Study Session - 4/18/2023 5:00:00 PM

thank you
good evening everyone welcome to the
Gilbert Town Council study session for
April 18 2023 we have I'll call this
meeting to order and we have two items
on our agenda the first being the
discussion of the FY 2024 preliminary
budget introduce Kelly fost
wonderful thank you mayor and Council
um it's always my favorite time of year
to talk about budget so we've got our
study session tonight I'm just going to
give a brief overview of some
information and then open up for
questions and direction from Council
so as you know Gilbert is a
best-in-class municipality and we get
accolades all of the time some of the
most recent ones Gilbert is the number
one best place to live in Arizona best
city for early retirement not that we're
encouraging anybody to retire we need
all of our staff number three City whose
unemployment rates have bounced back
most
we're also we were fourth healthiest
mid-size Employers in Arizona but
earlier today I heard we just got bumped
up to third so a wonderful place to work
and live and be
with our zero-based results you're aware
of this we right-size the department
budgets a third of the organization
every year so we get through the whole
town once every three years with all of
the changes with inflation we actually
had to add money with xerobase this year
which is unusual usually we're removing
money from the budgets and right sizing
it down to a lower amount so we now have
a cumulative Savings of about 7.6
million since 2018 when we started
keeping track of our zero-based results
most of that increases due to the raw
water costs we're in a drought and the
water coming is just a lot more
expensive than it has been in the past
our budget process is a whole year-long
Affair we kick it off in September we'll
do budget input through November with
the Departments finding their requests
analysts will review the information in
December and then executive team
deliberates in January and February
presents a budget a balanced budget to
the town manager who reviews it makes
additional changes in March February
March we bring information to Council in
April through our one-on-ones and then
the study session like tonight
we have preliminary adoption in May and
final adoption in June
for the budget we're recommending for
fiscal 24 there were requested about 70
million dollars of need across the town
we're recommending funding about 50
million of that need which is about 72
percent of the requested amount
if we break that down by different funds
you can see general fund is the largest
and it is the largest amount that we're
requesting for additional funds about 30
million in that area and then water
Wastewater the other funds a couple of
million dollars a lot mostly keeping up
with inflation The increased cost of
supplies and demand
for the general fund in specific this is
how the requests break out maintaining
service level is the most of it which is
about a million three increased to
contracted maintenance in Parks 2
million and some AV areas and about 4
million in ftes is the bulk of what's in
the maintaining service level in the
life cycle replacement which is our
other major category most of that is
Radio replacements for both PD and fire
the radios that you see them carry
around are an end of useful life and so
we'll work on replacing those next year
it's about six million dollars 6.3
million so good investment across the
town
in our streets and Enterprise funds most
of the areas here are maintaining
service levels which will be items like
crack sealing and surface sealing
utility increases and then Neely and
Greenfield investment into their
operation and maintenance on the
efficiency side they're looking to do
about 2.4 million dollars of radios
which will connect to the water meters
and help with that automated water meter
reading program that we've started
implementing and are working through
council member Anderson asked to see
what this looks like with our strategic
initiatives so most of the investment is
on the built environment side and in our
prosperous Community fortunately our
economy is still really strong right now
and so some of those other areas are
needing more of the investment at this
point in time but that's how it breaks
out when you look at it across strategic
initiatives
if we look at the recommended positions
there are about 44 positions in total
there were 125 positions requested so
we're about 35 percent of the requested
positions that we are recommending to go
ahead and fund it was very tight
competition for the recommendations on
the having funding ongoing funding and
the ability to support these positions
for a capital Improvement projects we're
looking to do about 1.4 billion dollars
of investment you'll remember that we've
fully fund the projects up front and
then it takes us several years to work
down through those projects most of the
increase here if we look at the carry
forward and the new so carrying forward
about 900 million adding new about 450
million of projects the new projects are
mostly streets and water projects
associated with the bonds that we issued
last year and even on the Redevelopment
that is the parking garage which is
funded through the transportation Bond
as well
so majority of the new projects are with
those funding sources
for the comparison of budget current
year fiscal 23 versus fiscal 24 we have
our current year budget of about 1.67
billion dollars and then proposed would
be just over two billion dollars
most of the increase you'll see on that
bottom line with the CIP those in
additional projects going in for general
fund those increases are mostly
associated with the new positions
there's about nine million dollars of
carry forward for projects that we're
currently working on but we haven't
received some of the items on site or
continuing to work and so we need to
carry that money forward into next year
it also includes the 2 million for the
asrs the pension pre-funding that we had
talked about the radios that we
mentioned and the ftes
property tax is one of the other items
that's part of the budget
we need 9 31.6 million dollars in Levy
to be able to pay the upcoming Debt
Service payments and there was a change
from the county as we've talked about
with our assessed valuation that that
changed grew a little bit from the
initial number and so instead of the
noticed
98.87 cents it'll be
0.9883 so just a slightly lower still
rounds to 99 cents per hundred dollars
of assessed value it'll be the sixth
year in a row that we would have
maintained that rate
so tonight is our budget study session
which is that first opportunity Council
has to discuss and provide feedback on
the budget in the open public meeting
we'll take any of the feedback
incorporated into preliminary budget
documents and bring those to you for the
May 2nd meeting preliminary budget is
the maximum expenditure that we could do
for the year so it's arguably the more
important of the two we could do a lower
budget or equal budget at final adoption
