I could have everybody take a seat.

We'll get started here in just a second.

Don't worry, I already do.

Thank you.

All um call to order now, our regular council meeting of June twenty third, twenty twenty six, which happens to be our last regular council meeting of the fiscal year twenty-five-twenty-six.

Our invocation this evening will be led by Pastor Thor Stranhole of Valor Christian Center.

Pastor.

I'm assuming this is on.

Okay.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Town Council, and to our great audiences here tonight.

Um before I pray, there's something that I I want to announce here, and that is that Valor Christian Center is celebrating its tenth anniversary of serving our community with our uh fireworks uh sales at our church.

And we had thirty plus people setting up table after table of after table of fireworks so that we would have the best selection in town and the best prices as well.

So we want to invite everybody to come and uh as you know we're all going to be celebrating our two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the birth of our nation.

We're excited about that.

And we encourage you to come and we're we're on valor between Higley and Greenfield.

And here's the good part.

If you mention Pastor Thor, you will receive a free firework.

With your purchase of ten dollars or more.

Come early and get the best selection.

This fundraiser though will help our children's educational department and our veterans.

Let's pray.

Father, tonight we come together and we just ask you to give our town council wisdom discernment this evening concerning all the decisions that have to be made concerning our town, our residents, our businesses.

And Lord, it's to your glory, to your honor and your praise that we submit this prayer.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray, and everyone agreed by saying Amen and Amen.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Chuck Bongiovan.

Here.

Councilmember Kenny Buckland.

Here.

Councilmember Young Kaprowski.

Here.

Councilmember Monty Lyons.

Here.

And Councilmember Jim Torkuson.

A quorum is present.

Thank you.

We have one proclamation this evening.

Uh to the parks and recreation team.

About Parks and Recreation Month.

Council Vice Mayor Bon Giovanni will be coordinating this.

Whereas Parks and Recreation is an integral integral part of the communities throughout this community, including the town of Gilbert, and whereas parks and recreation promotes health and wellness, improving the physical and mental health of people in the community, and whereas parks and recreation promotes time spent in nature, which positively impacts mental health by increasing cognitive performance and well-being.

And where parts of recreation encourages physical activity, providing space for popular sports, multi-use paths, swimming pools, and many other activities designed to promote active lifestyles.

And whereas parts of recreation programming and educational activities such as youth programming, special events, and environmental education are critical to childhood development.

And whereas parts of recreation is done.

Thank you.

Representatives has designated July as Parks and Recreation Month.

And whereas the Town of Gilbert recognizes the benefits derived from parts of recreation resources.

And now therefore, I, Chuck Bon Giovanni for Scott Anderson, mayor of Town of Gilbert, Arizona do uh hereby proclaim July as parks recreation month in July month in July in Gilbert.

I urge all citizens to celebrate by uh visiting your parks and recreation locations.

Mike, you want to start off?

Uh thank you, Vice Mayor.

I think the mic shuts off after like five or six whereases, so that's no worries.

Uh but uh we just want to thank the uh council support for parks and recreation, right?

Uh there's always this misnomer that we're the fund department, and that exists for a reason because we are the fund department.

We do all the cool things in the town, and so just having the support of the council and of the citizens, uh, it just really makes our jobs worthwhile.

So again, we appreciate it and encourage you guys to go out and recreate.

How about a quick introduction to what you're doing?

Oh, absolutely.

Uh well, actually, we'll pass the mic and let everyone talk.

Uh Tyler Smith, recreation manager.

Hi, Lane Graham.

I'm the assistant director.

I'm Michael Elliott, the Parks and Recreation Director.

Zach Powesiek, Parks Superintendent.

Kylie Sorensen, Parks Manager.

Catalanji, admin assistant.

Awesome.

And I was hoping one of you would just say whereas just once.

Okay, picture.

Next up is our communications from citizens, Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Have another speech to go here now.

Okay.

We value the participation of our community members and robust exchange of ideas.

However, it is essential that this discourse remains respectful and constructive, reflected in professionalism expected in such forums.

Misinformation and personal attacks undermine our collective efforts and do not contribute to the productive dialogue necessary for our town's progress.

This is an opportunity for the public to address the town council directly about issues impacting the town.

Accordingly, the town council will not allow for moments of silence or playing of music or other recorded materials, which which could distract from the meeting decorum and violate copyrights.

While we understand and appreciate uh the passion our community members bring to the session, we remind everyone that clapping during the meeting is not acceptable.

This practice can disrupt the flow of discussion, potentially intimidate others, and distract from the respectful atmosphere we strive to maintain.

In accordance with state law, we are unable to respond to issues that have not been properly noticed.

Therefore, the town council may only listen to citizens who wish to address them.

Uh and at the end and at the conclusion of the open call to public response is limited to individual members of the council responding to criticism made by those uh who have addressed the public body, asking staff to review a matter or asking that a matter be put on a future agenda.

However, please be assured that your concerns and input are heard and valued.

In accordance uh with town code, speakers may not use this forum to advocate for or against any candidate for public office.

Town resources, including this public meeting, may not be used for campaign or election purposes.

Each speaker is limited to three minutes.

Priority will be given to Gilbert residents, business owners, and property owners.

Public comments will be limited to 30 minutes total at the beginning of the meeting.

The town clerk will notify the council once the 30-minute limit has been reached.

If additional comments remain, they will be heard after the conclusion of the public hearing items with the same three-minute limit per speaker.

When you come up, please come to the podium, state your name and city of residence.

And council, we only have three today, so we won't be going into the second session.

All right.

Barbara, are you ready?

Yes, my name is Barbara, and I live in Gilbert.

