Regular Meeting - 11/28/2023 6:30:00 PM

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good evening welcome to the Gilbert Town
council meeting for November 28th 2023 I
will call this meeting to
order we have I'm going to ask everyone
to please silence your cell phones and
devices as we start the meeting this
evening I even had mine go off during
the study session tonight did you hear
that um and we will move into our
invocation which will be presented by
offered by Sharon katsonis lay leader at
First United Methodist Church of Gilbert
thank you Sharon for joining
us good evening
thank you Council good evening
neighbors let's
pray dear heavenly
father we come together as a community
with hearts full of gratitude and
hope we thank you for the gift of
community for the bonds that unite us
and the strength we find in each
other in this season of Celebration and
together
we lift up our community to
you may your love and grace abound Among
Us fostering
Unity understanding and
compassion help us to cherish and
appreciate the diversity within our
community recognizing that is through
our
differences that we can grow and learn
from each
other
loving
God we pray for those who may be facing
challenges during this
time bring Comfort to those who are
lonely healing to those who are
hurting and hope to those who may be
struggling May our community be a source
of support and
encouragement to all its
members in the midst of all the
festivities help us to remember the true
meaning of this
season the gift of your son
Jesus may his love be The Guiding Light
in our
community inspiring us to love and serve
one another
selflessly as we share meals exchange
gifts and enjoy the company of our
neighbors let us not forget those who
are less
fortunate give give us hearts of
generosity and compassion prompting us
to reach out to those in need and make a
positive impact on the lives of
others Lord bless our community with
peace and joy that extends Beyond this
season May the spirit of unity and good
will prevail throughout the coming year
making Gilbert Arizona a beacon of love
and kindness we offer this prayer in the
name of Jesus Amen
thank you Sharon thank you for sharing
um this evening and mentioning gratitude
at the very beginning Sharon helped to
organize the Gratitude Gathering that
was held a few weeks ago that was a
combination of Gilbert and Chandler and
it was a lovely evening to come together
and just celebrate all that's good in
our communities and I appreciate you
stepping up to come and offer the
invocation this evening too we very very
much appreciate you next we will have
our Pledge of Allegiance led by Council
member Anderson please join me in
reciting our
pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America and to
the Republic for which it stands one
nation under God indivisible with
liberty and justice for
all next I would like to ask our town
clerk to please offer the roll call
Mayor Bridget Peterson here vice mayor
Kathy tilky here council member Scott
Anderson here council member Chuck Bon
Giovani here council member Bobby
Buckley council member Yan Kowski here
and council member Jim torguson here a
quorum is present thank you cheli now
we'll move on to we don't have any
presentations and proclamations this
evening we'll move on to Communications
from citizens I pass to vice mayor tilki
thank you mayor um before I begin I just
want to check with um chevel these are
the only two that is correct thank thank
you so much um good evening the Gilbert
Town Council values citizens comments
and input anyone wishing to speak before
the council must fill out a request a
speak card for each item they wish to
speak on and submit it to the town clerk
or place it in a bin provided prior to
the start of the meeting the
communications from citizens portion of
the agenda provide citizens an
opportunity to identify for the Town
Council matters of Interest or concern
related to town government under the
provisions of the Ariz Iona open meeting
law the Town Council is prohibited from
responding to issues that have not been
properly noticed therefore the Town
Council may only listen to citizens who
wish to address them and at the
conclusion of the open call to public
response is limited to individual
members of the council responding to
criticism made by those who have
addressed the public body asking staff
to review a matter or asking that a
matter be put on a future agenda so the
we ask that when your name is called you
come forward to the podium state your
name and place a residence and then
begin speaking we will have 3 minutes
and you'll see the time clock on the the
monitor in front of you so the first one
who comes up will need to turn on the
red light you'll see it red up here that
way you'll know your mic is live and
then um at the conclusion we will um
call the next person up tonight we only
have two speakers the first is Brandon
riff followed by Bruce lit B
Brandon good evening I've got a court
document here filed by the town that
says that uh I caused an actual
disruption and failed to abide by the
town's required rules of decorum as
justification for rejecting us having
the police remove us from a council
meeting um I know you're not getting the
best advice from your attorney he seems
to drop the ball a lot
um so I'm going to read just uh two
quick excerpts here from two landmark
cases the first is white versus city of
Norwalk and it says basically that a
speaker can disrupt a meeting by talking
too long being unduly repetitious etc
etc and it says that A disruption occurs
when the council is prevented from
accomplishing its business in a
reasonably efficient
manner that's the definition of of A
disruption now Norse versus city of
Santa Cruz it says in this case cities
argue the city argues that they may
Define a disturbance in any way they
choose specifically the city argues that
it has defined any violation of its
decorum rules to be a disturbance
therefore it reasons that the first case
Norwalk permits the city to eject anyone
for violating the city's
rules here's what the court said we must
respectfully reject a city's attempt to
engage Us in double speak actual
disruption means actual disruption it
does not mean constructive disruption
technical disruption virtual disruption
NK prot tunk disruption or imaginary
disruption the city cannot Define
disruption so as to include non-d
disruption to invoke the aid of the
Norwalk
case so we've got this guy uh Ken Fields
who does an investigation quote unquote
by the way he's unlicensed he's not a
private investigator I looked at the
statutes my attorney looked at the
statutes we'll be sending a formal
request uh for a criminal investigation
it is against the law to perform a
private investigation without a license
just as much as it's against the law for
me to perform Dentistry practice
Dentistry without a license it's a crime
and you guys paid and used public money
it's a total hit job total cover up I'm
looking at it I'll give you a couple
examples while my time is uh still
active uh he's leading the witnesses he
says to a witness he only only
interviewed us
me and Ryan um says he interviewed the
mayor won't give us the video makes no
mention of the questions asked of the
mayor makes no mention of what the
mayor's answers were interviewed one
witness that witness um he didn't
mention in his report anything that guy
said so I really wanted to know what
that guy said so I got the uh transcript
and I was shocked I was absolutely
shocked I'm looking at it and give you a
couple examples he's leading the witness
and he left all of his respons is out
you would think an investigation about
somebody saying hey I was not disruptive
and somebody else saying yes you were
you'd want to know what that witness
said by the way he wouldn't he he
wouldn't uh interview any of the other
Witnesses said it wouldn't be fruitful
to interview an
eyewitness unbelievable I'll give you
just a couple quick examples and then
I'll I'll I'll step away um why didn't
you hold your sign well he said I'm
sorry um you didn't hold your sign above
your head you just held it in front of
you right and the witness says I had it
propped in front of me uh and I did have
it well I was I I did have it over my
head as well and then in his report uh
judge Fields says the investigation has
revealed however that the complaintants
at times were holding their signs above
their heads unlike other sign holders at
the meeting he's saying that nobody else
was doing that when his witness says
yeah I did do that it's a lie I don't
care what you call it it's a lie he says
here the complainants were asked last
one complainants were asked to leave the
council meeting because the manner in
which they were displaying a poster
stating stop lying I think uh judge
Fields needs that sign also because
nothing but lies in here nobody asked us
to leave the the mayor ordered the
police to remove us he says here the
request to leave was made by the police
officers of the town of Gilbert and then
he says that uh mayor Peterson asked at
certain signs be removed upon the manner
display uh being displayed not content
video evidence of the mayor stating uh
remove the people from the back of the
room please those three people holding
up signs that's the
truth um this is ridiculous it's
embarrassing I don't appreciate my
taxpayer dollars going toward a phony
fraud who's
unlicensed and a town attorney who
doesn't know better and allowed it to
happen thank
you thank you Brandon up next is Bruce
levich can you push the button on the
mic there it needs to it'll light up
when it's
on oh there we thank you okay good
evening mayor and council
members um I'm here to talk on number
nine
uh I got a uh a
message back on the 12th Sunday night
about 9:00 the Gilbert newspaper saying
that there's going to be a rate increase
so I'm very diligent I went to the city
website and it wasn't on I called the
mayor's office I called a couple of
council members I texted you nobody got
back to me that Monday day that Tuesday
it's called transparency I wanted to
look at the paperwork about
this rate increase I'm a resident of
Gilbert I spoke to you last November in
regards to the light rail I'm back again
once a year like a no good penny uh
finally somebody contacted Mr
braon and he said oops we forgot to put
it up on the website well that's
transparency I'm a taxpayer of the town
of Gilbert I want to know why it wasn't
up and I had to go through all these
hoops and whistles he was the only
person he was a
gentleman he called me
back but if you let me uh go on here I'm
in support of a strong INF structure for
the town of Gilbert and the rate
increase should be gradual to not to
hurt senior citizens the disabled in
this town and the
hardworking families in Gilbert that are
trying to make a
living with the increase in cost from
groceries to construction costs the town
needs to prioritize the town of Gilbert
is still approving apartment complexes
water park in Santan were short
water I seen this coming 10 years
ago that something like this was going
to happen we live in the desert the
biggest user I think of water in Gilbert
is probably the
town so what what is the town's action
plan for all the property that they own
the parks the bull parks are they going
to put gravel on it
and not water
it I haven't seen any action
plan but you want us as you said in the
me one of the council members well we
have to tighten our belt well the town
of Gilbert needs to tighten their belt
also not just the
residents you know it works both ways
I'm in support of what you're going to
do but I think it needs to be
gradual and not hurt
our citizens in this good town and I
hope you you you you take it to heart
and
also I got a charge of Mr buun saying
that all the garbage trucks need to be
replaced well my previous employer in
law enforcement we had what was called a
fleet
manager when the vehicles hit 100,000
miles they went
before the count County Board of
Supervisors and got a procurement and
had them replaced I can't believe all
the garbage trucks are now going the to
Hell in a hand basket all at once and I
believe one more second thank you and he
said uh you know the supply chain well
Co didn't hit until 2020 how about 2018
there was no problem with the supply
chain 2019
so you know we need
to if you're going to put this stuff out
have things accurate and please be
transparent that I don't have to make a
a gazillion calls so it's on the website
so other citizens can view it thank you
so much have a good evening thank you Mr
lit um with that um that's it for the
communications from citizens mayor thank
you vice mayor mayor moving on to the
consent agenda back to
you thank you um mayor there was not a
request to um pull anything from the
consent agenda therefore I'd make a
motion to approve consent items number
one through
five I have a motion by vice mayor tilki
can I have a second I'll second it
second by councilman ran Giovani please
vote
motion passes
70 thank you vice mayor consent agenda
is handled for this evening moving on to
the public hearing portion of our agenda
items will be heard at one public
hearing at which time anyone wishing to
comment may do so we have two items on
our public hearing item agenda I will
open the public hearing one is a liquor
license would anyone like a presentation
on that or would someone like to make a