and then we'll be ready to start July in
a new budget year
with that I'll ask if there are any
questions thanks Kelly council members
vice mayor any questions for Kelly at
this time this is your time to ask them
councilmember Anderson
Kelly thank you for getting that
information on our city of the future
initiative and how that ties in is there
a detail that breaks those numbers out
that I can
actually tie it to Something in the
initiatives
help help me understand detail that
breaks out I have detail on what
individual packages they are and each of
the the categories that you have listed
for the Strategic initiatives there are
indicators that are listed in there and
I'm interested in tying the dollars that
you show the total dollars to some of
those indicators to see it what what
we're doing how we're on track
we don't when we collect the information
from the Departments we do have them
tell us which strategic initiative they
believe their budget package Falls
within but we haven't collected the data
on which sub-category of the Strategic
condition of It's associated with we
could for a future year or we could it
would be a manual process to go back and
connect it to individuals we don't have
that data right now I think it'd be good
for a future year because we'd like to
anyway I'd like to see the Strategic
initiative
tied to our budget so that we know where
we're spending the money and it's doing
what we intended for it to do
good thank you
the comments for Kelly at this time
councilmember koprowski
hi Kelly
I do have a question I was noticing in
the budget under the municipal
facilities that in the crime lab item
mf2524
it looks like it's showing just under 5
million is that correct it is that
currently has only the design for the
project and it last year the council had
asked to remove the construction portion
until we knew more about the design
but we can work on getting a number for
that
so if the construction portion was added
back into the budget I would assume that
it would be able to
then follow processes to continue to be
evaluated and prioritized amongst the
other projects is there I guess what are
any risks that that that might be
involved with bringing this back into
the budget with the construction costs
as well
um
I would say not really any risks before
we do design it's going to be more of a
placeholder number and then as we go
through design it refines down but we
could certainly put in a holder for
construction it's out in the future year
so it wouldn't be part of the adopted
budget for fiscal 24 but it would help
us start to see what's the basic order
of magnitude that we might look at and
need a placeholder and what are the
funding sources that we would need to
look at whether it's Geo bonds or
what other opportunities we might have
this is an item that I'd like to bring
back and add to the budget in terms of
adding the construction costs as well so
that it has that placeholder and funding
can be identified in the future and even
if it gets adjusted there's some
level of construction costs there so
that we don't assign it to other
projects
any other comments or questions
council member torrison
just curious if you could
come back with this because of course
I'm going to be the guy that asks about
property tax
um
and rather than the same lead the levy
the same as last year's since it has
gone up can we get a minor win for our
residents and go down 0.0883 there's
0.98
or flat instead of 0.9883 just a minor
tiny win for the people can I have that
as possible I can look at that what it
would mean is
278 602 so it would leave a little bit
we have by policy we have to keep at
least five percent and under 10 of
unbalance in that fund for delinquencies
so we can look at that and it would
probably mean having a little bit less
in fund balance than this than the
proposed rate would have or
delinquencies right now we're running
about a million dollars short of where
we usually are but the second property
tax architecture usually comes in
November and March and we're still
getting the information so we're running
behind where we usually are there may be
more delinquency or it could come in in
March I don't know yet but that's the
risk we run but it is something we can
examine I just would love to bring back
just a little win for the average guy a
little tiny tiny 12 dollar win if
Council gave that direction we could
bring the documents that would have that
knowing those risks fantastic and one
thing I wasn't able to to pick up and
thank you for sending the the chart that
you sent with all the departments in the
ass in it
um
how many people are being added to
police and fire
from current state you know the current
numbers
because I want to make sure that I saw
it right
looks like police is 7 FTE and fired
before FTE about one and a half LTA or
limited term agreement
what was the ask for them
I would have to phone a friend on that
one I don't know it off the top of my
head all right could you email it to me
yep awesome thank you
council member torgerson's referring to
the secondary property tax because the
town of Gilbert doesn't have a primary
property tax rate I just want to make
that clear for everybody watching
councilmember Buckley you have your
microphone on would you like to ask a
question I I just had a question on
if you know if you were to get this
small win you know for the residents how
does that affect the budget you've
already done because you've looked at is
that going to affect a large number of
different projects
how is that gonna so if I don't recall
if he said it was like two hundred
thousand dollars or something
so that that has to come off of
something else you've projected is that
correct so the secondary property tax is
a separate funding source the revenue
from property tax goes into that and it
only pays that service so it wouldn't
impact any of the rest of the budget
that's balanced it would only impact our
debt service payment okay but don't we
use those funds to pay certain items
Mortgage in your house you
you're you use your mortgage payment to
pay the mortgage not to do construction
projects like replacing your roof or
different things so same thing we
already have the money that from the
bonds and then the property tax Only
repays The Debt Service it doesn't go
directly to projects so that's just
going to pay bonds that we have okay got
it only voter approved bonds so the
bonds that we passed in 2018 for to
build the Public Safety Training
Facility it's going to pay those bonds
back we've already used that money to
build that building and that's the only
thing that those funds can be used for
but as Kelly explained a minute ago that
we have to stay within a certain range
of what that fund balance looks like did
I get the words right sorry
um that that looks like between a five
percent and ten percent we can't we
can't vary from that and that's because
of state law so that's state law right
Kelly State law is we have to not be
above 10 percent our policies or we want
