Thirty more seconds.

I love it.

Right in the middle.

Well, good evening, and welcome to the regular meeting of the Chandler City Council, and the opportunity is we celebrate Constitution Week.

That's worth a round of applause.

We have two meetings tonight.

Most of you are here for the first.

The second is a study session in which we will be looking at items and asking questions in regard to our council meeting on Thursday and the items we'll be voting for.

So with that, I'd like to call this meeting to order and clerk ask if you would take the role.

Mayor Hartkey.

Here.

Vice Mayor Ellis?

Here.

Council Member and Cinus.

Here.

Councilmember Poston.

Here.

Councilmember Orlando?

Here.

Councilmember Harris?

Councilmember Hopkins.

Here.

We have a quorum.

Thank you.

Our indication tonight will be brought forth by a friend of Chandler, Reverend Jimmy Thomas from the International Assembly of God Church in Chandler.

And the Pledge of Allegiance by Troop Two Eighty Five.

Reverend.

Greetings to you, Honorable Mayor Kevin Hartke, and the council members and all who are gathered here in the matchless name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Chandler has always been a beacon of economic growth, prosperity, peace, and a sanctuary for those who wish to make this a home.

All of the growth and this remarkable journey cannot be just a man's desire, but God's working through each and every one of you who are willing to channel and be a vessel for God's glory to be revealed in and through your life.

Let us pray.

Lord, we come to your throne of grace and mercy.

Today as we celebrate the Constitution Week, a reminder that you are the chief cornerstone and the anchor on which we stand.

Just like how Solomon invoked the Lord and prayed for the glory to fill the house in the same way.

Just like how Solomon asks for wisdom to govern God's people in the same way.

We ask for divine wisdom to be bestowed on our leaders and governing authorities here.

Lord, you alone can give this divine wisdom as we learn from your word.

According to your word in Psalms 127, says like this, unless the Lord builds the house, we the people labor in vain who builds it.

So, Lord our God, we ask of you, Jesus, that your Holy Spirit guides us and helps us to build our homes, our communities, and our governing bodies.

As our forefathers prayed, we pray too that you are the good shepherd.

We pray that the good shepherd grants your children the grace as the shepherd of this great city.

We beseech you, O Lord and God of all, to be our helper and protector.

Save the afflicted among us, have mercy on the lowly, raise up the fallen, appear to the needy, heal the ungodly, restore the wanderers of your people, feed the hungry, and comfort the fainthearted.

We look to you, Master, our Lord, our God, our King, Jesus.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

Troop 285.

Scout salute.

I'll allegiance to the pride of the United States of America.

And to the Republican.

One nation under God.

Indivisible with every justice.

Thank you.

Again, thank you, Pastor Thomas.

Thank you, Troop 285.

I speak on behalf of council.

We we particularly love it when outside groups, scouts, and others, a patriotic uh fervor lead us in the pledge.

So thank you tonight.

That was special for each and every one of us.

Next, we have scheduled public appearances, and I would like to invite Councilmember Jane Poston to join me up front.

You're trained in that.

All right.

First, for scheduled public appearances, we would like to acknowledge two of her staff that have been um elevated, given new assignments to deputy city manager.

So is Ryan Peters and Leah Powell here.

Your please stand.

I had a moment.

I was looking where I usually see you, which is in that back corner here.

So that was uh that was a bit of a shift for me.

Sorry about that.

And we have uh members of the mayor's youth commission uh who are here.

Would you please stand?

We thank you for representing our youth commission.

Thank you.

Now we're going to turn this over to acting city manager John Pampier for service recognitions.

Mayor, Council, if I can ask Don to come down and present prevent the management services one.

Sure.

Come down here.

Yep, come down here.

Okay.

And I will call up Danielle Wells to come on down.

Danielle.

All right.

Well, I get the pleasure of presenting a 20-year award for Danielle Wells.

Christy Smith, management services director is out of town today.

So I'm honored to do this.

I've worked with Danielle for many years.

She began her career with the city in September 2005 in the management services department, tax and license division, as our customer service supervisor.

And in 2011, we was promoted to the revenue collections supervisor.

She is very good at what she does.

In 2019, Danielle was promoted again to the tax and licensed senior manager.

She currently oversees both tax and license and utility services.

Her tax and licensed staff continue to work closely with businesses to provide education on privilege tax, sales tax, and business licensing requirements, and her utility services staff aid residents and businesses with their utility bills.

We all appreciate their revenue collection efforts.

Danielle is currently working on the utility billing software upgrade project, ensuring residents and businesses received the best possible experiences.

So Danielle, supported by her husband Steve, and their two sons, Jacob and Matthew, are both here, or all three here tonight with her.

She lifts up everyone in the workplace.

She has a very high work ethic.

She has been a great asset to the city during her 20 years with us.

And congratulations, Danielle, and we hope for 20 more years of service.

Okay, 10.

Next up, we have Public Works and Utilities.

Jeremy, if you could come down, and our honoree is Libby Stressman.

So we have another 20-year achievement as well.

And I get the pleasure of introducing Libby Stressman, who began her career also in 2005, as an administrative specialist at our Pecos Water Treatment Plant with Public Works and Utilities.

Over the years, she moved around through multiple roles, applying her skills across several key areas with the city, including the accounting division and the all-important budget office.

In 2022, Libby was promoted to senior management analysis analyst and joined Public Works yet again.

Serving as our budget liaison for the utility side and coming full circle, where she began her career.

Since then, Libby has played an integral part in the development and oversight of our nearly one billion dollar 10-year CIP and our $100 million operating budget.

Outside of being our budget expert, Libby enjoys outdoor activities and spending time with her family.

She's also on track to complete her CPM, uh certified public manager with ASU this December.

