Good evening and welcome to the November 10th, 2025 regular meeting of the Chandler City Council.

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?

Here.

Councilmember Hopkins.

Here.

We have a quorum.

Very good.

Thank you.

Our um invocation will be led tonight by Stu Bruner from Faith Church.

And our Pledge of Allegiance by Councilmember Incinus.

Thank you, Mayor.

Let's pray.

I call upon you to whom the nations are as a drop in the bucket, Isaiah says, who sets the boundary of nations and determines their time of existence, who ordains governmental authority, who's graciously established self-government in this great nation.

Lord, I thank you for the blessings that you've given us in this great nation, the liberty secured for us by so many people before us who sacrificed daily for our freedom, especially our veterans.

Lord, we lift them to you at this time.

Thank you for our leaders in government who serve the people, whom you have placed at the federal level, the state level, the county level, Lord, at the municipal level as well.

Would you bless them for their willingness to serve and to lead?

You direct us in your word to pray for all who are in authority.

And so I ask you for wisdom and guidance for our government leaders at every level.

And I commit the men and women of this council charged with governing this city of Chandler into your hands, Lord.

Ask that you would work in and through them tonight and throughout their tenure.

Provide them with the strength and wisdom to make the decisions that they're faced with.

We know you alone give significance to our work on this earth, and so I call on you to prosper their efforts individually and collectively to let your favor rest upon them and give permanence, Lord, to what they do.

Fill them with your grace and peace, supply every single thing they ask.

Thank you, Lord, for the confidence we have in approaching you through your son and the assurance that when we ask you here, so bless now this meeting of the Chandler City Council.

Amen.

Thank you, Pastor, for your words.

Please join me in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the heart of the United States of America.

Thank you, Mr.

Bruner.

Thank you, Councilmember Ancinus.

Our scheduled public appearances, and we've got a few tonight.

So uh Jesus Reese is joined by his wife Denise and his two children, Isaiah and Samantha.

This month we're proudly celebrating Jesus' tenure milestone with the city of Chandler.

Jesus began his career in November of 2015 as a utility systems technician one with the water distribution division, where he quickly demonstrated strong technical skills and commitment to excellence.

In August of 2016, he transitioned to wastewater and moved to the Airport Water Reclamation Facility as a utility mechanic, where his reliability and problem-solving skills stood out.

By December of that same year, Jesus was promoted to senior utilities mechanic, and then in September of 2017, advanced to his current role, senior utilities mechanic CDO.

Jesus holds ADQ certifications and water distribution and in wastewater collections, as well as a mobile crane certification with the National Commission for Certification of Crane Operators.

Their number one hobby by far is hunting big game, followed by traveling and visiting every amusement park possible.

Throughout his 10 years of dedicated service, Jesus has been a key contributor to Team Chandler, ensuring critical water and wastewater infrastructure runs safely and efficiently.

His expertise, teamwork, and positive attitude make him an invaluable asset to our organization.

So congratulations, Jesus, on this outstanding achievement.

We appreciate you.

Mayor and Council, next up, I'd like to ask our fleet director, Mike Hollingsworth, to come on down and introduce to us Juan Bedari for 15 years of service.

Come on down, Juan.

Mayor and Council, I'm pleased to recognize Juan Badari for his 15 years of dedicated service.

The City of Chandler Fleet Services Division.

Juan joined a team in 2010 as a senior fleet technician after spending five years with the City of Mills.

We won't hold that against him.

He made the move to Chandler seeking a better opportunity to support and raise his family.

In 2024, Juan was promoted to lead technician, a reflection of his skill, dedication, and leadership.

Juan's professional professional accomplishments include an ASE master's technician certification.

And if you know that's not an easy certification to obtain, it's very challenging.

And completed specialized training with General Motors for BMW motorcycles equip equipping him to maintain a wide variety of vehicles, even enough to restore his 1984 Cadillac.

Outside of work, Juan's devotion to his family, wife Luz, daughter Camilla, and son Juan Carlos II is evident in his positive supportive nature.

Juan, your professional, I'm sorry, professionalism skill and heart have made a lasting impact on the city of Chandler and all of us here.

Congratulations on 15 years of service.

Thanks, Juan.

Thank you.

Mayor and Council, our last service award, I would like to ask Assistant Chief Perez to come down.

And fittingly, we are going to recognize Tyler's service for his 15-year service award.

Yeah.

Well timed.

Mayor and Council, I'd like to uh introduce you, Tyler Service for his 15 years of service.

Congratulations on 15 years of service, outstanding service.

Your dedication, professionalism, and commitment to the community exemplify what it means to wear the badge with honor.

Throughout your career, you've served with distinction, representing the department as a proud member of our honor guard.

Educating and mentoring youth as a school resource officer and empowering others through your work as a rad instructor.

Your voice has also become a source of pride for the department inspiring crowds of you sung the national anthem at professional events with the same passion that you bring to your service.

Your leadership, integrity, and compassion have left a lasting mark on both your peers and the community.

And reaching this milestone reflects years of hard work, sacrifice, and unwavering dedication.

So congratulations, Tyler, on 15 remarkable years.

You've truly embodied the spirit of service and major department and community proud.

Thank you.

All right, we're gonna move up an item on the season of giving so we can clear off that table.

There we go.

Season of giving.

If we could have Trinity Donovan come on up.

Trinity's got some special information to as we enter into this holiday season.

Ascend is a critical partner of ours providing food, shelter, rent, and utility assistance for our community.

And Councilmember Poston, I know that you've been working with Trinity and Ascend to help meet the increased needs in our community.

Can you would you like to share anything?

Absolutely.

So first off, thank you for joining us tonight and being a partner in this.

I just wanted to say also thank you for the city staff because the city of Chandler, as always, stepped up, and I know the community will as well.

And we're doing a couple of things this year in that we are trying to bring the food drive to the community as opposed to coming here, you know, coming having people come to us.

So all of our public events, all of our big special events, we have so many amazing events during the season.

Many of them, most of them are free.

And so we're actually having Ascend bring out food boxes to those events.

So, like Wolfstock this weekend, the all the sorts of great things.

So, also um, thank you to our fire department for allowing boxes in each and every one of our fire stations.

And there's a fire station in every neighborhood.

So we're making it really easy on you this year.

So, what I thought I might do is we'll bring this gorgeous box up there.

It looks great this year.

And then I was gonna let Trinity maybe talk a little bit about their most needed items that we have on display.

And I want to thank also uh mayor and fellow council members for doing some donations.

I think we have plenty coming, whether it's food, some of its cash, which goes really far for food, but I'm gonna hand it over to the expert now.

Great.

Well, thank you, Councilmember Poston.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, other council members, and um thank you to the city staff.

Uh, we have such a generous community, and we're so grateful for that.

Everyone has a time in their life when they're in need, and so I love that our community helps to support our neighbors in need.

Um we saw a huge increase in need last Thanksgiving.

Um, we increased our food boxes last year for Thanksgiving from over 600 food boxes to over a thousand.

And we're seeing up to 25 new people per day now this in this month, last week, of people coming for the first time to the food bank.

