Regular Meeting - 9/19/2023 6:30:00 PM

foreign
folks just bear with us give us about a
minute and a half and we'll be ready to
get started thank you
I guess I don't even need a minute and a
half I will go ahead I look down the row
and everybody's in their seats I will go
ahead and call to order the Gilbert
council meeting for September 19th 2023
if I could please remind everyone to
turn off or silent your cell phones and
devices we would appreciate that very
much council members I Look to all of
you too to do so and we will start with
an invocation by Pastor Brad Myers of
Central Christian Church thanks for
being here with us pastor
there's a button on the bottom of the
mic there you go thank you
that's all I had to do
well thank you so much for the
invitation to be with you and to bless
this meeting
so father God
I pray this week pray for this meeting
tonight
give these council members wisdom and
guidance as they deliberate on the items
before them
we ask that you open our ears so that we
may hear your voice
open our minds so that we may receive
your Eternal wisdom
open our spirit so that we may know your
leadership and guidance
and open our hearts so that we may
receive your wonderful love
fill us with your grace Lord God as we
make decisions that will affect us and
all those around us
and continue to remind us that all we do
here all that we accomplish is for the
pursuit of Truth for the greater glory
of you and for the service of humanity
in Jesus name we pray amen thank you so
much Pastor we appreciate that and
appreciate your time coming out this
evening to offer an invocation for us
if you could there you go thank you we
have a new system tonight folks so bear
with us as we get used to using it
vice mayor if you would please lead us
in the Pledge of Allegiance thank you
would you all stand and please honor our
nation with I pledge allegiance
did it go through sorry I pledge
allegiance 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
thank you vice mayor
if I could ask our town clerk Herrera to
please take the role
mayor Bridget Peterson here vice mayor
Kathy tilkey uh-oh I have to turn
everyone's mics on
here
council member Scott Anderson here
council member Chuck Bon Giovanni
here here council member Bobby Buckley
councilmember Jim Torgeson here the
Quorum is present thank you again we
have a new system so we're just getting
used to it that was our first roll call
with the new system we appreciate your
patience next we will move on to a
proclamation declaring October 2023 is
domestic violence awareness month if
you'll notice we are I think all of us
wearing some form of purple this evening
in honor of recognizing October's
domestic violence awareness month we
don't meet again until later in the
month so we wanted to make sure that we
got this important cause on our agenda
for this evening vice mayor tilkey will
be doing the presentation with Keith
Bradshaw
or we'll key through the presentation
first and then the proclamation thank
you Keith Bradshaw to the podium
good evening on behalf of the entire
domestic violence Awareness Month
committee it's a pleasure for us to be
here today and to highlight October as
the National Domestic Violence awareness
month which we are excited to promote
here in the town of Gilbert
my name is Keith Bradshaw and I have the
honor of serving as the committee
chairman and working alongside these
dedicated committee members who like me
are passionate about combating domestic
violence and all of its adverse
derivatives as you can see our committee
is comprised of professionals from
several different sections and
departments within the town of Gilbert
each play in a unique role in our
endeavors to Foster greater awareness in
the community
serving alongside us are several
external stakeholders who provide
substantial support and resources to
those who have been victimized within
our community as we work collaboratively
with these Community agencies we have
developed professional relationships
that have maximized the way we execute
the delivery of our workflows in order
to achieve positive outcomes and the
lives of those directly impacted by
domestic violence
the domestic violence Awareness Month
theme for this year is everyone knows
someone
since domestic violence transcends all
social economic cultural barriers part
of gaining awareness is being more
assertive
in speaking up when something is amiss
and even identifying someone that we may
know who very well could be the one of
more than 10 million women and men who
are victimized by domestic violence each
year in the United States
another component of awareness is
breaking down the negative stigma that
all too often accompanies victims of
abuse once you begin and understand the
re and recognize the Dynamics of
domestic violence which are briefly
stated
here in this slide it becomes easier to
see how speaking out about it is really
the first step to reducing it
we hope to create dialogue and Foster
more awareness in the town of Gilbert
through the following events first on
October 1st at dusk the Gilbert water
tower will be lit purple to honor
October as a National Domestic Violence
Awareness Month
and then of course throughout the entire
month of October
we're going to be receiving donations to
our partners winged hope and a new leaf
and you can see the QR codes there these
are going to be prominently displayed
throughout the town and through social
media and really we can't understate
just how much these external Community
agencies do in supporting our endeavors
as a town to helping those impacted by
domestic violence
on October 21st Saturday from 8 A.M to
noon we'll have our committee members
out at the Gilbert Farmers Market
promoting DV awareness
but really our Premier event will take
place October 26 from 5 30 to 7 30 right
outside the Gilbert public safety
building by the memorial where we will
have an event to really highlight the
awareness that we all need to have we'll
have some speakers including a victim
we'll have ribbon tine food trucks and
other events taking place there to
really bring us together as a community
to recognize this social ill and how we
can all contribute to combating it
to find out more information about
anything I just talked about and to stay
abreast of the additional things we may
be posting you can go to gilbertaz.gov
backslash dvam and the QR code there
will take you right to it
thank you very much
thank you Keith
and now we'll have the presentation of
the Proclamation if everyone that's here
with the DV group if you could come down
and join the vice mayor and Keith please
at the front
hi everybody
oh my goodness
wow
first of all
wonderful to see all of you and to know
that you are helping us support those in
our community
sometimes that are the unforgotten and
so with that I want to
read the proclamation for tonight
um whereas domestic violence is an un
underreported and hidden crime in
communities and whereas the National
Coalition of domestic violence defines
domestic violence as the willful
intimidation physical assault battery
sexual assault emotional and or other
abusive Behavior as part of a systemic
pattern of power and control perpetrated
by one intimate partner against another
and we recognize that combating it
requires defining it and whereas
while domestic violence affects over 10
million Americans each year across all
demographics it is 100 percent
preventable with awareness advocating
and educational efforts designed to
empower victims families communities and
institutions and to help break the
behavioral cycle of abusers
and whereas Arizona ranks as the fifth
highest state in America for domestic
violence and victimization
and whereas Gilbert actively serves on
the Maricopa County Association
of governments domestic violence
subcommittee to ensure Regional
discussions efforts and policies support
domestic violence victims and whereas
Gilbert's Police Department responded to
over 2400 calls for service related to
domestic violence assault abuse and
violation of court order between July
1st 2022 and June 30th 2023 and whereas
Gilbert is committed to increasing the
Public's awareness of domestic violence
and in October you will see domestic
violence awareness booths that educate
and ask for monetary donations to local
non-profits that Aid domestic violence
victims in our community
and whereas the dedication of Gilbert's
Family Violence officers police
counselors prosecutors and victim
Advocates can be found in their daily
efforts to save lives as well as
Gilbert's domestic violence specialty
Court which offers accountability for
victims and education through Court
mandated counseling for offenders and
whereas the community is invited to
attend a domestic violence awareness
event to be held outside of the Gilbert
Police Department main lobby doors at 5
30 pm on October 26 2023 and now
therefore on behalf of Bridget Peterson
mayor of the town of Gilbert on behalf
of Gilbert's Town Council do hereby
proclaim the month of October 2023 as
domestic violence Awareness Month in
Gilbert Arizona and urge everyone
to continue your efforts in being aware
and eliminating domestic violence from
our community
with this I'd like to present this
proclamation to Keith and we will get a
photo taken and I think you've said
given your presentation but would you
like to say anything else at this time
just that uh it takes a lot to to come
together and make a difference and with
all of us here and the different roles
that we play
um and the passion and dedication that
we possess I think we're making a
difference and the more we extend that
invitation to you to join us in this
fight I think we'll continue to see
great results
council members I'd like to ask if we
could join with group down on the floor
and have a photo taken
information is mine
next we have a proclamation declaring
September 2023 as ovarian cancer
awareness month and I'd like to invite
Rachel Sackett to join me
Rachel last year I wore teal just for
you and tonight I had to wear purple
and I appreciate all that you do and the
water tower is being lit tonight teal
for ovarian cancer awareness whereas
ovarian cancer is the fifth leading
cause of death for women and the
American Cancer Society estimates in
America in 2023 over 19 000 women will
be diagnosed with ovarian cancer and
thirteen thousand will die which
includes 450 new cases and 320 deaths in
Arizona and whereas due to vague
symptoms and lack of a reliable early
detection test most women are not
diagnosed until stage three or later
when the cancer has already begun to
spread outside of the pelvis and whereas
although the five-year survival rate for
stage one ovarian cancer is over 90
percent only 15 percent of ovarian
cancers are diagnosed at the early stage
with the current five-year survival rate
for late stage ovarian cancer at below
30 percent and whereas women's lives can
be saved through increased public
awareness of ovarian cancer and its
risks factors signs and symptoms and
whereas this month the Gilbert Arizona
joins the those who are battling ovarian
cancer honors those who have lost their
lives to it recognizes the loved ones
affected and admire our state's many
dedicated health care workers whose
efforts Aid those suffering brings
awareness to us about this silent killer
and hope for better diagnosis treatments
and a cure and now therefore I Bridget
Peterson mayor of the town of Gilbert on
behalf of Gilbert's Town Council do
hereby Proclaim September 23 2023 as
ovarian cancer awareness month and I
encourage all residents of Gilbert to
support the ovarian cancer awareness by
educating yourself and your loved ones
and visiting your doctor regularly
want to say a few words sure
so I thank you all for letting me be
here again this year thank you mayor
Peterson so as she said tonight
September 19th the Gilbert Tower will be
illuminated teal to support all women
fighting this cancer and on October 7th
at Gilbert Regional Park we actually
have our national ovarian cancer
Coalition are together until walk we'll
be walking
1.78 miles to represent the one in 78
women that are diagnosed with ovarian
cancer every year
and as the mayor stated because there's
no early detection test people are
usually diagnosed in later stages myself
it took four months and two surgeries to
be diagnosed with ovarian cancer so
please take a moment to review the cards
that my friend Jamie handed out learned
the signs and symptoms talk to your
health care providers and hopefully
together we could help save the lives of
many women in this community so thank
you so much
thank you for bringing it to our
attention every year too I know a
person's going to want to get a photo
and she's going to move us over a little
bit
behind me
and this is for you thank you thank you
thank you so much take care and um I
loved all your photos last year with the
water tower downtown so I expect to see
those again this year
next we have a proclamation declaring
September 17th
2023 to September 17th to the 23rd of
2023 as Constitution week and I'd like
to invite Mara Makowski and Carolyn
Harris and anyone else that's here from
the Daughters of the American Revolution
DAR members right here
thanks for joining us
Constitution week and I'm glad you got
this in we talked about this last month
at VAB veterans Advisory Board
Constitution week whereas September 17
2023 marked the 236th anniversary of the
signing of the Constitution of the
United States of America during the
Constitutional Convention in 1787 and
whereas the United States Constitution
Remains the Cornerstone of American
democracy and whereas remembering
recognizing and honoring this Bedrock
document that currently serves as the
longest surviving government Charter
still in use in the world thanks to our
founding fathers foresight is critical
to our country's future successes and
whereas it is imperative that we
continue to educate ourselves and our
future Generations about the
Constitution and America's founding
principles for federal and state
government individual liberty the
separation of powers between the
branches of government and now therefore
I Bridget Peterson mayor of the town of
Gilbert Arizona on behalf of Gilbert
Town Council do hereby Proclaim
September 17th to the 23rd 2023 as