Very proud of that.

So congratulations, Libby on 20 years of dedicated service.

We appreciate all that you do.

I couldn't keep track of the budget without your help and your oversight.

So thank you.

And our final award of the night is from Fleet Services.

Mike, if you could come down.

And I will call Corey Hilman to come on down with him.

I think it's the 20-year night because uh Corey also is celebrating 20 years with the city.

Today we are incidentally, Corey's family's here, also his wife and two kids.

Yeah.

They've endured the 20 years also.

Today we are here to recognize Corey Hellman, whose dedication, leadership, and a passion have left an undeniable mark on our city.

Starting as a street specialist, Corey operated heavy milling equipment, ensuring our roads met the highest standards.

His talent and work ethic quickly stood out and earned him promotions to crew lead, then street sweeping supervisor, where he not only oversaw operations but also managed grants and all-call personnel.

Corey earned his current role as fleet superintendent in 2023, managing a 20,000 square foot fleet shop and leading a skill of 12 technicians, maintaining over 1,500 assets.

In this role, Corey works closely with vendors, departments across the city, police fire, and many others to make sure every vehicle is procured, upfitted, and maintained to meet the unique demands of each department's mission.

Not an easy task.

Outside of work, he is a true entrepreneur and car guy, above all, I think.

He owns, operates an Arizona Bill Company, a custom apparel and gear business specializing in laser and gray products.

Corey uses his business, this business to mentor his children, passing along valuable business technical and creative skills while creating products that bring joint others.

His love for custom cars includes a 1967 Chevrolet pickup, the 1968 VW Chop Top Squareback.

If you know your Volkswagens, I think those are pretty rare.

Corey and his family traveled to many car shows across Arizona, California as well.

Corey is most proud of his family.

He and his high school sweetheart have been together for 25 years, married.

And together with our two kids, 16-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter.

On behalf of the city of Chandler, it's my honor to present you with a service award.

Thank you for 20 years of commitment to leadership.

And thank you for being up.

All right.

Next we have a proclamation for Constitution Week.

If I could have up representatives from Chandler Military and Veterans Affair Commission.

Mike, thanks for coming.

Whereas September 17, 1787 marks the signing of the U.S.

Constitution, the foundational document that established the framework of the United States government and the rights of its citizens, and whereas it is essential for all residents to reflect upon the importance of the U.S.

Constitution and its foundational role in shaping our freedoms and rights as citizens.

And whereas, beginning with the powerful words, we the people, the Constitution outlines our nation's framework through its preamble, seven articles, and 27 amendments, the first 10 to make up the Bill of Rights.

And whereas the U.S.

Constitution has evolved to meet the changing needs of our modern society and to date, the Constitution has been amended 27 times, most recently in 1992.

And whereas in the city in 2024, the city of Chandler held its first official Constitution Day event.

And this year we continue this tradition by expanding our recognition to Constitution Week to further promote constitutional literacy and community involvement.

Now, therefore, I Kevin Hartke, mayor of the city of Chandler, do hereby proclaim September 14th through 20, 2025 as Constitution Week.

And we invite you to celebrate it grandly, as grand as our country is.

Woo.

Would you like to say anything?

I know it was asked to meet why it was important or why the Constitution was important to me.

I think it was when I raised my right hand as a United States Marine.

Um it wasn't just for one person, it wasn't for a political party for one branch of government, but it was for all people.

And my core values uh and my belief uh still stands today, so thank you.

Thank you for your service again.

All right, let's take a photo.

All right.

In lieu of America's two fifty, this next one is really exciting.

We'd like to invite Sam Kumar, Arizona's first place winner in the National America 250 essay contest.

So Sam, if you and your family would like to come up.

There you go.

Hold down.

Isn't this a good looking family?

Yeah, one in the middle.

So tonight I'm excited to have individuals and community groups here to help us celebrate Constitution Week.

And our first recognition is for a special Chandler student, Sam, who has won first place in the National America 250 essay contest.

Sam is a rising fourth grade star, and he wrote an essay titled What America Means to Me.

Sam and his parents will have an all-expense paid trip to Washington, DC for a guided tour of the White House and the U.S.

Capitol, as well as a chance to meet Arizona members of Congress.

Sam wrote in his essay, America has taught me so much.

It has taught me how to overcome challenges and never give up.

It has taught me that even when things are tough, I can still dream big and work hard to achieve my goals.

So congratulations, Sam, on this exciting accomplishment.

We're so proud of you.

Let's give Sam a big round of applause.

Would you or your parents like to say something?

So why did the essay because my parents wanted me get to get Ruga in writing?

So I could um pass the Americ um the test for the third grade.

So my parents wanted me, they didn't expect it to go far.

So the Constitution means to me like the country's rule book, and it helps everyone be respectful and make you feel safe while you live.

So the Constitution.

Um we should respect the Constitution so that we could be safe and have freedom.

So the Constitution isn't just an old bug, it's alive.

All right, let's take a photo.

Don't go anywhere yet.

Oops.

Why don't you come up front here?

One, two, three.

Oh, one more.

All right.

Here we go.

Let's do one more.

Let's get ready.

All right.

And please join us when everyone else comes up when the celebration aspect.

Wow, isn't that exciting?

One of our fourth graders won a national essay contest on the Constitution.

That just fills me with pride.

I hope it does you as well.

Next, if we could call up the Sons of the American Revolution.

So the Sons of American Revolution hold a deep and enduring respect for the U.S.

Constitution, celebrating its principles through public events, civic education, and patriotic service.

Chapters actively participate in observances such as Constitution Day and Flag Day, promoting public appreciation for America's founding documents.

SAR has always been a great partner through the city's Constitution Day and America 250 planning.