motion mayor I'll make a motion to
approve item number six thank you vice
mayor has made a motion can I have a
second I seconded by council member
Buckley please
vote moving on to item number eight I
never closed the public hearing so it's
still open excuse me item number seven
moving on to item number seven public
hearing is still open moving on to fees
conduct a hearing on proposed system
development fees for the necessary
Public Services of land use assumptions
and infrastructure um would we please
have um who's doing the presentation
Kelly Kelly F please come down and do a
presentation on the fees thank you
Kelly thank you mayor and Council I've
got just a quick presentation with about
10 slides for overview of what's
happening tonight with the system
development fee
updates
perfect so tonight is a public hearing
um and we are talking about the system
development fees which are fees charged
by the city to offset the cost of new
growth they are not paid by existing
residents or businesses they are only
paid by new uh residents and businesses
that move in and build in our community
and the cost is to offset their impact
to our infrastructure in the community
it goes with the philosophy that the
town has historically had of growth pays
for growth State Statute does require we
update these fees every 5 years at least
we did update the water infrastructure
just recently because of the big changes
with the northwater treatment plant but
our other fees are at that 5-year Mark
so we're doing them all together at the
5-year Mark to get them
updated the timeline is very long with
this process with a lot of public
Outreach so we started in September with
that notice of intent letting all of our
partners know that we were planning to
update the fees and that really kicks
off the public Outreach and
collaboration process tonight is the
public hearing for the land use
assumptions what we think will happen
with our growth and then our
infrastructure improvements plan which
is the projects that are needed to
provide infrastructure for the growth
and then we The Next Step would be in
January to actually adopt the land use
assumptions and infrastructure
Improvement plan the fees come next As a
matter of transparency in the town we we
provide the study with the fees from the
very beginning just to help with the
discussion and be really transparent but
the fees aren't actually adopted
um there's a public Hearing in February
planned and then adoption wouldn't be
until April of next year and then the
fees wouldn't go into effect until at
least 75 days after that which would be
July 1 of 2024 so a very long process
with the stakeholder Outreach we have uh
been able to have meetings with the
Chamber of Commerce their policy
committee the Home Builders Association
we do have another meeting planned with
the Home Builders Association this
coming week um to continue dialogue with
them we have reached out to the multif
Family Association they have received uh
the study but haven't come back with any
questions the growth assumptions that
are in the plan are lower growth
assumptions than we've had over the past
10 years um our building permits are
slowing the assumptions do align with
the mag uh Maricopa Association of
governments their population and housing
estimates so we're trying to be very
transparent about where that data comes
from and it is a slower growth that is
planned over the next 10
years the service area would be all of
the town for all of the fees except the
Wastewater fee and it's broken into two
sections which is the same as it's
historically been for our study the
Neely area and the Greenfield area which
are shown on the map and that's because
they're served by two different
wastewater treatment
facilities the infrastructure
Improvement plan so all of the
infrastructure that is included in the
study are necessary to serve New Growth
they maintain the existing level of
service we can't increase the level of
service for New Growth it's the same as
our current residents have and it
follows the guidelines of State
Statute the fees are looking to increase
quite substantially so it would be about
doubling um for comparison though we
wanted to give you some information
about what single family housing value
has also done over that period of time
so we have full cash value from the
Maricopa County assessor's office which
was about 250,000 in 2019 when our last
study was done compared to the fees were
about 8% of the home value with the fees
that are proposed now and the home
values that have changed it does
maintain about the same ratio about 9%
of the total home value even though
we've seen a substantial increase daring
that inflation it's getting
everyone um with the this is what it
looks like for the Greenfield area and
the Neely area old fees on the left and
then the new fees um or proposed fees
would be on the right and you can see
all of the different categories
Wastewater Water Resources Parks and
Recreation roads traffic signals police
and fire are the categories
commercial is about the same with the
increase here this is an example of
about a 2500t restaurant Standalone um
we just pulled a typical permit and ran
the fees for what it would be under the
two scenarios there the next steps is
tonight we'll do the public hearing so
receive any feedback on land use
assumptions infrastructure improvements
plan to accommodate growth we'll
continue to work with our stakeholders
and then incorporate uh any of that
feedback in for the January 9th meeting
which is when we would ask Council to
adopt and make a decision on the actual
land use assumptions and infrastructure
Improvement plan any questions for me
thank you Kelly any questions for Kelly
at this time council member
Kowski hi Kelly thank you for making
that presentation um in the packet of
information it had a report that had
some assumptions on um like like the
inflation rate increase and some of the
projects that were anticipated to be
funded I understand that growth pays for
growth but I was a bit surprised to see
a few projects such as the aao road
bridge that um have other funding
sources can you explain how that report
separates out um infrastructure and how
it can be paid for by other means
because it may be necessary with or
without growth sure um so we do include
uh different infrastructure that's in
there the acao bridge that you mentioned
uh has several funding sources on it the
study goes through and pro rates we
believe this portion is for traffic that
would be associated with new growth and
we looked at what current traffic is on
the roads North and South of acao Bridge
to say we believe there's about this
much traffic that would be for existing
growth and so anything that's for
existing would need to be paid for with
another funding source accommodating
that traffic and then anything that's
associated with new residents or
businesses moving in only that portion
would be included in the study to be
paid for with this money with the system
development
fees could you also talk a little bit
about the assumptions for the inflation
I know we've seen higher inflation in
the past few years but this these were
assumptions for inflation in coming
years yes so we had to start the study
with the information we had available at
the time which would have been the
fiscal 24 so current year CIP
information and then we Rec recogniz
that we are seeing large amounts of
inflation so we put an assumption in
there of a 20% increase from 24 to 25
and then I believe a 10% and then 3% so
hopefully it moderates after that now
that we're starting to get some of the
CIP information it's not ready to be
made public we're still working on it
internally but as we worked with our
consultant most of the projects
increased by that amount or more so the
study fees would actually go up from
where they are now if we updated all of
the project information to be what we're
planning for the fiscal 25 CIP so we
know that it is a large increase but it
is actually a conservative assumption
compared to what we're seeing in the
actuals coming from
CIP I have one more question um I saw
that a large part of the increase was
related to Water and Wastewater projects
and infrastructure is that because of
the wastewater treatment plant project
or is it a
combination um the water treatment
plant is a large part of it only a
portion only the portion of the plant
costs that are moving it from a 45
million gallon per day facility to a 60
million gallon per day facility are
included in the study but the new costs
to construct the plant are substantially
higher than the cost per gallon was in
the past and so we are seeing an
increase there okay yeah that's good to
hear that it was just for that
increasing capacity but it's it's
still always a bit concerning when you
have this big project and it it it it
may seem to skew um numbers when that
when that facility is going to serve our
community for a really long time for
decades and decades and so I I don't
want it to overburden our our community
in the short term just because of a
large T Improvement project like that
thank you council member
torguson I had noticed you had a a slide
up for a 2500 foot restaurant or so
would that not kind of prevent growth at
that much of an increase that's a two
and a half three times the cost wouldn't
it stop I mean I want growth to pay for
growth but wouldn't that kind of stop
growth I I would certainly hope not
that's definitely a question for Council
to look at what we're doing is
calculating this is the cost that it
will be for us to Prov provide service
to these residents and businesses to
maintain our level of service in the
community that we currently have
and hopefully they also have inflation
on their revenue side where both sides
are growing for their
business that's a stout number to be
able to build a 2500 foot restaurant I
mean really Stout
number um and if they don't if there is
no growth because of the increased fees
which again I want growth to pay for
growth but then who pays for the aao
bridge because if it's not being
subsidized
IED by this your system development by
the system development fees how does it
get paid for
then if we have no additional New Growth
or extremely minor
yes so they would pay their portion of
it and then at some point in the future
I I assume at some point in the future
the growth will come um that it won't
stop completely in the town but I those
are probably assumptions more for policy
level know more the financial
side all
right council member
Anderson sorry a lot of our new growth
uh into the future as we approach
buildout is it going to be infill is
that factored in in any way where
there's already infrastructure in place
to service those Parcels are we charging
them double for what for that good
question council member Anderson um we
do work hard not to charge doubly so if
there is a single family house already
on the property that for example has a
3/4 inch meter and they're splitting it
and we're going to build two houses on
the property instead they already have
rights to the infrastructure for one 3
3/4 inch meter they would only need to
pay for the increase which would be the
second one same with the other fees so
if it's only the increase from the
infrastructure that they currently have
okay is that true for fire Police
Service also that the square foot of the
building that exists currently would
already have that level of service they
would only need to pay for the increased
square footage okay thank
you Vice May tilki thank you mayor um
thanks for the presentation Kelly um I
know we're we have a one-on-one
scheduled on this and so I'll get into
the details with you um when we have an
opportunity um in regards to councilman
torgerson's concern
um the reality is if growth were to
start stop we would have to restructure
the way that we pay for that and that
means all the residents and businesses
that are here today will end up paying
for it in the future I mean that would
be the end result if if growth stop
every I believe we do this every five
years and we have to readjust those
numbers as we go along um so I think the
bottom line is we would all be paying
for that at at a different time
um I was part of that original um group
when we implemented system development
fees and
um while it may s sound flippant when I
say it the reality even then was that
last house is going to have a lot of
system development fees they're going to
be responsible for and it it it is a
flippant way of saying that what we're
seeing today is the fact that growth has
slowed those dollars are going up and
also the cost is going up and I don't
know how and I I don't know if it's 20
years ago it could be 15 years ago that
we put these in place but um you know we
were and we continue to look into the
future and try to estimate what those
costs are going to be what our needs are
going to be and and that's why we do
this comprehensive um a Capital
Improvements program and outline how the
uh payments are going to be paid all of
that to say Here we are now getting
close to buildout
and growth paying for growth means
something a little different than it did
when we were growing so rapidly right
now it's um we're going to have less
growth who's going to pay for it if if
new growth doesn't pay then that's going
to be distributed amongst everybody
that's here today and that's the big
