City of Chandler Council Meeting 4.10.25

Never say
goodbye. You never know what age
I don't know.
This is so funny.
Yeah, that is a problem.
It
[Music]
was on this one. You can see
Oh, Josh.
Hi, guys.
Hello. What are all your names?
Okay.
How about you?
[Music]
I didn't
Good.
All right.
They're missing.
There's a magic
Exactly.
And
Good evening and welcome to the April
10th, 2025 regular meeting of the
Chandler City Council. I'd like to call
this meeting to order. Clerk, please
take the role. Mayor Hartkey here. Um,
Vice Mayor Ellis.
Vice Mayor Ellis.
No, she's um council member here.
Council member Poston
here. Council member Orlando here.
Council member Harris here. Council
member Hawkins here. We have a quum and
we'll check on council. Okay. All right.
There we go. We have everybody.
Great. Our um invoker tonight ended up
uh getting sick at the last minute. So,
I'm going to lead us in uh the
invocation and our pledge of allegiance
by Council Member Harris. Please stand.
Lord God, we thank you for the
opportunity to gather tonight to
uh represent our community. We we thank
you for this beautiful community that
that you've put us in places of
leadership, of
servantthood, and we just thank you for
the many good things that you're doing
in our community. We pray for our first
responders that you would continue to
keep them safe. We pray for our youth in
our community that uh those who are
struggling with one issue or another
that you would send people that you
would demonstrate your tender mercies
and intervene where that is necessary.
And tonight we thank you and we ask your
as your word tells us that if anyone
asks wisdom, you provide. So we ask for
wisdom for the agenda on our council. We
pray your blessings upon our city that
that we would be safe that generations
would continue to uh be transformed and
move towards uh stability, prosperity,
all those things that um that we desire
that people desire. So we thank you for
this gathering. Pray for your blessings
on it tonight. In your name I pray.
Amen. Amen.
Please join me as we recite the pledge
of allegiance.
Ice to the flag of the United States of
America and to the republic for it
stands. One nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice
for all.
Thank you, council member. Thank you,
Mayor.
I wasn't going to say thank you, mayor.
I'll say thank you, mayor.
Um before we vote on the consent agenda,
uh we did invite u boards and commission
members that were going to be uh who are
in the audience to be recognized. Do we
have any of those who are here please
stand? Yeah. If you guys would uh like
to come up to the mic and just state
your name and which commission you guys
are going to be serving on. So come on
up. You too.
Jeggy, just state your name and which
board of commission will you be serving
on? Where's the mic?
Sorry. I'm Alicia Anderson. I'm actually
serving on two boards. It's the healthc
care I they're very long names. The
healthc care boards and the um workers
comp board. So, yeah, my name is Alicia.
I am a lifelong resident of the East
Valley. I'm from Mesa, but my husband
and I, we've lived in Chandler for oh
gosh, I don't know, 10ish years or so.
And I'm a graduate of the civic program
uh through the city of Chandler. So, I'm
really excited to serve. So, thank you
all for having me. Thank you. And
council, those
two those two pension boards is we put
the same people on the same board just
for simplicity. Yeah.
Good evening everyone. Thank you mayor
and thank you councel team. I am Jagi
Krishna Morti. Jagadisan Krishi is a
long name. People call me Jagi. Women
say that again. Jagadis Krishna Morti.
That's long name. Hello Jagi. Thank you.
So uh I am uh part of the uh park and
recreation board and uh thank you for
everyone. This is a honor to serve the
community. So whatever I have I can give
back to the community. Thank you again.
Thank you. Thank you.
[Applause]
And council, if you recall, we we did um
have several come uh several the last
time and I think we had a few left and
these two were able to fit it in their
calendars. So, at this point, uh we have
our consent agenda in front of us.
Council, how would you like to proceed?
Mayor, Council Member Harris, I would
like to move to approve the consent
agenda of April 10th, uh, 10, 2025,
regular meeting items 1 through 23. All
right, we have a motion. Is there a
second? Second. Second by Council Member
Inas. Any
um recusals or any other actions before
we vote? Yes, Mayor.
Um just from our previous reading um
voting no on item number four from
previous. Very good. So noted. Council
please vote.
Vice Mayor Ellis.
Yes. Council member Poston.
Yes. Motion carries unanimously with the
exception of um item four which carries
by majority. Okay. Thank you council. We
do have uh one unscheduled uh public
speaker. If
um Paul Pevich uh you could please come
forward, state your name and address for
the record. The light will turn green.
At that point, you have uh three minutes
to state what you wish. When it turns
yellow, you have 30 seconds. When it's
red, please wrap up. Because this is
unscheduled, we cannot engage with you,
but we certainly will be listening to
you and and appropriate a direct direct
uh staff involvement to talk with you.
Please proceed. Thank you. Uh my name is
Paul Pavlich. I live at 1313 East Tyson
Street in
Chandler. Mayor and council, I came to
you at the January 23rd council meeting
for help. Our family was out of options.
We did everything in our power to seek
resolution to ongoing verified quality
of life deteriorating violations of city
code and short-term rental regulations.
