500 square foot it's
not even in building it's 1500 foot to
REM half is we sced it half remodel half
new build that's 10,000 total of 10,000
a 10,000 you buil ground up
it's
$1,560 put up I I want to see every
possible person that's going to bid on
this because it just seems so high and I
realized there's things that are going
to go in there that you know a typical
building an office a high school
whatever doesn't have but when you're
dealing with millions and millions of
dollars to not look at every single
option there is I
I find it stunning I'd like to see not
just the typical you know three four or
five people that we use I want to see
half a dozen bids from people that we
don't use to see what we're missing
because we're we're missing something
it's just an awful lot Renovations you
know at $3
million station for two bedrooms but it
seems like a lot it seems more
reasonable than 15.6 for a remodel so I
want to see people come forward and say
our company would do it at this and
what's their reputation what's the you
know their warranty per se what's the
guarantee they're going to perform at
that level but it just seems like an
awfully High number all the way through
per square foot to deal with we'll
continue work with the CIP team uh to
drill down on that have spe we're in the
programming phase right now so still
working on exactly what the square
footage needs are and then the arrang
absolutely we'll talk I'm sure at later
dates about where that budget came from
and contingency built into that so we
can better prepare Council to have those
discussions so we appreciate the
feedback again thank
you y go
ahead um my question is regarding the
fire station 4 rebuild when you had
first presented it or hinted at it at
our previous Retreat it was a bit
surprising that you'd be tearing down
the fire station and rebuilding it I
think the map of the location of that
fire station was a bit more compelling
in terms of maybe the need in that area
or just the the versatility that it
provides but was it considered
to add another Fire Station instead of
tearing down and rebuilding that one um
from that cost perspective the initial
for to to be fair the full project
details the first dollar spent at
station 4 will be to assess can we add
to that existing SP space to satisfy the
business needs so we're going to spend
those dollars first just to validate
that I don't think we can um based on
where that station was put on the site
plan how they managed um all the runoff
and water retention uh but we are going
to validate that in fact we do have to
say tear down and rebuild but as far as
available land in station fors area I'm
not aware of any land that's to even own
by the town that's available uh for a
fire station that can provide us this
level of response time but we will
validate and make sure if there's a way
to add on uh we are certainly going to
consider that whether it's a second
floor or addition uh the first dollar
spent will be to assess that compare
what are the cost of just to add on to
versus tear down and rebuild so we will
do that
back Chief Scott one over
here Chief how did we miss planning for
the proper number of bedrooms in so many
of the fire stations didn't we know this
was going to happen in the future uh I'm
pretty confident we did this when you
look at the what we scoped station four
uh that was uh Colin to Wit's hired
almost the exact same time station 4 was
completed the kind of 1999 version that
fell short um for the most part I think
fire leadership and uh Town leadership
did a very very good job looking at the
future with the number of veterans we
have never ever did we discuss pronic
Transportation back then we had a system
that involved utilization of privates
there were no discussions back in the
early 2000s that early about bringing on
transportation and the impact that had
right now six um ambulances probably
seven or eight Surly for buildout um so
I think they did a very good job uh we
just missed it now that we're this close
to the end I think we could really look
and feel exactly where we're going to
need for the next 20 years so I think
they did a they were 90% there um the
good news is when we built station 10
station 7 station n the last stations we
built we did add bedrooms to that so
this problem wasn't magnified because we
recognized the business was changing and
we needed to oversize those so it's
really just kind of the evolution of it
because when Colin D came here and built
station 11 was the first we're like what
the heck do we just build we're never
going to fill that place and now what
we're finding is not necessarily in
station 11's area but in 2 and8 we're
going to fill those stations in Bays but
they were 90% there we did fix it as we
built stations 10 7 and
N the Chief the intent is to leave
station four right where it is is that
what I'm understanding uh the intent of
this more than likely would be
ultimately tear down of the existing
building and rebuild it probably with
our new station 7 which is a twostory
because the site is small and when we
scope this we scope to do the analysis
tear down four rebuild new station 7even
on that side so what will we do with the
crew from four while we shut down the
building and tear it down that will be
the project team will come up with
solution sols to that as far as where
that might be temporary location are we
going to move to a different station uh
this is a case where maybe have to put
him in temporary uh building for that
period of time our station 7 crew had
the best idea because seven runs to the
detention um so station 7 recommended
station four crew just occupy two of the
cells in detention put bunk beds I heard
that that way they're already there we
have spare gear and they don't have to
go anywhere they have bathrooms in there
too so it may work but because we have
done this before we we rebuilt station 7
at the corner of coper and Warner but we
still had the crew living in station 7
while it while it existed up on Cooper
north of Elliot so we didn't have to
move the crew out someplace this will
kind of station two we were also they
were about six inches apart so this will
be the first time we have to relocate a
crew and figure out what that looks like
for the duration but probably temporary
housing and temporary um aace and for
the rest of the renovations are we
looking at being able to renovate those
without disrupting service in the
building buildings that's how it's been
done at other locations that have done a