Um, and so that need has really increased this November as well.

So we love the community supporting us and other groups in the community.

So you'll see some um thank you for those who donated already.

Some of those most needed items, um canned uh fruit, vegetables, canned meats, peanut butter is a great um source of protein and really helpful.

Um, some of those um items like those fruit snacks are great for families, as well as soups and pastas and those shelf stable items for for families in need.

One final thing without going too long.

Oh, yeah, yes, thanks.

So um also flip top um cans can be really helpful both for families who may have parents who are working and children who need to make their own food as well as um people that we serve who do not have a home, um, so they don't have a can opener.

So that can be really really helpful.

Um, any food is great for us as well as financial contributions, which can help us fill in the gaps.

Um, and there are QR codes on these food boxes as well as um on these posters.

You'll see a QR code that can get you to places where you can um support people in the community during this time.

Thank you, Trinity.

And I I did just want to give one other kudos to usend.

There are other um places where you can donate food, and we certainly don't want to interfere with that, but the group and our neighborhood services led this along um with Trinity and and many of our local groups, and Ascend went ahead and took the lead, and I think some of the other food banks in town decided to let us end take the lead, which means they're putting in the work of bringing these food boxes out, picking them up, but they are sharing with the other food banks in town.

So I just want to make sure that it's not just a send, there are other needs, but you are working in conjunction with them.

Did I get that right?

Or is there anything you should add?

Okay.

Well, thank you.

So we'll go ahead and put this away so we can have a clean table for the rest of the night.

Thanks again, Trinity.

Thank you, Councilmember Postman for bringing that to us.

There were peanut butter dog treats in there too.

My dog would like that.

Next up, uh, we would like to call up uh Nick Ariola and his family as a community hero award.

Nick.

This evening we're proud to recognize an extraordinary individual whose courage and compassion embodied the very best of our community, Mr.

Nick Ariola.

Am I saying that right?

Recipient of the community hero award.

Nick is an emergency room nurse by profession, dedicated to caring for others in their most vulnerable moments.

But one early morning this past October, Nick's heroism extended far outside the walls of the hospital around 4 a.m.

Driving home from a 12-hour shift.

Nick noticed smoke and flames rising from a house in our city.

While most of us might have simply called for help, Nick did what true heroes do.

He acted.

He pulled over, he banged on the door of the burning house, awakened a family of five, the quisadas family, giving them a chance to escape.

And because of Nick, a family is alive today, and we are reminded of the profound power and importance of looking out for one another.

So Nick, on behalf of the city of Chandler, our residents, and all of us who have gathered here today, we thank you.

You're the kind of person that we are proud to call a role model, whether you feel that way when you look in the mirror or not.

It's a great privilege to present to you this community hero award.

And thank you for reminding us that one person's bravery can change everything.

Would you like to say anything?

Um first I would like to thank uh the mayor of the city for recognizing me for this.

Um it's uh it's kind of weird being called a hero.

I don't really feel like a hero, but um, I would like to thank uh my parents are here today, and I got uh one friend from work here today.

And um I would like to thank them.

They're the ones that uh um raised me to be able to act.

I really feel like I was here at the right place at the right time and was able to act, and it kind of goes deep, and I think it's just because of them.

And that's all I did.

I did I feel like I did what everybody would do, but some people are saying I wouldn't do that.

Um but again, thank you guys.

And I would like to also thank uh uh EMS, uh the city uh PD and fire that showed up.

I cannot believe how fast they were.

It was absolutely amazing.

We work with them um in the medical side in the hospital in the emergency department, but to see them go from um not being there to being there was just absolutely amazing.

I really think they they uh kind of were the true heroes in the thing because they uh pretty much saved the entire building.

Um goosebumps thinking about it, but thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Encinas for bringing this up for us to no, we're gonna take a photo with you.

Don't go anywhere.

Mayor, the umor, sure, mayor, the um family that was in the family that was a part of that rec is here as well.

Can they come up and take a picture of Juan and would you guys like to join us?

The other family quizzadas.

Yes, our parents are here.

Come on up.

How about your family?

You can use this for your Christmas photo.

I heard her.

All right.

Yeah, then you can photo me out, and you do have a good Christmas.

All right, do I get some high cards?

I guess not.

All right.

Our next one is very exciting too.

Recognition for the Chandler Chamber of Commerce.

Outstanding program of the year and industry leader of the year.

Terry Kimball, come on down.

Recently, the Chandler Chamber of Commerce received two prestigious awards from the Arizona Chamber executives, a testament to the Chamber's leadership in our community.

The Chamber's business retention and expansion program was recognized as an outstanding program of the year, and Terry Kimball was honored as the industry leadership award with that.

These accolades are truly deserved and reflect the exceptional work being done by you and the entire Chandler team.

So on behalf of the city, we want to extend our congratulations and its staff on these achievements.

We are grateful for the strong partnership between the city and the chamber.

Would you like to say anything?

Yes.

Thank you, Mayor.

Well, I have with me several members of our board of directors because our programs and everything that we do would not be uh possible without their leadership.

Um I joke that we represent a hundred and seventy-two thousand employees here in Chandler with thirty-five board members.

I have a lot of bosses, but um, it's truly an honor.

And our business retention expansion program is where we are going into businesses not only with some of our council members that are up here as well as city staff, but it is also an opportunity to bring all of our educational partners together in one room.

And I will tell you this program has been ideal for our businesses because it's a one-stop shop and it's really really important.

And Mayor, you're standing up here not just as a mayor, but also as part of our board too.

And I just want to say, and then um there are a hundred and thirty-five chambers in the state of Arizona, and to be recognized.

This was the first time they gave out awards, and we walked away with one-third of all of the awards there.

So very exciting.

Chandler continues to be that role model.

I'll just say, yeah, I'm the board chair.

Elaine Cruz, um, I just want to congratulate Terry for her leadership and thank her because she was recognized at A's at the the year's Honor Chamber Executives Conference.

I was uh at the conference, they didn't see the award ceremony, but uh she was recognized by her beers, and this is all of the chambers in the state recognizing the work of our chamber and our leaders.

So congratulations, Harry.

All right, let's do a photo.

All right, are we good?

All right.

Next, we are recognizing the twenty twenty-five video awards.

If our video team can come and end with some sass and swagger, please.

Our award-winning video team is at it again.

This time receiving tele awards and most recently, multiple Emmy nominations for their work.

We are proud to announce that the city Chandler Digital Media Division has won three prestigious tele awards this year.

I don't even want to listen to myself when you guys are coming in.

This is fun.

The tele awards are an international competition honoring excellence in video and television across all screens.

And for the forty-sixth annual edition, they received over thirteen thousand entries globally.

Our wins include a bronze telly for twister trackers in the sound design quality for state of the city address, a bronze telly for the courage of our city, and the multi multi motivational and advice category, and a silver telly for the heart of the city in advocacy and causes category.

In addition, our team also received three nominations for the Rocky Mountain Emmy Awards this year, further recognizing our commitment to high quality storytelling and production.

So thank you and congratulations to our video team for your great work in representing Team Chandler.

We all love working with you.

You take our paltry efforts and turn them into gold.

