City of Chandler Council Meeting 4/13/23

thank you
thank you
I'm just looking out for you
foreign
well good evening and welcome everyone
to our regular city council meeting of
April 13th
so glad to see you here and clerk will
you please take the role mayor Harkey
present Vice Mar Orlando here council
member and Zenith here councilmember
Ellis here council member Stewart here
council member Harris here council
member Poston here we have a quorum
thank you so much our invocation tonight
will be brought by Reverend Sarah
Oglesby Donegan from the valley
Unitarian Universalist Congregation
Reverend and our Pledge of Allegiance by
vice mayor Matt Orlando
God of many names
at all
be with these leaders and community
members today
help them to listen more deeply
to ask more questions and to hold this
community and its needs in the center of
their decisions
help them to consider far into the
future and to learn from the past
help them to learn and grow as leaders
and as humans shaping this community for
other humans
bless this community with compassion
integrity
and true leadership
for all of this we pray and give thanks
for your guidance and love amen
please join in honoring the America I
pledge allegiance to our flag I pledge
allegiance to the flag of the United
States of America and to the Republic
for which it stands one nation under God
indivisible with liberty and justice for
all
and and mayor thank you Reverend mayor I
apologize I was talking to a former Air
Force guy like I was and we were talking
about old airplanes so I apologize
you are you are forgiven from myself in
constipation Council we had a robust
conversation on Monday related to the
consent agenda unless someone would like
to pull something to action a motion
would be in order
mayor councilmember Harris uh moved to
to approve the consent agenda of April
13 2023 uh regular B items one through
16.
we have a motion by councilmember Harris
uh second by council member encinas any
recusos explanations mayor
councilmember Harris council member I'm
sorry you're looking good
thank you you must be better dressed
um hey I uh just want to make a note on
item number three which is the
short-term rentals I had uh voted no
against that on their first time around
I've talked with staff and I understand
that the added tax to this particular
ordinance is not going to be in fact
until we talk about it a little bit more
detail so I'll be voting yes on number
three tonight but I do want to explain
my change of vote and that's because the
policy is good if it's within the state
statute and we can talk about the fees
that could be associated with that later
thank you very good
Council please vote
motion cares unanimously
thank you Clerk
we do have two presentations called in
tonight item number 17 is a briefing and
discussion regarding the Chandler Police
Department collaboration with Solari for
crisis response services including
training of 9-1-1 operations policy
development and referral of
non-emergency mental health costs
requested by council member Harris
chief
well good evening mayor members Council
if I can
figure this out
give me one second here
I'm going to ask the fire chief to come
forward and help me with the AV
Equipment
I'm serious
[Laughter]
and this is a remote
well hey that's the first that's the
first time he asked for fire support
[Laughter]
Friend in Me
all right on a more serious note
so a little over a year and a half ago
some of you may recall I spoke with
Council about some protocol changes we
made operationally in our emergency call
center specifically related to calls
involving mental health and back in
August of 2021 we adjusted our
guidelines and began to to defer a very
limited amount of calls to Solari crisis
Network
and since then we've been able to divert
almost 300 calls to Solari so those are
calls that in the past officers would
respond to in this case now we've had
300 instances where we've been able to
defer that call to slurry instead of a
dispatching an officer so last July
Council approved funding to contract
with Solari and embed a crisis counselor
inside our communication Center and the
counselor
the whole intention behind that is to
have that person come in and look at our
our policies and procedures identify
other calls that could be diverted to
Solari
um and provide training basically to our
dispatchers and our our officers and
while they're on scene then actually act
as uh decision makers on other calls
that could be actually transferred over
and then track and count the progress
over over time so in December last
December Council approved a service
agreement with Solari and on March 21st
police announce that we identified a
person and they started
working in our Dispatch Center on March
21st this past year they work 20 hours a
week they work on Tuesdays and Fridays
from noon to to 10 30. and this
agreement is for this for one year we're
using one-time funding and we will be
coming back in the upcoming upcoming
budget requests asking for another year
so the whole intention behind in this
this relationship exists and elsewhere
in the valley and we uh conservatively
estimate that we can divert at least 800
calls we're predicting and likely more
over the course of a year so if we're
able to do that instead of sending
office officers to a scene uh that's a
that's a great win so that's the the
update on where we are right now and I'd
be happy to answer any any questions
yeah thank you Chief um I appreciate the
presentation
um you've answered all my questions uh I
just want to make a couple of comments I
think this is a great program how we're
addressing mental health and how we're
using our resources properly we want to
make sure our officers are taking care
of the issues that matters to our every
to crime and things that keeps our
community safe and this aspect we want
the professionals to handle these type
of issues because you know as they say
sometimes it's above the pay grade in
which you're getting paid to do and
sometimes people have different
expertise so I just wanted to give the
community an update you're giving me an
update I think this program is working
good and I hope that Council continues
mayor and Council continues to support
diversion programs like this to help us
with our mental health issues in our
community so thanks Chief thanks man any
additional comments Facebook gee just a
clarification you said Thursday and
Friday or Thursday through Fridays
Thursday and Friday for a total of 20
hours per week so question for you and
have you done a a deeper dive to see if
we added additional
days that what we would we'd accomplish