similar project uh for example the
restroom facilities will probably end up
leasing or purchasing um bathroom
facilities you can keep outside so to
bridge that Gap so yes we would
absolutely continue would not have to be
relocated and I would just I I
understand the costs and and doing a
remodel and how much that might cost to
do sometimes I think remodels cost more
than building from the ground up um it's
it's harder to make maybe have those
function well when you're doing a
remodel and but I would also caution
that we watch doing it just by a low bid
because I've seen buildings in this town
that we've done on low bid and here we
are having to rebuild them or redo them
years later so I think we need to use
caution when we're taking things on just
a low bid Factor too to just keep that
in mind oh we appreciate that one of
which particularly for the fire ab and
remodel we're really looking and
spending a lot of time in program and
scope to at least make sure we have the
right spare footage for for the
headcount we're going to need and how
we're going to use the building and then
we'll figure out can it fit in the
existing space or uh can we expand the
existing space or where does it need to
be on the munity campus that'll all be
part of the space needs analysis and all
these as we start to get more clarity in
all these projects how they interact
with one
another thank you than you thanks Rob
did you mention where the fire Fleet
building would be I did not because we
have not identified
where that would be as we do the space
needs analysis um coming out of the
ground that's part of we're very
confident that that space needs analysis
and indicate indicate the need for
additional space but we have not
identified
where think I would move that up closer
to the top just based on some of the
needs that I think our community has and
with public works as well when we did
the tour over there I think it was
really eye opening for all of us and the
fact that we're going to have to keep
our um trucks in service um the other
ones
I when I look at uh the other projects
from the police department these tend
the other ones tend to fall down the
priority lists for me a bit it's not
that they're not needed but I'm just
trying to figure out the the timing and
how we
can you know the bottom line comes down
to what is the appetite of the community
and so how much are you able to ask for
you know and so when you have to start
prioritizing it to make sure that it
actually
passes um the other ones may not may not
go up the list for me as much as the
fleet building thank
you I'm going to go to Chuck um Chief
let me ask you the same question I ask
the police chief when we look at these
items here do we look at each row as a
standalone when we address them we need
to address them fully or like with parks
and wck can any of those be phased over
time so you do partials to get there and
police the the answer was each row
stands alone there's not really a
phasing here every project is discreet
how does that work here I I don't see
phasing for for any of these other than
the six fire station renovation is six
individual phased projects so in that
regard they are phased in priority of
different fire stations but otherwise uh
would have to be singular projects thank
you s Chief I know that if I want to
build 5,000 square foot to my house it's
going to be completely different than
5,000 square foot on a fire station can
you go over different uh materials or
different aspects that makes this cost a
lot more for example um you know exhaust
or those kinds of things really from the
ground up entirely different a substrate
our concrete uh has to be at least 8
Ines thick with a different substrate to
support the heavy Hy bratus to get
through um our buildings are built uh
typically out of block uh with a lot of
infrastructure related to um technology
and dispatch information bay doors are
expensive uh it's really an entirely
different model than we might think of
as a regular house and also the pressure
we put on for 247 operations is pretty
significant typically when we work with
CIP uh we kind of go with the standard
approach on square footages and we are
looking at what other projects square
footage have cost to build fire stations
uh before we can come up with these so
there there's quite a bit they're pretty
Advanced buildings and robust buildings
as well that's why we're seeing a
significant difference between you're
not bur apples I mean s the same as just
building ability correct even just the
concrete under your feet um is at least
8 in of concrete to support the heavy
apparatus is a good example plus there's
metal reinforcement in there fiber in
there it's just the concrete itself has
a substantial increase in cost okay
thanks all right Council I need to ask
you a question now just to see where we
are here and I think just like we did on
the uh police one I want to kind of
separate the question for you the first
question is just in terms of these I
identified these projects their
respective priorities as they're listed
here are you green yellow red in terms
of that the second question is on the
dollar amounts and I already know for
Jim and perhaps for others there's
questions about you know you know are
those the necessary dollar amounts are
they reasonable but let's separate them
out are you green yellow red that we've
identified that the fire depart has
identified the projects and listed them
somewhat in the priority order that you
would expect I'm looking for a green
yellow or red young oh
here I think one more piece of
information that I need is the timeline
because it sounded like the timeline on
this was more of like a 10year timeline
where the previous presentations were in
a shorter timeline so great question but
for purposes of my asking this I'm
trying not to put police fire and parks
and wreck next to each other I'm just
asking just in terms of
this are they in the right ballpark just
as we look at the needs for fire there
there has to be a subsequent step where
they're all going to get interconnected
with each other which is back to Kathy's
point but I don't think we're ready for
that part of the conversation yet is
that okay so can I ask green yellow red
just in terms of of identifying the
priorities and the projects and the
relative priorities
here green yellow
red green on the projects Bobby
green um I lost Jim over there Chuck
green
mayor yellow on the order of them okay
that's I'll come back and ask about that
