City of Chandler Council Meeting 10/19/23

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good evening and welcome to the regular
meeting of the Chandler city council so
we've got a few things that are going on
tonight and before we take the role let
me just explain this evening we have a
consent agenda of which I've got a few
people speaking on that on the items
related to that we have a public hearing
so related to utilities and I've got two
people speaking on that and then there
is an uh action item voting on what is
the public hearing and then the very uh
after that we have a briefing uh two
briefings actually brought forth by
council member
Harris and then um then we have
unscheduled public appearances so um I
several of you are here I I see the word
Library mentioned and uh and uh um
something else with our with our Rangers
that's at the very end of the meeting so
so just want to let you know up front of
the flow of this particular meeting so
welcome we love to see a full house I
think each of you have been checked so
you're not carrying any Tomatoes or
police were kind of made sure of that
and your always welcome to our City
Council meetings with that uh let's
start this meeting clerk please take the
role mayor Harkey pres vice mayor
Orlando pres council member incus here
council member Ellis present council
member Stewart here council member
Harris here council member Poston here
we have a quorum thank you city clerk
our invitation tonight will be brought
forth by Pastor Victor Hardy of the
Congregational Church of the Valley and
our Pledge of Allegiance by council
member
andenas
pastor
let us
pray we've come to praise you
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Hallelujah we've come to praise you
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Hallelujah we've come to praise you
Hallelujah
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hallelu holy is the
Lamb
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Hallelujah we hold your name up high
Hallelujah we praise your Holy
Name
Hallelujah
we hold your name up high
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hallelu holy is your
L
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hallelu holy is the Lamb of God
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Hallelujah in Jesus name we pray am
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amen oh please join me in reciting the
Pledge of
Allegiance
Al of the United States of America and
to the Republic for which it stands one
nation under God indivisible with
liberty justice for
all
thank you Pastor to the other ministers
in the audience that have or will be in
the future be giving the uh invocation
uh you don't have to do this so uh in
your tradition uh lead us
accordingly all right um so Council
we've got a number of speaker cards
related to our um consent items so I'd
like to call up these people uh they're
related to three particular items item
five item
eight and um yeah just I'm sorry just
those two five and
eight uh we'll listen to them and then
we will I'll take a motion if there's
any conversation you want to have
related to consent if not we'll take a
motion if there's any recusals at that
time you can also let us know so our
first Speaker card is brought forth by
Robert sty on item number five Mr sty
please come forward give us your name
and address for the record and you have
three minutes sir great thank you Robert
sty 3120 South Dakota Place uh Chandler
85248 um Mr Mayor and councel thank you
for the opportunity to speak on item
five um concerning the new development
on the Chandler Farms the uh apartment
complex developed by mil Creek
residential uh first off I do want to
thank mil Creek residential and and
Brenan Ray for their Outreach and
engagement with the community that I
live in Hamilton Heights uh they've
listened to our concerns they've made
some concessions uh to the design based
on our feedback uh both Hamilton Heights
and mil Creek residential should be
recognized for professionalism
engagement on a subject that isn't
always very friendly or you know
sometimes challenging so thank you for
that again Robert sty I'm a resident of
the subdivision of Hamilton Heist as as
just west to the uh property that's
being developed I'm past president of
the HOA and actually husband to the
current president of the HOA I
volunteered on numerous committees for
the city of Chandler and I'm a
professional engineer and vice president
with global engineering firm I do a lot
of development for High-Tech uh facility
so that that experience I think allows
me to um discuss improper the
development on the uh buildings going up
next to my neighborhood uh just as I did
at the planning zoning meeting in
September I I strongly oppose this
development based on the following the
density of the apartments uh is about
20% more dense than what you would
normally see in in a typical multif
family uh building uh average is about
18 to 20 units per acre this site is 23
units per acre the fact that the
developer is going forth with great
expense in construction of an
underground parking garage shows that
they need that density for the finances
to to work and that's a negative impact
on the surround Community there there
are about 10 homes on the east side of
Hamilton Heights neighborhood which will
be significantly impacted by the
development Beyond just the construction
activities that'll take place uh there
are over 100 parking spaces along the
west side of the development which will
create noise light pollution and other
impacts um there's additional turn Lanes
on the East boundary of the property to
northbound Arizona Avenue that we think
increases the risk of incidents during
high volume Rush Hour uh mornings and
and
evenings so this comes down to the
question of just because we can build it
doesn't mean we should right this area
also H already has two massive multif
family complexes with the Liv aenda and
the camon Chandler Apartments so the
question is does Chandler need more
large apartment
complexes we don't want short-term
market conditions driving decisions on
facilities that will last more than 50
years uh collectively we all have
responsibility to drive smart
sustainable and fishing growth within
chanler um this project I feel does not
meet those criteria and it's not
appropriate for the size of the lot and
resoning to multif family I don't feel
is
appropriate so if not this then what do
we put there I feel that a much lower
density of residential development would
be appropriate and contribute to the
solution of the need for additional
housing uh there's still opportunity to
add some additional neighborhood retail
and continue uh the connectivity path
that's already established through the
neighborhoods and connect this uh
property Mr St can you please wrap up
your yes I I wrap up here um ultimately
we have a decision make tonight um the
collective decision should be about
smart appropriate development of our our
limited resources again just because we
can doesn't mean we should so thank you
for your time thank you m mayor council
vice mayor yes Mr sty I want to thank
you for all the work you you helped us
with several as you know ordinances and
uh because of your expertise I know we
may disagree on this one and but I do
know that you did work with the
developer and they did come down with
some of the height some of the de some
of the areas are you okay with the
walkway you know that yeah the walkway
is fine actually u i I use it almost
every night uh I think if we got rid of
the walkway my my dog Simone would be
quite upset so okay yeah so I mean the
connectivity is is celebrated and I I
appreciate that so walk fine we won't
get rid of the walkway for the sake of
Harmony in the family okay we we need we
need the walkway all right thank you Mr
stey thanks for all your work too and
your wife's and your wife's volunteering
efforts as well we certainly appreciate
that great thank you appreciate the time
thank
you um
our next speaker card um I so I've got
cons I've got item eight but I see
written number five Tim Bill Mr
Bill are you on the are you on the
you're on the cell tower right yes sir I
am okay very good let me change this and
please state your name and address for
the um for the record and you have up to
three minutes sir Tim Bell address is
1833 East Rivier Drive chanler Arizona
85249 and I do appreciate you mayor
meeting you this evening and also some
of the council members and for your
time there's a lot of different issues I
have with this cell tower
proposal many of them but the main thing
is health health reasons and I jotted a
few things
down I did extensive research on cell
towers I do have a background on
electricity um the dangers of El but we
don't we were not going to go there
because this is a different this is a
cell tower
basically the emfs the
RFS that are projected from this
Tower uh there the RFS that's a nice
word for
radioactivity dangers of
radioactive
properties I'm in the 600 foot Zone I
call it the zanger Zone um I don't feel
that
a cell tower should be in the center of
Sunbird Community for this very
reason um I'm thinking of not only the
current but the future residence of
sunir uh I have grandkids my
brother-in-law and sister have grandkids
that come down mine on occasion theirs
pretty
regular I don't feel that it going to be
safe for them as well uh being in
this environment of
radioactive properties um basically what
I'm saying is it's and I only have three
minutes but due to extensive research
there's a lot of great
areas um I did have a chance to talk via
email I sent you mayor and also some of
the council members some of my concerns
I don't know if you had a chance to read
them but um it is real there's a topic
of Physicians uh internationally that
have done studies and research on this
and it's just not a good thing
especially to have it in the middle of a
subdivision
uh there's also information that that
was given to me by Benjamin and
Cornelius that it is safe and it's FCC
regulated I understand that that they're
in the safe zones
but
um it's just it's you
know nothing against the Golf
Association but uh I I do understand
that they are getting Kickbacks for this
um they're getting a
monthly
monetary monthly um well money
reimbursement for the cell tower and I'm
running out of time but I don't think
that should be done on the backs of our
residents because maybe with their
finances thank you in place but thank
you for the time I appreciate you
mayor council M Stewart thank you uh
Kelly can you some folks may not have
been here on Monday can you kind of go
into what we can do and what we can't do
as a council as it relates to federal
law um I understand your concern I
remember one my S I remember one my kids
were practicing soccer out at f um one
of the local parks and they had the big
280 KV lines over above and you couldn't
sit in a lawn chair that had metal on it
because it would zap you you know I
don't know what I I I don't if I got the
radio in on my fillings or not but it
was certainly a uh uh a buzzing
experience that we experienced so I
don't know if these do this I'm not an
expert in 5G technology but I think our
city manag or City attorney can share
some information with you if I may mayor
um council member Stuart yes as as you
know cell phone towers this this area
small uh cell facilities all of that is
an area that is highly regulated on the
federal and state level and the the
local level has been almost completely
preempted in its regulation of these
type of facilities and as it relates
specifically to the radio frequency
radiation um it is something that the
local government cannot even take into
account uh when it's doing a review of a
use permit such as this we can take into
account height and Aesthetics we cannot
prohibit these type of facilities um we
just control Aesthetics set back height
that kind of stuff but um they have a
right to be there and as far as um our
regulation of the RF radiation it is
limited
to uh requiring the providers certify
that they comply with the federal
standards Kelly and and if Council voted
no on placement of this cell tower what
would what would
happen we would very likely be
challenged as being in violation of
federal and state law
lawsuit
absolutely
thanks thank you next speaker is Michael
Reid Mr
Reed Mr Reed you have up to three
minutes uh item number eight um state
your name and address for the record Sir
Michael Reed 1 1909 East Glen Eagle
Drive Chandler
85249 I uh
want to speak in support of the cellone
tower I spoke at the planning meeting
last month so I won't go over a lot of
that but I'm reminded every day of the
need for this
infrastructure my address is all the way
south in Chandler and it had been good
cell service until about three years ago
and with all the additional load with
streaming and so on it's just gotten
worse and worse uh I'm reminded every
day yesterday I had two outgoing calls
one worked one could not go
through uh this morning my sister called
me and took three tries to make the
connection and it's just the way it is
every day we do a Wi-Fi calling piggy
backing on a on a hardwired internet
connection but that's sketchy at best so
I just want to say it's much needed
infrastructure as long as we're in
compliance with the FCC
regulations
uh I feel it's needed and those who do
have cell phone service who live a
little farther north you know they enjoy
that because somebody else has a cell
phone tower closer so that's just
uh all I have to say thank you
sir next card is Helen
mortimore Mor you have up to three
minutes please state your name and
address to the record my name is Helen
Mor mer address is 6401 South
Championship Drive Chandler Arizona
85249 and I thank you for letting me
speak to you guys today um I'm a
homeowner in Sunbird my residence is
situated within 300 feet of the proposed
cell tower I don't consider myself Rich
my retirement savings are tied up in my
home which serves as my future Nest Egg
just as it does for many others in our
community while the cellar may appear
advantageous for the nearby Golf Course
its value to our broad Community is
questionable
it seems that the golf course and
Associates are primarily motivated by
financial gain and are resorting to fear
tactics they claim that without the
installation with the cell tower our
lives are at risk because we won't be
able to call 911 from our cell service
because of this my husband and I
conducted extensive survey of cell phone
carpage yesterday in Sunbird and we went
around and we were looking for dead
zones within Sunbird community and we
found that north of halfway point in
Sunbird 5G was ready L available south
of that it was 4G three bars at the best
at the South End gate we had 5G
substantial amount we also noticed that
while we were doing this there was Cox
Communication things that were put
within the community and one of them was
pinging a 5G enhancer and was giving us
great self service so we're wondering if
the Cox Communication that are are
inputting the information in our
community if in fact going to be
deployed at some point in time and I
implore the council to look into this
with their planning department to see if
those little towers that are out there
have this technology in them because if
that is the case it will render the cell
tower redundant very
fast um another concern of mine is the
potential devaluation of my home that
being that I'm inside of tower of the
tower when I went to several appraisers
I asked them to do an appraisal on my
home they did tell me that my house
would be devalued because of the tail
Tower but none of them would give me an
appraisal because they were very
frightened of the repercussions
legally um lastly well not lastly the
golf course feels that they are
embracing a lucrative opportunity but
after reading what they are bringing in
is much more to the contrary their their
contract with the cell tower Atlas is $1
million for 35 years they're selling out
our community for $1 million over 35
years in today's time it's not that much
10 years ago it would have been quite a
bit um it's not a modest return I find
it challenging to comprehend how the
golf course can stay viably financially
lucrative lastly if you agree to this
you will be setting a presidence for
your city of putting a cell tower in a
residential Community which I think you
should probably think twice about that
this will set the presidents for the
future and the future and the future
future my time is up thank you thank
you counc I've got one more speaker card
and then a couple comment
Parts council member Ellis I had a
question concerning the fact that uh
there was not they were not willing to
give you an appraisal for this I
currently live in a place where I have a
tower not too far from me and I was able
to obtain that and it and I just
refinanced my place so I don't know who
you have worked with I just wanted to
make that very clear and we do have
those towers that are really currently
near other people's houses and those
people are getting their preses done
including myself at this time so just
wanted to make the point there thank you
thank you our next speaker card is Gary
settler Mr settler please state your
name and address for the record you have
up to three minutes
my name is Gary Satler I live at 1924
East Glen Eagle Drive I'm uh I live in
sunburg golf resort uh my uh contention
regarding this proposal is that Sunbird
is a
community comprised of 50% of its
residents do not live there during the
year uh during the summertime and into
the fall uh and 50% of the residents
live there year
round by having this uh vote at this
time 50% of the residents are not being
represented here their voice is not part
of this meeting uh I don't know whether
that's planned purposefully but the
timing of it is rotten to be frank with
you uh the other thing that is
interesting too there was an original
sighting just from an appearance there
was an original sighting of the cell
tower in another part of the community
that was near homes that are much more
valuable the cell tower now has been
moved to homes that are less valuable
less amounts of people now I don't know
whether there's any connection to that
but the appearance of it looks to me
like those that have the power got it
moved those that are powerless have no
voice that's all that's all my
observations about this thing I am not
against totally against the golf course
looking for ways to earn money so that
they can be viable and a cell tower may
be one of them but I don't think when
you see cell towers as a rule being
placed in a community and in response to
Christine Ellison's comment which I
think was an honest comment the only way
you could tell Christine is that if you
got that uh appraisal on your house the
same very house not next to a cell tower
that's the difference you can't tell me
that once you you have cell towers next
to homes and most of the community that
these are being put around are single
people older people underrepresented
people that's all I'm saying so thank
you very much thank you
sir I've got three comic cards I will
read
them Debbie Stadler um probably related
to that guy I'm guessing yeah she's not
yes says I don't feel it should be in a
community
uh okay Gary
Stadler you build out okay I'm not going
to read your comment card since you
spoke and
um
maren more apologize for if I'm
butchering your name hopefully city
council will
look into the future direction of the
city of Chandler regarding where cell
towers are allowed to be around ired
okay and she's a post mayor mayor um let
me start over here uh council member
yeah thank you so much um Kelly I know
that um by approving this it saves the
city a lawsuit by not approving this we
go into a lawsuit and we go into
litigation what's the cost for something
like that for us to litigate even though
there it's a federal law that kind of
because the federal law kind of
supersedes what we're even able to do
because it's in a federal law
perspective but if we said hey you know
what go forth with the lawsuit we want
to see how that turns out how much does
the taxpayers have to pay to defend
something like this that we know is in
federal
law if I may mayor um council member
Harris that
is very impossible to adct um could
could be
significant um and
uh we're talking a lot of hypothetical
so I'm uncomfortable given any real
numbers but it could be a significant
hit so basically we will be kind of
fighting up uphill battle without a
winning hand in a
sense clearly we'd do our best and then
I guess my last question is if that if
we did how can we um number one it sound
like it's kind of a federal issue
because I know we hear about cell phone
towers all the town how can we Empower
our residents to learn more about how it
can be advocated on a federal level and
then also um how can we um make sure
that um that um this particular
community that they are following if
they're going to put it up to making
sure that the radiation is checked and
making sure that our residents that this
company that puts it up is is in
compliance and making sure that we're
double check and following up to make
sure they are 100%
compliant again if I may mayor um
council member Harris obviously any
changes to federal laws goes through
Congress so reaching out to your
Congress representative would be a way
to for individuals to address potential
legal chall changes to federal law um
and our staff makes my understanding is
our staff does get those certifications
as part of the process the use permit
process
so basically whomever once the approval
happens there has to um there's a
there's a person or supervisors or
people that Overlook to make sure that
they're testing and making sure that
it's compliant within the Federal
Regulations within the
FCC if I may again mayor um council
member Harris um the testing is not done
by the city um our limitation is we can
ask for certification that the testing
that the um frequencies are below meet
the federal
requirements okay and and La my last
question is that if if this goes up and
um the frequency testing can could the