so this is a beta program and we just
started just over two two weeks ago so
the whole the whole intention is to
start this let's get a Year's worth of
data let it play out we anticipate
between 800 and thousand calls uh but
we're not going to know until it's over
and one of the uh one of the
responsibilities will be to track all
those type of calls so we have a better
understanding a year from now what the
results have been and what we can do
moving forward
okay so I guess I'm confused we're only
doing this two weeks now I I thought it
was two days a week for a year this is a
one-year program I just started yeah
okay so yeah I I heard but thanks mayor
so we just started March but I thought
we put funding in this last year why did
it take so long time because it's a
process so we need to have a service
agreement they had to hire someone they
had to identify another person to bring
on board they had to go through a
background process so things are slow
things don't happen overnight
unfortunately so it just took this time
it took this long uh to get that person
actually starting which although plenty
was approved on July 1st we didn't
weren't able to kick this off until
March okay thank you thanks mayor mayor
oh councilmember Ellis and then council
member posted thank you Chief I mean
this is such an amazing time for me to
sit here and hear this thing come to
rotation we had this discussion in 2019
when I sat down in your office and you
literally told me out of the three
percent of those that you interface with
two percent of them all having some
mental illness difficulties and at that
time as a psych nurse I understood that
if you had that kind of help with a
triage professional to understand when
they get a call where to follow that
call and then also to work uh in consort
with having a unit that can specialize
in that area to go out specifically for
those calls and that you will be able to
make an impact in our community that has
never been done before and so I'm so
proud of this program I'm very thankful
that a city manager thank you so much
for pushing the agenda and making sure
and I want to thank mayor and Council
for saying yes to it along the way and
then putting actually our money where
our mouth is and so thank you again for
continuing leadership in that area and I
know you're going to continue to grow
this program and the people of children
will benefit the most out of it
appreciate you sir thank you thank you
councilmember posted Chief I just wanted
to clarify did you say it would you're
anticipating about 800 to 1000 calls
over the next year to be diverted
correct okay and then will will there be
a like a dollar amount or an hours you
know a year from now when you come back
and begin to talk about it
well we we can we can look at those
numbers we can look at exactly how many
calls and we can extrapolate an estimate
of what that would have cost as far as
staff hours responding to those calls
but again some of those calls May last
15 minutes and so maybe eight hours sure
so sure we can come up with an estimate
yeah but it seems it seems like it's a
good investment as opposed to an expense
if we look at it that way so thank you
it's an incredible investment and this
way we were able to use officers to do
and responsive things that they're
trained to do and we're able to leverage
outside resources to help the community
and let the professionals deal with the
issues that they're trained to do thank
you I love it
thank you chief on this one um item 18
is a briefing and discussion on current
Chandler opioid data and Public Safety
response protocols as well as
information regarding the one Arizona
opioid settlement funds agreement and
approved purposes and current and future
distribution as requested by council
member Harris and chief before you get
up there Council I I hope that again
without knowing more of the funds and
we'll have a have opportunity to have a
robust conversation of where funds could
go in the future so this is more of a of
a baseline if I'm not correct is that
correct council member Harris very good
sir okay thank you mayor and Council so
what I want to do tonight is give you a
quick briefing on our 2022 opioid
overdose data and then after a few
slides I'm going to turn it over to Don
who's going to talk about the actual
settlement agreement
so in 2022 the Chandler fire department
responded to 767 overdose incidents for
us and over an overdose incident is any
type of absorption ingestion injection
of some type of substance that goes into
the body has some type of systemic
result where the patient becomes
systemically uh somehow their health is
compromised 9-1-1 calls place and we
respond within that umbrella it's not
just opioids it's alcohol it's other
prescription medications it can even be
chemicals that are underneath the sink
so 767 total incidence of those
incidents
505 either had a direct or indirect
correlation to opioids the reason that
is is that when we see overdose patients
they are usually overdosing on multiple
medications so it can be an alcohol and
opioids it could be some type of benzo
and opioids or it can just be opioids we
can't truly deter women what is causing
the overdose that comes from the
hospital through post-discharge blood
draws things like that but we know we
were on scene and there was an opioid
present either the
patients family verbally stated it or we
saw something pill bottles for heroin
needles something like that so that's a
total of 66 percent of our overdose
calls that are directly tied or directly
or indirectly tied to opioids now I did
give a presentation back in 2018 for the
public safety subcommittee I believe the
vice mayor was part of that presentation
I'm going to bring you back to some of
those numbers just to show you uh where
we've come from and so in 2018 we had
422 overdoses within our response areas
of those 422 only 20 percent were actual
tied to indirectly or directly to opioid
drugs
when we look at the demographics of our
patients and these are specific patients
that uh that it's confirmed that it
opioids are present we know that 60 or
male 40 are female these numbers that we
see here on this chart are consistent
with the state the state has a dashboard
that they update almost daily and so all
of our numbers I back check to see where
we are benchmarked across the state and
we're pretty consistent when we look at
the age of our patients from 20 to 29
years old that accounts to 18 of our
opioid overdoses and then the highest is
our 30 to 39 is 24 if you combine those
two together it's 42 between 20 and 39.