Kathy same as the Mayor Scott same can I
ask you what's the yellow that we need
to that staff needs to know they have to
provide some additional support or
information I think the vice mayor the
vice mayor hit it on the head I think
the fleet building is probably a higher
priority in my opinion I know fire admin
has to get into a space where they can
be comfortable but if we can't work on
those vehicles in the manner that they
need to be maintained that's a bigger
problem and so I think and it doesn't
just affect fire it's being called fire
Fleet building here but but it affects
public works
also to that and Scot do you want
anything to that that's exactly right
okay so we are green yellowish on this
but at least staff knows that they can
move ahead with these kinds of
priorities then the question is the
dollar amounts here and am I getting
from the conversation so far I'm not
trying to lead you here I'm just trying
to make to to expedite this was a yellow
to Orange to possibly read in terms of
the costs that are involved because they
they just seem so high based on your
expectations is that what I'm hearing
mayor you want to
try for me on this group I think that
the costs are
probably okay I mean obviously they're
high but I don't think they're as high
as I would have expected them to be
under the circumstances from what we've
seen all day so far and so I I'm I think
I'm comfortable with the prices and I
know that they'll value manage
everything
soen for that Chuck I'm looking at you
green on these costs
Cathy green yellow that green yellow
green yellow Bobby green yellow green
yellow is okay green yellow is we're
passing and the yellow what I've heard
you is say but we still want to go back
to make sure that we're not over paying
for this or overdoing we we still to be
fiscally responsible here but this seems
to pass the reasonability test at least
at first blush am I hearing
correctly are there any other comments
or
questions associated with
this let's thank the chief for great
presentation thank you all
right um I am also reading the room I
know we have another presentation from
Kelly but um let us take a 5 minute
kidney break and make sure that everyone
is back in with full attention 5 minutes
please
it is time to talk about funding
strategies perfect thank you all right
down to the nitty-gritty
stuff um just a quick reminder about
what Patrick mentioned this morning uh
this quote about the best way to predict
the future is to create it and that's
really the point that we're at in
Gilbert's future planning we have the
opportunity at this point to plan what
we want for our future city to look like
and that requires input uh from you of
council and what you would like that to
look like and kind like uh us to give
direction to staff to carry that
out so we talked a lot about the
infrastructure needs if we add up all of
the parts the public safety needs
together we're right around a billion
dollars total in all of the
infrastructure that we've talked about
today so there is significant need uh
for our community moving forward we're
going to talk through some broad brush
Strokes of how could we accomplish this
this is back of napkin math and it's to
get us to order of magnitude so that we
can work to refine from there and get
direction from Council as we talked
about this morning Gilbert has fewer
Revenue sources than most other places
we only have a few levers we can pull if
we want to fund this type of
infrastructure investment because our
current revenue streams can't support an
investment of this size so one of the
options guess lots of different funding
options uh we can look at General
obligation bonds those would be repaid
with property tax money you're probably
secondary property tax money uh and we
would need to put it on a question have
voters look at that second option is a
different type of bonds um Municipal NPC
bonds Municipal property Corporation
bonds so that would be with existing
revenue streams um we can do bonds those
don't go to the voters those go to the
MPC board and then Council as well we we
don't have enough Revenue stream to fund
a large amount of bonds this way so we
would probably need additional sales tax
or other Revenue to be able to support
the repayment of bonds of this TY but
it's another funtion we can reduce scope
on some of the projects we can delay
project timing or cancel projects that
has an impact on what we want our future
to look like what level of service we'll
have we can also pursue grants or other
funding opportunities there's not going
to be enough grants to fund ability ion
dollar of projects but it can definitely
offset some of it we're always looking
for those different
opportunities so quick reminder about
property tax and what that looks like
these are our value comparisons Total
Property Tax 10p is the highest at
$241 this is from the fiscal 24 property
tax they change a little bit every year
Phoenix is second at 210 we've got Bucky
and queen creeks in the 160s and70s Maka
and Gilbert are currently the lowest in
the 86 cents and 98 range just under a
dollar if we want to fund all 1 billion
projects using only property tax money
we would need something in the order of
magnitude of a tax rate around 210 so we
would still be less than the Phoenix and
temp area we would be on the higher end
but
not way higher than anybody else this is
just at taking 20
yearsing out every dollar um how much
Bond capacity could we get for projects
at that level so about
$2 if we instead said we want a tax rate
of $150 that would fund about $650
million in
projects you can see in those first
couple of years they jump up a little
bit those are some interest only
payments because there's less capacity
in in that future and a lot of our
principal is out on the long end um
that's the dark blue uh medium blue bar
across that top I guess I should say the
dark blue at the bottom is our existing
debt purple is reserving space for the
remaining Transportation bonds that we
have yet to issue but we have projects
moving forward using that money and so
that would be the total look at what our
property tax would look
like if we drop down to a125 as a Target
tax rate that gives us about $450
million for projects but you can see
we're having an increasing problem in
those front years where we would really
have to work on the structure of bonds
because those are interest only in those
front years and there's just not enough
capacity really to structure the bonds
that way it's pretty tight but in