question I don't have the answer I wish
I had the answer I'm just saying that is
the big question that we're faced with
and um I appreciate you know the fact
that we have the opportunity to look at
some of these assumptions and maybe
there's something we could review or and
change I don't know but it unfortunately
it's a hard Cold Truth right someone's
got to pay for it and it's either us or
us together you know and so I'm looking
forward to our one-on-one but I thought
I would just share that in in response
to your comment council member Tuson
yeah and that that was my point in
saying that if something's getting built
and we don't have enough growth to
support that all of us will end up
paying for it and then maybe that I mean
and I'm not saying the bridge isn't
necessary at some point but that bridge
becomes everybody's burden yet there's
only x amount of cars that are going on
we're trying to encourage more but we're
not going to have growth there to
support it but we're going to pay for it
and that bill keeps going up all the
time I I can't even remember the last
number that was attached to the building
of that bridge and it's Stout so I want
to think of the balance to keep the
encouragement to grow and be
dense without having it fall back on the
residents council member
Buckley um I would just I'm would just
like to say I'm totally in line with
what Kathy was talking about and that
those were some of the things that I was
going to maybe discuss as well I just
think that's it's a huge number for for
commercial right now and I would like to
see
us you know be able to discuss that and
maybe somehow
re-evaluate those numbers if possible I
know you guys have worked hard to get
where you are here but I just I just
think and feel that that that's a huge
number to put out there right
now but thank you for all your
work council member bonani I'm reiterate
what everyone said um and it may not be
your Department per se Kelly but are we
meeting with the stakeholders Chamber of
Commerce and those kinds of things to
get their feedback on this also as far
as affordability goes and you know what
they foresee also yes any feedback that
they provide during the meeting so as as
staff we create the study that is the
maximum amount supported by Statute and
then as policy makers you can make the
decision about what fee you want to
implement if you can do something lower
you can't do something higher if you do
something lower then the options are we
have a lower level of service moving
forward or existing residents have to
pay to maintain the same level of
service for the new people sure just a
big number I hope we can work on it
together it's that's a big
number
thanks unfortunately it's bigger because
of inflation and we're all facing that
including the town and how do we do the
projects that we want to do and need to
do there's infrastructure projects that
need to be done and there are
infrastructure projects that need to be
done because of the new growth and um
there's infrastructure Pro projects
because of the fact that the Town grew
so fast all at the same time like vice
mayor mentioned that they're all aging
out at this point and it's unfortunate
that it's happening right now as um
inflation is so high pushing all the
other costs up um Kelly I look forward
to meeting with you on this I'd like to
arrange some time for us to sit together
and discuss it we do have somebody that
would like to speak from the public so
I'll let you sit down and then we can
call you back up if we have any followup
questions okay thank you thanks Kelly I
have um three requests to speak but
they're all requesting the first request
is from Brennan Ray and the other two
are requesting that we give their time
to Brennan Ray so I'm going to just give
Brennan Ray a little extra time and give
you six minutes Brennan if you'll come
up to the middle Podium there thank you
I think you know the drill just
introduce yourself
please there you go there we go there we
go I'm learning this good evening mayor
members of council Brennan Ray 1850
North Central uh here representing a
number of clients but specifically the
home Home Builders Association of
central Arizona appreciate the
opportunity to visit with you very
briefly uh and you saw Kelly put up a
list of a December 4th meeting that
meeting is with me so we look forward to
the opportunity to talk with staff uh as
well um because there are a number of
concerns as we have had the opportunity
to review the draft um first and
foremost I think from a legal
perspective uh when we look at it um we
believe there are some issues from a
state statute perspective and certainly
the recent uh state supreme court case
of Morana um versus the Southern Home
Builders Association uh case as well
specifically those cases and statutes
talking about proportionality and what
is fair it is there is no question you
will not hear me argue I've stand up
stood before you and represented a
number of developers that growth does
pay for itself and we're certainly not
here to Advocate that we should wipe our
hands of it and have nothing to do with
continuing to pay for that growth but as
we look at it I believe that there are
number of underlying assumptions in this
um that really uh should cause us to
reflect uh and really question how much
of that burden should we place uh
according to the report on
177,000 people because that's
essentially what we're talking about the
population assumption growth is 177,000
people and that's what we're looking to
burden just to give you an idea of the
total cost is and my math is probably
off we're talking about between fire
police traffic in Parks a total of 100
7,
850,000
that's a hefty number when you aggregate
it over the course of everything that
needs to be done that breaks down to
roughly 6,000 per person uh if we factor
that down even further down to a house
and what does that break down to on a
mortgage at today's rates and everything
you factor a 30-year mortgage a
homeowner will need to pay an additional
$332 a month um over the life of a a
30-year mortgage that's equates to an
additional
$112,000 that they are paying on top of
anything else because while growth pays
for itself I will tell you that that is
a fixed line item in any developer's
budget that gets immediately passed
through to the end user um it does not
come out of other things it goes to the
end homeowner the end uh renter the end
commercial developer industrial office
whatever you want to say that number has
passed through directly to them so as we
look at it obviously um you know as some
of you have noted uh there's a real
concern with the inflation rates um
certainly you know if you look at the
base assumption rates you know 20 and 10
and then 3% but then we look at the
cumulative effect of that and the
Aggregate and we're talking in some
instance 120 to
167% of inflation that's occurring per
the study you look and you look detail
down into the fees some of that
inflation ranges from 120 to 144%
increase comment was made we hope
Revenue grows that fast I'm not sure
that I know of any business be they a
residential developer or a commercial
developer that presumes that they're
going to have revenues of
120% up to 140% based on some of these
fees that we're looking at and stuff
like that so again we're not saying that
the fees shouldn't be increased we're
not here to do that but just as we look
at it in context and just to give you an
idea across the valley there um you guys
are obviously competitive with a number
of municipalities and attracting
businesses and ensuring growth but your
proposed fees the all-in number when you
look at not only the system development
fees but the water and wastewater impact
fees as you look at those that is going
to be two times uh double more than what
anyone charges today across the valley
um it is two times even some of the
draft studies that are underway in other
municipalities uh and so that is a
definitely a huge increase in a concern
um and then as we look at it again in
some instances there are some underlying
assumptions uh for improvements to
existing roadways existing things uh and
that's attributed a 100% New Growth I
find that curious because some of those
same improvements are going to benefit
the existing residents as well and while
we cannot abortion that um cost to the
existing residents um still there is a
benefit that is incurred by them for
these improvements the other thing that
I would tell in the time that remains
and specifically as we look at it what
tonight is and the next step on January
9th deals with the land use assumptions
in the iip there are a number of things
that if we look at that from traffic and
Roads and intersections where um I want
to make sure that we're not double
dipping because I know having
represented a number of developers when
they come into a corner that's
undeveloped your transportation staff is
very good at ensuring that our traffic
trff reports um say uh that we need a
traffic signal uh or that we need this
roadway Improvement and so the developer
will then pay those fees for the actual
physical construction and I know there
are a number of roads and intersections
where developers my belief is is that
they have already paid money into the
kitty so to speak for that and so as we
look at that now we're going to charge
then system development fees to improve
intersections that the town may already
have money in their coffers for
just a little bit curious and those are
questions of course that we will go
through with staff because ultimately
that that rests with them and I could go
on and on but uh in my time that remains
uh again we look forward to working with
staff we're not here to say that there
shouldn't be an increase in all that'd
be absurd um but we are here to say
let's be reasonable let's figure out a
way to to make things work
together that was perfect Brenan um does
anyone have any this is public hearing
portion of our agenda does anyone have
any questions or comments for Brenan
specifically while he's at the
podium seeing none thank you thank
you um would anyone like Kelly to come
back do you have any further questions
or comments for
Kelly seeing none then I will go ahead
and close the public hearing and bring
it back to the Das I do not have any
online public comments for this for
anything on our public hearing agenda um
any discussion by the
council seeing none we'll all plan to
meet with Kelly over the next few weeks
before January 9th I'm seeing some head
nods thank you Kelly and staff
presentation thank you brenn and Ray for
coming out to share your thoughts and
thank you for being an active
participant in the process um we do what
we do best because we have stakeholders
like you that are always active in the
part in the projects that we're looking
at and moving on to our administrative
items we have
um just two items on our agenda one is
Council administrative item to review
and discuss final Act final report and
the recommendation of a code of ethics
complaint filed against Me by Brandon
riff and Ryan Handelman and um I will
pass off to the vice mayor um mayor
could I ask that we hear the fees first
and do that one
second okay be because I think there's
uh public information that I think the
public would like to hear okay then
we'll move on to item number nine fees
um there's two portions to this excuse
me three portions to this on our agenda
this evening to direct staff to publish
a notice of intention to increase rates
which means we're just putting this out
for um a possibility of increasing the
fees set the public hearing date for
February 6th of
2024 and a contingency request for
$770,000 for traditional um a media and
print campaign to get make sure that we
are able to get the information out that
was mentioned during the public comment
this evening um would you like a
presentation staff from staff excuse me
and I see Eric making his way to the
podium
did you hit your
button all right good evening mayor and
Council thank you for the opportunity to
share share with you this important
information for our
community I want to begin by first
acknowledging the great responsibility
that the Town Council has in planning
for the future and the weight of the
decisions you are all asked to make when
it comes to water rates it can sometimes
be condensed into a desire to not have a
brown lawn which isn't trivial but it
isn't the extent of the decision either
there are outside forces acting on our
ability to provide clean reliable Water
Service to our residents these forces
could be the pollution affecting our
water supply or drought decreasing the
amount of water we have another force
acting on us is simply the passage of
time and how infrastructure wears out
over time and needs to be
replaced if we do not meet these
challenges headon our community could be
reduced to the option that others even
in the valley face which is to haul
water for basic needs that potential
future puts a brown lawn into
perspective I think the good news I have
for you is that this Council and the
community is proactive and always Rises
to meet these challenges before it and
I'll present to you a plan tonight for
how we will meet those current
challenges and continue Gilbert's
exceptional quality of life which of
course is a key point of this
conversation our community loves Gilbert
97% of the respondents in the 2021