the significance of this number
is that when we look at opioid opioid
prescriptions over 70 of all
prescriptions are for 55 and older and
so that tells you that these aren't
necessarily prescription drugs that's
prescribed by a doctor that they're
overdosing on
so we look at the drugs what what type
of specific opioids are these
individuals taking again I said that we
don't have the ability to do the the lab
work to determine what it is but we do
get this information uh post-discharge
from the hospitals they have an
obligation to report it to the state and
so this is State data from 2022. right
now 64 in 2022 of all opioid overdoses
were from Fentanyl
I went back to 2018 it was 12.7 so it
has skyrocketed
um from you know 13 to 64 as of today
2023 is on Pace to be 79 of all
overdoses that are tied to opioid is
from Fentanyl
oxycodone which is a prescribed
medication is 13 in 2022 if we go back
to 2018 it was 28.8 percent
so again what we're seeing is the actual
prescription the prescribed medications
that are opioid uh those overdoses are
coming down other medications is at 18
and those are all the other
prescriptions it was at 45 in 2018. a
lot of that is due to the fact that in
16 and 17 Governor Doug Ducey put
legislation into effect that really
clamped down on Physicians and their
ability to prescribe opioids in fact
what they did was they created a
database whereas if you were some people
call them pain Seekers were you were
Doctor shopping
with the same uh Chief complaint trying
to get medicine once you hit four
doctors four prescriptions it would flag
the system and they would know to stop
that I can tell you the results of that
legislation and and really a push by
azdhs in 2018 there was three three
million 700 000 opioid prescriptions
delivered in Arizona in 2022 is a 2.3
million so we've seen almost a 1.4
million uh prescribed opioid reduction
in the system which is really good
um unfortunately it's being replaced
with fentanyl heroin is another big
mover on on the one end of the spectrum
Fenton fentanyl is growing heroin in
2018 was 25 so every overdose in the
state of Arizona that was reported and
this is uh post discharge information
was attributed to heroin in 2018 25
today it's three percent
and so the trends continue to to change
on us I think that uh you probably all
know this but I'm going to say it again
anyways uh the biggest danger here
and why I believe we are seeing more
overdoses is the fentanyl is so much
more powerful than any of these other
drugs and so you can take heroin uh and
certainly we've had overdoses with that
but you can take Fentanyl and it's a
hundred times worse some of the
overdoses uh just reading through the
state's website there's no intent to
overdose it's discharged directions and
instead of taking one pill they take two
but it's so powerful that you can have
uh respiratory depression you can have
altered level of Consciousness and so
they are seeing a lot of overdoses as I
said that what they're calling is
accidental right there's absolutely no
intent
um to do that but this uh speaks volumes
and we've seen Nationwide that the
fentanyl crisis is continuing to grow
and it's certainly Happening Here in the
state of Arizona
when we look at the Chandler fire
department and the calls that we ran in
2022 I took the three on the EMS side of
the house at the free three most
prevalent calls were fall injuries at 17
and we run around uh 23 24 000 EMS calls
uh altered level of Consciousness which
is our Strokes diabetic emergencies was
at 10
respiratory emergencies which is asthma
CHF COPD was at nine percent and
overdoses were at four percent and back
in 2018 it was at two percent so it has
doubled it's still relatively low for
our community when we compare it to the
other
um you know nature codes for 9-1-1 but
we certainly do have um we do have some
overdoses within our system
uh there was a specific question about
Narcan use and as you know now there's
been a lot of news on Narcan Narcan is a
drug that you push it will bind to the
receptor sites in your brain where
opioid if you think of opioids as a key
and these receptor sites as locks the
opioid will go in there that's what
gives us our pain relief that feeling uh
that high feeling that people get when
you push Narcan Narcan goes in and it
blocks the key and So within seconds
from when we push Narcan we will get a
patient that will turn around even if
they're so respiratory depressed a lot
of times these people will come up right
away what did we see in 2022 well we
administer we administered it 342 times
that was our paramedics
that's that's a lot higher than 2018
which was at 82 but I'm going to explain
a little bit on one of the reasons why a
bystander Administration this is
something that you can buy over the
counter now so we're seeing more and
more people in their homes that have
Narcan their inner their their
administering it through the nasal
cavity we get on scene we do an
assessment uh you know and we will
ensure that the patient has come around
but we are seeing a lot more of this and
then finally uh our police officers had
the ability and the training uh and the
uh the drug itself to administer Narcan
and they are certainly using those when
it's presented with that opportunity one
thing with Narcan and it's really
important that you understand this is
342 times that we administer it does not
mean that those were 342 people that
were having an opioid problem Narcan is
essentially the only diagnostic drug
that we have that we carry as paramedics
and what that means is this is our
response protocol
we'll do an initial assessment of the
patient what we're trying to determine
is what is their level of Consciousness
we will literally put our our Knuckles
into their chest and try to get some
type of painful response to see if they
come up
if they don't if they're not responsive
to pain we know that they're far enough
down that now their respiratory system
is compromised first thing we'll do is
we'll check their blood sugar whether
your blood sugar is high but generally
it's when it's low it will mimic what an
overdose will look like if their blood
sugar is good if it's within its normal
ranges then we are going to push Narcan
does not mean that they are overdosed on
opioids but if we push it and that
patient comes back right away it is
confirmed that it's an opioid if we push
it and they don't then we move on we
start assessing for strokes we start
looking for any other type of trauma
anything else that could be going on so
when I say that all 347 aren't opioids a
lot of times we're using it as a
diagnostic tool
obviously once we push the drug if they
respond we will transport that patient
the police department also has protocols
that are very similar to us they will
arrive on scene they will assess the
level of consciousness of the patient
based on their assessment they will not
check blood glucose they will go right
to the nasal Narcan they'll push that if
the patient obviously comes to they know
that it's an opioid if it's not then
that's pretty much where they stop part