So thank you.

Who would like to say something?

I do.

I do.

I do.

Um, I'm just really proud of this team.

Um, they work really hard, they take very complicated topics and make them digestible in an entertaining way.

So I'm very excited and very proud to be part of this team.

And thank you, Matt.

And thank you, Mayor and Council, for being so supportive.

I truly appreciate it.

Thank you.

And I'm glad to see the emergence of the puppy blue jackets again.

All right, let's do a photo.

All right, let's give you guys over a little just way.

There we go.

Okay.

But wait, we have one more, council member.

Recognition the twenty twenty-five employees of the year awards.

And let me turn this back to acting city manager John Pombier.

Mayor, council.

I'm not sure how I top what we just witnessed.

But as you know, one of the best parts about being the acting city manager is getting to know all the employees that do amazing work for the city day in and day out.

Today we are going to introduce and call off the names of the winners of the um employee of the year for different departments.

I ask all of them who are here because not all of them could be here to come down for one picture.

These are the best of the best.

These are the people that were voted on by their peers because of the great customer service they give day in and day out to our internal customers and to our citizens.

It's these people that exemplify the Chandler way and make my job and your jobs so much more fun.

So I will start by introducing the employee of the year for the police department, Ryan Hodegay.

For public works and utilities, Gina Sylvester.

For management services, Bernita Goldtooth.

For neighborhood resources, Leslie Peralta.

For Kappa, Stacey Sacco.

Please note the wardrobe change.

All right.

For general government, Danielle Shager.

For community services, Pia Nelson.

For information technology, Krista Mikezel.

For development services, Taylor Kosara.

You may want to ask, I believe Taylor wins the award for the people to come farthest to support her for this event.

For Fire, Scott Agnett.

And for the city magistrate, Douglas Luke's Mayor and Council, these are your 2025 employees of the year.

All right, what's actually shift a little bit to anyone?

Good.

Thank you.

Now I get to follow for you because I come down.

And as soon as I do, somebody will ask the question.

Council, we do have a consent item, but one of the items has been called in, and I also have a couple comments on item number three.

So Marge Zilla, come on down.

This is your first presentation to us, isn't it?

So Councilmember Orlando, you got a question?

Yeah, Marge, I don't know if you're the right person, but planning and zoning, but I'd like to for the uh efficacy of the audience, um, tell us what we're doing here tonight, why we're doing it, and we'll start with that.

Mayor, Councilmember Orlando.

So I'll just refer to planning and zoning to go through the technical aspects, and then for any legislative components, then I'll weigh in on those.

So perhaps for background to give planning and zoning an opportunity to lay the groundwork.

Come on up.

Hi, uh, through the mayor, council member Orlando, could you repeat your question?

I'm sorry.

Could you repeat your question?

Yeah.

Um why are we here with this particular item?

Yeah, um, through the mayor, council member Orlando.

This was a house bill that got approved last year.

Um, it has to be approved by January first of 2026.

It requires um middle housing, which is duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes, to be approved within a mile of the city center business district.

And I understand there is no control the city has over those.

And so it's not.

And do we have the legislative side of the house why this thought process was involved with the city.

Mayor, Councilmember Orlando, so with any kind of policy proposal at the state legislature, these things aren't happening in a vacuum.

You may recall for the past few years, there have been an onslaught of proposals that threaten local decision making.

There were more widespread proposals that were stopped at the legislature.

And this avenue was one that was more targeted, certainly not something proposed by the city, but more targeted in its effects on the city's zoning ability.

And I apologize.

I'm suffering from a real case of allergy, so forgive me.

So I guess what I'm hearing you say this is just one of those items where the state legislator is telling cities at a certain size, by the way, of how they must comply with something that we as residents vote on the general plan.

I voted on downtown plans and just taking control away from our residents and the council, quite frankly.

And I would venture to say the vast majority of this one mile radius of all of our cities, 75,000 above, I'm sure has one, maybe numerous historical districts, because that's why they're historical districts, they're in the oldest oldest part of the towns.

Excuse me.

Yeah, it is unfortunate.

Uh, and we're facing this, like I said, larger cities are facing this mandate.

And um something I think we need to take a hard look at next year.

I know you're you're working with the legislators, is we need to carve out the historical districts on this.

We need to look at this bill, and maybe it was good intentions.

I'm not going to sit here and debate the good intentions of this for housing, but there are some quirks in this bill that definitely needs to be looked at.

We have very little control over what the structures are.

We have very little control of painting of it, very little control of the tiling.

I think that's one of the other items on here.

So I I just have a problem with our legislators just doing these mandates, in particular the historical folks that have spent a lot of money on their houses, their area to keep historical perspective.

And I think you'll hear from some of them tonight.

So I mean, I'll I have to move forward with this because it's state law, but I would definitely urge this council, this mayor and council, and you at the National League of Cities, um, excuse me, the league cities, mayor, to take this address this bill next year and fix and fix some of the items in here so that we are not uh here a year from now with all of these pop-up areas ruining our historical designated areas.

The other question I have for staff is legal more than anything else, is there are federal laws on historical designations of particular areas.

Were we able to find out if some of this historical laws apply to our historical downtown?

In other words, can you just go in there and start carving up an historical place?

Um if I may, Mayor, uh, Councilmember Orlando.

Um the federal designation, unfortunately does not preempt the state action, which they did in this case.

Um there are certain uh federal laws that apply, but they're more for funding and different things like that.

But um unfortunately we did research the issue of whether the federal law could um overcome the state preemption, and no, it can't.

Um it the federal laws do not go into that detail, and and that's where they defer to the states.

Okay.

Well, thank you for looking into that because I know the residents have called me on this one, and I know other cities are taking this challenge as well.

Thank you, Mayor.

Some more got a couple questions and perhaps others as well.

So I somewhat I I have talked to a couple legislators probably several months ago when I first heard of this and wondered the application, and it almost seemed to the idea seemed to catch them by surprise.

Is do you see at least a path that we could have conversations or are others that do you see any interest on this yet of entertaining the carving out of historical districts?

First question, I have another one too.

So, Mr.

Mayor, yes, this has received um a lot of attention.

I think that the bill itself talking about the compatible uses and defining middle housing as compatible with the um housing that exists in that area offers the city some ability to work through what fourplexes, duplexes, or triplexes may come up in that area.

And this, as you know, is um counter to some of those other proposals that came through the legislature.

But yes, I think those conversations will go on.

My second question is there's also been a little bit of chatter about some neighborhoods.

Um, I'm not hearing this in Chandler, but wishing that they had the options.

I suppose if the city was interested in pursuing that, um, you know, with that that's a possibility that we could pursue on a case by case uh similar to what happened downtown before this legislation.

Is there's nothing necessarily preventing us from or other cities from incorporating this in city code if there was an appetite outside of historical districts and outside of the square one miles, correct?

Uh Mr.

Mayor, absolutely correct.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Councilmember Harris.

Yeah, um Marjorie, I think one of my biggest concerns have always been addressing housing affordability.

Um, I know that this is the attempt to address the the uh the lack of housing, the lack of middle housing, and to um preempt cities to allow for that.

