City of Chandler Study Session 5/19/2025

Perfect. Thank you.
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don't believe
Council member Harris, I'm here. Okay.
We'll be starting in about nine minutes.
Okay.
I'm very
Oh, taxi.
Oh, good. There you go. Perfect.
I'll tell them. Yeah, I'll tell them so
they know you're going to have it pulled
up. It's okay. Perfect.
Must be the head shot.
[Music]
today.
How you doing?
What are you doing?
I'm really excited to have my
be thrilling. Yeah.
No, I mean I get it. No, it's not your
fault.
Yeah, I saw it.
Yeah,
Good work.
There you go.
There you go.
Good evening and welcome to the May
19th, 2025 study session. Uh, thank you
all for coming. We're glad to highlight
the achievements of many in our audience
and we're glad that you're part of team
Chandler as part of our community. We'll
get to that in a few. First, let's have
a roll call.
Mayor Harky. Vice Mayor Ellis present.
Council member Incas here. Council
member Poston here. Council member
Orlando here. Council member Harris
here. Council member Hawkins here. We
have a quorum. Thank you so much. Next
part of our agenda tonight is scheduled
public appearances. And Council Member
Poston, it's your time to join me.
And unlike some of the other council
members, council member Poston has no
proclamations to read tonight.
[Music]
First up on our agenda is recognition
for for our city day sponsors. We can
have Priscilla Quintana, neighborhood
preservation program manager, come up
and join us.
Good evening, mayor and council. As you
may recall, earlier this year, we
celebrated our 14th annual for city day
in honor of Cesan Chavez. This year, we
adopted the Pamela traditional
neighborhood with over 141 homes, many
alleyways. Um, on Saturday morning,
March 29th, volunteers showed up as
early as 6:30 where they tackled
projects like painting homes, spreading
gravel, cleaning alleyways, and we ended
with a celebration in the park. This
evening, we're here to recognize our
sponsors whom without them, this um
event would not be
possible. We will kick off with our
celebration sponsors. If we could please
have our representative from Salvation
Army, Captain Philipot and Lieutenant
Philip please come up to the front. And
I know we're going to do individual
photos, but if you could all move off to
the right and we'll do one big group
photo with everyone as well.
If we could please have the banner then
ladies. Yeah. Right in the middle
there. We'll do a group photo with
everyone.
Get on in, ladies. Yes,
please. We'll get it right. There we go.
Where are you?
To my left, your right a little bit.
Next up, we would also like to re uh
recognize Resurrection Street Ministry,
Bill Barry, and his lovely wife to join
us.
Do you want to do We'll do individuals
and then we'll do a group one. Don't go
too far.
Thank you.
Next, we would like to recognize our
street sponsors. Um, these sponsors
donated up to $1,000. For the first time
we have PCL Tyler
[Applause]
Richard and Velocity and I believe they
were not able to join us this evening
but we will send their
certificate. Next we will recognize our
block sponsors. Our block sponsors
donated up to $8,000 towards this event.
We have Vyabi who unfortunately was not
able to join us today. Um Kim Beck from
Home
Depot, Red Canyon Supply, we have Aeli
Huades, Pioneer Landscaping, we have
Rick
Edens. I know they are here. Compass
Christian Church, Steven Buckner and Sam
Thomas.
[Applause]
Give it to him.
Let the
Okay. And finally, we would like to
recognize our neighborhood sponsors who
donated up to $10,000 in kind or
monetary donations towards this event.
We will kick off with waste management,
Victoria Richie.
She made it.
And then we have Connor Anderson from
Sherwin Williams.
[Applause]
All right, we're back everybody now.
All right, if you are identified
as maybe all the
talking Tell people
that thereby
Thank
you guys.
For our next recognition, we're
recognizing the Chandler Hot Shots. If
we could have them come on up. We're
excited to recognize you today. The
Chandler Hot Shots are a 4 shooting club
that practices, competes, and develops
youth aged 8 to 19 years
old. Five Chandler athletes, Dell,
Gerabel, Bailey Webster, Deja Bell, and
Judabel were recently selected to
compete in the Junior Olympics National
Championships, and we are so proud of
their accomplishments. Who could I turn
this over to give us more clarification?