neighbors perhaps see that testing can
we perhaps um is there a way they can
get a copy to see that that testing was
done who certified it to make sure that
if that does you know if we vote a
certain way that they can have a copy of
that information is that something that
we can um is that something that's
public that can be given out like that
mayor um mayor council member uh Harris
zoning files are public records and
Avail uh available for public reviewing
and to get copies then can we is it
possible that the city if that does
happen is it possible the city can have
that provided at the clerk's office if
if if residents wants to pick it up to
double check and make sure that the
certification was done properly and make
sure the companies will certified fing
things of that
nature we'll definitely look into that
possibility yes okay thank you is there
any other comments on my
left am I right yeah I like the the
applicant here I'll have few questions
for the
applicant a lot of
people
yeah state your name okay uh mayor
council vice mayor and council members I
appreciate the time to come before you
my name is Michael Powers I work for
Alice Tower 1 LLC which is located at
30002 Bluff Street in Boulder Colorado
our our mobile network partner for this
project is Verizon and we did have some
Verizon Representatives several in fact
that came for the Planning Commission
but I don't believe they returned for
this this hearing but I'm definitely
available to answer questions so uh yeah
a couple things uh when I was at your
neighborhood meeting there I had asked
that we'd have a map of the sell you did
you able to provide that yes absolutely
and you prepared to show that tonight I
believe all of that was integrated into
the staff report that was um shown at
the Planning Commission yeah it very
well may be but I also asked for uh okay
I'm look at the coverage map here but I
also want the residents to know what's
going on as
well so can we get this up on the chart
somebody thank you for your assistance I
appreciate
that he's gonna be faster than me so
thank you should I sit down or no no
okay
no while he's getting that up so there
was a uh a concern raised by one of the
residents about this was originally
sourced in another area of the
community what was the reasons to change
it so the the sighting of these
locations are driven by originally by uh
engineered uh evaluation of the carrier
uh C coverage in the area typically that
and in this case it did produce what's
called a searching it's a circle on a
map where if we can get equipment to fix
the problem within the circle on the map
we would be able to move forward and and
fix the problem um essentially this this
site like every other not many sites
that I've worked on followed the same uh
the same procedure within the within the
ring we did uh a a a comprehensive
review of all of the parcels that
physically fit within the the ring
we then did uh research on our team did
research on on on zoning and so on to
see what is allowed in this particular
area pursuant to zoning code and many
Parcels were obviously tossed out we
resident um sites that were too small
sites that um wouldn't meet setbacks or
basically comply with with the most or
all of the code here in janler um from
that point we sent out essentially
letters to land owners trying to engage
folks in a dialogue about
potentially essentially hosting the site
uh by way of a of a commercial
lease um as you can imagine as we go
through this process the number of
possible spots gets smaller and smaller
as we went through this process on this
particular
ring there was only one option which was
the option that that you're you know
talking about tonight on this heing okay
so when let me clarify you were not
looking at multiple options on the golf
course you were just looking at this on
site the multiple options were outside
of the golf
course uh I I'm not I don't run the
leasing team and I'm an attorney so but
I do know the leasing team has the same
procedure for every site they would have
sent a letter to every parcel inside of
the searching that they thought could
potentially legally house pursuant to
the zoning code this type of
infrastructure so there's no doubt that
like if if there were multiple Parcels
home owned by the the golf course for
instance the same letter would have gone
out to all of those
Parcels um the other part of this this
uh process also is this sit's this site
is a Verizon site so while our company
is doing this work which is generally
the zoning and approval government
approval
process the engineers are looking at the
viable sites as well and they have a
strong voice and and where to go to fix
the problem so there's a bunch of
different factors that got us to this
location so my sir I'm asking you very
simply yes sir is were there other sites
considered at the golf course and were
they moved because of whatever reasons
on the golf course no not to my
knowledge but this this is this has been
about two or three years in the making
so I can't
testify um to every that that our staff
did you know coming up to this point
where
we where we submitted an application on
a specific parcel for a specific
specific location appreciate so sir do
you have the expertise to tell us the
map that was originally up on the board
here do you have the expertise to tell
us what exactly coverage this area is
and how does that interface with
existing
coverage I'm sorry could you repeat your
question because I I want to make sure I
answer your question correctly um one of
the questions brought up was that there
was uh existing um uh cell or or phone
capability in this area when I was at
the neighborhood meeting I heard very
loud and clear that there was a lack of
other uh uh cell towers in the area that
cover this yet I'm hearing tonight that
there is other carriers there is that
taking effect with this map you're
showing on the screen here no there
there aren't that doesn't exist so the C
our our research and our understanding
of the infrastructure in the area which
is confirmed on a different set of
documents sent to planning is that the
nearest cocat structure that could fix
the problem in this area was well out of
the searching and about a mile to the
north I believe okay so I don't know
what other information folks in the
neighborhood are getting but um but as
as to this specific project I believe
that information is incorrect okay and
also just just as a point of of of a
fact for the hearing um the coverage
from other carriers doesn't
necessarily uh become an element for
denial because each operator mobile
network operator within this space has a
right to deliver to their customer
pursuant to the FCC regulations and so
we are working directly with the ryzen
but I know the site really well and I
know that AT&T T-Mobile probably Dish
Network as well would be interested
because there is a huge gap in service
here yeah and I'm not advocating that or
deny this for any of those re that was a
good lawyer question by the way I like
how you slug that in there as an
attorney I want to make sure you
understand I'm just I'm teasing you sir
don't don't uh don't don't mistake that
for that
okay so um I understand um do you have
any other plans I know this pole could
handle multiple carriers you have one
right now can this handle more than one
it is designed for collocation although
the the the the ability to collocate
multiple structures on a tower or a
structure of this height is
um probably going to be limited to too
it kind of depends on how flexible the
carriers are in terms of bringing in
smaller equipment to make sure it fits
then it doesn't destroy the um okay the
architectural um stealthing component uh
that we're trying striving for okay I
got a question for staff mayor and then
uh I'll move on I got you thank you sir
appreciate thank you good
evening so the permit on this is it for
a long term or just a year or come back
again or what how's this work so uh
through the mayor uh council member uh
Orlando vice mayor Orlando the request
it is for a it's not temporary it's for
a permanent basis so just be permit for
forever as long as the structure is
there what a case may be right correct
all right and then
um uh what is there any plans that you
know of since you do this daily I guess
your does there any plans you know that
there's going to be other structures
built in this area right now uh through
the mayor uh vice mayor Orlando uh I'm
not aware of any other proposed cell
tower in the surrounding location as of
right now okay so in the app I mean
we've received a lot of emails on this
and um my major concern is when I see
and I understand I met with Miss
Mortimer and and the group there and I
extended these meetings but the one
thing that concerns me the most is when
I read emails and I know Council up here
that says this is a matter of life or
death and that was very apparent to at
least a dozen of those emails where
there was an incident and they couldn't
get 911 now I'm not saying this would
would cure that but I'm assuming it
would help that if this was
approved uh through the mayor uh vice
mayor Orlando I believe that's something
best for the uh applicant to address
I'll ask him but that's okay one last
question for you trees yes I know that
was a stipulation by the pnz what does
that mean more trees yes so there was a
stipulation added by planning Aon
commission it's it's stipulation number
five it is for the applicant to work
with staff to provide more trees around
the proposed facility um specifically
they're going to add three more pine
trees since pine trees are what is
existing around the facility currently
um they're going to be put in certain
spots where they help screen the actual
cell tower more from public view what
size trees are we do 25 gallon trees are
we going to take 25 years to grow or
these going to be larger trees that are
actually going to Shield it today yeah
so through the mayor uh vice mayor
Orlando they will be 36 inch box trees
so that size um they are at about they
can be from 11 to 13 feet in height at
time of planting great okay thank you
appreciate it and I'll ask the appli can
come back up there indulge me that's why
I no action but go ahead um so we did
get a lot of emails yes sir a lot of
folks are concerned about their lives uh
there were some real world issues that
we're facing I know you can't you're a
lawyer and I know you can't guarantee
anything I know you're going say that up
front I'll give you I'll save that time
for you um but do you think in your mind
and the the the way this rolls out is
that going to help self-
coverage absolutely absolutely what
we're doing when we bring in a more
robust component to a network we we not
only provide phone call access for
911 uh calls which at this point in time
is is nationally ranging from 70 to 95%
of all 911 calls coming from a mobile
phone but we're also uh really upgrading
what your emergency
services uh Personnel can do both for
fire police ambulance and so on um an
anal a specific example would be I'm
sure your police and surf first
responder folks are now driving in
vehicles with laptops and it's common
practice When approaching either a call
for a domestic disturbance or fire or
some other incident where life and limb
and time might matter and typically uh
if if they're able to put that
information into the the toop that's in
the vehicle that's moving to the space
that actually makes it safer generally
because they have more information about
what they're about to walk into and also
makes it a lot easier to Rally
additional uh support whether it's a
fire or gas leak or or or heart attack
so this is really important to us to to
the community it's definitely an upgrade
okay thank you Mary thank you sir I
appreciate you taking your time uh can I
will I have a moment to connect to
correct or ADD information to some of
the comments that were made is that is
there is there going to be an
appropriate time to do that I um okay
thank you uh okay so I just wanted to
ask I guess council do you want that
information is anyone asking for that at
this time I would like to hear mayor but
just because the fact that we have heard
from our attorney so we want to get I
think I'll go on chronological order and
I'll try to be super fast um one one
thing I want to say is that
we as Citizens and you as the government
Representatives we can talk about
anything obviously there's there's no um
prohibition about talking about health
as it relates to RF um but I just want
to point out that um your City attorney
did a good job of of concisely stating
how Federal preemption um essentially
makes the regulation of this part this
industry Federal and not state or local
uh one analogy I like to throw out there
is this body cannot regulate something
like Advil or Tylenol if you thought
that the the the manufacturer
distribution and sale here in Chandler
of Tylenol was a problem this wouldn't
be the proper body for it that would be
the Food and Drug Administration was a
federal Administration that's just an
analogy uh secondly uh council member
Harris had a question about what would
this look like if we wented into
litigation here's my take on it if this
body takes into to consideration
statements about whether or not legal
lawful
incompliance technology in
Chandler is harmful to human health
there wouldn't be a big lawsuit what
would happen is most likely in my
opinion would be that the decision that
this body made would would be would be
an error and we'd probably have another
hearing all over again because that
would be rightfully discluded from the
consideration so but we're not in the
business of lawsuits that's not what we
do quite frankly we're not interested in
that of trying to bring infrastructure
into your community for the Ben benefit
of it of of the community um and then
that duve TS into the next comment I'm
forgetting who said what but uh if any
oh actually it was still council member
Harris you asked about how the community
can get more information the FCC has an
awesome really really robust uh a
website that doesn't just promulgate
their thoughts and and their their
actions it gives you links to other
organizations that are at least
demonstrably um not crackpot sort of um
ideas or regulations that don't match
our regulation in the US and so I
strongly encourage everyone to go first
to the FCC to start your research about
learning more about how how these um
these this technology is safe in the US
Us and how that is exactly
regulated um oh and the last comment was
that I wanted to correct was was a an
allegation that that there was a million
dooll price on this um I'll tell you
straight up uh what the what the the
economics of these sites look like
generally speaking in the US uh in a
very rural area like M Miami Wyoming uh
you might see a ground lease that's $500
to $600 a month for a term of 30 to 50
years in a more dense residential or or
or city environment those numbers might
go up to $1500 or
$1,800 a month uh ground leases above
2,000 are our are unicorns they don't
happen very often and I'll tell you
right now that this site's no unicorn
the the payback on on these sites and
I'm talking about the Delta from what
Verizon or T-Mobile is going to pay to
the owner of the tower less the the
ground lease less the maintenance taxes
and insurance that Delta usually pulls
it pulls out about a 13 to 15E uh recoup
of capital
that that's not that's not a million
dollars not for a long time the way this
works is we we are in the long game with
this this this industry I've been doing
this since 2007 we built structures in
in all sorts of places and it and it's
kind of like a hotel model that the the
cash flow is is pretty thin but we do
we've done a number of them over time
and that's how the business is run but
there aren't any million dooll uh
payments happening and there's
absolutely no sort of uh under under uh
under the table or hidden payments
doesn't
exist that's all I had thank you Council
any additional
questions thank you I appreciate it I
know you didn't make me mean it this way
but like concerns from The Neighbors
about health is not those aren't
crackpot comments those are important
for these folks that say that so I
understand what you're
saying I just yes sir pleas don't please
don't think I I didn't say that what I'm
saying is there is a lot of garbage
information on the internet that was
what I was trying to say thank you I
appreciate CL I did not direct that to
anyone in this okay good thank so is it
relates to the FCC and we all know it's
kind of a revolving door for people that
have worked in Telecom and then they
said on the unelected body you know that
that basically is tying our hands as a
city to be able to do what we think is
is right for our community I'm not
saying this isn't right because what
vice mayor Orlando said is very true we
need to have 911 responsiveness and we
need to have access for people that are
doing business in that Community you
know and that kind of leads me that's
kind of that macro thing so I'm not
really that enamored by the FCC rules
that they impose uh from an unelected
body but was when we talk about the
location one of these homes is 300 feet
away is what I heard and so why can't we
find a place somewhere in the middle I
know you said you looked at them all and
with the data that I've got on the
agenda here I can't really ascertain
what was a good spot and what was a bad
spot or you know like for me it just
common sense like just put it in the
middle right get it away from the houses
and then I think we're all happy why
didn't we do that uh because that's not
the way the network works anymore okay
so a short analogy would be uh 30 years
ago when I first started in this
industry you went to the town you you
found the big hill that was in the town
you put a tower on top of the town and
you turned it on you're done and how
that would work was they would generate
a lot of wattage from that far high
place which would trickle down into the
community that's so antic Antiquated
we're now in a place where people have
really low powered devices and thousands
of them like 2.3 on average in America
or something per person it's something
these devices work on very low voltages
they can deal with a very weak signal
the the goal of a not of a modern uh
Wireless uh network is to have multiple
antennas in a it spread out evenly
throughout the community so that they're
not blasting a high wattage and in fact
the FCC rules for uh sighting antennas
and also
turning them on and operating them
depend
differently how high it's from from the
ground it is how close it is to other
humans and so on they're not it's not
just every cell tower is the same um you
might see antennas under a sopit of a
commercial building those are really low
wattage because it's right there it's
right you know it's 10 feet off the
ground what's this one is this low
wattage all I can I I am not a scien ien
I'm not an electrical engineer but I can
tell you this that that that our partner
which is
Verizon has a license many licenses to
use this technology to meet their
customers needs they have a requirement
to both buy certified equipment that
meets the technical s technical
specifications for the FCC and they also
have an obligation for their their
Engineers to make sure that when it's
placed in a in a in a on the top of a
300 foot tower that they can do one
thing with with the wattage and the
positioning and it's different in a
different location and they they do
comply with those rules and in fact if
you want to go through trade journals
like inside Tower or um AGL magazine
which tracks and you know it's like the
Telecom news people do get uh
occasionally they get fined for not
following FC rules if if they're not
okay it's pretty unusual but there is a
regulatory body that that watches this
let me I appreciate that and I tell you
what if if this lawyer thing doesn't
work out for you you can help the guys
that didn't show up for this meeting
with your explanation that's for sure I
don't want to be a I'll tell you what
and I appreciate that and and I guess
all we're just trying to figure out is
like what's the best thing for the
neighbors right at the end of the day
some neighbors feel like it's great
because they're going to get better
coverage but the neighbors that live
close feel like it needs to be somewhere
else and I just you're telling me and I
guess your your colleagues would tell us
this is it this is the only place to go
even though we had an option for it to
be somewhere later and then the final
question I've got for you timing just
give me tell me why it's today and not
in December when everybody's
back what timing is a total coincidence
we have no we have no control over it
okay none at all we've been working on
this for like three years all right
super so we just finally managed to get
all of the documents to move forward and
had the engineers certified that they
wanted the location and so on yeah um
yeah so there's no no magic to that we
got a big agenda I appreciate and by the
way we had over a hundred I think
participants in the in the neighborhood
meeting and about 70% were in favor of
it I know that every time you have a
meeting with the community you get a
different dissection section of of
cross-section of of opinions but thank
you most were in favor thank you
appreciate it have a good day counc I
know i' I've personally responded to
over a hundred folks on this that have
been overwhelmingly in favor I
appreciate the hospitality at sunlakes
and the conversations that you hosted
council member and cenus vice mayor and
myself
and I also want to what's that Sunbird
thank you I also want to thank uh those
of you who came out to the Planning and
Zoning meeting I know I talked with many
of you there and uh but we're now at the
point of council if you no other
questions related to this are there any
recusals for the consent agenda
tonight vice mayor I have a recusal on
the permit for Good Time Charlie and I
can't remember what number that was
please note
that I believe it's item nine okay item
nine I have recusal for item nine here
great any other recusals related