of their protocol is they're calling for
us right away this is a care that has to
be handed over to a paramedic so we will
get these patients from our police
officers and then we'll make the final
determination as far as whether we
transport or not
okay so that is all I have I'd be happy
to answer any questions or I can turn it
over to Don
councilmember Harris
no Chief thank you so much for the
presentation I think this was important
for this information to lay a basis of
what we're dealing with what you're
dealing with and making sure that our
community is aware and I appreciate the
information that was shown in terms of
the age group because this is a part of
that chart with showing our youth which
could be school age or in school
my only question is how are we do we
have a plan do we share this information
with cusd do we have a plan to speak to
our youth about this
um this is something that is that
outside of our purview as a city how do
we share this information because I
think that's important uh and and for
our cusd or other schools not just cusd
but other schools to have this
information up through the mayor
councilmember Harris
we do not share our uh our data with
cusd
we do share our data with the state of
Arizona and with the hospitals and then
what the hospitals are required to do is
every year they have to do a community
needs assessment and they have to
identify what are the five biggest
health risks to the city of Chandler
what are the five biggest social impacts
that are causing those and so it's about
an 80 I think 90 pack rated last night
90 page document
based off of that and they they have the
same data we do so we're sending our
patients to them based off of that they
have to then make a plan on how who
they're going to partner with whether
it's non-profits whether it's the Care
Center the school and then how are they
going to convey that preventative
information how are they going to make
sure that there's a level of awareness
what type of services that they have do
they have to provide and so I as I said
I did read that last night the
assessment for 2022 the 2023 assessments
not done that's something that's coming
soon but I believe it was their number
two priority as far as health goes was
and it's opioid is in there but it's
substance abuse overall and they had
listed at least 15 different partners
that they thought would be good partners
to to get that message out each one of
these groups have a different mission on
how to support it whether
whether Shin whether it's treatment
whether it's just a full wraparound
service and so
um
we don't directly give the numbers
but dignity does and we give our numbers
well thank you
um I would probably reserve the rest of
my questions for Dawn when she does the
financial presentation
additional questions for chief
councilmember Ellis Chief we talked
about knocking and uh
it is important for people to realize
that it can also be available to those
non-profits and those people that are
trained can also administer that it's
not only the 9-1-1 when they get unseen
that can administer I know some of the
cities that are dealing with it on a
regular basis for example we have a
non-profit that is Downtown Phoenix
every Sunday morning and we carry knock
him and so it
is are we working with some of our
non-profit like a easy sand and all this
other one like you mentioned the Care
Center that if somebody that just
stepped on the property and just
collapse that they can actually
administer or do they carry it and
what's going on with that in that area
through the mayor council member Alice
right now we are not uh we don't have
the ability uh to provide the Narcan
Narcan is now sold over the counter so
uh before it was not you had to get a
grant and then you had to get a
prescription I believe when the police
department got theirs it was through our
medical directors there was very
specific training
now you can go to any store any
drugstore and you can get the Narcan
this drug will save their life that is
that's what it does it immediately stops
the effect especially when somebody's in
respiratory arrest or they're so far
depressed that they just don't have the
cellular respiration
um but we don't as a fire department or
as a city I don't have the um I would be
happy to train people but as far as
getting the drug itself we don't have a
way of doing it but it is widely
available and even within the past since
in the last three weeks I've seen a lot
of information on the regular news
telling people to to purchase this and
so I don't know if there's grant
opportunities but we would certainly uh
train them that would not be a problem
that was up what I was going to ask you
next is there anywhere we can partner
with any organization that has Grant to
help even salary or some other
organizations like uh you know that
really work with those kinds of clients
I know Southwest Behavioral Health could
also be a great partner in that area if
we could approach them and see if
there's any way that we can because when
it is over the counter but those who
need it the most they probably will use
the money to buy the drug versus by
knocking in order for them to do it the
other thing that I want to ask you is
can you expand on the idea of the fact
that if I'm that far into respiratory
distress and even a suppression I can't
administer knocking to myself so
carrying knocking and still taking drugs
how does that help anyone
that's a great Point council member um
because as you get to the point where
you realize you probably need Narcan
you're not you're not really capable of
self-administration because it is in the
nose
um and certainly if you're your
respiratory system is compromised there
is no ability so you you are spot on to
have that in your pocket uh is not going
to do you good and as we know especially
with fentanyl this is not a slow thing
that happens when that is absorbed and
it gets into your bloodstream uh you go
from zero to a hundred very quickly and
and as you know it will knock out your
ability to process information critical
information and so uh I I believe the
thought or the hope is always that
somebody within the house we saw that
the 77 bystander administrations
somebody within the house somebody
within you know the whether it's a
business or whatever that almost if we
think about aeds we could potentially
someday see Narcan in there as well
um where when you see someone who's
unconscious who's not responsive that
you have the ability to do that but yeah
that's a great that is a great point I
want to clarify when you said that I
know it's just because I'm a nurse not
because that I use
clarification is right thank you for the
clarification
additional comments mayor councilmember
Stuart I you know I always look at cause
and effect it seemed to me that you were
you mentioned that uh the governor had
implemented a law that that stopped
people from getting what I would call
regulated drugs the regulated opioids
for and if we're an addiction and it
sounds like the law actually if I'm