I'm not 100% on board with state coming in and telling us how to do our business because we do our business very well in Chandler.

But I do understand that there's seniors out there, there's veterans out there, there are people who are displaced, leaving um homeless, you know, situations like aging out of the foster care system.

So we do have large gaps in our community, and as it comes to housing, we do need to fill that gap.

And so I'm just looking at this particular thing and looking at how they're trying to tell us how to do our business, but I do recognize that there is a need for this type of housing.

How do we navigate this process while still supporting the needs of our community in addressing housing affordability?

Will this help do that?

Or or are you thinking what's your thoughts on uh around housing affordability as it pertains to the middle housing?

Mr.

Mayor, Councilmember Harris, um, based on the council action, we'll see how this kind of comes out in practice.

Um, but certainly I think anyone who um is in the depth of this um policy area would say there are a multitude of factors that weigh on it.

And then I guess my last thought is the preservation of our historic districts.

I think that's important.

You know, this uh buildings has been there for 50 years.

The the living, the the ideal what that district becomes, it's important for us to keep that preserved for what that's supposed to be.

And I'm I'm concerned.

So please keep us updated on where we are with that, make sure our community are getting those updates so we can see the progress of this, and then please bring it to our attention.

Um, the first housing development that does potentially come in that area, so we can look at that.

Thank you.

Mayor, Councilmember Harris, those will go through the standard city process as well.

So the process itself would not be preempted.

So you would see that through that process also.

Thank you.

Councilmember Lando.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I just apologize again.

What's the penalty if we don't comply with this?

And state shared revenues.

I was gonna say council member.

I'll I'll defer to the city attorney, but well, one of the, if I may, Mayor, um, council member Orlando, one of the biggest penalties is we have some authority to uh define the areas where these can go.

Um, if we don't adopt that, then they're gonna be able to go citywide.

Um, so that to me is probably by adopting this night, it allows the city to keep as much control as we can under the state preemption.

That's the only reason why I answer that question.

It's fair to ask the question, what if we don't comply?

So thanks.

Kevin Planning.

Right, thank you.

Thank you, March.

I do have two cards uh on this area.

Uh call them in the order I have them.

Uh Julia Pizzali Palazzi.

Julia, you have uh three minutes, state your name and address, and uh when the light turns yellow, if or if you're not done, that means start to wrap up.

And when the light turns yellow, if you're if you're not done, that means start to wrap up.

Okay.

Okay, thank you, Mayor and Council, for giving me some time.

I am a resident of Silkstalking Historic Neighborhood.

There's five of us here.

I'm gonna read you a letter written by another uh Silk Hawking resident that kind of sums up, I think what we all feel are definitely uh concerned about preserving the history.

Um this is from Yvette Cook, my neighbor.

Dear mayor and members of the city council, I'm writing as a resident and homeowner in the Silk Stocking Neighborhood Historic District to express my strong opposition to ordinance number 5141, which propose proposes establishing a middle housing overlay district allowing duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, and town homes on all single family residential lots within one mile of Chandler's central business district.

This proposal stands in direct contradiction to the historic preservation district overlay that the city council adopted in April 2024 for a portion of the silk stocking neighborhood district.

That overlay was the result of a years-long community-driven effort led by silk stalking residents in partnership with the city's planning division, the historic preservation commission, and the city council itself.

The purpose of the HP overlay is to preserve in the architectural integrity, visual harmony, and historic significance of one of Chandler's most cherished neighborhoods.

The Silk Stalking Neighborhood Historic District is deeply tied to Chandler's history.

Many homes here represent early ranch craftsmen and Spanish colonial revival styles, and several were once owned by families central to Chandler's early growth, including the Basha, Bogle, and Serrano families.

Notably Arthur Price, Chandler's first city attorney and personal friend of Dr.

Chandler, also resided here.

These homes and their setting collectively tell the story of Chandler's formative years.

I'm gonna wrap up a little bit because I know I'm getting uh low on time, but as a resident of this neighborhood for 13 years, we've worked so hard with Dorothy Ruwoff, who recently passed, Mary Lou Perkins, who's 93, spent decades getting this historic designation and getting this overlay with your support and your help.

Um I appreciate hearing your support tonight for it and hope that there is some way we can protect our historic neighborhoods, um silk stalking and others, and I appreciate your time for letting me speak tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I can't read you right in the middle of tech.

Close.

Lollipop.

That works.

All right.

It's Melissa.

State your name and address.

You have up to three minutes to share your thoughts.

It's Melissa Lawich.

Thank you.

265 North Colorado Street, two blocks from here in Silkstocking.

Um, I uh I'm not as prepared as I normally like to be, to be perfectly honest.

So that's my disclaimer.

But um I heard today at 12 that this was coming up, and so I I didn't realize that this other bill uh 24 or 2721 passed in 24 and it was a done deal.

Um so I did some quick research, and basically this came out of the housing situation, and I think we all agree it needs to improve, and I don't think there's anyone opposed to that.

The problem I have with this is it seems um, and I'm willing to be corrected at any time, but it seems that this bill to increase housing, middle housing is being done at the expense of historic housing.

That's my issue.

Uh, and I say that because of all this was narrowed down to a one mile radius uh of the city district of the downtown.

There's actually a term for it, but um I wonder, well, why is it down?

You know, why why is this specific to one mile around downtown?

Um, and it looks like the League of Arizona Cities uh and towns is the one that lobbied for it, whereas the two initial senators who proposed this really didn't care.

They wanted it citywide.

Um, but as it stands, it's within a one-mile radius.

Well, guess what's within a one mile radius of any downtown, your historic areas, right?

That's how they developed.

So the big thing on this bill, which again I looked up really quickly, and it was nice and short, was that they didn't want uh anyone to really stunt uh the progress of erecting duplexes, triplexes, and quads for lack of a better word.

And so their work around that is to sell this point, and there's a lot of good reasons to have this, but not in a historic district.

Because once you erect those, you've disturbed the whole flavor.

Those things did not exist.

Where's that yellow light right here?

Sorry.

Am I still green?

You're green.

Okay.

Um now you're yellow.

Dang.

All right, I'll hurry.

I see it now.

As soon as you put these other structures in, you've to me destroyed pretty if they go up, they go hi, high rise.

You know, you've destroyed the whole flavor of the historic neighborhood.

Okay, because we have one now that's big and blue and it's huge, and it it just sticks out.

It's not in our silk stocking, it's on the next street over it, but you could still see it mile away.

Thank you, Melissa.

All right, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Councilmember Decenas.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, this question might be for a city attorney or for Marge.

Um, I need a little bit of clarification because um when we reviewed this, I was under a different understanding, but the city manager, or I'm sorry, the city attorney just kind of mentioned the the boundaries of the central business district.

How is that defined?

Is that defined by the number of businesses, a number of population?

What may that be?

Because I just heard you mention that you said we as a city chose the district.

So if we can get some more clarification on that.

And if I may, Mayor, I'm gonna defer to planning staff.

Um, and again, we chose it within the confines of the law.

So do the mayor, council member and seen us.