My concerns tonight are about rates.

I have heard rumors that the sewer portion of our utility bill will return to the $30 rate it was prior to the extortion amount the town exercised upon us.

Once the sewer project is complete, will the doubled $60 rate return to the $30 rate, or will this money go into a slush fund?

This also brings into question the water treatment plant in the new wells.

Will the rates return to a normal affordable rate once these projects are completed, or will this money also go into a slush fund?

I would venture to wager that many of our residents do not believe the charts provided by Kelly, Rebecca, and Jessica were totally accurate.

Their numbers just don't gel.

The charts projected what they wanted the council and the residents to see.

Most of us also don't believe that these hundreds of thousands of apartments that appeared are paying the same rate single family homes do.

And the contractors were given reduced fees.

So who is making the decisions?

Is it the town staff, the council, or is it a combined decision?

Since the former town manager so conveniently left when the town staff and town council was falling apart during this budget crisis, where does that leave us?

The residents.

Then on Facebook, I happened to cross what appeared to be a Town of Gilbert film clip talking about the plans for Gilbert.

In this reel, it was stated there would be there would not be another water increase in 27.

So which is true.

Very recently, June 15th, to be exact, I heard the comments quote, we are in great shape.

Obviously, there are different definitions to what great shape is.

There needs to be accountability to the residents.

There needs to be factual information shared.

And something that just caught my eye as I was sitting here.

Tonight's going to be considering approval of a contingency transfer of three and a half million dollars from the water wastewater fund to the Greenfield Service Area System Development Fe for fiscal year 2026.

I know nothing about this, but you can be sure I'm gonna check into it.

Thank you.

Thanks, Barbara.

Charles Montenegro.

Hello.

Mayor and and council.

In less than one month, uh the Gilbert schools are going back in session for the fall season.

And can you imagine?

I'm a parent, and can you imagine the stress levels of moms and dads taking their kids to school?

Um if you can visualize power road, we have power road, Ray Road on the intersections, Ray Road, then you have uh Williamsfield, you have um Paco's Ridden House, Germain, Queen Creek.

All these intersections uh have a left turn signal, except one of the busiest uh intersections is the power and ridden house.

No left turn.

So if you ever join me um for coffee at the Circle K at Power Road and Ridden House, and I'll buy the cup of coffee.

Most people will wait two or three cycles to go through and turn to the left on Power Road from from Los Antos ridden house into Power Road.

There's no turn left turn signal.

Imagine the stress levels of a parent trying to take their kid to school or go to work and without a left turn signal.

So there's a lot of building going on in in in Gilbert, and I think it's all you know most part for the most part positive.

But if Mario, if he controls the equipment and acquisition of equipment to buy a left uh or repurpose a left turn signal for that intersection, it will be greatly appear uh appreciated.

Imagine everyone here can be a um help our force responders by preventing an accident on that intersection.

The other benefits, I mentioned the reduced level of stress on moms and dads, and if you ever had a kid um a van full of kids as a mom or dad, you know what that feels like, and you don't want to be at the tail end of that stress level.

And finally, um, you know, because there's um two or three cycles of uh of cars trying to get through after the left without a left turn signal.

The other benefit would be uh reduced car emissions, which is um you know a tertiary benefit, but again, there's a lot of things that we can do, and this is an easy solve.

It's not like solving world hunger.

So I implore you guys to improve or repurpose a left turn signal at Ridden House and power.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Charles.

Noah Markham.

Hello uh Mayor and to the rest of the city council.

My name is Noah James Markham, and I'm from the great city of uh uh of Tempe, but um this is my hometown.

I love this hometown when I come back, it's just a great disfilling.

But you know, just people talk about this, and it's so funny that the you know, the Gilbert residents, you guys complain so much about how this traffic and how these you know uh I don't know, cones and stuff, but you guys be knocking down the cones, you guys be going 95 mile per hour in a 40 mile per hour lane.

Like, don't tell me that we need to do something.

You guys don't do anything here, okay?

Let's just think about that.

Maybe we need some anxiety check or something, because no, you guys do not go at that speed of 45.

You go out at least a hundred miles per hour, maybe a thousand miles per hour.

Also, I would like to talk about Happy Pride Month and Happy Black History Month.

Yes, black people like the LGBTQ.

Also, I I need to talk about this because Preston Lord situation is just it is something that just bothers me.

And it's not just because of the Gilbert Goons, we're talking about the devil dogs.

Now, these are two separate gangs.

The devil dogs, supposedly, you know, they there's something really bad, the two Asians out here.

They sunk them.

And you know, that story hasn't come out, but there is people that talk about it, and it's just very frustrating.

I hope nothing happens like this again, because I am I do not like it.

The the Queen Creek police officers and the Gilbert police officers need to do a better job.

And you know, I I just do not like the police chief here.

You know, he's just not a good person.

Also, I would like to talk about the political science because you know, there was another cop that came up to me, showed me a picture.

Oh my god, is this you putting somebody's sign up?

And I was like, yeah, because it was down.

And they're like, oh, well, you know what?

You were uh people were complaining that maybe you might have put this sign down.

And I'm like, are you serious?

But you know what is so funny, and you you guys, you know what you don't like is Mary Rose, because she cares about women's rights, and that's because she wants to run for office, and who you know who doesn't want to protect women's rights, or do you want you know the the Republicans in the race do not want to protect the woman's votes?

They don't want women to run in the town of Gilbert.

We need to extend the light rail, and also um 4th of July um is amazing here, and also we need to make sure that we have a New Year's Eve party here, and please um get the cactus surf park here.

Thank you so much, Mahalo.