doing cause and effect move them to a
legal non-metered fentanyl which is
causing more overdoses
do you think I mean it's not really a
question it's more of a statement it
sounds like the intended purpose was to
help people not be addicts but what it
ended up doing it sounds like is the law
ended up making them go to illegal drugs
which is causing more of a stress on our
system more stress in our community more
of a stress on our families and for
those that are unfortunately had to lose
family members because of this so
Council unfortunate I try not to make
assumptions just give you the raw data
um but yes we put we pushed it from a
prescription-based problem
to this synthetic
fentanyl problem that's a hundred times
worse than the prescription right so we
we moved we moved it it's not a static
problem and that's one thing I learned
going through this it's very Dynamic and
it completely shifted on us it was as a
young paramedic uh when I started the
job 25 years ago uh I remember it was
always heroin you know that's what we
saw and you knew you could see it
sometimes it was still in their arm and
we really trained to that and and today
it's not it's it's a drug that's far
worse far more potent it's fast acting
it's long lasting so it's dangerous so
yeah the it's moved we shifted the we
shifted the problem it was good intent I
believe oh yeah and it worked you can
see the reduction in the amount of
prescriptions over a million which is
amazing but at the same time there was a
void created and it was filled oh and
and then
the cartels will move right in and take
over that space and that's exactly what
they did and so you're seeing it coming
in over the Border it's it's a it's a
crisis and it continues to be a crisis
so while I applaud legislators and the
governor for trying to do something to
help the community this one seems like
it's backfiring thank you
all right thank you Chief Don
okay
mayor and Council and the next part of
this presentation is regarding the
opioid settlement agreement the city
entered into March 1st 2022 it actually
represents a national opioid legislation
or litigation settlement in which two
significant opioid actions were reached
proposed settlements final settlements
the first was the global settlement with
three opioid Distributors and the second
was opioid manufacturers and there's
four of them so today we have entered
into two of those agreements
and it allows the state and
participating local governments to enter
into these agreements
and the settlement funds once we enter
in are shared 44 with the state 56
percent with participating local
governments based on our population
the settlements funds have not been
established as additional agreements
with pharmaceutical supply chain
participants continue to be entered into
and so like I said we've only so far
entered into two so there's more to come
and then these local local governments
are allowed to use funds internally or
can partner with Community agencies or
Regional partners for many of the
approved purposes as long as
accountability and Reporting obligations
are met so as of 8 A.M this morning we
had no idea what the reporting
requirements were and then at about 9 30
they landed in our inbox so as of this
morning hot off the press we now have
that with training at the end of the
month because there's quite a bit of
reporting around an obligation around
accepting these funds
so next
um and I don't do you have the clicker
to change the slide I'm so sorry
thank you for being my AV person
so then thank you so the next slide will
first is broke down into requirements
and then the funding we anticipate the
requirements are 70 of the funding
received must be used for future opioid
remediation
a maximum of 15 can be spent on opioid
crisis related reimbursement and
administrative expenses and then
non-opioid remediation expenses are
capped at 15 percent
additionally a report is required to be
filed by July 31st annually and so
that's coming up real soon because so
far we have actually received three
payments so in the beginning or when
they when the litigation settlement
information came out it was reported
that Arizona anticipates and it's still
an estimate to receive about 549 million
and based on the fact that local
governments will receive 56 percent of
that Chandler's estimate based on our
population and all those that opted in
would receive about 2.86 so we could
Chandler could potentially receive up to
8.79 million
um but that's over an 18-year period so
it ends up being about on average about
480
000 a year
so it lists here three payments that
have been received to date the first
payment represented 2021's payment 2022
we got a payment off each of those
settlements one from a distributor
settlement and one from a manufacturer's
settlement
and of course then our next step is to
figure out how we're going to use those
funds
so the next slide we dug into the opioid
settlement agreement that the city has
received
and it lists here it summarizes the
approved purposes so there's a lot of
different details in this agreement but
the three main categories are treatment
prevention and then other strategies
and I won't read through all these but
we have met as a team if you go to the
next slide
and the
Police Department fire department the
law department and Management Services
had some preliminary discussions based
on the agreement and these are some of
the things that came out of our
discussion but certainly there's been no
decisions yet on how these will be used
these funds are currently just sitting
in our general fund but these were
obvious things I think that that came up
internally because we have seen increase
in costs but of course we're also
talking about how do we move the needle
into the future how do we you know
positively try to help turn around this
crisis we can certainly offset and do
some of the prevent to try to prevent
overdose deaths but there's so much more
to this topic so
um if you turn the page again this is
the last one the next steps we need to
come together internally and assess our
community needs we need to determine if
we need to include other partners
and then of course
we now have obtained final reporting and
accounting rules but we will have to
review those and go to the training and
find out exactly what is required
they're written pretty high levels so I
think there'll be a lot of questions
from communities that have opted in and
then finally that future conversation
will come back to you with a recommended
strategy for discussion
questions
thank you so much Don and thank you
Chief and I I wanted to bring this
forward not to really have a just a
discussion about it but just to make
sure
um Grant Woods uh fought for this for
states to have to combat opioids and
these issues and the dollars that will
be used for this I know that
um the uh Josh and the City they have
plans but I wanted to more so bring it
to us so we can know where we are but
also for Council to I would like Council
to be involved in The Conversation Piece
of where and what we're going to be
