Chandler City Council Study Session 2/5/24

[Music]
for
[Music]
[Music]
you
[Music]
d
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
down
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
n
[Music]
n
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
a
[Music]
all
[Music]
a
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
oh
[Music]
[Music]
yeah
hey good evening and Welcome to our J
our February 5th study session I'd like
to call this meeting to order and clerk
please take the
role mayor Harkey here vice mayor Harris
here council member enus present council
member Al here council member Stewart
here council member Orlando present
council member posted here we have a
quorum thank you and nice to hear your
voice council member Poston our prayers
and thoughts continue to go with
you thank you so much mayor you're very
welcome next on our agenda is scheduled
appearances and I'd like to invite
council member Ellis to join me up
front
city manager thank you Mr Mayor members
of council we do have four Employee
Service recognitions this evening and
for the first I'd like to call forward
our acting Chief of Police
bissa
good evening mayor and councel I'd like
to call Jesse Perry up here
[Applause]
please so Jesse began her tenure with
the city of Chandler in February of 2014
as a dispatcher for the city for the
Chandler Police Department transitioning
her aspirations to forensic science she
joined the forensic Services section in
September of 2018 as a crime scene
technician throughout her time in the
lab Jesse has consistently demonstrated
exceptional performance and dedication
she attained a certificate as a crime
scene investigator through the
International Association for
identification and was subsequently
promoted to Crime Scene supervisor
technician in December of
2020 in 2023 Jesse was recognized as the
Chandler Police Department's employee of
the year and also obtained a Bachelor of
Science degree in forensic
psychology her contributions extend
beyond her professional duties fostering
positive connections within the
community and our city Jesse's
commitments in 10 years of service to
the city of Chandler are truly
commendable thank you Jesse for your
continued dedication your 10 years of
service and congratulations to you and
your husband David on your uh expecting
twin girls in April so
[Applause]
congratulations mayor and Council for
our next presentation I'd like to ask
Leah Powell our director of neighborhood
resources to to come
forward good evening mayor and Council I
would like to invite Erica Barbara to
come up
[Applause]
please Erica is definitely known here in
the city of Chandler I would like you to
join me in congratulating her on her 20
year anniversary with the city she began
her career in the city clerk's office in
2004 as a customer service
representative Erica's remarkable work
ethic exceptional customer service and
strong desire to learn resulted in her
continuing advancing into upper level
positions in 2018 she was promoted to
assistant city clerk where she managed
multiple programs within the city
clerk's office in 2023 Erica was ready
for new adventures and accepted a
position with neighborhood resources
department we do offer Adventure in our
department with her in her first year
she was promoted to and is currently
serving as the neighborhood services
program manager she oversees code
enforcement alley maintenance and
graffiti abatement programs Erica also
serves as the building blocks leas on
for the city she is also currently
completing her certified public
Management program through Arizona State
University and participating in the
Bloomberg Harvard leadership initiative
and with Erica tonight is her husband
Sergio and her children Sergio Jr Serena
Santiago Sophia and her mother Mama J
congratulations
[Applause]
Erica
10
15 mayor and Council for our next
presentation I'd like to ask John sefon
our director of community services to
come
forward good evening May and Council
it's an honor for me to bring down
George casarez
[Applause]
George
so George started with the city of
Chandler as a groundskeeper in 2004 we
recognizing him for 20 years of service
he was maintaining ball fields Landscape
Maintenance and operating heavy
equipment in ' 07 George was promoted to
Parks maintenance technician where he
was responsible for making the repairs
to a wide range of amenities found in
our Park system from irrigation to
playgrounds this guy did it all he's now
responsible for four crews and the
maintenance of over 40 Parks George is
always looking to improve not just
good-look but always looking to
improve our parks and our workflow he
has developed close relationships
throughout the system he has developed
in and invented the self-closing ball
valves for our uh actually the
volleyball courts the sand volleyball
courts out there so Innovation at work
George does every day for the past four
years he's been the man responsible for
the tumble weed Christmas tree and what
a big big
responsibility and if you've ever seen a
guy throw glitter he can throw some
glitter Georg is a consummate
professional dedicates himself to
providing the highest level of service
to our citizens every single day Georgia
we congratulate you for 20 years of
service we're very very proud of you
thanks for all that you
do
[Applause]
mayor and Council for our final service
recognition this evening I'd like to ask
our Deputy city manager and acting
development services director Andy bass
to come forward thank you Mr city
manager May and Council it's my honor to
have Randy Eberhart come on up to
celebrate 25 years with the city
[Applause]
of So Randy he started his career with
Chandler as a GIS Tech technician number
two with his strong worth that and
commitment Randy Rose to the ranks to
become a GIS analyst in
2019 whoa
hey come on
up do you want your wife to come up too
have the whole family
come
[Applause]
[Music]
that's oh beautiful GIS is in the house
nice
work okay so his current uh in his
current role Randy supervises the land
information system that team and which
managing uh catastral and landbased data
for the city he provides GIS support for
the business critical system like Mars
which is Municipal area response system
for fire and CAD the computer aided
dispatch for police and construction
permitting system for development
services three very very Key Systems for
the city Randy is an Arizona native and
he's a proud ASU grad as we have just
seen Josh you like that I know
so he's also an avid golfer and softball
player he's also been a diamond back
season ticket holder since the franchise
first opened in
1998 so whether it's spear hitting the
football picks promoting GIS day or
migrating a critical GIS software you
can count on Randy's commitment and his
leadership to make a positive impact
Randy we thank you for all your hard
work your commitment to the team and for
25 years of great
service
[Applause]
you
mayor and Council that concludes our
service recognitions this evening thank
you thank you city manager next we have
a proclamation on teen Dating Violence
so if I could call up our reps from
mag's Regional domestic violence Council
Dolores Ernst council member Beretta Haj
if she's here as well as our
representatives from our Chandler
domestic violence
commission no I'm reading the next
one
come over
here thank you mayor appreciate you guys
being here if you could please come next
to me um chair yes keep moving and then
we'll go right in the middle right here
the two thank you so much for taking the
drive we served together on mag and this
year I was reappointed as the co-chair
and this is our chair for the whole
department over there this Proclamation
is tonight is uh for uh teen violence
Dating Violence Awareness Month
Proclamation whereas teen Dating
Violence is a serious public health
problem that is common among adolescents
and young adults ages 10 to 24 and is
the most prevalent type of Youth
violence and whereas approximately 10 of
adolescents across the US
report being the victim of physical
Dating Violence annually and whereas