So thank you for all of your contributions.

And thank you for joining our committee.

And actually it was this gentleman's idea to form a committee rather than us just do it internally.

And it was a tremendous idea.

What would you like to add?

Well, uh, I was out in the lobby there, and a young lady came up to me and said, uh, are you Ben Franklin?

And I said, no, no, I'm just dressed as a patriot.

But I do have the belly of Ben Franklin.

And then Bill over here in his frontier uh uniform uh was telling me that daughters of the revolutionary uh war, they're they're really the the arm behind us.

Uh that we're just eye candy for them.

So thank you, Dar for for being here.

We know who does the work.

That's what he's saying.

Well, very good.

Um let's take a photo and again we will stay around, please, and we'll make sure that we capture everybody as well.

Mayor shot it.

One two.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you again.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Alexis, can we do this every time we gather?

I know all the work that you've put in to make this happen.

Thank you so much.

So, next we would like to recognize the daughters of the American Revolution.

So, if our DAR representatives can come on up.

All right.

I think you would agree with me.

A Constitution Week recognition would not be complete without recognizing the daughters of the American Revolution.

DAR is a nonprofit, non-political service organization with more than a hundred and eighty-five thousand members and three thousand chapters worldwide.

Oh, didn't mean to start without you.

DAR engages in Constitution Week programming, provides educational scholarship, and helps facilitate community events to name a few.

DAR members passionately carry out the timeless mission of promotion of historical preservation, education, and patriotism.

DAR is another key community partner, and I want to thank you again for your work and helping us establish Constitution Day last year.

And now I think it was your suggestion of doing let's turn it into a week.

So I was listening.

So thank you.

All right.

Uh who could we turn this over to who'd like to share some words?

I would just like to thank everybody and also let you know that the SAR and the DAR are going to be in the parade of lights coming up in December.

Yes, we have we're working on a float, and we want everybody that's here to come join us for the parade of lights, but also recognize that Constitution Day is the 17th, and it is a very special day, and especially we're leading up to next year, which will be our 250th anniversary.

So we we should be very, very blessed.

Thank you, and thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Let's take a photo.

And pretty soon we will be unveiling the City of Chandler's 250th celebration events, which is really exciting.

So I'm going to leave you right on that note without disclosing anything more.

All right, do we need to move this way now?

Yes.

All right.

Should the hat be right in the middle?

One three.

All right.

Now, if you'll all stay here.

Council, it's probably good.

Yeah, well, you guys got that down standing back there.

All right, one big photo.

If we could have our scouts maybe maybe down hunched down in front here.

All right, everybody wants Sam.

There you go.

Here, I'll take that.

There you go.

All right, everyone ready.

Two, three, smile.

Jeez.

Three, two, one.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you again, everybody.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Wait until I think I've got to go.

All right, we have one more um special appearance, but we'll go back behind the days.

All right, and our last special appearance is Cynthia Hardy.

Cynthia is a longtime Chandler resident, a fixture of our community serving on many boards and commissions with her husband, Victor, and just would like to say something to us.

Cynthia.

Good evening, Mayor Council, City Manager, staff, and team Chandler.

On behalf of my family and my husband, Reverend Victor E.

Hardy, who was the lead and first African American pastor to serve the Congressional Church of the Valley in fellowship with the NACC National Association Congregational Christian Churches for 10 years, and now has a congressional record in the Library of Congress.

We uplift his chairman of action members and affiliates, his dear friends, and to all in the community who knew and love him.

We offer our deepest appreciation to the mayor and council for your compassion and support, leadership, and kindness.

For our family, we recognize all those who contribute locally and beyond for Pastor Hardy's ministry.

Thank you.

A heartfelt appreciation to his Congregational Church of the Valley members and the NCC organization, his friends and supporters, Pastor Kevin Harkey, Mr.

Barb Rice, Chandler Chamber of Chandler, Chamber of Commerce, Chandler Center for the Arts, Chandler Unified School District, Chandler Business Alliance, and Channel Toolmarks Cities Organization, East Valley NACC, and East Valley JCC.

We cannot forget the contributions of the Congressman Greg Stanton, Arizona Elective Officials with Team Chandler, the city staff, the celebration of life stirring committee, and its volunteers, the DEI, the DEI office and their affiliates, and Channel Nonprofit Coalition.

Your efforts will not be forgotten, just as Victor will not be forgotten.

So saving the best for lasts, the Hardy family has a special thank you to Vice Mayor Christine Ellis for her leadership in organizing Victor's celebration of life, her commit compassion, care in addition to details, made the day both beautiful and deeply personal.

She worked behind the scenes.

Her impact was felt by all, and we are truly grateful.

Keeping with the transition trans traditions of Pastor Hardy, we honoring the four little girls on September 15, 1963.

I give you all your flowers, and I say happy birthday to my dear husband Victor in heaven.

And also, I would like to have a picture.

And I'd like to ask if there could be fudge back into the library gift shop.

Thank you.

And Cynthia, you've got family here too.

I think I see your son and family.

Could they stand up?

Yes.

And Chairman of Action is here in some other things.

Chandler Men of Action, anybody here, please stand.

I see in the back.

And our dear friend Jeff Reynolds, who does everything everywhere.

All right, very good.

Thank you all.

Are we gonna take a picture now or later?

Let's do it now.

Then you don't have to wait.

You want to stay here?

You go there.

We'll call it to make sure that they might do this.

All right, to finish off this meeting before we go to our study session.

Uh next on our agenda is consent agenda.

There's a couple items uh that we've seen before.

Council, how would you like to proceed?

Mayor.

Councilmember Lando.

I move that we uh move to approve the consent agenda of September 15, 2025.

