City of Chandler City Council Meeting 07/17/25

It's okay.
I'm sorry. Let me drop my stuff off real
quick.
[Music]
Good evening everybody and welcome to
the July 17th, 2025 regular meeting of
the Chandler City Council. I would like
to call this meeting uh to order. Um
three of our council members are out of
town at conferences. So Council Member
Harris, Council Member Poston, and
Council Member Orlando are are all here
telephonically. Very good. So with that,
let me call this meeting to order and
clerk, please take the role.
Mayor Hartkey
here.
Vice Mayor Ellis
here.
Council member
here.
Council member Poston
here.
Council member Orlando
here.
Council member Harris
here.
Council member Hawkins
here.
We have a quorum.
Very good. Our invocation tonight will
be led by Rajan Zed from the universal
society of Hinduism and our pledge of
allegiance following that by council
member inas.
Mr. Zen,
I shall be reading from ancient Hindu
scriptures some as old as 1500 B.CE in
Sanskrit then interpret in English.
We meditate on the transcendental glory
of the deity supreme who inside the
heart of the earth inside the life of
the sky and inside the soul of the
heaven. May he stimulate and illuminate
our minds.
Lead us from the unreal to the real.
Lead us from darkness to light. Lead us
from death to immortality.
Strive constantly to serve the welfare
of the world by devotion to selfless one
attain the supreme goal of life. Do your
work with the welfare of others always
in mind. Om shanti shanti shanti peace
peace peace be unto all. Oh,
thank you.
Thank you for your words, Mr. Zed.
Please join me in reciting the pledge of
pledge of allegiance. I pledge
allegiance to the flag of the United
States of America and to the republic
for which it stands, one nation under
God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
Thank you, Mr. Zel. Thank you, Council
Member Encus.
Uh, council, tonight, uh, we just have a
consent agenda, and I understand that,
um, Council Member Harris, you had a
couple comments. If we can keep it to
comments, we'll keep it on consent
agenda. Otherwise, it would be
appropriate to move it to action.
Council member Harris.
Thank you, Mayor. Um, thank you, um, to
Vice Mayor and city council members.
Just wanted to make sure that the item
number seven I had some concerns and
some questions about. It seemed like the
item should still move forward. Just
wanted to um make sure that um the city
manager um continue to bring us together
to work on this for September. Um
because I do agree with it. I just think
that it needs to be expanded a little
bit more and more thoughts to be added
to it. Thanks, Mayor.
Okay. Thank you, council member. Um, is
there any additional comments or any uh
desire to move anything to action?
Hearing none, uh, is there a motion to
approve the consent agenda? Mr.
Mayor,
uh, which who was that? Okay, Council
Garcinas.
I move to approve the consent agenda of
July 17, 2025 regular meeting items 1
through 23.
We've got a motion. Is there a second?
Second by vice mayor. Again, I asked if
there is any need to recus hearing none.
Council, please vote.
Council member Poston,
yes.
Council member Orlando,
yes.
Council member Harris,
yes.
Motion carries unanimously.
Thank you. Next on our short agenda
tonight is unscheduled public
appearances. We have one card. Uh, Mr.
Brook Bill. Mr. Bill, please state your
name and address for the record. You
have up to three minutes to share your
thoughts. Says unscheduled. We cannot
interact with you, but us council and
staff are listening and responding.
Brookfield, 85 West Twood Place,
Chandler. Um, so this evening, uh, I'd
like to first of all, uh, thank Council
Member Encus for taking time out of his
schedule to walk on the canal with me in
the middle of the summer at 4:00 in the
afternoon. Uh, that's above and beyond.
I appreciate it. I hope it was uh,
informative. U, just so you know, while
we were out, uh, we witnessed about a
half a dozen violations. Uh, we reported
those to the police. Uh the first
response was 50 minutes later.
Um obviously they weren't around
anymore. So um second person I'd like to
thank was uh is Jason Brooks for writing
a very informative article in the
newspaper. Uh I think it was balanced
but I think it gets across the point um
that uh we need to be doing more than is
currently being done.