to be at least five percent right
because we have to account for any time
that our residents are not paying their
taxes and there's deficiencies and we
have to be able to cover that right
exactly oh gosh
it's taken me a long time to get all
that the program text usually comes in
eventually but not always the year
there's sometimes delinquencies and
sometimes the county will write them off
as uncollectible or
um
had the property on as taxable and then
a non-profit purchased it and it comes
off the tax rolls and then it's just
never collected so there are
fluctuations that happen in collections
that we need to be prepared for
and that rate did go down we were
notified by the assessor's office at
that rate did go down this year with
their new software that ours was
9.8837 I forget what it was and it went
down a little bit so they don't
calculate the rate they just gave us the
new valuation number with the evaluation
impacted
yes and our Levy stays the same meaning
the amount that we need to collect to
pay back that debt
any other
um
hi Kelly
um if I'm not mistaken I could be
happens once in a while
um was is there one full-time employee
on police for every thousand people
off the top of my
head for the chief if he happens to know
them
I'm trying to remember sorry mayor uh
that's my one Giovanni I believe we're
just under two
um so I'll get the number and I'll send
it to you or we're under two officers
per thousand okay it's
1.8 I remember correctly I can run that
number real quick because I just look at
the number here and say seven so we're
only estimating of fourteen thousand
increase in population next year
I'd have to look at the 1B projection
but I know we're at
285 or 282 for population
282 on population and then if you go to
our the website uh from OMB it has
projections for mag and from us and so I
haven't looked to see what next fiscal
year projection is
okay I can do that math real quick I
want to see if we're close we're at 323
sworn now these two additional positions
in the budget that bring us to 325. okay
thank you
any other comments
oh sorry vice mayor
thank you mayor and thank you Kelly
um
just a couple of comments one I believe
um last year we added significant number
to police and fire I for some reason I
want to say it was like 60 all together
between the two but I'm not sure it was
a high number so I just wanted you to be
aware that um this may not seem much of
a bump but they had a big one last year
and I know that they go through a
rigorous process to make those decisions
so I'm not questioning that just wanted
to share that information the
looking to reduce the tax rate is
something we always want to do and I
want to just be very cautious that
one we have Financial policies in what
are the implications if we run lower in
our accounts and we don't receive the
monies what will happen then
um
so that I just want to be careful that
we're we're monitoring that on the
second thought is that there's nothing
worse than lowering it to only turn
around and raise it the next year
because we didn't have the money we
needed so I just want us to be really
cautious when we look at that obviously
we always do want to reduce taxes
whenever we can but just don't want to
set us up for being in a position where
we have to raise taxes in the future
and thank you for the additional
documents you sent on the CIP and then
the full-time employees I I really
appreciated it and for you and the team
taking time to walk us through it as
well thank you
thank you vice mayor yeah those are
great points that we did add a lot to
Public Safety last year and
um we ran into this with our with our um
fees for um our town of Gilbertville for
lack of a better term for the public to
understand we lowered those in 2018 and
had we known what was coming I don't
know that we would have lowered them
because then we had to increase and do
another increase and so that becomes an
issue and nobody remembers when you
lower them but they all remember when
their bill goes up and so that's a very
difficult position to be in I think
you're close with public safety for last
year that was a quite a big bump PD
might have been somewhere around 42 or
something for last year it was high and
I could be wrong Chief so don't he's not
even looking at me he's probably doing
math back there so any other comments or
questions and I want to mention to the
council members it does help a lot if
you turn your microphones on because
then they can see your light
councilmember caproski thank you mayor
Kelly I have a question CIP projects are
are you are a huge part of our budget
when are we going to be getting the CIP
book with the additional detail
thank you that usually comes out in
August time frame it takes us a while to
pull all of that information together
if there are specific projects you're
interested in when we can get you not in
the full format book but the
descriptions or things that we're
working with right now if that's helpful
okay yeah I can follow up then on on
some of the newer projects that wouldn't
be in the older book okay thank you and
the CIP team is doing a stakeholders
meeting next Thursday April 27th I think
at 3 P.M here at Town Hall so everyone's
invited to participate in that I've
attended those many years and they're
very enlightening a lot of stakeholders
show up for those meetings so I
appreciate those
um
any other comments or questions I can
let Kelly sit down
thanks Kelly thank you great job thank
you appreciate it
next up our second issue for the evening
is a discussion on group homes and
Recovery residents
and we have I see Chief and Kyle Maris
headed to the podium tag team
great
okay mayor council thank you for uh Evan
is here tonight uh here to give you an
update on group homes and Recovery
residences
I'll start and then as I mentioned uh
myself and Kyle we'll tag team this
presentation and
I have an opportunity for questions at
the end and so why are we here as you've
heard we've heard from our residents at
prior Council meetings and we've talked
to them individually not only before
this meeting but over the last six
months over there are concerns about
group homes and Recovery residences and
that prompted this discussion last fall
to come back to council and present our
findings of what we can and can't do
what statutes are concerning these group
homes and recommendations of ways to
improve internally and then what we as I
mentioned what we can and can can and
can't control and educate you and the
community about that from here I'll turn
it over to Kyle
good evening mayor and Council our
presentation tonight is really going to
focus on three different areas first
we'll just do an overview we'll talk
about the definitions of group homes and
Recovery residences we'll give you some
statistics from the town we'll talk
about the current regulations that we
have and then we'll give you a
comparison to of how Gilbert Stacks up
against other communities in the valley
then we'll move into registration and
enforcement what is development services