Constitution week and invite our
community members young and old to learn
and reaffirm the ideals of the
Constitution by educating yourself about
this historic and living document its
powers its limits and its history
would you ladies like to say or a few
words I would yes I'm the I'm I'm the
committee chair of the Constitution week
for our chapter and this is very dear to
my heart
it's just something that I've always
grown up with we used to have it a lot
in in our schools
and what I brought for you tonight and
also for the Town Council Members this
is the preamble but it's explained to
kids it's used in the schools
and I quite frankly like it because it
explains some things to me that I I
thought oh good that's what that means
so I have a copy for you and each of the
council members and also for Bridget I
mean excuse me Kurt Kirsten and uh
Kirsten Kirsten and then the the town
council's aide as well oh thank you
thank you so much you can give them to
your grandchildren or your children or
um
it will help them understand what the
Preamble actually means did I have you
introduce yourself and say what your
position is yes I'm Carolyn Harris I'm
the corresponding secretary as well as
the Constitution week chairman of the
Governor George W P hunt chapter nsdar
thank you if I can pass the mic and you
can either introduce yourself yes my
name is Mara Makowski I'm the chapter
Regent which is a fancy word for
president and if you're not familiar
with the DAR we're all descendants of
people who fought and sometimes died in
the American Revolution to establish
this country as a free place and Carolyn
didn't mention this but it'll be on
display at the library this Saturday we
have a booth and as children come and go
we have bags with all kinds of patriotic
and your um certificate here will be on
display thank you
I'm Ann Fisher and I'm the treasurer of
the chapter
I'm Patty sir and I'm chairman of the
flag of the United States of America and
Community classroom
I'm Kathy Pennell I'm the
parliamentarian for our chapter and also
the state
um
official for the service for veterans
and with that I work with the VAB here
at Gilbert and I love being a part of
that thank you
um Kathy you're every place that I go I
think I think every event that I go to
you are there so it's great to have you
here tonight to thank you for making
sure that this got into the town too
this year and my husband's grandmother
was a member of the DAR
he could be right yeah
we haven't gotten that virus
and thank you thank you very much
there you go thank you so nice to see
you thank you thanks Kathy appreciate
you
[Applause]
yes as I walk back up to the diocese I'm
going to go ahead and introduce the
Gilbert sister cities youth ambassadors
they're here to give us a wee bit of a
of a report of their story about their
trips to Northern Ireland this summer
can't wait to hear it
Mike goes hot red wings hot
thank you
um yeah
we're doing individually make sure you
each introduce yourselves too please
thank you
um I just wanted to begin by saying
thank you to the Town Council for
allowing us to come and speak about our
experience on behalf of of the 2023
youth ambassadors and I wanted to
introduce myself my name is Kiera Carter
and I attend Higley High School
my name is yagoda glenyak and I attend
Gilbert Classical Academy
my name is David Wang and I attend
Gilbert Classical Academy
my name is Amara Manning and I also
attend tegley high school
throughout my time within this program I
have been able to learn multiple
valuable lessons and information that
I'm going to be able to carry with me
well throughout my future
I've had the opportunity to attend and
learn from multiple clinics including an
essay interview and a solicitation
Clinic
as a senior in high school I began the
college application process and having
have been able to attend something like
an essay Clinic has ever been more
valuable to me as I write essays writing
supplements and personal statements in
order to help me
gain in my future
and then along with that college
application process as I apply to some
more
rigorous schools sometimes they can
choose to ask for applicants to have
interviews and so to have been given the
opportunity to attend an interview
clinic and been given advice tips and
techniques from a professional
standpoint has become invaluable for me
and then also as I enter adulthood in a
more professional Workforce having again
that interview Clinic is something that
I'm just going to be able to use for the
rest of my life
we also had a solicitation Clinic which
has helped me better connect within my
community of Gilbert through the
solicitation Clinic I was able to make
connections with leaders in Gilbert and
then also small business owners and
those are connections that are
invaluable and things that I would not
have been able to do and I would not
have known how to do without Gilbert's
sister cities
I also learned Gilbert through a
historical aspect learning the history
of Gilbert has helped me really
understand what community is within
Gilbert it's close-knit and it's more
like a family which is not something
that you can say for every town and as
someone who's not native to Gilbert nor
Arizona through this program I was able
to find and meet one of my best friends
and I also was given an opportunity that
I couldn't have imagined in another town
I finally I wanted to say that this
program has helped me feel confident in
the fact that I am going to be an
independent contributing member of
society thank you
although I learned many wonderful things
from the the program I think one primary
thing that will stay with me throughout
my life is the importance of community
building
and before I joined this program I was
actually new to Gilbert I had just moved
there and I honestly I didn't know any
of my neighbors I was very much
disconnected
from the community here
however after taking that first step to
apply to go through the process to go
through all these activities like
meetings interviews and so on the ones
that Kara named
I well I had enough courage to go out of
my comfort zone to pursue those
relationships with those around me for
example during the Gilbert Days parade
that was one of the events we did
I it felt amazing just walking and
seeing smiling faces around me of people
that are just that I'm I just want to
meet you know
it was an amazing feeling and because I
remembered that feeling I also have
applied to be a volunteer at the musical
instrument museum at Phoenix and I have
been doing volunteer there volunteering
there since and it's been it's been
really helpful to in bringing me out of
my Shell let's say
moreover when I did go to Ireland the
Antrim Utah Abbey Council there also
gave me much inspiration in what
connects us all in the way that we're
all a community and the way that we're
all trying to come together and help
each other help our communities
individually they were doing that for
their community and I found that very
inspiring very motivational especially
in moving forwards in life
especially as we move forward in life
that is a very important thing to keep
in mind
and ultimately this program helped me to
notice what is what is what is most
important human connection it is after
all
human connection
and so as we continue in college in work
and Beyond I think we will keep this
experience in mind as a reason to
continue to be involved in local
organizations and to motivate local
change because
it's important and it needs to stay with
us no matter where life takes us
all right good evening everyone good
evening to all those behind me who are
telling today before I begin I'd like to
thank all of you for allowing us the
chance to speak to you about perhaps one
of the most impactful programs we have
ever been a part of just a year ago I
couldn't imagine standing here today and
giving this speech and it's truly these
connections fostered by Gilbert's sister
cities that have allowed me allowed all
of us such an honor
now over the course of this program I've
connected with Unique Individuals both
here in Gilbert and abroad in our sister
city Andrea Newton Abbey Northern
Ireland
and Gilbert I connected with various
business owners even now in Mesa during
our trips donation campaign
I've grown photos to my fellow
ambassadors as well as students at my
own School
and last but not least I'm honored to be
able to work with the Gilbert sister
city board members and give this speech
today in front of you all as the leaders
of Gilbert
now in Northern Ireland the connections
I made flourished whether it was meeting
the friends of my exchange partner or
his entire family these are memories I
will truly treasure forever
and Northern Ireland there was a weekly
volunteering event for a run and I met
the most friendly and helpful local
people there
and of course I met the counselors in
the mayor Mark Cooper of the borough of
Andrews and Abbey and I will never
forget that experience
now
on swimwear personal level between
myself and my exchange partner Matthew
Byrne
when we first moved to each other's
houses for two weeks the atmosphere was
naturally a bit awkward being in a new
home thousands of miles away a new
country but we found a common Connection
in music he played the guitar I played
the piano and for those first several
days we
play those instruments for each other we
really got to adjust and get to know
each other better
my point here is that
even factors such as music
have enhanced the connections and
brightened the lives of all those
involved in Gilbert's sister cities
now
just three years ago I was a nervous
freshman having just moved here to
Arizona from Utah and into online school
made the pandemic as many of you may
recall
however I've made new connections since
then enhanced by Gilbert's sister cities
and as I stand here before y'all today
I truly believe that my fellow
ambassadors past ambassadors and I have
truly grown as individuals better
prepared for college and a life beyond I
am truly excited for what this program
holds in the future thank you
foreign
s of the program to us ambassadors and
those who are applying so the Gilbert
sister cities program
teaches high school students to look
outside of their own bubble and
experience the world that is much
broader than just what goes on in their
own lives the program has given us the
opportunity to make important
connections within our local community
such as presenting to the Town Council
and meeting the mayor as well as make
those connections across the world in
lechon China and Antrim Newton Abbey
Northern Ireland it is these connections
that allow us to see the world from
different perspectives and because of
the type of program that this is
one in which you stay with the family
and learn their values within the home
you are able to experience a foreign
country at the local level proving that
there is more to see than just your
everyday tourist spots
Gilbert sister cities offers such a
uniquely important program
that prepares young adults for Life
After High School and equips us with the
tools to be contributing members of both
local and Global communities
the program
sorry let me start over traveling
um abroad has given us the opportunity
to become independently mature and for
me personally it has grown my desire to
experience life outside of the us and
this is something so important for
juniors in high school because it opens
their eyes to what life can be like
after high school and that's something
that all Juniors should be able to
experience I speak on behalf of all of
our 2023 ambassadors that this summer
was probably one of the most amazing
experiences of our lives and we can't
wait to see what our next group of
ambassadors have in store thank you
thank you
the four of you
are quite different from the first time
I met you just about a year ago for the
first time
congratulations on the trip that you
were able to make making it through the
process I know is not easy I know that
they they grow you quite a bit but as
you demonstrated you all learned so much
from the process and I can't speak
highly enough about this program and the
four of you are just amazing young
adults and I know that you faced some
challenges on this trip you got stuck at
an airport I heard and it was something
that hasn't happened in quite a while if
ever as we've exchange students so just
well done and I'm so proud of all of you
and can't wait to see what you do next
thank you for sharing the program with
us tonight
I love it I hope everybody else loves it
too
thank you
[Applause]
parents should be super proud of these
students super proud and the Gilbert
sister cities board members that are
here and you should be so proud of this
program we just celebrated 25 years in
Northern Ireland for our relationship
with Andrew Newton Abbey and it was an
amazing opportunity for all of us to be
there and experience and thank you for
that
next we will move on to a presentation
on FY 2021 2022 Valley Benchmark
communities Trend report and that will
be given by I see Kelly fost headed to
the podium
Kelly
thank you mayor and Council uh every
year we work on our Valley Benchmark
cities report and this year as part of
our professional development we'd love
to give Janie's heart an opportunity to
give that that presentation to you she's
one of our budget analysts and works
directly with our Valley Benchmark
cities is our liaison with that group so
she is the subject matter expert Wizard
of Oz behind the curtain and we'll tell
you more about that
thank you Kelly
all right good evening everyone yes this
is the valley Benchmark community's
Trend report for FY 2122
so Valley Benchmark communities the
purpose of the initiative is to help
improve local government performance we
work in Coalition with ASU Center of
urban Innovation and the IMCA it's
composed of 13 cities Avondale Buckeye
Chandler Gilbert Glendale Goodyear Mesa
Peoria Phoenix Queen Creek Scottsdale
surprise in Tempe Buckeye and Queen
Creek officially started with the
program back in 2021
so the first demographics that we'll
look at here will be our percentage of
population change one thing you'll see
throughout the presentation is that we
represent our minimum with this yellow
the median is represented in the green