National Community survey gave positive
reviews of the town as a place to live
and the over all quality of life this
community did not happen by accident and
significant efforts in planning funding
and maintaining the infrastructure that
supports the quality of life have been
invested in over many years and
decades this is reflected in the result
that 95% of respondents felt very or
somewhat safe from fire flood or natural
disasters and that 86% rated the quality
of the utility infrastructure as
excellent or good the presentation of
rates tonight and the vital needs that
the additional Revenue will fund will
help continue to support these high
satisfaction ratings and those
expectations that our community has for
us the high quality of life did not
happen overnight and it's primarily the
result of three things vision and
strategic planning consistent
intentional investments in
infrastructure and Resources by our town
council's leadership over decades and
just as importantly sound financial
policies and practices that are adopted
by the Town
Council the Town Council has adopted
policy statements regarding user fees
the water fund and the solid waste and
recycling fund are what we call
Enterprise funds this means that user
fees need to be collected to recover the
entire cost of operations this also
means that as a financial practice we do
not subsidize these utilities rates are
how we fund critical water and
infrastructure and
services utilities are separate
Financial entities under the Gilbert
umbrella that operate financially
independently and are not subsidized by
taxes and do not subsidize
taxes adequate fund balances are
maintained to allow Gilbert to continue
providing services to the community in
case of unexpected emergencies or
economic downturns
following these policies is a key part
of the reason that we have AAA Bond
ratings there are less than 50
communities in the country with that
rating and Gilbert is one of them this
Elite rating enables Gilbert to secure
the best interest rates when we Bond if
we stop following our our policies or
take actions that may indicate that we
might have difficulty repaying our bonds
in essence not having enough revenue
from rates to repay them then it could
impact our future ratings and the
interest we pay on future bonds and then
the financing of existing debt as
well now it can be confusing or unclear
what we're trying to accomplish when you
look at a singular Financial policy an
individual infrastructure project or
service offering but when you look at
these perspective from the perspective
of the city of the future the picture
becomes clear we're continuing our
exceptional service and we're building
the foundation for future
success with those financial policies in
mind this evening's action item pertains
to our utility rates we have four
utility rates on most bills water solid
waste recycling Wastewater and
environmental
compliance tonight we're going to focus
on water and solid waste and
recycling I will cover the reasons for
the rate increase in more deta detail
but I'm going to boil it down for you
for three main reasons right now the
first reason is that the volume of trash
that we um dispose of and the cost to
dispose of that have risen significantly
on a per customer
basis trucks now cost nearly double what
they were two years ago now over half a
million dollars
each and the cost to keep our aging
Fleet running have
skyrocketed but the service requires
that we continue despite these rate
pressures you're all familiar with our
Residential Services the blue and black
containers the bulk trash program and
our household hazardous waste drop off
facility those are topof the line
services from any community in the
valley we also have a voluntary
commercial program which includes the
large rolloff containers and the
traditional dumpsters it also requires a
rate increase as it is a separate fund
from the residential uh collections rate
um fund but it faces the same
issues we're receiving 10% higher
tonnage than we were before covid which
has outpaced our customer growth
significantly on top of that we've had a
10% higher fee per ton disposed at the
landfill which has resulted in a nearly
25% increase in Total Disposal costs
just in the last four
years as our Fleet of trucks ages
because we cannot purchase new ones due
to supply chain disruptions the cost to
repair the older ones has nearly doubled
in the last four years this swallows up
any available funding to purchase new
vehicles should we even be able to get
in line and order
them and we've also acred a 30% increase
in the cost of parts and supplies for
those trucks in just the last four years
the fleet of the automated side loaders
is aging quickly like I mentioned
because Replacements are few and far
between and the new new trucks have
risen by 50% in the last few
years the life expectancy of one of
those trucks is six years but half of
our Fleet is older than that six-year
life
expectancy older vehicles means more
problems more breakdowns and they lead
to service disruptions this is a nearly
$10 million problem to replace the
trucks that have already reached life
expectancy clearly an investment is
needed in order to meet the level of
service that our community
expects our expenses are far out seeding
our revenues and our Solid Waste and
Recycling funds are approaching
empty but our rate proposal helps bring
them into
balance these are the the list of
service offerings and you notice that
Gilbert is at the top these are in order
of highest quality to lowest quality of
services our residents and our
businesses expect the highest quality
and reliability of these
services that quality and reliability
comes at an increased
cost that cost is
$852 additionally per month for most of
our residential
customers we'll be able to continue top
notot services at these new
rates there's a super super complicated
level of service um for our commercial
customers as exemplified by this graph
but they amount to an average of 25%
across the board uh
increase now as I transition to Water
Service I want to remind our public what
the impact of water service has on the
community an examination of other cities
might be
helpful the tragic wildfire in Lina was
responsible for hundreds of deaths and
the destruction of most of the town the
water system failed which caused
firefighting efforts to Halt it's
impossible to say if the town could have
been saved in whole but at least some of
the catastrophe could have been reduced
with a working water and therefore
firefighting
system all across the country there's a
growing awareness of the Reckoning
coming to our public Water Systems
whether because of generations of lack
of funding and maintenance care for the
Water Resource itself or the impact of
human pollution and
overuse these are real life issues that
happen when infrastructure and services
are not maintained this is why our team
anticipates potential problems and we
execute planning and Investments to
ensure quality for our
community we have an example from recent
memory where our system was put to the
test when a development came under
construction caught fire an estimated 2
million gallons was used over the
several hours long incident but our
firefighters were never without
sufficient water supply and pressure to
slow that Blaze and every fire hydrant
they connected to worked this is not an
accident due to our high level of
service in our water system the
proactive repair and maintenance of our
infrastructure and our dedicated team of
Highly skilled professionals that
operate the syst
system and consider the event from just
a few months ago when a monsoon storm
destroyed nearly a dozen power poles
that serve energy to the cap pumping
plant which is the sole source of water
to the Santan Vista water treatment
plant as the water supply in the canal
dwindled our water team activated
existing emergency response plans which
included firing up the backup Water
Production infrastructure modifying
operations and actively communicating
with regional Partners to ensure
uninterrupted water service for our
customers without the investments in the
infrastructure a highly trained and
professional Workforce as well as the
maintenance and repair of the water
system this could have become a water
emergency for our customers but because
Gilbert makes these Investments it did
not become an
emergency these not near misses
highlight why our community enjoys a
high standard of living but it isn't by
accident the continual Investments make
this
possible
but we are not
perfect we have also had failures of our
infrastructure and they are increasing
in frequency and impact to the community
in terms of cost and
inconvenience just in the last 11 months
we've had three major water issues that
have caused expensive repair costs and
sizable impacts to our traffic
flow
since much of our infrastructure is
located underneath roads these failures
tend to be very public failures which
over time can erode the confidence in
the public that they have in us to OB
serve them
efficiently we want to avoid
that now that we've seen the good and
the bad of water service we're going to
explore how the community investments in
water service are actually
used when we collect rate Revenue it
goes into one fund and then is used or
separated into three main areas the
first is Operation and maintenance and
these are the activities that come to
mind when you think of running a utility
operating a well pumping water in the
distribution system and maintaining
infrastructure in order to keep it in
good working
condition one-time expenses are
typically capital projects that aren't
due to growth and that are not due to
replacement like adding water quality
Equipment that were not original to the
utility
Design This is the main lever that we
have to keep rates low or steady
unfortunately this usually means
delaying vital projects Beyond industry
standard standard or equipment becomes
near
failure delaying these projects has
direct implications on the useful life
of the infrastructure and therefore the
overall cost to the community for
ownership because replacement cost is
much higher than just good
maintenance the last area is repair and
replacement fund this is used to fix
broken or replace dead or dying
equipment and Facilities as our
infrastructure ages the repair and
replacement funds importance looms
because having funds set aside for these
known expenses will keep rates more
consistent over time and yet our water
repair and replacement fund is nearly
empty with this solid understanding of
the water finances in hand now let's
explore the cost pressures on the
utility again there are three main
factors that are driving these needs the
need for Water Resource resiliency
skyrocketing construction costs and new
awareness of additional infrastructure
needs we're not alone in these cost
pressures either every city in the
valley is in a similar situation as we
are they choose to deal with their
pressures is their
choice we prefer to meet these
challenges head-on and not pass them to
our
successors let's look at these
individual factors in
detail here's what the cost increase of
raw water looks like
visually this was water cost as a
percentage of what it costs to operate
the entire
utility you can see that line is
increasing with without increasing the
operations funding there is less money
left to operate the utility as a whole
in fiscal year 17 the cost to BU raw
water was about $6
million next year it's budgeted above
$10 million which is a 66%
increase a longtime part of our water
resiliency plan was adding new wells the
acceleration of a 10-year well drilling
plan into two years has a large effect
on our CIP and on our budget but these
are not projects that we can delay in
light of the Colorado River
conditions every proactive measure to
the Colorado River shortage on this
slide requires a significant new cost
above and beyond previous plans as an
example that well program I just
mentioned is 56 million over two years
instead of
10 increased water conservation programs
are likely a couple hundred, every year
ongoing and the large infrastructure
projects in our water portfolio
resiliency could reach 100100 million in
total but we're endeavoring to make good
on the promise that the council has made
to the
community because none of us want to be
responsible for headlines like these
from communities whose leaders have
failed
them
construction and repair and replacement
of infrastructure is a large portion of
the cost of operating these utilities
the local average cost of construction
has risen incredibly by 55% over the
last 3 years when you consider that the
5year CIP for water alone is in the
several hundred million
range and that is the most affected
portion of our budget by inflation you
can easily understand the pressure that
we're facing especially when you
consider that we only in uh collect
about $60 million of Revenue a year
currently and that northwater treatment
plant reconstruction that has the
highest impact on our bottom line and
its initial project its initial project
cost has evolved and been adjusted as is
normal practice as design has evolved
over the years despite a very thorough
value engineering effort in
2022 inflation of Labor and materials
has caused a large increase in the cost
of this project this is the single most