Um, the central business district was already approved through resolution in previous years, I believe in 2019.

So that's what we had gone off of.

Okay.

Is that based like off of our uh former general plan or what was that based off of?

I'm not too sure where that came from.

Um, but I just know that it was approved through resolution in 2019.

Okay.

And did we feel like it's we're just basically going on that, or is there anything more that we can figure out that's more appropriate?

Is this the correct place for the central business district?

The mayor, council member and sinus.

Um the bill does state within the downtown area, and the central business district does kind of encompass that area so we felt it was pretty appropriate.

Okay, so the actual bill says the downtown um it says central business district.

Okay, so that's where I'm feeling I need more some more clarification on how that's being defined.

Mayor.

Are you done?

Yes, all right.

Councilmember Harris.

Mayor, I kind of feel the same way too.

That we probably, as a council, we need to kind of define that, look at that a little bit more closely, and maybe even table this item to we get that uh resolution of the uh of what that district is.

How do we decide?

I wasn't on council in 2019 when I was being made.

I think it's only right for me to look at the map that I'm saying yes to.

Um, so that way, because we have a lot of different business districts in Chandler, west, north.

You could pick a side, we have a lot.

So I kind of would like to table it and ask the acting city manager if he can get back with us to give us the district name map, and then that way I can look at it and understand what it is before I say yes to this particular item because that's tied to this particular item.

Kevin Mayo, Mayor, Council.

Um, so the central business business district uh it was created for a totally different purpose.

Uh it is not had nothing to do with this.

It was created for funding mechanism, federal funding mechanisms and different whole host of different things.

Um, it exists for purposes, economic development, downtown redevelopment, those types of things.

Um, in terms of tabling it, uh the the state bill gave us a short shot clock on this.

Um, and based on uh the two meetings in November and the two meetings in December, if we table this to a December meeting, uh we won't it won't become effective until after the effective date when we have to have it affected by.

If we don't have it affected by that date, then this uh state bill applies citywide, which is defaults to city wide unless this is adopted uh in November.

Mayor, council member, and we can I mean we can do special meetings to get through that process, but I think it would be it will it will be not you know, not pursuant or or in our best interests to say yes to we're not saying no to what is REB preemptive to the state, but what we are saying is that what we have control of, which is this business defined business district, we have control of that.

We need to be able to look at that ourselves because I have control over that, and I've never looked at that, I never considered it.

I never consider that at the lens in which we're talking now.

And now that this element is there, I would like to be able to consider that at the lens of what we're talking about now, so I can see how that works in conjunction because we owe that to our residents and we owe that to ourselves to know exactly what we're defining here.

And if we need to do additional special meetings in order to move this forward, that's fine.

I want to do that type of work because I think that's important for our residents.

And then if we need a way in, we can do that as well.

Thanks, Mayor.

City attorney, part of what's at risk here too, other than that is state shared revenues.

Am I correct?

If I may, Mary, that is my understanding.

Also, the central business district that was created um statutorily, it goes through a process.

Um, we would not have time to change that within the time frame we have before the law goes into effect on January 1st.

And changing that at this point could affect some funding.

I don't know because it it deals with slum and blighted areas, it deals with different um tax rebate programs.

I I can't tell you here what all it would be impacted in our central business district.

What I can say is it's a process to change that.

Um, and we would not have time to change it before January 1st.

So there are some real um risks of continuing this item um, both from having it have a broader application and potentially, and I'm looking at the law real quickly, and I apologize.

Potentially it could impact um state grants or state shared revenues.

Council, I think again, right?

You whatever we do here, I still think a good foot forward is I think there is an appetite in the legislature.

I don't think it was their intention to go after historic districts.

I think they were thinking a thought of in areas, and this is the area where there was the economic development incentives for for building uh things that I remember having a conversation with you actually years ago.

I didn't know it was called that, but it was the the E had an E in the like a four-letter thing, I don't know what the word is I'm looking for.

What's that?

EMSD, yeah.

Yeah, well, I'm not sure, but I I know that it it's prescribed beyond that we had a say in that, but that in its way incentivized um different interest rates on that.

So I I don't think that that's necessarily a path that we're gonna be able to claw back because that was a federal designation, not a state designation on that.

But I'll say I guess I I'm I'm not willing to risk state shared revenues or our broad application.

I am quite interested in in working with legislatures, as I mentioned, I've talked to a couple.

I think there's an appetite to pull uh historic districts out.

I I don't think it was their intention.

I just think that's kind of where the area falls.

But we'll get to a vote.

I I guess we'll see.

But I I don't know even what the what's the timeline if do we have for a daily?

What do we have?

A month, what's the time where this has to be for second reading?

If I may, Mayor, um, we need to have it effective by January 1st.

So after the second read, it's 30 days um before the ordinance goes into effect, and that's why it's on tonight for action and Thursday night.

Also, just um fortunately um Kim Moyer's provided a little more information.

The central business district was adopted back in 2012, and it provided ways to provide economic incentives through um tax rebates, tax debate um incentives, the uh jiplets um all would be impacted by changing the central business district.

Yeah, yeah.

Um Mayor, council member, I I just I understand that, and I kind of feel like if if I understand where where we at, and we're talking about the first of the year, and I understand that even if we went over the first of the year a few by a few days or whatever, it's not making a it's not you know, there's not a building or something being built at that time or something that's creating that preempt that preempt.

I really just I I really just want to make sure that knowing this part of the information, it just totally makes me feel uncomfortable.

I feel like we just really have to not that I'm saying that it probably won't go through, but I really need to have that extra information to help me consider or get there and to make sure that we're being responsible and we can understand like this.

We have neighbors here right now that's like, hey, this is gonna impact my district, you know, and I don't even know what that even looks like.

And so I kind of want to be able to consider that, and even the tabling of it, or even if staff can work with those that want to work um to get this taken care of by Thursday, that's great too.

I'm willing to put in that work, but I really need to see what we're talking about because I don't know, I I don't have a visual what we're even talking about, and I feel like I'm doing my job halfway if I'm saying yes to the state, but I'm saying there's something that's there that I have control over.

I'm gonna look at what I got control over, and I want to make a decision based on what I have a control over.

And I feel like I don't have that information tonight, nor was it provided to me.

And I didn't know that it was tied to something like this, and this is new information I'm learning in this moment, so that's why it's our rather table, or we can work through that with this uh acting city manager and attorney, they can get back with me.

Yeah, um, council member Harris, I don't think it's a question of time when things go on the property.

It's it's a mandated date, which means and there's a 30 days of curing.

So we have to do something, and this council still has passed second reads, so there is there's another, but by the end of this month, this is I I don't know if we're going to gain any wisdom between now and then.

So I I mean you could I I'd like to hear what these guys have to say.

And and you know, if you want to make a motion to delay this, I guess I won't be voting yes on that just because I I think my sensibilities say this is one that I'd rather work with the product, but I don't think I have the ability to delay this in my mind.

If mayor, if we do if we let's say we went down the path and say, hey, we did a yes vote on this particular thing.

Is that the districting in terms of the the actual district?