Regular meeting items one through two.

All right, we've got a motion.

Is there a second?

Second by vice mayor.

Seeing no requests, recusals, council splees on motion carries unanimously.

All right.

Well, thank you all.

I'm gonna gavel out of this, and we're gonna go into a study session, but if you need to leave, uh we understand.

And thank you for joining us on this special evening.

Thank you.

All right, those who are staying, we're gonna get started.

Welcome to our study session of September 15th, 2025.

I'd like to call this meeting to order.

Clerk, please take the roll.

Mayor Hartkey.

Here, Vice Mayor Ellis?

Here, Councilmember Incinus?

Here, Councilmember Poston, here.

Councilmember Orlando?

Here.

Councilmember Harris?

Yeah.

Councilmember Hawkins.

Here, we have a quorum.

Great.

Council, we've got a few items that were called in that we will be voting on that you ask for further clarification.

First is item number three, resolution number fifty-nine thirty-four, authorizing the submit of pass-through Indian gaming applications to Hilo River Indian community.

So if Rosalind Sleet can come on up.

All right, please proceed, Ros and Council.

Good evening.

It is my pleasure to bring to you item number three authorized in this middle of the past through gaming applications to the Gila River Indian community.

Funds allocated to the Arizona municipalities and counties and nonprofit organizations for public projects.

Proposition two hundred two stipulates that municipalities may apply directly to the tribal communities for gaming grants and local nonprofit organization may submit applications to for the tribal applications through municipalities.

The City of Chandler supports both external partners and internal departments seeking Indian gaming grants.

Today we have three organizations that have been awarded and are requesting to pass through the city of Chandler.

Chandler Culture Foundation was awarded 20,000 for Connect Kids.

The Chandler Impact is that the Connect Kids initiatives provides a diverse range of arts experiences through four key programs camp kids, theater kids, vision kids, youth arts council.

This initiative would expand classroom-based arts and enhance access for additional 300 students.

Most of which reside in Chandler and attend Chandler schools.

Lastly, we have the Teen Lifeline that was awarded 100,000 for crisis services and suicide prevention.

Teen Lifeline has participated in over 34 outreach events in Chandler, helping to raise award awareness about youth mental health crisis prevention in partnership with the Chandler Unified School District.

Teen Lifeline works directly to impact over 43,000 students and their parents and more than 2800 school personnel.

We do have representation from all three applicants.

Should you have any questions?

Vice Mayor.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for the presentation.

That was wonderful.

What I wanted to find out is you mentioned the article and how those nonprofits are able to come through the city in order to receive these funds.

Is there another way that other organizations in the community, if they needed to participate in these funds, will also be able, are we the city the one who encouraging these organizations to participate in this fund allocation, or is it they go on their own to find that out?

So typically for sorry, excuse me.

Uh councilman member Ellis.

Um typically uh nonprofit organizations do seek a grant applications or grant funding on their own.

We do have information provided on our website.

Okay, they do have to be a 501c3 entity to apply for those grant funds.

Okay, wonderful.

Thank you so much because I know there are organizations that have asked us for grant uh through the city, and we were unable to serve them.

So this could be a great opportunity for them in the future uh for us to allow to tell them about this way of them being funded so that they can continue to serve the city or chancellor.

Appreciate that.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Additional questions?

Additional cops from all right, Rosalind.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Ms.

Ross.

Next, item number 10, um, 5930, which is the IGA with school districts.

If Micah Miranda can come up and um councilmember Lando, you wanted a briefing and questions?

All right.

You're walking well there after surgery.

Yeah, good evening, Mayor and Council.

Happy to have this item before you tonight.

Um, may remember this item came up for discussion almost a year ago in August of 2024 where we started to look at major issues facing the city.

One of the items I presented was our demographic pyramid was becoming more of a box, which provides long-term economic challenges to the city.

And then again, we brief mayor and council in the spring of 25.

And so, out of that direction, we began working with our school districts to come up with a plan to better prepare the city for the upcoming demographic challenges, but also get out ahead of that.

What we want to do is really get back to sharing the story as to why Chandler is a great place for young families and professionals.

And so, in partnership with the four local school districts, uh, we will be coordinating to develop and launch this campaign over the next few months with the goal of being live in 2026.

So, happy to answer any questions you may have, Councilmember Orlando.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mike.

Yeah, this is a good program, it's a good start, particularly maybe a little too late, but as you know, Kyrie is going through a mechanism potentially downsizing some schools, and this is what we were hoping this would do is prevent some of that close school closures and get younger families in back into Chandler.

So a different issue, but this is a start, at least from the city standpoint in our agreement with them.

Um I guess uh this is a good start, and I'm trying to figure out what how do we measure success with this program?

And I know you had some comments earlier and earlier this year.

How do we measure success?

So, through the mayor, councilman Rolando, I think there's going to be two different types of indicators.

I think we're gonna have our leading indicators.

How well is the campaign penetrating into our target markets?

So you know those young families, those young professionals that we'll be able to track through impressions, uh, media pickups, um, feedback from the schools anecdotally, but the long-term um lagging metrics are gonna be school enrollments, those will be um our metrics, uh population changes within our target demographic areas, and um uh feedback from the business community because this is also an issue that is affecting them.

So we're gonna want to do surveys with the business community to understand how has this impacted their recruitment strategies around talent, which uh is really a major issue for us right now.

So those are those are kind of the the leading and lagging.

Um, like you said, this this issue isn't something that just started.

This is really 15, 20 years in the making, and so I have no um uh belief that this problem will be solved in one or two years.

It's gonna take uh uh a good amount of time to really get our message out there and help bend these demographic changes, but those long-term metrics will ultimately be what is our population pyramid look like, council member.