important factor that is driving these
rate
needs the next GMP for the the the next
phase of the water treatment plant will
come before Council next month and the
funding of that is contingent upon these
rates funding the rest of that
project
additionally we identified new uh
projects through our master plan but
with limited funding we had to
prioritize only the most times sensitive
urgent projects the projects kept inside
the 5-year plan were those addressing an
immediate deficiency in our system or
were needed to utilize the full capacity
of the northwater treatment plant when
that expansion is
complete additionally as we went through
our budget prioritization project
process we knew that we could not
financially do everything that we need
to do and so we prioritized our Capital
plan by keeping in IT projects that are
already ongoing like the North Water
Treatment Plant keeping water line
Replacements aligned with streets
reconstruction minimizes disruption to
the community and those critical master
plan projects and the projects that
support resiliency in the face of water
dis Supply disruptions are contained in
the budget that these rates will support
yet we're still deferring over $400
million in projects which will add to a
backlog of needed infrastructure
improvements as we walk through in
detail at the council Retreat our
checkbook is
overdrawn this is not due to any
shortcoming of leadership or planning
but is an opportunity to continue
courageously leading and looking forward
as we foresee these challenges and rise
to meet
them I will present to you the the two
water options water rate options that we
have and the public work Advisory Board
recommendations on how to
proceed I'm going to provide to you some
of the upsides and the downsides that we
have identified for each of these
options the first option is titled the
cash funded
option because we actually intend to
collect and pay cash for all of our
5-year plan
expenses this requires an immediate
average residential water bill increase
of
$44 in the
spring some of the upsides of this is
that it does not we do not have an
increase planned next year following
this this increase we would not incur
any new debt and we would have ongoing
capacity of about $6 million for those
one-time projects in our operating fund
and then about $73 million for our
repair and replacement
beginning in fiscal year
2029 again that average residential
monthly water bill is about
$34 and under this option it would
increase to $78 in
April the second option we have is
called the cash Bond gradual funded
option this option does have phasing
incorporated into it over a couple of
years but I would like to remind Council
that next year Wastewater and
environmental compliance are on that
2-year cycle for review so there is a
likely a likely potential overlap of
increases that could happen
there under this option we would need to
bond for $80 million of our CIP within
the 5-year
plan this would require an immediate
average residential water bill increase
of
$17 followed by an additional increase
of $13 in
2025 and at least least another $16 in
2026 it would add $80 million of new
debt and $43 million of anticipated uh
interest paid over the 20-year Bond life
cycle it is a phased increase which does
allow customers to plan for future cost
increases it allows an acceptable oper
operating capacity of $5 million for
onetime CIP in the operating budget and
then an ongoing repair and replacement
fund capacity of $66 million in fiscal
year
2029 and again that $34 bill becomes 51
next th this coming April then
$64 the following year and then 80 in
2026 so let's review the Public Works
advisory
board recommendations and their thought
process that went into developing their
recommendation they developed these five
key criteria that they used to guide
their decision- making the customer
impact in the immediate near-term sense
the customer impact over the five years
of the rate
plan does the plan adequately fund the
repair and replacement fund does it
adequately fund the operating budget and
lastly what is the total cost of utility
ownership for our customers those are
our residents and businesses that pay
these
rates after identifying these five key
decision-making criteria they then went
through an exercise where they
individually um commented on the
benefits and the drawbacks of each
option and those are noted at the bottom
of the
slide but they're really lumped into two
categories on the on the on the benefits
with which are under the cash funded
option no new debt and that it builds
capacity to deal with the needs of the
water
fund they also identified a few
drawbacks as well this option created
the biggest initial impact and that
therefore could create difficulty in the
immediate near term for customers to
pay then they looked at the same issues
for the gradual option it had several
advantages as well which get categorized
into this provides a smooth ramp up into
the new rates it still built sufficient
capacity to deal with the water needs
and it required a smaller Bond than a
different rate option which Council has
identified is no longer under
consideration there were drawbacks that
they identified lumped into that it's
still added
debt and that in three years this plan
would actually result in a higher
percentage difference than the other
option after they went through all of
that they went and they rated each of
these options on all five of the
categories that they identified to come
to a selected
option the numbers aren't really
important the main the main identifier
here is that they were essentially tied
between these two and a few weeks ago
you all were as
well um they discussed the merits and
the viability of these two options after
becoming tied so then they they thought
okay let's
consider how to provide for the needs of
the community while minimizing the
impact to the
residents then they settled on a
recommendation to you which they
provided in that letter that we
delivered to you at the retreat last
month but the main ideas of this of
their recommendations to you are that
the cost pressures mandate additional
investment in both of these funds the
capital plan is essential to the needs
of the community in the water
operations then they recommended that
the council tonight adopt the notice of
intent considering the cash Bond gradual
option for water and the solid waste and
recycling increase as presented and then
they added on one other uh
recommendation which is to have staff
research Financial Support options for
customers who need
assistance so I've put together this
handy comparison slide of the two
options and we'll come back to it in a
moment while Council contemplates the
options that we have under consideration
I want to walk you and the public
through the next steps in the planned
Outreach for the community so that we're
all on the same page
statutorily we are required to do the
things that are um underlined on this
slide and in that time frame so tonight
the notice of intent in in about two and
a half months in February um we will
come back for Council to adopt the
selected rate options at that time and
then the rates would go into effect on
April 1st in between now and February
we've got some work to do and we're
going to do some Outreach to the
community so that our customers are
aware of these upcoming changes the main
one to identify is January 24th we will
be holding an open house here at
municipal building number one so that
our customers can all be become familiar
with what the council has
selected we know that this is a higher
than usual impact to our customers and
we will want to be sure to notify them
of the needs and the timing of this
process so we typically did um utilize
our digital Outreach team because of its
low cost and its high reach but we've
heard from the public works Advisory
Board and from this body that more
traditional Outreach might be a good
thing to do as well adding the
traditional Outreach is much more costly
and therefore is the reason for the
contingency request
tonight so with that um mayor and
councel the request tonight is to
approve the notice of intent and and the
contingency request and we have one big
question for you which is which water
option does council prefer to
select thank you Eric it's a very heavy
topic staff generally likes to come to
us at this point with one option and we
asked you to come with both options so
that we could have this discussion in a
very public manner so that everybody
could hear it but all the discussions
about water have led to a bathroom break
need
so I would like to take a 5 minute break
and give you a break to sit down and
then we will come back and come back to
this topic okay thank you we'll adjourn
for five minutes or just take a five
minute
break
you
per
m
wish
I
soe
got
yeah
so
because it's not sa that way it's
just
so
she go
see all these other and look this one
like I
think I told I was
like
take both
hands
your
hair
my
wish
and
e
thank you I'll bring this meeing back to
order um thank you for indulging us for
a couple minutes to take a break it gets
it gets hard to sit up here for so long
and it is a little chilly in here so
people are feeling that too um Eric
thank you does anybody have any
questions or comments for Eric at this
time questions vice
mayor um not for Eric and particular I'm
just trying to figure out how we get to
the next step so I don't know if he had
something else he needed just wants I
think he just wants guidance from us he
wants us to pick one of the two options
so that the staff knows how to move
forward with this and then to do the
things that were requested up there
which is to adopt the notice of intent
and approve the contingency this evening
um I would suggest doing them as
different motions just to make sure that
it's clear for the record so we'll bring
it back to us for discussion and then if
we need Eric we'll call you back thank
you thanks Eric so bring it back here to
the dis I see um a couple microphones on
council member Buckley did you have a
comment or
question um if I'm allowed to talk we
can discuss now we can discuss now yes
well I I actually just had a couple
where did he go oh I didn't know I
didn't know you want Eric sorry Eric
back up there he is I'm sorry I need my
steps today anyway it's okay let get
holiday hustle right yes that's right hi
there what an easy presentation right
yeah he's k um I you know I just had a
couple of questions if I can now get um
My Little notes in order luckily when I
was when I went through the the sheets
that you sent I I kind of had written a
lot of them out but on option
one um and I'm favoring the gradual just
so you know but I'd just like to ask
this
question
um we it talks about you know what what
the increase is and and the that
there'll be no debt when we're
increasing if if we went with that
option there's we haven't incurred any
debt so we're getting all this income in
we what you haven't talked about is the
interest that might be
occurring you know what because this
money is going to sit there until it's
needed and have you put together
anything on the amount of of interest
because my thoughts there
are I mean the option one obviously
saves the town a lot of
money I mean just in what I'm looking at
but my thoughts are if if there's going
to be a large amount of Interest
acred then perhaps that could be
offset the number of the increase so the
increase wouldn't be as large
thank you uh mayor council member
Buckley um the question
regarding this essentially a cash flow
question is are we collecting a lot of
money upfront that's going to sit around
in the bank and and acrew
interest the answer is is is mostly no
we're collecting a lot of money upfront
to pay for projects immediately the the
primary one being the northwater
treatment plant which is $677 million um
not all of it is funded by utility rates
but those checks are due over the next 3
years as the money is coming in so the
rate the cash funded option is designed
so that we have the money coming in at
the the precise year that we need it
yeah
um on on the the well the wells that are
coming in that's using some of this what
percentage of that is already prepared
for we should have had something in the
budget and I know it was on I believe A
Five-Year Plan maybe or 10year plan but
we have accelerated that um what is the
what is the the plan
for I mean is there do is there
something in the budget what's the
number in the budget that we already
have because all of this would not be
going just to that but what percentage
we we did have one new well programmed
in the operating Fund in The Five-Year
Plan and a typical well is about $8
million so we had about $8 million
planned in the 5-year plan but we're
bringing forth forward the the full
million don't have that okay okay well
well then that makes sense
um you know obviously I'm GNA be looking
at this all of us are going to be
looking at this and I have some other
questions but
I I'm
favoring I I like option one I like it
because of the amount of money it saves
there's no the no extra debt for the
town but
what you know and I I understand that
all of us you know the town of Gilbert
has uh massive increases in inflation
and numbers and and it's kind of
mindboggling when you're you're in there
as you as you can see
but
um on on option
two we're we're all talking about and