Thank you, Noah.

Judy, can we um get information from Mr.

Montenegro?

I want to take him up on that coffee.

Okay.

Um Mario, I'm gonna try your last name tonight.

We're gonna do it.

Um so I want this time I want to turn over the consent calendar to Mario Panagua.

Close?

No.

Close.

Yes, Vice Mayor.

Thank you.

Uh appreciate that you keep trying, that you haven't given up.

Uh Mayor, members of the council, uh, I'll be giving an overview of the items on the consent agenda tonight.

There are uh a good number of items uh that we'll be walking through this evening.

Um just as a reminder, uh all of the items are part of continuing to advance us uh toward our our three pillars of a strong economy, prosperous community, and an exceptional built environment.

Item two is an amended intergovernmental agreement with the regional public transportation authority.

It's a resolution for the renewal of transit services, including bus and paratransit in the town, and this is funded by a proposition 479, which is the Maricopa County Public Transportation Funds and Arizona Lottery Funds.

Item three is an intergovernmental agreement with Maricopa County Library District for the operation of the Southeast Regional Library and Perry Branch Library for a five-year term with renewal options, a total of $4,078,170,000 is funded through the general fund with offsets from Chandler Unified School District and the Library Assistance Program totaling $598,000.

Item 4 is a contract with KAAM Group for refrigerated carbon dioxide used in treating potable water at the Santan Vista Water Treatment Plant, not to exceed $100,000 over five years, and this is through the rate supported water fund.

Item five is a contract with Axon Enterprise Incorporated for Software Licenses and Services Preservation of Digital Evidence related to fire investigations, ensuring compliance with state and federal laws, uh funded through the general fund in the amount of $96,754.

Item six is the contract with wastewater acquisition services LLC for chemical and dosing services of microbiological substance used to treat wastewater, up to $252,000 per year for five years, also from the rate supported uh wastewater fund.

Item seven is a contract with Shade and Net of Arizona Inc.

providing for pre-engineered fabric shade structure services, materials, and equipment used in parks facilities not to exceed 150,000 through the general fund.

Item eight is a contract with Curtis Blue Line for police uniforms and equipment to Gilbert's police department officers, reserves, and field operations personnel of up to $300,000 a year for a term of five years through the general fund.

Item nine is a contract with Duke's Route Control Inc.

enabling the evaluation of underground storage tanks and associated infrastructure inspections as part of the stormwater conveyance infrastructure up to $30,000 per year for a six-year term via the rate supported environmental compliance fund.

Item 10 is a vendor list approval for turf and ball field repairs.

Contract agreements with TERF Enterprise or excuse me, TURF Equipment Source, Mari Coposa Landscaping Arizona, professional turf services, and FX turf specialists for athletic field maintenance in our parks.

The contracts will not expede exceed 100,000 across all agreements.

And this is funded through the general revenue fund.

Item 11 is a contract with QMation LLC for customer support services for the supervisory controls and data acquisition systems that control network operations for water production at the North Water Treatment Plant, Santam Vista Water Treatment Plant, and all wells for up to $35,350 per year for a term of five years through the rate supported water funds.

Item 11A is an amendment to the development reimbursement and lien agreement with Simon CRE, VLLC, and GF Investments Inc., increasing the previously approved reimbursement amount from developers at Higley and Akatillo to the town for required road improvements and utility connections.

This increase is a total of $351,452 reimbursed to the town.

Item 11B is an amendment to the lease contract with Park University, updating and extending the lease agreement for terms of space within the university building and providing for an education investment credit available to qualified Gilbert residents and business owners over the three-year term.

Park University will pay $2,668,424 for the lease.

Item 12 is a contract with Gartner Incorporated, enabling the utilization of tools to evaluate and vet appropriate costs and options for enterprise capable technology solutions and services for the town.

This is a total of $128,903 via the general fund.

Item 13 is a contract renewal and contingency funding authorization for NUMO.

Contract supporting the technology solution used for short-term rental licensing needs and related compliance functions, a total of $421,000, $421,903 over five years via the general fund, with $12,000 of that requested in contingency for fiscal year 2027 to supplement the already budgeted amount.

Item 14 is job order number 13 with Archer Western Construction and contract with Stanley Consultants Inc.

for the construction and PMCM services and the construction of reclaimed water pipeline along Higley Road from Pecos to Germain.

The Archer Western Construction Job Order is not to exceed $241,910, and Stanley Consultants Inc.

Agreement is not to exceed $32,380 from the rate supported wastewater fund.

Item 15 is the contract with Hewitt Zollers Inc.

providing engineering design services for the channel restoration of approximately 1.8 miles of the Sunoke Wash, funded by the rate supported environmental compliance fund for $199,800.

Item 16 is the JOC task order with caliente construction, providing for the replacement and repair of public of the public safety facility roof, a total of 1,502,346 from the general fund.

Item 17 is a contract renewal with Sprout Social, renewing the contract for the management of 20 plus town social media accounts, ensuring continued resident engagement and timely delivery of community information, a total of $116,141 over three years via the general fund.

Item 18 is a contract amendment with caretaker landscape and tree management, providing for landscape maintenance services and tree services at town owned water production facilities and 30 remote well and booster sites, up to 380,128 annually via the rate supported water fund.

Item 19 is uh phase two of architectural and engineering services with J2 Engineering and Environmental Design LLC for the phase two approval of the uh urban lakes renovation project, providing lake dredging, lake liner replacements, sediment and seepage testing, installation of new aeration equipment, and rehabilitation of pump stations at crossroads and freestone parks, a total of $173,514 via the general fund.