Um, thank you guys for having us. Um,
yeah.
Um, we're we've been really grateful for
this team and the range that we shoot
at, Phoenix Rott and Gun Club. It's
allowed us a place to practice every day
whenever we want to and it has
electronic targets that emulate the same
targets at national competitions like
junior Olympics and we have been able to
compete well because of that and um I
personally have benefited from it
because of the Ohio State University
pistol team recruits at these national
events and I've been able to be
recruited and I've been able to pay for
college because of it. So, I'm very
grateful for the team and the range.
Yeah.
Uh I'm one of the younger si one of the
younger sisters and uh Anthony goes off
to college is probably going to be my
role to take over the team. So, I just
wanted to say that I'll probably be the
one you see after D's gone, but um yeah,
I've really really enjoyed the sport and
it's given me something to do well kind
of actively too and um it's been a great
team building experience to especially
being homeschooled and having the chance
to um socialize outside of the house
with other shooters as well.
Thank you so much.
Um, I want to share just a little bit
about the event uh and and recognize how
amazing it is that five kids from
Chandler were invited to the uh Junior
Olympic National Championships. Uh, this
event was by invitation only. Uh, 85
less than 85 kids were invited to
compete in air pistol. uh less than 35
invited nationwide to compete in sport
pistol. Uh five kids from Chandler
invited to that event. So um you know we
had uh two shooters placed in the top 10
and and that's not a small task when
they're competing against 21-year-old
and under athletes.
Um, you know, it was a couple days in
that we realized that the Olympic
training team had members there
competing against these kids. So, you
know, I want to recognize Da. Uh, she
she was second in the nation in air
pistol in winter nationals. Uh, she
placed seventh uh in the nation in the
in the finals at the uh junior Olympic
National Championships. Uh Bailey over
here, Bailey uh is my 16-year-old
daughter. I'm pretty proud of her. Uh
she uh was 10th overall in sport pistol
at the uh at the event and uh and this
was the first time to go to a big
national event. uh Judah here uh 10
years old and he was competing against
21 and under athletes and he uh he did
incredibly well in his age class, 15 and
underage class and uh he beat out some
athletes that were uh almost twice as
old as he was. Uh so that was pretty
amazing. Um, and then I'd be remiss to
not thank our community supporters uh
like uh Phoenix Rod and Gun has been
amazing to support uh our Chandler Hot
Shots program and the Phoenix Rod and
Gun Youth Program, which is the the
track that takes these kids to the USA
shooting and the Junior Olympics. Uh
they've been amazing at the support that
they've given to us uh and our clubs.
And then uh we've got First Interstate
Bank, a Chandler business here that uh
has helped to support. Uh and then
Shields uh from Chandler uh wanted to
recognize the kids and they've given a
uh gift card for each kid for their uh
for their uh participating and support.
Thank you.
Well, sounds like an incredible team. I
just wanted to give a thank you to
Eugene as well because none of this
would have been possible without his
coaching and it's meant a lot to us that
he gives all his time and stuff to help
us out.
Um, also just uh real quick, you know,
the the shooting sports uh is coming
from Chandler Hot Shots is a big part of
this, which is a 4 club. So, if you've
had kids in 4, a lot of times they're
doing horseback, they're showing goats
at the fair, you know, pigs, that kind
of stuff. Um, shooting sports is new to
4 in our area, Chandler. We started this
club a year and a half ago. And so, the
accomplishments that are coming out of
4, uh, for the shooting sports is really
only a year and a half old. That's how
much time these kids have had to to
practice and perfect their skills. Um,
we do need some support that way. Uh so
if you're if you're you know if you're
enthusiastic about 4 and what it brings
to the table for kids outside of
internet activities etc. Uh we love your
support going forward. Thank
you. All right. Well let's get a photo
if we can maybe if you're a little
smaller move in front of
me. There we go. All right. She's going
to move us to the left or to the right.
to the right. We have maybe a couple of
you move over here in this. There you
go.
Great. We good.
Can I have you take a step?
Thank you
[Applause]
all my handshakes. Come on.
All right. And next we have recognition
Reed on Chandler. Joanne Flo can come on
up and join us. I know Council Member
Orlando has been quite involved with
Read on Chandler. We have an opportunity
to highlight a great long-standing
community partner, ReadOn Chandler.
