City of Chandler Council Meeting - July 18, 2024

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good evening and welcome to the July
18th 2024 regular meeting of the
Chandler City Council
uh clerk would you please uh take the
role mayor Harkey here vice mayor Harris
here council member and cus here council
member Ellis pres council member Stewart
here council member
Orlando here council member Poston here
we have a quorum thank you so much our
invitation tonight will be brought forth
by Pastor Randy Hernandez from Tri City
Baptist is Pastor Randy
here our invocation tonight will be
brought forth by mayor and pastor Kevin
Harkey and our Pledge of Allegiance by
council member Poston please join me in
pray God we thank you for the
opportunity to gather tonight we thank
you for our community and we thank you
for your uh what I would declare your
presence over our city we we're grateful
for the safety we're grateful for the so
many blessings that we have in here and
Lord I just pray that you will lead and
guide us and and this council meeting
tonight and keep our Our First
Responders and our city safe we give you
thanks for this evening for this summer
and uh for your life I pray all these
things in Jesus name
[Music]
amen please join me in the 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 mayor thank you council
member uh Council next on our agenda is
our consent agenda um is anyone um would
be appropriate unless someone would like
to move something to action to make a
motion or approval mayor council member
Stuart move to approve the consent
agenda of July 18th for the regular
meeting items 1 through 24 second
we have a motion and a second any
recusals questions comments mayor
council member I'll be voting no on
number eight number
eight
okay wow that's an outsound isn't it all
right so we have uh we have one no at
this point Council please
vote vice mayor
Harris vice mayor
Harris Council me m
Orlando
yes
um we'll see yes okay thank you we'll
see if we can get VI haris
yeah okay thank
you
unanimously um is Council Members online
or yes they both said yes no I'm just
we're hearing some background noise here
if you guys could please mute mute that
might help us determine if it's
elsewhere
nope it's within our house
okay all right next on our uh agenda is
unscheduled public appearances do we
have
any no mayor I have not received any
cards okay thank you Current Events
first I do want to recognize uh in the
second row our brand new uh pnz
commissioner Ryan stand up say hi
thank you for being willing to serve
next I wanted to share uh really a
tremendous event that makes me extremely
proud every year that we've done this
this is our 11th year in Chandler for
our operation back to school our
community provided uh hundreds and
actually over thousands of a couple
thousand backpacks for Chandler students
and supplies there were haircuts there
there were shoes given out and to help
our students start the year uh right and
confident with the things that they need
this event is the result of a tremendous
amount of volunteers of dedicated
volunteers starting with with Jane
Anderson with the for our City Board to
other volunteers like council member and
Ellis and many others that made this
possible we had hundreds of volunteers
that were engaged in packing and showing
up on that day so we want to thank
everyone uh who had a hand in making
this a big success our donors our
volunteers uh our Compass Church who
hosted this the second year in a row it
really was a tremendous day second I
wanted to just highlight the mayor's
neighborhood Excellence award Awards
Chandler neighborhood watch groups who
hosted a community gain event last year
are encouraged to submit a nomination
for the mayor's neighborhood excellence
Awards the annual Awards Rec recognize
Chandler neighborhoods for their
participation in gained and those
neighborhood leaders who continuously
work to improve their community and
Inspire others to be more active and
involved nominations are now open
through Friday July 26 and may be
completed online for this year's uh G uh
nominations of excellence and uh we look
forward to seeing some more nom
minations next I wanted to talk about
the summer reading challenge I threw it
out there before and I finished my
thousand minutes my wife is finished her
thousand
minutes and uh this is a great uh event
for librarians in the back row are super
excited this really is a really
appreciative of our Librarians and
library system as well as Maricopa
County really uh pushing this out there
were some tremendous prizes related to
food food or a park pass Mercury uh a
Mercury game and just really a great
opportunity to encourage people of all
ages to read the summer reading
challenge is a great great way still for
readers to to challenge themselves
explore new adventures and as I
mentioned earn awesome prizes along the
way as I was leaving my wife had had did
a door dash of of canes of chicken
tenders and I said did you get your free
lemonade and she stared at me blank and
then realize that that was one of the
volun one of the prizes so there's a few
more important events related to the
summer reading challenge as a reminder
August 1st is the last day to log points
August 15th is the last day to choose
your 1,000 Point book prize and
September 15th is the last day to pick
up prizes from your library so I have a
12-hour flight to Ireland coming up
tomorrow and a 12-hour flight back and I
will be adding these hours these 20 plus
hours to my book Challenge and and see
if I can end up in the top 100 or top
something we've got so many Avid readers
so with more information visit Chandler
library.org
SRC council member in cenus uh no
announcements for me mayor thank you
council member Ellis thank you mayor i'
like to Echo of the mayor's our thanks
to all our community members and
volunteers that made our operation back
to school event of success I was able to
join mayor and Council including council
member in cus was there with me at this
event last weekend we had an incredible
turnout and our Chandler students are
ready they are definitely ready right
now to start their school years
right truly you could feel the passion
and the love that uh the people were
there serving had for those children we
were I was in the shoe area and I was
responsible for the back and where all
the volunteers will come and get the
shoes and then take them to the children
and I have an opportunity to look over
and watch them trying those shoes on