Item 20 is uh guaranteed maximum price two with Hunter contracting for phase two of the McQueen and Elliott intersection improvements, adding turn lanes, updating signal components, and conforming with current design standards.

GMP two allows for the procurement of long lead items for signals and street lights, a total of $6807,804 from general obligation transportation bonds, Mag Revolving Fund, MAG Regional Transportation Program Arterial Fund and Roads System Development Fees.

Item 21 is phase two GMP two and phase three GMP three with Hunter contracting and water replacement fund contingency.

Phase two and GMP2 approval for the Vaughn Avenue Connector Project for Improvements along Vaughn Avenue.

Phase three and GMP approval GMP three approval for the Vaughn Basin Relocation to improve stormwater drainage and improve area accessibility.

Phase two GMP two is for $21,816,693 via general obligation transportation bonds and the general fund.

And phase three GMP three is for $5,498,738 via general obligation transportation bonds outside sources revolving fund.

Included in these agreements is $1,430,000 of contingency from the rate supported water replacement fund and $410,000 of contingency from the general fund.

Item 22 is a change order three with Legend Technical Services of Arizona Inc.

providing for the analytical services for water and wastewater sample testing to ensure continued regulatory compliance.

It's an increase of $40,000 to the contract amount and is funded via the rate supported wastewater fund.

Item 23 is the proposition 202 grant application with ACIN Indian community providing for funding transportation for senior and adaptive recreation participants for the purchase of a 12 passenger van.

The 70 uh the amount of the ground application is for 70,000.

Item 24 is an employment contracts, the town attorney and presiding judge approving employment agreements for the town attorney and presiding judge.

Item 25 approves the judicial contract for the associate judge.

Item 26 is a transfer of 3.5 million dollars from the wastewater fund to the Greenfield Service Area System Development Fee Fund for ongoing improvement projects.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

That concludes the consent agenda items.

Thank you, Marl.

Would any of the council like to pull any one of those items for more discussion or presentation?

Is that a yes?

Okay, Councilburn Torges and like number 13, 17, 20, and 26.

So the appropriate staff for 13, please come up.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

My name is Ashley Namore.

I'm a business compliance project manager here at the town of Gilbert, and I manage our short-term rental program.

Um today we are coming to you for approval for our contract renewable with NUMO.

Um this allows us to offer multiple services to Gilbert residents.

Um that includes a 24-7 hotline, an online complaint system, um, but it also is our licensing system.

So for folks who are running short-term rentals in the town of Gilbert, this software allows us to identify, notify, and contain all of their licensing application and information.

Um if you have any questions, I'd love to address them.

We also have a short presentation if that would be helpful as well.

Yeah.

Um I'm just curious because you're saying that there's more than just the uh short-term rental.

Is this contract?

Is the 421 just for short-term rental, or is it for the entirety of the software you use?

It's the entirety of the software that we use.

So that includes the licensing, the compliance, the the reports that we're able to pull, so it's for the entire software.

All right, thank you.

Yes.

I think I have a question.

Yeah.

So 421,000.

I'm hoping I understand this right because when I read it, I want to make sure I understand it.

Um much revenue do we make from the short-term rentals, like licensing and such?

Yeah.

So right now we're netting about 40,000 a year.

Also on the agenda for approval tonight is a notice of intent to increase the fee for that license application, which would allow us to cover the cost of operating the program.

Okay, that's where I was going.

Thank you.

Of course.

Um, number 17, please.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

I'm here to talk about item number 17, Candace Kwan, Communications Director.

Uh, Sprout Social is a social media management platform since 2018.

We've been using it as a town.

It helps us manage over 20 different social media accounts that we own, anywhere from Facebook, Instagram, uh, X, and YouTube.

It creates an efficiency with an already lean employee uh team, about two to three content strategists that are managing this.

This allows us to do that efficiently without asking for a full-time FTE.

And this is a three-year agreement over uh between that's about just under 38 grand uh for the over the three years.

Um and if we were not to utilize this, we probably have to ask for two additional FTEs to manage the 20 plus social accounts that we have.

Any questions?

The software also pushes it, like you make one post and it pushes it to everything, correct?

Mayor, Councilmember Bon Giovanni, that's correct.

It uh allows us to publish and schedule, allows us to manage all of the comments that are being sent to our owned channels and allows us to respond to it all in one centralized platform.

Great.

Thank you.

Item number 20.

21.

21.

Mayor Council, uh, Ryan Blair, CIP manager.

Um item number 20 is for the long lead items.

Uh 2021, I'm sorry.

Oh, 21?

21, yes.

I heard 21.

Okay.

Um so same name, uh CIP manager Ryan Blair.

Um and Mayor Council is here to answer any questions you have regarding item number 21.

I think my my big question on it is where have things been left for the Legion?

Because I know you were trying to work a plan so that they were able to stay and feel comfortable, and I hadn't heard about it until just now that it was moving forward.

Uh Mayor Council, um, that is uh a different project, but I'd be happy to answer that question.

Um in meetings with the um Legion, the those conversations we met with the Legion and the conversations were agreed upon about the parking spaces and different things.

So uh we came to a preliminary agreement.

Um we are 60 percent design, so as we proceed forward from 60 to 90 percent, um, if any things alter or change, um depend on that, we'll have additional conversations with them.

But as of right now, um those conversations have been agreed upon.

All right, thank you.

So this project has nothing to do with that one.

No, that is the Ash Street project, this is the Vaughn connector project.

Right, thank you.

Yeah, I thought they were connected.

I'm sorry.

What has the word connection in it?

So uh number 26, please.

Hi, Kelly.

Good evening, Mayor, council.

Kelly Foust budget director.