the maximum will be represented with
blue and then Gilbert will be
represented with the orange
so the first thing I want to call out
here is that as we look at the 2021-2022
period we see that we've had some
population
increases with regards to the 7.1
percent for which represents the city of
Queen Creek in addition to that we see
that we have our minimum which has
increased for the city of Scottsdale
represented there at the 0.6 percent
and then additionally Gilbert is
represented in the orange slightly above
the minimum a little bit below the
median there in the green
as we move on and we look at the median
household income again you see that the
blue represents that maximum 111
743 Gilbert comes in just below that at
105 733
the maximum is represented Again by the
city of Queen Creek and then
Additionally you see there that we are
still maintaining our median household
income above our minimum and above the
median
as we move on looking at the fire and
medical service responses we can see
what the response times for FY 2122
average high there is that 8 minutes and
37 seconds and when we talk about fire
response times what we're referring to
is the time that it takes to get the
fire apparatus out to this service call
and then again Gilbert maintains above
the minimum there that minimum being
that three minutes and 34 seconds and
then that median is that 5 minutes and
22 seconds so we're just right in the
middle there
as we go ahead and we look at our Police
Service data we're talking about
property crime per 1000 residents what
you'll see in the graft is that it's
very hard to distinguish our minimum the
reason being is that Gilbert typically
has always overlapped or been the
minimum and so that's why you can't
quite see the difference there again
that maximum represents that 46.11
medians the 19 and then 10.51 represents
the minimum there Gilbert comes in right
just the hair above that 10.94
as we look at our library data we're
talking about physical item turnover
what we're seeing here in the trend for
2122 is that libraries across the valley
have all started to rebound as far as
utilization is concerned bouncing back
again from covid we can see that we've
gone up the maximum is at 7.65 which
represents Gilbert and then the minimum
is represented at the
1.91 which is the City of Tempe
looking at The Parks and Recreation data
we're looking at miles of trails per
1000 residents and so again we can see
that the 2.17 is representing the
maximum in the blue representing the
city of Scottsdale and then our minimum
is represented right at 0.01 which is
the city of surprise Gilbert comes in
right above the median there which is
0.25 for Gilbert
and then moving on if we look at our
water sewer and Trash Services we're
talking about standardized monthly
combined bills for the lower use the
maximum for FY 2122 was 133.63
and then the minimum comes in at the
51.91 as you can see there again Gilbert
Trends right along the lines of the
minimum because we represent the low for
that statistic but still
um showing there in that orange
and then lastly as we look at the water
sewer Trash Services we're talking about
the percentage of single family
residents that waste diverted through
recycling as we can see here we have a
consistent uh trend line for the
community of Gilbert representing that
19.74 percent with regards to recycling
diverted and then the maximum is the 23
percent which represents the city of
Peoria and then we have our minimum down
there at
0.02 percent overall we can say that
recycling remains a huge gorilla effort
but we do a great job of managing our
recycling any questions
any questions Council
great presentation great findings on
behalf of Gilbert
love seeing the operations that we are
able to do and comparing us to the other
cities here in the valley I think it's a
it's a great way to be able to see what
we're doing for our residents
thank you for that thank you and the
full report will be available on our
website as well thank you appreciate it
you're welcome have a great rest of your
night you as well
next
I lost my sheet here next we will be
moving on to our
Communications from citizens vice mayor
if you would like to hit your mic there
thank you
and I will pass it to you for the
communications from citizens
thank you mayor the Gilbert Town Council
values citizen comments and input anyone
wishing to speak before the council must
fill out a request to speak card for
each item they wish to speak on and
submit it to the town clerk or place it
in the bin provided prior to the start
of the meeting the communications from
citizens portion on the agenda provides
citizens an opportunity to identify for
the Town Council matters of Interest or
concern related to town and government
that are not on the printed agenda
under the provisions of the Arizona open
meeting law the Town Council has
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 on non-agenda items 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 placed on a future agenda the
town asked that when your name is called
you come forward to the podium state
your name and place of residence and
then begin speaking all speakers are
expected to observe common standards of
decorum and courtesy personal attacks
political speeches or threats of
political action are inappropriate in
this forum and will be grounds for
ending a speaker's time at the podium
with that our first speaker will be Jim
Freedom followed by Brandon riff
Jim if you will come forward and we'll
have you turn on the mic
so down on the bottom there you'll see
Michael do red you'll have three minutes
and you'll be noticed when the three
minutes is over thank you very much
thank you
uh good evening I am Jim Freedom
resident of Earth I am an investigative
journalist for Street News Network
in 2023 public records should be the
easiest action for a government to
perform news agencies including
independent journalists need to be able
to access this information in a timely
manner in order to disseminate it to the
public and to in order to disseminate it
to the public and inform the population
of events happening around them
there's a reason it's mentioned
specifically in historical documents and
there's a reason governments fight so
adamantly to suppress it because
knowledge is power and because they have
something to hide those two years sound
like for body camera footage sound
reasonable in 2023 two years is an
absolutely unreasonable amount of time
for a computer file to be reviewed and
transferred how can we run a successful
news organization if we have to wait two
years for information after some
investigation I've learned and have
proof that the government treats me
differently than it treats mainstream
media when it comes to obtaining public
records this is a violation of
well-established law but it is still
normal everyday procedure
it's absolutely ridiculous that we have
to file a lawsuit to get the government
to follow its own rules that it wrote
and even if that will only ensure that
they follow the law with us they'll
still take two years for any other
aspiring journalists unless they are
lucky enough to have the resources and
time to file and go through a lawsuit of
their own and are lucky enough to win
that lawsuit against known liars and
cheaters
here in Gilbert you're talking about
raising the price of public records by
46 dollars an hour for body camera
footage the taxpayers have already paid
for the salary of the record specialist
and all of the equipment necessary for
them to do their jobs I sure wish I
could start charging my boss an extra 46
bucks an hour on top of my salary to do
my job as normal for no logical reason
whatsoever
I'm flabbergasted at your audacity the
extra 46 dollars you're trying to charge
serves only two purposes to further
enrich yourselves that the taxpayers
expense and more importantly to further
limit who has access to public records
you're sick of Free Press putting a
camera on the truth of your corruption
and this price raise is an unnecessary
and completely illegal attack on the
average person's ability to obtain
public records that they literally
already paid to generate and keep safe
in the first place I suggest you remove
this price raise from your agenda before
the October 24th meeting if you make me
take you to court over it then I'll also
push to remove the 25 flat rate that
you're already charging now on the
grounds that were already excessively
taxed enough to pay for it thank you for
your time
Jim
Brandon riff and following Brandon will
be Ryan handelsman
good evening exactly one year ago the
mayor had the SWAT team removed myself
and other residents from the council
meeting violating our first amendment
rights we asked for a dollar and an
apology the mayor arrogantly and
stubbornly refused and so to defend our
rights under the Constitution the Civil
Rights lawsuit was filed instead of
admitting her mistake and apologizing
the mayor went on the offensive making
up lies to smear my good name and defend
her wrongful actions
the night the mirror threw us out one
could argue was In the Heat of the
Moment
a momentary lapse in judgment Maybe
but then a week later after having ample
time to thoughtfully consider the
situation the mayor sat down and wrote
blatantly false statements about me
which she absolutely knew were false in
order to defend her reputation and harm
mine the news gets a hold of it
and publishes the lies and now it's
affecting my place of business and I
find that unacceptable
in Arizona a person may be liable to a
private figure concerning speech where
the speaker knows the statement is false
and defames somebody acts and Reckless
disregard concerning the truth or act
negligently and failing to ascertain the
veracity or falsity of a statement so
the mayor is in some trouble but I'm
here tonight because why should this be
under taxpayers
town code section 2-105 States the town
shall not defend indemnify or make any
payment in connection with any claim
made against an employee under the
following circumstances claims arising
out of the employee's will for willful
or wanton misconduct claims arising out
of Acts of the employee's bad faith
it's bad faith and you know it's bad
faith
according to the town code the town
should not be using taxpayer dollar to
defend the mayor for her malicious
actions against a resident but were the
mayor's actions malicious well we don't
know because the town attorney blocked
any legitimate investigation from being
done allowing the mayor to make up a
bogus story while not even contacting
the other side is not a legitimate
investigation and everybody in this room
knows it now all kinds of people file
all kinds of frivolous complaints and
those move forward but mine gets shot
down by the town attorney
if the mayor did nothing wrong why are
you guys so afraid of a legitimate
investigation into her actions
so the town attorney refuses an
investigation to save taxpayer money but
then turns around and uses taxpayer
money that could have been spent on
roads Schools Police and Fire to hire
this hot shot attorney just to fight
Brandon riff
the Hotshot attorney looks at the
situation considers the mayor's wrongful
actions against a man who has the will
and the means to go to court and you
know what he sees dollar signs
this man has no incentive to do what's
right and de-escalate the situation he's
there to make money to crank up billable
hours
and the town attorney is happy to have
that happen because it protects the
mayor and her job which in turn protects
him and his job
reality is if the mayor was personally
on the hook for her actions if it was
her money being spent
this conflict would have been over
before it started I'll leave you with a
proposition
because this is about Justice not money
honor the town code and pull the mayor's
legal defense funding she's not entitled
to it per the code allowed me to
personally hold her responsible for her
actions in court in exchange I will
release the town for my lawsuit the
mayor started this fight and she needs
to finish it leave the taxpayers out of
it and let the mayor fight her own fight
I won't get any money out of the mayor
but I will get Justice and I will
separate my good name from the malicious
Lies coming from the mayor thank you
thank you Brandon um
Ryan you're up there and following Ryan
is Aaron accurso
my Ryan handelsman town of Gilbert
speaking here tonight again talking
about a little bit of an uh ancillary
movement that Brandon riff was speaking
about
August 21st of this year Brandon and I
filed an Ethics complaint against the
mayor outlining additional findings and
bringing forward new material to help
substantiate
what we feel was a violation of the code
of ethics for something that happened
about a year ago when we were thrown out
that was August 21st on August 28th we
received a notice from the town that
Chris Payne the town attorney
made the recommendation that the council
dismissed this complaint
on September 4th of this year council
member Bon Giovanni Buckley and Torgeson
placed our ethics complaint on the
agenda for this meeting tonight
against the mayor
two days later
the mayor places an Ethics complaint the
ethics complaints of hops versus Buckley
Hopps versus torquinson
Peterson versus torgenson and Bon
Giovanni versus Peterson on the agenda
a little ironic that two days after
the attack the ethics complaint on the
mayor is put on the agenda that all of
these are on the agenda
and it really only just wants to I
mentioned that because it only
punctuates the reason why I'm here
I'm not asking for you guys tonight to
place an opinion on what happened a year
ago when we were
forcibly removed from the meeting
what I'm asking for you guys to do
is look at the process right
Kathy when we were dealing with the
ranch you spoke about process Scott I've
heard you speak about process Jim
everybody just talking about the process
so
in short years ago
after the a year ago after the incident
in question somebody files a mere two
sentence ethics complaint which was
investigated well I use the term loosely
investigated by Bill Sims who only spoke
with the mayor didn't call me didn't
call Bill didn't call or didn't call
Brandon anybody just spoke to the mayor