doing and how these funds are going to
be used
um you know moving forward and there
probably is a lot of questions but I
just kind of wanted to bring It Forward
just to kind of give Council uh an ideal
that this is there is this issue here
and we're going to receive funds to
address this issue and I just wanted
Council mayor and Council to look at
this and say okay
let's put this forth to staff you know
there are some guidelines but what does
that look like and to bring it back to
Mayor and Council on some type of study
session of some sort to so for our input
um to make sure that we're doing
everything we can to address the issues
that pertains to our community and I
know that in our community we do have
these issues that's why some of those
dollars are coming but I wanted to make
sure that staff put forth
um you know a strategy and for it to
come back to Mayor and Council for us to
review uh that that's all I had I just
wanted to bring it up and then perhaps
in the study session where we can act
get into more details and act deeper
questions so with that being said Thank
You mayor thank you councilmember
additional questions customer thank you
so um Don I know we just got some of the
criteria today literally
[Music]
um
I guess my question is we just heard the
chief say opioid uses trending downwards
yet fentanyl's friendly hugely upwards
almost leapfrogging
um
as we prepare this messaging
how do we incorporate other
um
drugs that cause addiction to this
I mean if we say the word opioid and
other things I mean I'm concerned here
that we'll be focusing just on opioids
the messaging when really should be
focusing on drug overdose in general
through the mayor vice mayor you're
correct this is not
um
although the you know it's a large
percentage 66 I believe was the number
of percentage of our overdoses are
directly or indirectly tied to opioids
we should not forget about the other 34
percent uh because that those can wreak
havoc on your health and your life and
so uh it should definitely be a broader
approach uh outside of just opioids to
see you know how
you know all of the other prescription
drugs uh alcoholism you know what can we
do from uh from the city's perspective
uh we we have a program called Community
risk reduction and we look at everything
from uh you know what's happening with
uh with overdoses to how many children
are falling off their bikes without
wearing helmets and it is uh we're
currently going through that plan for
our accreditation process and we will be
evaluated on it but is it we are going
to utilize all of the information
through the hospitals to put a a
campaign together I know some of you
guys have participated in our walk for
drowning that was born out of that
document of we're seeing more drownings
what can we do and so what we may have
to do is engage you know those
populations and engage the schools but
to your point it is uh it's a it's a
broader message it's not just specific
to opioids so again obviously it's a
broader message and we may these hands
tied we got to figure out there's other
resources that we could utilize to make
it a broader message but I guess my my
first point second point and probably
more critical question is timelines
um obviously we can't wait
um my concern is that we do an
assessment we do some of this stuff that
takes months and who knows how long just
get a consultant on board in the
meantime people are dying so how do we
balance that and make this happen sooner
rather than later
through the mayor vice mayor
we roll up our sleeves and we put a plan
together we when will we see the plan
though we got some thought process on
that
I have a I know that we are going
through a much larger scale you know
Community risk reduction but
specifically to uh to drug abuse and
overdose I'll be honest with you we're
responding to it we're not we're not
preventing it right now
um we are sending our crisis response
unit we're sending our police officers
we're sending our firefighters Narcan is
not a preventative measure is
already done
um and so we can certainly sit down uh
with with our Police Department uh we
can sit down City manager's office we
can sit down with Kappa and figure out
if we can you know what type of message
should we put be putting out what does
that platform look like what audience we
certainly have the the data available to
to see who that is uh we absolutely have
to lean on the hospital right because
they are required to do that so I think
that there's and I was I was really um I
was a little disappointed that in that
uh in that Community Health needs
assessment when they talked about the
Partnerships that the city of Chandler
was not listed and I think that's a miss
and and so you know we can start working
through our relationships with the
hospital to ask how do we get engaged in
this how do we start messaging this and
and what can we do and as far as the
timeline goes
uh you know we can oh that's the city
manager that how's that that is fair I
can start tonight if you want
no seriously city manager obviously this
is a more than one department and she's
put on the spot I didn't mean to do that
Chief to you okay yeah I did yes that's
God's honestly they did the fire the
police chief told me to I got you okay
yeah
um seriously city manager I know the
funding there's funding here some sort
there's there is a compelling desire to
get the student later so can you rally
those forces and figure out come back to
us and give us some thought process on
time frames and obviously sooner the
better because people are dying mayor
vice mayor obviously we understand the
seriousness of the issue it can
certainly work quickly obviously we just
got right guidelines today so we need a
little bit of time to understand what
the rules are around the expenditure of
these funds we want to make sure we stay
compliant and also want to make sure
that we do have a plan so that we we
look at this in a logical and and uh
appropriate fashion but we will
certainly work quickly knowing the
seriousness okay thank you thank you
Chief thank you Advantage it also does
sound like I mean there was really two
conversations here is one
we really don't want to spend this money
until we know how we can spend it and
get those questions but on the other
hand how can we leverage our
Partnerships and and other messaging to
address what vice mayor is talking about
so it's I I almost see too
some we can't fully do now but there's
some how do we further leverage this
message so
um
any additional questions or comments
okay
no okay
um thank you uh Chief thank you Don
next on our agenda is announcements
which I'll be starting
today we had a pretty awesome
that is that comes after that I believe
from Iran let me check my agenda here
no
we do have one card
and we have a gentleman that's been
waiting patiently even one unscheduled
uh public appearance uh Mr Hunter if you
please come forward state your name and
address for the record you've got up to
three minutes to share your thoughts and
concerns Council cannot engage you as a
result of uh public meeting policies but