high school students who witness
experience or perpetrated physical
violence in a dating relationship are
more likely to use drugs and alcohol or
at greater risk of suicide and are much
more likely to carry Partners uh
patterns actually of abuse into future
relationship and whereas by educating
young people about red flags and root
cause of violence building skill for
health relationship for healthy
relationship and changing attitudes that
support
violence we recognize that thin violence
can be prevented and whereas it is
essential to raise Community awareness
and to provide training for The Trusted
adults in the lives of adolescents so
that they may recognize the signs of
Dating Violence and serve as allies for
prevention
and whereas the recognition of teen
Dating Violence Awareness Month in
February will benefit young people the
families schools and communities
regardless of social economic status
gender sexual orientation or ethnicity
now there are mayor Kevin
hary mayor of the city of
Chandler Arizona do hereby proclaim the
month of February 2024 as team Dating
Violence Awareness Month in Chandler
Arizona thank you so much for all the
work that you all do really appreciate
it our commissioners are really truly at
work every single day in our schools
helping to do just that thank you mayor
let's have a
photo
than you thank you
thank
[Applause]
you and next under our recognition we
have the um Proclamation for
africanamerican month and if I could
call Pastor Victor
Hardy then when we take the photo anyone
here for that let's just do a big photo
how's that Council our audience folks
we're all celebrating black history
month
and I mean one of my favorite teachers
John prothrow looks so nice we got to
get him in
camera yeah council is welcome to come
too of course oops all right let me read
a proclamation and then um turn this
over to Pastor Hardy for a few words few
words oh and then uh we'll take a a
beautiful photo and uh we're gonna leave
it to our photographer to coordinate us
for that all right
whereas the city of Chandler and the
African-American Community have come
together to support and celebrate
Chandler's rich and proud
African-American Heritage through words
songs and arts and whereas South
Chandler self-help Chandler for change
Ready set go foundation and Chandler men
of action along with the city of
Chandler believe that truth cannot be
denied and that reason will prevail over
Prejudice PA causing for an amen amen
thank you and whereas we want to
celebrate the ideals and creativity of
those who came before to enrich us into
the future and whereas Carter G Woodson
once observed that if a race has no
history it has no worthwhile tradition
it becames negligible in the thought of
the world and it stands in danger of
being exterminated and whereas we invite
the entire Community to take part in the
celebration of the African-American
community events now therefore I Kevin
Harkey mayor of the city of Chandler
Arizona to hereby Proclaim February 2024
as
africanamerican month Pastor
[Applause]
Hardy thank you um the reason why all
these people are standing here it is
because it is a community
celebration I don't want anybody to
think that it's just for African
Americans but it's everyone that's
standing here and anyone that hears my
voice that we stand together as a
community and we need to make sure that
all of us understand who we are we must
understand the reason why and I know
every month every February someone has
to explain the reason why we have
African-American month but if you go to
any of the events that we have here in
the city you will discover the reasons
why and what's going on with us I wear
these things and I understand these
things because of all those Africans
lined up whom had to jump off ships from
here into the uh into the continent of
Africa Harlem
Renaissance inventors of the flash of
the uh traffic lights I stand here for
all those kids and children children
whom stood at the
counters I stand here because it is
needed and we need to understand who we
are and what we are and if we don't
understand those things then we are
going to repeat them we need to make
sure that we understand the reasons why
and we celebrate everyone
together every month there's some kind
of Celebration that's going on and I'm
sure that Nikki is tired of all the
celebrations that are going
on but she does it because she realizes
and the city realizes that without the
history and without the
culture we may fail and we do not want
to fail so thank you very much s um uh
mayor but the other thing is is that I
want to thank the administration for
lighting the city in R for celebration
of africanamerican month thank you very
[Applause]
much okay so where do I
stand
everyone
sideways sure got a
window
ready
thank you
guys thank you
all you guys were like Sentinels
standing behind us
our last recognition
tonight yes it's the last is the uh City
Clerk's Office passport acceptance
facility for 30 years and we are
fortunate here in Chandler to have our
city clerk's office be designated by the
US Department of State as a passport
acceptance facility our staff provides
accessible efficient and Professional
Service for those that travel from near
and far to benefit from from this
service I'm excited for our city clerk
staff to be recognized this evening for
30 years of service to our community and
here to provide a letter of recognition
to our team is Brandy Weber from the
Department of State Western passport
center Brandy I think you've got
something you're gonna read for us then
we'll do a photo
together and hand over the microphone to
our very own Dana Delan
sir mayor and Council thank you on
behalf of the Department of State for
allowing me to be here today in
recognition of the Chandler city clerk's
office this letter is to formally thank
the city clerk's office of Chandler
Arizona for 30 years of exceptional
Service as a passport acceptance
facility with the US Department of State
passport services mission is to issue
secure travel documents to US citizens
while providing the highest level of
customer service professionalism and
Integrity your continued service to the
American traveling public as a passport
acceptance facility has been an
essential part of achieving this mission
in 2023 alone the Chandler city clerk's
office accepted over
13,450 applications which is only a
small Testament to your outstanding hard
work and dedication through your service
your facility and staff make it possible
for many families and individuals to
visit relative overseas travel for their
careers pursue study abroad and take
their dream vacations thank you signed
Jesse Marias Western Regional director
passport service US Department of State
all right come up
[Applause]
Randy okay I just like to say thank you
thank you to the Department of State and
the Western passport center for recogn
recognizing us for the 30 um years of
work that we've done for passports I'd
also like to thank Brandy for coming
down up from Tucson to to present this
in person I'd like to thank mayor Harkey
and the council for your continuous
support of this program you really are
our biggest cheerleaders and um that
means so much to us so we really do
appreciate that but most of all I'd like
to thank the city clerk staff for the
work that they do day in and day out
it's amazing that what they do every day
they do anywhere from 70 to 100
passports a day um and they do it with
exceptional service I'm proud of the
work that you do and you really are the
definition of Team
[Applause]
Chandler Council mellis it's like you
got the memo your color is the same as
theirs
great thank
you thank you so
much
Council so many fun announcements
tonight
right all right we've uh we've got a few
items that have been called in and to
start off I did ask the clerk to pull
item number 14 resolution number
5776 that is the the uh resolution that
we were we had participated in for the
prevention of Youth violence I
understand that uh there's going to be U
some orange wearing folks here again on