comments seeing none a motion would be
in
order
motion to accept the consent agenda be
with me May mayor I see council member
no council member Poston
was okay I'm just trying to get to the
right all right is there a motion may I
I'll move to approve the consent agenda
of the October 19 2023 regular meeting
items 1 through 47 a second we have a
motion and a second by council member in
Cena
um please vote
Council mayor I'll be uh mayor City I'm
sorry go city clerk I'll be a no on
number eight
yeah
okay motion carries unanimously with the
exception of item eight which passes by
majority and item nine which passes 6
to0 all right thank you and Council by
the way um if any of you want to bring
an item from consent to action it's just
just mentioned that uh you every council
member has the power to move a consent
item to action so uh if that is your
wish at the beginning of these just say
so and that we can proceed with those
next on our agenda well with that um
let's move
into our public
hearing uh we have a utility fees
hearing thank you all for joining us
tonight
you're not staying for the good
stuff go Diamondbacks I think they're
playing tonight well they
won
sorry all right wait another minute Matt
let people uh leave the
room
e
as part of our public hearing uh which
I'd like to now call us in make it
official we have a staff presentation by
Matt Dunbar Mr
Dunbar all right good evening mayor and
Council and actually our PowerPoint
isn't the slideshow itself isn't
starting it doesn't look like looks like
it's still on not on presentation
okay it is just doesn't show up that way
on here all right very good uh well I
thought uh you know to mix it up I'll
I'll pull a pastor Hardy and maybe I'll
sing my way through this
um but I don't know that that would go
over so well he does an excellent job
and I don't know that I would so uh
we'll just kind of walk through some of
the slides with you tonight as we talk
about uh utility rates and have this
public
hearing uh one thing I want to point out
on this first slide uh visit the
chandleraz.gov proposed utility rates
has a plethora of information on these
rates it has our Costa service study
that we completed in 2001 it has a
calculator which you can add in your
actual water usage and see what the
effect will be for you personally uh and
a lot of information including
presentations that are have been
presented throughout the
way uh on the agenda tonight we want to
talk about a few things first off uh the
utility rate change Outreach that we've
done we're going to talk about the rate
analysis and a cost of service process
the utility revenue requirements uh
major utility rate cost drivers some
rate change overviews on all of our uh
our utilities water Wastewater reclaimed
and solid waste uh just important to
note that those are the utilities that
Chandler
has not changing
see maybe there's a
separate
PowerPoint Matt needs
Matt Matt
Matt this doesn't show like it's on
presentation
it's not advancing for
you uh oh they're coming in from the
back
room did you guys CL
there one in doubt
reboot life lessons from
it all right so there's our agenda uh
hopefully now you can see that on your
screen and we're advancing through looks
like we are okay great uh so uh we'll
talk about the rate change overviews for
water Wastewater reclaimed and solid
waste those are the utilities that
Chandler uh is over we do not do
electrical or gas um utilities here in
the city of Chandler uh we'll look at
utility rate comparisons not only for a
comparison of what an average uh user
used compared to what they currently pay
and what they will pay but also to other
Valley
Cities and then talk about the proposed
ordinance and resolution uh and how
those two combined make up the changes
that we're requesting this evening from
a public Outreach perspective uh the
process that we've gone through is
lengthy uh we finished our cost of
service in 20 21 uh and that we planned
a fiveyear implementation of cost of
service alignment but specifically for
these rate increases we began this
process in July with our public Outreach
uh we've had our website with all of
that information available since July uh
we've had several meetings uh we've met
with not only uh residents we had a
residential non-residential public
meeting uh that was iners or virtual uh
we met with the Chandler chamber and
they were were gracious enough to host
us at a public policy meeting where we
were able to share information uh we've
met with individual stakeholders as
needed uh and we've had on our website
uh the opportunity for residents to
submit feedback as well with a feedback
button that goes directly to our email
uh so we can track that information uh
we also had information that was
communicated in the city scope utility
bill messages social media posts and
media
releases so first off on the utility
rate cost of service process uh just a a
quick reminder this is the second step
of three towards cost of service
alignment we'll talk about what that
means in just a second but there's
really two components the first is the
city's financial plan review and the
second is a cost of service analysis the
financial plan review is an annual
process that we do each year and the
cost of service analysis is is completed
every few years every five to seven
years is what's currently being
recommended um just as a reminder for
these Utility Services is uh these are
Enterprise funds and Enterprise funds
are designed to be self-supporting much
like a business keeping Enterprise funds
separate helps show that the funds are
stable and therefore less risky for debt
holders in turn reducing the rates we
pay on our bonded debt which saves the
rate payers money by lowering the debt
costs the same holds true for keeping
the funds structurally balanced meaning
ongoing revenues are sufficient to pay
for ongoing expenses and one-time funds
like fund balance are used to pay for
one-time expenditures like Capital
Improvements the 10-year financial
analysis we do each year looks at the
Myriad components which make up a
revenue requirement projection and only
what is required to keep the utility
self-sufficient over the 10-year plan is
what is recommended for a rate change uh
this annual review consistent
willingness of council to keep the
utilities structurally balanced through
appropriate rate adjustments and
following industry best practices and
internal Financial policies have helped
keep costs low over the years and allow
Chandler to as you will soon see provide
a very high quality of service for the
lowest costs in the valley in addition
to the annual review we also completed
cost of service study or analysis every
few years to ensure that each customer
class is paying their fair share of the
costs associated with delivering the
services to them uh this concept of
equity across these service levels is an
industry best practice and Chandler has
chosen to comply with it in an effort of
ensuring fairness in our rates once
additional components of equity or one
additional component of equity that
should be discussed is that by
systematically ensuring utility rates
are adjusted to meet the operating and
capital needs of the utility in essence
we are ensuring that those who benefit
from a high quality system now are also
paying their share of ensuring the same
quality system exists for the future
residents of Chandler instead of
Shifting the entire burden of
Maintenance down the
road once we do that financial analysis
we determine what Revenue requirement is
needed and these are are the revenue
requirements in Green for the current
fiscal year fiscal year 2023 to 24 which
would are proposed to be effective
January of 2024 a 7% increased for water
8% for Wastewater 7% for reclaimed and
7% for solid waste however these rates
are not an across the board adjustment
because of the cost of service analysis
that we've done the rates will be
distributed across those classifications
differently depending on who is
currently paying perhaps more for the
their share of the cost than
others uh from a revenue requirement
perspective these are the ongoing rate
increases needed to meet current and
future operating and capital costs and
these rate changes bring in additional
ongoing Revenue required to not only
fund operating costs but also the debt
service costs of current or future
Capital
Improvements uh in essence rate
adjustments are not only just a one-time
funding plug they are a sustainable way
to fund the utility requirements and the
benefit to this is that while a one-time
funding of ongoing costs may fill the
gap for a year or two it only makes the
next rate change more critical and
passes the burden of a true rate
requirement on to Future users while
minimizing the equity of shared
responsibility with existing
users additionally we did not want to or
we do want to point out that the
operating increases that need funded are
from a variety of impacts to the
expenses of the operations chemicals
utilities Debt Service
not just from a single line for example
uncollectible debt we have always had
and continue to have a very low cost of
bad debt which is an expense all
businesses that sell a commodity have
our three-year average bad debt for the
city of Chandler is 0.2% of total
revenues uh so in essence 99.8% of all
bills are paid to us and even a portion
of the 0.2% is collected by an outside
collection agency on our behalf hey Matt
can you elaborate on that what is0 2%
and and when we have an outside agency
come what do what do they usually recoup
for us uh it depends on the length of
time that outstanding bill has been um
in the collection process and our
internal collection process so 0 2% our
total
revenues and I didn't write them down on
my paper I think Don has
those okay she she's looking that up I
think the total revenues when we get
those are about 18
is million dollar a year so 2% of that
is around 300,000 is so we'll get the
actual numbers here in a second but
that's the uncollectible portion
actually I just realized I I should let
you continue the hearing before we
comment so excuse me that's all
right all right so what are some of the
major cost uh drivers for our utilities
uh number one is aging INF infastructure
and that's along the top uh just as a
reminder from a water perspective we
have a total of 1,238 miles of uh pipe
in the ground uh our 10-year Capital
Improvement program has 81.6 Million
worth of improvements to that
infrastructure and that reflects about
one to two miles of Replacements per
year uh but we are anticipating
increasing the number of Lane miles of
pipe that are replaced as those that
infrastructure ages uh on the water side
we do proactive Replacements based on
risk so we don't know the actual um how
good the pipes are holding up in the
ground until we go in dig them up and
replace them uh but we cannot access the
system like we can on the Wastewater
side so uh we do more proactive
Replacements uh there is also increasing
regulation which drives costs higher on
the Water and Wastewater side and then
inflation impacts on Capital and
operations so not only are we seeing
inflation affect the Capital
Improvements that we're making we're
seeing it on the operations side as well
as well for chemicals and
utilities on the Wastewater side a very
similar story again pipes and valves
within the city 947 miles our 10-year
Capital plan includes $
131.8 million of of improvements to that
infrastructure and reflect significant
individual projects for example our 66
inch Su sewer Main Line uh these are
reactive Replacements based on an
analysis and video inspections done of
that uh and we do have additional
increasing regulation for water affluent
quality as well and inflation is
impacting Wastewater as well as
water so what does this mean for rates
on the water side our Revenue
requirement through our analysis that we
uh need on the utility is 7% but because
of cost of service we'll be attributing
that to the different classifications in
their unique cost profile so residential
multif family non-residential industrial
and Landscape will all see a different
percentage not a 7% across the
board again that allows for the
classifications some classifications
that have been subsidizing other
classifications to be realigned so as
you see on the this chart is a little
busy uh but there's a lot of information
on here I don't know if you can see my
mouse probably not but on the left hand
side of this you see for a single family
resident we have existing conservation
tiers and what the percentage in
increases going up in each of those
tiers this evaluation was done during
our cost of service analysis of how to
allocate uh the cost to these different
tiers as well as the different customer
classifications on the multifamily S we
also have existing uh conservation tiers
and then as you head over to the Le hand
side you'll see our non-residential
landscape and Industrial customers and
the different rate increases for each of
those classifications so everything from
kind of a blended rate on the single
family side of around 2 and a half% to a
14% increase on the landscape side for
those
customers uh then we also have as part
of each utility bill a base charge and
the base charges on average are going up
about 5% uh depending on the meter size
anywhere from 4.99 or 97% to 5.11 per
again allocated based on the cost of
service analysis that was
done well with all that information what
does that actually mean so here's kind
of the the drum roll so we looked at an
average bill for a resident of the city
of Chandler multif family average bill a
non-residential average bill and a
landscape average bill and this slide
represents what that change will be so
from a water perspective the current
water cost for an average bill is going
from
$29.68 to
$306 or a 94 c a month increase for
multifam the monthly increase is
$378 per month which is about $3 per
unit per year per year for
non-residential it's going up
$37.50 and for landscape approximately
$766 cents and if you'll recall they had
the the highest uh they they had been
being subsidized prior to the cost of
service analysis so they have the
highest percentage increase of those uh
rate
increases as a reminder water
conservation matters when it comes to
utility bills of course we have those
tiered rates which encourage
conservation low water users pay less
per gallon for the water they use and
high water users pay more uh we also
offer for homes built prior to 1992 a
free water-wise Workshop a site visit of
those homes and retrofit kits uh that
can help them become more water
sufficient uh we also have current and
new conservation rebate programs as have
recently come through mayor and Council
you've approved additional grant funding
available this year to increase those
incentives to remove residential and
Commercial grass remove non
nonfunctional Turf uh add smart
irrigation controllers um all of those
things will add to the ability for
residents and businesses to reduce their
water
consumption on the Wastewater side when
we look at Wastewater rates um again the
class the revenue component of this the
revenue requirement is 8% split between
residential multif family and
non-residential again that cost burden
between them the cost of service
realigns them and what we saw is that
residential has been subsidizing other
business classifications over the years
so instead of an 8% increase on the
residential side we we see here that
residentials remain flat they'll have a
0% increase on Wastewater uh multifam
has about a 22% increase and
non-residential has an average of
17.2% increase depending on if you're
looking at the volumetric or the
customer base
charge and these charges reflect an
overall 8% increase for this
utility so what does that mean for an
average bill well if residential is
going up 0% that means that remains flat
$276 will be their remaining or will be
the fee that residents pay multif family
for 150 unit will go up uh about $400 or
$350 and non-residential will also go up
uh about $130 per
month
for our reclaimed water rates we only
have one customer classification so
there's no cost of service realignment
that has to happen with these bills uh
they have a 7% cost need or Revenue
requirement and so the bills will go up
7% so the average monthly bill for a
reclaimed water is 850,000 gallons the
current bill of
$637 will go up to
$680
for our Solid Waste
rates again we only have one
classification uh the utility has only
one customer type of residential as we
do not provide commercial or multif
family services for solid waste removal
uh this 7% increase uh is
a130 increase to those uh to our Solid
Waste
bill this next slide talks about what
some of those uh some policy changes as
well
that are part of the discussion tonight
we have not only an ordinance but we
have a resolution uh and both of those
would change some of the solid waste
policies that we enacted as part of the
cost of service the cost of service
really looks at it from an equity lens
to say who is paying for the services
that they utilized and some of the
changes that we made were related to our
recycling center collection or recycling
solid waste collection center where you
can drive in and drop off uh waste for
no cost and our bulk collections uh we
made those changes to allow two of each
uh during a calendar year so they could
have two free visits to the rwcc of 400
pounds or less and two free bolt pickups
during a given year after receiving
feedback from customers and evaluating
that through the the direction C mayor
and Council gave us uh we are proposing
some changes to that to offer four of
either or uh during the next calendar
year so if you rely more heavily on the
rswc you can go up to four times for no
cost if you rely more on the bulk pickup
side you can have at least four for free
during a given year uh and really that
allows for more flexibility between
those that you know have said I don't
have a pickup I can't get to the rswc or
I live right around the corner I'd
rather just drive there and utilize that
more than have you come and pick up a
bulk
collection so that uh policy changes in
within the recommended changes for this
evening uh additionally there is a rate
change proposed uh for cost recovery on
the bulk pickups we are currently
charging $30 for each bulk pickup that's
the cost that Waste Management charges
us for each bulk pickup they are in
raising that cost to $35 so we are in
turn uh passing that additional cost on
to those that select to have additional
bulk
pickups additionally there are some
Solid Waste fee updates all of these are
to adjust the cost to our current City
cost for full cost recovery uh so if you
need an additional or replacement uh
container that charge we charge $60 to
our residents that's what it used to
cost us it's now costing us $75 so the
proposal is to increase that fee to
cover our existing costs or our new
costs um additional replacement
containers for large alley containers
those containers are much larger and the
increase to those fees has gone up
substantially over the the last uh year
or two we currently charge
$235 and those bins cost us $430 so
that's a cost recovery change uh
additional container collection fee so
when you have multiple containers
there's an additional fee that you pay
for the extra container that you have
and with the extra costs through our
Waste Management contract we're
recouping those additional costs for the
trash related to those extra bins for
both normal collection containers and
Alley containers and then finally that
additional bulk collection fee above the
allocation uh from $30 to
$35 again all of these are just to
recoup actual costs the city is
incurring for these
services so when we combine all of these
uh changes that we've been discussing
tonight our combined average customer
bill uh on the residential side will go
from
$758 to
$783 a
$224 per month increase for residences
uh and what do residents receive for
what they pay for the utilities uh they
have a highquality water Wastewater and
Solid Waste Service that ensures that
when they need a quality when they need
quality drinking water it's available
when they use water it has a place to go
to be treated and when they consume
Goods their trash and recyclables are
collected and disposed of timely and
correctly it also ensures that the
system will continue to be maintained as
needed to ensure future residents have
equal a access to those same essential
services on the multif family side their
abillity will be going up approximately
$390 per month in total uh which is
about $31 per unit per year and on the
non-residential side $166 N1 per month
increase so how do we compare first off
when we look at this one thing to point
out is the city of 10p does an analysis
each year and this is based off of their
analysis that they do uh and their
comparative volume that they utilize is
slightly different from an average
Chandler resident average chanler
resident uses 12,000 gallons so that's
what we use in our comparison charts
this uses 10 10,000 so the numbers are
slightly different if you're trying to
tie them to a previous slide it's
because the the volume of water is
slightly reduced but this shows our
current rate at that 10,000 gallon for
single family uh for all cost is $72 at
the city of Chandler and with this
change that same same 10,000 gallon
resident would pay $75 with the new
changes and Compares them then to other
Valley Cities uh with 10p being the next
closest at $92 a significant increase
from what a resident PID for in the city
of
Chandler we did the same analysis for
our multif family Chandler currently the
lowest in the valley at $2,800 per month
going up to $3,200 per month still the
lowest in the
valley and then again for our
non-residential where we were second to
lowest uh and going up very very close
to Temp U bringing us to the third
lowest cost but we do know that all of
these charts are based on rates that
were um have already been adopted and we
know many of these cities have proposed
rates that will increase these above
where we are at we anticipate especially
on non-residential uh that we will be