I encourage you to revisit my comments
at the 29minute mark of the January 23rd
recording. For nearly a decade, we built
our family, bought our first home, voted
in every election, volunteered in the
community, and advocated for our friends
to do the same. All in Chandler. After
several years of working through or with
and every relevant department from code
enforcement to business compliance,
being advised to follow a process the
city itself admits is not in place nor
effective, and being deceived by city
employees and officials for the duration
of the journey, I'm here to tell you
that our family has given up. The city's
unwillingness to prioritize residents
over nationwide rental management firms
is responsible for this. Specifically,
Mayor Kevin Harky, you feigned interest
in resolving this before and after the
January meeting and took no
action. Council members Orlando and
Poston, I know you're online. Both of
you gave me your word and personal
contact information to resolve this yet
did nothing when
contacted. Vice Mayor Ellis, who I know
is online. We attended your campaign
events and thinking you would represent
us and you've let us down. Neighborhood
resources director Leapal, business
compliance administrator Bonnie Body,
and many other employees were all
involved in backdoor coordination with
the violator to hide former and ongoing
violations. Public affairs senior
manager Alexis Apidoka defended all
defended all bad behavior across
departments and guides the city's
approach as education
first. Unfortunately, there are others
who whose failures deserve to be
recognized. However, I am limited to my
three minutes. I started tonight by
saying I live at 1313 East Tyson Street
in Chandler. However, I should have
stated that we used to live there. We
have sold our home and are no longer
Chandler residents. Your apathy, lack of
action, and unethical behavior to the
unethical behavior of the people you
employ are to blame. For the sake of
other residents suffering from your lack
of leadership, I hope you take these
comments to heart. Although, based on
prior experience, residents will likely
continue to be taken advantage of
instead. Thank you.
All
right. And city manager, I know that we
had conversations about this uh what we
could do in that. Could you please send
a memo out to council regarding what we
did do related to this particular case?
Thank you so much.
Next on our agenda is current events. I
will start. And um
uh council member incinus has asked if
he can go less this time. So So we're
going to start with you on that end just
to get you ready afterwards. Okay. We're
going to do a
reheversal. Uh tomorrow is the 4th
annual South Pacific Islands Festival at
Dr. AJ Chandler Park.
Come uh join us starting at 10:00 a.m.
to learn about the different islands
that make up the South Pacific Islands
in a fun and interactive way. There will
be dance performances, music acts,
culture practitioners who will show you
how to husk a coconut or dance with
fire. And don't forget to check out the
merchandise booths and most importantly
the food.
Secondly, uh on Monday, the Exchange
Club of Chandler joined members of our
Chandler Domestic Violence Commission to
accept our Child Abuse Prevention Month
proclamation. And while their upcoming
Field of Hope event was mentioned, I
wanted to highlight it again as it is
this Sunday. Please join us April 13th
from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. for the
dedication ceremony at Dr. AJ Chandler
Park where we will recognize and honor
the lives of children lost due to child
abuse and neglect in Arizona. Thank you
to the exchange club and to our domestic
violence commission for the work they do
to organize this important event.
Thirdly, education uh uh workshop or or
ed uh okay, let me get back on that. We
know that there's a lot of talk right
now about tariffs and their impact on
businesses. If you are a business in
Arizona that relies upon global supply
chains, you will want to join us on
Tuesday, April 22nd at the ASU Chandler
Innovation Center at 11:30 a.m. for an
insightful business seminar designed to
strategically prepare Chandler
businesses for the changing trade
landscape. This business event is hosted
in collaboration with the Chandler
Chamber of Commerce and will be
facilitated by two Ernstston Young
global trade experts and offer valuable
insights on how foreign trade zones can
streamline operations and reduce cost.
How tax laws can be leveraged to enhance
financial performance and how practical
strategies to stay ahead of competitors
in the in the trade space can work for
you. This event is free to attend, but
registration is required. So, please
register at
chandlerasy.gov global
tradeworkshop. All right. Um, Council
Member Hawkins.
Thank you, Mayor. So, Chandler has
started our general plan update process,
and we have a few upcoming resident
input opportunities I wanted to
highlight. We'll be hosting the Chandler
Talks. It's a free community event
focused on shaping our future through
the general plan update and it's an
opportunity to learn more about this
process and to hear from the panel of
local experts to discuss key topics with
a focus on water and housing. This event
is going to be held on Saturday, May
10th over at the Chandler Center for the
Arts from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. And if you
can't be there on the 10th, there's
still other ways that you can
participate. There's an online
questionnaire available through
June and there you can share the your
input on the general plan's vision
statement, guiding principles and core
values and offer any feedback on key
issues and housing related topics. To
find the survey, please go to
chandleraz.gov/general plan. Thank you,
Council Member Harris. Well, it's the
most wonderful time of the year. I know
you may be thinking about Christmas, but
I'm talking about tax
time. I have a personal interest in
that. Um, but nevertheless, um, there's
many tax repairers out there, tax payers
out there who's needing to get their
taxes done. Uh, and if you make $67,000
or less, I want to let you know that the
VER program, volunteer income tax
assistant program, uh, is available for
you. As you know, April the 15th is
right around the corner, people. And the
best advice I can give you is just file
an extension because I don't know if
you're going to get in by the 15th. But
I will say this is that we have great
partners that's working with the city of
Chandler, which is Mesa United Way and
others. And also on the Arizona State
website, you can also look to see where
other locations and sites are. But if um
if you've been putting off your taxes,
this is the time to do it. There's Vita
sites open through Saturday and they are
multiple locations in Chandler. So this
is a great a great resource for our
residents and if it sounds like it may
be a good fit to you, go to
chandleraz.gov vi.