Thursday so it seems redundant to
potentially discuss this tonight and
then they'll be here on Thursday so the
uh next item called in was called in by
council member Ellis and Orlando item
number nine applicant presentation for a
pad PDP for Cambridge Medical Facility
is our applicant here if not Lauren is
all right
applicant good evening mayor and councel
uh at this time I would like to invite
up the applicant for Cambridge Medical
Facility uh Anthony pings with pings an
associate welcome
sir and you have questions or did you
want a presentation presentation okay a
brief presentation please well this is
this is a complex issue so I want to
touch on a few top things uh but the
main thing I want to talk about is why
Channeler and what is the benefit to
channeling and that's a pretty
straightforward uh perspective what
we're doing which is very unusual is
we're recreating Reinventing a hospital
uh which is an area of practice that
I've worked in before and this is really
based around an evidence-based approach
which the government is pushing through
CMS and things like that so we're
actually going to recreate how a
hospital works that is a massively
complex conversation which I won't go
into the depth uh directly but this is a
referral hospital and that's that is
material to you what that means is we
will not be a Frontline hospital we will
not be a Trauma Center uh we will be
someone that would be and I could give
you some examples of what that looks
like if you're interested uh but what
this means is that we will be able to
provide uh services for when a patient
and an MD decide that we're the right
place this is where they'll come we
don't we don't have a single service
line per se as uh we are a hospital and
we will evolve over time but this is a
place that you can come to when we have
what you need and we have some very
unique ways of helping that occur and
this is uh I've I've been blessed in the
past to help reinvent hospitals many
decades ago for Med surge hospitals and
that was a single line hospital where we
were able to how do you invent a
hospital to do one service what we're
doing here is we're Reinventing the
hospital for many services with a new
system system and and I won't I won't
burden you with that that's an hour
discussion if you will but what you're
going to get out of that is this is more
focused we're able to bring more
Specialists here and that's one of the
benefits that you'll be seeing we're
going to be bringing Specialists here
that would not be here otherwise but
we're bringing them together to work
together and we're actually working that
through so let me give you a very short
version because it's a little confusing
what this all looks like and I'm what it
looks like uh two years 20 days ago I
was in a tremendous accident skiing uh I
I was was blessed to be uh brought to a
Trauma Center actually I Believe by a a
pilot trained here at Chandler uh and I
arrived with tens of minutes to live not
hours uh it was an amazing experience it
was very integrated uh the tenacity of
the people who cared for me was
unbelievable but the outcome was very
iffy two weeks after I was two weeks
after my occurrence my main nurse was
still saying I would be an invalid
forever and wheelchair
bound my month ended at that time at the
trauma center and very well but that was
the beginning in most healthc care what
happens next not much I happen to be in
the medical world I was able to assemble
a team of people who dearly cared about
me and for the rest of that time for
four months later I was able to actually
put my foot on the ground hold the
weight nine months of PT took place and
that continued on until today what are
we doing we're not doing the trauma
center we're not doing the helicopter
landing on the top what are we doing is
what happens next and what I'm telling
you is I was blessed to be in the system
to make it work for me our goal and what
the passion I bring to this project is
to make it work for others that that's
not just easy to say how are you going
to do that well everybody wants to do
good well we have a business plan that
helps us expand access for those who
often people in this situation don't
have proper access to medicine because
they can't pay for it and we are going
to work in our areas to expand the payer
mix this is our business plan we're
we're working to actually increase the
people who will be able to be met with
that people like me now I am unique but
my needs are not so that's what that's
what a referral Hospital does will we do
surgery of course we'll do surgery we'll
have uh the typical 2.3 day stays that
you'd expect those kind of things
that'll all be part of it and longer
stay stays much longer stays when we
need and outpatient stays so that takes
that gives you an idea of of the
specifics of what our Hospital Bas is
doing and this is an Innovative approach
that I'm really excited about and I'm
really happy to have it here in uh in
chanandler and you are one of the
reasons that we want to be in this
community partly because we think this
this is something that will serve the
people that you need I think that we
want to bring more specialists in here
that you'll be able to everyone will be
able to do we have a commitment to the
youth education
bringing them into our facility to help
them understand why they should be
motivated if you will and this is
possibility we'll also have for that uh
Outreach for the for the training for
healthc care people directly and that we
will not be the school we'll be a
placement part of that school and that's
part of our that's part of our mission
and that's and that's part of our issues
of course does this bring high paying
jobs yes of course a ton one of the
things about a referral Health Care
system that you find is our staffing is
much more focused and you're also going
to find the outcomes are better and also
our pay scale actually works quite quite
well so we're going to be supporting a
lot of things in the community by virtue
of being here and I I hope uh that these
things are helpful to you and in your
view of what we're trying to do for you
but what you need to come away from this
is yes it's another hospital but it's
not the kind that you have now we're not
competing with the current hospitals
we're trying to do the things that are a
that are missing and we're looking to
the CMS groups we are looking to an
expanded payer mix we are looking to
those things that we think are missing
and we think and know we have a way of
doing that to get into those would
probably be a couple hour conversation
uh but I think when you are moving to
support this I want you to understand
that's what you're supporting and I hope
you will as far as the activities I want
to talk about we we expect with your
help if we can and the willingness of
those involved that we will see the
groundbreaking in January of 2025 that's
our current goal with your side willing
and our side will willing uh I hope that
happens we're we're expecting completion
of construction in the July 2026 period
uh and then outfitting and opening for
patients in August of
2026 that would be the day that you
would do the ribbon cutting uh if you
will I have to tell you on on the last
personal note I want to make um in my
recovery when I first came to Chandler I
was still on a cane uh as I walked the
halls of your place I was not able to
walk the site I had to in an RV of
course that that is gone or in SUV uh
I'm I'm taking the keing to The Cutting
ceremony as my
milestone for what I've been through and
as the commitment to what I hope for my
trauma brothers and sisters will be
their experience that actually isn't
normally happening there will be other
service lines available don't get me
wrong but that one is my passion if
there's any questions I can answer I
know this is how General I'd love to do
that we've got a few questions question
but thank you for your that was very
inspirational and I I mean that in a
good sense at uh in terms of your story
and and what you hope to bring to our
greater Community um council member