and this I want to bring this up but
we're all talking about the um increases
that the town has and the inflation that
the town has and everything but what
we're not talking about and thinking
about or something we probably are some
people probably are but where I'm at is
we're not the only ones I mean the our
residents we've got residents that are
really struggling out there because
they're under the same cost of inflation
and a lot of them are not getting raises
anymore but yet the inflation the
numbers and just like the water is going
to go up and then SRP is going to be
doing a huge increase again and um so I
I just want the residents to know that
we're thinking about them as well
because we have to look at what the cost
the town has but and I I think these
numbers even on option two are are a bit
High I understand being here I
understand why we need to do this and
why we're going to probably have to do
this but I think it's important and and
I appreciate that that you've put a
contingency in here to get this out
because I do feel that if the
residents are you know have the
knowledge of what this is for and all
the extremes and the cost and everything
that we'll have a much better uh
reaction from all of
this so that's kind of about it for now
thank you thank you council member
Anderson uh thanks Eric um this may not
be a question for you but it a table
that you showed us at The Retreat kind
of
spark this question I'm I'm still asking
for and would like to get if it's all
possible the total impact to the the the
normal resident all of the fees all of
the everything that is going to increase
what that total amount on a monthly
basis I've heard
tonight um that their mortgage could
increase by 300 some odd dollars a month
with the impact fees or talk talking
about a typical resident we're talking
about an extra I don't know 50 some odd
to 60 some odd dollars a month for just
the the water and trash we haven't
talked about waste water and
environmental services yet but and then
we don't know what uh property tax may
be become I'm sure it's probably going
to stay the same rate but it still
increases by the value of the home it
increases so the taxes so I'm still
going to be asking for and Kelly I I'll
probably talk to you some more about
this is I'd still like to get a summary
of what is the total impact of
everything we're talking about to the
typical
resident yeah um I know we are we're
working on some of the the compilations
of that that data for you which um some
of those those fees and and that
information will be shared next month at
the council Workshop Workshop
um uh but council member and we we have
270 lines of service across the town and
we offer them to Residents to
businesses um to all different customer
types and it's very difficult for us to
know all at once when any of those fees
need to be increased and the end result
of which customer
that that that fee will be actually the
bill will be footed by
um but what we do know is that we have
to deal with the water and um the trash
service tonight
um we have looked into these fees
extensively and we know that they do
provide the level of service that the
community
expects not
more and thankfully not
less thank
you it's a tough one council member
Anderson counc Bon Giani um Eric I I I
recall I believe representative
Hendricks was able to bring some money
in for to Gilbert for Wells has that
been included in all
this yes yes it has okay thank
you council member torguson the under
the first proposal it's $44 a month
increase when if with all things staying
the same when would that stop when would
the amount of money necessary to offset
this project
stop we currently do not have plans
to to to lower the rates all right so in
five years it would just keep collecting
money at 44 a month MH 7 years it would
keep doing it 20 years it would keep we
review the rates every other year and so
we'll come back and look at them again
in two years to see if they're still
accurate and if changes need to be made
up or down this Council has in the past
reduced rates when we no longer needed
additional revenue and then so if we
were to do the other option which
involves borrowing money that that goes
on for 20 years no matter what right so
that would would not all things staying
the same that wouldn't go away for 20
years we have in some cases paid back
Bond paid off bonds early when we had
additional Revenue but that would be the
plan would be a 20-year
Bond council member
Kowski thank you for the information um
this evening and for the insightful
discussion on the dis
tonight I support the cash Bond gradual
option for a couple of
reasons normally we'd want to try to
avoid debt at all costs but in this
circumstance with the northwater
treatment plant which is the largest
Capital Improvement project uh I believe
in the state right now for a water
project um
happening that is a I think is a special
circumstance for a project and it's
going to serve the community for 50
years or more so I have a hard
time kind of increasing the rates
for like all in one all at once when
when that really should be probably
spread out and have the bond it is it
merits bonding additionally as as you
mentioned Eric with the well projects
being traditionally or planned to be
over 10 years and we accelerated all of
those due to the potential and
anticipated shortage of the cap water I
think those two project specifically are
what provide Merit for that bonding
additionally with the um impact to
Residents the gradual option I believe
provides additional time for our
residents to not only plan for the
additional expense but also to plan and
Implement any water reduction measures
that they want to implement in their
household and so I I I'll be supporting
that option this
evening vice mayor thank you mayor um
thanks Eric for all the information
um I just want to reiterate that when we
show $78 and $51 in 2024 that's the new
bill not the increase in the bill
because I think that's very easy to get
confused so I I appreciate the the slide
that you showed that it was you know
from 34 to a new bill um because that
does make it a little less impactful or
um for many people but um I agree with
council member
Kowski um if I'm understanding correctly
the bonding this is a cash and bond so
this isn't going out for everything with
the bond so the the the dollars that
you're showing only a portion of that
will be paying back the bond not the
entire increase is that
correct uh mayor council member Toki
that is is correct okay all right um my
nobody likes to take on debt I would say
that Gilbert has uh an excellent
reputation and financial policy position
that we do everything we can to pay that
debt down early and reduce those
interest costs and I I am assured that
that will happen again
um I I really have concerns for the
residents and the businesses um we we
were just looking at residential rates
but it impacts business as well that in
order to phase that increase in is
easier for us all to accept and um and I
appreciate all the work of the Public
Works Advisory Board and um will stand
behind their recommendation thank
you thank you vice mayor
um I don't like taking on debt and I
know that we're going to have to review
again in two years because the council
decided a couple of years ago instead of
trying to hit all of this at one time
when needed that we would do it in a
cycle right and so we had an increase
two years ago and now we're looking at
another increase now we're probably
going to be facing another increase for
other portions of our town of Gilbert
Bill and to take on 43 million ion
dollar extra in debt that we have to pay
back over that time just doesn't sit
well with me and and that was a reason
that we discussed it at the retreat and
that we wanted to bring the discussion
here tonight so that the public could
hear what we're facing we have some
difficult issues that the town needs to
do when I first saw a presentation for
the northwater treatment plant I think
the bill was around $430
million and I nearly had a heart attack
when I saw $430 million and now we're
talking
$677
million that is a huge increase in just
the past four or five years for one
project and it's a project that yes Will
Will Survive you know Will Survive
decades out in the community to provide
fresh water the one thing that people
probably don't understand that you sort
of said in your presentation but we
don't talk about enough is the quality
of water coming into our community has
changed over the last couple of decades
and we have to do more as a community to
make sure that that water is up to the
level that is needed to provide to our
residents and they think it just comes
out of the tap and it's beautiful right
well you might not like the smell or The
Taste it's gobert water but um that's
another story um it is it is costing us
more to make sure that that water is to
the levels that it needs to be and in
the time that we're trying to meet all
the qualifications that we need to make
the federal government's also increasing
those qualifications so now you have to
meet other needs for the water to be
qualified to be acceptable to our
residents so we're constantly facing new
issues all the time as as a community
and how to how to run this business the
town of Gilbert is a business within
your community and we have to find ways
to make sure that we're providing the
services that we have always provided to
our residents and the service that they
expect from the town of Gilbert our
residents expect a certain level they
always have and they love certain
aspects of our community we were kind of
joking up here that the the trash you
mentioned the increasing garbage that
we've had over the last couple of years
that we've seen really since Co during
Co it was immense and now it has just
continued we're I think buying more
online there's more boxes coming to your
home there's more packaging coming to
your home there's more stuff that you're
putting out into your trash that has to
go someplace it has to be moved
someplace it has to be paid for by the
town in order to dispose of all of that
so we're all living in a very different
time than we were even just a few years
ago um pre-co it was one thing shopping
online was one thing now it's completely
different than it was then I have lots
of boxes coming to my house all the time
um I will be supporting the cash funded
version of this I know it's a hard hit
for everybody you can go out onto the
town of Gilbert's website and use the
calculator I just pulled mine up right
now my home will go from
$21.13 to $282 3 for the
water and so to look at this potential
increase I would rather face it at one
time and I know everybody else is
everything's increasing cons member
Buckley mentioned it everything's
increasing gas is high food is high
groceries are high and
we're all facing the same thing we are
residents of the community we're all
facing the same thing as we're making
this decision for our residents too
council member Targus you turned your
microphone on yeah just a question if
you Bond it you get $80 million very
quickly I assume or access to it yes
right and the rate is 4 and a half% on
that depends that's about I think that's
what she told
me in that range
would there be a savings to pulling that
in now and paying for things as quickly
as possible because of the increase in
construction is there an offset there
that that could benefit borrowing the
money basically like when you get a
house at a super low interest rate it's
not worth refinancing because the
money's worth less tomorrow right
I um council member
torguson kind of the idea of Arbitrage
um as far as timing a project that we
know will escalate in in cost in the
future at a higher rate than the
interest that we're paying on it we will
under this this gradual Bond option have
the ability to pay cash for a certain
amount of time until we have to bond and
we will We
generally do the bond at the last moment
and there's multiple reasons for that
timing the the interest rates as best as
possible also our ability to actually
execute these projects if we could them
all all next
year we would be happy in in in the
water side we just know that we can't
tear up the entire town all at once we
we can only do them over a 5year period
just with our with our ability so
there's not really the option to to take
out the money early and accelerate
projects even
more council member
Koski um I'm ready to make a motion
to direct staff to publish the notice of
intention to increase rates and fees for
water and solid waste and recycling
rates and fees with the um cash Bond
gradual
option I have a motion by council member
Koski do I have a
second I'll second we have a second by
vice mayor tilki please
vote
motion passes four to three gu we're
moving forward with a cash Bond
option next we would need a motion for
the
contingency um I'll make a motion to set
the public hearing date for February 6
2024 I'll second I was trying to get to
the thing that I know the staff needs
the most which is the contingency um we
have a motion by council member Kowski
to set the meeting date for the hearing
date for February 6 2024 we have a
second by Council vice mayor tilki
please
vote motion passes
70 one
more make a motion for the contingency
request for $70,000 for traditional
media and print educational campaign