Readon Chandler is a collaborative
community organiz is a collaborative of
community organizations and businesses
committed to ensuring that every child
birth through five obtains the necessary
literacy and readiness skills to be
successful in school and read by third
grade. So, we're proud of all the effort
that you guys continue to sacrificially
give out of a a passion and a purpose.
Joan, tell us more.
Thank you, Mayor Hartkey, and and uh
council members. Thank you so much.
We're here to actually honor you tonight
because of your participation in our uh
VIP guest reader event on a in April. We
had 100% participation from council and
mayor. Um mayor actually uh I think was
in three different schools. Uh council
member Orlando, a couple schools. Um,
and I I guess I'm here to say that if
you ever quit your day jobs, you really
uh should go into storytelling because
you all did absolutely marvelous. And we
thank you so much for your time and
effort to uh uh children that get and so
uh we know that you're dedicated to
literacy. We know you're dedicated to uh
growing uh community future community
members and we just appreciate your time
and effort. Um just a little bit about
our our last two years. We had 25 VIP
guest readers. Um, we read to all of
the, uh, nine Title One schools in the
Chandler Unified School District. We
read to over 2,200 uh, kindergarteners
and one first grade class. So, um, that
was a lot of kids that you all reached.
And we were able to distribute 24,000
books to these kids so that they have a
summer library.
Part of our recognition is I'd like to
introduce you to Ricardo Yansy who is a
Chandler children's uh author. He's here
to present one of his books to each of
you as a token of our appreciation. Um
Richard, I'm going to turn it over to
you and let us tell you a little bit
tell us about it. Thank you. I
appreciate that. Joan, thank you so
much. Um as she said, my name is Ricardo
Yansy Jr. here and I'm the author and
illustrator of the children's picture
book My Best Friend Granny, which is
about uh my great bond with my
grandmother growing up in North Carolina
uh in the 80s and 90s or as my kids
would probably say the late
1900s. Uh but it was my bond with my
grandmother that was very special to me
that uh made me put this book together
and uh it is my tribute to her and I
want to thank Joanne and the read on
Chandler uh program. I want to thank uh
this the public Chandler Public Library
because they actually displayed my book
in the story walk program at Desert
Breeze Park. Um which was really cool
for for my kids to see and other kids
around Chandler. And I'd like to thank
Chandler Mall uh and the Barnes & Noble
staff there. uh ever since the very
beginning uh when I first launched this
book which was in 2023 on September 10th
uh on grandparents day which was a
perfect day for this book u they have
been amazing so even though my uh
journey didn't start here it started in
North Carolina uh this book it its home
is here in Chandler so uh appreciate
everybody and
also everything that's happening with
the book. Uh we decided to do a animated
short film. So about the book uh which
we just launched a Kickstarter a couple
of weeks ago and uh everybody that has
embraced this book not just here in
Arizona but worldwide uh has shown their
support and uh we would love to have
your support too. Uh, and that could be
just
um mentioning to it to your colleagues
if you if you don't want to donate to
the campaign, but uh whatever little bit
helps uh for this book to be at a uh at
your next Disney movie uh the short that
plays in front of it or your Pixar film.
So, uh, your support is much
appreciated, but thank you. And
hopefully next year we will see you
reading this book to kindergarteners as
well. So, Richard, do you want to go
ahead and absolutely give each council
member a
book? And again, we just thank you for
your time. We know you're busy people
and you have lots of problems that you
need to solve, but
um reading to our our youngest children
are some of the best things that we can
do. So, thank you very much.
Awesome.
Maybe we should
Thank you. so much.
Stay right here. He's too big. He's too
He's too tall. I'll just sneak over
here.
You have a voice of a story. He does.
One more.
Thank you for all you do, John. Thank
you, sweetheart.
[Applause]
All right. And make sure they leave
agenda up front.
All right, council. We had um two items
called in for consent and then by our
council rules, if anyone has questions
for the item that council member Harris
put on the agenda, we can ask him that
on Monday as well. Item number six,
first responder cancer screenings. Like
to call up Chief Wiggins for um a
presentation. Is that correct?