again the lowest after those rates have
been implemented at other cities so the
city of Chan for all classifications
would be lowest in
comparison so for these changes to be
effective there's an ordinance and a
resolution uh for you to consider
tonight the ordinance number 5065 allows
for changes to the city code chapter 44
solid waste and chapter 50 utilities to
make the needed rate and fee policy
adjustments as we've discussed and then
resol resolution 5751 allows for changes
to the fee schedule uh which is where
Solid Waste fees are presented uh
comments for both utility rate changes
as well as the policy and solid waste
fee changes will be part of this public
hearing from a rate adjustment timeline
uh this shows where we're at in the
process we are at the public hearing and
first ordinance read October 19th uh the
next step is for a final read November
9th and then should this pass May
through mayor and councel the effective
date of these changes would be for the
January billing cycle beginning January
1 of
2024 and with that mayor and Council I'm
willing to answer any questions you may
have thank you Matt um why don't we
start on our left and work over here
uh
you
mayor Matt E even with the proposed
increase it looks like our cost of
service is would be significantly lower
than our neighbors what do you attribute
that to uh through the mayor council
member Poston that's a great question a
lot of it has to do with how chanler has
managed those Enterprise funds over the
years uh we've taken a very cautious
approach ensuring that every other year
we do an evaluation on if we need rates
we add those rates to our uh to the
costs what that does is it shows to a
lot of our bond agencies that we are a
city that's watching our utilities
closely and that in turn gives them
peace of mind and lowers the risk of a
city Chanel of chanler investment and
that reduces our cost for our
infrastructure so anytime that we can
save costs on infrastructure cost
because our interest rate is the lowest
that we can possibly get uh that is a
boon to the Enterprise funds uh anytime
that we can make any improvements in the
services that we provide that's a boom
to the Enterprise funds and we have a a
wonderful staff that do that on an
annual basis look for ways to change
processes rework processes so we don't
have to build new facilities we can rate
an existing facility and utilize that
more fully by changing the processes
that we have and that saves millions of
dollars in most cases um we also were
we're coming at the kind of the end of
buildout of the city of Chandler so most
of our infrastructure is there and a lot
of our Capital needs are now focused on
Aging infrastructure and ensuring that
infrastructure is solid for the future
uh the other aspect of that though is
ensuring that we're meeting any new EPA
or other regulatory requirements so our
Capital side is more infrastructure
aging infrastructure uh fixing related
versus brand new infrastructure which is
very costly and when you look at some of
the other cities they have some very
significant infrastructure costs coming
into their Capital plans which adjust
their rates significantly um so it's a
kind of a blend of things uh but when
you look at the credit worthiness of the
city of Chandler the decisions that have
been made in the past It All Leads to
very low rates and maintaining quality
services for those low costs okay and I
received and and I'm sure some of my
fellow council members received and I
don't know if this question is better
for Don or for you but um some residents
inquiring about some of our the cash
that the city has on hand and that's um
restricted in reserves we we had a
discussion on how to define that do you
think you could speak to that a little
bit or youon if possible yeah I can
start out and then um when Don feels
like there's additional items definitely
jump in um I think we we want to be very
clear that we have two different funding
or different fund mechanisms we have a
general fund which is where taxes flow
into uh which pays for police fire
streets all the general operations of
the government and then we have
Enterprise funds which are our utilities
and these are treated like unique funds
distinct from other funds in that
they're supposed to be self-supporting
funds the revenues generated from those
funds should equal and or pay for all of
the expenditures of that fund and be
self-supporting so we want to make sure
that we're distinguishing between
general fund and Enterprise funds on the
Enterprise fund we do have specific
requirements in our financial statements
that say we will maintain a certain
level of fund balance and that level of
fund balance is there as a a
precautionary uh tool so to speak to let
people know that we you know anything
can happen in a market but we are
prepared to handle whatever happens at
the city of Chandler and that really
lets our rating agencies know that we
are serious about financial policies and
making sure that our utilities are sound
so we do maintain that threshold and
then as additional fund balance is
accumulated that additional fund balance
is what we use for pgo Capital uh we use
it as is it's a one-time Revenue Source
we use it for one-time uh expenditures
which are our Capital programs we don't
use it for ongoing expenditures because
we know it's just going to deplete down
and then we're going to be in a bad
situation so on an annual basis when we
do full analysis of the the the rate
that we need uh we look at making sure
or ensuring that the Enterprise fund
itself has enough funding for the
ongoing uh components and then that fund
balance was about $92 million exactly
and and that was something that we voted
on just in our most recent budget in in
adjus in that policy correct so through
the mayor council member Poston um what
Matt was just talking about is the fund
balance policy within the Enterprise
funds I think what you're referring to
is the the emails that we're referring
to a100 million and I believe that's in
relation to our general fund correct so
our general fund as as Matt stated um is
where the tax dollars come in and it
supports the public safety Parks wreck
streets um you know all those General
services in our city so uh we have
Financial policies very specific to the
general fund as well and I think what
you're the 92.2 million that you're
referring to is in our general fund it
says that we need to have four months
operating reserve and that equates to
92.2 million so that's the reserve we
hold in our general fund and there's a
lot more services that are provided in
the general fund and uh that is a best
practice and it is directly connected to
our AAA Bond rating um and I think
through the end of
2223 we had um our Revenue came in
higher than our expenses so we were able
to uh there was more onetime dollars
because of the activity in our city so
we were very fortunate with that and
mayor and Council you then made
decisions during the budget process as
we prepared for the the current fiscal
year that started July 1st 2023
24 um to use those onetime dollars to
fund uh the payoff of our pension
obligation for police and fire um which
has a direct benefit to reducing the
contribution the amount the city has to
pay into the pension on an annual basis
because that payment was made up of the
normal contribution and the unfunded
liability so by paying that off we were
able to reduce a future ongoing cost
that that thereby keeps our taxes low in
the future um Additionally you as a
council made the decision to apply those
onetime dollars towards um Capital
additional Capital um to the tune of
over the current year or over 2223 it
increased the capital um so again paying
with cash not having to sell bonds to do
the capital uh 130 million higher than
2223 so we were able to um through our
Capital program um add more general fund
dollars to the street program which U
then thereby reduced the amount we have
to sell in bonds um and not pay
principal and interest but use existing
cash we were able to add um through
Parks uh cash funded and then technology
is a big conversation um with security
cyber security and the replacement of
our financial system in the city of
Chandler it's a big Endeavor um we do
not have Bond Authority for that so that
is an area that U cash is appropriate
and so Council made all those decisions
with the those additional onetime
dollars um and then of course if those
are all designated if that were all to
get spent what we're estimating would be
our fund balance at the end of this year
it would be 123 million based on our uh
projection so we are just above the
required Financial policy um of 92.2
million so that was a long answer to
your question but there you go no thank
you you you you all make a very
complicated issue very easy to
understand I just have one more question
mayor um you know I've been involved in
the city government of Chandler for
about 22 years and I don't recall any
time that this Council as a body has
used one-time funds to pay off ongoing
expenses am I accurate in that that that
is that has been a fiscal I know it's
something that we like to tout it's very
understandable and digestable to our
residents I think um but I don't recall
time that we've ever done that has there
ever been a time that I'm not aware of
uh since I C mayor council member poon
uh since I've been here only four years
I can only speak for the last four years
where we we have been structurally
balanced from an ongoing to ongoing one
time to onetime perspective uh Don's
been with budget longer than I have so
maybe she has additional insight into
that uh through the mayor council member
Poston Matt's actually been with the
city since 2012 he's referring to his
time in the budget division but um since
I've been here since 2007 and I can't
recall us doing that we we that is one
thing I think mayor and Council has been
very successful with over the years that
um ongoing revenue is used to support
those ongoing expenses that we know will
continue over and over and over and
one-time Revenue we try to put towards
Capital um and things that once you
spend it it's gone so we don't want to
depend on that for hiring positions and
supporting Services long term right so
that's been an an ongoing Financial
policy okay and so I was with the city
in a different capacity obviously around
2001 and was here through 2008 2009
during the recession and I recall this
council did not actually use that as an
action and I I feel that th that is good
governance it's something that I think
every person on this dis has taken some
pride in and um has allowed us to do all
of the things
that we are able to do a lot of those
that Don mentioned so thank you thank
you mayor thank you council member
Harris well I I I believe these
questionings have really summed it up as
a person that is if we were to take
let's just say hypothetically just roll
with me on this one we hypothetically
just took aund million out of our fund
and we said hey we're we're we're not
going to look at Water increases and we
took a $ hundred million out what would
actually $100 million cover when we have
$81 million and $81 million it has to be
paid to pay for 1,238 miles of mains and
then we have another 947 miles of um of
pipes and valves that needs to be
replaced and that's at
131 million3 131.8 million so we took
$100 million out and we said we're not
going to increase where does that really
leave
us um through the mayor council member
Harris um what that does first of all is
you're taking onetime money to pay for
an ongoing need in the Enterprise funds
we are just tonight uh mayor and Council
voted on two Bond issues that allows us
to go out and sell bonds for projects we
have in our 10-year Capital plan and one
of them is not to exceed 75 million for
water and wastewater project projects
and that debt service is an ongoing cost
so if we use onetime money that ongoing
cost doesn't go away it's there every
single year um so uh we would end up you
know the next time we need to go to rate
increases it just magnifies it it
doubles what you need because right now
between all of our Enterprise funds we
have an ongoing need based on everything
of about in total about
$8.69 million so if we don't do this
today and we use one time the expenses
keep happening year over-ear then we're
in a position in our Enterprise funds
where our Revenue coming in on an annual
basis is not as high as the expenses
going out so we're we start drawing down
our fund balance um but that onetime
money could bring the fund balance back
up but it is a direct violation of our
financial policies to to use that um and
certainly when we go out every two years
we go out on the market to and get our
bonds rated much like an individual gets
a credit rating um on or um a credit
rating report and you can go out and get
a an automobile loan or something if you
have a very high credit rating you get a
very low interest rate much like a city
we get rated and it the rating if it's
AA a that's the highest rating you can
get so that debt is a much much lower
cost and of course then also requires us
to pay less of in user fees or taxes so
having a Triple AAA Bond rating is
extremely important and if we start um
doing things against our own Financial
Poli policies that's something that's
documented when we get reviewed um and
can easily change that AAA Bond rating
and and Don every year the the state
requires the city City for an audit they
they requireed an audit for us to do if
we do the audit and this comes back then
what
happens so uh through the mayor council
member Harris our audit is um what's
required in our uh city code to have an
annual an external auditing agency audit
our city financials and the results of
that is a financial report that is used
by our rating agencies to Det determine
where we're at
financially um that is part of the
equation that they use that information
um they run all the different ratios and
everything to see how we've performed
year-over-year
um it's more through the actions there
and talking to staff reviewing actions
and votes by Council that they determine
if there's been consistency in the
management of our financial practices
and that um that's that's just kind of
part of the process and getting rated
every other year for the city of Cham
thank thank you um just one last
question was there any way that um I
noticed that the Ben's replacement was
$75 and I didn't see where you know
Waste Management says okay after 20
years 25 years we got to replace this B
because it's going to get beat up pretty
bad uh over the time $75 is is a big
jump for our you know maybe it's a new
Resident coming in and and I think not
long ago my bin lost it uh it helmet so
um when do we
know who replaces that is that built in
or do they have a time frame so our
resent pay $5 yeah because my bin needs
a
helmet the
mayor council member Harris uh that's a
good question so that replacement cost
is only for Damage Done by the resident
should they put coals in there and it
burns a hole through the bottom or they
damage it uh the carts are replaced on a
replacement cycle through our Solid
Waste division they replace those on a
periodic basis and if you need a new
helmet or what you call it a helmet cap
whatever whatever you need they will
come out and do that replacement for you
at no cost this is if you were to damage
the the actual existing container that
you have or you want an extra container
uh the first containers on the house we
get that through our monthly bill you
have an additional container that's an
additional charge for for those
individuals it may have gotten messed up
in the Arizona Cardinal game but I ain't
the one to tell you I will pass the
hatoun council member Stewart thank you
mayor I appreciate it
and Don and Matt you guys are so good at
like breaking this down and kind of
showing us what's going on you know I
think one of the biggest challenges that
I have is when I when I'm here and I
always take the honor of or the
responsibility of advocating for for the
residents so I'm so grateful one that we
were able to do the the creating Equity
so that our residents weren't
subsidizing industry and our residents
weren't subsidizing you know um
Landscaping you know to make that parody
you know I don't know why council's
before allowed that to go on for decades
but I'm grateful for this Council for
for getting it fixed and and vice mayor
Orlando noted he voted no thank you for
doing that but but but we've gotten that
fixed and I and I'm grateful for that
because that's my biggest concern here
is we
are our families are facing this
financial headwind with inflation we
fixed income families that are
struggling and I got to be honest with
you we have asked for more money and
more money and more money and I get it
right we have inflationary pressures
that's being caused by a federal
government that we can't control and so
it's putting pressure on us financially
to do things to our residents by by
raising prices I wish we didn't have to
do that and we even talked about just so
you know before this meeting started we
had a meeting about next year's budget
we were talking about all the headwinds
that we're going to be facing both macro
and micro we're going to be asking the
chamber and other businesses what
they're seeing year-over-year in dollars
so that we can track our sales tax so we
can track our impact fees so we can do
everything we can like we talk about the
budget all the time and we are so
grateful for the things that you're
doing and I will tell you from Monday
when this was first on my desk and Josh
will test to this when we get into the
budget I'm always like no no more we're
not raising the budget but we walk
through some of these things and you
help you understand what we're paying
for and so one of the things that
Council just decided in the room in the
back was we are going to invest in core
competencies not the flashy things we
can see the headwinds coming and we're
going to get into fixing the water mains
we're going to get into uh doing things
to make sure that our water is cleaner
and easier to transport and doing our
best to to keep that that down what I'm
interested in is how do we balance our
overage Revenue overage last year just
be honest with 6 5 million that was
unbudgeted Revenue that came in this
year we're tracking at about 22 million
that's going to come in over what's
budgeted and I know we were lucky we got
to put that into psprs but that's not a
best practice in budgeting and we can
all agree on that so my question is how
do I balance this tax burden on our
residents with the overage we have on
the general fund with being
conscientious of our Enterprise fund do
you follow what I'm getting that and I
know that's a really longwinded yeah
leading question but um I'm dying to
know like what do we do for our
residents here and I don't want to take
more money in and give it out yeah I
want to find ways to mitigate cost
increases so through the mayor council
member Stuart you bring up uh some great
points and just a couple of things to um
reiterate one is that the that Surplus
that you're talking about from
transaction privilege tax and other
taxes coming in that's all in general
fund outside of the Enterprise funds so
we do keep that separate as Don
mentioned for financial um regul
Regulators perspective from an internal
uh what we want to do to maintain a
general fund separate from Enterprise
funds the overage on Enterprise funds is
a different uh story so we do not have
60 million 100 million extra coming in
on our Utility side uh at times we do
have more Revenue coming in on an
ongoing basis than we have expenditures
because we have a planned Debt Service
issuance we're going to issue debt in
three years for a large facility or a
large Improvement
we have to have enough funding at that
point to be able to pay the debt service
on that or to add some additional payo
Capital to that uh so we have to plan
for those significant improvements and
that's why we do a 10year view when
we're looking at our rate adjustments
for year one is based on a 10-year view
of everything that's going to be hitting
those Enterprise funds so to one of the
points that you made was you know how do
we ensure that um we're trying to
minimize the impact to our residents and
I think looking at that annually is one
of the ways ways that we do that uh we
look at our Capital plan on an annual
basis and we evaluate through our
partners in public works and utilities
they do an evaluation of which projects
need to potentially move out move up uh
can the rate analysis that we have
support the capital projects that we
have and which capital projects are
absolutely necessary to make sure we're
delivering Quality Water and treating
the waste water that's produced so
there's an extensive uh review that's
done on annual basis to try to ensure
that on the Enterprise funds on the
general fund putting that hat on how do
we keep things from you know our budget
more in line with where we're actually
budgeting I think we've had several
instances of of unique things happen in
our uh economy that have been difficult
from as a a budget person to quantify
what the net effect will be first off we
had Co which we all thought would be a
revenue dive which did not happen that
was compl completely unexpected uh and
then we have an industrial partner in
the city of Chandler who uh after the
budget is set says and by the way we're
going to invest billions of dollars in
your community not having that forn
knowledge of20 billion doll means that
your budget's going to be out of whack
unfortunately um so we've had several of
those instances over the last couple of
years that have really made it difficult
to track uh what's going to happen we
also have legisl legislative action with
arpa a PA dollars that have really
affected uh on the general fund side
those revenues so the general fund side
is com is a little different and you
know we're hoping that things get more
in a
normal Zone from a projection standpoint
that'll make our lives easier on the
Enterprise on Enterprise side it is more
of an easy projection to make we know