Outreach
activities thank you I have a motion by
council member Koski can I have a second
I'll second seconded by vice mayor Tikki
please
vote motion passes
70 well thank you everyone I know that
was a tough
topic and
um we have a decision to move
forward we will now move on to our next
administrative item which is is um as
mentioned above as mentioned before the
review and discussion of possible action
for a final report vice
mayor thank you mayor um I'd like to
just um start with the process that
we'll be using tonight since this is a
little different than normal um agenda
items um we will
um I'll review the
um the background of how we got here um
the mayor will then um have an
opportunity to speak and then we'll ask
a motion U from the
council um and just to be noted that the
mayor does not vote on this particular
action item um background for this um
issue is September 19th 2023 Council
voted to have a second investigation
into the original ethics complaint
against mayor Peterson regarding the
removal of citizens from a meeting
should be noted that this action was an
exception due to questions about whether
all parties were interviewed during the
original investigation and should not be
seen as a precedent for future claims we
have a new process in place that clearly
outlines steps that will be taken the
complaint we are discussing this evening
falls under the previous policy the
investigation took place and a the
report received from the investigator
states there is no evidence of
violations of the eth ethics policy
sections
identified it should be noted that
investigations into violating the ethics
policy is just that it is not a typical
criminal or civil investigation the
attorney is charged with identifying if
any action taken is unethical under the
official code we've learned over the
past few years that is very rare that an
action taken by a member of the council
unless leaning towards criminal would be
declared unethical due to the inability
to prove the intent of the person's
action which is why under our new policy
we require the complaintant to meet with
the council member and a mediator to try
to resolve any misunderstandings prior
to a long and expensive
investigation this evening there are
several actions that could be taken the
first is you take no action the
complaint will be deemed dismissed with
prejudice which means there's no no no
motion and that one was not seconded the
second option is ad St the report's
finding that the mayor's conduct did not
constitute an Ethics violation of the
former code with no further action which
is required uh following a motion in a
second third option is to accept receipt
of the report as presented but consider
additional Council action following a
motion in a second which means the
council is only accepting the report but
not adopting the
findings finally we the option is to
reject the report's findings and that
conduct did not that let me restate that
reject the report's finding that conduct
did not constitute an Ethics violation
of the former code which means the
council believes that there was an
ethical violation it may direct action
penalties following a motion in a second
so that's what's before us I believe
everybody has received a a copy of the
report and so mayor at this point I'll
just ask if you have any comments you'd
like to share prior to moving forward I
I was able to comment at the end after
everyone else commented last time is
everybody else going to comment and then
I don't get a final
say I'll ask the council if they're
prepared to do that is that fine I was
able to comment after everybody spoke
last time
okay let me I just got to note it so I
keep us on
track I just think that it we're never
consistent with what we do I think we
need some consistency right that that's
my goal that is my goal so I'm just
trying to figure out okay so here thank
you all right thank you anything at this
point nothing all right council members
are there any comments that you would
like to make at this
point council member Bon gani yep you
know with everything we've heard um
tonight we have a lot of hard work ahead
to accomplish and a lot of decisions to
make and it's time that all politics
stops and responsibility
begins sometimes you have to put your
foot down and make a statement a few
weeks ago council member torguson and I
went to Atlanta to the league of cities
um conference we met with 2500 other
cities and towns and one thing we took
away from that conference was that
Gilbert is years ahead of other cities
that we spoke to as far as
infrastructure and services quality of
services the reason for that is because
we've had 103 years of council policy
and directives follow through follow
through by 103 years of great town
managers executive teams and 103 years
of devoted
staff uh it is that c it is that creates
a that is what creates a great town and
I and I'm proud to served this community
with that as a backdrop I want to talk
about a decision that this Council made
late September the council voted four to
one to reopen an ethnic complaint
against Mar Peterson from several
Gilbert citizens because they felt it
was an unfair investigation because they
weren't actively part of it the majority
of council requested that a new
investigation be
performed and that's what we expected to
happen the citizens involved
specifically requested that council
members Tuson Anderson and myself be
interviewed by the
investigator we
weren't again Witnesses weren't
questioned in the final report the
investigator was quoted as saying and I
quote I determine that these interviews
of Anderson torguson and myself were not
going to be
fruitful how can an investigator make a
conclusion that interviewing us would
not have been fruitful without
interviewing us to determine whether our
interview would be fruitful the only
thing that isn't fruitful was the logic
within that logic fruitful For Whom the
town the citizens the
mayor I would have simply settled for it
being fruitful for the sake of doing a
thorough
investigation when when it was a
decision whether or not to interview
myself C council member Anderson and
Tuson made was it made before or after
the interview with the mayor either way
it doesn't look
good was his interview with the mayor so
fruitful that he determined that
interviewing us would not be
fruitful we as a council gave the
directive that we wanted an
investigation to be
completed and what we received instead
in my opinion was an opinion of whether
an investigation should be
performed every single council member
sitting up here tonight should be upset
that our directive was ignored and not
followed up by the
investigator now not every Council
decision has been 100% correct over the
H past 103 years but I guarantee that
every directive was followed up on
policies and directives aren't multiple
choice or suggestions that the
foundation of good practice in
government I ask that every council
member tonight vote Yes to accept the
the finding of the report but votee no
on the findings of the report
itself fellow council members I want
every majority vote that we cast be
executed every time I want our votes to
count and be respected regardless of the
issue I feel if we accept the findings
of this report
tonight we would be approving to ignore
the very thing we asked that when we
pass the vote a fair in thorough
investigation if we vote to accept the
findings of this report tonight we'll be
sending a message that our vote and our
directives don't matter because we all
know this investigation was not
thorough and it isn't just our vote it's
the voice of every citizen in the great
town of Gilbert who depends on the who
depend on the truth even if it makes us
look
bad during our mediation the mayor gave
me some great ad advice she told me that
when I lean back in my
chair I on the dis I
disappear I disappear to people watching
me on TV and I disappear to all of you
in the
chamber what I asked tonight is that we
take the feedback that was offered to me
don't lean back in your chair tonight
and disappear when the council gives
Direction it matters and it must happen
do please do not accept the finding of
this report thank
you thank you council member any other
comments council member
Tason we did ask for an
investigation is hilariously
indefensible woefully
uncomplete also though these
investigations don't really bear any
fruit uh as was said in one point it's
the the mindset of the person being
investigated can you prove how they felt
what they were thinking uh that kind of
thing we've spent a lot of money uh
going through these uh the the the tiny
little tax break we were able to provide
we spent more than
that over the last couple years on these
things uh the actual complaint may
actually be more of a uh a First
Amendment complaint uh more of something
Beyond just that ethics cuz I think uh
the way we've defined ethics and and
what's meant by it and how it's looked
at by an
attorney it's not the same thing I I
don't want to spend more money going
through fruitless investigations there's
no need to uh
it's it's a waste of money it's a waste
of time it's a waste of effort and it
Bears no fruit uh I don't agree with a
conclusion based on a lack of
Investigation if there if I felt
everything was done I can easily accept
uh someone's interpretation of Ethics or
whether it should have even been one
but it wasn't done and I I personally
don't ever want to waste a waste money
for this town again it's just it was
wasteful and incomplete
and a poor
job it it stuns me that we're even
talking about it but I don't want to
somehow make this mess
continue it been just wrong from the
get-go as far as the uh how it was
handled by the first investigator or the
second so I don't want to adopt the
finance and I don't want to pay for
another
thank you me council member any other
comments from the council council member
Anderson I'll just basically say that
pretty much the same things that council
member Tuson has just mentioned I I just
want to get this over with whatever it
takes to get it over with I do think the
investigation was U somewhat
questionable um but I am more concerned
about the possibility of this being
elevated to a First
Amendment um challenge in the courts
we've already seen what challenges in
the First Amendment have done to Gilbert
rising to the Supreme Court I don't want
to see something like that happen again
so I'm more concerned about that and I
just want to get this out of the way U
if that means we don't accept the
findings but we accept the report that's
fine but I want to get this completed I
I I look forward to anything in the
future going going through our new
process I think it'll be a much more
fair process and we'll get to the uh
um get to the to the to what we want to
find in um transparency with the new
process thank you vice mayor thank you
council member any other comments
council member
Buckley I I just have a question if you
could if we could explain in depth
because this obviously it's the first
time something's gone this far uh if we
do the motion that Chuck is recommending
that we
accept can you say what your motion was
again um accept the report but do not
accept the findings of the report right
so if if we were to vote for that this
is over
correct because I I mean I agree I don't
think the findings
I think they could have been
better uh but we need this to be over
and uh and we and we did give Mr r a
chance to have another hearing and have
another uh
investigation and I mean this could go
on and on and on if if we do that and
and I think that uh we we did give him
that opportunity to have another hearing
and it's unfortunate that it came out
the way it did but I agree that it this
needs to be over and I I don't want to
see the town spend more money
either thank you council member I I do
believe we can include that in a motion
if if we go towards accepting the
receipt of the report we could as we did
with the other ethics complaint note
that that was the end we were not going
to reopen it so I believe we can do that
as part of the
motion any other comments council
member I I just want to clarify for
council member Buckley that I'm what I'm
saying is that
um it had nothing to do with the outcome
of the investigation I'm saying that I
don't believe a proper investigation was
done that's why I don't want to accept
the findings of the investigation I
any other comments um fine um thank you
then I'll make some comments before we
turn it over to the mayor
um first and foremost I want the
residents businesses and employees to
know that it is the priority of this
Council to stay focused on finding best
solutions to the many challenges facing
our community due to significant cost
escalations and aging community and
approaching buildout which will
eliminate growth funds to help us keep
in front of the infrastructure and
safety needs of this community that's
where we need to be keeping our eye on
the ball and these priorities continue
to be the top of mind for all of us
continuing to address the mayor's
pattern of behavior is a distraction and
cannot
continue as I mentioned earlier the
burden of proof regarding intent in this
ethics complaint has fallen short
regarding the reference sections of our
former ethics policy it is within the
rights of the mayor who is acting as
chair to ask for people to be removed
from