metaphorically speaking called her up
saying did you do it she said no and
then all of a sudden case dismissed
so Sims fails to contact Brandon or me
during the original complaints of the
original investigation we submit new
findings a couple of weeks ago only for
Chris Payne to step to send the
recommendation for dismissal so again
I'm not asking you later on to discuss
whether or not what we what the mayor
did was right or wrong
I'm asking for you to look at it from
the perception of the town and from the
perception of the residents of is this a
fair process right
was there an investigation conducted
that spoke
to the mayor and spoke to the victims
and we all know that that wasn't the
case it's documented it's public record
so hopefully later on today you'll allow
the ins the ethics complaint to move
forward and Bridget truly if you had
nothing to hide then you should be
okay with that moving forward
if you have nothing to hide
thank you Ryan next is Aaron acuso and
following with Eric Perez
good evening mayor council my name is
Aaron accurso a resident uh 18-year
17-year resident of Gilbert and I'd like
to bring to your attention
what a neighboring municipality Queen
Creek
is being is on has on their agenda
tomorrow evening at their council
meeting
Mary mayor Julia Wheatley and council
member Leah Martineau has proposed a
resolution
on on this upcoming agenda regarding
mask masking and vaccinations within the
town of Queen Creek
I'd like to read you a couple of items
from this proposed resolution
whereas Town Council in part whereas
Town Council leaves the decision to wear
a mask and to receive a vaccination or
personal decisions not something to be
mandated by government and
whereas the Town Council believes in the
right and Liberty of individuals to make
personal decisions according to their
convictions it is resolved or proposed
to be resolved
that
it shall be the policy of the town to
allow employees
of to make their own decisions regarding
vaccines and wearing masks as those are
personal decisions that do not require
government mandates
also because the decision to receive
vaccination is a personal decision that
should be made according to the
individual's own convictions and
employees of the town will not be
compelled to wear a mask or be
vaccinated to keep their jobs
another the Town Council recommends its
citizens and general public exercise
personal responsibility to prevent
illnesses but commits not to
implementing measures such as mask
mandates business closures vaccination
requirements curfews or any similar
measure
I want to take this moment
to ask you guys to look to the town of
Queen Creek as an example
with this proposal
and I ask that you potentially bring it
before our Council and make the same or
very similar resolution with regard to
to our town employees and our citizens
it is their god-given Liberties and
freedoms to act or not act on their own
behalf without the interference of the
town government or any government that
happens to preside over them
I have copies for each of you of the
proposed resolution it is in their Town
packet or Town Council agenda packet
that there that's going before their
meeting tomorrow and I would like to
pass it off to whomever can take it to
to uh
to give to the tone thank you for your
time
thank you Aaron Judy will take that for
you thank you very much Eric Perez
do I have to hit the button okay
it was on yeah
sorry about that good evening everyone
um I am here my name is Eric Perez I'm
here on behalf of East Valley Institute
of Technology we would like to thank
council member Jim Ferguson for his
generous donation of the silk screen
printer the dryer and the 50 gallons of
ink that we're going to be using so
thank you so much it means the world to
us I'm a graphic design instructor at
even and it just means it means a lot so
thank you that's all I had to say so I'm
going to add
named Shelly bugs I am on the I'm a
president of the Eva governing board and
I just wanted to add that even is only
as good as our community and our
Industries and because of that
I in my humble opinion think we are the
best seat Ted in the country and of
course in Arizona so anyway thank you
very much it's good to see you guys
thank you
thank you very much
um mayor that is it for the
communications from citizens great thank
you vice mayor and you're moving on to
the consent calendar
yes mayor
um I have a request to pull number 8G
for you mayor
um did you want to speak to that no yeah
I'll just make a comment on that I I
noticed um 8G is a grant for the police
department to receive to continue
providing student resource officers in
our junior high schools and high schools
and I noticed that one of the local news
channels picked up that story and I just
wanted to make a comment that I think as
you've seen tonight in this room
students and our kids are so important
to this Council and that is one reason
that this Council and our Police
Department are involved in having the
student resource officers in our junior
high schools and our high schools
throughout our community and our three
school districts that we support here in
the town of Gilbert most people don't
realize that schools don't fall under
the authority of the mayor and Council
so we don't pay teachers salaries we
don't pay for the buildings we don't
maintain any of that we just have no
authority over those but the
relationship that we have between our
police department and our schools is so
important to us that it's important that
we are able to accept grants like this
in order to keep that going and thank
you to our police officers that are
standing all over the room and I
personally know the um sros that serve
in our schools and they love their jobs
they love working with those students
every single day and I just want to make
that comment thank you thank you mayor
um
I'd like to
add number 50 and 51 to the consent
agenda item 51 I'll read that and then
council member Anderson will read item
number 50.
um a motion to appoint the following
member to the self-insured trust board
Aldo Valencia as a regular member with a
turn beginning October 1 2023 and ending
September 30.
2026 and council member Anderson
well I can't get back to the screen
because the vote screen is up already so
how do I get back to my can you cancel
the vote screen please okay he's up now
oh he's in okay thank you someone else
did it
my motion is to appoint the following
members to the Planning Commission Jan
Simon and Lisa Gage as regular members
of four-year terms beginning September
3023
and ending September 29 2027.
Noah month as a regular member with a
partial term beginning September 30th
2023 and ending September 29 2024 and a
full term beginning September 30 2024
and ending September 29 2028 and Thomas
Everett and Louis de gravina as
alternates with one-year terms beginning
September 30th 2023 and ending September
29 2024.
thank you council member with that mayor
I'd like to make a motion to approve the
consent agenda
items number six through 46 since we did
not pull any item adding item 50 and 51.
do I have a second
I'm a motion by vice mayor took a second
and by council member Buckley please
vote
and that motion passes 6-0
with um council member koprowski is not
present this evening so unanimously 6-0
and that concludes our consent agenda
moving on to
the public hearing portion of our agenda
this is a big agenda we have a lot of
pages the public hearing portion of our
agenda we have
four items on this evening's agenda does
anyone need anything pulled for a
separate presentation I do have one
public speaker on item
50
50 oh yeah I think it's 48. Jackson 48
item 58 okay thank you
58.
oh fees
you want 48 you want to hear 48 okay
thank you then would someone like to I
will open the public hearing on items 47
49 49 A and B
can I have a motion for those items
please
close the public hearing okay thank you
I'm a motion by council member Buckley
can I have a second
I have a second by vice mayor tilkey
please vote
and that passes 6-0 so that was 47 49 49
a b we will move on to item number 48
open the public hearing does staff have
a presentation on item 48 I think I see
I can't tell who's walking this way
I have staff walking to the podium for a
presentation
hello
press the button press the button there
you go thank you good evening mayor
Peterson members of the Town Council
Nicole Russell senior planner
tonight I'm going to present
z2303 Gilbert Santan rezoning
and let's see oh there we go
here's the subject Parcels which are
currently zoned sf15 single family 15.
with you've got our ru-43 County zoning
to the North ru-43 County zoning to the
east as well as sf-35 Gilbert zoning to
the east you have R4 and sf15 to the
South and sf-15 to the West most of the
properties surrounded by single-family
development and most of them are single
story
the request before the council this
evening is a rezone for approximately
30.6 Acres from single family 15 to
single-family 15 with a planned area
development overlay zoning District to
modify lock coverage setbacks and
Building height
here is a depiction of the final plat
the preliminary plot was approved by in
July of 2020 the final plot was approved
by the Town Council in August of 2023.
the deviations requested as part of the
pad overlay include reduced Building
height reduced front setbacks reduce
side setbacks and increase lock coverage
according to the applicant the proposed
single story height limitation will
present a development that provides a
housing product that maintains unique
features while also conforming with the
general character characteristics
established in the Santan character area
of Gilbert
restricting homes to single story with
modified setbacks is a creative
alternative to in a zoning District that
allows two-story homes as a matter of
Rights
the proposed modified front and side
setbacks are requested to accommodate
single-story homes the reduced setbacks
will in essence allow for more building
options such as alternative home layouts
such as its side entry garages and
multi-generational units with larger
building footprints
although the front and side setbacks are
requested to be reduced there will not
be any change to the rear setbacks for
the properties
the increase in lot coverage allows for
a creative home footprint as previously
mentioned which is comparable
to the existing built environment in the
area while ensuring the overall building
square footage is similar to the area
here is a depiction of the development
plan showing the reduced side setbacks
to 10 feet and the option for a 15-foot
friend setback as well as a 25 foot set
front setback
the applicant is indicated that a
neighborhood meeting was held on
November 30th of 2022 the comment
overview
Neighbors in the area had concerns with
the two-story homes as well as the
places placement of a secondary access
gate on
172nd Street
the applicant changed the request to
include the reduced Building height and
limiting to one story
after that meeting staff has received a
petition of support from eight Property
Owners along 170
170th Street
on August 2nd the Planning Commission
recommended approval of z2303 due to a
posting error the case was rehearred at
December September 13th Planning
Commission meeting where the commission
recommended approval several members of
the public were in attendance at that
meeting and two neighbors spoke in
opposition to the secondary access gate
of 172nd Street
should the council choose to approve
staff has
conditions outlined in the staff report
this concludes my presentation I am
available for any questions as is the
applicant
thank you great job your first
presentation with Council correct that's
correct great job thank you any
questions at this time we can bring the
applicant down
thank you we'll go ahead and invite the
applicant down to the podium Mr Reece
Anderson
mayor Peterson members of the council
good evening it's a pleasure to be here
with you you've gotten a great succinct
report from Nicole Russell may I ask
mayor did you receive any blue cards for
speakers this evening on this case
so Reese quick great question I didn't
receive any comments for public hearing
here in the room we received one comment
online that is against item number 48.
um very well I would rather Focus my
presentation or thoughts on answering
specific questions that any of you have
I've got a a long PowerPoint that I can
answer anything and everything but I do
not want to go there because this is
really a very simple no-brainer of a
case so I'd rather focus on questions
that you or council members may have and
I'm ready to answer those I can answer
anything you'd like yeah thanks Reese
any questions you have to
we have to get used to this thank you
councilmember Torgeson there we go what
were
since you seem to have support what were
the the negatives that were attached to
this yeah
councilman Torrington let me answer the
question this way the request that's
before you tonight is for a change just
to building setbacks and a
self-limitation to single story I have
not experienced a single person that
lives east west south north of this
project that opposes the requests for
you tonight
the opposition has been to the project
that's already been approved and the
plot's already been recorded for
and that was for a secondary access
point on 172nd Street that was vetted
out by all of the city I'm sorry Town
engineers and traffic department as well
as our own private Consultants as not
being a safety issue but that's not the
question before you tonight there is not
I mean the easiest way in a sense
there's not a project in front of you
that's being asked to be approved
there's a tweak to an already approved
project
that's being in front of you that's it
so that issue of which I can talk to
about traffic Etc and those safety
concerns is really not an issue
and I'm happy to go into the details of
that traffic analysis if you'd like
I'm okay
I'm okay any other questions for Mr
Anderson
I'm seeing none
I'm seeing none thank you I'll I'll sit
down thanks Reese appreciate that I'll
go ahead and close the public hearing
bring it back to the diocese for
discussion or and or motion if anybody's
ready
accept the item
I just lost the number I'm sorry 48 48.