Yeah, the other question is do we have other steps that we could take as well?

And is that being discussed from are you leading that effort, or is this a group of individuals with the school district that's leading the effort so that there's other things we could be brainstorming and figuring out how we could uh again change this demographics?

Through the mayor, councilmember Lando, yes.

So the the team will be comprised of marketing individuals from all five partner organizations.

So there's gonna be a lot of different perspectives and opinions at play.

So um the team is broad, we're gonna have a lot of different ideas, and when we go out, we're we'll be working with a uh an organization that'll help with some of that base research to really help us better understand what the perceptions are of you know the the Chandler uh municipality as well as some of these school districts to have that information inform how we're gonna go about positioning the campaign.

And finally, your departments will be will be monitoring this, correct?

Yes, sir.

Okay, and implementing this right.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

But real quick on that point, um, because selling a city isn't just an economic development rule, it really touches every department.

There will be opportunities for input from every department uh across the city to really get the best of best chandler out there in front of these young families and professionals.

Okay, thank you, Mayor.

Mike, thank you.

Uh Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Micah.

Uh I was here when we had the boom with the younger um generation, and I probably was probably one of them at the time.

But it's because housing uh was available here, and it was uh definitely a point of selling Chandler.

Not only the schools were uh the Kaiwin School District and the Chandler School District would always stop, but housing was also the driver behind people moving, whether from New York or from this other places.

I know I was selling it because the housing here was a little bit cheaper um than other places.

Are we looking into those metrics and looking how when we sell it from the point of view of jobs, quality of life, and all those um great annuities and all these things, but how do we overcome this challenge of housing for those younger families who are looking with one income or two small incomes to be able to move here?

Through the mayor, uh Vice Mayor Ellis.

That's that's part of what we're gonna be looking into.

However, I will say when we look at our peer communities in the region, um, Chandler may not always be the most expensive location for those families.

Um, some of our surrounding communities are actually more expensive destinations for us, and young families are choosing to go to those areas also.

So we want to understand why they're making that decision as part of this and get that message in front of them like hey, you did you know this about Chandler relative to these competitor locations?

So housing costs have gone up across the region, especially the Southeast Valley.

So Chandler is not in a unique situation.

Um, our population pyramid just is different at this point.

Part of it is because we did develop earlier and we haven't had the backfill of those families.

Um, but um new sale houses are are pretty even, if you will, across the the valley, uh specifically the Southeast Valley, and um resale homes are are comparable as well.

So we really need to understand the why there as well.

All right, great.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mayor.

And and I'm sorry, I forgot how many years ago was that that you uh thank you, Micah.

Real quick.

I look forward to uh learning more about this campaign and uh the market search, and again, I agree with you.

We're um we're not gonna see these results immediately, but I I applaud the efforts and the energy that we're gonna put into this.

So appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, um, next item that hasn't been resolved is item number 27, uh agreement number 4638, amendment number two and agreement number 4758, amendment number three for temporary accommodations.

If Ryan uh Balch will come up, the acting neighborhood resources director.

Hi, good evening, Mayor Council.

This is yours.

All right, well, good evening.

Great to see everybody.

Um, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak a little bit about Operation Open Door this morning.

Or I'm sorry, it's not morning this evening.

So before you, you have um an agenda item for two contract amendments.

Those amendments are to extend um agreements with two of our partnering partnering hotels that we um provide shelter to at our non-congregate shelter program.

Um sorry, I've neglected to move you along.

So, as many of you know, we began the non-congregate shelter program known as Operation Open Door in 2020, when there was um a lack of spaces to go in the congregate setting.

Um we were very successful in that effort, and so we've continued that effort.

You can see in 20 and in that in that first year, which is about a half a year, we served 110 families, and just this last year we served 353 families.

We do have a very specific population that we serve in non-congregate shelter.

Um, we're looking at those who are most vulnerable, so older adults who might not be able to get up and down on beds and things like that in a congregate setting, disabled folks, and very many families with children.

We do have participant agreements, so people are understanding what they're gonna be getting into when they get into our shelter program.

They're gonna be working very intensively with our case management services on their journey to end their homelessness.

We have two of our amazing community navigators dedicated to this program.

They provide intensive case management seven days a week to the folks participating in our program.

And our goal is always to exit exit to permanent housing, or in some cases, especially in the case of families, to move on to a more robust emergency shelter setting where they have things like daycare and workforce programming and things like that that families need to move on.

Our average length of stay for the last year has been about 80 days, which is um above the standard in this in this field.

There are some benefits to contracting, of course.

And the most important one is that we have availability so that when somebody needs a room, we have access to it.

And so through our two partnering hotels, we've been able to secure 15 one-bedroom units.

We have those every night, and then 10 two-bedroom units.

So those two bedroom units are really helpful when we have families so that we have can have parents and children in the same unit.

Um speaking to the um just the great partnership we have with our vendors.

They have not asked for a cost increase for this next coming period.

And um having that block rate with them and that flat fee allows for public safety to access them overnight if needed.

Our rates with them are extremely competitive.

Our one bedrooms are about 105 a night, and our two bedrooms are 140 a night.

Um, again, this program just provides that safe space, especially for our most vulnerable folks, so that we can meet with them daily and help them on their journey to end homelessness.

Um obviously also helps us reduce the number of unsheltered persons on the streets, um, and that is really helpful to our neighborhoods and our businesses.

And then just um to give you a little bit of an overview of last year and and the success we had in our program.

Last year we served 182 households, and that was over 350 individual people.

135 of those people were under the age of 18.

So we always have a lot of young kids in our program.

And we had 96 percent um successful exit.