this one particular little boy one of
the Shields and he put a pair of shoes
in his feet and he just looked at them
he stood up and held on to her for
almost five minutes and will not let go
he was so happy to have those shoes so I
want to thank everyone in Chandler
including shield and all of the other
companies Edwards that came out really
big for us this year and mayor and
counil who was able to put uh some money
into getting some more shoes for these
kids every single year that I've
participate I walk away
feeling truly that Chandler is a place
where we love each other and support
each other in everything that we do so
thank you Mar counil for allowing me to
be able to be part of this such a great
thing mayor you started this and here we
are here we are years later we are doing
great things with it the next thing that
I would like to talk to you about is uh
in Chandler there are many ways to stay
connected with the city and the work
being done in our neighborhoods I'd like
to remind all of our neighbors leaders
about Chandlers and neighborhood
registration programs right now this is
a great way for our neighbors to receive
updates on City programs Services events
and educational presentations and to
become eligible for financial assistance
through the neighborhood assistant
program please join us online go there
and register so that you could be sure
to learn more thank you so much mayor
that's it for me for today I actually
had a I actually had a a panicky moment
there council member Ellis is when I
showed up I found out I was the only one
that signed up in advance for cleanup so
they they then made me in charge of
cleanup but we quickly had about 40
volunteers that pitched in including
vice mayor Harris and his wife showed up
but I I uh I thought oh this is going to
be a long afternoon if I am the cleanup
uh committee but yeah we did really good
on shoes we clean up right after
ourselves by the time you guys came over
we were done cleaning up so yes all
hands together make the light the work
light for us council member Stuart thank
you yeah it's amazing the back to school
event that we put on as uh Jane did such
a great job on that and you guys uh
knocked it out of the park I mean it's
part of our mission right to to improve
the lives of everybody in our city and I
want to recognize one of our our best
people that really put that as part of
their mission and vision every day and I
want to recognize Leah Powell for
winning the Gabe zberman award uh this
year which is a um it's a she's our
neighborhood Resources Director so she's
responsible for helping those in our
community that uh that are challenged or
or need help and uh she's done such a
phenomenal job because this this
particular award goes out to a community
Builder somebody that recognizes
opportunity in the community to help
others and then puts together the the
tools and resources of non-for-profits
uh to help those folks out so oh she
made it on TV
so but uh we're just super proud of Leah
and her heart's in it and I've gotten um
I just feel great uh for your award and
congratulations so thank
you I do want to say one more thing
there's an item on our agenda tonight
number 19 which is a uh item about
public comment I want to thank Les
Minkus and Linda Sawyer for pushing that
forward I think one of the greatest
things about our constitutional republic
is that our community can can talk to
their government they can address their
government um we don't consider
ourselves governance by by any means but
you can certainly talk to us and and and
tell us what you think so if there's
something on our agenda if there's
something in our plan that you don't
like uh this just gives folks more
access to do it so thus thanks for
bringing that forward and really driving
that home and I think it's a great that
Council and and mayor have been so
responsive to those kind of things and
this isn't the only thing we've done
that give the community more access to
us and I think it's one of the reasons
that Chandler is such a great Community
is because we have boards and
commissions and subcommittees and things
like that and matter of fact we had a
subcommittee where we were the part of
the first one right and it was actually
really good to get feedback on the spot
from what other people that were sort of
in that space and what they do uh and
how it affected uh the subcommittee
meeting we were in so we had some
experts in the room as well so it was
really good Les so thanks for bringing
that forward yeah yeah and I'll Echo
that because Les really now that really
there's opportunity to speak at every
council meeting and and so thank you for
leading Us in that we appreciate your
input and uh representing our community
and citizens so council member Poston
nothing for me to nightmare all right
acting council member else
put your turn your thing up wanted to
take a point of privilege if that's the
moment right now or I can wait until
after um I would say now because I'm
quick on gaving after okay I I see that
I saw your hands that's why I jumped in
there um mayor our community the black
community really lost someone very
special to us last night Miss abony flax
def FES was one of the nicest woman that
I've ever met she was so kind her
demeanor when you walk in a room make
you feel that you belong and she was
only 41 years old and we lost her uh an
hour uh before I walked in to speak at
an event and she served with Vice Mar
ODI Harris and an organization that uh
the they are both co-chair on on on BPI
and
truly my heart goes out to her family
she had just found the love of her life
and uh she's at the pick and living to a
place where she was given so much back
to our community and and her her life
was gone just that easy uh after a
meeting on Tuesday evening where she
complained of a leg pain and then the
next morning she she she was gone and so
I will implore you all to be kind to
each other love on each other let your
family members know that you love them
because you never know thank you so much
mayor for allowing me this moment to
recognize her she she's really one of
the nicest person that I've met here and
in my four years of being on this Con
thank
you I thought we were the nicest ones
you'd met I she's one okay she's one of
the
nicest acting city manager Tad Willie uh
nothing tonight there thanks all
right Council uh that concludes our
meeting we uh we will be resuming next
month I hope you have uh stay cool stay
hydrated um stay doing what you're doing
what