Ellis and then council member Orlando
thank you mayor this is exactly what I
needed uh the background and the
understanding of what this hospital was
going to be bringing into Chandler um
you probably did your homework
understanding that I am a nurse and this
is my line of work I want to get a a
good sense of what this hospital was
going to provide for those of us who
live here in Chandler and you made it
very clear that you are not all of those
things but you specifically will provide
a specific area of service that
otherwise we don't really have here
specialized into so thank you for doing
that and also as the mayor stated it is
very clear that a lot of patients when
these things happen to them and they are
in a hospital hospital where so many
other services are being rendered it's
hard for them to focus on their area
just like we said all the time doctor
walked in if your head is hurting that's
all he looks like your heels may be
going and shbl but that's not why he's
there for it's for your head but you
seem to be really laser focused on what
really will happen there in this
Hospital the question that I have though
for the people of Chandler you mentioned
access um we've been having a lot of
issu issues uh with uh access and so I
wanted to find out do you already have
contract what's going to happen multiply
pay uh you said you talk about a
multitude of payer sources whether it's
private pay insurance and things so I
just wanted to have an idea so that the
people of Chandler will know that they
will be able to truly access that um if
they carry different mode of
payment the financial capacity to
provide Health Care is one of the
greatest difficulties that we currently
have today uh bu being a referral
hospital we also are able to control
costs better than a traditional hospital
and when I say control costs provide
more of our money to therapy for the
patients we are committed to more than
just the broken body model as you
mentioned uh we are committed to trying
to do more of an inclusive approach to
Medicine um and what you're asking about
is the payer mix to do that of course
we're planning we are currently in the
process of of the traditional insurance
companies um we also we also have in our
business plan uh expecting to do uh Pro
boner work or free work if you will of
course uh and we all are are working and
it's a little bit touchy to to get into
to expand those who would be paying for
that and those systems now remember c as
you as a healthcare provider CMS is
currently moving towards paying you more
for Success right so the very first
thing I brought up was about the idea of
evidence-based uh evidence what we're
talking about is is evidence-based
success well in the future they'll
actually pay you more for that who knew
well we do and we're designing our
hospital around that capacity am I here
to tell you that anyone who needs
service we can do no what I'm telling
you is we're committed to expanding the
group who can we're committed to looking
in my case can you imagine going to my
insurance company and saying oh by the
way I need physical therapy for n months
don't worry about it it'll only cost you
a fortune it will never happen so well
it it it didn't actually happen but I
can tell you that that that's that's the
Life I Lived it's the life that I was
able to work as best I can I can't tell
you that we're GNA be everything to
everyone I can tell you that we will do
a better job than you're used to okay
appreciate that thank you so much it's
great project love the fact that it's
coming here to Chandler you have
demonstrated that it will be a great
partnership here and it will would
provide what we need to CH thank you so
much appreciate that sir Council M
Brando thank you very much sir actually
my questions for staff but thank you for
the presentation looking forward to the
groundbreak in January thank you don't
go far someone else might have a
question
so like I asked you earlier today uh
there was a resident that had questioned
line of site visibility for I guess TV
or something did we ever get back with
that individual with an answer uh
through the mayor commission or council
member Orlando um we uh I do need to
reach out to the the resident uh upon
research today you know there is a
possibility that the signal could be
blocked um but uh the resident was
asking about the possibility of uh TV
signals being blocked from South
Mountain um it's it's a possibility but
the building official said it probably
would not occur uh okay upon
conversations with the applicant um the
way that the Transmissions flow it would
go over the building so okay well I just
want to make sure that we answer the
gentleman's uh or the the resident's uh
question that's all I'm concerned about
thank you you bet thank you mayor any
additional questions
for okay Vice May yeah I'm just for
applicant just um had a question about
the specialty of services my my daughter
she plays basketball and actually
tonight she's playing for the state
Regional Championship right now as we
speak what are you doing here yeah I
know
right this is some this is a part of the
road um but I wanted to know more about
Broken Bones um more about like athlete
injuries and things like that we have
great football we have great basketball
we have great um great soccer just kind
of wed to know are these are some of
your anticipated clients specialty that
you will be working with with this with
this
service well it's easy to say yes to
anything it's more it's more specific to
say
how um and the answer to what I'm saying
we're Reinventing a hospital uh that's a
weird word uh but I will tell you that
the average hospital is controlled from
the top down and ours grows from the
bottom up so in the answer to your
question we we are focused on sports
medicine as some of the providers we
have which will be growing up into our
organization meaning that they're within
our uh within our umbrella um but it's
but that's that's just one we have a lot
of different things we're looking at we
cannot do everything for everyone uh let
me be clear OBGYN I don't see that
happening cancer not directly we may do
surgery or something like that but there
are a lot of other things that uh work
well with what I call the growup system
in other words that we have providers
that we can nurture within our system
system to do that and I I can tell you
the sports medicine and all orthopedic
medicine frankly including PT is a big
deal in this area and it certainly is by
off by definition a passion in my life
so I I owe so much to them I I just
don't want you to think that's a
specific service that excludes others
one of the things I'd mentioned about my
Med surge Hospital from 40 years ago
we're continuing to reinvent that this
Hospital structure will continue to be
reinvented as time goes by one of the
cool things about a hospital like this
most developers that come to you it's a
5 to 10 year before they sell the
buildings we're building a hospital
that's a 20 40 60y year event if you're
telling me that will we change over that
time of course we can't survive without
it nor would we want to stay the way we
are so it's easy to say good news you're
on our list it's it's more important to
say and that's not our only
list how many BS how many beds
we you you are approving up to 99 beds
okay as a healthcare provider you know
why we haven't gone to 100 because we
whole new rules correct I'm not here to
tell you we're going to build 99 we may
build less than that depending on what
the other components are yeah and we're
working on that we're not going over 99
okay I can also tell you that since
below 60 doesn't work I'm sure will'll
be more than 60 yeah definitely it's low
thank you okay council member Stewart
thank you I just want to on behalf of
the community I want to thank you for
choosing our community it's not very
often you get to add extra Healthcare uh
opportunities for for cities it's very
rare so we appreciate your uh choosing
us thank you it it's been a two-year
look we didn't walk in out of the middle