Um, this item before you is related with the system development fees for the wastewater area, um, specifically the greenfield service area.

As part of the fiscal 27 budget, we recognize the cash flow for those system development fee projects was not as strong as we had hoped or anticipated, um, and that we would need to transfer about nine million dollars from the wastewater fund into the wastewater system development fee fund.

It's all wastewater related projects.

Um, as we've continued to watch that cash flow, we do have some more expenditures coming towards the end of fiscal 26.

So we are asking to move forward three and a half million dollars of that nine million dollar transfer into fiscal twenty-six.

It'll be the same total of nine million overall, just advancing the timing on a portion of that.

So, as such, since it's just just a timing difference, it will not have an impact on wastewater rates or the five-year plan that was adopted as part of the budget.

Any questions for anyone?

Yeah, when we move things like this, uh, isn't that that's something you and I had discussed about uh was it 4899 or 4900?

Was it where it's almost like a no interest loan if we wish to bond this out, we can be paid back from future bonds.

Is that correct?

Um that would be like a reimbursement resolution.

This is not that type of setup.

Um based on the cash flow and getting close to build out.

I don't anticipate that we will have funds to repay this, which is why it's not set up as an internal loan.

Um, but if in the future there was the cash flow, we do have the records that uh this was transferred over, and we could set that up uh if there was sufficient cash to be able to do that in the future.

Any questions?

Any more questions?

Yes, yeah, Kabrowski.

Kelly, um this is a unique situation where system development fees are capped by state law.

Could you explain that?

And are we able to charge any higher system development fees?

Great question.

Um system development fees are highly regulated under state statute.

The town is currently charging the maximum we are allowed under state statute.

Um we would have to do a whole new study.

It takes about a year to do the study.

Uh, and we could look if there was a potential to increase the fees based off of updated information.

But no, at this time we are uh getting as much reimbursement as we can from those growth-related fees.

Um, but there are um deficiencies in statute that don't cover everything.

Um, and so in this case, the wastewater fund has to pick up some of that gap.

So Kelly, are you saying that we anticipated more growth than what happened?

Timing of growth makes a difference in it, um, but some of it it's just as we get closer to build out, some of those gaps are becoming more apparent when they weren't in our high growth stage.

Okay, thank you.

That makes sense.

Thank you, Kelly.

Anyone you guys want to separate or take out as a separate vote?

No.

Okay, that'll make a motion to pass uh 20 or I'm sorry, two to twenty-seven.

Uh can I have a second?

Second by Council Member Buckley, please vote.

Motion passes seven to zero.

Mayor.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

We'll move now to our public hearing section of the agenda.

We have two items on public hearings tonight, item 28 and 29.

I know that we'll want to listen to item number 28 separately, but don't does anyone want to discuss item 29, or can we take action on that one?

29 a and both if so I'll open the public hearing on 29 A and B and close the public hearing and call for a motion.

I must do approve 29A and B.

It's been moved and seconded that we approve 29A and B.

Please vote.

Motion carries 70.

We'll move back to item number 28, which is a zoning appeal, appeal 2601, design review 25100, Harvest Grove Commercial.

What I'm proposing that the uh the council's the council's approval is that on this item we'll open uh the public hearing and I I'm going to ask the staff to give a short presentation uh that will give kind of the uh the procedural history, then open the uh the request to speak for the public at that time and um then take after that is concluded takes a presentation from the town attorney's office about the requirements for standing for items such as this uh particular item, and then we'll move from there to uh the appellate and the developer arguments uh to address the standing question and anything else that maybe you want they want to bring up and then we'll bring it back to the council.

I'll close the public hearing and bring it back to the council so we can make a decision on what we want to do with this case tonight.

Is that okay with everybody?

Okay.

In that case, I'll open the public hearing and call for staff presentation, short presentation on the procedural history first.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council members, Veronica Gonzalez, Principal Planner.

Um I'll be providing you a brief history of the design review case thus far.

Um mayor, as you mentioned, um we do have a procedural um layout for how this is go this um is intended to go.

Um so I'll just go ahead and get right into the um the project.

So the Harvest Grove Development is uh a 311 project located at the corner of Valvista and Germain Road.

Um the subject of tonight's discussion though is specific to the 27-acre uh commercial component that is located at the northwest corner of the overall site and does not include any of the residential components.

So while our focus tonight will be on the 27-acre um commercial portion, um I think it helps to understand or um to see the history of the entire site.

Um I'm not going to go through each one of these items, but um as you can see here, um we received our first formal application for the rezoning and the general plan um applications on January 30th of 2025.

Um that takes us through to April 7th, 2026, where the um the land use entitlement was granted, and then following that on May 6th was the um planning commission um approval of the design review case and um for the commercial component and um brings us to the um subject of the appeal today.

Um that is my very brief synopsis of the um procedural history for you.

I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have about that.

Um otherwise, as you had noted, you're you may um decide to open the public hearing for comment at this time.

Thank you.

Any questions at this point?

Thank you.

Yes, at this point uh we'll take public comment, and I have two requests to speak on this item.

The first is Noah Markham.

Noah aloha mayor and to the rest of the city council.

Yeah, I really do like this, and um if this is gonna help us and you guys might have to make a different decision, I don't know, but um I like this.

It's close to Campo Party, right?

Um yeah, so considerate thanks.

Thank you, Noah.

Justin Willie.

Press the the button there on the podium.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Thank you.

He has told you, oh man, what is good and what does Yahweh require of you but to do justice, to love loving kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.

I'm uh here to speak against uh Harvest Grove.

We live in the neighborhood that is directly next to the cornfield.