done what is Police Department what is
the police department done and what is
the state done and when it comes to the
enforcement of of the requirements and
then we'll talk a little bit about
updates and next steps that we see
coming forward in both police and the
Land Development code updates there's
always the chance for potential
legislation to go through as well so we
keep our eye on that and then we've got
a slide that talks about Resident
participation and and how residents can
be really involved in in group homes and
in the discussion that occurs
so the Land Development code currently
defines group homes as five or ten
occupants and it excludes staff and
really it's a residential house that's
occupied by a group of unrelated
individuals these folks are typically
have physical handicaps they're mentally
impaired or other otherwise disabled
group homes are licensed by the state
and provide medical care and or
supervision and in the town of Gilbert
they must register with us before they
operate that's going to be a little bit
different for Recovery residences
recovery residences do register with the
town but they also are required to
obtain a business license and provided
to us in operation and management plan
so there's a little bit further of a
step with the cover recovery residences
than there are with the group homes you
can see on the slide that there are
really about 27 classes and subclasses
when we start to talk about group homes
and Recovery residences whether it be
group homes for the elderly group homes
for the disabled there are just a lot of
different different
classifications for facilities and so in
Our Land Development code we've broken
them down just into two categories group
homes and Recovery residences and as we
move forward we'll need to take a look
at our definitions to see how they
compare with the state requirements and
legislation and maybe some of the other
communities that surround us so that our
definitions are easily followed and and
we can enforce our standards as we move
forward
current statistics um currently we have
over 150 group homes in the town of
Gilbert and we have over 25 recovery
residences we have seen an increase in
facilities and requests over the last
year or so so the number of folks that
are coming in and wanting to locate
facilities of this type in the town has
increased and we've also seen with that
a increase in concerns from residents
whether it be group homes or recovery
residences as well
this is probably the largest influence
when we talk about group homes and
Recovery residents the fair housing act
and this is really the only slide I
completely read from so the Fair Housing
Act prohibits municipalities for making
zoning or land use decisions that
exclude or otherwise discriminate
against individuals with disabilities so
really what this means is we have to
treat every single group home and
Recovery residents the same way we treat
single-family homes we can have some
requirements through zoning and those
have been tested through case law over
time but for the most part we have to
treat all of these different facilities
the same way we treat single-family
homes in single-family neighborhoods we
can't treat them any less favorably we
can't take any adverse action toward
them and we also have to provide a
reasonable accommodation step a
reasonable calm a reasonable
accommodation
um goes through our zoning administrator
and in conjunction with the town
attorney's office and really what this
is is it's a mechanism for applicants if
they feel that the town's requirements
uh are discriminatory or any sort of way
or are
prohibiting them from moving forward
with their application they can file a
request for accommodation that we get to
then look at and make a decision on
whether or not it meets the requirements
of the fair housing act we take into
consideration Public Safety and Welfare
concerns we we think about the the
character of the residential
neighborhood really we want to know if
that if that reasonable accommodation is
is going to meet the Fair Housing Act
um let me give you a quick example of a
potential request for accommodation the
town of Gilbert separation distance
currently between group homes or between
group homes and Recovery residents or
recovery residents recovery residents is
1200 feet if somebody is at 1150 feet
they may apply for a reasonable
accommodation because they're not
meeting our requirements and this may be
one that that meets the meets the
requirements of the fair housing act and
and a reasonable accommodation could be
granted if somebody comes in and they're
500 feet from another group home or
recovery residence we may not feel that
that meets the requirements of the fair
housing act and it may not be a
reasonable accommodation so we may not
choose to grant that reasonable
accommodation
denials of this go to our Board of
adjustment and past that they would go
to Superior Court
so regulations currently in the town of
Gilbert applicants and operators are
allowed to establish recovery residences
or group homes in any single family
zoning District doesn't matter if it's a
3 000 square foot lot or a fifteen
thousand square foot lot they're allowed
in all of our single-family zoning
districts again kind of going back to
the fair housing act
the Fair Housing Act we mentioned the
request for reasonable accommodation
operators always have the ability to
request the reasonable accommodation
um because group homes and Recovery
residences are located in single-family
neighborhoods they need to continue to
comply with that character of that area
meaning there's no signage on the front
of the homes
parking requirements have to be adhered
to so really a single family home and a
group home or recovery resident should
look the same in a neighborhood you
shouldn't be able to point out the group
homes or the recovery residences just by
driving down the street
there has been questions in the past
about sex offenders and whether or not
sex offenders can live in group homes or
recovery residents they are absolutely
allowed to live in in group homes or
recovery residences as per the Fair
Housing Act Chief is going to talk here
in a little bit about some of those
notification requirements but we wanted
to touch on that
um what operators and applicants are not
allowed to do they're not allowed to
locate within 1200 feet from another
group home or recovery residence there
are some exceptions to this if the home
is if the homes are separated by
railroad right-of-way arterial Road
right-of-way canals things of that which
provide a larger separation to begin
with HOAs are not allowed to prohibit
group homes or recovery residences
and currently in Our Land Development
code group homes cannot exceed five
residents or unless the state's license
that's granted to them allows them up to
10. so if they have a license for seven
occupants we would allow seven occupants
if they're capped at five we would we
would keep it at five
um one of the things in our Land
Development code too is it says that