If I said yes, we got to put this into law, but if I went back and said, hey, I want to work and look at these districts from a council perspective, does that still carry the movement of not impacting our neighbors or putting ourselves in the best position so that way so you do mean like historic districts or the central business district?

Well, whichever district that I whichever maps I have control over, being able to bring it back to council to make a decision about what that looks like.

Kelly, I'm gonna defer to you for his question.

And that's what I'm looking at, Mayor.

Um could potentially, and I don't have the answer here because I don't think it's addressed specifically in the law, Mayor.

Is if we change the central business district after this goes into effect, could would it change the boundaries?

And we can look at that, but I can't give you that answer tonight.

The answer I can give you tonight, and the one that is again a risk for the council to evaluate is the law is very clear.

The the new law it says if a municipality does not adopt the regulations required by this section on or before January 1st, 2026, middle housing shall be allowed on all light lots in the municipality zone for single family residue residential use without any limitations.

So that is the risk.

Um we I'm happy to try and look at the issue of can we change the central business district and have it affect this um after adoption.

We will look at that um this week and try to have an answer to the council before Thursday night.

Um, but but that is the real risk of not um having this law go into effect on January 1st.

Yeah, council member post.

Um, mayor, just in in my personal opinion, I think there's too much at risk to not vote yes on this this evening.

Um I do I sort of will be voting yes in protest, but I would like to encourage our city acting city manager to talk to our lobbyists.

We have a few of them to try and see if we can get some sort of resolution that still protects those historic communities.

I don't want to make this this particular issue spread across the entire city.

I don't think we have the time.

We're our backs are up against a wall.

I I don't want to vote yes, but I do want to protect the city as best we can.

Um, I would like to keep looking into this.

I think this is another excellent example of why local control is so important.

I think there are a lot of unintended consequences to actions like this by our state legislature when they start playing in Chandler's sandbox is I think we and our residents know what's best for our community.

It's devastating.

I was here back in the days of Dorothy Ruhoff when she was working to get the silk stocking district, and she worked so hard for this.

And this is this is this is awful.

So we need to get it done.

We need to get a resolution in the state legislature.

I look to our mayor who has you know those good relationships, our acting city manager and our lobbyists to work on that immediately.

Thanks, Mayor.

Thank you.

Mayor.

If um council member Harris, thank you, Mayor.

Sorry.

Um I I want what uh Kelly can look into.

Um I might be standing on business in terms of what I know versus what I don't know.

I want to always make educated votes, and I always have to be able to explain my vote.

I feel like I'm impartial information right now, and although there is additional things that could be, and I I feel like we are our backs are against the wall on this particular issue, but um, but I I do think that we can slide in some additional meetings if we need to to have those additional conversations, but I I would like to look at those maps, um, regardless of how council votes and focus on the historic district and making sure that we're getting ourselves away from that area so that way we can um bring forward.

That's kind of what I'm bringing for.

Yeah.

So council member again, this is maybe one of the opportunities where a second read will serve us best.

I would recommend that we we pass this.

You can answer questions to us by Thursday, and then if we want to push that second meeting back, there still might be a window, but I would strongly recommend that we get this out of the way because there is a required two readings that we still have an option before this would go into effect at the end of this month if our questions are not all answered by Thursday.

So that would be so would that be the direction that you would be giving staff to look at the district a map and bring some of that answer back?

If I vote yes on this, then staff direction is to bring us back options or focus areas for the districting map.

I I think they can answer any questions that we might have.

But or if your question is, are they going to give us a pathway to change those?

I I'm not counting on that in the short term, but I think there is some information that if you have specific questions, they can deliver they can deliver that to us on Thursday, which is now the set second rate of this.

Right.

Mayor, if I could jump in really quick, Kevin.

So uh if the question is, could we change the boundaries of the central business district in a way that we would be able to pull the implication of this one mile radius?

We'd have to move this central business district west of Alma School for it to not then reach uh silk stockings.

There is no way to shrink it and reconfigure it in a way that would protect silk stockings as is defined in the state law right now.

And we've got too many things I think that we've leveraged because of that central business district that we couldn't collapse it down uh based on the other things we have done historically over the last 13 years.

But I don't think that it could be adjusted in a way that would protect that.

I think our best efforts are to work with the state uh to try to in the next session exempt the historic districts.

And mayor, councilmember Harris, much as we believe the state legislature may have missed the unintended consequences on historical districts.

Um, I'm not going to be here Thursday night, but I will tell you, I'm very hesitant to have any suggestions by staff come forward because we will not have time to look at what the unintended consequences we would have on our central business district if we tried to move it and anything, any programs or anything we had in that area.

I would hate to have unintended consequences based on our action.

So I believe we can look to get the answer of could we change it after the fact?

But then I would recommend that would be a process.

And while that's going on, I will talk to government relations about is there any movement to exempt historical districts from this?

Because that would provide the easiest exception to this.

Um, but I want to make sure that I'm giving you the advice not to avoid not to create unintended consequences that are our fault.

Smart.

Right.

Well, Mayor, I mayor, I just think that um I understand, but my symbolic no vote would be more so standing on the business that I disapprove of what was brought to us in a sense that created this energy with our neighbors because we have to be about our residents and about the business.

So my no vote is for Chandler and my this and and my uh vote to say state, state up stay out of our business.

And if you want to have a conversation, come see me.

Thanks, Mayor.

Mayor Councilmember Lynn.

Yeah, I you ready to make a motion?

I am ready to make a motion if um my paperwork here.

One through four.

Yes.

Proposed a motion to move the consent agenda November 10th, 2025.

Regular meeting price one through four, with the change we have in front of us.

