Gilbert City Council Study Session – December 3, 2025
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Gilbert City Council Study Session – December 3, 2025
An introductory paragraph summarizing the overall meeting: The Gilbert City Council held a study session on December 3, 2025 (note: the transcript indicates December 2, 2025, but the provided meeting date is December 3). Two items were presented for discussion: a proposed text amendment related to administrative review of preliminary plots, and an ordinance modification to allow background checks for volunteers/contractors.
Discussion Items
- Proposed Text Amendment on Administrative Review of Preliminary Plots: Veronica Gonzalez from Development Services presented a proposed amendment to the Land Development Code concerning administrative review of preliminary plats. This amendment is required by House Bill 2447 (state statute change) and is also on that evening's regular public hearing agenda. Council members asked a few clarifying questions, and no opposition was expressed.
- Ordinance Modification for Background Checks: Chris (unidentified speaker) presented a request to modify a town ordinance to explicitly authorize the Gilbert Police and Fire Departments to conduct fingerprint-based background checks through DPS for volunteers and contractors. This came up due to a current need to background-check volunteers for sensitive work. The modification would allow DPS to verify the town's authority. A group of volunteers is awaiting clearance to begin service.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken during the study session; the items were for discussion and will be acted upon during the subsequent regular meeting.
- Council members had no further questions on either item, indicating general support for advancing them to the regular agenda.
Meeting Transcript
Okay, we're ready to start the study session. I'll call orders study session for December second, twenty twenty-five. Roll call, please. Mayor Scott Anderson? Here. Vice Mayor Bobby Buckley. Here. Council Member Chuck Bon Giovanni. Here. Councilmember Kenny Bucklin. Here. Council Member Young Kaprowski. Here. And Count Council Member Monty Lyons. Here. And Council Member Jim Torgeson. A quorum is present. Thank you. We have two items to be presented tonight. Presentation and discussion on a proposed text amendment related to administrative review of preliminary plots. Somebody from planning is presenting. Good evening. Good evening, Mayor, Council, Veronica Gonzalez from the Development Services Division. I will be presenting to you a proposed text amendment to the land development code related to administrative review of preliminary plots. A little bit of background. So we're required to do to do this. That pretty much wraps up my presentation. This item actually is on your agenda, your regular public hearing agenda for tonight, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have. Veronica, does this have anything to do with any state law, or is this just something to make our process more efficient? Mayor, this is in relation to House Bill 2447, so it is a change in state statute. Any other questions? Thank you. Thank you. It authorizes DPS to uh fingerprint certain town employees, certain positions. And so our recommendation here, what we're asking the council to do is to modify that. Um we recently came upon a situation where we have some volunteer um with some of our public safety services with police and fire. We'd like to get them background because the work that they're going to do as volunteers is going to be sensitive. And uh because our ordinance does not specifically state that um that the town is authorized to do background checks for volunteers. Um, we're modifying this, or the request is to modify this ordinance to include volunteers, and that way we can take it to DPS, and DPS will see that we do have authority to do the background check on volunteers and contractors, and that way we can get that work done. We currently have a batch of volunteers that are just waiting for the background work to done to be done, so then they can go in and start serving the town. And so that's what this language does. Any questions? No. Thank you, Chris. That was too easy. During the study session, we have 10 minutes before we start the regular meeting.
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