City of Chandler Study Session 4.21.25

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Good evening and welcome to the April
April 21 2025 study session. So excited
to see so many students and we are glad
to be honoring you for your
contributions to our community this
evening. So 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. Uh, first on
our agenda is scheduled public
appearances and council member Incenus
is going to join me for that.
[Music]
Council member and Cenus, you're in
luck. We only have one proclamation
tonight. If I could have uh Ryan come up
with uh members of our housing
team. All right. Whereas, April 2025
marks the 57th anniversary of the Fair
Housing Act, which affirms national
policy of fair housing for all. And
whereas the Fair Housing Act prohibits
discrimination in the sale, rental, and
financing of housing based on race,
color, religion, sex, national origin,
familial status, or disability. And
whereas the city of Chandler's
non-discrimination ordinance promotes a
community in which all members have the
right to be treated fairly and live
their lives with dignity free from
discrimination or disparit treatment.
And whereas access to safe, affordable
housing is a critical foundation for
overall well-being impacting physical
and mental health, quality of life,
access to education and economic
opportunities. And whereas the city of
Chandler is committed to fair housing
for all, actively promoting awareness of
fair housing principles, practices,
rights, and responsibilities. And
whereas the city of Chandler recognizes
and values the efforts of those who seek
to reduce barriers to full and fair
housing
opportunities. And whereas April is
officially recognized as National Fair
Housing Month. Now therefore, I, Kevin
Hartkey, mayor of the city of Chandler,
do hereby proclaim the month of April
2025 as fair housing month.
[Applause]
Woo! Suddenly, I'm choked
up. Brian, take it
over. Thanks,
So, we're going to recognize young
artists here today.
Sorry, mayor. I'm just I don't see it up
there. Oh, there it is. Okay. Thanks so
much, U mayor, council. Um, so this is
our so we had a fair uh housing poster
contest. This is the second year that
we've had this contest. Um, it's of
course in celebration of fair housing
month and this year we were very
fortunate to partner with CUSD schools
um to bring to kids some information
about fair housing. And so we really
focused on the concept of what does home
mean or what does home mean to you? And
then we were able to really introduce
the concept of fair housing and invite
students to do some art around fair
housing. And this year's theme was
making a house my home. So I'm really ha
um happy to say we had many wonderful
works of art submitted to us. And today
before you you have our contest winners
and they are with us
today. And so our first contest winner
is Ariana B. She is nine years old.
She's in third grade at Sandborn
Elementary. And Ariana, I would invite
you to come on up. Where are
[Applause]
you? Here we go. Congratulations. You
got this. You got
this. All right. Thank you. And with no
further ado, I'm going to invite our
second winner up, Mida K. Mida is 10
years old. She's in fourth grade at
Conley Elementary. Come on up,
[Applause]
Mida. All right, so those are our
winners. Um, as we like to say in our
office, our best in show. And we
congratulate them. We have a fantastic
gift for them, but they're so big that
we're going to give them to them on the
way out because they're big and we
didn't want them to have to manage them.
Yep.
There you go.
The police department does it all.
There was enough details there to like
you were doing a crime scene or
something. Next, if I can invite Micah
Miranda and our liaison to uh the
science and technology fair, uh, Council
Member Orlando to come on
up. Every February, Chandler celebrates
the exploration of innovation. The
Chandler Innovation Fair showcases
businesses, artists, students,
innovators in the community as Chandler
participates in the statewide Arizona
Scitec Festival. And once again, we held
the annual Chandler Innovation Fair
competition. This is easily one of my
favorite events of the entire year. And
winning teams were chosen for presenting
the most educational, most creative, and
most passionate products. And we are
excited to have them here tonight.