operators are not allowed to house any
Resident that constitutes a direct
threat to other individuals or a
substantial threat to property of others
this one is come up in conversations
before this one is very difficult for
staff to enforce it is really in Our
Land Development code requirements to
put the onus back on the operators so
that they know this is the the level of
standard that the town is
holding them to this may be something
that we will look at too as we we bring
forward some potential changes to the
Land Development code in the future So
based on the pair Housing Act and the
land of element code and state statutes
what can the town do what are
municipalities allowed to do as I
mentioned we're allowed to enforce our
residential zoning requirements signage
parking building additions things of
that nature
we do have the ability to approve and
deny the the accommodation requests that
I mentioned and then we can require
group homes and Recovery residences to
register with the town comply with our
building and fire safety regulations
comply with State Licensing and then as
I mentioned comply with Gilbert parking
requirements as well
what are municipalities not allowed to
do we can't Grant or revoke state
licenses the state is The Entity that
that grants will revokes the state
licenses we can make recommendations to
this day we can provide the state
information but we really have no
authority to Grant or revoke those
licenses we can't exceed The Authority
granted by state law so state law caps
and occupancy it it says you can have
six or more and the town says we want to
have two or three we we're not allowed
to do that we can't exceed The Authority
granted to us by state law and then as
we mentioned with The Fair Housing Act
we can't discriminate in housing on the
basis of disability for in any way shape
or form at all
here's the comparison I mentioned you
can see Gilbert's distance requirement
is 1200 feet between facilities you can
see the occupancy there into more than
five a reasonable accommodation really
what we wanted to show you with this
slide in the following slide is that
Gilbert's requirements are really in in
line and consistent with other
communities and municipalities in the
Valley Phoenix has a little bit higher
distance separation but for the most
part we're right in line
uh here's Peoria Tempe Glendale and
Scottsdale again you can see Peoria and
Glendale have a little bit larger
separation distance but for the most
part we're we're very consistent and in
line with how other municipalities are
handling group homes and Recovery
residents
so registration and enforcement
development services as I've mentioned
any group home applicants or recovery
resident applicant comes to the town
through development services to register
once that registration is occurring we
pull up the map we identify the location
of the proposed home and we see if it
falls within 1200 feet of any other
facility that's where it starts Code
Compliance is available there are team
that does enforce all of the residential
zoning requirements so weed signage
illegal construction parking problems
those sorts of things anything really
developing with the Land Development
code our Code Compliance team would deal
with as far as group homes and Recovery
residences and then inspections if there
are inspections that need to be done by
our building department we we will go
out to the site and do the inspections
and if there's any problems that are
seen we obviously have the
responsibility to to let the state know
if we find anything that is against the
the registration or against the state
the licensing
um as we mentioned we've talked a lot
about the sex offenders and whether or
not they are allowed or not allowed in
group homes and and as I mentioned they
are there is a notification requirement
that is that is set up for that
um the chief can now kind of talk about
that
um that question and how that process
will work
thank you mayor council uh as Kyle
mentioned uh the sex offender laws are
applicable to every uh location in the
in the state not just group homes but
specifically we wanted to point out that
it's the sex offenders it's their
requirement uh to register with the sex
offender registering and notify the
sheriff anytime they change their
residence
they do have to tell the group home that
they are a sex offender but the
community notification is not either of
their responsibilities that's the local
jurisdiction in this case obviously us
um and anytime those uh the residents
change that has to be notified to the
sheriff within 72 hours
um there are several statutes in title
13 chapter 38 that deal with sex
offender registry uh pointing out three
here 38-21
defines who has to register
3822 explains the process of how they
register as a sex offender and then 3825
explains the process for Community
notification the next slide I'll walk
you through an example of a situation in
which someone a sex offender would be
released from Doc now keep in mind
they're not always released from Doc
someone may be found guilty and they're
sent to probation or whatnot so wherever
whether it's released from the court or
released from Doc that agency has the
duty to notify DPS the Department of
Public Safety of where that person that
offender is going to be located at at
that same time within 72 hours the
offender has to register in the sex
registry notification into the registry
as to whether going to be residing DPS
yes then sends in this example DPS sent
that information over sorry doc sends to
DPS DPS then has 10 days to verify that
the offender did register in this sex
offender registry and that that
information matches the information that
was provided by doc to DPS if there is
not a match then they will initiate an
investigation with Doc in this example
for a violation of the registration
requirements but assuming everything
matches then they would then
uh take that information pass it on to
the sheriff if it's a county Island the
sheriff would maintain responsibility
for Community notification if it's a
local agency such as us it would come to
us and it's our responsibility to review
the packet and categorize the individual
so we get that level zero is a sex
offender that was convicted of a sex
offense prior to 1996 a level one is uh
in that situation we only have to not we
well us and the offender have to notify
all residents within that residence but
not the community a level two or a level
three is you're more uh serious and or
concerning behavior from those sex
offenders and those require the
community notification for a level two
or a level three state law requires that
no more than 45 days that that Community
notification has to be sent out and that
can be sent out to the the neighborhood
approximately about a half mile distance
from the location of the residence and
that would also include schools
Community groups and prospective
employers
as mentioned state law requires 45-day
notification that is the maximum so we