of nowhere thank you for having
us we look forward to a ribbon cutting
and if you H have one we'd look forward
to a groundbreaking to celebrate with
you of course thank you thank you next
item called in um uh was Me by item
number 10 having to do with our 57 75
zoning code amendments and Lauren coming
up but I I also just want to just state
for us and and City attorney so the way
that we are we've got this broken out
that if a council member wants to pull
an item out we would take the
whole group and bring it to action or
just take an individual item from there
um uh 5075 a or or B how would that look
so that we're prepared on Thursday mayor
if if a council member wants to pull out
a component I would recommend that we
move the entire thing to action and then
vote have individual votes on you know
what what the council's BR okay go
forward with and then separate vote on
the item that's of concern okay so
Council right now I'm Gonna Leave This
on consent for Thursday if on Thursday
if any of you uh would like to pull an
individual item out we'll move the
entire thing to action
and then vote for uh 5075 S D or
whatever and then uh get that and then
uh vote on the individual items so
that's what we're we will plan on doing
so that you'll have the flexibility and
freedom to to do this okay council
member
Ellis yes those are gone there there
were three that were taken off that
either for further consideration
um give us just a very brief thing in
terms of how the different areas they
affect I we've had a study session and
we don't need to go into every one of
those but just the areas of these and
where they help staff or where they help
our residents so very high level of
course thank you mayor and thank you for
letting us come up to highlight this
code Amendment this is one of our
largest code amendments that we could uh
doing research dating back to like
1976 uh it's been a big load to carry um
so as part of item number 10 it's
amendments related to zoning property
maintenance and refuge um there are uh
up to 30 different uh code areas of the
code that we're amending uh a majority
of them fall within the zoning code some
of them fall within Property Maintenance
as well as one word within uh The Refuge
uh chapter uh to highlight some of the
uh instead of going through all of them
it's a pretty long presentation but if I
was to highlight uh we broke them into
really the Amendments that are
residential and non-residential so the
first being
residential uh as part of this code
Amendment we looked at ways that
residents could really utilize their
properties and fully enjoy their
properties uh over the years we've heard
uh uh a lot of requests to allow for
people to build a CA on their property
to allow for an aging parent or an adult
child to live on property uh so under
the this uh Amendment we are requesting
to permit for accessory dwelling units
within single family Zone properties uh
we also under this consideration uh
We've relaxed home occupation rules uh
to allow for home occupations to occur
not only within a home but within a
garage or within an accessory building
we allow for an employee and a customer
to occur on the property during Limited
hours we did some we did put parameters
onto types of uses that could occur and
we did prohibit uh uses that would uh be
disruptive to the
neighborhood uh another thing that we as
part of this code amendment is uh
increasing the maximum size of a remata
a resident can install within their rear
yard currently it's limited at 150 ft uh
which puts um some hardship to it a lot
of the pre-manufactured ones that can be
bought at uh Home Depot or lows exceed
the 150 uh so we get a lot of uh uh
complaints through the planning division
about um the the limitation of 150 so as
part of this amendment we're eliminating
that uh as long as it's meeting the
requirements of a setback lock coverage
maximum height um as part of this
amendment we also took a look at our
multif family uh parking requirements
more specifically guest parking uh when
we did research with other cities we
realized that we were in line with the
amount of parking we require uh for
multif family but we were deficient on
guas parking we actually didn't even
identify it uh so we we identified a
parking ratio for guest parking per
unit uh as well as under the residential
preservation of historic neighborhoods
uh especially in and around the downtown
area uh more specifically allowing for a
single family to develop a single family
home to develop on a multif family zoned
property you know to preserve the silk
stock stocking in South Village
areas uh on to some highlighting uh
amendments regarding
nonresidential uh proposals um there
were a whole bunch of amendments in
there uh but to highlight them um some
amendments would allow for us uh they
would give us the tools to obtain the
highest quality of design for infill
redevelopment adaptive reuse uh with the
ability to administratively wave
setbacks within North ch ler by half if
they designed to a high standard we set
up a criteria to review that uh also a
lot of the code allows for a predictable
development process uh so developers
ultimately know what they're signing up
for when they come to develop within
Chandler uh we codified a lot of our
policies that we've been practicing for
about a decade now and by putting it in
the code it's a place we can point to to
tell a developer or a zoning attorney
thou sh be because it's in our
code um as well as uh codes to expedite
uh the review process of new development
within the city uh we took a look at
parking requirements as well for
non-residential uses uh we established
that Flex industrial when we don't know
who the end user is that it should be
parked at 2 per thousand to get the
targeted employers that we would like
within our employment areas it would
equate to about 38 to 40% of that
building would be allotted to to be used
for office uh so headquarters can move
to these buildings uh as well as we took
a look at our outpatient medical office
uh our last applicant that was just up
he brought it to our attention that you
know we could probably add an additional
outpatient um requirement for medical
parking uh as well as we address some
concerns within our our sign code uh to
allow for four lease signs permanent uh
for a whole year uh in order to allow
for businesses or building owners uh the
ability to advertise their their
building uh as well as we uh added
murals and how they're permitted within
our
code um this wasn't your first time
looking at this uh it it's been a
journey uh originally when we first
started uh planning staff we all took an
item uh we did research we looked at
Trends we looked to see what was
happening Statewide Nationwide as as
well as we took a look at our
neighboring cities to see what their
codes permitted uh we then drafted code
came before you last year in April of
20123 our presentation was so large we
were unable to make it through even half
of it uh so we broke it up into uh two
subcommittee meetings to align with your
strategic goals uh neighborhoods and E
economic Vitality we got a lot of
feedback uh we asked to do a little more
research uh we also went to our Planning
and Zoning commission uh for a work
session in September of 2023 last year
uh they gave us a lot of feedback as
well especially with uh regarding design
of administratively being able to review
reducing setbacks and allowing for
additional freestanding pads uh at that
time we drafted 30 plus pages of of
codes uh and we posted it to our City's
website uh the city uh posted it on the
city website as well as uh social media
uh staff emailed it to uh zoning
attorneys as well as developers that
frequent our city uh we met with uh
interested
stakeholders um and in November of 2023
we took the zoning code Amendment that's
on your agenda this week to the Planning
and Zoning commission they did recommend
approval uh they did make three
amendments uh the three where uh they
added um home occupations uh swim
lessons could occur outside as as long