general that's kind of the Outlook that
we would look at on property
tax if we look at our sales tax so just
a quick recap from before Gilbert sales
tax rate is pretty much much uh 1.5% on
most things Mesa 2% Queen Creek
2.25% uh Scottdale and temp in the 180
range Chandler same as
us if we wanted to fund all of the
projects using only sales tax we would
need to increase our sales tax rate
about
[Music]
80.8% so our total sales tax rate would
be in the range of
2.3% and that would give us enough
annual revenue to bond to be able to get
about a billion dollars of bonds for
projects um with sales
tax if if the timing of projects if we
didn't need things for 20 years we could
cash fund some things but we know that
there's a lot more need in the projects
earlier on so cash flow wise we would
probably still need to bond if we wanted
to do about 700 million in projects we
would need about 55 cents more in our
tax rate so a total of about
2.05 half a billion would be about
40.4% so about 1.9%
total uh one thing to consider is we
don't have to do all one or all the
other we can do a combination if we
wanted to so a hybrid solution could
look something like this a combination
of about
a95 uh one 1.95% sales tax would give us
money for about $550 million of projects
this is a lower sales tax rate than both
Mesa and Queen Creek right in line a
little bit higher than our Tempe and
Scot still we could also do a Target
property tax rate of 1.25 again has a
little bit of trouble in that beginning
years but we could work through it it
provides about $450 million of project
capacity um and as a point of Interest
Gilbert's secondary property tax rate
was a125 between f year 95 and 2001 so
that's kind of going back to a historic
rate but it is unprecedented for what we
have seen in Gilbert in the last couple
of
decades hopefully that gives you some
information to chew on thoughts and
feedback I'm looking to see who would
like to comment or question
first
you want to go back somewh K go back to
the sales if you would please Kathy
what's the question you inv I just
didn't get the the last figure I had a
190 and then there was something
underneath there for um if we raise the
sales tax what that
dollar yeah that would
about6 for
15.4 oh no about 200 million projects
yes so with the sales tax this would be
ongoing Revenue I guess on sales tax
when you ask the voters you can ask them
we want an increase for a specific
amount of time or in perpetuity um you
can ask the question either way this is
assuming that we would have that ongoing
revenue for 20 years to repay 20-year
debt we could ask for it in perpetuity
and then have additional projects in the
future or we could ask voters and just
say we only want to increase it for a
specified period of time let's stop a
question
here did you look at any kind of
specialty sales tax that some other
cities have or um what about raising the
bed tax back to at least what it was
before we cut it good questions so the
sales taag base is the same whether it's
specialty or general so we could ask the
question and say we want this to be a
specialty tax um for a period of time we
ongoing uh it would the numbers would
turn out the same for the same amount of
Revenue but we could package that
however you would like I didn't run the
numbers on the Bed taex Bed taex would
be restricted and only be able to used
for tourism related projects so a lot of
our projects wouldn't qualify to be used
for that R Source ell would you just
describe what a specialty tax is a
specialty tax would be telling voters
that we need this sales tax for a
particular purpose and it's restricted
for that specialty for that special
purpose
um one the hotel tax has
for tour does that does anything parks
and
qualify we can look into the exact
restrictions I don't know that I know
them off the top of my head but it does
have to be promoting or supporting
toursm I don't know if down knows it off
the top of his head we could look at
that and then off I think it's before
this to show the comparative rates how
much off each let's say you've got the
blue and 4.3 have 1.5
1.5 how much is brought in you know the
calculations that we did earlier are
assuming that all of the 1.5s in Gilbert
go to the new rate all for all of those
bases it would be on retail on your
Communications your phone bill on your
utilities all of those and it would
impact the base part of your bed tax so
bed tax is our Fe rate of 1.5 plus the
additional Fe
2.8 okay so maybe I'm
asking the is what I've seen just sales
ta on hotels is the taxes upon because
I'm looking at 1.5% as being retail tax
1.5 is being F 1.5 is being utilities
how much comes off that 4 that
4.5% each 1.5 % piece how much does
that Phill tax
mon correct
yeah uh I probably can't answer that off
the top of my head other than to say in
general retail is a much bigger category
absolutely I understand I'm just saying
I'd like to know if we are if we State
at the lowest uh phone bill we're 1.5
somebody El is one 2.0
andess but how much extra revenue does
that bring
in get you have more res coming more 1.5
on
utilities well the next thing this is
got 1.7 an extra qu% does it bring us
any
sizeable I can break that out and give
that to you on
this chart it's assuming that the
additional rate applies to all of the
categories you were saying every
category that's a 1.50 would change to
2.30 in order to bring in $1 billion to
cover these projects EX
right and J's question you don't have to
do the 1.5 for all of them at the same
time you might decide to do it for one
and not the other and he's asking which
gives you the biggest bang for The Bu
right Jim yes I if it brought in if it
brought in $10 million a year un that's
probably but that would be more helpful
to say 1.7 still lowest it us fund I
think maybe what Jim is trying to say is
to what are we bringing in today which
and are those dollars already towards
something specific out of our general
fund Budget on top of this if we changed
it we'd bring another billion dollars
right maybe am I closer
J I can run those numbers um if we did
it from 1.5 to 2.3 on all the categories
it would be about 77 million doll total
but I can I can break that out and
provide that what it is for the various
category types
and I think we I think you give us a
monthly update anyway but maybe maybe
annually what do we bring in for Revenue
based on those tax
rates might be good to
know so I have a question just to make
sure again I'm processing I'm not as