out of our business and if you want to have a conversation come see me thanks mayor mayor councilmember line yeah you're ready to make a motion i am ready to make a motion um be on my paperwork here one through four yes proposed a motion to move the consent agenda november 10th 2025 regular meeting price one through four with the change we have in front of us city attorney is that correct we have to read that and then meet the motion yes the change in front of you that changes the number um of two households living independent from each other to four households living independent of each other in exhibit a thank you for reading that I don't think I would have made it so with the addendum on November 10th and what she said motion second by vice mayor I think we kind of talked through this position um did you want to I'm going to be dissenting so you're voting no on item number three that's correct so or at least vote Chandler Mayor for the record I'll be voting no on item number three as well okay motion carries unanimously with the accept um items one two and four item three passes by majority okay thank you that concludes our regular council meeting welcome to the November 10 2025 study session I would like to call this meeting to order clerk please take the roll mayor Hartke here Vice Mayor Ellis Councilmember and Sinus here council member poston here council member orlando trying to be here council member Harris I'm still here we have a quorum okay thank you um we've had a number of items that have been called in um so staff uh we'll just go through them item one and two by council member orlando a staff presentation on the issuance and sales of bonds Matt Dumdark Mayor and council uh glad to be here to talk through uh some bond sales that we have planned I did realize that I should have worn a puffy blue jacket and a cowboy hat uh to be well accepted that that seems to be the going criteria so let me get the right presentation hold on a second no that's us all right so before you tonight we have some uh bond issuances uh both general obligation bonds and excise tax revenue obligations of course keeping in mind that bonds fund a majority of projects in our capital improvement program uh just over 70 percent uh rely on bonds in our capital program and this bond funding allows us to build and construct a lot of uh different amenities for our residents uh both fire and police apparatus and improvements to their technology uh their buildings our streets and intersections uh facilities and parks uh so we have a lot that rides on these bonds uh from an excise tax revenue obligation perspective uh resolution before you tonight 5946 authorizes the sale not to exceed 205 million of ETRO bonds series 2026 the pledged repayment is excise tax revenues however utility revenues uh generated from ratepayers will be used to fund the debt service on these bonds there's some example projects here that will be uh utilizing this bond funding including water treatment plant improvements water main replacements water production facility improvements sewer assessment and rehabilitation programs water reclamation facility improvements and the santan freeway redundant 66 inch line uh for our sewer uh these are for projects that have already uh begun and also projects that will begin this year uh that will be utilizing this bond funding from a general obligation bond perspective resolution 5947 authorizes the sale not to exceed of 175 million of GO bonds series 2026 uh the pledged repayment is secondary property taxes for our general obligation bonds uh this sale will not impact the secondary tax rate remaining flat at 87 cents per hundred dollars of assessed value uh the sale also uses remaining authorization from prior bond elections for public improvements previously approved by Chandler voters uh does not use any of the recently passed additional authorization to which we thank our voters uh and residents of chandler for uh providing uh additional authorization for us to continue our capital improvements and programs some of the projects that'll be utilizing this funding include the ray road dobson road intersection kyrene road from channel boulevard to queen creek almuscole road from germain to queen creek umsky gross park traffic management center improvements the forensic services facility for police department and existing city building renovations and repairs so again mayor council for your consideration tonight two resolutions number 5946 to authorize uh to sell an amount not to exceed 205 million of ETRO bonds and resolution 5946

Some of the projects that'll be utilizing this funding include the Ray Road, Dobson Road intersection, Kyrie Road from Chandler Boulevard to Queen Creek, Almasco Road from Jermaine to Queen Creek, Musquikoros Park, Traffic Management Center Improvements, the Forensic Services Facility for Police Department, and existing city building renovations and repairs.

So again, mayor and council for your consideration tonight, two resolutions number 5946 to authorize to sell an amount not to exceed 205 million of ETRO bonds and resolution 5947, authorization to sell an amount not to exceed of 175 million of GO bonds.

And with that, I'll answer any questions.

Thank you, Matt.

Councilmember Orlando.

Yeah, not so much questions.

Matt, thank you very much for bringing this forward.

Thanks to the residents for voting a new set of bonds.

And there's a lot of great projects here that are finally coming to fruition.

Expansion of roads, freeways, parks, so for the forensic facility.

So and I think the key word there is no tax rate increase.

So we certainly appreciate that.

So let's get those things sold.

When are you selling them next year?

Uh they'll be sold in January.

Yeah.

So we we go through our rating, uh, re be re-rated over the month of December, and then we'll sell them in January.

What do you think the race will be roughly?

I know it's competitive, but what do we think?

Yeah, we're we're anticipating.

I'm gonna look to Bill Davis.

We're hoping for like a 3.6 was kind of our target that we're shooting for.

And you know, if I had my drrothers, it'd come in at 2.6.

But I think actually comes in.

Yeah, so you're gonna buy all the bonds, make sure two point six that's right.

Yep.

All right, make sure.

Thank you, Mayor.

Any additional questions or comments?

Thank you.

Next item called in uh by council member Orlando.

Item number five, the IGA with regional public transportation authority, Jason Crampton.

Thank you, Mayor.

Jason, you don't need to go through the whole presentation, but um this is just our normal route, normal process every year.

We go through RPT.

I guess the one question we were talking about this or in the briefing sheet, um, expansion of the routes.

Um, what type of discussion again?

I don't want to say the expectations here, but it's important to know that potentially there's expansion routes, and how would we our residents participate in that process?

Uh yes, through the mayor, Council Member Orlando, thank you for the question.

Um, so we've we've had a long history of route planning uh in the region, and we have routes that have kind of been programmed for many years.

Um, so we're looking at hopefully being able to implement some enhancements to our bus routes with the uh with with the uh start of proposition 479 and the new regional funding for for transit.

So um, you know, we we have information on our website, ChandlerAZ.gov slash transit.

Uh residents can uh can go there, they can contact our staff, they can find that contact information there.

Um, and and definitely resident feedback is welcomed.

In addition to resident feedback when considering enhancements to bus service, we look at things like demographics, land use density, um, activity centers, and and just the overall connection to the existing transit network to really identify what types of enhancements work best to our our uh public transit network.

All right, good.

I think we get some more advertisement on that so people could weigh in on it.

Certainly appreciate that.

And I want to thank you and your staff.

Uh periodically do get uh comments um from the service, and then of course we've got a few where I know a couple of residents were missing buses, and the time schedule is off, and your staff contacted them right away, and I think they fixed that problem.

So thank you very much.

These are the type of stuff that irritates some residents, and particularly if they're working, you got to be in downtown Phoenix, and you're supposed to be here at certain time, and you're not there.

So thank you for fixing those problems.

Certainly appreciate it.

Thank you for that.

No additional questions.

Item number seven.

Did you call and get your answer for this one or not?

Oh no, the bank.

Okay.

Item number seven, uh, rezoning of tumbleweed estates.

Um Taylor Manaman, planner.

Councilmember Orlando.

Hi, Taylor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, will these be for sale or rentals, or we don't know yet?

Uh, the intent uh through the mayor, council member Orlando.

The intention is that these will be for sale.

All right, thank you.

You're welcome.

That's it.

Okay.

That was easy.

Item number 20, Councilmember Orlando and Councilmember Poston.

Have any relating to public outreach question on the trophy sports bar?

Darcy Smith.

Which let's go ahead.

Through the mayor, Councilmember Orlando.

Trophy Bar is in the process of getting an use permit for a series six bar license as well as an entertainment use permit for live entertainment.

Yes.

Sorry.

So the question I have is uh obviously we're getting some residents input.

I know they're doing a Zoom meeting and they're not happy with that.

I don't know if we could get with the applicant and see if they could be a more one-on-one interchange or exchange.

So hopefully we go.

I think I talked with uh Kevin May all day about that.

So hopefully you guys could follow up and see if that makes it a little bit less um more personable.

You want to be a good neighbor, you better let's not go through video when you could probably do something in your own place.

So hopefully that they'll they'll hear that.

The second question I have is um I know they have different issues going on, the expansion and liquor license.

Um, why can't this liquor license uh come before us at the same time we work on agreement with them for the expansion of the other issues?

Yeah, through the mayor, Councilmember Orlando.

Um, our tax and license division has a certain shot clock of 60 days with the state level.

Um and the timing that we got the use permit for trophy bar was slightly behind that.

So they did have to move forward before us.

Okay.

And just to clarify series six is because they're selling more liquor than food versus the old one, they had 12, which was food, a certain percentage of food over liquor, right?

The mayor, that would be correct.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Poston.

Do you have any additional questions?

Mine ran, thank you.