z2303
mayor I'll second that and
I'd like to thank the applicant for
working with the neighbors and this
isn't something we see very often where
they would come in and self
regulate to a one-story development so
thank you
I think you have a motion by council
member Torgeson seconded by vice mayor
if we could please vote thank you
motion passes 6-0 unanimously thank you
Mr Anderson thanks for coming out this
evening
and working with the neighbors thanks
team great job on your first
presentation
we will now move on to administrative
items we've already handled
50 and 51 moving on to item number 52
consider acceptance of the budget report
and contingency report for the fourth
quarter of FY 2023
is Staff speaking to this I see only if
we have questions does anyone on the
council have any questions on this issue
can I get a motion to approve
in a second
I'll I'll just
thank you
um I have a I think it's easier and I
think we I can as long as I say your
names I think we're good we have a
motion by councilmember Buckley and a
second by vice mayor please vote
does that work town clerk thank you
oh mine didn't record for some reason
thank you
and motion pass is 6-0 moving on to item
number 53 review discussion and possible
action of recommendation of code of
ethics complaint filed against mayor
Peterson by Brandon riff and Ryan
handlesman
figure out how to get there we go
vice mayor would you like to handle this
topic
sorry turn your mic back on I hit the
wrong button thank you thank you
um
sure I'll be happy to Mayor
um
I believe this process is different than
the other ethics
conversations but um
I think that
I'm looking at Chris I know that we have
a process for the other ones should we
use the same process for this one
vice mayor that'd be my recommendation
okay
so um
it's my understanding that the um
that this agenda item was placed on the
agenda with a signature of three council
members
council member Bon Giovanni Torgeson and
Buckley
the process that we'll be using tonight
for these
these items Mary you right if I
know that
um
so we will introduce the item and then
have a council discussion the respondent
will have the opportunity to comment if
so if a complaint was
presented against them we will allow
that person to respond and then we will
take
Council action however during the
council conversation the respondent will
not participate in that portion of it
but we do want them to have an
opportunity to respond before we take
action
I'll just check since this is kind of
new and make sure that we're doing that
right and that we don't have
any concerns with that process
and did I follow that all right Chris
yes and vice mayor if I could just add
when it comes to
Council action you've got a few oh yes
few choices if you want to go through
what those could be sure I'd be happy to
thank you for that so uh possible
counsel action
one is
well first of all a simple majority is
needed to pass so just so everybody
knows that and
um
it's recommended that the council member
who is the subject of the complaint not
participate in any vote
so the possible Council actions is take
no action so if the council takes no
action the complaint will be deemed
dismissed with prejudice
adopt the ethics report recommendations
and we can just do that with emotion
reject the ethics report recommendation
if the council Rejects the ethics report
the council may make a determination
that an Ethics violation has occurred
however if the council finds a violation
has occurred a vote of five members of
the council is required to censor a
council member if the council rejects
the recommendation from the attorney's
office the council May instruct the
attorney's office to take specific
action
I know that's a lot we're going to try
to work our way through it it's because
this is new
this will be the only time we're going
to have this conversation because all as
far as I can unless something's hanging
out there and there may be one out there
but the new ethics policy will be in
place and we will follow that procedure
in the future so
um with that the introduction of number
53 is a
recommendation to reopen a new complaint
investigation on a prior complaint that
was investigated and received against
mayor Peterson and this is
brought forward by Brandon and Ryan
handlesmith vice mayor before we
continue
I would like to ask her for a
five-minute recess because I would like
to talk to the town attorney about
something
okay
um I I think that's fair so we will take
a five-minute recess and come back and
go right into item 53.
I'm going to give a 30-second warning
that will start the meeting
is that the right word warning I don't
know
all right here we are um back and we're
going to be discussing item 53
um as I mentioned this item was brought
forward with signatures of three council
members and at this time I would like to
turn it over to the three council
members to begin the discussion is
anybody ready to okay
this thing working yeah okay
so you guys know me by now you know what
I'm going to say
and that's let's separate the issue from
the people involved in the whole issue
in itself
and I'm going to
um bring out my inner vice mayor because
she's taught me to look into the future
about future ramifications
future ramification for this if we don't
move forward with it it's pretty simple
we're creating an environment where we
can all get a get out of free jail card
what I mean by that is this let's say I
do something that's horrible
and I'm concerned that someone is going
to file an Ethics complaint against me
so I call up a friend of mine and say
hey
file an assets complain against me would
give me really really weak evidence
so this way when it goes through I am I
am cleared of any kind of Ethics
violation
I think in this situation not having the
person who's actually grieved
file the ethnic complaint
is is a slippery slope that I'm
concerned for us if we just wipe this
out and not move forward with it I don't
believe the investigation
um was significant if they didn't talk
to all parties involved so my concern is
future ramifications of setting it up
where we can bring in Weak evidence
against us and be clear to Vanessa's
complaint
thank you council member
council member Torgeson
the
basically I'd like to reiterate what he
said not not here to pass judgment not
here to declare somebody has or has not
been uh unethical but the the point is
is that
I don't see how we can consider
ourselves holding everybody to a same
standard when a two sentence complaint
is filed and it removes the opportunity
for the people to consider themselves to
be victimized to no longer have a right
to file that
and
to have to be spoken to by an
investigator to have at least their side
of a story heard
it's it's to me it's akin to saying uh
and this isn't to cast blame but if you
had a domestic violence situation you
only spoke to the abuser and you never
spoke to the one that was abused uh I'm
not again I'm not trying to to say
somebody is is wrong or right in the
situation I think that the sit that the
process is so severely flawed and
allowing someone else to take the voice
away from two people that that deserve
to be heard is completely inappropriate
and those two people deserve to be heard
so that's the position I have on it
thank you councilmember Buckley
I just want to
reiterate and go with what councilmember
bonjiovanni and councilmember torgus and
have said
um
I I don't feel that that justification
was there I don't know how we can go
through with this Pro with with
the process when the actual victims
didn't have the time you know the
ability to defend themselves and and
have their say in this they were not
discussed
so uh
I know that it's been a longer time
frame and but there within the time
frame that's there because there is no
time frame for them to file and it was
mentioned why why did they wait so long
to file and but that really isn't an
issue because there's no time frame with
the new
ethics code that's going in there is a
time frame and there is a time frame for
continuing with filing all the
Amendments and things that have happened
but um you know I I think that this
needs to move forward
thank you council member
um
the request before us I I think that
some of the comments that are being made
may be
or just a little confusing about what
the complaint is and what we're we're
talking about so
um it's my understanding that the Essex
complaint that came forward was to
reopen the investigation of a prior
ethics complaint and
um for the reasons that you stated but I
just wanted to make sure the public
understood that that's that was what's
being asked of us is to reopen a new
investigation and
um so
when we received that the town attorney
gave the Town Council an opinion that
um
not to reopen it for several reasons and
I think you address a few of those one
was the time it's been 11 months since
the first initial investigation was
brought forward and that claim was put
to to bed as far as that particular
claim
and that
um
that it also sets a precedent of
of opening up it doesn't matter if an
investigation is closed and a decision
has been made or no action has been
taken this would set a precedent to keep
opening it up over and over and over
again and and so that was the opinion
that was shared by our Our Town attorney
um
with our new ethics
policy there there is a strict timeline
and a process that would be put into
place where this would not occur in the
future
based on complaints on this original
investigation
a lot of things have changed and
actually went into the ethics policy
because of some of the comments that
were already made that we are looking at
um
at making sure that all parties are
taught to that it's a more thorough
investigation in the future so again I
just want the public to understand that
based on this this is one of the
original ethics complaints that several
things have been put into place to make
sure that that doesn't happen in the
future
um
and and that's just to provide history
to those who aren't familiar with the
particular subject
um yes
oh okay sorry
um so with that I was going to turn it
over to the council to continue
um conversation council member Buckley
okay I'm sorry I didn't want to I'm not
interrupting you
am I with what you are were you finished
no I was finished yes you're fine okay
yeah I just wanted to be in line I I
don't I want to clarify something and uh
that that was said in that this is a
reopening of another investigation but
what I want to bring forward is that the
There Was You know the initial first in
the investigation was open and and
decided however
that the
the the
rife and Handelman that are filing the
the new one they're filing to them that
is a new complaint because they did not
ask for this other person to file this
complaint they did not request that by
them so they feel like they have not
been heard at all because the
investigator even didn't even talk to
them
so I I wanna I think we should clarify
if that is a reopened complaint or
because to them it is it's a new
complaint it's their complaint they want
to they want an investigator to talk to
them and have their opportunity to
defend themselves against that and they
they were not given that opportunity
thank you any other comments uh
Chuck yeah
um
yes it's change for the future and
that's a great thing and I'm I'm very
happy that the council members up here
working in that code of ethics
subcommittee did a good job in finding
those errors but it doesn't erase the
past I mean I have spent
a ton of hours in the last three weeks
doing nothing but talking to
investigators
uh uh for various ethical complaints on
this on this Council
um
they took the time to talk to everybody
but this
complaint which came through before we
were uh council member about Lee Tori
said I sat in the council
you need to ask yourself was it fairly
investigated if they didn't talk to the
people who were grieved to begin with
how is that a fair investigation and I
don't know how it wasn't stopped or not
dismissed shall we say the first time
this it came to this Council after the
investigation was done it to me it just
wasn't a fair investigation and even
though this may be the last group of
people before we start the new one
doesn't mean that their
concerns should be ignored and it could
be anyone you know it doesn't have to be
Dr rip or anyone it could be anyone out
there asking for this and I would be
stating the same opinion that I have now
it just wasn't an adequate investigation
thank you
um
any other council members
council member Anderson
do we know that the others were all
conducted fairly all the other
investigations
do we know that
anybody know
which other ones the other ones are on
the agenda tonight
I mean did we judge that they've been
conducted fairly
well yeah
um yeah I would I would I would say yes
you know they talked to enough people
uh in the investigations that we'll be
talking about tonight
council member Torgeson I I would I
would hope so that they had been from
what I had read it's whether you agreed
with them or not at least people were
spoken to that from the ones I reviewed
uh and it's not a matter of agreeing or
disagreeing with the results it's a
matter of the process
and uh
people find that they've
their complaint was dismissed and they
disagree wholeheartedly but they were
spoken to and that's why this is to me
we're solely dealing with the process of
this and uh the process was flawed it
was it was done improperly in my opinion
it was uh it was just it wasn't even
truly accepted it was just not Mo there
was no motion on it uh
I don't see how we hold uh Dr riff and
Mr handlesman to a different standard
than anyone else
if they had filed this instead of her
they would they and they didn't have
anybody speaking to them they would have
spoken and said hey nobody talked to me
we would have turned around said hey
nobody talked to them that's not a good
investigation they didn't have that
opportunity because they didn't file
anything
so I'm just saying to give them their
day in court give them their give them
their moment hopefully from this point
forward I mean we've got a ridiculous
amount of paperwork with things that
were done in the past I do not believe
one I don't believe that we will have
this kind of problem with the what we've
put forward as a new ethics policy
because it forces conversation and we
can get we can solve things a lot a lot
better than spending I don't know what
Chris maybe a hundred thousand dollars
on this cycle
is that a fair guess
yeah so about a hundred thousand dollars
of town money spent on this
and they're not getting their day let
them have their day and let the process
finish out finish out with a sense of
equality and a sense of of uh that
everyone was treated equally rather than
shorting them
their right at that time
thank you council member any other
comments from Council
um
I I have a question about presidents and
it goes to council member Anderson's
question
is
you are setting precedent
when you allow something to come back
you have several other ethics complaints
if somebody that filed those is not
happy with the action taken on the diets
tonight on those
are you opening this up based on this
conversation to them
refiling and coming back and saying they
didn't have their day in court as you
mentioned I'm I'm asking it as a
question
or if Chris can give any input on that I
don't see how unless if somebody filed
and they're going to say they didn't get
their day in court but they already
filed and accepted those things yes
these two gentlemen did not file
they didn't file an Ethics complaint
until whatever however many days before
the end of the process
how can someone else speak for them and
not even be spoken to on top of that so
I don't see how this sets up some sort
of crazy precedent that all of a sudden
we're going to be dragged down a rabbit
hole of reopening ethics complaints by
people that didn't file them
somebody filed on someone else's behalf
I I don't see that I don't see that on
any other of these these complaints and
and I quite simply just think they
deserve their their their day to be
heard whether it's whether it's agreed
with disagree with dismissed whatever
happens
they they deserve under what our system
was
to be heard
and I can't think of anybody else that
had somebody
set up a situation that was
they could say well that person filed on
my behalf and I didn't like it and I
wasn't invested talked to I don't see
how that could happen I I in my wildest
imagination I can't see that
Ferguson I'm I'm not going to disagree
with
your comments on that particular issue I
think what I'm asking is no matter who