chambers however having the right to do
it and doing the right thing are two
separate issues there's no definitive
proof one way or the other as to how
disruptive members of the audience had
become from my vantage point of being
online during that meeting so I can only
speak for myself in that aspect what I
will say is that the level of unrest and
angry residents filling the temporary
council chambers in the the Public
Safety Training Facility had escalated
each meeting over several months which
resulted in additional security measures
being put in place based on that
escalation I can imagine the mayor
became overwhelmed and acted poorly in a
moment of frustration and a anger the
bottom line is that removing people from
the council chambers should always be a
last resort we learn this through our
civil discourse training and through our
Arizona leag of cities training we also
learn that it falls squarely on the
shoulders of the sitting mayor to regain
control and establish the quum should a
meeting get out of
order sadly the mayor continues to
display inconsistencies in the
management of meetings during stressful
periods which has brought us to this
moment this is not a one-off situation
rather a series of missteps that have
come at a high cost to our community's
reputation I'm saddened that she doesn't
acknowledge or recognize that she could
or should have handled these situations
differently and that ladies and
gentlemen to me is an unfortunate lack
of leadership in this community deserves
better I've worked this past year with
fellow council members and staff to
bring forward new policies and
procedures to ensure we don't have this
happen again but even with those
policies in place the responsibility
will still fall to the mayor to keep
decorum and Rise by the noise and
emotion to ensure the business of the
town is conducted in a fair
manner
it is because of her actions and lack of
willingness to accept assistance and
advice regarding these leadership skills
that leads me to believe that the mayor
requires additional training to continue
in the role of chairing these uh Council
meetings
um with that I um will stop and may ask
you if you have any comments before we
go back into what action can be taken
this
evening
well as I've said before I honor the
process and welcome the findings and
like the rest of the council have no
hand in this investigation process and
I'm concerned with the appearance of
penalizing Me by not accepting by not
being accepting due to the concerns
about the investigation process that I
had nothing to do with um it saddens me
to see that this is continuing in the
community it um
I've Loved this community and I've
served this community honorably for many
years and will continue to do
so thank you mayor um so the actions
that can be taken this evening I want to
go over them one more time um take no
action which means there is not a motion
or a second and by doing so the
complaint will be deemed dismissed with
pre
Prejudice secondly adopt the reports
finding that the mayor's conduct did not
constitute an Ethics violation of the
former code with no further action which
will need a motion in a
second third option is to accept the
receipt of the report as presented and
consider additional Council action which
requires a motion in a second Again by
accepting the receipt of the report it
will mean that the council is only
accepting the report but not adopting
the findings
lastly reject the report's finding that
conduct did not constitute an Ethics
violation of the former code which means
the council believes that there was an
ethical violation it may direct action
penalties following a motion in a second
um I wanted to just restate a few points
that were made um
regarding um concerns about the
investigation as a whole and um
that there uh council member banani that
you
were um open to accepting the report but
not the findings as as that correct
correct okay thank you um before
um I make a motion I just want to make
sure everybody was heard and felt that
they provided input before I make the
motion okay so based on the comments
made this evening and the pattern of
behavior displayed these past three
years I'd like to make a motion to
accept receipt of the report as
presented with a
note while some witnesses were not
interviewed this complaint will not be
reopen this is we're done with this
complaint at this
point secondly um ask the council to uh
approve the mayor to require the mayor
to complete the council and open open
meeting law training presented by the
Arizona League of
cities in addition I would like to place
on the agenda on December
12th uh a report of what if the uh
training has been completed and if there
are any additional penalties that may
need to be considered should the mayor
refuse or if there is any other
penalties that the the um
Council felt um
needed to be made so I'm going to ask
for a second and then I'd like to
explain a few things I'll second that
thank you so we have a a a motion in a
second
um before we vote I I just want to note
that this action does not require the
mayor to leave the Das during Council
meetings or Rel relinquish her chair
role um however we do have the power to
expel any member on the Das should it be
deemed appropriate
the lack of skills to effectively chair
meetings during stressful times does not
raise to the level of
exposion however if the mayor chose to
refuse the training it may be something
we'd have to consider in the future um
upon approval by the the council staff
would work to schedule a training
session this training session is open to
all members of the council as well and I
encourage us all to
attend to ensure that any mayor that
sits here finds himself in a situation
in a stressful situation that the mayor
was in at that time that we are able to
help that mayor get through that so that
we don't it even though it falls on the
shoulders of the mayor we should be
trained to be able to help in that that
situation should we need to um
so um with that unless there's any
comments that to say I didn't state that
I just have a follow-up question to what
you just were recommending that open
meeting law training between now and
December 12th is that what you're saying
through the league of Arizona cities and
towns I just want to be clear that what
you're voting on and that what I would
be agreeing
to um I can't find any training for the
league of Arizona cities in they they
will conduct a training separate and so
um after the motion we would
um direct staff to get that training on
your schedule the
the the item on December 12th is defi is
a report on what the status is if you
have training scheduled I think that
would be taken into that's another
because I'm traveling next week so yeah
I know so
um I know that was a little out of order
but this is an important situation and I
think it was fine that we um
communicated so
um so we have a motion on the floor by
myself seconded by um council member Bon
javani to accept the receipt of the
report as presented with a note that
while some witnesses were not
interviewed this um this um complaint
will not be
reopened through a council action
require the mayor to complete the
council and open meeting law training
presented by the Arizona League of
cities and add
uh to the agenda on December 12th a
status of that training and where we are
in that and if there was a need to
present any other penalties at that time
so that we make sure that
um by open meeting law that we have um
actually presented that correctly um so
with that um we'll
vote
um the motion passes with a 60 vote
um I just want to make sure that uh the
direction that uh staff understands the
direction at this point Patrick would
you have your staff organize a training
session and send out the uh calendar
invite to all council members took yes
and the goal would be to have a a date
on the schu before the the um December
12th not that the training had to be
completed is that okay okay
clarification yes it wouldn't be fair it
is it wouldn't be fair and you're right
and thank you I was um I was going to
mention that at the end mayor but I
appreciate you bringing that up and um
Chell um that you would add that um that
um agenda item to make sure that we can
have a full discussion and and follow
all the open meeting laws yes vice mayor
okay um mayor with that I think we're
done thank you moving on we have um no
policy items and our future meetings
will be December
12th we only have one meeting in
December so that'll be the only meeting
for next month and right now we'll go to
Communications report from the town
manager thank you mayor members of the
council couple announcements today first
I'd like to recognize our information
technology department who was a winner
in the 2022 digital city city survey
by the center for digital government and
is a 2023 top 100 techn technology team
Award winner then I'd also like to
congratulate our former deputy chief
technology officer Eugene Mahia who is
now in his new role as our chief AI
strategy and transformation officer
we've already we uh have a policy under
um review right now that is uh soon to
be implemented and we have several of
our technology partners with AI High
embedded technologies that we will be
using in the organization soon and we
look forward to all the benefits this
new technology is going to offer to our
community and to our service lines uh so
we congratulate Eugene me Kia once again
and looking forward to his leadership in
that area thank you
mayor thanks Patrick congratulations to
Eugene next we have report from Council
any members of council have something to
report council member torguson hey this
evening uh Council heard a study session
about the Heritage district wayfinding
and place marketing effort which was
hours ago most of you probably weren't
here uh if any members of the public
missed today's study session or the
Redevelopment commission study session a
final study session will be held next
Wednesday December 6th at 5:00 p.m. at
the Planning Commission and as a
reminder the town of Gilbert in
conjunction with the Gilbert Chamber of
Commerce will be hosting a heritage's
district meetup on Thursday December 7th
from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. uh the infant
will feature a walking tour of the
Heritage District moderated by
representatives from Gilbert's office of
Economic Development and you can expect
to learn more about our current and
future projects within the district
including infrastructure projects higher
education private developments and the
activation of public spaces for retail
art and culture it's a free event you
can sign up via the chamber website at
www.gilbertschools.net
[Music]
uh last week to Atlanta while some
things I I was a Gass at the one thing I
really walked away from was how far
ahead and truly efficient our staff is
doing their job I'm listening to people
that are far behind us and not uh not as
focused on the ball such as the water
projects we've talked about Etc and uh
my belief that we are uh doing things as
best as can be done was reinforced by
watching the problems other people were
experiencing and it was a great learning
session in that respect
thanks vice mayor
Tikki mayor um I was presented a card
for your birthday and I believe you have
um flowers and maybe some goodies in the
back so happy birthday I hope you had a
great
day thank you
um I did have a great day it was a
couple of days ago next any other
comments yeah I try to reiterate what um
council member tenson said um it was it
was night and day for us in that uh in
that conference hearing other cities and
other towns that have been maybe around
for a lot longer than us but you
know didn't have a clue in some of the
problems that that we've already solved
so it was good to see and I knew we had
a great staff and a great um executive
team here but it it really just enforced
that going to that meeting being around
20 2,500 other cities and towns with
issues that we've already solved and I
really believe in the city of the future
and the plan that we have here from
going to that so thank
you any other
comments seeing none I'll move on to
report from the mayor so I mentioned
that I would be traveling next week I
will be headed to Washington DC for Carl
Harbor day it's the 82nd anniversary of
that fateful day within our country and
there will be a wreath laying ceremony
at the Navy Memorial um the keynote
speaker will be Nikki Stratton who is
the sponsor for the USS Arizona
submarine and um this will be at no cost
to the town because I will be paying for
this trip out of my own pocket um there
are a lot of holiday events coming up in
Gilbert I was going to try and list them
all but it's easier just to go to Gil
gilbertaz.gov scroll down to the latest
news and there's a there's a link for
celebrate the holidays with these
Gilbert events they include ride with
Santa and Gilbert Fire Jingle Bell
Express Blue Line Of Love Holiday Drive
with Gilbert PD photos with Santa with
Gilbert PD Santa Paw pictures we all
love our pets here in Gilbert um hope
everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving
and our Gilbert Days parade we got about
10 minutes of pouring rain about 15
minutes before the parade started so we
were all a little drenched but we had a
wonderful time out there celebrating
with our residents meeting
adjourned