Oh, okay. Assistant Chief. Yeah.
talk to us about first responder cancer
screenings. Happy to do so. Thank you,
Mayor Council. Thank you for the
opportunity to come up here and speak to
you tonight. Um, Council Member Poston,
thank you for calling in this this
agenda item. I know how much this
program means to you personally, um, as
it does me. It's important to illustrate
the scope of this issue to fully
understand why cancer prevention is so
important to Channel Firefighters.
Cancer is now the leading cause of death
for line of duty uh line of duty deaths
for firefighters in the nation which is
astounding. In addition, firefighters
are significantly higher risk of diagnos
being diagnosed for cancer than the
general public. For example,
firefighters are 200% more likely to get
testicular cancer or misotheloma.
They're 150% more likely to get multiple
myoma or non-hodkins disease. they're
140% more likely to get skin
cancer. Not only are these statistics
concerning to our firefighters, but we
have experienced cancer here much closer
to home. Uh in Chandler Fire's 88-year
history, we have had one line of duty
death, and that was due to cancer in
2018. Through the past two years of
cancer screening, we have seen 95%
participation from our members in year
one, and we're over 75% already this
year.
To date, we have identified eight
different cancers. One of those was
serious. The other was
life-threatening. Often with cancer,
symptoms don't arise until the disease
has progressed into the later stages of
cancer development, which is why this
early diagnosis and screening is so
critical because it directly improves
survivability.
From the financial perspective, given
the state of Arizona's presumptive
cancer loss, it is far more economically
viable to fund screening services rather
than cancer treatment. According to the
World Health Organization, cancer
screening is two to four times less
expensive than cancer treatment. It's
not only due to the duration of the
treatment, but it cancer when found at
early stages presents a wider range of
treatment that's less invasive and
easier on the patient. It's also more
economical. Screening is the most
effective and economical way to reduce
the impact of cancer to our
firefighters, which is why this ongoing
program and this contract in front of
you is um is so supported and
appreciated by our firefighters. Thank
you to this council for your support,
the city manager's
office. This program moving forward,
this next year will offer some services
to our firefighters such as lowdosese
lung CT scans, QT breast ultrasounds for
our female firefighters, POS testing,
and other important services. So again,
thank you for your support and I'm happy
to answer any questions that you might
have. Council member Poston. Thank you,
Mayor. Thank you. That was an excellent
presentation. and I think you answered
almost every one of the questions that I
had. So, I really appreciate that. I was
so glad to hear the participation rates
because I know that was the question
when we first approved this previously
and you all have done an excellent job
of getting your firefighters in and I
know it sometimes is very difficult to
get people in for that preventative
screening. So, I just encourage you and
appreciate all the work that you have
done encouraging those firefighters to
get this testing done and anything that
we can do to help. This is obviously
very near and dear to my heart and want
to continue to support the firefighters
in our obligation to keeping you safe,
keeping you healthy um and moving
forward with this. So, thank you for
that presentation and and I'm very much
in support of this. Appreciate it. We
share that same feeling of obligation
and so you guys know we do have the
highest percentage of participation in
any regional fire department right now.
uh we have set the standard for for this
screening program and that participation
and that's a testament I think to the to
the focus of the council and city
manager's office and our organization to
say this is important and we've
demonstrated that. So thank you again
vice mayor. Thank you mayor. Thank you
for calling this in because I think that
from the time it came out that we were
going to do this pilot program, I called
it in every single year just because I
wanted the people of Chandler to have an
idea what we are doing in that
department and how we preventing as a
first responder. I couldn't be so
thrilled to see that we are making an
impact into the lives. And for those who
are not really late term, they don't
understand the type of cancer that we
screening for here. These are major
cancers that if they go undetected that
we they could just stand up and then
drop dead like that and then we would
know what happened until afterhand. But
having been able to put ourselves in the
gap for prevention, I think that's
what's really given us this highest
level of interaction where we can stop
these things into their tracks. So,
thank you again for saying yes to this
and I know that it's still we're still
calling it a pilot, but I don't think
it's going to continue to be a pilot.
So, really appreciate you. Appreciate
your support. Absolutely. We're happy to
come up here and talk about about this
program, what we're we're able to do for
each other. Yeah. Thank you.