uh we here and staff will take your
comments and and get you with you
afterwards thank you Mr mayor council
staff
um usually I don't get involved that
much because you guys were in real good
town but we got a serious problem here
we better start taking a look at it in
Essie's intersections
um I have driven all over the world
and that includes Saudi Arabia uh Seoul
Tokyo Osaka uh I've walked the streets
in in Beijing in Singapore and
everywhere and I can say this with all
that experience I have never been as
concerned on either driving to an
intersection or walking across the
intersection as I am right here in
Chandler
all right and it's
I will start my daughter got into an
accident a couple weeks ago she did
everything right
unfortunately she was trying to make a
left-hand turn somebody else gave an
indication that they were going to stop
that was coming the other way they
changed their mind they hit us as a
light turned red and that's life okay
but I'll tell you it's gotten to a point
that I live on Ray Road I don't cross
the street at Ray McClintock I don't
cross the street at Ray and Rural
and I know that the law doesn't like it
but I feel a lot safer when I cross at
Mid at the mid block because I only have
to look in two directions cars come in
only two ways and I could see them when
you get involved in these intersections
right now there's a lot going on you got
people going left they got the blinking
yellow lights you got people that are
turning right uh right turn and you got
bicycles you've got people that are
paying more attention to their cell
phones and stuff than what they're
supposed to be doing and I think I don't
have statistics but I know every crash
that I've seen here and I've seen a lot
of them all of them are intersections
okay this is not a safe place to be and
if I'm nervous about it what does an 18
19 20 young year old have you know are
they going to have the same problem and
I think we can fix this
I think if we just made it simpler so
that person doesn't have to make a whole
lot of judgment calls whenever they're
trying to go through an intersection in
other words left on left Arrow only all
right make sure that when you got cars
coming this way they have the same kind
of light where we have cars with green
lights going this way everybody over
here stop they got the turn lanes over
here these people are turning we get a
green light we can't move because of the
stream of cars they're still making
left-hand turns so if you I stood at the
corner and watching how many decisions
have to be made and I think this is a
serious situation
because my daughter's going to pay for
this and she understands she was wrong
by the way
um the police were fantastic
and they really felt bad that they had a
cider but we understood it so right now
I would love to see this city take this
thing on and anything that I can do to
help in that I would more than likely
love to do it because if I'm nervous
with my experience
what about everybody else
so would you please State your address
for the record
it's 4155 West Shannon Street great
thank you sir okay is your daughter okay
yeah she got she actually came to a stop
because she thought this person was
going to stop and or make a turn and the
person was a young person so we have
some suspicions especially when the
mother told told the driver don't say
anything to the police let me do all the
questions but she's fine she's healthy
yeah all right good but we couldn't
prove it and my daughter said yeah
technically she was so we did that so
thank you sir okay
and Steph please
um listen to Mr Hunter's comments get
with him see what we can do
uh all right finally my next next is
announcements I do want to give up just
a recap right before this council
meeting we had a Dei discussion our
diversity equity and inclusion Dei
efforts are part of our strategic
priorities and today we reviewed the
Strategic plan developed by our Dei team
it has five goals to communicate connect
develop innovate and assess in all areas
of Dei I do want to thank our staff and
especially Nikki Tapia for the hard work
on this planned I know that Council and
I are fully invested in this work to be
done and looking at the positive
outcomes in our community second
announcement uh just a little while ago
on March 31st we celebrated Shields VIP
Community kickoff we had many of us on
Council that were there that particular
day and I think council member Poston
sent her husband instead she was busy
doing resetting for me yeah
so uh
Shields is going to be 254
000 square feet of shopping goodness at
our Chandler Fashion Center taking over
the the old Nordstrom's facility there
and they'll be opening this fall look
forward to more information
and lastly I do want to invite Council
and our community this Sunday April 16th
we will have our second annual field of
Hope in downtown Chandler a candlelight
vigil at AJ Chandler Park from 6 p.m
until 8 P.M this has been an event that
was started by the Exchange Club in
Chandler and was occurring out in Sun
Lakes but it as a result of a
partnership between our are
are one of our commissions are um
the Name Escapes me right now
our abuse what's what I'm thinking of
are domestic violence thank you domestic
violence and the Exchange Club they've
put this together to do this event in
downtown Chandler there's going to be a
field of flags to raise awareness about
Child Abuse Prevention which is the
month of April and flags are put out as
a memorial of the children who died
across our state due to domestic
violence the previous year each Flag
represents a life lost and the flags
will remain standing in AJ Chandler Park
West until Friday April 21st Council
hope to see several of you there if
you're able to make this this Sunday
uh council member encinas
thank you mayor um today or tonight I
just wanted to highlight a great
collaboration between our city our
schools and um our Community Partners on
April 1st um in honor of Cesar Chavez
Day our neighborhood uh programs hosted
an event right here in our Downtown
Chandler neighborhood uh Pueblo Viejo we
had over 50 volunteers from nxp
semiconductors Compass Christian church
and the National Junior Honor Society
and we all pulled together to help clean
up the Alleyways front yards and help
our neighbors
um do some spring cleaning here in the
downtown area and then the event was
kicked off here at the San Marcos
Elementary School with the pancake
breakfast
um thank you to the Insight Enterprise
team that made pancakes for everyone to
enjoy and the staff of San Marcos
Elementary School who were able to
distribute books to a bunch of students
again events like this and Partnerships
are what make our community stronger so
I just wanted to highlight this event I
wanted to thank everyone who came out on
that Saturday to be part of that and be
part of Pueblo Viejo shout out to Leah
and Priscilla Team Code Enforcement and
the neighborhood program to help
highlight this on such an important day
for Cesar Chavez so I look forward to
more events like this in our traditional