Um I'm assuming it's cornfield, never actually seen what's growing there, but um we have we used to live on Higley and Ray, and uh that was about five, six years ago.

Prior to that, there was it was a nice place to live.

There was a lot of build-up around there.

They built a school really close to there, a really big school, built a lot of restaurants there.

Next thing you know, it was really hard to get out of our neighborhood, turn left, turn right, they had to put stop lights everywhere, kind of became a mess.

We were happy to move out of there.

We moved to Germany in between Greenfield and Valvista now, and uh it's been it's been great, but over the last couple years we've seen a lot of growth.

Um, obviously a lot of building, a lot of people moving in, it's great.

It's getting again, it's been really hard to get in and out of our neighborhood, specifically out when you got to make a left-hand turn.

It's already crazy.

We're trying to teach our daughter how to drive.

She is uh got her permit.

Uh now she has her license, actually, but um, you know, it's it's scary for us to come out of that neighborhood, and for her, it's even worse.

Um it's just we worry as parents.

Um we know that she's not the only kid learning to drive that lives in that neighborhood.

She also goes to Campo Verde High School.

Our other child goes to Valvista Academy right across the street from the cornfield.

Also a disaster trying to make a left-hand turn out of that place.

Um there's a preschool right next to that, Primrose.

Also a disaster.

Actually, they can't even turn left out of there, they got to turn right and uh make a U-turn, which also makes it really hard to get out of that Valvista Academy.

Long story short, um, you know, this building that's being pushed on this field.

I mean, it is uh do we need another grocery store right there?

Do we need another gas station right there?

Um it just it seems like a lot.

They're building a safe way right there next to Campo Verde.

We got a 7-Eleven on Queen Creek, Circle K now on Germain, and uh, you know, there'll be another one now right there.

It just seems like a lot.

It seems like a little much, and you know, we would like to uh just keep Gilbert small small as possible while I know there has to be growth, but not at this level.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I have three that have not requested to speak.

Uh one opposed Samantha Willie.

Uh Rio Rio Aramo looks like Aaron Mamblow also is against the project, did not wish to speak.

And Mark Thompson, who is in favor of the project uh to approve the commercial corner.

And that's all in the uh public input at this time.

Um what we'd like to do this time is ask our town attorney to discuss um the legal requirements of standing since this case will consider that and give us uh a synopsis of that as a threshold matter.

So, mayor and council, I'm gonna briefly just talk about the legal aspects of a appeal like this, and it's really a two-part analysis for the council to consider.

The first consideration you should make is the threshold issue is does the appellant, the person that filed the appeal have standing under the law.

So before we get into what standing means, I'm gonna talk about you know why it exists, why does the law require standing?

Um standing is a legal requirement that basically says, hey, we want to make sure that the person bringing the appeal or filing the lawsuit, whatever that is, has is actually a personal stake in what's going on.

So an example would be, and this is gonna be an exaggerated example.

Um take take this matter, for example.

If the appeal was filed by someone that lives in Scottsdale, that's clearly that person doesn't have any direct stake, they couldn't be harmed by what's ever happening on that corner, so that person would not have standing.

So that's the analysis that the the council should make is taking a look at the appellant, and you'll have an opportunity to hear from the appellant's attorney as well as the developer's attorney to talk about whether or not the appellant here has actual standing.

Um standing is a requirement that's required by the law.

It's also required in our land development code, it's section 6.2.12a, and it says it limits those people that can file appeals, and it limited it limits it to the owner of a property as property that's actually the subject of the decision of the planning commission, which is not the case here, obviously, but it also allows any other, and I'm gonna quote this any other person aggrieved by a final decision of a decision making body, in this case the planning commission, and who has standing to appeal pursuant to state law.

So that's what we're looking at here, and for the council to consider is is the appellant the person that filed this, are they aggrieved by a final decision of the planning commission, and they have standing to appeal pursuant to state law.

If we could go to the other slide now, please.

So these are the factors that courts consider that whether or not a person is aggrieved under the law.

So you look at it, right?

There has to be the person has to have a particular lized harm, right?

The injury has to be unique, it has to be direct.

It can't be something that applies to the public as a whole.

There has to be a direct causation, right?

The harm has to be tied to the decision.

In this case, the decision of the design, the approval of the design review board, the planning commission.

The injury has to be real, it can't be just hypothetical.

Um, and proximity alone is not sufficient.

Proximity is important, but they also have to establish these other factors.

And then the last one is generalized concerns do not qualify.

Again, you have to have some direct specific unique impact to the property, that's what's sufficient to provide standing.

Any questions about that?

Thank you.

At this point, uh, with that information, we'll call upon the appellant to present the case uh addressing the uh standing question and any other material.

Thank you, Mayor.

You need to press the button there on the podium.

How about that?

That's good.

Okay, thank you.

It's been a while since I've been down here.

Um Doug Jordan, Paradise Valley.

You know, before we get into this, I just want to take a moment to say that I appreciate the town attorney.

Uh we've agreed to disagree, but he has been responsive and he's been respectful, and I do appreciate that.

Okay, so press the button here.

You've seen this, we don't need to spend any time there.

Okay.

Um actually four people that I'm representing uh here today.

My uh direct client, Robert Monastero, and there's also three other people who live in the neighborhood there to the east, and their houses are shown with the yellow dots.

Um let's go to the standing issue, because that's you know, I've been doing this for almost 50 years.

Come September it will be 50 years, and never in my life have I seen such a rush to move something forward.

You know, and this is a direct tie to our request that this matter be continued to a later date.

I got involved in this on June 6th, and uh it has just been an absolute rush ever since then.