what the revenues are anticipated to be
the only kind of caveat is we don't know
what the net effect of uh conservation
will be conservation is a double-edged
sword it saves our residents money but
the less water we sell the more we have
to sell it for because it doesn't reduce
our costs it reduces some costs but a
lot of our fixed costs it does not
reduce so the water treatment we're
treating less water that cost can come
down but a lot of those fixed costs are
still there so uh we have to be you know
cognizant of of all of that kind of
tracking in that side and that makes it
a little bit more complex there but from
a a budget perspective we're pretty
close to Target on those Matt that that
was a long question and a long answer
thank you for clarifying A few things
there especially for the public real
quick something was brought up about
mingling General funds I know that we
made a vendor hole recently with regard
to uh one of the services that they
provide for us uh with a one-time shot
of Revenue where did that money come
from I don't know that I know which we
just voted for a million dollar increase
um Josh did that come from Enterprise
fund or general fund that million dollar
increase for Waste Management which was
which was the right right thing to
do um through the mayor council member
Stewart I think what you're talking
about is the the vote tonight on the
agenda using contingency funds for the
no no this is like a month and a half
ago waste man Waste Management yes
contract okay so the waste management
contract there are collection carrier
that um picks up all the trash for
residential uh homes in the city of
Chandler and they had through coid
experienced
exential
yeah gas prices were gas prices word I'm
looking for exp um higher costs so
higher costs we don't own the trucks
they own the trucks higher costs in
managing the trucks the fuel the staff
and so that contract um we uh was
authorized to go up we currently what
council has authorized is that we made a
one-time payment for that extraordinary
cost that they've experienced um but but
unless the fees pass tonight um uh
there's then they're going to come
forward for that to be an ongoing cost
because they are they are our collection
provider and that is what it's costing
for them to do that contract thank you
for that we and waste management does a
great job I know personally okay I'm
tickled with their service but but okay
so we we've done that before I guess
what's the deficit gonna so we have
co-mingled funds but what's the deficit
for this particular um cost increase if
we don't enact it did you say it was
8.67 Million yeah through the May c m
Stewart It's 8.6 million but I do want
to clarify a lot of money the waste
management came out of the solid waste
fund the Enterprise it didn't come from
General okay can okay so we didn't
mingle okay great so on the so we had
extra money to be able to use for that
yeah we had funds we had okay I get it
so we had extra funds so but we're
asking for more but we had extra so we
we keep that and that came out of the
contingency fund that's in the
Enterprise fund correct mayor C came
from contingency and fund balance that
existed in that fund all right
gotcha so I guess my my final question
is it goes back to the what I said
before and and maybe this is a question
for all of us is what are we going to do
to mitigate increases what are we going
to save off what are we going to put off
for a few years that we don't build
right away that is it maybe a core a
core value to keep our cost low for for
so it's probably a rhetorical question
but and I want everybody to know that
we're thinking about that so thank
you nice
May okay so um most of the questions
been answered is great so next time
mayor start on this side so but what I
like about this I think uh council
member Stewart uh alluded to was the
equity piece of this uh we rebalanced
this portfolio a little bit last year we
went full board this year to me that's
probably the biggest issue right now
that our residents should not be
subsidizing someone else's uh usage of
the water uh if they're using it and
they're using the services they need to
pay for it so I I I I applaud the
council for pushing hard for that one of
the things you talk about um reducing
cost remember we were the first city to
do impact fees here
where the developers came in here and
either they put the infrastructure in or
they paid us to put the infrastructure
in that saved the residents I can't
remember millions and millions of
dollars other cities didn't get on board
with that and other cities also um had
to pay for it today so again it's the
foresight that's what we did to reduce
cost we put together impact fees the
mayor I think you R the council remember
we took a lot of heat from some of the
industries because they said you can't
do do this well you know what we did and
it it deserved and the Chandler
residents and the Chandler Community
made out better for so the impact fees
was huge for us now of course as we're
building out we can't use those impact
fees for infrastructure improvements and
that's why we're here today talking
about the Enterprise funds because that
50 years ago and the 30 years ago need
to be fixed need to be
reevaluated reassessed and we have to
fix those things today and there's some
creative ways of doing it we heard the
other day about a Waste Water treatment
I mean a a u a pipe instead of digging
that pipe up we could actually put in
this little balloon type of thing and
explod around I don't know it's like a i
if you get a flat tire and you go with
the the rubber but that's Innovation
that's saving us millions of dollars so
there's a couple more examples of
innovation and and finally we've done
joint projects we've done joint project
to Hill River Indians we're doing that
today I believe Gilbert we have a joint
project with Gilbert we almost had one
with 10p a few years ago mayor you
around that one that fell through so we
are looking at ways of innovation we are
looking at ways of saving the taxpayer
dollars I mean that's our role up here
the CIP next year to go back to the how
do we save that we'll look at the CIP
and if there's something that can fall
out because it's way too expensive we'll
we'll push it out but we have to do our
business we have to keep the doors open
and ch
I can't shut it down or I can't say for
that $2 in a water main breaks I mean
what's more costly maintenance or
waiting till it breaks and that's my
concern right tonight so this is
incremental I hate to do this as as
anybody else does but I am trying to my
best foot forward to Residents we're
doing the best we could with the money
you're you're given to us and you trust
us to make these decisions and I
appreciate that for trusting us so with
that mayor I'll turn over
to thank you mayor appreciate that mat
and Miss Don thank you again for this
really labor of uh love because you guys
were really Bing at the bit this
afternoon to tell us about the next um
thing you're working on with the budget
one of the things that I really
appreciate that's happening here tonight
is the
transparency in all of this for us to
show the public that truly this is what
we do with whatever they have given us
we are business this city is being run
like a business council member Stuart
you always said that we are just board
members here and we are managing the
business of this city in order for us to
do that we have to be really well
equipped and understand with
understanding of what is it that we need
to do next not just today but we need to
forecast five years 10 years from now
and you guys have done that really well
I've lived here for 38 years and I can
tell you when the these impact fees and
all these things were happening I was in
the middle of building a huge project
and that fell on us building a $23
million project we had to pay to fix the
road um that was going to happen right
next to us we had to put money into the
project to do that and that in itself
really tells me that I paid my share and
now I can enjoy water and everybody else
have to do their share whether we do it
now or we do it five years from now if
my daughter come back to leave here
she's going to have to do her share
because I've done mine
so absolutely everybody will have to do
it there's no question about that and
and and I think what really I want to
leave here tonight and those who have
sit here and listen to this whole
process I want you to leave here tonight
understanding that every single day
what's happened on this Das it's been
worked on hours upon hours upon hours in
the back rooms behind us here whether
it's staff who's working on it or
ourselves um I told one of the council
members today that I'm not going to lose
sleep over certain things but there are
certain things where we have to ponder
over them and we have to figure out
what's going to happen in the future
over those type of things so I encourage
you to get involved stay involved look
into the numbers that we have given you
tonight if you think that $3 is too much
uh for you to turn on your faucet and
get good water that will not give you
cancer because that's exactly where we
just put1 million into filters to filter
that water that is coming back to us all
the way from up there with all the fires
and everything that has have been
happening of North when we get that
water it comes with all of those things
in it and we have to filter it we cannot
pass it on to you that same way and
business is business we're doing
business here for you we're doing
business so that this city can continue
to have a AAA Bond
rating that doesn't happen overnight
it's all the
good great decision that have been made
prior to us with other council members
that we are enduring now but if we keep
passing the B down it's going to keep
passing down to those other people that
are coming here and they're not going to
love sitting here to do the work and
maybe some of your kids will be council
members also in the future they will not
love to do this work if we are not doing
it the right way for them so I
appreciate you all being here tonight
thank you so much for being part of what
we're doing here in this city with that
mayor I yield to my next colleague here
council member and seeus thank you mayor
I'm not sure that there's M much left
for me um this has been a very extensive
conversation behind the scenes with all
of our Council so I do appreciate all
your guys' hard work and your guys'
thoughtfulness in this and especially
our staff and I'm just extremely
appreciative that with with this we are
still remaining in single digigit rates
um we're not in the double rates
compared to other cities we still remain
one of the lowest rates and fees that
are going on across the board here
throughout our city and even looking at
our projections for our third phase
coming into 2025 2026 to 2028 we have
those projections still remaining in
those single digits let's hope they stay
there um but I'm just appreciative of
all your guys' work and continue this on
thank
you Council I'm going to speak the words
that you're going to be most excited
about I have nothing else to add to this
conversation with that I'd like to close
our Council discussion I have two
speaker cards uh from the audience um
you have up to three minutes if you wish
to speak state your name and address and
the first is lesle Minkus Mr
Minkus thank you mayor and Council uh I
appreciate that my name is Les mckas I
live at 3372 East jaban Court J
85249 uh now um since all of you are we
we run a great business here out of the
city and all of you are members of the
board um want to remind you that we are
all
shareholders and therefore we are
entitled to certain information that we
should be getting some of the
information has not as been transparent
uh including the information about and
thank you mayor for responding to my
email to you uh pointing out the fact
that there is an Enterprise uh fund um
but we don't get a financial statement
on the Enterprise fund so we don't know
how much money is actually coming in how
much money is actually going out whether
there's a profit or a loss uh in those
funds and when you mingle it with the
general fund uh we've got over a hundred
million of excess Revenue this kind of
reminds me of an analogy of the fact
that um if I was putting my Reserve
money away to save money for my
children's college education and all of
a sudden I ran into a problem where I
couldn't afford to pay for uh my food
I'd have to take some money out of my
Reserve uh college education and put it
towards my food so we can survive well
that's something that uh we're currently
actually finding is going on and uh I'm
surprised we didn't take a few minutes
for a moment of silence to talk about
all the terrible atrocities that are
going on throughout the world uh with uh
Ukraine and Israel and the tragedies
that are going on there but those are
things that could be coming around and
could be uh looking Us in the face not
only in the United States but also here
in Chandler so we do want to have
Reserve money on hand we also have to
make certain that we understand that
we're addressing the issues of the
people in Chandler today and as you've
all pointed out there are people that
are on fixed incomes and they are in
need and going through a increase right
now may not be uh very uh good for them
and uh we have we have uh uh over100
million of additional funds we should be
looking at uh some of that money being
able to apply it and maybe move this off
or only
put part of the increase in uh at this
time this year because this hasn't
passed yet until November but only put
part of it in this year and maybe things
will get better next year and people
will be able to afford it better next
year so these are the kinds of things
that I had in mind also the fact that we
have had increases uh we've had salary
increases of Staff in the uh city of
Chandler we have had uh losses that have
taken place that I don't really hear
anybody talk about I'd like to know if
there is something that has been done
about the water the sewer and the uh uh
losses that we've had because we have
over uh in in a seven-year period of
time from fiscal year 2015 to 2022 we'd
have three million
$331,000 of losses in the collection of
money uh from water and sewer from
renters from homeowners uh people that
never paid the city thank you Mr mingas
your time's up okay I'd like to know
what we're doing about that so that uh
we we can uh know that the city is
handling that in the proper way mayor
thank you joh can you um first address
is there an address or a location that
people can find information and um and
then secondly I know I asked that
question
earlier U about that but how do we
compare to other cities with that I
think I think Matt had mentioned two two
t0 of a percent was like 360,000 was
that per year or per over this threee
okay so couple questions that Mr Minkus
asked okay I'll start with the the audit
um well the qu the um question regarding
the financial statements for general
fund versus Enterprise funds so as uh
council member Harris asked earlier
about the annual audit we do that
financial statements online we actually
have five years of those financial
statements and you can see the general
fund and the Enterprise funds listed out
separately there's a balance sheet
profit and loss an analysis on every
fund and that's part again of the rating
agencies they they're that's um our
government accounting principles the way
in which we have to prepare those
financial statements it's a nationwide
practice so those are out there for the
public as well um uh additionally and
those are available uh anytime and if if
anyone has questions we are happy to to
meet with any Resident in the city um I
did I answer all of that first question
yes the second part had to do with the
uhh when people don't pay their bills
what do we do and what is that per year
and what do we do to track that and how
successful okay so in our and comparing
to other cities okay so in our utility
funds um we have there are
uncollectibles that that happens that's
part of running a utility um the the
last three years I will tell you just
the last three years our average
uncollectible is 0 2% which is
$245,600
um what uh Mr Minkus U mentioned about
the last seven-year history we did have
a couple years in the prior to the last
three years that did increase that
average to uh 400
28,5 se1 so um that is still below
0.5% um for utility to be below
0.5% that that's extremely well um it is
it is just the nature of a utility uh
the only time we would write off an
account is if the account is closed and
we have been unable to to do the
collection through our own means and
when that happens um and we cannot track
down the person in which the account is
closed then we will at The Last Resort
turn it over to collection agency and
then they'll work the the issue they
have a a lot more access to records that
they can they can do as well um so we've
been very successful I think um over the
last three years I the result of the
economy being better I would say that's
probably part of the impact why that
uncollectible balance has come down we
have really good processes in place um
but as we compare to other cities um we
I think coming out of Co we rewrote our
how we manage our collections we rewrote
that policy internally and we reached
out to all our surrounding cities to get
their policies and find out where they
were at and they were all higher than
the city of Chandler so we were feeling
pretty good about where we were at um I
think our staff has done an amazing job
um as working the new Poli policy um
there's a lot of effort that goes into
it before before it gets to the point of
actually having to pass that off to a
collection agency okay so that's kind of
where we are on our utility collections
as of today okay um did you have a
further that was the question going to
thank you mayor I was going to ask Don
to explain the whole process I know for
uh during coid we had a lot of people
who were going through a lot of issues
and things and we were able to work with
them um through onetime dollars and
paying some of these things so that we
can bring them current and then continue
to work with them until they find jobs
or different things happen for them to
be current with
us so that's still helping our community
vice mayor do you have additional
question just real quick Don what what
have we do we have a listing of what
dollars we did
recoup um I don't have that with me um
that that can happen over many years but
on an annual basis we will get get a
check back from the collection agency I
can C certain yeah let do that and then
if we do have a person that uh we know
was bad credit do we have a way of
tracking that or does the agency have a
way of tracking that where we could
actually you know have them put up more
money up front before we give them water
things like that um through the mayor or
count vice mayor Orlando um yes um when
somebody opens up a utility account they
do need to put down a deposit if they
don't have there's there's documents
they have to show um if they can show
that they have not had any uh issues
with previous utility accounts they do
not have to put down the deposit but we
do collect a deposit and that gets
returned after a certain amount of time
of having that history in place okay so
we have that practice in place when
there's a new account okay thank you
thank you mayor Kel I've got one more
speaker card before we close the public
hearing um Mr
Rickman
please state your name and address by
the record you have up to three minutes
to
speak thank you mayor and councel Rick
humanman 4310 West delin Street Chandler
Arizona I'm here represented of the
chanler Chamber of Commerce as the past
board chair um we had Matt do a great
presentation to our public policy
meeting a few weeks ago to really
explain things um we are in favor of
what's going on uh the financial policy
policies that have been put in place by
this Council for the last 50 years I was
part of that um having strong reserves
having AAA Bond ratings not using um
ongoing money for one time or one time
for ongoing I think is super important
the point 2% deficit or debt thing is
unbelievable most of our businesses will
tell you we had a 0.2% deficit uh bad
debt we'd be jumping up for Joy uh
people run between five and 10% at least
um especially in a bad economy but we're
just here today that uh we did send a
letter to Mayor and councel in the last
few weeks that we're asking when the
next rate increases looked at in a
couple years we look at the economic
impact that the businesses bring uh when
the rates go up for residents it's it's
hard nobody wants to pay more for water
but the business Community really wants
uh reliable service reliable water we
can't have companies like Intel and
Rogers and northr and all these other
people without that guarantee people
aren't going to want to come as a
business unless we have this ability in
terms of that so um I we're not in favor
of of robbing Peter to pay Paul in the
long run uh having Don and Matt here for
as many years as we've had them and the
quality that's offered to explaining
things uh we've always been transparent
so we're just here as a chamber
supporting what the council's doing
making sure that we have reliable and
safe water for the future so thank you
thank
you uh Council I think we're ready to
close the public hearing then we have to
vote on these two action items so
closing the
hearing back in our session I'm having
gamble fun time
tonight Council before us we have items
number 49 and then items number 50 49
introduces the adoption of ordinance
5065 utility rate and policies item 50
resolution 5751 amending the Citywide V
schedule uh Council how would you like
to
[Music]
vote item number
49 City attorney can we do both at once
or would you feel more comfortable
separately because they are action items
I would prefer that we have separate
votes on them okay can we take that as
item number 49 council member so we've
got a motion on the floor is there a
second I second second by council member
Poston