And also I want to congratulate the new
commissioners. Welcome to team Chandler.
You are the ambassadors of our
community. We appreciate your desire to
serve. Uh and I'm excited about your
service. So hey, do all that you can.
Make the commission everything that you
want it to be because it is a service of
the heart and we definitely appre
appreciate you in your service. So thank
you very much. That's all I have. Mayor
Council Blando. Thank you, mayor. I
appreciate that. Um, I'm excited to
invite the community to a very special
event, Freedom, Hope, and Future. Um,
which will honor a Vietnam veterans and
celebrate the vibrant Vietnamese culture
that flourished here in Chandler. Uh,
many of those Vietnamese, as you know,
fled uh 50 years ago when the northern
uh Vietnam invaded southern Vietnam for
the final frontier of the war. That was
back in 1975.
and we're uh this event was started by
several residents that came to me and
some others on the council and I
appreciate the council's support on this
event. Um and said let's honor the
veterans and most importantly let's tell
the stories of the Vietnamese people
that fled and how they became free
hopeful and they have a future. Uh this
event will will um there will be
Vietnamese performances there. Cassine
is cusinine as well as crafts and
activities for all ages. And we'll also
honor Vietnam veterans. We have a lot of
story. There'll be storytellers about
their life in Vietnam and how they
escaped Vietnam and made a new life here
in the United States. I hope to see you
right here at the city hall complex
right out here. It'll be April 26th from
9:00 am to noon. I know, mayor, you'll
be speaking at that, correct? Good.
Thank you, mayor. Thank
you. And long and last awaited, down all
lonely on the end, all by myself.
Council member in Cenus. See, that was a
good flow. Changing it up this time. Um,
okay guys. Um, I'm very excited to share
a uh family activity that is quickly
approaching. I can't believe Easter is
already around the corner next week. Um,
please join us at Dr. AJ Chandler Park
next Friday, April 18th at 5:30 for the
family Easter celebration. Uh, we'll
have free inflatable attractions,
carnival games, food vendors, and of
course, a 24 karat Easter egg hunt. Um,
24 carats. Yes.
Carrots. Carrots. Carrots.
Not those diamonds. Not those. And yes,
we're still on the hunt for the valley's
most excellent artist. Um, the coloring
contest submissions are accepted through
Monday, so be sure to get them in before
the deadline and see the full list of
activities at chandleraz.gov. GVE
Easter. Um, I'd also like to share with
you guys, um, I had the great
opportunity to go represent the city of
Chandler at the Smart Cities Conference
in New York City last week. It was a
very energetic conference, um, filled
and packed with manyformational sessions
and workshops. Um through the days that
I was there, there was a very he heavy
focus on AI implementation and
efficiencies in local government, which
was great to be there and learn um how
government departments are using AI and
validating the results and data of what
they're getting from AI and bringing it
back um and also learning about
innovationmies um which are being
created within local governments in
different departments um which is
something that I want to hopefully bring
here to Chandler if we were potentially
um if we'd already have there. But it
was overall a great opportunity to go
out there and learn about um AI and the
smart cities initiatives out there. So,
just wanted to share that. Thank you.
Thank you, city manager. Thank you, Mr.
Mayor of Council. Just one announcement
tonight. I wanted to uh thank our
neighborhood resources department under
the leadership of Leah Powell, also
Priscilla Canana and Tana Mau uh for the
awesome for our city day that occurred
on March 29th. one of my favorite events
of the year. Just to recap uh all the
great work that happened that day in the
Pamela Park neighborhood, we had 38
projects serving 141 households with a
thousand volunteers plus 600 attendees
at the park celebration. And 115 of
those volunteers were team Chandler uh
city employees, which would make a big
push to encourage them to participate.
The total value of those volunteer hours
is estimated at over half a million
dollars of contribution to that
neighborhood. So, thank you to our team
and neighborhood resources. You did a
phenomenal job making an impact in one
of our great Chandler neighborhoods.
Thank you.
And I heard you had a close encounter
with a falling mattress. Is that right?
Uh Mr. Mayor, you are correct. Uh I uh
was was injured by a falling mattress.
Well, not injured, but um Mr. Willie may
have had a a part in that as well as Mr.
Reeves sitting in the audience. So,
we'll save that story for later.
We look forward to hearing that. All
right. Thank you, council. With that,
that concludes our meeting.