put in the ethics complaints that we're
going to be talking about today
other than this one
if they felt that they did not get a
fair
investigation because they didn't like
the outcome are we setting ourselves up
to have them come back and
um
say we want a new investigation that's
my question I think they're two
different issues but
um I think council member Buckley
has a comment oh sorry I didn't see you
I apologize thank you mayor
um
it isn't a question of not liking the
result
they didn't get a result because they
didn't file
you know and if anyone else like even
the ones we're talking about today you
know I don't like the results of mine
but I'm going to talk about it but it
doesn't mean I'm going to refile them
again because I felt it was investigated
uh to the fullest people were people
were uh were asked everyone involved
were involved and were questioned
um I can't I can read Wisconsin I can't
think of a possibility with the new
system we have in place how this could
that could be a factor
and I guess I guess I'm just going to
come right out and say it let's pretend
this wasn't the two individuals that are
coming forward today with this pretend
it was someone else where is your
opinion on this
thank you councilmember I I wouldn't go
down that
path myself so I I appreciate that you
you say that but I I wouldn't take that
into consideration personally myself on
who filed but
um
council member Buckley I think you're up
next
yeah I I just wanted to say you you
mentioned and said that they filed this
because they didn't like the results
they filed it because they didn't get
their opportunity to tell
their side of the story someone else
filed this and they didn't know about it
they didn't ask for it they didn't
request it
and and that that would I just don't see
how
that you see this as them filing this
because they didn't they didn't like the
the results of of what came out on the
other one nobody talked to them they had
they didn't have an opportunity to say
anything
and that's the issue is I don't know I
think I would be doing the same thing if
if that happened to me and if everybody
else was spoken to and the person that
put you know the ethics complaint in was
spoken to but I wasn't then I think I
would be right back in the same place as
they are
they deserve a chance
to have their say
thank you council member I just like to
clarify I have not referenced either one
of these gentlemen and their intent I
was only asking a question on precedent
on the other ethics complaints
if we set this forward and that was my
intent not to question
whether they are happy with their
decision or not so I apologize if you
felt that's what I said council member
Anderson
um is there a way to get to what outcome
you're looking for without a new ethics
complaint that's going to charge
it won't be a hundred thousand it'll be
now a hundred and ten thousand dollars
and we'll spend on this
and I object to that
um is there another way to get to this
I would look to council member Bon
Giovanni
that you're leading sorry
um you know honestly I think that uh
councilmember Anderson Torgeson and you
vice mayor can answer that question as
far as if we put this through the new
system if that's appropriate I I you
have more information than I do on the
new on the new uh code of ethics
um I council member Anderson maybe you'd
like to clarify your question
um
I I don't believe you were asking to
send it to the new if that was an option
or maybe you were
just I was hoping we could find another
solution rather than spending another
ten thousand dollars to have another
investigation done
I object to all of these and I've said
this one time before
we are hurting our community we're
hurting our community terribly
we've got to get through this we're in
the middle of mediation
we're trying to to get things settled
and we've got this all buzzing around on
the outside causing more trouble we've
got to get through it because it's
hurting this community
okay well any other comments from
Council before I ask if the mayor would
like to respond to anything
we will have a chance to speak
afterwards
mayor
thank you vice mayor I'm going to keep
it short
I honor the process I welcome the
investigation and findings as I have
every other time
thank you mayor um
at this point
um and unless there is more discussion
that would it like to be held
I think we would go to a possible
Council action
and with that
is there
um anyone who wants to put forth
an option for Action do you need me to
repeat those
so um they act that the three types of
action that can be taken is take no
action which then just dismisses this
request adopt the recommendation well
this is a little different on this one
we would um taking no action means that
nothing happens with this particular
um
complaint and we would
stay with the Town Council I mean with
the town attorney's recommendation if we
did no action we can adopt a new action
by motion so
um in this particular case
you can make a motion to
um
I'm trying to think of the best words
for this you can make a motion to move
an investigation forward
at this time or you could make a motion
to not move it forward if that you so
choose
I think those are the options
here tonight take no action move it
forward or don't move it forward thank
you for clarifying that for me
or don't move it forward you can make a
motion not to move it forward if that
were
um thanks again for clarifying that and
um thank you mayor for what you've said
um I'd like to make a motion uh to have
to move the investigation forward
we have a motion on the floor to move
the investigation forward is there a
second
I'll second that
thank you that's a motion by council
member Bon Jovani and a second by
council member Torgeson
um
everybody understand what the motion is
at this point
um then let's vote
thank you
the motion passes
four one
all right
um
with that mirror are you going to take
over these or do you want me to continue
thank you
I'll take over I think it's um I think
it's okay at this point to move on and I
asked to put the next four items on the
agenda
um I did not know that the previous item
had already been placed on the agenda as
was mentioned earlier
I was out of town in fact I think when
this happened and
so I had no idea but I asked to put
these on too because they were from an
outside a resident who had requested
that they be they'd be brought forward
and two because I just thought that it
was better for us to
bring them forward for transparency sake
I've had so many conversations with
residents over the past year that said
whatever happened to those all we see is
what is in the paper and so I thought it
was best to just put them all on
together and
um
did not include the one the other one
that's outstanding because I knew that
councilmember koprowski would not be
here this evening so I didn't think that
was fair to her to have something on an
agenda when she wasn't able to be here
to respond to it are there any
so all four are the um are the ethics
complaints the two filed by Maureen
hoppy one against councilmember torges
and one against councilmember Buckley
one filed
um Against Me by council member Bon
Jovani in one filed against council
member Torgeson by myself
is there any Council discussion on any
of these
am I working yeah yes I like to talk a
discussion about 56. my complaint
I I'm I'm just going to open all four of
them at the same time so if you would I
think it's just easier and then if you
would like to make a comment I think
that's most appropriate so vice mayor
already just turned her mic on so I'll
let her go next vice mayor
thank you mayor I think it might be
easier if we just win an order and had
comments
um I do think it's appropriate to have
comments on each one of these
I would start with
um number 54 regarding
um
council member Torgeson
um
before I begin I just think it's
um
there's been a lot of opportunity for
Lessons Learned
up here on the Dias not only with this
Council but previous councils and I
think that
while
saying negative things about each other
even in private conversations
does not violate an Ethics policy
it quickly becomes a public statement as
as we've just evidenced within in this
particular claim and what I'm hoping is
that
sometime in the near future that we all
make a commitment to stop this type of
negative
behavior and comments towards each other
and stay focused on the business of the
town over the negative distractions of
degrading one another publicly and it's
it's been very
um heart-wrenching to me to see this is
what we're dealing with within our
community especially after
you know the beginning of this meeting
this evening was about celebrating all
the wonderful things in our community
yet I don't know why we want to bad
mouth each other and so this is really
more common for all of the things that
has been said here
we have provided additional training on
conflict of interest and so um
Mr Torgeson has received that with us as
well and again these are new council
members that are learning as we go along
and I appreciate their their willingness
to to learn
and I think that any time that we
mistakenly share wrong information that
we take time to let those people know
that we did make a mistake and and share
the the correct information and so I
know that the new ethics policy is going
to allow us time to sit down
individually with members of the public
and have those conversations so that we
don't get to this level and so
um
foreign
were just the first one and my comments
were kind of for all of them so I I hope
that um you don't think that I was
trying to say anything negative
um so
um
I think that's all I have to say on that
particular one thank you
councilmember Torgeson you were next oh
but I'm sorry you had turned your mic on
I'm sorry I just I just wanted to say
about 55 that uh
Bobby is is an empathetic and and kind
person and I just thought that 55 was a
ridiculous waste of of our time and
effort and money and it was seemed
really personal to me because I I just I
can't imagine a world in which this
woman would be a bully and uh I just
wanted as a part of the public record
that I believe she's just a kind and
nice person and I just I was completely
frustrated by that one that's really all
I wanted to say
vice mayor thank you mayor I also wanted
to
um
note that there was no rec action
recommended by the investigator and that
council member Buckley did admit
publicly that she made the mistake and
that was very honorable and for you to
do that and that that was my comments
thank you
any other comments
seeing none I had um and I forgot I had
asked Our Town attorney Chris Payne to
explain the process of these ethics
complaints
how you choose attorneys to send them
out we had discussed this Chris if you
could just make a short comment just for
the public record I wanted it to be very
transparent yeah thank you mayor so all
all of these existing complaints and
there's one that's still being
investigated they're all under the
older code of ethics that has since been
replaced and under that code what
happens is the complaint gets filed with
the clerk the clerk sends the ethics
complaint to my office and I either make
a recommendation to the council or I
send it to an outside investigator and I
make that decision based on you know who
to send it to the reason why we send it
out is because we are not obviously the
Attorney's office we're not going to
investigate our own supervisors our own
bosses so we send it out to People based
on expertise experience in particular
understanding of Municipal law and the
nuances associated with Municipal law as
well as availability so we make that
decision we send it out and once we send
out an outside investigation we don't
have the attorney's office doesn't have
we don't give direction we don't do
anything until we get we get the report
back with the findings in the final form
so that's the way the process works it's
going to be different now under the new
code obviously and we can talk about
that another day
thank you Chris I just thought it was
important to outline how this process
works I know that I've heard a lot of
different stories floating around I'm
choosing the attorneys that are
investigating I've never met these
attorneys and I just thought that was
important thank you thank you for doing
that
um any comments councilman Giovanni did
you want to move on to 56
um so I kind of want to start with a
metaphor
um
I had a lot of shoulder pain this week
and when I went to the doctor she asked
me to rate my pain on a scale from one
to ten with 10 being very high and one
being very low
I told her it was a six
she told me that I didn't reach the pain
threshold in order to get a high dosage
of painkillers
however just because I didn't reach the
threshold
to get heavy painkillers doesn't mean I
wasn't in pain
just because an Ethics complaint doesn't
reach the threshold of a violation
doesn't mean someone is innocent and not
wrong
maybe the threshold itself is wrong
it's time to stop dancing around the
issues the town deserves a transparency
and why why we
attempted to bring up a vote of no
confidence a month ago
I want to go over the complaint that I
entered against the mayor and fully
discuss them for transparency purposes
and even though they didn't meet the
standards to be considered a violation
doesn't mean what the mayor did wasn't
wrong it's time to talk about the
details and facts of my complaint and
then judge for ourselves whether the
investigator got it right
my first complaint against the mayor had
to do with the timing and protocol
for her filing against council member
Torgeson
to understand this we have to understand
the normal process of filing a complaint
registering it with the clerk's office
and then notifying the council and the
people of Gilbert
normally if a complaint was filed on a
Tuesday
the clerk's office would receive it and
register it with the town that day or
the next day
at that time the prasser media can
complete a Freedom of Information Act
form or a foia
to receive the complaint from the from
the clerk clerk's office directly
the mayor filed her motion against
councilman Torgeson
on a Thursday evening
after the town was closed
knowing that the times clerk's office
was closed on Friday
and in this situation the clerk's office
wouldn't be able to enter it into record
until sometime Monday
the Press could complete a foia and
receive it maybe Wednesday or Thursday
of that week
instead of following and observing
normal protocol
the mayor leaked the information by text
messaging the complaint to the Press on
Thursday evening after she filed it
the Press published their article on
Friday afternoon
this was the first time councilmember
Torgeson and the rest of us knew that a
complaint was even filed
if it wasn't leaked to the Press we
would have known about it on Monday and
the Press may be on Wednesday or
Thursday
so I have some concerns
if the mayor thought what she was doing
was the right thing
why wasn't the information emailed from
her Town email instead of trying to hide
it in text messages most likely from her
personal phone to the reporter
how did she think filing and leaking
this information to the Press was a good
thing for our town
how did she think filing this complaint
against council member Torgeson would
help unify her relationship with him and
the rest of the council
personally I don't believe filing
against council member Torgeson and
leaking into the Press helped her
relationship with him or the rest of the
council
I can tell you it did the exact opposite
it bothered me enough to ask for a
special meeting regarding a vote of no
confidence
her actions divided the council even
worse
leaking the complaint to the press in
the dark of night and not by regular
channels was wrong
the investigators said that this
Behavior did not rise to an atheist
complaint
what would rise to an at this complaint
in this situation do we have to leak it
and then actually write the news story
also it's ridiculous
is this not considered if this is not
considered an Ethics violation
what have we the council learned from it
well
we've learned at the foia system doesn't
mean anything anymore and that it's okay
to leak information to the press and
even have them on speed dial
we have to ask ourselves as a council is
this Behavior we can be proud of
would you advise your grandchildren to
act this way
this Behavior doesn't meet the standards
of our current code of ethics to be a
violation but it should have
I believe the people of Gilbert would
agree with me when I say the mayor in
this situation was wrong
the second complaint I filed had to do
with filing a complaint against council