neighborhoods great event councilman
Morales thank you mayor
I will be there for the
TV because we started that with the
Exchange Club it was part of that so I'm
bringing it to Chandler thank you mayor
for saying yes to that too
tonight I would like to highlight that
the month of April is our Earth month
and well in honor of that we would like
to give Mother Nature as we call her uh
some love by celebrating Earth Day uh on
our nature center that is located not
too far from here in the south side of
Chandler the event is on Saturday April
22nd from 9 A.M it's gonna be until 12
p.m and as I said it's going to be at
the Chandler Nature Center I encourage
everyone to get out take a stroll get
ready to ride your bike and find
something fun to do outside but it's
hard I know on some of those that have
allergies but this is the time if you
have to wear a mask or whatever you need
to do but get out it's a good time now
don't wait until it's too hot to get out
and have a good time thank you mayor
we've ordered some cooler weather just
for you thank you we need it Facebook
nothing tonight mayor thank you very
good customer restore thank you thank
you you can tell we're getting to the
end of the school year I saw a couple
Perry history kids come scrolling in
here in the back I can see them back
there
yeah doing their who's who's clown catch
up with you afterwards I know what the
teacher that does that my kids had to be
in here for that but hey one of my
favorites uh plant-related holidays is
coming up uh Arbor Day on Friday April
28th and you know it's important to
remember that uh this is a day to to
celebrate trees but more importantly it
is plant plant a tree you know make sure
you prune your trees so they don't use
as much water we were talking about that
earlier uh you know and I'll just leave
it right there
[Music]
I mean I say we need to plant some
moringa tree not those yellow things
right please
I got your joke anyway
council member Harris thank you thank
you so much mayor um today just one
announcement uh I was able to
participate
um with Micah's team uh along with
representative mayor and Council on how
to compete for government contracts we
invited people from the community to
come uh to the city uh actually we did
it in city of Chandler we had the state
procurement
um lead person com as well as uh our
team with licensing registration
business they all came and the room was
filled with energized small business
owners who's just seeking to uh to want
to do business and want to do it the
right way and I was there I was able to
share some words and let me just tell
you there were some tweetable moments
and there were some moments that you
just wanted to snap your fingers like
that I was truly glad our team Chandler
is amazing and we're doing a great job
in the city in terms of Entrepreneurship
and small business and promoted and it
was amazing I was looking pretty dapper
in that picture too so
thanks Mary that's all I have
no comment yeah
council member posted
thank you mayor yeah go plant a tree
I had a couple of items myself and one
was also you know related to small
businesses and it was that same sort of
energy and I was so happy to see the
activation of the ASU Chandler
Innovation Center and I went to the it's
called the Chandler Endeavor Embark
series it's the city of Chandler the
Chamber of Commerce and ASU all
partnering to work with small businesses
and that one was held on April 5th there
are two more the next ones at four to
seven pm at the ASU Chandler Innovation
Center I highly encourage any small
business to go the energy in that room
was amazing I ran into small business
owners that I had run into I hadn't run
into in any other place and so that was
great so just an encouragement to go to
that
um another item that I did want to bring
up is I I went to the family Easter
celebration it was Friday e it was a
Friday evening I think council member in
cenus went as well I just and I didn't
run into you okay everybody was there
earlier all right
what I did want to point out other than
the fact that everybody was there
um yeah
is it that event it typically had been
held at Snedigar and there's a lot of
competition for Snedigar um and and that
space and it was on a Saturday morning
and you know I ran in and I talked to
some of the event staff and I will admit
that when I was going that evening I
really didn't expect very many people it
was packed so I just wanted to congrat
congratulate City staff for kind of
taking a chance and trying something
different and trying something new
because if you don't try something new
you will never know if it's going to be
successful and it might not have been
but it was an incredible success so I
was really glad to see staff out there
trying something a little bit different
and even happier to see what a great
success it was because it sure
encouraged all of our council members to
come downtown I actually walked across
the street had a little dinner downtown
came back it was about 8 30 at night
there were still people in line with
little ones trying to take pictures with
the Easter Bunny so anyway
um just a quick congratulations there
here and then a final note
um Chief thank Chief Duggan thank you
for asking or encouraging me to go on a
ride along with Chandler police I went
on a Monday evening the swing shift it
was 2 to 11 and officer hazer put up
with all of my questions all night long
but the professionalism I wish I could
name every single officer that was on
ship that evening but just to see the
professionalism as they go from event to
event was absolutely incredible there's
nothing like seeing it in person and I
just so appreciate that opportunity and
what what our police are doing out there
so thank you again chief for inviting me
to go and those are my announcements for
the evening thank you mayor thank you
I was hoping we'll get some Hydraulics
for the ride along that's it city
manager how many eggs
thank you mayor members of council uh
two exciting things in my life right now
one is today's the last day of Passover
so I'm really excited to eat some bread
for the first time in a week so I'm
gonna make this next part short but I
did want to draw uh just a quick uh
congratulations for our Chief
Information officer Sandeep de lokia so
he was named a finalist for what are
called the Orbee Awards which is
according to what I've been told like
the Academy Awards for information
technology Executives in Arizona so uh
he's here in the audience tonight
and uh
he perhaps even better for him it's the
same day as the all-day budget brief as
the uh awards ceremony so he'll be uh
he'll be going a little later in the day
while he
well he's ceremony in the morning but we
are extremely proud of him uh and all of
him his and his Department's
achievements certainly very well
deserved so he will be one of the
finalists competing for one of the
awards here in just a few weeks that's
all I have tonight mayor thank you thank
you city manager thank you Council vice
mayor needs to go and plan a tree I
understand so
that concludes our meeting