Micah, take over. Thank you very much,
Mayor, Mayor, City Council. Really
excited to be here tonight. It's one of
my favorite nights of the year as well
as along with the U science fair. But
tonight we get to recognize some really
outstanding kids. Uh but before we do
that, I would like to recognize Miss
Odet Moore and
[Applause]
Stephanie along with Shannon Prince and
Renee Sweden from
CUD. right here. Oh, hey guys. Like,
where'd she go? Um, these they put in a
ton of hours to make this event happen
and this past year was our largest event
o ever. We had over 10,000 guests show
up for the science spectacular. It was
overflowing. Thank you to everybody who
came out. Um, as the mayor uh mentioned,
this is our premier event to showcase
the talent of our future. Um, Chandler
has prided ourselves on generating
talent well into the future and uh we
couldn't do it without our sponsors. So,
at this time, I'd also like to recognize
um our sponsors for Microchip. If you
could please stand up and I call your
company name, Microchip. Thank
you. Google
Fiber. Google
Fiber. We have uh Pride
Group Waste Management of Arizona. I
know they're
[Applause]
here. And we have a whole bunch of other
uh part uh sponsors who weren't able to
make it tonight which include Northrup
Grumman, Intel, ANET, SRP, Cirrus Logic,
Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, NXP
Semiconductors, and Game Truck. So,
thank you to our sponsors. Without your
support, uh we couldn't make this
happen.
[Applause]
So, additionally, would like to
recognize council member Orlando for
serving as our council leazison for this
event. So, thank you for your support as
[Applause]
well. All right, now we're going to
recognize the students. So, our first
winner is Castile Science Club. If you
could please begin making your way up
while I read out your uh
description. The Castile Science Booth's
interactive sensory bottle experiment
blended science and art. Students
combined micica, water, food coloring to
create a mesmerizing swirling pattern,
demonstrating key scientific principles
such as density, viscosity, centrial
force. And as participants shook and
spun their bottles, they observe fluid
dynamics and momentum and the suspension
settling of particles in real time. The
shimmery micica showcased light
reflection and refraction while
dissolving food coloring in illustrated
solubility. All right. Right.
Congratulations.
[Applause]
Congratulations,
Castile. All right, next we have the
Basha High Science is fun. We have them
here tonight with us. All right, please
come on up.
Their teacher is Laura Pelleigrini, AP
Chemistry, Honors Chemistry, and
Sciences Fund. Uh, Basha High Sciences
Fund is a STEM focused community
outreach program. At their science
booth, uh, their high school students
uh, served as role models, made science
learning fun by exploring exciting
science demonstrations with the public.
From flashlights to dry ice to polarized
paper, the high school leaders showcased
young showed younger children and their
families that anyone can be a scientist
through engaging scientific toys and
games. Basha High Science is fun
presenters help young children develop a
positive selfidentity and connect young
students lives to their science around
them. So congratulations
Congratulations. Next up, we have Santan
Junior High. Uh, teacher Cara
Odum
class here.
Say it. All right.
Okay. Um, uh, next up we have Bolognia
Elementary.
Yes.
Thank you very
much. All right. Next up, we have
Bolognia Elementary. Uh led by teacher
Sundra Nickerson, sixth
grade. Appalonia Elementary grades
second through six students are
excellently excitedly diving into STEM
through the Legos Robotics Club. This
year they tackled the first Legos League
submerge challenge, building
missionspecific structures and
engineering robots to complete complex
underwater themed tasks. But their
learning didn't stop at robots. Students
also took on real world ocean issues,
researching and designing innovative
solutions as part of their innovations
project. Congratulations, Bolognia
[Applause]
Elementary. Congratulations.
All right. Next up is Hamilton High
School National Art Society. And uh at
this time, I'd invite you, Jen, to come
forward as she has a few words to say.
Hello everyone. My name is Eugen and I'm
a co-president of the National Art
Honors Society from Hamilton High
School. So for this year's science
innovation fair, we have decided to
bring carp kites to the table. So what
where did carp kites originated from?
Well, carp kites originated from Edia,
Japan in order and they were created in
order to respect and honor the warriors
that have sacrificed their lives. But
this really brings us to the question,
what do these even symbolize? What's
what are carps for? Well, tracing back
to folktales, carps would swim up the
river going through obstacles, course
crashes, and waves. After overcoming
these obstacles, they would travel back
down into the water to meet the Jade
Emperor. The Jade Emperor would then
gift the carp the carps the ability to
become a dragon. Essentially becoming a
dragon is a symbol is a symbol is a
symbolism of their perseverance,
tenacity and determination and that is
and that is what we art national art
honor society from Hamilton art club
hope to bring to the innovation fair.
Thank
you.
And we also we also hope to share these
carve kites with our fellow council
members as well.