member Torgeson for stating on a private
voicemail that the mayor was a bad
person
our code of ethics has a ridiculous rule
that states that council members must
have almost blind loyalty to each other
our code of ethics need to be Rewritten
here because it violates the First
Amendment of the Constitution in my
opinion and I know the town of Gilbert
does not have a good history with the
First Amendment
I understand the basic pres premise here
however
we don't want we don't want anyone on
the diocese to call someone vindictive
and Petty
but once I'm off the dice and go home to
a family and friends I can call anyone
vindictive and Petty in the privacy of
my own home without a fear of an Ethics
complaint
I can't for the life of me figure out
how the ethics complained against
council members in Torgeson by the mayor
was recommended for dismissal
but yet my complaint against the mayor
for filing it to begin with would not
upheld to an ethics violation
filing of this complaint was for
political gain and political gain only
it wasn't it wasn't filed to unify the
council in the or the best interest of
the Town my opinion is that this
complaint against council member
Torgeson was vindictive and Petty
what have we learn from a council from
this
well as a counselor we learned we can
meet vindictive and Petty against each
other
what does this Behavior or how does this
Behavior unify the council it doesn't
we have to ask ourselves as a council is
this Behavior something we're proud of
would we advise our grandchildren to act
this way
the behavior doesn't meet the standards
of our current code of ethics to be a
violation but it should have
I believe the people of Gilbert would
agree with me when I say in this
situation the mayor was wrong
my third half this complaint against the
mayor has to do with the mayor attending
the meeting with council member Anderson
and a Gilbert citizen
in this meeting it was highly suggested
that councilmember Torgeson be removed
from the ethics subcommittee they may
not have used his name directly but
councilmember Anderson can attest that
he knew who they were talking about
councilmember Anderson knows this
Gilbert resident and well enough to have
a meeting with him alone
however with the mayor attending there
attending the meeting there's a subtle
innuendo that she agreed with taking
council members council member Torgeson
off the committee
this be
this behavilant to me
being with council members and council
member Anderson and the CEO of the
Chamber of Commerce And discussing why I
believe the mayor should resign
the mayor would lose her mind if I had
that meeting
attending that meeting with a Gilbert
citizen was inappropriate and the mayor
should have known better
but our code of ethics are they're wrong
on one hand we have to be blind loyalty
to each other
and on the other hand it's perfectly
okay to work behind the scenes to work
against each other
it makes no sense to me whatsoever
what do we learn from from this as a
council
we as a counselor can be vindictive
against each other and involve a Gilbert
citizen in all of it
what does this Behavior do to unify the
council it didn't
we have to ask ourselves as a council is
this Behavior something we're proud of
would you advise your grandchild to act
this way
this Behavior may not meet the standards
of our current code of ethics to be a
violation
but it should have
I believe the people would agree with me
that in this situation the mayor was
wrong and should have known better
in summary
the behaviors of the mayor may not have
been a nine or ten on the Pain Scale
but it still caused enough pain to
destroy the unity of this Council and
the potential vote of no confidence a
month ago
being clear of an Ethics violation does
not make someone innocent it doesn't
excuse their behavior
claiming that a small group of people
are working against the mayored didn't
create the behavior over the past few
months
a small group of people didn't leak
information to the press or file
personally motivated ethics complaints
against another council member
nor did it make the mayor from attending
the meeting
it's the mayor herself who did these
things and she was wrong in my opinion
you don't need a an Ethics violation to
make someone wrong the people of Gilbert
deserve an apology from the mayor for
costing them tens of thousands of
dollars for these investigations
I know we'll never get that apology but
we deserve one that's what a leader does
and that's what the people of Gilbert
deserve this isn't personal I believe a
leader needs to be accountable to the
people
whether these behaviors met our code of
ethics or not I know that the people of
Gilbert understand that the marriage
Behavior was wrong I asked the council
if if they believe her behaviors were
appropriate
I ask that we do not accept the findings
of this at this complaint
thank you
thank you mayor um
council member Bon Giovanni I
like to ask you if you felt that the
investigation was done fairly
going on you have to leave it alone okay
the investigation itself
I believe was fair
however I think our level of what
creates something as an ethical
violation
is not correct
thank you and the basis of that
investigation was on the ethics policy
that we have in place today correct and
so um I think that's what we would have
to judge this on
is the
well not the ethics policy we have in
place today because that's in effect the
old ethics policy
um well vice mayor I'm not saying that
what the Mary Dido was unethical because
according to the investigation it was
ethical so any one of us could do these
things my concern was the mayor's
Behavior was wrong
I understand I I think that's two
different topics and the only reason I
say that is because what we're
discussing today is the investigation
findings of whether this was an
unethical Behavior and the finding came
back that it was not based on the
previous ethics policy
um saying that though
um
while it was not an investigation I do
believe that common courtesy for the the
rest of the council would have been
allowed allowing us to be notified first
before it was making made public
and I'm not sure
on your particular complaint what that
process was or when it was notified and
when the Press got it but again I'm
going to go back to
the new policies will eliminate this
type of what I I I see is one upsmanship
going on not only here on the council
but from from our citizens as well it's
like well this person did this so I'm
going to do this and now that person did
that I'm going to do this and
the the goal my goal is
through some of this mediation through
the training through this new policy all
of these things will put us in a
position
to move forward
I
I'm looking at what the investigation is
presenting to us
which is I think what's on the agenda
today do we find for that finding or not
um
so those are my comments at this point
thank you
do you have follow-up do you still have
your mic on
councilmember Torgeson I I just wanted
to make a point that
as I had learned how the system works
from last year to this year and to see
that you know our bar for ethics is it's
low it is and that is one of the reasons
we've tried to change the system and
adopted a new code of ethics and a new
uh process to try and vet people to be
heard to uh to consider things before
they spin out of control I am going to
make a point that I didn't file anything
here
I could have there are items I could
have brought up the the
I just chose not to because I think that
the I didn't think that it was worth I
couldn't disrespect the taxpayers of
Gilbert enough to file ethics complaints
that would go nowhere
and uh I chose not to
and I continue to choose not to because
that time frame is gone
but why file something
when you know
that it goes nowhere only to spend money
and it's
I am grateful that we've had the
opportunity to change this system so
that people can be heard
they wouldn't be shut out they uh
and at the same time it wouldn't go
through an onerous system that could
damage people's uh whether it's their
self-esteem or their respect or the
respect to their Community they can at
least have an opportunity to try and
resolve a situation before it gets out
of hand
that being said one of my biggest
regrets is and I learned the hard way
you think you can trust someone and
you've you've share your your
frustrations
and they turn on you
not for any good reason you don't even
know at this point because you've asked
them why and I refuse to to get in the
mud with a pig anymore
it's just come to a point of
this council is fractured it's just it's
been disruptive it is dysfunctional and
simple common courtesy has gone to the
Wayside and I I don't even know what to
say I've sat back and I have talked to a
couple people including our Council here
uh counsel here I haven't filed things
that I could easily file for because the
system was broken and the system was
abused and it got no results and it
could be handled better and this is just
a massive case of showing how poorly
we've handled a lot of things here and I
I really just don't wish to continue
with with mudslinging in this I'm very
exasperated I'm a completely results
driven human being and I see no results
from doing these kinds of things and
wasting money and time
any other comments
foreign
Giovanni I was asked
in my mediation session
what needs to happen for us to just move
forward
and
um
leave everything else behind us and move
forward and my answer was simple it was
accountability
may I just be accountable for some of
the things that have happened and then
come out and tell us this is what I did
I'm never going to do it again it's a
very simple thing to do that we all
learn when we're kids
and that's all I need to move forward
it's a simple
simple request
councilmember Anderson
I was just going to say that I hear what
you're saying councilmember Bon Jovani
um
is that something that can be handled
outside of this whole ethics process
that we can do at a different time in
mediation or whatever can we resolve it
that way
you have to leave it on until I press it
then you can speak there you go
uh
councilman Anderson yes I think in in
mediation
I'm not asking for a public thing here I
would love for her to make an apology to
the Gilbert people but I will settle for
our next mediation uh some for some
accountability
councilmember Anderson the only reason I
ask that is because the two of you asked
me at one point
if I felt it came to a point where I had
to say knock it off we'd knock it off
and I hope we're to that point
councilmember Buckley
um I I don't have a lot to add to all of
this other than
it it has to stop all of this and I you
know I was my ethics complaint
had
in my opinion zero truth in it I the you
know I
I've never had a phone conversation with
this person it's all been online and
um
could have could have easily been done
with communication but that was not the
venue I'm you know I'm it's over I was
fully exonerated from everything that
was there I gave my proof and I I do
want to thank council member Torgeson
for his kind words I appreciate those
um
the the other thing is
this is exhausting for us
it's ridiculous to have these type of
things filed I mean you can file them
and you have every right to do that but
think about what is happening think
about what you're putting out there and
if you're going to put something out
there make it the truth
and have backup
good backup to prove what you're saying
and
you know this this affects not just
us it affects us tremendously uh because
we're trying to do our job we're trying
to do what we got elected to do and for
the last minimum two months we've all
had to focus on
getting ethics complaints you know
getting along with each other and we
want we all want the same things we want
to move forward we want to do what you
guys elected us to do
and that's what we're trying to do and
that's what
I am from this day forward going to be
doing and I am going to you know
continue to do everything I have been
elected to do
I just think that somehow and I agree
with councilmember Anderson
we have to get past this and we will but
um
you know I I am very happy about the new
code of ethics because now if you have a
complaint you have to come whoever
whoever it is and look me in the eye and
tell me or council member Anderson or
council member tilkey tell us look Us in
the eye and tell us what you think and
it's a lot harder to tell those Lies
when you're looking someone in the eye
and and it's easier to communicate to do
that and so none of us ask for this but
we got it and so we're trying to deal
with it we're trying to deal with each
other and
um you know we have different
personalities here and none of them are
bad we just need to know how to mesh
them all together
so
let us move forward give us an
opportunity to do that
councilmember Torgeson I just I just
hate seeing Bobby upset but I want to
show people this
is the packet I was to read this week
for this meeting these are two-sided by
the way they're not single-sided
somewhere in the neighborhood of 2400
pages
it is difficult to go through 2400 Pages
some of the course being boilerplate but
you go through this and then you get
distracted
by ethics complaints and now I
understand how distracting and lame they
can be
I was fortunate that I didn't read the
ones filed against me I didn't bother
giving it the time of day
and I was cleared because they were so
bad
but this
just to print it out these are just
addendums to one complaint
they're ridiculous
and this
is not moving us forward
this
is a list of I don't know 40 50 foias
just on my stuff
ridiculous I've read every single text I
ever made I've read every single text I
sent out on a Town phone
because I was asked to
this is not moving us forward properly I
I'm thankful that we've had the
opportunity to redo this uh ethics
format the process
it does need to stop
uh it needs to be in a better format
people do need to be heard but they
don't need to be allowed to waste this
much time and money with Superfluous
things
and I can say I regret I didn't
understand this process a year ago two
years ago but I certainly do understand
it now and anybody that had an
understanding in this process knows
they're wasting people's time and money
and that large packet that I put up
there for you to see is what we are
expected to understand as we vote on a
two billion dollar budget
and it is we need to rein this in
and we need to be accountable for our
actions we need to uh
certainly yes I can say we need to be
kinder we need to be a lot of things but
we do need to be allowed to do the
business of the town
one last call any comments
I don't know what we number one anymore
vice mayor
56 57 any comments on the item 57
want to keep going no okay
um
first I want to say I want to thank all
the residents that have reached out to
me
and the churches and the pastors that
are praying for me
the council and the town
very much appreciated
I have a statement that I prepared
earlier today
coming into this meeting
life is short
we all have things going on in our lives
that we don't want to have to be dealing
with any of this
I hear and agree with our community's
requests that this Council moved forward
with respect
Civility and Leadership traits that we
were each elected for
I acknowledge the invaluable Insight the
mediation process has brought me about
your expectations of us as individuals
and as a council
I accept my role as one of the seven
leaders on this Council and respectfully
request
we don't put energy into actions that
keep us looking to the past but rather
We Begin focusing our energies on moving
forward
finding common ground and ways to work
together in serving our community
I respect
the ethics complaint process and the
findings of the investigators as
presented
and so I will not debate any part of
them
and will not vote for actions that
further damage the relationships
or inhibit our ability to move forward
I cannot change the past
but I can learn from it
and more importantly
I can choose to use my one vote to
support
unifying efforts
it's time we begin looking for
opportunities to be a team
now the process doesn't say that we have
to take any actions
I would like to know if anyone would
like to take any actions on these
individually and if so would you like to
make a motion on those
vice mayor tilkey
mayor um
I would like to make a motion to accept
the recommendations from the
investigations on
I believe it's
items 54 through
57
54-57 and that
the these investigations are closed and
not open to re investigations
um so that's my motion
thank you vice mayor anyone wish to
second that
54 55 56 and 57.