Additional questions or comments from
council? Seeing none, thank you Keith.
Thank
you. Next item, item number 19, also
called by council member Poston, a
presentation on the contracts and
agreements administratively approved
related to the community garden at 190
South Dakota Street. Kim,
good evening. Mayor Council. The
community garden uh as mayor mentioned
is at 190 South Dakota Street, which is
at the northwest corner of Dakota Street
in Chicago. The city purchased this
property in 2008 and later leased it to
Harvest for Humanities for a period of
10 years to be used as a community
garden. They grew produce for Ascend,
partnered with schools, and allowed
community members to grow fruits and
vegetables. Since that time, cultural
development and neighborhood resources
have worked together to reinvigorate the
the garden. We've researched other
successful gardens throughout the metro
area and engaged the PBLO VJO
neighborhood at the first Caesar Chavez
event. We showcased a variety of
concepts for the neighborhood to
consider, including activating the
community garden with new garden beds,
lighting, places to read and relax,
programming, and classes. In December,
city council approved resolution
5855, reallocating CDBG funds to assist
with the design and construction of the
garden. The design is being completed by
J2 Design and is anticipated to complete
in early fall. We'll continue the
neighborhood outreach as we move through
the design process. We are currently
working to develop the operational
structure of the garden that will
include safety components, uses of the
garden, partnerships, and neighborhood
programming. And with that, I'm happy to
answer any questions you may have.
Council member Poston. Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you, Kim. I just wanted to bring
this up because I think this is going to
be such a gem for a community. This is
really going to be something that will
be wonderful and sometimes our items
administratively approved don't always
get the attention. So, thank you for
that. I do know that community gardens
can be very difficult to maintain. So,
I'm glad to hear that you are out there
looking at successful programs. Will
will residents be able to have their own
plot? Will it be sort of a shared I how
do how are you anticipating that it
might work uh uh through the mayor
council member Poston that is part of
the operational things that we're
working through but for certain it will
be the neighborhood that will be able to
engage in these beds we've had an out uh
cry from people uh in the downtown area
that are interested in participating but
we also want to activate it in unique
and different ways too we've talked with
the libraries about maybe doing classes.
We've talked to neighborhood resources
about bringing program teaching healthy
food options and those type of things.
So, we're really working um cohesively
together to bring some strong
programming to the garden. Okay. That's
No, that's wonderful. And as somebody
who grew up with fresh vegetables and a
fresh garden, but I'm a terrible
gardener myself, I really appreciate
everything that you're doing. But food
is so foundational and we're bringing it
right to people to grow their own and
hopefully we can change some kids ideas
about vegetables. So, thank you for what
you're doing and it sounds like you're
really taking a nice holistic approach.
So, thank you very much. I appreciate
it. Mayor, additional questions. Council
member Incas. Kim, you mentioned that
you're reaching out to other communities
that have these gardens. What are some
successes that they're having that would
help this garden be successful this time
around? Through the mayor, council
member. That's a great question. We've
actually taken a tour uh to one in
Fountain Hills that is extremely uh
popular and first and foremost, it's an
advocate. It's somebody who's there to
help that's there on a regular basis
that help grow a garden to know how to
use it, how to put the soil in, what
kind of vegetables to grow, and it's
programming it. It is programming
programming it, keeping it active, a
place that feels safe and inviting and
very much of a neighborhood feel. And so
th those are all the elements that we'll
try to bring to this garden as well.
No further questions. Yeah. And I wanted
to actually thank Council Member Encus
for a year ago when we had Cesar Chavez
Day. We actually started with a work
project at the community gardens
cleaning it up and kind of doing some
rehab there and uh thank you for your
work in making that happen. That goes
out to neighborhood resources.
Any additional questions? Seeing none.
Thank you, Kim. Yeah.
Then lastly, um item number 18 is
actually on action, but under our
council rules and procedures, um I'll
read a little script. Any member or
members of council may submit an item to
the council agendas prior to 5:00 PM on
Wednesday the prior week at which the
item will be considered. The requested
item shall appear on Monday study
session agenda for discussion followed
by Thursday regular meeting for further
discussion or possible
action. If an ordinance or resolution is
requested or required to enact the item,
the direction may be given to city
council majority at Thursday regular
meeting to have the city staff draft
such a document. The ordinance or
resolution will then be placed on a
future council agenda
consideration. So, uh, Council Member
Harris, I just wanted to just briefly
tell us what your goal was with this and
my I had one question. Was this
concurrent with contractual reviews or
when were you thinking to implement
this?