Um, and what I've noticed, uh, is that
there has been a pattern. Uh, I was out
on Sunday evening. Uh, I sent a text at
3:45 when I was crossing the bridge at
Pine Lake Park. Um, I got two responses
back. Basically, the, uh, didn't believe
that my there was my report was valid.
Um, but uh I sent a text again at uh 4
410. Um,
and uh let him know that uh I'd like to
see someone at the bridge and I'll show
him photos and videos. Um, they said
they had let him know and I I let them
know I was walking south on the canal.
I'll be there in 10 minutes. I arrived
at uh 4:24. Let them know I had arrived.
Call for service. uh database says that
someone arrived at 4:31
uh while I was sitting on the stone
there on the bridge and then I left four
minutes later at or 3 minutes later at
4:34. Clearly that's inaccurate
information in the database.
Um later on 6, there was a non-emergency
text that said that the sergeant was in
route at 4:36 and he had uh arriving on
scene at 508 and I received a phone call
then 13 minutes later at 5:21. Clearly
the actions don't match the
documentation.
So I would like an explanation for that.
Uh similarly uh on Tuesday this week I
sent four texts but only got one entry
in the database. Uh so the other three
were ignored. They were never responded
to, never entered in the database. I'd
like an explanation for that also.
Um last but not least, I'd requested
some uh guidance from our city attorney.
I have not heard anything from her yet.
Uh, I would like to know when I can
expect to see this guidance forthcoming.
Thank you, Mr. Brooks. Thank you,
Mayor.
Council member Harris.
Yes. Um, um, city manager, um, we've
been working on this for, um, a little
while um, now and really just trying to
get some some some clear direction. Um,
can you al can you take a look at this a
little bit more closely and see what
additional things if we're missing
something to continue to um to to
continue to work on this area because
Mr. Bill has been here quite a few times
and um and very well spoken diligent
with his notes. Just kind of want to see
if there's anything else that we can
look at and see what we can do to
continue to work with Mr. Bill
Mayor Council Member Harris. Um, I'm
happy to report back to you that my
assistant city manager has done quite a
bit of work to bring together the
departments across the city to begin to
frame ways that we can address this
problem. The next step in that process
will be getting the subcommittee
together to work on addressing this
issue so that we have better answers for
you. But Ted has done a lot of work and
I appreciate his help on this and we
will be uh hopefully very shortly
bringing that subcommittee together to
get you direct answers.
Thank you, mayor, and thank you, um,
city manager.
All right. Next on our agenda is current
events. I'll start. Uh, sad news for the
greater Chandler community is, uh, a
dear friend, community activist, uh,
longtime uh, worker with Chandler
Unified School District, Terry Luck,
passed away. Uh, we received news last
week. Terry was a good friend of mine. I
remember one time uh when I did not have
food for one of our IHELP interfaith
homeless emergency lodging programs
nights and the next day Terry brought
over probably a dozen number 10 cans of
food so that the next time this happened
I'd have a I'd have a a feelsafe act. So
just a very thoughtful genuine man. He's
been a cornerstone of the Chandler
community, serving as CUSD's director of
community relations for 27 years.
As I mentioned, I I think for many of
us, he was a very dear friend. So, on
behalf of uh myself, uh council team
Chandler, our thoughts and condolences,
uh our prayers go to Terry's family, his
friends, his colleagues, and all who are
mourning and missing him. And we are
missing him.
Secondly, um this last weekend we had an
incredible amazing event, our annual
Operation Back to School, uh where we
handed out uh thousands of backpacks. I
don't have a final number, so I I'll say
thousands, just historical.
Uh it was a an amazing event. We had
about 50 nonprofits that were part of
this. Uh there were families of uh just
from all over Chandler and all schools
that I could tell that were uh were
taking advantage of this opportunity to
allow their their kiddos to have a good
first day of school. It was a wonderful
morning and uh not only did we give uh
backpack this they were stuffed with
supplies, there were shoes, there were
socks, there was a lot more as well,
even u coupons for haircuts. So big
thank you to uh our for our city
Chandler uh for this incredible
initiative. Once again uh as I mentioned
our 12th annual and the many hundreds of
volunteers who spent their time that
morning and the days leading up to this
making sure that this event was as best
possible to serve the needs of our
Chandler community. And again, of
course, uh, as was just on the screen, a
big thank you to the sponsors whose
generosity allowed us to continue
serving our students in this capacity.
