City of Chandler Council Meeting 4/4/24

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I know how to get hey Welcome to our
regular city council meeting of April
4th I'd like to call this meeting to
order clerk please take the role mayor
Harkey here vice mayor Harris here
council member ncas herec member Ellis
here council member Stewart here council
member Orlando here council member po
here we have a quum thank you so much uh
is Pastor Preston Dobbins here yes all
right hello sir
he's going to lead our indication
followed by vice mayor Harris with our
Pledge of Allegiance hello all right
well um yeah first off just thank you
for the opportunity uh to be here as I
was um just thinking about tonight a
couple of scriptures came to mind that I
wanted to share with you all and then
say a quick prayer um 1 Timothy 2 1-3
says I urge then first of all that
petitions prayers intercession and
Thanksgiving be made for all people for
King Kings and all those in Authority
that we may live peaceful and quiet
lives in all godliness and Holiness this
is good and pleases God our savior and
James 1:5 says if any of you lacks
wisdom you should ask God who gives
generously to all without fault finding
and it will be given to you so uh father
I just thank you um for the men and
women here these um Servants of you God
that they have been placed here by you
that promotion does not come from the
East the West the North or South but you
place people in positions for the
benefit of the overall populace and I
just ask that your spirit would be here
your wisdom would be here tonight and
that you would in increase these
servants in the wisdom and stature of
God in Jesus name amen amen thank you
please join me as we recite the Pledge
of
Allegiance iedge Ali to the of the
United States of America and to the for
it stands one
nation indivisible with liy and justice
for
all thank you Pastor and happy
anniversary with your
church Council we do have one speaker
card related to item number five on our
consent agenda so um before we we make a
motion I would like to call up uh
Melissa latesh
Melissa Melissa please state your name
and address for the record and you have
up to three minutes to share your
comments thank you my name is Melissa
Lage like
lollipop and uh I am from the Silk
Stocking neighborhood that uh that'll be
agenda number five I think on your list
and I just wanted to take a minute
um tonight to give thanks really to all
the people involved in getting us here
tonight this has been a long journey
started by um uh Dorothy ruoff and Mary
L Perkins uh two ladies in the
neighborhood started this probably 20
years ago and got this done on the
national level I want to say 10 maybe 10
years back
and then they wanted to pursue it
locally and of course the commission was
formed I want to say
2021 and um it's evolved since so um
while that's been happening in the
neighborhood we needed to satisfy a
criteria of so many um a percentage of
so many uh votes or signatures within
the within the neighborhood and we
finally accomplished that uh the end of
last year I believe to start this
process rolling so um some of the early
supporters um was uh of course Matt
Orlando uh he was at you know at those
meetings in our homes in Dorothy's house
as was as was uh Martin saula who I
believe is a previous council member and
then of course there's other gals in in
um our group mainly on Washington Street
who by the way would here like they were
last month except we somehow thought we
were on the agenda for your next meeting
and I wouldn't be here actually unless
um ala called me this morning I'm like
what so you know I'm the one who needs
the least amount of notice they of
course needed advanced notice so they
weren't able to make it or they'd be
here as well so I wanted to explain that
but um you know they've been we've all
as a group worked together and they've
been integral in
collecting data keeping spreadsheets
things that I I personally don't care to
do uh I was the door kner person so
anyway we finally got it done and um
just wanted to say thank you to everyone
uh who made this happen City council's
always been supportive from day one uh
we sure missed Derek horn around here
and uh Catherine Flores his assistant
was instrumental too man when we needed
a notorized signature she'd be there
like bam even on a Saturday you know and
towards the end it got to be that way
too so um we're just really proud to be
in this position um
and we hope we can keep moving forward
and uh we look forward to the annexing
in the rest of the homes that weren't
included initially to get this you know
across the finish line but that'll be
like part of step two as we'll you know
finally getting to dream about what near
hood is going to be like you know what
we can do so again thank you all for
your support and I I believe Mary Le
said she be watching on TV so Mary lewi
you're here um thank you Melissa all
right thanks again we appreciate it
mayor Melissa thank you for those kind
words but in all fairness and full
disclosure I only went because darthy
was baking that night anybody said D
dary's baking those it's delicious there
right so and appreciate that and thank
you for being the enforcer you Ed a very
gentle word of knocking on the door you
were the enforcer let speak thank
you all right uh Council a motion would
be appropriate we had the opportunity to
discuss several many of these items on
Monday can I have a motion mayor council
member Ellice i' like to make a motion
to approve the conent agenda of April 4
2024 regular meetings and items 1 to 23
at this time second we got a motion by
council member Ellis second by vice
mayor Harris um any recusals any other
items seeing none Council please
vote motion carries unanimously all
right thank you Council I do have one
speaker card for unscheduled public
appearances Mrs uh Jenny