And the only thing that we are asking for right now is for an opportunity to have a fair hearing for the appellants.

That's our main request tonight.

So some of the some of these people, the yellow dots, they live within a half a mile of the uh commercial development.

Common sense says that if you're within that distance, you have the ability to establish establish particularized harm.

That's kind of the legal phrase that Mr.

Pain referred to.

The problem is we haven't had that time.

We haven't had the time to do traffic studies or other types of studies.

There's no traffic study that we've seen anywhere in the town packet for this item.

The there was no lighting, noise, air quality, other environmental impacts that were presented to the design review.

We simply haven't had time to do it.

I am absolutely convinced that given the proximity of these people, that they have that particularized harm that is necessary to establish standing.

I don't disagree with that.

Simply give us an opportunity to do that.

Please.

That's what I'm asking.

My main client, Robert Monastero, long planned family trip.

He is out of town.

He couldn't be here tonight to speak.

Excuse me, not dessert, given the negative impacts of other similar projects in the area.

Again, we absolutely believe that we have established standing just by the proximity, and what we haven't had the time to do is to come up with the studies that the applicant didn't come up with, no traffic report, so that we can dig into this a little bit more.

And I and I just don't understand what's so crazy about asking for some more time, and we respectfully ask that the council continue this matter so that we will have an opportunity to dig deeper into that and to establish what I already know is the fact based on proximity, that the people that I'm here talking before or talking on behalf of do in fact have standing.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Come forward.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the council.

Brennan Ray, 2325 East Camelback here on behalf of Barclays Group, who is the proposed developer of this commercial corner.

Certainly have a profound amount of respect for the town attorney as well as for Doug Jordan.

He wrote the book as as I was a young attorney on zoning and land use regulation in the state.

And it's a book that I studied from very early on in my career.

And so certainly have a healthy amount of respect for Mr.

Jordan and what he says.

You're all very familiar with this map that shows Harvest Grove in the context of the surrounding area.

And as we look at it, when we look at it a little bit closer, again, Mr.

Montenegro's house is in blue, and you can see the harvest grove development.

Now that site plan is the same site plan that I showed you during the uh minor plan amendment minor general plan amendment and rezoning case, uh and it's consistent with it.

So as you know, we're talking about this particular commercial development that is absolutely consistent with the general plan with the development plan, again, that you guys saw when we came through in the entitlements for this case.

So when we look at it, this is the letter that was in the packet.

Um I'll touch on it briefly, but we look at where um the standing is and the arguments for standing, um, and it talks in there specifically about construction disruption, uh, increased traffic and commute times and declines in property values.

Uh, and it's on the basis of those that standing is established.

There is no um contrary to what um Mr.

Jordan said, there is no standing based on, hey, we we need we need reports, we need uh stuff that's not particularly related to the design review.

Your town attorney Chris Payne quoted the statute or your uh land development code relative to standing, and I just flash it on the screen so that you can see the words yourself, and clearly um the key to establishing standing is that it's um pursuant to state law.

So when we look at it, this is a little more detailed.

This is kind of the Arizona state law and what an aggrieved party is.

And this is an excerpt from the case of Arcadia Osborne neighborhood versus Clear Channel Outdoor.

Um and when you look at it, um, and this was decided by the Arizona Court of Appeals in 23.

And when you look on it, uh again, a little more detail to what um uh Mr.

Payne presented in terms of an allegation of generalized harm that is shared alike by all or a large class of citizens, generally is not sufficient to confer standing.

And it's not enough that a plaintiff, or in this case the neighbors, have suffered the same kind of harm or interference as the general public, but to a greater extent or degree.

And so when we look at it, again, the focus is on the harm, and it can't be the same as everything else.

Again, when you look at it, the distance, uh, Mr.

Jordan believes that it's distance alone that qualifies for uh standing, um, that is not the case under state law.

Again, when we're talking about construction disruptions, increased traffic, potential decline in property values, um that is that is what we are looking at when alleged harms.

And if you were just to look at the parcel map, again, there are roughly 1,200 parcels that surround this site.

Uh all 1,200 of those parcels in the same vein as has been alleged by the appellant, could certainly say we're experiencing construction uh delays because of construction.

We are experiencing an increase in traffic.

Um, you know, we're concerned about property values.

And again, when you look at the state law on it, those are generalized harms.

Um what they are arguing that is shared alike by a large class of citizens.

All citizens, again, within the same distance as Mr.

Montenegro is, could say we suffer the same harms, but under state law that is not sufficient to confer standing.

And I think that's important to note as we look at it.

Um again, uh as we talk about time for studies.

Um I know that there's been a request to continue.

Um we respectfully um request that that it not be continued and the decision be made tonight if the council agrees or finds that there is standing.

We again do not believe that there is uh sufficient.

Um I can go into more details in terms of the other things if necessary, but as we look at the analysis of state law of the harms that have been alleged, we would find that there is not standing in this case for this appeal, and we would request you find the same.

Happy to answer any questions or go into any details that you all might want.

Thank you.

Any questions?

Councilmember Buckley.

Hello, Mr.

Ray.

Um I I have a question.

If this is delayed, is there going to be uh a cost to the developer because if they're ready and they're pulling permits, what what is the damage that could be done to the developer?

Yeah, through the mayor, uh council member Buckley, uh yes, the the developer will suffer damages as a result of this.

Barclays has closed on the property as staff indicated in their procedural history, they have been working on this design review component at risk since I believe it's July of 25, is when they started their process on this.

Uh and they went at risk the entire time as we were visiting with you all about the zoning case to get to the point to where uh if the council uh was going to approve the zoning case, which took place in April, that they then could immediately proceed into construction documents uh and get going to move dirt.