looked at our sex offenders that we have
registered with us and our approximate
average response to community
notification is 30 days so a good two
weeks shorter than the state mandatory
or the maximum allowed by the state
uh some of the things that may affect
that in some of the examples that we had
uh discussed last fall with one of the
group homes
in which a sex offender was placed there
but the notification never went out
they have as I mentioned they have to
notify the sheriff of any change within
72 hours and that starts our process for
doing the community notification but so
if that person moves again they still
have 72 hours from the new location to
notify the sheriff of the new location
that resets the clock resets that
timeline for us to do community
notification
so there are times where someone would
be placed temporarily we're aware of the
sheriff is aware of it that information
is being sent over to us but by the time
we get the packet they have been moved
which is legal as long as they are
properly notifying that new location
there are in the statutes I don't go
into detail on this on the slides but
someone can be a registered as a
transient sex offender and in that case
every 90 days they have to confirm with
the sheriff where their General location
is and that information is shared with
that jurisdiction there are also an
opportunity if there are multiple houses
so if they were at a group home or a
friend's house and they went from four
different locations it Aggregates over a
30-day period if if any time they're at
that location more than three days in
that 30 days they have to register that
as well that changes the timeline for us
to verify every uh six months we have to
verify that that information is correct
once a person's place the notifications
are sent out yearly we have to verify
all that information is still accurate
and obviously if somebody moves that
whole process starts over for that
notification process
uh we met with the Arizona Department of
Health Services they've been very
Cooperative with us and they met with us
in development services and walking
through their processes and helping us
uh refine uh the way we can uh send
referrals to them and what to look for
um and a lot of this is on their website
but we Consolidated from the website and
from our meetings with them so I'm going
to walk you through what type of
referrals they receive what they do when
they receive them and what their
enforcement opportunities are so any
criminal activity us as a law
enforcement agency or the public can
submit that to Arizona Department of
Health Services an online referral
anytime there's negative outcomes
related to residential the residence
health or safety repeat or uncorrected
deficiencies that's more on the side of
DHS if they see continued violations
that could create a new referral for
them if there's Personnel issues if the
residents are left alone they have to
have someone there at all times
from the the owners of the group home
and then if they're over capacity Kyle
mentioned the five the six the 10 Max
those numbers if they're over that and
that doesn't include staff that's just
residents that could be a cause for a
referral and then any faults or
misleading information that's provided
to to the state that could cause them to
initiate a referral so some of the
considerations they take into
consideration when they receive it is uh
is there a risk of life life or health
or safety to any of the residents is
this a repeat violation what's the
severity of the violation how uh what's
the pattern of a violation is it weekly
monthly is it just once a year so they
they take that into consideration in
determining how to uh what steps to take
forward
um when a referral is sent in there when
we submit it we get an acknowledgment
that the referral has been received by
Arizona Department of Health Services
but we don't always get information back
as to what they do with it but from what
they told us and from what the website
shows they would document it at a
minimum they can also do inspections but
some of the enforcement side is doing
civil penalties and fines they could
revoke the license they could do a cease
and desist letter or an injunction
they're just with our processes there
are processes for appeals on behalf of
uh the the owners the licensees as well
and that's handled now by the state we
don't we can provide information if
we're the source but that's a process
that they handle
so updates on next steps
um as we mentioned we we started looking
at this a couple years ago but then more
specifically again last fall and trying
to refine our initial uh response from
the PD was to look at the calls for
service we were looking at it monthly
but we were really lacking that the
urgency and we were missing Minor
Details we come to find so we refined
our process to where we are looking at
all licensed group homes recovery homes
from our database we've integrated that
into our computer aided dispatch our CAD
system and so we have all those flags so
we can run reports we're not treating
them any differently we're just running
a weekly report so that we get a report
of any calls for service and a lot of
the calls end up being like 9-1-1
hang-up calls but we get those weekly
reports then our detectives review those
cases each week and anything that's a
criminal nature or concerning based on
that criteria that I just discussed they
will submit an online referral so we've
been doing that since the first week of
February of this year so far far this
year since February we've submitted
seven referrals to DHS for either crimes
or concerns that we've seen
and it doesn't limit it's just PD as I
mentioned and I'll talk in a minute
about what the community can do the
community can if they have a concern or
what they believe is a violation they
can do a referral as well if we do it
they do it do it they would just merge
those in together unless they're they
are separate issues so we as I mentioned
we're doing that Weekly making sure
we're capturing it another thing that
we're going to work on is what we're
seeing is a lot of 911 hang-up calls
which is not a big deal but if it's
happening every week we want to try to
capture the bigger picture if that's
something that's happening every week
we're getting two or three calls over 52
weeks obviously that's 150 plus calls
that we're responding to or potentially
fire if it's a potential medical issue
and so we want to take our current
report and revise it again to where
we're looking at it more of a monthly
and a quarterly pictured to see those
non-emergency non-criminal calls is
there an issue that we could work with
them either through crime prevention or
us or through DHS to see what else we
can improve so that we don't have to
respond and save us time make sure that
they're operating appropriately
uh turn it over to Kyle then back to me
thank you
um the last time our Land Development
code was updated when it as it refers to
group homes and Recovery residences was
in 2017.