Yeah, thank you, mayor, and thank you so
much for allowing me opportunity to um,
ask that question. Um this is um
separate of how we're going to move
forward with our contract agreements.
I'm bringing this item forward because
of the fact that I wanted to make sure
that we we stay in full merit
transparency and accountability for our
direct hires. Uh and I wanted to make
sure that we had a written review that
we could measure um these principles
like merit for instance. uh which helps
us um stay focused on the importance of
their qualifications and skills and
performing and we can we can give raises
based on their merit performance and
then also transparency so the public
knows why we're making these decisions
and how we're coming to the decisions
that we're making and then just in terms
of accountability we have great staff
they do a great job um for us and so I
just want to make sure that the
accountability is still there um um when
and after um it year after year to make
sure that that's there. So that's kind
of why I'm bringing forth and I wanted
to bring something that can help council
measure their performances and that will
help us determine raises and everything
else if there is uh any.
So when you mentioned raises um so again
this sounds like upon contract review is
that your intention to bring then?
Yeah, I wanted to have something more
written when we decide how we're going,
how we are evaluating. Um, I wanted
something more written so we can
determine how we evaluate our direct
hires, which is our four direct hires. I
wanted to make sure that each council
member was on the same page in terms of
what that evaluation look like. Um, and
the public is aware of what that um what
we're measuring each um direct hire on.
and they also know as staff how we're
measuring them as well.
Okay. So there's so before the contract
that staff would receive these, fill
them out, council would have access to
them and that would be part of the
evaluation is what I'm think I'm hearing
you saying. Um and vice versa as well.
We can we can look at it from our
perspective as well. But yes, staff
would have something to fill out to see
how they measured up against this. And
then we also will have something
ourselves to measure up um to determine
to make the determinations as well so
we're all on the same page. Okay. Thank
you. Yeah. Uh council, additional
questions, mayor. Council member
Orlando. So, uh thank you, Council
Member U. Harris for bringing this
forward.
Um we used to do a written review of all
uh four of our uh individuals. For some
reason that dropped. I don't you know I
don't I wasn't there. Um I know the
inter the international contract
management association
uh strongly recommends that uh councils
do do a written review. Um, so if the
council's desire to move and do more
um, investigation on what it would look,
I'm I'm okay with that. Um, I just think
it's u something that we do in industry.
We do it in even our own current
policies. So I think you could do it
numerous ways. Uh, HR could do it. You
have a third party. There's a myriad of
ways we could do this. uh international
contract manager at magaz um even has a
couple of examples of how you could
potentially do this as a d council. So
anyway, I'm okay if we want to move
forward and do some more due diligence
and um look at this from a u a different
perspective.
So thank you. Any other additional
comments, questions?
Council member Poston to to clarify. Are
we talking about the International City
Managers Association? Whatever. Yeah.
Okay. Something like that. Whatever the
whatever whatever the guiding items that
you guys have. Guiding items that the
city follows. I I don't have a problem
with this. I think that's pretty much
standing operating procedure is to have
reviews of city staff. And you know,
these are our executive city staff. And
I think, you know, we hold them to the
same standard. We hold all of our staff.
And that's a pretty standard operating
procedure in um in the corporate world.
and I don't see a problem having it in
government as well. All
right, seeing no additional comments and
nothing else has been called in. Thank
you all for joining us tonight. That
concludes our study session and we'll
be council member
Orlando. So I guess the question is do
we have some ideas to bring forward on
Thursday if we're going to vote on this
or that's normally what we do. On
Thursday, we will be voting whether to
do it to then bring it to the staff to
then come up with the So, they're not
going to bring us a product on Thursday.
This is just to decide by what I just
read is if council wants to proceed on
this and then we will direct them to uh
give us something to get back to. Is
that correct? My understanding.
Great. All right. Thank you all. See you
Thursday.
[Applause]