So that means they've either moved on to permanent housing after our program or moved into the next step, as I said, sometimes especially for families into a more robust shelter system.

We also are able to move people to celebrate living, work source housing, um, all kinds of exam sort of program and exits.

And we are extreme resources here and continue program.

Um, I think I stand up here because we're gonna all parts about it today.

That's what's best.

Lots of treatments are seeing large changing.

Yes, this point.

So it's a three minute range question.

So did you know every now and then sets it's not different to some family that they constantly make an entry lessness?

Um but like 96% were lots of success.

It's not eight a six feet, and then they can bath less is not bad enough.

The only reason we were usually pretty late for me, these reasons I can sometimes take my day a day or two to turn around because people have their turn and then did non-mine.

I need to help our contractors with that unless there's something maybe we shouldn't have no brain damage, nothing like that that's in our contract to assist generally the only three.

But I do think we're at a pretty good luck here.

Um I want to say so one of the things that the contract allows us to do is this we can have to have an equity need for the object to um rent and runs that you're tests have at the flat rate.

So we are able to do that and normally have a baby specifically because we do make a turn up the PCs happen, and then those research are priority.

So it's like we felt a little at some in the interest of someone, but it's not a pretty good sets.

Um substantially.

So tell us about our experience with the uh season center within the organization.

Um it was a phenomenal success.

I think partly because we have amazing partners in Ascend in our community, and also in our community services department, in our facilities division, all around the city who made this happen.

We actually did it at our own facility in the senior center.

Um I don't have final numbers yet on how many people we serve, but we were full every night.

We served um 40 40 individuals experiencing homelessness every night, and then they were able to go back to day centers um at the day day center at a send during the day.

Um the numbers have come down dramatically from last year, which was a record year for heat fatalities.

It was over 600, and again, we don't have final numbers yet, and the summer is not over.

We are still providing day services at Ascend, but we truly believe that we saved lives this summer because of the um overnight shelter that we provided.

And their feedback to me is that it was life-changing and that they are both exhausted and ready, ready to not have to do those overnight shifts, but also that it's bittersweet because the amount of difference that they were able to make having these additional folks that so a heat relief overnight is very low barrier.

And in by that I mean it will take you don't have there's no rules, right?

It's just one night.

So you're not committing to a program.

You're not having to make a lot of long-term decisions.

So that really attracted people who cannot find the ability to come in.

And so that gave us um a purview, a relationship with those folks, which we see on the streets every day, we work with every day, but now they've actually come and done a night service, and we are actually now being able to get them into long-term overnight services and moving on.

So these folks that you may have seen for years, we now have this much deeper connection with them and ability to serve them.

So my staff are lated by this.

We are elated, we just look forward to doing this again in the future, even bigger and better.

And it has been, I really truly think life-changing.

And I know we've seen a fair amount of them transfer into iHealth program where there's a uh it's more than just uh show up, but uh a commitment to work on causes of homelessness, and I've had quite a few conversations with folks who have transferred from the senior center there.

So they've been grateful.

That's exactly right.

So this one night in heat relief has now led to them being able to go into our more permanent systems.

Very good.

Seeing no further, thank you, Ryan.

Thank you.

Our last item called in was item number 29, uh, construction manager manager at risk, our CMAR pre-construction services agreement with Wilmig Construction for the Forensics Services Facility.

So Alicia Rosenberg, Forensic Service Senior Manager, and Dan Haskins, uh Capital Projects Manager, are going to share.

Lisa, welcome.

Thank you.

Mayor and Council, it is my pleasure tonight to speak to you a little bit about the forensic services facility.

So our current facility is located inside the main police department.

It was built in 1999 and has about 5,500 square feet of lab space.

The current facility is quite limited.

It is limited in two ways.

Infrastructure is limited, therefore, we can't bring on current emerging technologies to help us with the current forensic analysis we provide, and we don't have the space to bring on new forensic analysis that would be beneficial to the police department and their investigations and our community.

Seeing this problem, we tried to address it in the 2020 public safety bond.

The forensic services facility, along with several other projects, were a part of that bond, and that is a primary source of funding for this project.

We are currently in the design phase of the project.

We are at the or we are looking at the concept site plan.

So the facility is to be located off of Pecos Road in a secure campus.

It will connect to our existing police department property and evidence building.

That connection allows for a secure transfer of evidence from the property and evidence department into the laboratory.

This new laboratory will have the infrastructure necessary to bring on those new technologies for the disciplines we currently provide, the forensic analysis we currently provide, and allow us the opportunity to expand into some additional types of forensic analysis that we think are going to be very important currently and of course in the future.

So a little bit about those services that we do provide.

Currently, we provide 24-7 crime scene response, 10-print fingerprint analysis, blood alcohol analysis, seized drugs analysis, and latent fingerprint both processing and comparison.

The key additions that we're looking to make in this facility are DNA.

We are very excited to bring on this type of forensic analysis to our community and to the police department.

It is a powerful tool that we currently underutilize.

Bringing this service in-house will give us the ability to create additional investigative leads and therefore create a safer community for us all.

Additionally, we'll add blood drug analysis, and we'll enhance our computer forensics and digital evidence examination.

At this point, I'd like to turn the floor over to Dan Haskins, who will give you some additional information about the selection of the construction manager at risk.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

I'm here to give a quick overview of our construction manager at risk procurement process that was performed in the forensic uh service lab.

Construction manager at risk, also known as CMAR, is a qualifications-based selection that allows us to select the best contractor for the project.

We currently have eight different contractors working on other CMARC projects.

Each CMAR had a different subcommittee that reviewed the SOQs and ultimately determined who won the project.

In addition, the city also performs alternative livery methods, which are JOC, job order contracts, and low bed contracts.