Dali hi Jenny if you please state your
name and address for the record and you
have up to 3 minutes because this is
unscheduled we cannot engage with you
but we'll listen to you and staff can
respond sure thing uh for the record my
name is Jenny Vitali I reside at 3321
North Nebraska Street that's the
subdivision up off Alma School in Elliot
got a door knocker the other day saying
ubiquity is coming in with fiber optic
cable get ready to move your cars and
get ready for some some Fiber Optic
action but I have a problem with that um
I don't have a problem with fiber optic
coming in the neighborhood I don't want
to stifle Enterprise I don't want to
stifle our path forward and I don't want
to stifle our capitalistic Market but
what I'm finding out over the last
couple days is that we effectively have
what I will consider a gold rush every
Tom Dick and Harry is now a
telecommunication fiber optic expert
that wants to get into your neighborhood
before the other guy does because then
everybody has to piggy back on their
line they are also selling all the
municipalities on microtrenching
microtrenching is an application where
they're going to dig something two to 4
Ines wide by anywhere from 12 to 24 in
deep making a little itty bitty trench
so they can lay their fiber optic cable
and then backfill on top of that it's my
understanding from talking with project
engineer at both the city and for
ubiquity as well as the product rep for
ubiquity that they spent about nine
months getting uh a detail approved uh
through the city of Chandler because
there is no mag specification for it
there is also no supplement that the
city of Chandler has as far as a detail
for a micr trench so they came up with
the bright idea of doing a one- sack
slurry back fill in the hopes that it
won't compress or depress and that it
will still allow the pavement to flex
when it's hot there's a lot of problems
with micr trenching and there's reasons
that the big players like at and some of
the others don't use it you can't get a
Tight Seal at the interface between the
sidewalk and the edge of the road which
is where they put this micro trench they
try and squeeze it right in the gutter
line there you also get deflection every
time the tires drive over it um when
they're only putting things 18 inches
down guess what when we drive over it
when recycle bin guy drives over it when
the Amazon delivery guy drives over it
you're going to get a depression there
what does that do that degradates our
roads at a faster raid right at that
interface what did city of Chandler do
in
2018 spent a Giggles worth of money
millions of dollars repaving all these
roads what is city of Chandler in the
process of doing right now conditioning
spending Giggles of money conditioning
all the roads my neighborhood just got
conditioned three weeks ago and now
ubiquity wants to come in six years
after Paving 3 weeks after conditioning
and tear up the road for micro trenching
I actually and I and I credit your
engineers I went down two days ago and
said you need to put a stop to this
permit these all of these older
neighborhoods in the northern part of
Chandler have platted Alleyways that are
specifically for dry utilities they're
specifically for the Telecommunications
the cable and if a neighborhood happens
to have gas they for that too the
roadways have the wet
utilities when I talked to the project
engineer that ubiquity used when I
talked to the product rep and the
product rep should actually be a
political lobbyist he's very good at
what he does as far as semantics and
shmooing and being very polite on the
phone but when I pointed out that they
didn't bother blue staking the alleys to
actually see where the utilities were
and the guy admitted that the other
utilities were not very forthcoming with
their as builts because their
competition right Co than you Mr tell
Cox and City Link don't want to provide
their as builts I want you guys to be
aware because you guys approve the
microtrenching and I've asked the
project everywhere to be put on hold
until they find a way to design it to
put it in the alleys thank you Mr Telly
so hopefully you guys will follow
through and do something about this
because we can't be spending millions of
dollars guys on roads and letting this
free-for-all wild west come in and tear
up our brand new roads we're 35 trillion
in Deb thank you m now we need to be
fidu we need to be fiduciary we need to
be responsible with the tax dollars Mr
har thank you
mayor council M thank you thanks for for
the discussion and bringing that up uh
Josh if you wouldn't mind can I get some
more information about this
microtrenching because it seems
important and we get her a commission's
uh application because uh that was a
really good presentation M Mr Mayor uh
council members Miss Vitalia she
mentioned did come visit our development
services department yesterday and we are
researching the uh issues that were
raised as well as working with ubiquity
on the Alley question that came
up thank you
mayor council member Harris nice May
Harris um can you make sure you just
follow up with our constituent as well
just to have any further conversations
because um I want to make sure that we
we're all on the same page on what she's
discussing and and um and I want to make
sure that we're looking at this a little
bit more closely thanks
May sorry counc member uh Josh I again
you could get back with this I can't
have a discussion here but I thought we
had this discussion and I thought we
were not moving forward yet so I need to
we need to close that Loop yeah again
without the discussion Council merland I
think we're talking about two different
uh companies with two different types of
trenching I think maybe what we were
referring to so we'll get you all that
information okay yeah
thanks all
right Council next on our agenda tonight
is current events and I will start um