detail Orient as everyone else in the
room um obviously it's council's
decision what combination of this to
take forward and I think I understand
from your earlier presentation whatever
it would be has to be approved by the
residents of the community anyway right
so I don't want to agenda jump here I
just want to make sure I understand the
scope of your information that you're
sharing which is it sounds like what
you're saying is uh there are options
and opportunities for ways to fund this
that at least from this initial
comparison to other communities doesn't
put the town of Gilbert out of whack
with what other communities are doing is
is is that kind of a bottom line I can
take away from what you've said yes
that's a good summary and so now I'm
coming back to council I'm just asking
do you see that and do you have
questions about that does that seem
reasonable to you
young thank you I thank you for the
presentation I I just wanted to provide
my I guess thoughts based on this
initial
information um to me from what you
presented it seems like the sales tax is
the area where kind of below the status
quo from peer agencies and that's where
I feel that we
have some good leverage there I also
like the idea that sales tax is paid for
by both residents and visitors so it
might not just be such a big impact to
Residents directly through a secondary
property
tax um another aspect with sales tax is
that it could be more Equitable because
someone who may not make as much money
may not spend as much money so that
burden can fall on people that may have
more disposable income so I like that
aspect as well I I don't think I'd ask
for the full capacity in sales tax um
but you presented some other options on
how we could potentially go through and
try to do public private Partnerships
grant
funding
um or potentially defer a couple
projects or delay or reduce service and
I think that maybe you're a
combination of of sales tax and those
other strategies um that's where I would
lean
towards thank you young who else would
like to comment just again we're looking
at the appropriateness the the
possibilities the council might be
willing to consider who'd like to
share what you're
thinking Kathy I'm looking at you
because you made eye contacted me can I
can I call on you I'm not trying to call
you
out thanks
um we knew this is going to come in a
high number and I think we're all just
trying to absorb it and I think um we're
going to need a little time to absorb it
I appreciate the different options that
you're um giving
so again because because I totally
missed that now sales tax increases have
to go to the voters I have a
question so that I kind of understand
the
nuances if we went out for a
bond
question what we're doing is asking for
the authority to use that to spend that
money some time within a certain amount
of time within a certain tax
rate limit we we say that up front and
then I know we can change that every
year but that's kind of what we're
telling the voters if you go out for a
sales tax increase which goes into
effect right away are we asking for
authority to to spend that money is it
restricted I'm just trying to figure
it's different to
me yeah really good question in asking
um permission from voters to increase
the sales tax we would not be asking
them about bonds although it would
probably be part of our messaging that
that's our plan to use the money so we
could ask in several ways we could ask
just to increase our sales tax in
general uh with no restrictions and let
them know that was you know our plan is
gep z for infrastructure um we could
make it specific like Poria did this is
for debt associated with capital
projects that the town needs not be
specific to Public Safety or parks and
wck uh and also have that in perpetuity
so that whatever the next projects are
in the future whether it's you know
repair replacement or roads whatever was
needed we would have that flexibility or
we could be very very specific and say
voters we want to increase sales tax for
the purpose of Public Safety and Parks
projects for the next 20 years it will
sunset at this time um we still wouldn't
ask them about the bonds but then as a
separate if they said yes
then we would do bonds that didn't
require voter approval and we would go
out and issue those afterwards so the
timeline even if we asked for a change
in the sales tax rate it wouldn't be
immediate um because the timeline to
give notice to do um it would probably
if we got permission on a November
ballot we wouldn't be able to change the
sales tax rate until July of the
following
year
follow okay yeah it's it's a it requires
some deep thinking Scott were you
looking at me because you had something
you wanted to
say
at I'm kind of feeling like I want to
simplify this as much as possible Kelly
and
get what's realistic um we have to get
the pulse of the community which is not
that great right now on uh
expecting more burden more tax burden
more utility rate burden that it's not
real great so I'd like to get to a point
where we have a bottom line that we feel
that
can uh have a reasonable chance with the
community get to that bottom line number
I guess that's what we have to determine
you probably can't do
that um but then turn to these
presentations we had today and say okay
looks like this may fund the top two or
three on your list pick them out and
that's what we're going to do and then
when we go to the Bowers we say we are
very specific in the projects that are
going to be funded by that
money let me I want to just restate what
you said and make sure that I understand
it we spent the whole day listening to
the needs that come out of parks and
wreck fire and police and I think what
you just said was that's great that's
one way of looking at this but you're
saying the our residents may only have
an appetite for a certain of burdening
to take this on and then we have to have
some assessment of that so that we know
how much of the need we we should
actually put before them to stand any
chance of having a a vote approved is
that is that your essential Point okay
thanks yeah not M just trying to make
sure all clear i' love to hear from
other council members Chuck
I I agree with Scott definitely I'd like
to see what the final number may be
estimate
um also the private partnership also so
you get to a number and then make a
decision based on
that Jim Bobby with you next warning I'm
going to say that whatever it is going
to be real specific so people know what
it is why it is is and people say yes or