For the forensic facility, we received eight seminals of qualific of qualifications, SOQs.

These SOQs were reviewed by seven uh by a subcommittee of seven individuals, that it was determined we would move forward with four teams for interviews.

We didn't always perform interviews, but this product was big and very specialized, so we decided to move forward and require it.

We follow the Arizona State statute, and the subcommittee consisted of the following team members.

We have three people from CIP, Capo Improvement Projects, which is a supervisor, construction manager, and a project manager that is also a PE on this one.

They represent the procurement side, design side, and construct construction management side of the procurement process.

We had three individuals from the police department, they represented the police's interest in the project.

And we also have one contractor, not associated with anybody or any uh any teams, and they were represent the contractor side to make sure that we are fair to our contracting community.

Each member of the committee scores a presentation independently from each other.

Scores are not revealed until all the interviews are finished and all the scores are turned in.

Once the scores were added up, Wilming had the highest score in this project.

We also offer debriefs so contractors can talk to staff after a product is awarded to help them find out ways that they can improve and help them win the next contract.

I know a question came up how we handle retirees on the CMAR process for solicitation.

As part of our practice, contractors are not allowed to talk to city staff associated with the project after the request for proposals go out.

We also do not allow people that are on projects that were employed within the last were employed with the city within the last year.

Although it has been over a year since an individual retired, the individual is not on this uh submittal of qualifications, but there was an individual that was on the staff chart as an advisor.

A lot of times people use these advisors because they can't talk to the current city staff.

So they reach out to other places, uh, sometimes other cities, sometimes retirees.

It was discussed in the team if this was an would impact the project or if the team saw this as a conflict of interest.

It was determined that this did not uh did not cause a conflict of interest or impact the project.

During negotiations, though, we did this bring bring this up to Wilming, and we're informed that the individual is not part of the pre-construction services contract, nor will they be part of the construction contract, so they will not be associated with the project.

And that's all I have if you have any questions.

Nice there.

Thank you, Mayor.

That was really wonderful.

If we could please have uh Alicia.

Thank you.

Uh, one of the questions that I have is um we got in the region.

You show us all the things we're currently doing and what we will be doing in the future.

Will that truly help the whole region when it comes to forensic testing?

Through the mayor, Vice Mayor Ellis, yes.

As we know, crime doesn't know boundaries.

So the entire East Valley can be affected as well as our neighbors farther west.

So our ability to not only prevent crime but also create these investigative leads and determine the bad actors in our city will also impact our neighboring cities.

This is amazing.

Really appreciate all you have done.

And from the time we start talking about this project until now we get in contractors on boards and things, and the process that he just described was not as detailed to me prior.

So I really appreciate him making sure that every part of it is understood uh whether by me or the rest of the mayor and the council at this time for us to be able to really sleep at night and we could tell the people of Chandler this was done above board.

So really appreciate the presentation.

Thank you so much.

Lisa, let me follow up with uh comment you just and your next council member.

So you had mentioned um or her question was with this alleviate crime.

Well, us having our own facility also uh make available space at the the county or state facility where we were sending DNA samples as well.

So not only will in our community will we be able to better understand um crime and evidence that that might affect other cities, as you mentioned, but are we also then taking pressure off of that facility for other cities?

Mayor, yes, we currently rely on the Arizona Department of Public Safety to provide the services we don't, as we all can imagine.

Um the state is overburdened and under-resourced.

So us being able to handle our own forensic analysis will allow them to put their resources towards our other neighboring cities as well as the state as a whole for communities that can't provide their own forensic services.

Okay, thank you.

Uh councilmember Harris.

Yeah, just wanted to ask to any of the um of the eight um people who apply to any of those eight come back and say, hey, I want to learn a little bit more about what I didn't get exelected.

So I was kind of wondering.

Through the mayor to council member uh Harris.

Uh usually we have to wait till after it's awarded because if something happens and then all of a sudden someone else, we don't want to talk to them beforehand.

But uh we have not seen very much of that.

Uh professional services, we see a lot of that.

But for contractors, there's only a few of them.

But um if there's someone that wants to, we'd be more than happy to do a debrief, and I've already given my team a heads up that we probably should do debriefs, and if there's questions coming up, we we need to be able to reach out.

And what was the name of the eight contractors that apply for this award?

I only wrote down the four that actually went to interview.

I can get you the other three that did not uh make the interview, but it was Wilming Corps Oakland and Mortenson.

That were the four we interviewed.

I think staff is coming up with some coming behind you is more information.

Yep, I was gonna say we have a I know we have another list.

Perfect, thank you.

Uh Caliente Corps Jacobson, MJ Harris, MA Mortenson, Oakland, Sun Eagle in Wilming.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Orlando.

Sir, I'm sorry.

Oh, I'm sorry.

So is it um practice for uh companies to uh quote hire somebody to be a what was the word you use, staff liaison or something?

An advisor uh advisor.

Yes, a lot of a lot of teams uh when we actually did the SOQ for this, we saw a lot of people from lab facilities as advisors.

Uh there was another retired police officer from another city.

Actually, I think there was two of them from other cities.

Um, so we do see that quite a bit.

Um, just to kind of get a leg up answer.

A lot of times they use people that have been in a position to review SOPs so they can see kind of how to review them, how to write them.

So we do see that quite a bit.

Um, I've not seen which kind of raised the kind of the alarms when we saw someone from the city of Chandler.

Um, I haven't seen that before, so that's kind of why we we stopped everything afterwards and asked, hey, is this what's is this a conflict of interest?

Is this an issue?

So coming from the procurement world myself, particularly with with contractor DOD, uh, we have seen that, but normally we have a policy that no one could be a part of that bidding practice, company uh let's say serve two years at that.