12 years ago when we started this, uh, a
lot of these organizations that were
here at that time, Shields wasn't here
then. Uh, we're doing we're handing out
backpacks on their own. And what we
found is if we would work together, we
could give more backpacks to more kids
and make sure that we were eliminating
the duplicity that would happen if uh
every nonprofit or business or faith
community was doing this separately. So,
it's come a long way and kudos to all
who've been part of the leadership in
this.
Speaking of school, now that our
students are well equipped, uh we're
excited that Chandler students are back
in school. Yesterday was the first day
of school for all of our CUSD students.
I understand Higgley is the same at
other schools are starting later. So, we
have a new school year. It brings fresh
opportunities to learn, grow, and make
lasting memory. To our students, stay
focused, work hard, support one another.
To all the rest of us, exercise a little
more caution, a little more patience on
the roads. Make sure that uh you pay
attention to the 15 mph speed limits and
just be cautious particularly around
schools, around buses. We want to make
sure that everybody has a wonderful
school year.
And lastly, unexpected, but we can't let
this not be mentioned, our economic uh
development director, Micah Miranda.
Where is he?
Where is Micah? Please stand, Micah.
Micah was named the policy maker of the
year by Association for Career Technical
Education of Arizona. So Micah, thank
you for your ongoing work in serving
Chandler and and students and continuing
to uh just spearhead so many
initiatives. We are grateful.
Council member,
no announcements for me today, Mayor.
Thank you.
Okay, Vice Mayor.
Thank you, Mayor. I wanted to talk about
something that I attended last week,
which was the Mesa Police Academy
graduation. Last week I had the
opportunity to attend the Mesa Police
Academy class number 60. It was amazing.
Family members, everybody attended the
place was everybody was asking for you,
mayor. Um the Ma mayor was asking me for
you and I said next time you'll be
there. We had actually six of our
members of uh team Chandler that
graduated there and it was wonderful to
be there to support them and be with
them and see how proud their parents and
their family was. There was a lot of
tears in the room um concerning them
because we could see the generations of
different uh policemen um through the
different families. So, it was amazing
to be able to to witness that and be
part of it. So, congratulation to our
chiefs uh of police and also to all the
graduates. Next, National Black Business
Month Summit. It's going to be in our
city. I'm so excited to announce that on
ex um August August 1st.
It's going to be August 1st and we are
partnering with the Black Chamber of
Arizona to host the National Black
Business Month Summit. Please come and
join us. It's a free event. It's going
to be an all day summit over at the CCA,
which is the Chandler Center for the
Art. There will be a live panels with
city and businesses leaders, interactive
workshops and vendors, marketplace, and
local art galleries. Council member
Harris and I uh have been asked to be
there. So, we will be there. Join us.
This summit is your chance then to
connect, learn, and grow. We hope to see
you there. Thank you, Mayor.
That's a good photo with your red shaw
there. I like that.
Why not?
Yeah. Okay. Council member Hawkins.
Thank you, Mayor. Um so, tonight I
wanted to share since it's been so hot
out, if you need a break from the summer
heat, you can head indoors and enjoy
free live music at the Chandler Center
for the Arts. um their free summer
concert series. It's going to be kicking
off July 25th and it's running Friday
nights through August 29th um excluding
the night of August 15th. And these
concerts are going to start at 7:30 and
they're open to everyone. So come enjoy
some live music and excuse me, explore
the gallery's latest exhibit and grab a
drink while you're there. Um you can
also catch the concerts online via the
liveream if you would rather stay in.
RSVPs are not required, but they're
encouraged. And then you can find the
link um and show up at the or excuse me,
and see the lineup at chandlerenter.org.
So, we hope to see you there. And also,
I want to say welcome, John.
Speaking of John, uh any comments?
Uh no, mayor. I'm humble and excited to
be here and I'm happy to have my first
meeting under my belt.
Very good. Well, that concludes our
meeting tonight. You have a wonderful
evening.