C I know we've all had a chance to uh
talk so if you're ready let's
vote motion carries by majority with
council member Stuart destine okay thank
you and uh item number 50 is resolution
that that modified some services and
other things uh Council how would we
like proceed vice mayor I move that we
approve resolution number 5751 amending
the Citywide fee schedule relating to
Public Works utilities department Solid
Waste division section s thank you vice
mayor is there second second second by
council member
incus again Council we've had
opportunity to discuss this just behind
us how would you like please
vote motion carries by majority with
council member Stuart desen very good
thank
you council member Harris called in uh
two briefing items so item number
51 understand a presentation by our
assistant chief Melissa Deandra
welcome good evening mayor and Council
uh this evening I'm going to be doing a
presentation on our departments actually
let me switch over
to our
slideshow Matt don't walk away she's
still looking for
you no that's not mine that's
sorry I don't think you want me talking
about the
general
thank you all right there we go H good
evening so I'm going to be doing an
update on our employee health and
wellness programs the salari crisis
response as well as our Behavioral
Health units so our employee health and
wellness programs play a crucial role in
promoting productive and engaged
Workforce our initiatives include mental
physical and Stress Management
which is aimed at improving long-term
health and job satisfaction of all of
our
Personnel so our mental health uh
specifically we onboarded in March of
2022 our first health and wellness
coordinator she is responsible for
overseeing our Department's health and
wellness strategies and initiatives uh
she leads our peer support team and our
Wellness committee she also distributes
a monthly newsletter which provides
updates on Wellness um initiatives
throughout the department and she's also
played a crucial role in our Wellness
Focus uh centered which is helping our
officers uh that are in crisis or in
need Department wide we offer training
of mindfulness and resiliency to reduce
stress and help them remain calm uh
We've also partnered with batan which
uses brainwave technology to reduce
stress and help our employees with sleep
we currently have 92 employees that are
participating in that program we also
have three Wellness Wellness rooms at
each of our precincts and another one at
our um Public Safety Training Center uh
we also have access all of our employees
have access to a bulletproof app which
offers 247 support for resources and
articles to help them when uh for
resiliency work life balance or any type
of marital support internally we also
have a peer support team which is
comprised of 25 of our department
members and they're there to assist with
processing uh employees who are exposed
to traumatic events and helping helping
them process through that in addition to
our mental health physical health is
also a very important Focus as well um
and knowing this we have partnered with
Sigma tactical wellness and we had 237
employees uh participate in this cardiac
U metabolic screening which did an
ultrasound of their kateed uh did a
stress test and provided them with an
overhall overall um health screening we
also provide yoga classes in person once
a month and then we also have 247 access
essed online we have upgraded all of our
gym equipment at all of our training
centers at the training center and all
of our three precincts and we have a
workout uh workout of the day that goes
out by our training center uh to
encourage our employees to work out and
exercise additionally we've recently
partner partnered with lightbrite with
which is a healthy meal option service
um so that our employees are making
healthier choices as opposed to fast
food we also look at the family and
Financial Health and understanding the
importance of financial Wellness given
this we have began offering Financial
discipline uh um or excuse me courses on
financial discipline and the importance
of financial planning we also offer a
four course work life uh balance seminar
and we've partnered with compassion
Alliance which has geared uh events that
are geared towards spouses and children
of law enforcement officers and then in
addition to all of these programs we
also have EAP through the city uh the
tble weed Rec Center uh and we have
nutrition and much more online moving
forward and looking into this year some
of our new and more Innovative programs
that we have is as you see in this image
is our pause for police uh this is a
brand new program that we started two
months ago where we partnered with 17 uh
volunteers who are Therapy Dog Handlers
and they will come into our department
and spend anywhere from 30 minutes to
two hours with our department employees
uh we also have our we're piloting the
city's baby at work program we currently
have two employees with within our
department that are either participating
or registering in the program currently
we also just received our first cold
plunge which is down at the training
center which is uh aimed at improving
circulation and reducing anxiety and
then we're also looking at a program to
potentially compensate our officers um
either on the F front end or back end of
of their shift for uh getting in a
workout or some type of physical fitness
but overall we remain committed and to
the continued well-being of our
department members while fostering a
robust and health conscious culture
within our
organization that's yes thank you so
much for this presentation mental health
is a is a very important issue and we
have to kind of continually put it out
there so people know that our officers
uh are getting what they need and our
law enforcement is ready and equipped um
I've always share that the the worst
thing we can have as a city is is law
enforcement um you know pulling over our
constituents and they're not in good
mental health um and it kind of just cor
corespond so I'm really happy about what
we're doing with our law enforcement and
how it pertains to mental health I think
we need to continue it on but I wanted
to bring this forth so our residents can
see what we're doing and how we're
continue to impact our um our officers
and making sure that they're having you
know resources available so again I just
want to say thank you and I just want
have this presentation um thank you
mayor thank you I know Council we still
got a number of other things after this
but there any questions com you'd like
to make one quick question council
member Ellis thank you so much chief for
the presentation I know that as a mental
health nurse it is important for people
to have privacy and what is the um what
is it that you guys have put in place to
encourage our officers to access uh
these programs without having to feel a
STI
um that goes around with mental illness
or whether they feel fatigue or whatever
it is to stop them from going it's they
parameters that we have put in place for
those kinds of things yeah
definitely on a myriad of different
levels so I I mentioned our peer support
team earlier with the 25 members of our
department um any conversations that are
had between that member of a peer
support team and one of our employees
that is protected conversation it is
private it is not shared additionally
and with some of the other programs that
we have such as mentioned the
bulletproof app that is something that
is individual per on an employes cell
phone and they can go in and look up
services read articles uh get a hold of
a support center um and that's all done
within privacy as as well as EAP that is
all um that is all protected information
so we do take uh definite steps to
ensure the privacy and confidentiality
of um the experiences or the trauma that
our our employees are facing and then
the help that they're seeking to help
them with that thank you so much for
putting those guideline in place I know
that will give people more sense of
comfort to access those kinds of things
absolutely thank you so
much all right and um council member
Harris has also called for a second
hearing or or briefing I'm sorry I'm
gonna move on just there's two more
items on that first one so I'm gonna
you're fine go ahead we gonna touch face
on salari real quick so as you know we
established our relationship with salari
in August of 2021 and then in March of
this year we embedded a a salari crisis
liaison in our Communications Division
and what their role is is to listen to
calls as they come in and provide our
call takers with additional information
and resources to offer the caller
assistance when they're in need
additionally they review calls on a
weekly basis to see if there are calls
where additional Services could have
been offered in in all uh Solari liaison
have worked a total of 670 hours in our
Communications division vision and since
the Inception of our partnership with
salari since August of 21 uh we have t
we have diverted a total of 692 calls
for service so overall this has been an
extremely successful partnership which
has allowed our department to increase
the services to individuals within our
community and then lastly our um our
Behavioral Health Unit so our Behavioral
Health Unit the mission of this unit is
to provide a multi-disciplinary approach
to assist individuals in crisis reduce
their exposure to the criminal justice
system and refer them to appropriate
Community Services our behavioral health
unit will be comprised of specially
trained officers who will assist with
mental health order pickups assist
Patrol with in in progress calls for
service and they collaborate with
Community Partners to establish
follow-up care some of those Partners
include uh cr288 our city of chanler
Navigators uh our M municipal courts
specifically the mental health court and
then externally Oasis uh Copper Springs
Aurora Behavioral Health as well as
salari um so basically when they are
fully staffed this team will have one
sergeant and four officers the sergeant
is already in place with this unit and
then we will be adding two of the four
officers beginning in January of this
year council member oh no council member
Harris this your first yes this is great
news this is good and I I wanted to
compliment our law forcement because
recently I was just at um at uh at the
trip Cheney um family park and um the
HOA president had um called and the
commander had reached back out to him
and they had a great conversation
because there was unsheltered at at the
park and um our commanders jumped into
action and and helped and I think it's a
you know and then also I I spoke with
Leo how and and it was just a a joint
and I just love how our law
enforcement they when when it's
unsheltered person they jump into action
they know what the resources are they
have the information to give and they
immediately go into action and I really
you know and I since we've been expanded
on this this has really helped as a tool
um to help uh our law enforcement out
there when they're dealing with very
variety of of items and again us making
sure we as a city not criminalizing our
homeless or our unsheltered but making
sure we we're coming alongside of them
and give them resources and and
throughout that process we continue to
see our law enforcement be very
respectful to our un shelter and
treating them with dignity and respect
and I really love that and I love the
fact that they come alongside so good
job uh I see Chief is back there uh Sean
duan's back there your men and women is
doing a really good job and I really
appreciate that so again I can't wait to
see this the fully staffed group in um
in January thank you mayor thank you
additional comments council member else
thank you mayor wanted to thank uh City
Manager for taking the vision and run
with it I remember when I first asked uh
Chief about the need of the department
and that was something that was very
heavy on your heart considering the fact
that out of the 3% of people that we
interact with 2% of them had a mental
health issues
and when I brought this to our uh
colleagues everybody was on board to try
to push that I want to to thank the vice
mayor and everyone who saw the need and
they were will they were really willing
to put a lot of resources behind it in
order for us to arrive where we are
tonight so thank you again uh for doing
the work uh Chief and making sure that
now we can see that Chandler we have a
unit and it's important for us to do so
because at the time when I was talking
about it everybody was asking me why
because I saw the need and I had been
working with scel for years with that
having homes where my patients were
getting out in the street and people
were picking them up and then putting
them in jail rather than seeing that
those patients were really having mental
issue and they needed to have Leah or
someone like Leah Powell's Department uh
come to their rescue so I applaud you
all for doing the work and U thank you
again to all my colleages for making
sure that this now we can be saying that
we do have a mental health unit here in
Chandler appreciate that yes thank you
we're excited about bringing on the unit
it will definitely help uh Elevate the
our what we're already providing and
adding additional services so thank you
thank you Chief appreciate
that all right our next thank you
assistant chief Deandra we have another
briefing item 52 retail theft and crime
are you also presenting this that right
we got a a little bit more
all right well thank you so uh organized
retail uh excuse me organized retail
crime is the largescale theft of retail
merchandise with the intention to resell
the item for financial game so currently
in Chandler right now some of the main
uh trends that we're seeing when it
comes to organized retail theft is
involving Legos over the over the price
tag of $100 specifically Star Wars Legos
uh KitchenAid mixers are continuing to
be very popular laundry detergent is uh
specifically Tide Pods and then also we
have our vinyl records uh vinyl records
are the records that are coming back
we're seeing a high volume of those
being stolen from Target as well as
power tools when these items are stolen
you will often find that they're being
uh resold on platforms such as Facebook
Marketplace or OfferUp and in order for
our uh detectives to combat these type
of crimes we have to work in a
collaborative effort um with the uh re
retailers within um our region as well
as the prosecutors through the Maricopa
County Attorney's office and we work
with it in partnership with worka which
is the Arizona organized retail crime
Association and really what they do is
they share information in order to their
goal is to identify and disrupt and
apprehend the suspects who are
committing these
crimes yeah thank you so much and I I I
want to reserve my comments because the
the presentation following this is uh is
from the Arizona retailers that that
also works in Partnership so I will
probably Reserve um my comments to allow
the retailers to kind of come up and
share and then I'll just speak if that's
okay with you mayor counciling comments
for assistant chief vice mayor
um uh how much effort is the police
officers on this type of program
shoplifting how much time
um give me a a basis of how prolific it
is in Chandler so so organized retail
crime is happening across Across the
Nation so what you're not seeing in
Chandler is these Smash and grabs that
you're seeing in larger cities where
they're coming in and stealing High
volumes of purses or um you know
completely destroying strollers you're
not seeing that in Chandler what we're
seeing is more of like the items that I
showed you where they're going into your
Walmarts your targets um your uh home
depos and lows and they're stealing
these other items that they can that
they can quickly resale on other
platforms um we do have dedicated
detectives that work in our proper
property crimes unit that are dedicated
to these type of Investigations but
where the true work is happening is with
the partnership with a orca and that's
what the retailers and our detectives
across the region partnering together to
locate and apprehend these suspects okay
so your police officers then if someone
is caught inside the store then
obviously your police officers are
called have to go
absolutely do the paperwork make the
arrest and that does take a lot of time
obviously right yep if there's followw
workk work to be done it would it would
be assigned to our detectives Bureau
okay thank you thanks mayor May council
member Stewart thank you thank you
assistant chief that was very thorough I
appreciate everything you said about
Solari as well as what's going on and
I'm glad you brought up the the cash and
the smash and grab do you feel like
you're being supported by the courts as
it relates to arrest in those areas I
know you say it's not happening but
there is some shoplifting that's going
on is our attorney general Prosecuting
is our Maricopa County attorney
Prosecuting and how many of these go to
our courts and are we Prosecuting
because we're not having that in
Chandler yeah so the when we're dealing
with organized retail crime um when I
talk about a Orca it's that partnership
so it's the partnership between the the
law enforcement the retailers and our
prosecutor bodies so we do work
collectively with um with our with the
mayor Copa County's attorney's office
and they are very very active in
assuming needs investigations in
charging them to give you an exact
number on I I don't know for the for our
city but we have had a very successful
partnership with them and no issues
thank you if that changes I think I can
speak for Council we want to know sure
thank
you um can uh council member Poston
thank you mayor thank you for the
presentation any recommendations for our
residents I think a lot of us are on
Facebook Marketplace or offer offer up
any I mean other than if it's too good
to be true yeah and that's that is
really the main focus so um if you if
something is too good to be true it
probably is too good to be true if you
start seeing um uh it's it's it's a
little bit sophisticated so some of the
suspects have what they would call I
would call like a fencing operation and
they have pretty sophisticated um
websites that they'll or profiles that
they'll have on OfferUp or Facebook
marketplace where you may not be able to
determine what what they're actually
doing so sometimes it is difficult to
determine um if they are in fact stolen
products but the the biggest thing you
can probably look for is if it is too
good to be true it is do they look like
your neighbor the profiles look like
your neighbor yeah it's it's it could be
it could be anyone they're good at what
they do yes very much so thank
you continue Cil yes so I wanted to um
bring up the Arizona retailers to talk
to us about what thank you assistant
chief thank
you uh Michelle she's going to come up
and talk to us about what she's seen and
what's the trends are because this is
such an important issue and I wanted to
make sure that we're staying on top of
it Mr Mayor and Council thank you for
the opportunity my name is Michelle
Almer I'm the executive director of the
Arizona retailers Association we're
located at 224 West 2 Street in Mesa
Arizona and I want to especially thank
council member Harris for um reaching
out to us to find out more information
about organized retail theft and it is
an issue that is everywhere as you as
assistant chief has mentioned and we'd
like to be able to stand here and say
chandler is free of organized retail
theft unfortunately you are not um I'll
give you a little background on who we
are we represent retailers Statewide
large and small and it hits every area
of retail so um we about in 2007 we
helped to organize a Orca as a as
assistant chief mentioned it is where
law enforcement and retailers and
prosecutors and even some federal
agencies such as Homeland Security or
Postal Service or Secret Service come
together once a month share cases share
best practices and they can coordinate
on how to address these cases that are
before them when it's started as you may
imagine retailers were a little bit
hesitant to partner with each other
because we're competitors that is all
evaporated and this is an area where
retail works together to try and go
after the same people who are in all the
stores and so that's a really important
area for us we also have um under the
umbrella of the retailers Association a
loss prevention committee where we work
on legislation we have really good laws
at the State of Arizona um some of the
best in the nation where it allows
flexibility for prosecution and for law
enforcement to actually make arrs
instead of having dollar figures
associated with it because then they
will just come in right underneath that
dollar limit or or we don't have um a
limited or a a number of people who have
to be involved in order for it to be
considered organized retail crime
organized retail crime is different than
shoplifting and you'll hear more of that
from our um we have a retailer here with
us today that's representing the Lost
prevention committee and um ay Orca he's
the acting chair tonight so um I'll let
him address all of those things but I
just wanted to thank you for the
opportunity just to give you some
devastating statistics organized retail
crime is impact in the United States in
2019 and so you can imagine during Co
when everyone was wearing masks it went
up but in 2019 we were at um 68
billion a year Nationwide in Arizona 1
1.35 is billion a year which if you work
out the population
breakout and we've since been talking
about what losses are kind of um for
company and and we're spitballing but it
works out per population that that's
about 53 million to losses in Chandler
alone and that seems to be right in line
with what we're seeing with losses so
that is a significant amount of loss our
biggest concern is well we don't like to
lose money our biggest concern is safety
we're concerned about our employees
we're concerned about our customers
that's why you see a lot of the
incidents is where it's like why aren't