um it's a really good time now for us to
take another look as as well as you well
know there's a lot of legislation that
that occurs and changes definitions and
changes requirements so this gives us a
great opportunity to begin to look at
that and we've had our our attorneys and
Council start to to look at that and
compare that with some State statutes so
we will be bringing back changes to the
Land Development code is as needed in
order to update what's in what's in the
code
at this point obviously all those will
be public hearing items they'll go in
front of the Planning Commission and
ultimately come to Town Council for uh
for approval
so I mentioned uh we we've spoken to our
community members and we've listened at
the the information that was provided
and their concerns so we wanted to make
sure we addressed and give some advice
to the community as to what they can
what their role is and how they can help
us and and
um address some of their concerns so
obviously if there's an emergency call
9-1-1 if it's not an emergency but it's
a crime related issue or a potential
violation of the licensing they can call
us our non-emergency number 503 6500 we
also have the 3-1-1 app so if there's
like parking violation or something like
that that doesn't need to be a response
but they want it document it and it's
something we can follow up on they can
use the app as well
additionally I mentioned Department of
Health Services the adhs that they can
report either call the numbers up here
on the screen
602-364-2639 or the website and we are
also developing development services I
keep calling them the wrong name they
called me on that today development
services has a web page currently with a
lot of the questions about licensing and
what uh with regarding group homes we
will replicate that on our side on the
PD side and then we'll add this uh the
address for DHS so if someone wants more
information there's a lot of really good
useful information in there or if you
want to see uh look up a group home you
can do that by either the address or the
business name so we'll give that
information to our website but anyone
can do a referral and asks for as much
information as possible obviously the
more information the better they can do
with the info the referral that you're
submitting and obviously contact HOA the
majority of our neighborhoods have HOAs
we don't enforce ccnr's code enforcement
doesn't enforce CC and ours but group
homes have to follow the same protocols
that any other house does within an HOA
community so if they're in violation of
the ccnrs that's an issue that should be
addressed through the HOA if it is
criminal or a civil issue as well us
record code enforcement could be
contacted as well so sometimes it'll hit
multiple categories and then Code
Compliance as we mentioned before uh
within the restrictions that they have
of the residents numbers and the
locations you can also contact code
enforcement with with concerns
and that concludes our presentation if
there's any questions we're open to to
hear Kyle had mentioned
um with the LDC we're not giving you
what those recommendations are and we've
hired an attorney to help us review
um those those codes and so we'll get a
legal opinion as to some additional
recommendations to bring forward to you
but tonight we just want to give you an
overview of and educate the community as
well as you of what we can do what we
can't do and what we've done to try to
improve on our side
any questions thanks chief
councilmember Anderson
just a quick question Kyle when you
update the LDC are you going to involve
stakeholders some of those who have come
down and spoken to us about the issues
in their neighborhood are you going to
involve them in reviewing what we're
going to change mayor council
mayor council yes absolutely we'll have
to do that that would be that would be
important to have those conversations
especially because then as we bring
things forward it'll be important for
everybody to understand what we can do
and what we can't do so having those
conversations early will be important
that was
the biggest thing for me is being able
to tell them what we can do and can't do
that they can understand that
thank you
thank you councilmember honey oh
councilman Giovanni please
Kyle um being in the industry for 30
years
um
and seeing the categories that we
currently have even I got confused with
staff trying to discuss the difference
between residential Senior Care assisted
living homes and Etc out of the 27
categories my guess is there's probably
nine that are actual residential
seeking and not in commercial spaces so
um would you be okay with aligning some
of those categories with the state uh
category so they're easier to understand
in our regulations mayor council yeah I
think that'll be very important as we
move forward with our our changes to the
Land Development code
that's member koprowski
thank you to kind of tag on to those two
comments as the liaison to Gilbert
Public Schools I attended a meeting this
month with Gilbert public schools and
learned that they have a very
exceptional special education department
and that people and families actually
moved to Gilbert to attend their
programs and so I think that's something
that we would need to recognize or maybe
have them as a stakeholder and those
families participate because as those
students age then they're probably the
ones that are now adults with
disabilities that are in some of those
group homes and I'd like to make sure
that we separate the you know group
homes from the homes for rehabilitation
and ensure that that we are able to
accommodate those individuals living in
our
community
thank you
thank you council member any other
comments questions on this topic
um Chief you mentioned that the um
Community is notified how does that
happen on six footer notification a
couple different ways so normally we
would send a flyer within that if it's
within that half mile but we also uh
there's a electronic registry I forget
the website but we entered that
information as well and that in the
state law that does allow us both
electronic and and uh paper and so if
you're within that half mile you're
going to get a notification but there
are a lot of services you anyone can get
in the registry and look in their
neighborhood and see who is uh if it's a
level or a level three you can see their
picture you can see what they're
convicted of or and what any
restrictions they have so that's open to
everybody you would only get a direct
communication with you follow within
that Circle that sphere of uh the
circumference of the residents and so if
someone's looking to buy or looking for
different locations or whether it be a
business if you want that information
it's all available but we enter all of
ours in there so all of our Gilbert
residents are in there and then if
somebody transfers from Gilbert to
Chandler or Mesa there is a process
where we give that file to the next
jurisdiction they review everything we
did and they started that same process
and so that once that change is made the
electronic database should be changed as
well but there are a lot of different uh
credit notifications a lot of different
identity alerts that you will get an
alert I get them where hey there's a sex
offender in your area a lot of times it
may be 10 miles away but it's pulling a