no they know what's been done it doesn't
feel pushed on them and that uh in the
end let's say let's
sayx it does sunset with you know
completion of certain projects for over
20 years deter because
uh this position is going to be it's
money ground that's what people call it
doesn't what the truth is what
feel in that an awful lot of
communication from the town educate and
show need to get this is a billion doll
ask all the things important go through
what does the town
appetite I think appetite bond for
billion
I'm coming to you as promised here you
are well I I'm I'm gonna have to think
about this a bit I like what um council
member Anderson said I I like the
thoughts that he
has I I don't know I don't know what
else to say other other than I really
want to think about this I need to put
some things on paper and check it out
completely reasonable position to say
there's a lot here and it deserves a lot
of careful thought mayor do you want
to thank you this community right now
doesn't have an appetite to vote for a
bond of any kind of a magnitude I
remember sitting right here in this
building in 2017 2018 struggling with
how much to bond for for the public
safety training facility and how many
times we went back and forth with $40
million $45 million and we ended up at
65 A5 million
do that passed
overwhelmingly overwhelmingly easily
with the public because it was for
Public Safety we've just watched School
Bonds in Higley go down twice we watched
school bond and override for Gilbert go
down in November we watched Queen Creek
do the same thing East Mesa do the same
thing with or Mesa do the same thing one
one passed and one
didn't people are not don't have an
appetite for this right now when we're
just putting out information for
increasing utility rates the public is
upset about that and looking at putting
a bond or even a sales tax increase on
on a ballot for next
November my beted is it doesn't
pass we have to find find a way
to prioritize exactly what we need in
this community over the next few years
to start this process and exactly what
that dollar amount needs to be and then
work on finding ways to make that
commitment whether it is through grants
and funding some other sources if we
have to take these rates to the to the
public I don't know that they will pass
right now I just don't know that they
will um I know that when I ran for Mar
in 2020 people said to me just keep
Gilbert Gilbert we'll pay we love living
here and we'll pay I think people have
changed over the past three years coming
out of the pandemic with inflation with
everything that we've seen over the past
couple years people are not in the same
mind space that they were in then we
watched our transportation Bond verily
pass and we'd be looking for at least
that much for another Bond if not more
to accomplish a lot of these projects um
I don't know what the best answer is at
the moment I would like to maybe look at
a combination of different things
because we can't put all our eggs in one
basket that's for you mayor if I could I
want to ask a two-part question first to
you and then I'm going to turn to Kelly
so when we went back through all of the
billion dollars that were reviewed today
um your your first point is we shouldn't
go to the voters with anything more than
what is absolutely essential right and
so there is some dollar amount somewhere
that it might be appropriate to do it
that's what I think I just heard you say
yes but what you really want to say is
there's got to be other funding sources
Beyond here am I right so far yes just
we can't put all our eggs in one basket
and look for just a bond to solve the
problems so I'm going to put the
question back to Kelly now I'm going to
put you on the spot separate from the
the sales tax and separate from the
secondary property tax that you said
here what other funding sources
practically realistically are out there
that the town could actually even look
at question I could do order of
magnitude infrastructure this size sales
tax secondary property tax primary
property tax we don't have any control
over our state shared so we we can't do
that
um this isn't utility related so we
couldn't do it by increasing utility
rates I if we wanted to we I guess we
could be like Mesa we could increase our
utility rates and then transfer a bunch
of money into our general
fund
um that also grants is what grants in
this look at Grants I don't think we
could get a a grant for that level um
realistically those are really our
options we have very few revenue streams
that we take advantage of in Gilbert and
we've been maximizing them as much as we
can it just there's not capacity to do
this level of projects and may is Kelly
missing anything that you're thinking of
could be another Revenue Source I want
to make sure we're not forgetting
something no and Kelly knows way more
than I do about funding sources but
we're also losing funding sources as we
talk because residential sales tax will
be going away residential rental tax
will be going away at the end of next
year so as we're looking for ways to pay
for all of the things that we need and
the things that we want and I think
those are too very different things um
we also have to remember that we're
losing Revenue at the same time I'm just
I'm just trying to get my head around
this particular
conversation when you just said that
there are things that we need things
that we want
um I'm not sure that I'm not sure how I
can process today's conversation to
separate those two things because it
sure sounded like a growing Community
approaching buildout has expectation has
resident expectations built in 4 minutes
and 40 second response times and you
know having police being able to work
out of facilities and do this like those
all sounded pretty imperative to me am I
missing something that you're I think
some are definitely need to have and
some are want to have and I think that
there's a difference there with the
projects I mean I'd love to finish the
whole gber Regional Park but is that a
need that we have today the response
times are a need that we have
today thank you okay Jim I see you back
there go ahead I'm we trying to get the
conversation going a bit that's why I'm
I'm prompting this go ahead with the
with the proposed increase in system
development fees how much could that
offset
this um system development fees could
not be used for any of the projects that
are on these lists because they are
anything growth related we have already