you've probably heard this week that
Trader Joe's announcement is out there
and uh exciting news that after 25 years
Chandler is going to be getting a Trader
Joe's I love the video with Kevin Mayo
on there talking about this was his very
first item when he when he came as an
intern to Chandler and and was tasked to
do this so uh way to go I think it's we
we've heard for a long time our
community's messages loud and clear that
this was the number one business that
our residents uh wanted to see come to
Chandler and we are excited to see that
happen this is at the at the northeast
corner of aao and Arizona Avenue and uh
we don't have a firm time but it's
supposed to be this fall is what I
understand so more information coming
big thank you to our economic
development team who have worked hard to
fulfill this wishlist bucket list item
and bring this much desired business to
our
community secondly I do want to invite
you to a couple of events this Saturday
we we have a lot of exciting things
happening starting at 7:30 a.m. the 16th
annual Chandler Family Bike Ride kicks
off at the Chandler Park and Ride with a
bike show our guided 7.4 mile Ride Along
The Pale Canal begins at 8:30 a.m. we're
heading south this year rather than
North and then turning around and there
will be Kona Ice at the beginning or at
the end back at Tumbleweed Park this
year's theme is pedling through the time
and participants are invited to dress
themselves and decorate their bicycles
in the iconic styles of their favorite
decade I'm not sure what that means I'll
be honest with you but uh I look forward
to seeing some creatively dressed
costumes and bicycles at this particular
event so registration and additional
information is available on our website
following the bike ride in the East
Valley that evening as well late
afternoon is the anual
East Valley Relay for Life it's going to
be happening at Perry High School
Chandler Gilbert and Mesa will be coming
together as they have the last couple
years uh at three o'clock there is a a
kickoff and a ceremony around that at
nine o'clock at night there is a
ceremony for the um for the survivors or
for those who have up either surviving
cancer or or to uh remember those who
have passed away both are very powerful
times so I invite you to join the East
Valley Community at this event to
celebrate those who are still battling
cancer and to come alongside of them and
to remember lost loved ones and to take
action to save lives thirdly um like to
talk about ranked Arizona Chandler or
ranking CH Arizona Chandler ranking we
had been rated the the best city in
Arizona to live work and play by ranking
Arizona we're honored to receive this
recognition we're grateful to our city
staff our businesses and most
importantly our residents that have
contributed to making Chandler the
success story that we are today I would
also be remiss if I didn't also
recognize Chandler Unified School
District who was named as the best
school district in Arizona as well as we
know a strong city is forged by strong
Partnerships and education systems and
this could not be made clearer in
Chandler through these accolades so
congratulations to cusd congratulations
to our city uh council member and
Cenas uh thank you mayor um I want to
share the successful events that took
place this past week in honoring uh
Cesar Chavez um a big thank you to our
Dei and neighborhood resources team for
putting these events together um we were
able to get all um we brought in the
grandson of Cesar Chavez uh which is
Andes Chavez to talk about the Legacy
and the work that his grandpa had right
here in downtown Chandler and we were
able to hit all areas of the community
to participate and learn uh from
students at fry and San Marcos
Elementary getting a presentation and
art creation and over 400 books
distributed to the students our
faith-based community hosted an untold
stories uh breakfast that brought
residents out to share their stories of
Cesar Chavez and reunite um also our
team Chandler staff got a one-on-one
visit with Mr Chavez himself here in our
Chambers and finally our neighborhoods
pulled together for a garden restoration
here in downtown a March and an event
with our Chann high school students and
Community leaders here at our Council
chamber Courtyard on Saturday thank you
mayor and vice May for representing our
Council there um our city caused a lot
of Buzz this uh weekend throughout the
state we had various media outlets for
this radio stations and even the
governor's attention who presented Mr
Chavez with a state Proclamation um as
well in Tucson overall is a great way uh
for our city to honor the late activist
and his contributions here in Chandler
and again I thank you to our our staff
that put some amazing events on
um to make this all happen and look
forward to next year's events thank you
very good it was amazing council member
Ellis thank you mayor uh the mayor
highlighted some exciting events
happening in Chandler this Saturday and
I have one more we need to mention which
is specifically for our team this
weekend uh from 900 amm to 4 pm at the
Chandler Innovation Center the teenss in
Chandler can participate in leadership
workshop and training sessions youve LED
panel discussion and engage in political
professional panels discussions
political engagement for our young
people is very important you and
Chandler to us and I'm excited to be
joining my fellow council members at
this event on Saturday to help pass on a
passion for civic engagement to the Next
Generation next mayor would like to talk
about the field of Hope event at ccil
Study last Monday evening we declared
April as child abuse use prevention
month every year the Exchange Club which
I'm a member of organize a beautiful
memorable field of Hope in Dr AJ's
Chandler's Park to recognize and honor
the children we have lost due to child