I have a motion by vice mayor seconded
by council member Anderson please vote
motion passes 6-0
moving on
on our agenda
item number 58 fees
I do have one request to speak we don't
typically take requests to speak on
administrative items it is Jackson mole
with the Home Builders Association of
central Arizona
I am open to giving Jackson
um three minutes
to Jackson are you still here oh okay
thank you he waved one minute you said
Jackson
come on down Jackson please
you've waited a long time I appreciate
that
push the button on the bottom of that
microphone there there you go thank you
uh good evening mayor Peterson Town
Council my name is Jackson mall I'm the
CEO of the Home Builders Association of
central Arizona as I mentioned I'm going
to cut my comments short in the interest
of time I'm here tonight just to convey
our initial uh respectful opposition to
the proposed fees that you're going to
vote on to post tonight uh Gilbert like
most other Arizona municipalities is
facing a housing affordability crisis
doubling the already high fees that
Builders pay for new infrastructure to
roughly forty thousand dollars per home
is concerning we understand however that
tonight's action is merely procedural
and it is to start the public comment
process so I wanted to be here tonight
just to convey my commitment to you that
like we've done in years past that we
will work with Kelly and provide very
substantive comments to the town
regarding the methodology and
assumptions that are used to calculate
these fees and we're hopeful that also
like we've done in years past that we
will be able to come back in November
for the public hearing with some options
that both the builders are comfortable
with and the town and I appreciate the
opportunity to be here this evening
thank you thanks Jackson appreciate you
staying for this meeting and as always
your input as a valued stakeholder in
the process whatever process we're
working through you've always been a
valued stakeholder so I appreciate that
very much moving on to item 59 boards
commissions and committees any reports
from console Liaisons
oh sorry
I skipped I got so excited that Jackson
made a statement I forgot to do a motion
um we need a motion to
um a direct staff to publish the notice
of intent and B set the public hearing
date for November 28 2023 and those can
be made together I'm assuming well thank
you can I have a motion on item 58.
I have a motion by council member
Anderson secondive by council member
Torgeson please vote I think it's just
as easy to leave the mics off when you
make motions as long as I say the names
I think so
councilmember Buckley can you please
vote
there we go we have motion passes 6-0
unanimously on that item now I can move
on to item 59 boards commissions
committees any reports from liaison's
seeing none we will move on to policy
items which is
um policy 20 20
23-04 considerable by our Council policy
and regarding Financial policy
statements and Kelly fost is making her
way to the podium
I Kelly I don't know that you have a do
you have a presentation or just want to
answer some questions
mayor council members I believe one of
the council members requested a
presentation of me I'm happy to give
that if you would like or if you're late
and don't want it I'm happy to not
just questions
hold on I have to get my mic back to my
press it again there we go
I'm sorry councilmember Torgerson really
you know part of what I wanted to get to
was as you as the fiscal policy in there
it shows uh Council Council staff
budgeting for the council Etc and I want
really I wanted to make the point that
money is not being spent frivolously for
this Council we have uh I think 800 of
discretionary budget a year each I think
is what the number is as opposed to
the council in Chandler has 350 000 for
it here we have one young lady that
helps us with the six members of council
and one young lady for the uh the mayor
and they both work their tails off and
they're really appreciated and that that
would be Kirsten and Monica and whereas
you go to Mesa there's one and a half
staff members per council person you go
into Phoenix I think it was three I
forget the number now and so no one is
disrespecting the dollar when it comes
to to what this Council does and I just
really wanted to
to thank you for having that there but
thank these young ladies for as hard as
they work and when people are talking
about well you took a trip here or you
went to this meeting or you guys had a
lunch
this Council itself is exceptionally
frugal
and the people that do serve this
particular body work really hard and
that was kind of why I just wanted you
to be there and it's late so I didn't
want to go through a whole bunch of
other questions I just wanted to say
make a public point of thanking them
thank you any other comments so I'm
gonna throw a little monkey wrench into
this because I've been talking to staff
for a couple of weeks about Council
support costs and the fact that we have
not looked at holistically
console pay benefits how that benchmarks
across the valley and it's something
that we're going to have on our retreat
in November so I actually would like if
the council would consider to pass the
financial policy this evening
without the council support costs I
would like to move that to our financial
retreat in November so that we can look
at everything as a whole I think there's
some things that after 12 years deserve
a deeper dive
um
travel is one of the things why do we
say you're limited to two trips when
maybe we should set it as a dollar
amount just saying it's a possibility
I'd like to Benchmark us across other
communities not so that we can
potentially budget more money or spend
more money but so that we're looking at
it from a different perspective since
I've been on Council we really haven't
done a lot of travel
um the mileage for example does it have
to be 600 miles and 300 miles per the
IRS amount or can it be a set amount
that gets looked at every few years to
make it easier on staff so it's just a
couple of things that have come up that
I've been looking at for the past month
or so since you presented to us longer
really because I've been talking to Dawn
and to Rob about these things for a
while too
um I'm open to emotion on accepting the
financial policy this evening minus
the council support costs portion
if everybody's okay with that
um
okay vice mayor tilkey's first
mayor could I just ask um Kelly a
question
is there an urgency to pass the rest of
the financial policies or is it better
to wait and do it all at once
mayor vice mayor it would be helpful to
pass the rest they're not really related
and then we would be able to move
forward with the other items okay
um with that then I'll make a motion to
accept the financial
policies as presented minus the council
support costs
to be reviewed at the fall Retreat
councilman Giovanni I'll second that
okay we have a motion by vice mayor
tilkey seconded by council member van
Giovanni please vote
and that motion passes 6-0
I closed my agenda
moving on to Communications report from
the town manager
I think Amir nothing this evening
nothing
just a wee bit of anything no
um report from Council on current events
there you go councilmember Bon Giovanni
I just wanted to wish
um George doddler a happy 91st birthday
that's it
he has no idea what you're talking about
um any
report from a report from the mayor on
current events um
I have a couple of things actually and I
know it's late and I apologize
um we have the heat relief
program do we have slides for we have
heat relief slides June thank you I see
you nodding your head
yes
up and coming
the heat relief program this year's
program was successfully expanded thanks
to the Community Support of Redemption
Church in July July excuse me the
Stapley stake most of August and the
Seville stake end of August and part of
September who served round robin style
at the town's One open respite location
locations provided members of the
Gilberts Community a break from the heat
whether unsheltered their home AC was
broken or under repair or their power
was out and it was just too hot to be at
home the respite locations were also
able to provide takeout Tuesday with a
meal offered thanks to the generous
thousand dollar donation from the from
Felix construction
also core to the success of this year's
heat relief Network where the water
bottle donations that were shared with
our community non-profits for those in
need as well as given to visitors of the
respite centers each year this program
is expanded on and successful thanks to
the efforts of community leaders and
organizations thank you for all you do
to make Gilbert a supportive Community
for those in need I think the one story
that stuck with me was an older couple
that their air conditioner went out and
it was going to be days before it could
be fixed and they couldn't stay in their
house all day long where it was just too
hot and so they were able to visit the
respite location
the which thanks to our churches for
doing that I wanted to recognize
um the planning department development
services the Arizona chapter of the
American Planning Association held the
annual state conference and Gilbert was
presented with two Awards Gilbert's
Transportation master plan approved by
Council in 2022 won the award for the
best master plan project study
Transportation plan that's all one title
um but best besting submittals from
shall we say it Flagstaff Scottsdale and
others thank you to the public and for
the team on their work on that and all
of the um everybody that comes together
to make sure that they're stakeholders
and in that process Gilbert also
received the award for the best
ordinance slash regulation slash
legislation slash adopted policy for the
Mixed use zoning and design guidelines
that were approved by Council earlier
this year this tool was also con
constructed utilizing feedback from
developers land use attorneys Town
departments and others so
congratulations to development services
for all the great work that you do
I'm gonna clap
um I wanted to also wish council member
Torgeson a birthday is coming up next
week I think I think next week and we
have cookies back there and um we have a
card for you vice mayor tilkey
and
that's it folks that's all I have so
thank you very much I will go ahead and
adjourn the meeting