subtracted out of this list and it's
included in the system development fee
study if we do system development fees
that are lower than um the maximum and
statute these costs may
increase because we won't have the other
funding source there for it but we can't
use system development fees to increase
our level of service or to fix an
existing
deficiency
Bob any any of it any system devel fees
that we can use for Parks we've already
subtracted out of these numbers BBY
please go ahead I just like to comment
on
bonds and I I agree with the mayor that
um the the climate is probably not there
right now I don't really want to give up
on maybe having a bond I truly believe
that it's educating the public for what
we're going to use those bonds for and
uh and I'm happy to you know try and
work with you know some other council
member and maybe do some reach out and
have them do meetings but I I really
don't think we should just give up on on
bonds I mean if we don't get it we
haven't lost anything and if we do get
it then then it's great so that's my
thought on that thank you and real quick
on that uh the mayor had run through a
lot of the school district issues and
and they are agencies as well with a
separate Mission the majority of the
municipal bonds that were on the last
ballot all passed in this region and
even actually Kelly had run through that
in her first presentation majority of
the issuance is passed that were uh
placed by
cities com nope just want to give so I I
want to ask kind of sorry
you
um first I just want to say I know how
hard the staff has worked to bring us
these projects knowing that there's
other needs in our community as well I
think
that where we are we're kind of in the
pork and the road a little bit
about
um investing in our community long term
and I think that's been the
message um and balancing that with the
will of the people of what they're
willing to pay um and I agree with Bobby
that it is about communicating and being
out there and having these
conversations is there an opportunity to
do community outreach before we have to
make this decision so that we can get a
feel for some of these projects and
their
priorities um to help us it's a really
good question
Patrick okay great question K and so a
lot of the material that you're seeing
today was from engagement work with the
community like with the Parks and
Recreation plan where your play process
where they told us we listen to them on
what they're seeking but we can
certainly drill down and better
understand where our voters are at and
um how they may feel about these issues
to better um fine-tune our approach to
communication helping them understand
why we're bringing these things forward
what the um impact is to them in the
respective areas whether it be Public
Safety or Parks and Recreation
opportunities for themselves and their
families um to best gauge how to
approach
it that's on the spot but the question
was was that engagement just about what
residents want what they need from these
different departments or did that
conversation extend to how it would be
paid for what the impact on them might
be for paying for it yes we um the
majority of the engagement has been
understanding what they want from us
math um but we can also um do some
engagement on you know how we pay for it
and how they prefer for us to pay for
it so I know a survey was done I I don't
know what the outcome of the survey was
and specifically asked a question about
bonding next November do we have any
results from that yeah we've got some
meetings set up with all of you who I
believe starting next weekly starting
next week to go through that in
detail so I'm gonna ask one kind of
concluding comment on this just to get a
sense of where you are council members
no one's making a commitment to take
anything to to the maybe not not yeah
thank yeah no one's ever accused me of
being softspoken but that mic is
terrible um so council is not making any
decisions today and I'm not trying to
back you into a corner but one of the
things that staff would really value
hearing from you before we finish this
conversation is if and I know it's a big
one but if they were proceeding with
some sort of funding mechanism and your
choice was 100% uh sales tax 100%
um secondary property tax or some
combination of the two which would you
prefer to see and I know the dollar
around matters and what's in it I know
all that matters but I'm just trying to
ask a general question on staff's behalf
which would you rather see in terms of
their approach to trying to solve the
financial equation for you can you give
me some sense of what would be
Kathy thanks Matt um I think I would
like to explore the
combo but with
restricted funds so that if for the
sales tax that it would be for the 20
years and it would be for that so that's
kind of where I was leading if we are
moving forward that Kelly is that what I
understand is the specialty thing so the
specialty means you restrict it you're
telling them that the sales tax is going
to be used for these specific purposes
yes okay who else wants mayor you want
to comment on
that again I think I said a few minutes
though that I wouldn't want to put all
my eggs in one basket so I would want a
combination of something I need to know
under the state law that you discussed
um is it a is it an increase by a
certain amount to the sales tax that has
to go out to the voters is it any
increase did we find that out today um
prop 126 said any increase on services
so the question is does a sales tax
increase qualifies on
services so I don't think we have any
answer for it today we want to have
legal do some more research to um
interpret that ballot measure and what
that means for sales tax increases so if
it was a sales tax on our phone like we
have the 1.50 that's a service that so
it might be an increase that would have
to go to the voters so I would again say
not all in one basket that it would need
to be a combination of something and we
really need to look at the priorities
thank I'm G to keep going around
young I'd be interested in seeing the
combination um I like uh so I'd also
want to see a majority in that sales tax
realm um and the way that Poria did it
with like Capital Improvement projects
so that there's some restriction but
then there's also
flexibility but then we can point out
what types of projects it would go
towards as uh Scott had mentioned in
terms of like the highest priority ones
that represented
today I'm GNA come to Jim and I'll come