as it was uh one one customer per time
as well as um some other um
modifications uh a couple weeks ago we
met with you to to show you the final
draft uh there were some comments made
we removed three items and we come
before you this week with uh the final
draft if approved this week uh it does
have to go to a second city council
meeting so it would be on your February
22nd agenda for final adoption and if
approved uh it the codes become
effective within 30 days so March 22nd
2024 the code would become effective uh
this is an important day uh we receive a
lot of phone calls in our office through
our planner of the dayline residents
wanting to exceed the size of their
remata or build a an Adu or home
occupations and everybody keeps
wondering what that data is and so if
approved March 22nd 2024 of this year it
would be
effective um as well as um throughout
the process we've reached out to
multiple people as I indicated we sent
it out to interested stakeholders within
the community uh we did present to the
economic development Advisory Board
which is a group of small and large
business owners uh we we presented the
nonresidential uh code amendments to
them and they were very supportive of it
uh stating that you know it would
expedite business within the city and
any changes that they would want to W
make it would help out with that we met
with the multihousing association on a
couple of different occasions uh they
were overall supportive of the code
Amendment however they were concerned
with uh the guest parking requirements
um but as of today uh they're supportive
uh of all code
amendments uh we met with the dccp uh
they had great comments but none of them
really pertaining to the current code
Amendment and uh possibly something we
would look at later this year as another
code Amendment for next year um and as I
stated we put it up on our City's
website um as at the time of writing
this staff memo we've received 18
submissions uh seven were against uh
generally stating that overall we we
overpark the city for commercial
developments and we shouldn't regulate
that um home occupations concerns with
you know allowing uh customers and
employees to come to the property as
well as
adus um we had also seven support
comments uh a lot of residential for you
know the uh enlarging of the ratas as
well as adus and then just four general
questions
and with that I would be happy to where
uh with that I'd be happy to answer any
questions sure I know that we've also
had looked at this very copiously but I
do um one question and one comment for
me and we should get we should get her a
bottle of water that was an
exhaustive presentation well done
Lauren uh so I do know up in h Downtown
Phoenix right now one of the
deliberations has to do with adus and
they they are less inclined to uh uh
take out that these could be short-term
rentals I know we put in there that
these are not intended to be short-term
rentals to add to our housing stock or
for individual families so if that
indeed happens I suppose uh if they if
they get that across the Finish Line
we'll be addressing that again later
this year to to to correspond if they
change this different than ours we'll
we'll have to change our our code to
align with
State that's correct right that is
correct mayor if the state was to
Preamble and uh make any changes to
accessory dwelling units we would then
have to amend our code to align yeah
council member Orlando they're also
after setbacks for chickens so
uh all right yeah we're GNA let you uh
have that responsibility and secondly I
I just wanted to say I it's been a long
journey particularly with this overall
but I I been very admirable the way you
all handled this with the multi-housing
parking it as we have more uh
multi-housing coming in downtown
Chandler it's important that they just
don't start flooding neighborhood
streets in front of people's houses and
and that they provide adquate and to to
get the multi-housing authority online
once they understood what we're doing
and the problem we're were trying to
solve I I thought was uh some good
statesmanship on the city's part and and
getting that across so uh a good set of
codes it it precedes one of our long
standing uh council members on the days
I understand in terms of these going
back to so a long history of change here
too Council any additional questions or
comments council member Stuart thank you
mayor Lauren thank you for that and
Kevin thanks to your team for putting
this all together I know it's been a
long process for sure I do have some
questions about a few of the particular
items and maybe if we do end up pulling
it uh to Thursday we can vote up or down
based on what it is but first I want to
ask just so the public knows what were
the three items that you pulled uh yes
uh through the mayor uh council member
Stewart the three items that we pulled
were um we there was a um proposed code
Amendment uh regarding Property
Maintenance with the amount of vehicles
that could be stored uh within a rear
yard of a a residential property uh that
item has been pulled for free F the
research um we as well
pulled pardon me Drew blank oh um we
made modifications to the home
occupation um originally we stated that
it could not occur within a garage we've
since changed that to state that no
permanent modifications shall occur so
when the if the homeowner was to sell
that uh the next homeowner would be able
to use the garage as a garage and the
last one
was oh uh affordable parking uh we were
after meeting with the multi Housing
Association they asked if we had any
code requirements regarding uh
development that were coming in as
affordable housing and uh we didn't uh
so we were able to draft that um but at
this point I believe where at this point
we've been asked to do a little more
research before going through with that
one thank you you so I've got a couple
more questions here Mar if you don't
mind so to be clear previously there was
no permission to have a Homebase
business or am I mistaken on that one I
thought the state legislature had done
something that allowed for more Homebase
uh the proliferation of of more
homebased businesses did we not have
that in code or if somebody wanted to
have a homebased business and have an
employee come
over help me understand that so could
they not do that before or could they
and then what are we what are we doing
we allowing one employee and how do we
police that by based on the number of
cars or yeah bikes or great a great
question um so I'm unaware of any estate
regulation that was uh passed regarding
home occupations but currently as our
code is currently written um it's
there's a definition in there by policy
we've been allowing for home occupations
to occur if it was conducted completely
within the dwelling unit and no
customers or employees were able to come
to the house um they would uh fill out a
business registration with tax and
license at which point it would get sent
over to the planning division we would
review it to make sure that it would
comply with those guidelines and that's
really how we process them to date so
this actually opens it up to dat to have
an employee come over so this actually
us being a little bit more friendly to
micro business owners correct that's
great um and then I think the final
question that I had was on there was a
there was a note in here and it goes
back to the previous question about um
relating to vehicles in the yard that's
still in the N language is that uh was
that an oversight or is that been pulled
or is that supposed to be in there for a
reason U through the mayor
um councilman Stuart um the Motions are
actually uh grouped together uh if I was
to list them all individually it would
be a long list uh the reason it says
Vehicles is because there was a a second
uh item relating to Property Maintenance
of vehicles stating that Vehicles can't
overhang a sidewalk that's right right I
was going to expand on it but I didn't
want the motion to BL out for Ada folks
that need to use the sidewalks and
you've got you know the long trucks I've