Thank you.
[Applause]
Yeah. Get your picture and then you can
get
it now. Take a picture now.
[Applause]
Thank
you.
Congratulations,
Hamilton. And our last award winner is
Weinberg Gifted
Academy. Come on
up. Led by teacher Dana Hansen, sixth
grade science
teacher. The third graders did a pro did
a project-based learning for Chandler
Innovations Fair.
The booth was a student- centered
hands-on demonstration of the projects
and activities and experiments conducted
across grade levels from worms worms to
robotics. The projects and activities
were impressive but not as as amazing as
the students knowledge and excitement.
Congratulations
[Applause]
Congratulations,
[Applause]
Weineberg. And lastly, our sponsors that
are in the audience, I would like to
invite you forward for a photo
opportunity as well. So, please come on
up.
Sponsors, please come in. sponsors.
Thank you very much, Mayor Council.
That's concludes our presentation.
[Applause]
All right, that concludes our
presentations.
All right, we'll wait a few seconds.
All right, council. Uh, we had just a
few items called in for consent tonight.
Item number four and vitam item number
eight, both called in by uh, Vice Mayor
Ellis. So, item number four, Ryan
Peterson.
our strategic initiatives director.
Thank you. You're welcome.
All right, I'm just going to do this
without a presentation if that's okay. I
don't know how to load.
Uh, mayor and council. Uh, agenda item
four is a new agreement with River North
Transit, aka VIA, to have them continue
operating Chandler Flex. The city was
awarded a million dollars in
congressionally directed spending from
Congressman Stanton. Uh, the grant was
awarded in 2024, but to be able to use
the money, we had to reprocure the
service to make sure that it fit with
all of the Federal Transportation
Administration guidelines. Um and so we
went through that process and then the
contract rewarding with uh River North
is in compliance with that with those
guidelines. Channel Flex is an ondemand
service. Um passengers can request rides
on Chandler Flex app by calling or on an
app. Rides are provided on Chandler Flex
minivans will often be shared with other
passengers. Passengers may have a short
walk to designated pickup and drop off
areas. The passenger fair of $2 or $1
for $1 for elderly and people with
disabilities is in place and students
continue to ride for free uh to and from
after school activities um but do pay a
regular fair um on other trips. This
summer we are bring excited to bring
back our free summer trips to city
facilities. This program encourages
wrership when schools are out and
encourages the use of city
facilities. Since Chand Flex began
operating in 2022, the service has
provided over 100,000 rides to 5,000
different individuals and about a third
of the trips are school trips. Other
popular destinations include Chandler
Regional Medical Center, Tumblee Park,
employment centers on Price Road,
shopping centers, and transit facilities
to transfer to the regional bus network.
If you look at the map, you'll notice
the Chandler Flex service area serves a
largely underserved part of um of the
city as it relates to fixed route
transit. And so we're really trying to
provide that gap to get folks um
circulating within the city and then
also connect to the regional network and
we've received a lot of positive
feedback on the service and in fact we
have a 4.9 out of five star rating. With
that I'm available to answer any
questions. Vice Mayor, thank you Mayor
Ryan. really I wanted you to come to
give us this good news today because
when we first started thinking about
this uh we didn't think that it was
going to work for that southside but it
just blew up and everybody really
enjoyed it. Um of course the studies
showed us that there was a need in that
area and there we are meeting that need.
One of the thing that I know our
community is
well able to do is utilize whatever we
give them to use when it comes to
transportation. uh we don't have rails
here in Chandler. So we try to do a lot
of things that really move people around
uh in so many different way from our
first smile to last mile and then now we
introducing the flex for the last year.
Can you continue telling me uh the one
question that I hear all the time uh
from people when are we going to expand
this and how far can we take it? I know
the students are loving it. they get to
go to school early and get picked up and
straight to the corner from the house.
My own niece is using it right now. So,
tell me when is it that we're going to
increase this capacity? Right now,
mayor, vice mayor, um if you look at the
slide, actually it disappeared. Um there
was a yellow area that actually
indicated some expanded service area um
to the to the north of the boundary and
then to the southeast of the boundary.