Okay, any additional.

All right, council, those are all of those who have called in.

We will see you all on Thursday.

Thank you, audience, for hanging with us.

Have a good evening.

Mayor.

Council.

I'm not done yet.

Thank you, thank you.

There you go.

Turn my pages.

I'm on gambling.

All right.

Item number 32, city relief measures uh related to federal government shutdown as requested by council member Harris.

Councilmember, sorry for that.

Oh, no, no worries.

Um, thank you, Mayor.

I wanted to bring this forward because as you guys know that um the government has been on shutdown and it's been quite a feat for us um locally.

Uh and the impacts have been directly impact.

We have been directly impacted.

The implications of it staying longer, which I'm hearing that they're gonna open back up.

Uh, it really has been very passionate from the employees that have been furloughed furloughed, um, the federal employees um to the contractors, as well as into um evictions and utility assistance that's desperately needed so bad for so many um people, especially Channel residents.

I wanted to make sure that um the people of Chandler know that we're listening, we're hearing, and I wanted to give staff um direction as a council for them to look into options that can help support our our residents during this time, um, not limiting to tapping into reserve funds, understanding what's happening, and I really wanted to uh make sure that we have um that they have the tools that they need um when we leave this meeting today to act and act quick quickly and swiftly on behalf of the residents of Chandler.

So I wanted to be able to have this discussion with my colleagues so that way we can stand on business and making sure that our residents are being heard, especially our veterans, our seniors, our displaced, um, unsheltered, all those things.

Um, and I wanted to kick it over to the city uh acting city manager to um to talk about where we could be at right now.

I know that they've been working very hard.

Um, I know Jane has been working hard as part of the effort in terms of the food.

So I kind of want to know where are we now?

Uh what do you think we need to be doing at this point um after being in this government shutdown?

Mayor, councilmember Harris.

First off, I think uh food, as you noted, is the biggest need right now.

Um, our food banks are telling us that they're still going to need food even if the shutdown ends in the next week or so.

So we will continue to work with the agencies within our community that provide food and make sure that when necessary, we're reaching out to all of our resources to help them have the food they need as we move into a holiday period, which is normally a high time for food as it is under normal circumstances.

As to the rest, uh the neighborhood resources staff has been working diligently to make sure we are reaching out to all of our partners in the community to see where they see potential needs.

So the direction that with your guidance that I will give to them is we need to monitor eviction rates and make sure we're staying on top of that.

And if we see a need, have a plan to react quickly.

We need to be monitor monitoring things like that that we can react to quickly if it comes of need.

If the shutdown ends in the next week and we avoid some of those things, great.

But if not, have are we with our community partners and are we addressing any of the needs we are going to see in our community?

Food, eviction, utility rates, all of those things are things we will monitor to make sure that the shutdown does affect, does not affect our community members any more than it needs to.

Yeah, and I wanted to make sure that mayor and council that we stand on business, that we're not um putting too much red tape in front of the need that's needed there, and making sure that our acting city manager is able to execute from an administrative perspective to make sure those concerns are being uh readily actively addressed as needed in our community.

Mayor, council um member Harris, I think we're in a great spot right now.

Uh staff heard you loud and clear earlier in the week.

They've got a whole list of things ready to go.

The only thing holding them back right now has been me saying, hey, let's see where the actual need is before we spread it out.

I want to make sure that we are using our resources where they will be the most impactful in our community, and by doing that, we can have the most impact.

So staff is ready to go.

I mean, Ryan's sitting over there, she's ready to get up here and give you a whole dossier of the thing she's ready to do.

But it has been a long night.

So I'll let me assure you that staff has taken with a sense of urgency your request, and we will monitor it through our community groups and be ready to go and provide you with solutions, not questions, if the need arises in the next few weeks.

Thank you.

And um, I just wanted to make sure that uh along with mayor and council that's here that they can hear that direction and that everyone is okay with the direction of the uh city manager, um, you know, looking at the need and and and getting back with us and letting us know what the needs are and acting swiftly if there are urgent concerns in our community.

Councilmember.

Just very quickly, one I wanted to say thank you, Councilmember Harris, for bringing this idea forward.

And if there are opportunities, I'm I'm guessing there are gonna be people out there that this is a first-time issue for them.

And so I know there has to be a process, but if there's something that we can do, uh again to kind of reiterate and support what you said, if there's anything we can do to help clear some of that process if you need us to, um please bring that back to us.

Mayor, councilwoman Poston.

One of the things we've been very clear with staff is as they're reaching out to their community partners is to have these pipelines set up.

Eliminate as much red tape as on our side as we possibly can so that if we see the need, we can get the approval from you to send them the money necessary to get our community where it needs to be.

We definitely do not want to be part of this problem.

Thank you.

Thanks, Mayor.

Nice, Mayor.

Thank you.

Um, and as I've spoken with you, the faith community is already deployed quite a bit involved, and then being on the board for Midwest Food Bank, we can bring truck, I mean load of food here by the pallets.

So if we need to make sure that those uh partners are funneled with what they need.

And Ryan is in good communication with Miss Mary Lee and the team, so they know what your needs are, and they're just waiting for the go-head from you to be able to bring that there.

By the time we amass whatever it is that we're already talking about getting, food will already be given to you for you to distribute to the big distributors and then go in into people's homes, and then the rest will come and then fill in the gap.

So appreciate everything that you guys are doing over at the neighborhood services.

Thank you.

And I guess something I'd like to say is ask um Marjorie or strategic initiatives, government liaison is obviously things are a moving target now in DC related to the shutdown, related to SNEP food, et cetera.

That's that if you could just keep us in the I don't need a statement now, but just make sure that we're uh up to date with this information that will help us make decisions and and kind of uh digest the latest what's going on related to timelines and not just what we see in the news.

So to me, I think that would be valuable for us in best understanding where we can uh put resources and I don't I don't want to, I don't want to none of us wants to dedicate resources, something and then find out that that resources is not a need there.

just make sure that we are uh up to date with this information that will help us make decisions and and kind of uh digest the latest what's going on related to timelines and not just what we see in the news so to me i think that would be valuable for us in best understanding where we can uh put resources and and i don't i don't want to i don't want to none of us wants to dedicate resources something and then find out that that resources is not a need there so if you could keep us very abreast of what's going on that would be helpful council anything else council member harris final word on this yeah thank you again staff has been working nonstop i know i've been posting um on social media and talking to the community at large um and making sure that i want our channel and residents know we're standing on business here we see you we know that it's a tough time and we want to make sure the holidays is easier for you to navigate this season no one should be choosing between rent and buying food or or utilities and and uh and you know that their rent payment we need to make sure that there is funding available we need to make sure that our residents are taken care of and making sure that you know evictions are not being the downside and making sure that we have staff resources working ready ears ears ears to the ground hands you know hands ready to make movement this means everything to our community and I think city manager has the direction from city council and and I and I know that he will make sure that he acts according to what we've requested.

So thank you mayor and thank you mayor and council for supporting this discussion and this support that we're gonna give back out to our community.

Thank you all right am I done now?

Yeah city clerk this concludes our meeting thank you yeah