got a big Suburban so I have to like
push it right up next to my garage so I
I appreciate that so I'm always
conscious of that so that's all I have
mayor thank you council member orando
yeah so there a little confusion last
time we walked out of the meeting with
the
adus uh we were talking about short-term
rentals but there's no ST there's no um
uh stipulation against someone using
that for a rental property uh through
the mayor uh council member Orlando
that's correct um it it just prohibits
short-term rentals as defined under
chapter 22 of our city code right and I
think the confusion was that with
rentals itself because I would Envision
some of these units like they're in
other cities are being used not only
maybe for a uh you know a parent a
senior parent or it could be used to
supplement someone's income or actually
for a youth or someone else just getting
started so we could do a rental here
it's just not shortterm causing
potentially trouble to the neighborhood
things like that correct correct and you
know the whole purpose of the amendment
to permit for accessory dwelling units
was to add additional units and not be a
a vacation rental we want it to act as a
still a single family uh subdivision and
by allowing for uh rental properties to
short-term rental properties you could
have a new family in there every week um
with um so it it would defeat what we
were trying to achieve with uh allowing
for more units within the city okay
thank you thank you mayor council member
Ellis thank you just so that the public
is very clear about this we are not
talking about assisted living homes and
that whole Ada uh kind of of uh
different policies that we have in place
for those clients that are living you
know when you have the group homes your
assisted that has nothing to do with
what you just explained concerning um
the work allowing one employee or having
business into the home because the
license is are completely different ways
of processing uh through the mayor uh
councilwoman Ellis uh that is correct uh
Residential Care Homes and group homes
are identified as a a separate section
within our code and they are not um
classified as uh home
occupations thank you mayor any other
questions related to
this thank you Lauren enjoy that
well-deserved H bottle of water thank
you thank you mayor and councel and
thank you Don item number 13's called in
by council member
Orlando yeah mayor this um as as in as a
memo indicting as um we've looked at our
Financial policies as as the environment
could you know um moves in whatever
Direction may be so really what I wanted
to and in preparation for Thursday I
guess what are we doing here uh give us
a quick briefing on what we're doing
here what we're changing and the impact
sure through the mayor uh council member
Orlando I'd be happy to um we have
bringing forward Thursday night
resolution
5768 and it is looking at um an update
to some of our financial policies we
have nine Financial policies this is
including changes to six of them so um
many of them are minor cleanup
administrative type things um some of
the policies say position titles and the
position position titles have changed um
some of the responsible parties have
changed so uh for instance for me
Management Services director is in many
of them it's now updated to Chief
Financial Officer um there are like
small changes like a preferred term
instead of saying citizen we've changed
that to resident um but to just point
out a couple more significant items I
would say um there's one in the
operating management policy that is
updating the um our cost of service
study that we do for our utility rates
we have every single year we update our
rate model and our utility rate analysis
but EV the policy as it stands today um
says that a minimum of every four years
we have to do a cost of service study
well a cost of service study um is
usually a year year and a half process
um once you implement uh over the past
few studies mayor and Council has
transitioned cost of service uh rate
changes over a fiveyear period so um
it's really too short of a time span so
we're expanding that or requesting that
that be changed to seven years so we
have five years one year in the middle
to see the results and then we would
then initiate another cost of service um
we also have uh in the debt management
policy for instance uh there's different
debt um tools that we use um Municipal
property Corporation bonds haven't been
used since the 90s um so we're removing
that and now we use excise tax revenue
obligation bonds or revenue bonds
so those are being uh that terminology
or those Bond types are being
updated uh in the Grant Management
policy we I'm happy to say we now have
an a grant uh program manager and she
has been uh wonderful we've Incorporated
her into our grant intake process so she
is now listed in there um grants go
through a strategic alignment review in
the city manager's office and they run
through the grant program manager so
we've really encapsulated that process
in the new Grant policy but no uh limits
have changed it's still a $30,000 Grant
or higher threshold will come before
Council um let's see in the um
accounting auditing and financial
reporting policy our financial report
used to be called a comprehensive annual
financial report now it is called an
annual comprehensive financial report
just small changes like that uh but the
biggest change is the pension funding
policy that is one that Arizona Rev
statute requires that we update every
year um I think it was
2021 Arizona revised Statute required we
establish it actually it was back before
that
2018 um since then we we established it
in the first year every year when we get
our Actuarial financial report from the
psprs board Public Safety pension board
um those numbers get updated in our
pension funding policy and I'm happy to
report with the update this year um the
funded uh it it states both for police
and fire how much is actually funded
versus not funded and we have moved the
needle with mayor and council's
additional contributions this update is
only through June 30th 2023 so it
includes the additional payments of 50
million in it but the the payment we
made in July 1 of this year won't be in
the pension funding policy until the
next year so this one actually uh
changes us from um
78.8% funding status up to 83 we're in
the 80s finally so let's see here just
make sure I have it right 83.3 so it
went from 75.2 and that's melded police
and fire now we are
83.3% funded through June 30th 2023 so
um our next uh report that we receive
and the numbers that go in our next
funding policy update of course will
reflect a much even Rosier picture for
us but those are really uh the updates
that are included and really our
financial policies become the basis for
our
2425 budget prep um mayor and Council
has had these in place for years um and
uh they really set kind of the
guidelines for us if you will on strong
financial management practices strategic
intent for financial
management um managing risks and
financial conditions and support our
good Bond ratings to minimize borrowing
costs with that I'd be happy to answer
any questions no thank you very much
appreciate you said the right keywords
bonds okay financial statements and it
gives us a good stability and investors
know that when they buy a chamber Bond
it's um be paid back with interest okay
thank you right thank you another thing
dear to council member Orlando's heart
is Grants which is item number 15 you
also requested a briefing on that yeah
just a quick one John I know we've
talked a little bit about this in our
amwa meeting but um I think it's a good
another good story that we are going
after grants and supplementing because
you know we do get questions all
sometimes about our budgeting how do we
you know is it purely based on taxes and
every year we go through this what
grants we brought in and it's becoming
more and more percentage wise of what
we're doing out there with these grants
so just uh give us a quick briefing what
this for and how it impacts the average