abuse and neglect in Arizona and so this
coming Sunday it's going to be a on not
this Sunday next Sunday on April 14 at 6
p.m. they will be hosting a Kindle light
dedication ceremony which kick offs of a
weekl long tribute for those children I
invite everyone to come out to the
dedication or to stop by during the week
long Memorial which wrap up on April 19
thank you last and not but least Jazz
appreciation month it's event this
weekend it's J's appreciation month in
Chandler which means the City calendar
is filled with special activity and I
know that cam moer is all up doing that
this weekend
from the Chandler jazz festival to Jazz
programming at our libraries the
Chandler jazz festival is happening this
weekend in downtown Chandler with an
impressive Talent lineup and 40 hours of
live performances if you can't make it
downtown this weekend we have a young
artist showcase and jazz on the Move
Series so you can get your music fixed
throughout the whole month join us we
have some incredible local artists for
you and so much talent that will be on
display the next few weeks I can't wait
to catch a show thank you
everyone
than thank you mayor I just want to oh
there we go thanks mayor I just want to
take a point of privilege on Monday a
longtime dear friend um passed away um
lived in Michigan he was 88 years old
his name was uh John flowers Jr and the
the preacher preached John flowers J the
great this man that you see before you
was a man that was um born in
Mississippi had 11 children literally um
a very poor poor man uh his family had
to he literally ate road kill raccoon
and in various other different things as
he was a young man surviving through
terrible times uh he later moved to
Michigan um where he met his um you know
where him and his wife end up having 11
children and let me just tell you this
man was a longtime friend I was uh
raised with this man I knew him as
another father figure in my life uh and
it was just heartbreaking um when I
learned of his passing and um Monday we
celebrated his life and his legacy and
we we know that his name John flowers Jr
the great because of the fact that he
had to overcome so many different
obstacles that we today um have no clue
and so I just you know for the longest
time I just wanted to honor him his life
his legacy what he meant to me as a male
Mentor a man of one wife never cheated
on his wife and loved her and and and
did everything he can and he was a
hardworking man and those are the type
of examples that I try to live my life
like um because he really represents a
remarkable person a warm spirit and just
a person I really truly love so I just
wanted to take a point of privilege to
recognize him and some of his family
members are watching now and I just
wanted to let them know I love them we
appreciate you and um your your father's
Legacy will live on in my heart thank
you
mayor that's where steart thank you
mayor council member Harris we're sorry
for your loss it was a nice
tribute you know last weekend uh you
know we we had Easter and uh we were my
family and I were fortunate enough to
attend the uh Jesus Christ Latter Day
Saints with the mayor actually opened
with prayer um Easter celebration and I
got to tell you if you haven't been to
that it is an absolutely
remarkable um show and uh tribute to uh
the resurrection of Christ and you know
I get to spend Easter Sunday with my
family at Central Christian Church and I
watch several people give their life to
God and uh it was quite a moving
experience but um you know hopefully all
of you found time to be with friends and
family and enjoy the holiday um then
yesterday I was lucky enough so so years
ago when I was running for Council I you
know I was doing some of my campaign
work at of gang plank I was actually
starting my uh my marketing agency out
of Gangplank a lot of things were going
on and I saw this opportunity for uh
this Collision space that needed to
happen for all the brilliant people that
live in the East Valley and in Chandler
and started working with Council and
economic development where's Micah is he
here tonight with with folks from uh ASU
dove in and then suddenly uh they came
up with this idea of Chandler Endeavor
and I got to tell you I was able to
witness it last night there there was a
young lady in there that is developing
um a product for feminine hygiene that
is fully uh sustainable fully
biodegradable using bamboo and I'm sure
she would be grateful that I'm I'm not
sharing any secrets because she's
already out there with it um but she's
under 30 and she's already got CD
interested in it hopefully Josh we can
talk to her as well but it was just a
remarkable thing to see her going
through this mentorship and working with
the people at Endeavor to bring her
ideas to life which would have never
really happened if Marin Council would
not have put the the support behind it
and if Dr Crow over at ASU wouldn't have
done the same so we're absolutely
grateful for everything they're doing
over there and and I want to thank mayor
and counsel for their support of that
because it was really special that's it
thank you
that's Rando uh sorry for your loss like
I think we talked earlier week and so
heart was out to you other than that
mayor nothing else got some posted no
announcements tonight mayor city manager
mayor and Council just wanted to give a
quick uh shout out and thank you you
heard mentioned earlier uh from our
staff in development services uh Kathy
Flores she's also the uh chairperson
this year of our employee advisory
Council and so she was in charge with
her team of during our Employee
Appreciation event yesterday that we had
a very successful ice cream social uh
just want to thank her publicly and the
entire team for putting that together
that was a great event for our staff
thank
you good music
too all right Council that concludes our
meeting