I think the federal government's two years.

So maybe that's something you want to take a look at.

That I'm okay with having a uh special expert, you know, special uh expert.

Uh but if they're bidding on the current city contract, and I know you said there wasn't no legal ramification, but maybe we should take a look at that policy again and maybe make it ironclad that you know, if you're bidding on Chandler, if you want to go hire a former, you know, Peoria police officer to work on Chandler, that's fine.

But if you want someone that's coming from the city, in my case, contractor, you had a two-year uh you know uh notice of you you couldn't you could be involved with the procurement at all.

Something you may want to take a look at, work with um contracting office, work with the city attorneys to make it very clear.

Again, I'm not saying anything was done nefarious.

I'm just saying, coming from my background, we're used to that type of scrutiny saying no one shall be a part of this, you know, team, staff, or anything.

If you were from uh the DOD element, space command, where the case may be, in my case, uh, you cannot be a part of that.

Any you can your name can't be on that.

Or you must disclose it up front and say this person is on our team.

I think that make it a little bit clearer and fair uh perception wise.

You follow my thoughts here through the through the mayor, the council member.

I definitely will look into that.

Okay, I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Okay, council member Harris.

Yeah, just uh Dan, you're not going anywhere yet.

Quit trying.

Hold on.

Um, just wanted to ask you in terms of the I know the bidding process happened.

Who was who was the lowest?

Was this is this the lowest bid that we got?

Is this the highest?

Where are we at in terms of dollar amount?

Uh through the mayor to council member uh Harris.

So on a CMAR process, we're by state statute, we're not allowed to actually allow to talk dollars unless it's the winning firm, and then we can only talk with them.

If it's too high and we decide to cancel that one, then we can go to the second one.

But we have to, it's a qualifications based alone, and that's the only firm we talk dollars.

Okay, so when so when we get to so right now they're in a state of what state are they in right now?

So we're trying to take the pre-construction services contract to council for approval.

Um, if if they get approval, then we'll move forward with uh pre-construction services, and then you'll see a GMP.

I don't know the exact schedule, but maybe six months to I guess I'm trying to figure out like when do we know how much the money is?

That's what I'm really trying to get down to the bottom.

Okay.

So I can try to find out what the GMP will be, but right now we're very early in the design phase, so we don't know that 100%.

But we can give you like an engineer's estimate of what we think that it'll be.

So this is just the design.

We're just in the we're we're picking this contractor for the design of the actual facility.

So we we we have the design going and it's really early on, and then we picked up a contractor to help us kind of facilitate how to do some of the construction, try to get the best quality materials to uh value engineer.

Um not for quality, we're gonna get the highest quality, get the best products, but like how it's built.

It's kind of bringing someone on board to kind of help us with that stuff.

Uh what equipment works with what outlets, plugs, stuff like that that they're really good at.

Um, so we're bringing them pretty early on.

Um, but we're not quite there to be able to solidify what the design is going to be.

Okay, so I I may I may have gotten a little confused.

You can help me out.

So what we're what we're voting on, or what you're presenting to us today, that we're gonna vote for on Thursday if we choose to vote yes or no or table it, uh, about pre-design.

We're we're talking about design work at this point in in uh in the process.

Is that correct?

So we're talking about construction, the contractor.

So you're gonna solidify that you're gonna use this contractor for construction, but it is his process during the design phase to make sure that we can hold them accountable for costs and contingencies and everything, and we have them involved early on.

But this is the construction contract that you're voting on for pre-construction services, but it's during the design phase.

I know it's super confusing.

Yeah, I I got you, and that does not answer my question of how much this contractor is going to charge us, which I might need to have a little bit further conversation, maybe not now, but how that legal process worked.

Um, so I might need to have a further conversation with the team about in terms of because if I vote yes, we're given this contract.

I don't know what the number is, but you're saying that I need to be voting to give a contract to something that I don't even know.

We're talking close to 60 million dollars, and I really want to be more closer because this is the taxpayer dollars, as you know, um, that has been approved and set aside.

I just want to make sure that the dollar amount, I want to get there first, but I I'm hearing there's some type of legal process that needs to be happening that stops me from saying, are they gonna charge me too much or they're gonna charge me?

So I don't even know what they're gonna charge me.

So that's kind of what I feel like staff, John, to help work me this week to work through that process because I'm really gonna have a hard time saying yes to a 60 million dollar project that I don't really know what the dollar amount is going to be.

You understand what I'm saying?

I do, I understand.

Okay.

All right.

Well, I have no further questions.

I think staff is gonna work with me to figure out where we need to go by Thursday.

And then also just to address councilmember Harris's concerns.

This is we do this all the time, right?

Yep.

I mean, this is the standard process, is it we start with a contract manager at risk, they assess these things.

We we later then go with them.

So this is there's nothing unusual out of order of any other contract of construction from even the pickleball courts that we just built.

That was the same process to Mesquite Park to other facilities that we do.

This is this is how the this is best practice across the across the region and and state and nation, correct?

Yep, correct.

Okay.

So the mayor, we do this a lot, and we also get 30, 6090 costs back from them called cost reviews at 30, 6090.

If it starts skyrocketing, we try to have the designer and the contractor and bring the cost down.

So we do have a budget that we tell them they have to stay in.

So there is there's some guardrails on this too.

So it's not just whatever they propose.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Now you can sit up.

Oh, thank you.

All right, council.

Before we uh gavel out, those are all those called in.

Um, Troop 285 would love to have uh a photo with us, and they have some questions as part of a merit badge.

And uh in about 10 minutes, if we could meet back in the uh executive chamber quarters and we'll continue our exec session.

So, with that, thank you all for joining us.

Thank you, council and staff.