they going after them they're running
out of the store with all this
merchandise it's because we don't want
anyone to get involved in an incident
where someone could be harmed it's
happened and there has been harm and we
want to avoid that in all situations so
a lot of the work that we do is on the
back end we've invested millions in the
retail industry per per company to um to
build up technology to put um really
really well-trained detectives former
law enforcement in our stores
investigators in the stores doing the
work because those boosters we call them
boosters the people who are in the store
actually stealing this stuff there are
dime a dozen you're never going to rest
rest enough of them there will never be
an end of that Supply but the fences
that's who we want to go after and we
are really so grateful for the Chandler
police department they have been
fantastic partners with us they have won
our law enforcement officer of the year
award multiple times we are very
grateful for the support that that they
have given us Chandler is divided into
two sections and that allows for a
really good coordination as opposed to
having really break off things by
neighborhood that that makes it harder
to work on these cases and so the way
that Chandler is set up is really great
the support that they have from the
chief and and the assistant chief the
detectives that we work with we are
grateful for Chandler but there's always
more that can be done and so we're
grateful for the opportunity to educate
today and um with that with the
remaining time I will turn it over to
Brian Barrett he's the loss
prevention chairman for the association
as well as the acting president of the
board of a
Orca good evening
um so I am the acting as Michelle said
I'm the acting chair for both the loss
prevention committee for the retailers
Association and for AZ Orca Group which
was mentioned by the assistant chief so
um first thing is I really want to
distinguish the difference between three
different types of offenders that we're
talking about here so shoplifting the
traditional subject going into the store
being apprehended those are the lowest
levels of offenders and those are
happening daily but those are not what
we're looking at at this point okay so
those are just processed out they're
cited they're released typically and we
move on the second piece is what we call
a habitual offender so from this you'll
think of someone who's running out of a
gas station each day with a pack of beer
or some of those offenders that are more
nuisance offenders and those are still
under the shoplifting statute they're
more for personal use and those are
again processed handled as a case and we
move on but the third piece we're really
talking about is this orc and orc
organized retail crime is really what's
impacting the bottom line there's been
several retailers that have come out
they've had to close stores um you've
seen the the margins drop um you've seen
the sales tax revenue drop and what orc
really is is people going from multiple
locations usually in the same day
they're employed by this fencing
location or fencing person which is more
of a white collar crime they're not the
ones that are in the the location doing
the crimes they're the ones that are
buying and driving these addicts or
people that are in need of money to be
able to make um these thefts and then
sell to them to be able to resell that
impacts the retailers multiple times
because there's the theft of the items
there's the inability to sell those
items and then that fencing location
undercuts the retailer so then the
retailer can't sell the items because
those items are being purchased by
another or being resold by another party
so all the retailers work together
you'll see Lowe's and Home Depot side by
side CVS and Walgreens Target and
Walmart all side by side working on
these offenders sharing in information
through a Orca we also use a platform
called a which is an intelligence
information sharing platform um but it's
the
retailers it's law enforcement and it's
prosecution and I think the difference
on this one is the retailers like the
victim is actually involved there's
investigators we Harden the targets a
lot of you have been in probably seen
lockup merchandise now um armed guards
at some stores um more resources that
are put in so that's happening at the
retail level where we're actually
combining and working the cases but also
making it more difficult to commit those
crimes and then from a law enforcement
side we' really moved into
specialization and both Michelle and the
assistant chief mentioned this is
there's some great detectives and I
actually want to call one out in
particular to you guys and it's
detective
Deets um who I want to recognize
personally he has been incredible he's
very passionate about it he works a lot
of these cases um he'll combine them and
make sure that they're they're larger
more impactful cases so Chandler PD has
been wonderful for us they're an agency
that we rely upon to impact the whole
Market the market being miraco count
Phenix um and then the third piece is um
prosecution so there's multiple Avenues
of prosecution there's obviously the
county then the state at the AG level
and then the federal level through the
AAS and we leverage all of them but
Rachel Mitchell at the county level has
been very vocal on this topic um you've
probably seen some of the content she's
put out but very vocal very passionate
about making sure that what's happening
in other places doesn't happen in
Chandler Maricopa County or Arizona and
then at the AG's level also focusing on
this too um through the task force and
prosecution so we um encourage this to
continue um we want to continue to make
sure this doesn't impact Chandler in
this area and through that combination
of work at those three
levels council member Harris thank you
so much for that presentation and thank
you for taking the time out to come and
talk to many of our businesses I know
that we have um the president uh Terry
Kimbell the president of U Chandler
Chamber of Commerce um who we work very
closely with I just want wanted to make
sure the community know what we're doing
and how Chandler continues to be
proactive and making sure that if there
are issues going on and our businesses
know hey we have a proactive uh approach
and officer DEET that's out there uh
maybe we can get him to um Terry I don't
know if it's possible we can get him
start getting him introduced to some of
the our businesses here um so that way
we can have a point person on the ground
um as well but just making sure that
we're continue to put the information
out there the the purpose is to to let
people know like look you come into our
community you disrupt our community
we're coming for you and that's just
what this is and I'm making sure that we
send that solidarity that we stand with
our businesses and we're going to make
sure we stand alongside you guys are
doing a wonderful God a wonderful job
and thank you to Chief and assistant
chief for for being here tonight and I
appreciate that very much thank you
mayor ni mayor you had a quick question
yeah actually it's a request
Michelle you heard me say this before
but I want to say it publicly and I got
to ask your support you talked about
relying on us to help you it's no secret
the legislator has been slowly taking
away some of our revenue
streams um we're coming in potentially
we will potentially lose $1 million for
our rental tax uh we have those that are
Gat trying to take our $14 million in
food tax tax that's 25 million we just
got a quick briefing tonight that
potentially is shorts fall in the state
budget that's potentially so I'm asking
for friends of the cities and
towns uh we need your help when the
legislators want to take away our
Revenue stream which help your
organization you need to help us need to
help us be there you need to help speak
on our behalf and tell them look these
guys are doing their job which you just
mention mentioned tonight um if I don't
have a revenue stream coming in some of
those police officers may be deployed
somewhere else or may not be able to get
to your place in time to do some of the
good things we want them to do um or may
not be patrolling so I'm asking you as
friends of the cities and towns uh
you're relying on us help can we rely on
you can we go to our government Affairs
person and and ask for your support at
the right time at the right area so that
you could weigh in and say this is
important to us it's important to the
city it's a good
partnership so I threw that on the table
and hopefully you take it back to your
board and discuss it and hopefully you
come back with a positive answer because
we need your help the legislators are
coming after the cities and towns and
I'm not for some reason it's not just
here in Arizona by the way it's
Nationwide so we need your help so we
got to have friends of the city and
towns thank you that was the longest
short question I've ever there wasn't
even a question he beat me he beat may
put on the record he beat me you know we
ought to have an award that we can pass
around or
or uh what's the word I don't know all
right Council anything else before we go
to we have many unscheduled speakers yet
to come here tonight yeah Vice council
member steuart thank you for the for for
the discussion and and as council member
Harris you know we're we're committed to
helping and I can tell you this that
this is the last Council that will look
at Public Safety as the first thing we
cut from a budget if we do get budget
cuts from from the state that's like
it's not even on the list so I hear what
you're saying uh vice mayor for sure the
question I had for you was what is
something that you're seeing as a best
practice from an ordinance perspective
that we can put into place to help you
or how can we Lobby the state for more
teeth in our laws to make sure that
these things don't happen that are
happening in
California Mr Mayor and councilman
Stewart um we really have good laws
right now we are looking to make some
adjustments on um on some some existing
law that um so we have a task force
underneath the Attorney General's office
and it's functioning very well but there
was some restrictions on who had to be
part part of that and because of
Staffing with local law enforcement
that's really hard to do so we're going
to make some adjustments there we're
also looking at making some adjustments
on the actual shoplifting laws because
sometimes
judges plead things or our prosecutors
or defense attorneys can plead things
down to where it's actually a shoplift
and if and it doesn't apply their their
um what am I trying to say they um when
they've committed and then it they go
into incarceration and when they come
out they just start recommitting again
so we're looking to make some changes
there that would be great but really um
from an ordinance level you guys have
been great and we are really not looking
at city courts as much because that's
really more on this small level
shoplifting so our County attorneys and
our prosecutors are doing a really good
job really it's on us we really need to
make some inroads with judges and make
sure that they understand we had a a
really big case this year that they had
um arrested like 31 individuals 31
individuals in one night and they were
um putting skimmer devices on top of the
existing like when you put your credit
card in and they were so sophisticated
and so good that no one could tell the
difference
so they were stealing EBT information so
they're stealing EBT which of the most
needy people in the
nation th and that those at that time
and they I think that they've made some
changes to this but at that time you
couldn't get those benefits back
so the wor some of the worst things and
they're selling baby formula right at
the type of the top of the crisis but
anyway they do this huge sweep they
arrest 31 people they put them in jail
they set a bail which is a cash bail
which is harder to do they were bailed
out in 30 minutes which is millions and
millions of dollars so it just shows you
the S sophistication of these groups
this is not somebody with you know a few
friends on the street that they can talk
them into going and stealing some Lego
sets this is sophisticated and we're
lucky enough to have people like Brian
that work on this and that can can
engage with our local law enforcement
like the Chandler PD and that we have
prosecutors that are now designated and
we you know we really are are getting
some momentum to make it a change we're
really grateful and just real quick
followup mayor love to get that list of
judges that are not doing the right
thing because there is a mechanism for
moving them on whether it's JP or judges
that we vote for them and so if they're
not doing their jobs effectively to keep
our small businesses uh thriving then
then we should do that but thank you for
being here you're wel welcome thank you
council member
Ellis oh you didn't even I'm sorry I
thought you were indicating thank you um
thank you so
much Council as I mentioned we have um a
number of speaker cards and honestly you
all have been here the entire time and
I'm not going to cut your time we will
listen to you what you've got to say and
um but you will have three minutes not
giving you 10 minutes minutes uh first
up we have a uh group of our our uh Roy
bersett our Arizona Rangers that would
like to make a
presentation and I I think I told you
we'd be ready for you about an hour and
a half ago so I am clearly misjudged
tonight Mr Mayor ladies and gentlemen of
the council thank you very much for your
time I would definitely do this in less
than three minutes can you state your
name and address certainly Ron Vette b c
h TT 9923 East Aral Drive sunlakes
Arizona 85248 thank you thank you um I
represent an organization called the
Arizona Rangers we are an all volunteer
law enforcement auxiliary obviously in
in the state of Arizona with about 550
members for the last few years we've
worked closely with Chandler PD on
various Chandler local events events
like the ostrich festival and the
upcoming marathon you have this Sunday
I'm just here tonight to thank Chief
Dugen for his continued support for our
partnership over the last few years and
to wish him well in his future endeavors
and I'd like to give him a small
presentation on our
behalf thank you
much
so if you can
not sure ever got one of those thank you
thank you for your time um it's a
pleasure incredible partnership and
volunteering just like you volunteered
your three hours tonight sorry that so
thank you for that but you've been an
incredible partner and we've been
relying on you and all the Rangers so
thank you thank you thank you ladies and
gentlemen thank you
in Council this again is unscheduled
public appearance meaning we cannot um
engage ask questions or anything further
um city manager uh a number of these um
next ones have to do I believe with the
library are so
indicated um just for Council just to
remind us can you please tell us the
process of if someone has a concern with
books what does that look like and and
how can they best take their concerns
sure Mr Mayor uh briefly members of the
council um the city council long ago
empowered the library board to govern
the acquisition of materials and we do
have a process known as the
reconsideration process the um form to
request a reconsideration is actually on
the Chandler libraries website it's all
a digital form now so it's very easy to
access and if there is anyone who is
concerned or wants a review of any
material of any type that's in the
library um there is a process to do that
they just simply need to fill out the
form the initial step is that will be
reviewed by a panel of three Librarians
um they'll render a response um to the
individual if that individual is not
satisfied with the response they have
the right to a hearing before the
library board and that is where the
decision is made okay thank
you um if I could I as I call you up um
if you could again please state your
name and address and you will have up to
three minutes to share your thoughts or
or what you want to talk about again
this first one I'm not sure I I think
you were connected with the libraries
but I guess we'll see Sasha
rebron you want to please come up and
state your name and address for the
record and you have three
minutes good to see you
again um good evening my name is Sasha
Ron I live n 9842 East statra Avenue
Mesa
Arizona and um I'm a sophomore at basis
Mesa I was recently Crown Miss juneth of
2023 and I'm here today to kind of offer
my perspective as a student on the
importance of making Books available to
everyone because as you've seen in the
media this has been kind of talked about
and there's been discussion of limiting
the books which students have access to
so I came here today to kind of offer my
perspective as this is a topic that
might be brought to you guys in the
future so I'll start off with this books
are the keys to understanding learning
and growing they transport us to
different worlds they broaden our
Horizons and Foster empathy and
understanding they're not just ink on
pages they're gateways to knowledge but
let's remember that this access should
never be hindered so regardless of our
background or circumstances we all
deserve the right to explore these
worlds expand our minds and have the
same opportunities so in conclusion I'm
encouraging everyone here when it's time
to make decisions about the access to
books or anything in that nature
understand that books are vital to our
society and it is all of our
responsibility to ensure that access to
books should not be hindered in any form
her way so by doing this we can ensure
that the path to knowledge remains open
for all because when we make books
accessible we make a brighter more
Equitable future for everyone thank you
for your time thank
[Applause]
you are that speaker um is
Sarah liit lipit again apologize for how
I pronounced your name again please
state your name and address for the
record you have three minutes to share
your thoughts mayor council thank you my
name is Sarah lipich I live at 2609
North yaka Street Chandler
Arizona um I'm a longtime Chandler
resident and would like to voice my
strong support for the Chandler Public
Library libraries across the country are
under attack by a small but vocal group
of people who wish to restrict
intellectual freedom and for their own
views upon All Families I strongly
oppose the idea that the government
should dictate what anyone is allowed to
read or think censorship in any form is
a slippery slope and is in direct
conflict with the principles of
democracy as a trouble troubled tween
and teen I felt alone and that life was
hopeless I stumbled upon books in my
hometown library that addressed
difficult topics they talked about
things no one talked about things my
parents didn't know how to talk to me
about they contained characters that
thought and felt like I did those books
showed me I was not alone in the world
they saved my wife
libraries have a responsibility to
provide information for a wide variety
of users and to provide inclusive
environments and resources to serve the
entire Community fairly and equitably
Library staff are trained Specialists
who understand that there are many book
options and they expertly assist in
finding the right fit for each
family ultimately what a child borrows
from the library is between the parent
and child parents who believe that their
child has not reached a level of
maturity to choose their own books
should be right by their side helping
them if parents find themselves
surprised or upset about a book their
child chose they should aim to be more
present in their own family to gain an
understanding of their child and that
choice every parent has the right and
responsibility to make decisions about
what materials are suitable for their
own family but they do not have the
right to make decisions about mine it is
the not the role of any citizen or
government entity to judge or police
what members of the community read or
think the city of Chandler's website
states that we strive to be a safe
diverse Equitable and inclusive
community the library is at the heart of
that goal Librarians should be allowed
to follow their established guidelines
to build book collections that reflect
the whole Community thank you for
keeping the library free and inclusive
place for everyone thank you for your
time thank
you our next speaker card is from Tamra
Tamara Norwood
again welcome you please state your name
and address for the record and you have
up to three minutes to share your
thoughts hi my name is Tamara Norwood I
live at 752 East bu a Vista Drive
Chandler
85249 um I'm 20-year resident of um
Chandler and I'm here because I want to
express my support for the current
collection policy of the Chandler public
libraries I'm aware that recently there
have been some challenges to that policy
by um special interest groups that are
advocates for censorship and what I'd
like to share with the council this
evening is um not too long ago I was the
library manager in the city of Maricopa
and I was fortunate enough to be invited
to a meeting in which council member
Vincent manfredy was asked to come and
meet with a group another special agency
um that was advocating censorship they
wanted absolutely no materials in the
library at that time that had any
reference to homosexuality in them and
council member man Freddy's response to
them was look I can guarantee that I can
go in this community and find 50 people
who would say that the constitution is
racist and therefore it should not be
available to be accessed in any
government funded um entities including
libraries and his response to to them at
the end of the conversation was when
toes censorship end and I would ask you
to consider that if you were approached
by these groups specifically one called
moms for Liberty that you would keep in
mind that the censorship they're
advocating well it's just the tip of the
iceberg right when does censorship end
my final comment that I'd like to share
with you um is a statement from