And that's something we're unable to do
or we were able to do um due to
additional funding from um our
congressional partners as well as um
figuring out a way to manage our
regional transit funds and then leverage
our own city general funds to help
support the program. And so we've had a
measured approach over the years. We
didn't want to launch a service get too
big where we couldn't manage it and it
got too expensive. And so we've been
slowly looking incrementally at ways to
grow the boundary while still staying
within a budget. So to answer your
question, as far as future growth
opportunities, we're constantly
evaluating that, but we don't currently
have um any hard dates on anything we're
going to launch uh in the in the
imminent future. Thank you. I appreciate
that. I would like to also thank my
colleague, mayor and council for really
putting effort, a lots of effort behind
this and making sure that we continue to
have that. Thank you.
Any additional questions for Ryan? All
right. Thank you. And our second and
last item called in uh purchase of
library locker systems call uh John
Septton's going to give us a
presentation. Well, good evening mayor
and council. What an honor it is to be
able to talk about this item and thank
you for the opportunity to share. Uh
from a tactical standpoint, uh this is a
request to uh purchase a library locker
system from Lung Systems just north of
$44,000. I almost said 44 million.
However, it's those extra points that
were in there. Uh, but really the the
root of this is that our library
leadership team and the friends of the
Chandler Public Library have come
together, colluded, no inspired,
yes, collaborated on a way. Yeah. one
more way to recognize and benefit the
community uh through access to
information and the shared resource of
our book collection and that is the
creation of the uh book lockers. So if
you think about sort of the Amazon
lockers, well that same technology
exists for library books and resources.
It'll be an opportunity for us to place
this right in front of the new expanded
Tumbleeed Recreation Center. And uh we
see this as a way uh to uh again capture
the audience that is a user of the
Tumbleeed Rec Center but at the same
time make a service available well
beyond the hours and well beyond the
location of the boxes of the libraries.
So they've done a great job. Um I do
want to highlight the fact that the
friends continue to do exceptional work.
Um it's an opportunity for our community
to volunteer one's time and or
absolutely contribute your philanthropy
uh all for a great cause and for a
direct direct benefit to the community.
Uh I do have the entire team here from
the library if I cannot answer any of
your questions but again thank you vice
mayor for bringing this uh for
opportunity to discuss. Vice Mayor.
Thank you mayor. Can I have uh the
director of the front of the libraries
come forward? Bob. Yes. Come on down,
Bob.
Because I I feel that this is so
important for us to highlight. Education
is is something that I really I'm very
passionate about. And when we partner
with Friends of the Libraries who are
able to give us such backup, not only
with uh their knowledge and hours of
service, but also their pocketbook. So
really truly, it's something to be
notable. So I wanted to ask you this
evening, why is it that you continue to
do such things for the city of Chandler
when it comes to the library keeping
thinking and I know that we have a
mobile that is coming up and all these
kinds of things happening. Can you
really tell the people of Chandler the
passion behind all of that? Is there a
microphone? Yep. Yes, you can just
speak. You just talk. Uh yeah, and we're
excited. the the what what older people
used to call bookmobile is now the
outreach mobile which is going to be
coming in a month or so and it's going
to be incredible and I'm very excited
about that but in this case we were
approached the friends were approached
by the library system and said we have a
dream and we need this help can you do
it and the community that supports the
gender library system has been gracious
beyond words u I went to the people
involved and said the community has
supported you so Well, that we have the
funds to do this. Just write a check,
tell us how much. And that is strictly
due to the people who use the Chandler
Library System and the people who run
the Chandor Library System. It's been a
dream for me and the friends to work
with and I'm looking forward to many
more years of making the Chander Library
system what it is, which is worldclass,
inventive, and supportive.
Thank you so much. This is well said,
and we really appreciate you. Again, we
want you to know that this is not going
unnoticed and that the city of Chandler
is so proud of our libraries and we are
so proud of the work that you guys are
doing with us. Thank you. Thank you,
Vice Mayor. Thank you. Any additional
questions uh for Mr. Septin? All right.
Or wrap up. Thank you. All right. Thank
you both. And John, you have to choose
your words carefully when in the
presence of librarians.
That's a good
All right, council. That those are all
of the questions called in tonight. We
will uh be back here on Thursday to vote
on all the other items and these on our
agenda as well. So, with that, we'll see
you on Thursday.