resident thank you may and Council uh
council member Orlando um it has been
only in the recent years that the
utility has gone and sought-after grants
uh in particular uh as of late we've uh
pursued several grants related to water
conservation um which this is uh one
this is a grant that we' be looking for
from the bureau Reclamation as part of
their water smart grants program uh it
would help us to facilitate a more rapid
change out of our uh sophisticated uh
water meters that to transmit uh
information to us on a daily basis so
that we can move more quickly into an
automated meter reading infrastructure
which uh we're we're looking at very
closely now uh our our project is moving
forward we'll be installing uh data
collectors throughout the city and
improving our meter infrastructure which
is uh what this $5 million would be so
by by moving uh towards uh obtaining a
grant like this uh it will keep our
rates low uh and it will keep our
services uh at the very highest
levels we'll reduce actually a number of
people you need to go actually read
meters and the you're you're already
transitioning that already correct yeah
um there is there is an idea that uh
automatic uh metering infrastructure
does uh it does actually decrease the
amount of people you need to read meters
but what it does do is those same
individuals will have to be trained in
it because there there'll be an awful
lot more uh uh other issues with those
meters and with the infrastructure that
they'll have to deal with so the hope is
uh possibly um to uh reduce headcount uh
on the meters but uh only time will tell
as we develop that program to see um are
we actually able to do it with fewer
people or just different uh different
training yeah and that's what I was
leading not so much reducing the
troubleshooting is what you emphasized
last week a couple weeks ago there'll be
more troubleshooters now than actually
going around riding the meter so it's
not question of reducing staff it's a
question of better utilizing their their
uh capabilities to be able to do the the
things that go wrong versus just reading
a meter taking the next house and the
most important part of the automatic uh
meter infrastructure is that residents
will be able to see their usage on a
daily basis yeah which uh which will be
really amazing as far as water
conservation is concerned because if you
have a leak you'll be able to see it and
be able to act on it much much more
rapidly okay thank you mayor thank you
John appreciate it I think I detected a
fist pump from our IT director in the
back there there we
go next item called in uh by council
member Ellis on item number 22 looking
at the uh Asphalt in ellys that would
probably be you too sir yes it is again
uh thank you mayor and Council um I'd
like to give you a few fun facts about
uh our alleys in chanler uh something we
don't talk about too often uh we have
111 total uh Al miles in Chandler uh
eight miles are actually paved with
asphalt uh the other 103 miles are
unpaved um alleys are used uh typically
for access to the rear of homes uh solid
waste collection utility corridors for
water sewer power and Communications so
that's why we have alleys um alley
maintenance um uh is the responsibility
of the adjacent property but the city
has several programs to upkeep and
rehabilitate these alleys one of the
programs is dust mitigation for our 103
miles of unpaved alley since
2008 we have received grants from the
state and County to pave City alleys
with asphalt millings for dust
mitigation uh let me see if I
can if Elmo is working tonight maybe we
can put that up there um
so uh since 2008 we've we've
accomplished about 73 miles of uh
repaving of alleys and the way we do
that is the crews go in and they Mill
down the the alley and so they'll take
off four to six inches of soil in those
alleys and then they come back and
repave them with uh asphalt millings and
then they use a binder to to um coat
those millings and to create an asphalt
like surface it's not a full asphalt
pavement but it is a dust mitigating
surface um the memos before you tonight
are uh two actually that represent the
next phase uh in our uh in our program
uh in 2024 uh we'll accomplish about 10
miles and then the last phase uh which
would be done in 2026 will will uh pave
the last 20 miles so we will have our
total of 103 miles complete now like
painting the Golden Gate Bridge we're
going to finish and then we're probably
going to start right back at the
beginning and start painting all over
again so I imagine that we'll be back uh
in these alleys starting from the from
the beginning and doing some sort of
treatment uh we'll be looking for
funding grant funding uh to do that in
the future as well uh and I do see I've
got a a picture up here now so my
shadows in the way so um the green which
is in the furthest North those were the
alleys that we had accomplished that's
the the work that's previously been done
and then I think that's a blue uh the
blue is uh the rehab number two which is
the work we have planned this current
year and then the red is Aly rehab
number three which is the work we have
planned in
2026 thank you any questions customer
Oris thank you Mayor John I I like the
idea that uh we are constantly doing
them as we go along but the the fact is
that some of our residents are thinking
it's taking too long for us to get them
done I know you on a steady pace of
making it happen can you explain why is
taking a little bit longer than normal
to why couldn't we just go and do all of
them at the same
time that's an excellent question
actually the the difficulty that we have
is with the grant funding that we
receive from the state and County there
are um some rules attached uh we have to
do environmental surveys we have to do a
lot of uh headwork up up ahead of these
projects uh which takes some design time
and so it's not just a matter of hiring
the contractor and going out and doing
it we also have quite a bit of utility
uh coordinations that we have to do
since we have communications companies
Cox centry link all these uh companies
that have um their utilities in these
alleys often very shallow uh We've we've
experienced it all too often when we
come in and do our Milling where we take
the alley down that 6 in um as part part
of that we come up with uh cables uh
that uh that more than likely should
have been buried a little deeper and so
we we have a lot of coordination
involved so it's not as simple as just
repaving an alley there's about a
two-year sequence from when we start the
project uh we actually kick it off we
have to go through the environmental we
have to go through the design and then
and then bid the workout so it's it does
take some time thank you so much really
appreciate that and you're saying that
by
2027 we should finish all of them and
then go back and start keeping up with
the rest the phase with the council
members tonight represent an additional
10 miles and then the 2026 program will
be the final 20 miles so these two next
phases represent 30 of the 103 that we
that we'll have accomplished by then and
again it's right back to the beginning
we do have other programs where our
streets folks go through those other
alleys they're constantly traveling the
alleys cleaning up taking care of things
so this is is not the only program that
we have for alleys we also have uh kind
of more of a routine maintenance and
cleanup uh program where our streets
folks are traveling the alleys making
sure that they're accessible and and
clean thank you so much you're going to
make a lot of people happy with this
this out thank you thank you John and I
understand item number 23 council member
orando you also request to pull it to
action is that um yeah staff's working
on a a a a u stipulation for that so we
may not get action it if that comes
through okay very good uh no other items
have been called in we will release vice
mayor to go watch a basketball game of
his daughter and Council have a good
evening we'll see you all on Thursday
for our work session at 4
okay