president Dwight D Eisenhower in
response to censorship don't join the
the book burners don't think you're
going to conceal faults by concealing
evidence that they ever existed don't be
afraid to go to the library and read
every book thank you for the opportunity
to speak thank
you next speaker is Dr William
Crawford Dr Crawford you know the
drill
good evening thank you mayor for giving
me a few minutes thank you Council for
listening to me for just a few minutes
uh William Crawford 1252 North McKim
Avenue Chandler Arizona
85226 uh mayor and Council it's been a
long evening The Librarians have already
spoke very eloquently much better than I
could I would just remind you of this
you have been committed to inclusion in
the city of Chandler don't deviate from
that leaders in this community stood
strong about inclusion diversity and
Equity years ago stay the course thank
you thank you
Dr our next speaker is Carmen
Ledo Carmen again you have three minutes
state your name and address for the
record please yes I'm Carmen Laredo 184
5 West musket Way Chandler
85286 and I would like to add my
comments regarding uh the library and
the availability of the library I've
lived in Chandler for 20 years the first
thing I did one of the first things I
did when I moved here was get a library
card and since then my family and I have
enjoyed using the library we've uh
probably been through all the children's
books at the downtown library we
frequent the Spanish section DVDs we use
it for research we enjoy the culture
passes we are big um Library users um we
have always felt that the Chandler
Library content is current and
represents not just our interests but
also the interests of our community our
diverse community of Chandler and the
Librarians who curate our materials do
not work in a vacuum they are aware of
current events they bring us the most uh
upto-date research available current
events and that and they they live among
us so they're part of us as well um when
my daughter was young she made some
selections uh that maybe I was a little
uncomfortable with but rather than
making return them to the to the shelves
we discussed them and as a parent
preparing my daughter for adulthood that
was my responsibility and so I don't
think I expect the responsibility of the
the library and the Librarians to do
that for me that is for me to do as a
taxpayer um who helps fund the Chandler
libraries I feel like it should be um I
feel like I should not be limited to
what materials are available to us um
that is uh something that our librarian
should uh take care of one of the main
tenants of our American way of life is
our right to personal freedoms and I
think by definition um limiting our book
um options is kind of
unamerican um and if you don't like a
topic don't borrow the book to each his
own and um I don't expect the library to
take care of worrying about what my
child reads so I would ask the council
to pres ensure that our library
materials remain diverse as our city is
and let our very talented Librarians do
their job thank you thank
[Applause]
you next speaker is Michelle
Estrada Michelle Estrada welcome please
state your name and address for the
record you have up to three
minutes hi I'm Michelle EST Strada um I
live at 464 North hallad Court Chandler
a I've lived here my whole life and as a
child I was homeschooled so I was able
to go to the public library all the time
and and I love the Chandler public
library and I actually use it as an
example in lots of my architectural work
that I do now so to me it's a really
massive influence and part of that big
influence that it made in my life was
the availability of different um forms
of
media um through the different they had
the availability of renting CDs movies
DVDs um leap pack ad if you guys
remember those and all kinds of really
great stuff that was able
to um help expand my young
mind
and I want to first begin this by saying
that movement should not be restricted
in public
spaces um and those who try to police
what can and cannot occur in places such
as a public library are unfortunately
feeling entitled to the liberty of
others um
libraries are not for the small group
who protests against intellectual
Freedom it is for the diverse
constituents of
Chandler Librarians have a job and they
should be free to fulfill that without
critique from this portion of the
population they do not carry the
responsibility of defending the people
of Chandler and I want to remind you
guys that that is of course part of your
responsibility and I'm very glad to see
see a cast of folks up here who I
believe would advocate for that
intellectual freedom from the time we're
five years old you know until we're 105
years
old and I just want to say that I agree
with everything that's been said up here
so far and I'm really glad that people
have come up here today to speak on this
issue and that's it so thank you thank
[Applause]
you
we are a cast of
folks not been called that
before our next speaker uh Reverend
Susan Oglesby dunigan welcome
back again States your name and address
you have up to three minutes to
speak I'm not gonna sing maybe next time
I come to do the prayer for y'all I'm
Reverend Sarah Oglesby done again she
her I am the senior minister at Chandler
at Valley Unitarian Universalist
Congregation and and Chandler 6400 West
Del Rio um I'm here with members of my
congregation that I serve here in
Chandler they can give a little wave uh
amen amen amen to everything that folks
have already said um I just want to say
that for me um libraries and Library
staff um are some of the most important
resources that we have in our
communities and for me they're also kind
of it's a Sacred Space and a sacred job
um not just the spaces that we worship
in but also the places that we learn and
grow in are very important to how we
create a community um and I I hate to
hear of the possibility that Librarians
are facing harassment or protest over
the curation of lgbtq themed materials
and perhaps someday folks if they get
away with that we'll come up with other
things they want them to get rid of so
um we need to really guard against that
um my husband is a language arts and
social studies teacher and both my
parents taught high school and um
College English classes so books
learning and reading have been really
important to us and they're also
important to my faith community so um we
really believe that no one group should
ever have the power to decide for the
rest of us what we can read and learn
and we are um a community of diverse
folks as everyone has said already and
we should be allowed to read books and
find other materials that reflect our
diversity our history and our values um
so there are there are books that I will
probably never read um and I support
your right to choose not to read or
watch or listen to what I do um just
because someone doesn't agree with it or
like it doesn't make it inappropriate or
harmful for the rest of us it's a deeply
held American value that stems from our
commitment to reason and learning and
accessibility of these for all so I'm
proud to serve in a community with a
non-discrimination ordinance that
protects us from persecution based on
our identities and our personal
characteristics and I thank you for your
leadership in making it so and I urge
leaders to set clear boundaries to
protect our public servants and uphold
their stewardship of a precious
community resource in this case Library
materials history culture values and
knowledge no one group gets to decide
what is or is not curated and for whose
benefit and hate and persecution are not
values we can afford to cater to so
thanks for your commitment to this
community and in all of its diversity
and thanks to everyone who supported me
thank
you
next speaker is Hayden gwind and I
apologize if I mispronounced your name
please state your name and address for
the record and you have up to three
minutes to
speak hello my name is Hayden W I am
from 200 West Jasper Drive 85233 Gilbert
Arizona and I'm come to speak about the
content of our library books some people
have and may come here and complain or
Fe few Monger about the types of books
books that are available to the
community in our public libraries and
this small yet vocal group of people
make this issue an issue of parental
rights they try to tell you that it is
their right to pick and choose the
curriculum for all people and for all
students they would rather our children
hide from the difficult conversations
and even hide from mentions of lgbtqia
and other marginalized
people now I can tell you as someone
who's been in the public school system
their entire life that banning books
does nothing to Pro protect our children
but what it does do is further hurt and
marginalize our minority students even
further and for all of us in this room
it is important to remember that this
city council and these elected people
serve a very diverse Community everybody
and especially our lgbtq youth who are
facing an ongoing Mental Health crisis
deserve to be represented in the books
we read so I would like to ask the CLE
that they please trust everyone and
especially our students that they have
the ability to make decisions about what
they read and this is an issue about me
to me about democracy and the idea that
people deserve the right to see
themselves reflected in the books that
they read growing up just one more thing
is that I found out recently that
Chandler has some of the best schools in
Arizona but you know in America as well
and I just want to say that an effort to
ban books or to restrict the information
that the public has is an attempt to
disrupt this excellent education that
students receive in Chandler and is
against everyone's best interest thank
you thank
[Applause]
you my next card and and I apologize I'm
I'm having a hard time uh reading your
writing but is first name Dawn is there
someone here Don all
right we did good job vice mayor please
state your name and address for the and
you have up to three minutes to
speak good evening mayor council my name
is Don uh IED St pronouns uh I live on
6201 West Park Avenue uh chanler
85226 and I am a senior at Hamilton High
School um when I was in sixth grade I
picked up a copy of Aristotle and Dante
discover the secrets of the universe
this book was highly awarded very well
written and appropriate for my age it
was also a frequently challenged book
just because the main character happened
to be gay this book changed my life it
reassured me that lgbtq inclusion was is
not a radical concept it is basic care
and empathy for others it let me know
that my identity as an lgbtq teen was
normal and worthy of Love recently our
Chandler libraries have faced challenges
from an extreme view Librarians have
been repeatedly harassed over books that
make sure that all students are seen and
represented these individuals seek to
ban books close down Li library programs
and disrupt learning activities this
focal minority as you have seen today
does not represent our community my
school's next Library it is a safe space
for students to learn hang out and seek
Community this is a space for us that
this extreme view seeks to make smaller
and smaller students and their parents
should be able to be trusted to make
decisions and the council should stand
up for their right to agency these
outspoken people who seek to marginalize
lgbtq Youth and other minorities and
their representation in libraries
violate this very council's ndo and I
urge you to reaffirm your commitment and
protect lgbtq Young people and their
stories thank you so much thank
you the next speaker is Jacqueline
Carter
Cen Jacqueline lives on flint lock
way it's been a long night we understand
[Music]
Jacqueline next speaker is Eduardo Scher
Eduardo please state your name and
address for the record you have up to
three minutes thank you my name is
eduard schroer 3480 West R Drive in
Jayla Arizona I am um the one of the
founders of CH Pride I
am speaking in favor of libraries with
many diverse books uh with an age
appropriate context reading B books can
be beneficial for several reasons uh it
uh broadens perspectives it encourages
critical thinking brings cultural and
historical awareness Ness it Fosters
freedom of expression a fundamental
human rights allows for intellectual
exporation it Sparks dialogue my
children and I have enjoyed the channel
libraries for over 20 years I couldn't
wait I mean I lived near Sunset library
and I was just just watching it be built
and it was so exciting and I just
couldn't wait to get in there um and
having a diversity of books available
encourages encouraged us to keep going
back parents have the rights to guide
their children's reading but parents
should not be making decisions for other
parents'
childrens specifically a small group of
parents should not dictate what books
other people's children are allowed to
read I want the library board to know
that my family and Cher Pride support
diversity in their catalog thank you so
much thank
[Applause]
you and I have two comment cards I will
read them just to be consistent uh the
first is from sayaa revon apologize
again if I mispronounced your name on
the subject of banning books I believe
students shall have the op the Liberty
to lead without restrictions reading is
very powerful in restricting the
knowledge students intake takes away
that
wow nobody applauded for
me all right the last speaker card uh by
Barbara face I support the freedom of
libraries to have a diversity and
variety of books available for patrons I
oppose Banning or limiting books by
people who are afraid of diversity they
can have their opinion but should keep
their hands off
books
all right Council that concludes our our
unscheduled public appearances is that
still correct uh city
clerk yes mayor very good uh next we
have current
events I've got three of at four I would
like to share with you for our city day
is Saturday October 21st at the Colonia
coronita neighborhood more than a
thousand volunteers will work together
on various home Improv ment projects in
the neighborhood there's also going to
be a park party and a job fair in that
area close to Humphrey Elementary School
for more information visit far our city
chandler. org secondly Halloween
Spooktacular Friday October 27th from
5:30 to 8:30 PM in downtown Chandler at
Dr AJ Chandler Park stage the event is
free with games costume parade and trunk
Retreat stations handing out goodies
visit chandleraz.gov
Spooktacular thirdly Arbor day is
Saturday November 4th at Chandler n
Nature Center there will be tree
planting demonstrations and Chandler
households can pick up a free five
gallon tree looking forward to picking
up a desert willow tree and putting it
in my front yard how cool is that fact
if you want to help me show up at my
house November 7th on my birthday bring
your wheelbarrow and shovel we're having
a rock and tree
party more information on the first part
not the second visit chandleraz.gov
Arbor Day and lastly Council just
tonight uh Chandler made the top five of
the most ready for the future cities in
the nation so
uh it seems to fit the conversations
that we're having for finances and
reserves and looking forward in the
decisions that we make so
congratulations uh Council and staff
council member andus I'll keep it very
short um I don't have any official
announcements but I'll be seeing you
guys this weekend at for our city as
well as the mental health Symposium
that's gonna be taking place here in the
Cher so we'll see you then thank
you thank you mayor nothing tonight from
me vice mayor happy Veterans Day to all
those veterans out there and in fact we
have a couple coup events coming up uh
next week or so Friday November 3rd from
8:30 to 10:30 in the downtown Chandler
uh at excuse me downtown CH Chandler
Community Center veterans active duty
retired military service members are
invited to enjoy a free breakfast and
haircuts now that's one of the things I
do not miss about the military's
haircuts but we're still giving free
ones out to you and um so come on down
enjoy the morning Fellowship
registration is required go to visit
Chandler a.com
ofevents and finally Veterans Day is
Saturday November 11th uh join us from
4:30 to 8:00 at the field of honor
veterans Oasis Park um and we'll have a
good time is there as well again visit
chandleraz.gov events and have a great
evening thank you V mayor council member
Stuart thank you mayor and yeah if you
haven't been to the uh Veterans Day
celebration uh out at veterans Oasis
park it is moving and it is something
you should definitely attend with the
new
um display that we have out there hey
you know um it is important that we
recognize the tragedy that's that's
happening overseas and uh you know I
don't know how we do that what the right
thing to say is but I know that it's
Weighing on everybody's heart and it's
something that uh when I look out in the
audience I can see uh we're a community
that communicates and we have
differences and we have um things that
we struggle with um I'm just grateful
for this nation and the fact that we do
have a place like this where we can
share our differences and and we can uh
come to resolution and I'm grateful um
you know I want to kind of transition
into uh celebration which is kind of
somber but I want to on on the uh on the
4th of November from 11: to 3 uh at the
downtown AJ Chandler stage we will be
Cate celebrating devali the Festival of
Lights and I just got introduced to Dali
about three years ago and it is the best
if you haven't been part of this
celebration that's generally held with
our Indian Community um where we
celebrate the uh the uh victory of light
over darkness and uh the food is
unbelievable so I recommend that you get
out there on Saturday and then of course
go Dbacks I won't ruin it if everybody
taped it but uh it is go
Dbacks no no no no you never know you
never
know go
and Council I invite you to join me on
stage for the opening greeting and uh of
course you get to uh participate in a
bali dance too so you'll see us here we
go twitch and move erratically on stage
and others will call it
dancing council member Harris I'm ready
for to break dance that's what I'm G be
doing on the stage so um
anyways now you know what tonight has
been
government at work and I'm really just
proud to hear about the ndo something
that I was passionate about to Le in the
council was to vote on it and and and
get us a unanimous vote so I was really
proud to hear about the Indo multiple
times tonight so it just lets me know
that we are in the right vein we are
moving forward as a um as a community
that believe in diversity and Embraces
diversity and want to see everyone
working together to to move the the city
of channel for and that's what it's all
about so I was smiling and happy and
things like that because this is what
it's all about us working together so
I'll say my announcement because I sure
missed my last event I supposed to been
at about an hour and 30 minutes ago but
it's all good I missed it now but uh
serving the people is important
so this
Saturday uh Happy Veterans Day to um
vice mayor we both serve um um both both
are veterans um this Saturday October
21st from 9:00 am. to 1 pm mental health
Symposium uh council member Cena is
already announced but I want to
reiterated please come out from 9:00 amm
to 1 pm it's going to be right here in
the council chamber so make sure you do
that and we will have experts here to
talk about various topics and things of
that nature so go to Channeler a.gov
events to
register then I would like you to join
myself as well as mayor and some of my
other colleagues for the mental health
walk that's going to be taking place um
next Saturday October 28th from 8:00 am.
to 10: a. right across the way at the
new Square you don't want to miss it's
going to be great um there's a
registration there but we want you to
come out it's free for the community and
it's going to be absolutely amazing we
have various speakers that's going to be
there but more importantly solidarity
mental health you guys need to come out
without you there's no walk so I need
you to come out and walk so we can have
a walk
so make sure you guys come out we have
over 400 something people register it's
going to be a really good walk and I'm
excited and now I'm ready to go home
thank you mayor council member Harris is
there going to be uh coffee and donuts
for us you know what for you yes there
will be coffee and donuts for
everybody you get a coffee donut you get
a coffee and a
donut ccil member posting all right hang
in there with us for just one more
minute because I think this is important
and it's relevant I thought council
member Parris was setting me up a little
bit here to move right into it but Terry
Kimble the president of the Chandler
chamber is in the audience tonight would
you stand up Terry just she's right over
there just give us a little wave you
know I wanted to recognize an award that
she won she was honored last Friday by
one Community she's the president of our
Chandler chamber she received a Local
Heroes award it was during their
Spotlight Spotlight on success event and
this was a special award because it was
their 10-year anniversary of the unity
pledge and I don't know how many people
in this room know this but Terry with
the Chandler chamber um brought the
non-discrimination ordinance to her
diversity equity and inclusion committee
all the way back in 2017 and began
laying the foundation for the city to
begin taking a look at this issue she
always has the pulse on what businesses
are doing and businesses so often lead
the way on items like this they
understand that it's about the best
person and to be inclusive is to create
a wonderful workplace and so I just
wanted to recognize her for getting this
much-deserved award personally thank her
for that work that she did at the
chamber while I I was board chair of the
chamber during some of that time and
appreciated her leadership this award is
welld deserved and I hope you'll join me
in a round of applause for
her
city manager nothing tonight mayor thank
you thank you all for sticking with us
that concludes our council
meeting