larger sphere of what it's not a
mandatory requirement that's more of a
convenience and a courtesy but that
information is available to everyone and
you can look in other states as well if
you want to see what's around your
parents or grandparents or or not do we
provide that contact that website on our
website on the police department's
website yes okay yeah it explains the
process the law and also it should have
the registry or the uh the link to the
registry and if not I'll make sure it's
there but it should be it was there
before and I don't want anyone to think
that we're saying that every person that
enters one of these Sober Living homes
or group homes is a sex offender we're
just pointing out that some are and
we've had those complaints and these are
ways that you can track those or be
notified of those yes okay and uh just
keep in mind that as we mentioned
um a lot of the group homes and
Rehabilitation there are temporary and
so a lot of times you won't have a
permanent resident there so it's going
to be hit and miss as to whether if it
if we show they're there they're still
there but there could be that lag of
within 30 days uh technically 45 they
might have moved
yeah and that could happen quite often
um I wanted to thank you for stepping up
last year when we had the issue with the
group home and working we all worked
with
azdhs or I guess it's just adhs
um and you came up with some ideas of
things that you could help with that you
could be their eyes on the ground when
you enter these homes and they were
great to work with under those
circumstances and I'm I'm glad to see
that we're stepping forward to do that
and we did learn during that process
that while a home could potentially be
being questioned by adhs
um that they have a right to continue to
do business
while they run an appeal process they
have a right to continue to do business
and so they could stay open doing
exactly the same thing that they're
doing while they're going through this
bureaucratic process if you will correct
right
um any other comments vice mayor thank
you Mary
um Mary
oh goodness oh mayor thank you very much
I was going to apologize for not
speaking up before you had your comments
um
I want to talk just a moment about
um 3-1-1 and how
perhaps you all can look at this a
little deeper and maybe Identify some
best practices for Neighbors because
when I think about it it's one of the
easiest ways to actually record
something and and that way we have it on
record and we can use that as part of a
case if we needed to
in in lieu of calling 9-1-1 and waiting
for an officer to get there and maybe
whatever was happening is over at that
point
um so I just wanted to make a comment
that if we can look at expanding that
use in these cases I think that would be
great yeah and uh mayor vice mayor
tilkey 311 is a good opportunity uh easy
convenient for residents to relay
concerns and or violations but we would
ask if it's uh something of health or
safety risk that they do call the 9-1-1
or the non-emergency number
the intent most of our calls so to speak
are are app submissions our parking
graffiti some code enforcement issues
sometimes they'll come to us sometimes
they'll come to code it depends on how
the person entered it and those are ones
parking specifically one and that was a
question that was raised earlier today
was parking of you know if there's 10
cars in front of the group home should
they call us
they should only cause if it's a
violation so if they're illegally parked
too far away from the curve they're
blocking the roadway or parked where
they're blocking a uh a driveway a
sidewalk a fire hydrant if it's against
the law then they should contact us
um and if it's a safety issue then yes
call rather than doing the 3-1-1 app but
if they're legally parked and the the
ccnrs don't restrict it our code or
signs don't restrict it there's no
reason to call us because they're
legally parked and we will look at it
and say there's nothing we can do
because it's legally parked so there's
some common courtesy that hopefully
would take place if you have frequent
guests whether it's a group home or not
that you would park on your side of the
street but we do have some locations
where they can't because it's restricted
because the it's too narrow for a fire
truck so there's only parking on one
side
and so we deal with that as well but the
3-1-1 is a good opportunity to report
something needs to be fixed but not an
immediate response
I have a neighbor that they have six or
seven Vehicles just for everybody in
their home and it's not a group home or
sober living home and they're parked all
over our neighborhood facing Every Which
Way and so we would have to make sure
that all the homes are treated equally
in that case so if there were tickets
being written for those cars at that
home then we'd have to make sure that
everybody's treated equally too that
comes under the FHA
um I had a conversation with lieutenant
governor Anton this morning from The
Gila River tribal nation and she's
working with the governor and she
specifically said group homes and sober
living homes because they have
indigenous people disappearing
and they are connecting them somehow to
these group homes and sober homes excuse
me and the governor actually did an
executive order on this topic and she
put a group together so if we could keep
an eye on that too because I think it
might I don't know if any state
regulations might come from that I don't
know it would have to probably be the
next legislative session at this point
but let's keep an eye on that too and I
asked Governor Anton if she would send
me the information that she's been
supplying to the governor because I
think that um
I think that it could be helpful we we
share borders with our tribal Nations
and I think it could be helpful to us
too to have that mayor council thank you
yeah and that's the information we've
passed on our community members as well
of if they have ideas because they do
have some ideas when it comes to
licensing we we can control what Kyle
had mentioned but when it comes to
licensed categories that are dictated by
the state the license approvals or
revocations that's at the state but we
can certainly try to pass that
information onto the state or the
committee and to try to make some
improvements and that's all we can do
and we've been working on this I've been
talking about group homes for
10 or 12 years here in Gilbert between
Planning Commission Council and now as
mayor it's a difficult situation we want
to make sure that everybody has a place
to go in our community we just want to
make sure that these businesses are run
correctly we know that there we always
know that there are bad apples out there
I think I said that to the Press last
year we know that there are good pizza
places and bad pizza places we know
there are good plumbers and bad plumbers
you know it's the same no matter what
kind of business it is fill in the blank
so
um thank you for following up on this
and um doing the work that you're doing
and I agree that we need to definitely
bring the public in for a stakeholders
group too
thanks any other comments
everybody looks good thank you Kyle
thank you chief
okay those are our only two items for
our study session this evening we can go
ahead and adjourn the study session and
give you a little bit of time before our
next meeting