to I would prefer to see sales tax in
since it's a little more voluntary it's
also taking advantage of Tourism dollars
out of town dollars Etc and I will
continue to say that I view property
taxes the
most reprehensible of all taxes since
either own your house you already paid
for it or you borrow money now they
paying money on value that's not
realized I just think at least giving
something an option of how they're going
to how much they're going to spend is
going to help especially with people
that are financially challenged and the
big rollers they can pay a little
more Jim can I also just was it also
important to you that the sales tax
percent doesn't get out of whack with uh
with your neighboring cities I'd like it
to thanks yeah I like to see sales tax
rather than property tax like to see
us trying to um get that number down a
little bit um whether it means some
creativity as far as you know again the
um Partnerships or you know are we
better off leasing this building as
opposed to buying it or building one I
think we get signicantly
much
thanks hey let's go all out and do an
income
tax we probably have to get that Chang
at State Statute yeah hey Scott I can
still outrun you so I'll see you between
here and the car defend yourself
yeah um I I favor being a little bit
more heavy on the sales tax because that
is a progressive tax of Jim hsein and
Shar more across the
board um and I do firmly believe that uh
we should I think as everybody's
mentioned we need to identify the
specific projects that is the only way I
think we're going to be able to sell
this is that we'll do specific projects
over a specific amount of time uh when
in
Sunset make sure you also just echoed
something that Kathy said I want to make
sure I'm understanding it the idea of a
specialty tax the idea that we're
designating you see this as a form of uh
demonstrating fiscal responsibility so
that the residents understand that what
they're paying for is a direct benefit
to something that they recognize the
value of in the community am I hearing
that correctly Cathy that's the same
point
Bobby um oh I guess it's already
on I uh unfortunately maybe but I am
almost and I am right on the edge of red
as far as sales tax go I am not a fan of
not sales tax uh property taxes so sales
tax um I I'm I think I'm good but I
still you know I'll do my own research
and stuff but I'm I'm feeling okay about
the sales tax just not property tax and
let me clarify the reason you like the
sales tax is it because it spreads it
over a larger number of people including
visitors and things like that well right
it does it it picks up anyone that's
spending money in Gilbert and um so some
of that could offset for our residents
as well
um I think I've asked everyone on
Council correct I didn't miss
anyone Kelly Patrick is there any other
question on this that you want me to ask
of councel before we move ourselves on
no thank you D Kelly thank you very much
let's give Kelly a round of applause
this a
hard Patrick it's up to you to take us
on
okay
let me start um with a huge um Deb of
gratitude to everyone who helped make
the logistics of today work our our
leads on this Jennica and Kirsten I know
you had a team of people helping you
behind the scenes Again The Retreat went
very smoothly and we're very grateful
for all the work you did as well as the
support on the presentations as well
jenica kirston Eva in ditch goov as well
as multiple uh staff members within each
of the Departments I know we covered a
lot today we covered a whole lot today
and and sifting through all those
projects all the engagement work that's
been done analyzing operational service
levels to try to get to what do we need
from the bricks and mor poal project
standpoint to maintain the quality of
life the quality of services to meet the
needs of a growing Community as we
approach buildout just a gargant you
effort and I know we overwhelmed you
with a lot of information uh today and
so this is just the next step in this
process of understanding your priorities
your guidance to us which allowed and
clear on ways to fund this the need for
prioritization of the projects bringing
the most critical projects forward what
does this look like from a timing
standpoint when we would actually bring
things to ballot uh there's a lot of
work yet to be done we have our
financial trade coming up in the spring
in between now and then as you have
additional thoughts on this please don't
hesitate to reach out to myself um and
we will continue to answer your
questions create some more clarity
around what a package looks like what
potential funding options look like um
for further discussion with you and I we
greatly appreciate the time and
attention you've given us today to
listen to the various me needs and the
projects understand them the great
questions I can assure you from a staff
standpoint we have the same
conversations about the cost tied to
these projects the one thing I know for
certain is they're not going to get any
cheaper and we talked about the timing
as well and and also compacting major
reinvestments we need to make in this
community within the next decade some of
those projects are already manifesting
themselves early so we've got a lot of
work we've got a lot of things that we
need to balance for this community but
again the most important thing we've
been entrusted by with each of you
elected by our voters and the staff
members that are here to carry that out
is maintaining this very special quality
of life that we enjoy we Gilbert is a
very special Community we're one of the
largest cities in the nation continue to
grow was just checking our population
number we're somewhere around number 75
right now nationally and there's 19,000
cities and towns which we've talked
about historically 75th largest city in
the country geographically bigger than
Boston DC Miami Seattle St Louis we are
a very large city by way of population a
very large city by way of geography and
the numbers as a result or the projects
we need are very large and and sometimes
it takes time to digest that really
think through but again thank you so
much we've got we know what we need to
do uh we'll start putting some
additional work on again there's
projects of prioritization how they get
funded and what that looks like for
further dialogue with you so with that
thank you for the time today um and
we'll uh again don't hesitate to reach
out to me with any thoughts or questions
you have and follow up to this and we'll
get back to work thank
you