We know there's a a desperate need for sales tax dollars uh in the town, and um we talked at length about that.

So, yes, there will be a delay as a result of it.

And and if I may, when we're talking about a design review case and and looking at it in your uh land development code, what that focuses on from your code, it's uh article uh section 6.6, and if you were to read it, it's talking about the aesthetics of the community.

A design review is focused on aesthetics.

What does it look like?

What is the what are the buildings look like?

Uh is the site laid out in an appropriate manner.

The design review case is not the time to talk about land uses.

That's what the zoning case is for.

And so in this instance, when we're talking about it, there's no complaints, there's no issues relative to hey, that building looks ugly, or you need to put more landscaping there of those things.

We talked for close to 16 months about traffic uh on this site and area, and there absolutely has been more of an in-depth study on traffic relative to that.

And so when you look at what a design review case is, we're just talking about what it looks like, not the uses.

Okay.

I've one more question.

When when we're talking about distance, um, you know, and and get and having determining if they're standing or no no standing.

When we send out, what are we required?

What is the distance that we're required to notify residents, the residents that could be affected, maybe?

Yeah, through the mayor, council member buckley, I will defer that question to staff.

They are better experts at the notification requirements than I am off the top of my head.

Yeah, well, well, the reason I asked that is when I look at the blue spot way over to the right, that appears to be almost a mile away, or close to three quarters maybe.

Um that means somebody another two miles down the road can come in and do I guess they can say the same thing, right?

Yeah, through the mayor, council member Buckley, exactly.

I believe that Mr.

Payne presented the example of someone in Scottsdale coming in and complaining about it.

That as he said was a very um kind of over the top type of example, but nevertheless to illustrate standing.

This particular as the crow flies, it's it's a little over a half mile.

I think it's 0.56 as I mapped it out again as the crow flies on the assessor's website.

Um but yes, they they can say the exact same things that again anybody uh within the within the immediate area within the adjacent area um can say uh about this particular development.

So to what Mr.

Payne said and what the state statute says or the state law says, is it it it has to be very particularized?

It can't be a general harm that's shared by kind of the that could be shared by the public at large.

Okay, all right.

Thank you for that.

Any other questions?

Yep, Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mr.

Ray.

Or thank you, thank you, Mayor, Mr.

Ray.

Um obviously your position is that they don't have standing.

So can you give us an example of another case where someone totally had standing in a situation so we can compare and contrast with that?

Uh through the mayor, Vice Mayor Bongiovanni, um I I can say that in the course of my 20 years um this is probably one of the first times where I've had to address the standing issue like this.

So off the top of my head, I could not give you an example that I have experienced uh that I could say, yeah, in that instance, if X, Y, and Z happened, then they could uh have standing and and can um would then be able to proceed with the appeal.

I know to what Mr.

Payne said, standing is a very important threshold matter uh in litigation as well that needs to be established.

And when we look at these harms again that are alleged, once we get past it, um that could be true of of any development.

It doesn't have to be a commercial development, uh vacant dirt that it gets developed with single family homes that gets developed with um multifamily that gets developed with industrial, it gets developed with commercial, all of those land uses will generate the types of comments that that um the the appellants uh are raising of construction delays, traffic, property values.

So it's not it's not unique to this case.

Thank you.

Can I ask Chris the same question?

Sure.

Chris, any past cases that you're aware of where someone did have standing, so we have an idea of what the difference is Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council.

Um we haven't had just in the line in my in my tenure here, we haven't had one, but I think an example would be um if you go back to um think of the go-kart um issue where there was some unique things with the with the noise with the go-karts, and your property owner lives right next door.

Um I think you could, you know, if you're the the parcel that's right next to it, I think that's one where you know the property owner would be able to make a really good argument that they have standing because they're uniquely affected, they're adjacent to what could be a very loud area.

Thank you.

Okay, we've got everybody back.

We ready to start back up.

Got everybody here.

Thank you.

Again, I've uh closed the public hearing and brought it back to the council for discussion.

We have three options.

One is that we make a finding that there is no standing, in which case this case would uh uh would not the appeal will not be valid, or we could if we do make a finding that there is standing, we could go ahead and hear the merits of the arguments against the project.

Or uh the third option is a continuance, which the applicant has mentioned.

Council.

Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay.

Well, I'm not an attorney, of course.

So I think even if we had a traffic study done, and it was an outrageous traffic.

I don't think the um the person who filed this is close enough to see any kind of effect of that.

I don't I don't see say uh standing.

Councilmember Buckman.

Thank you, Mayor.

I agree with Councilmember Bongiovanni.

Um this is my life as a cop.

Two attorneys, two different opinions.

Um I do um in listening to both sides, Mr.

Jordan, uh actually all three sides.

I do believe uh our legal um our attorney provided um what standing is and what it is not, and I do not find it in this case.

I I understand uh you know the need to appeal and he's out of town, and I've felt that during the campaign.

Um I had to defend myself uh from Mount uh Fuji Gawagucha Co in Japan at uh midnight on my tenth wedding anniversary because the rules required it to go fast and um but I I think giving an appeal and allowing this to go forward when there is no standing sets horrible precedents, and I just don't think that's the right thing to do.

Councilmember Kaprowski.

I agree with what Councilmember Bucklin mentioned about setting precedent from what I heard these concerns appear generalized and um are shared by the general public, uh therefore I believe this case doesn't have standing.

Councilmember Buckley.

Um I uh also agree with the three other council members that have um stated that they don't feel that's there is a standing.

I don't feel it is there either.

And I've done substantial research and had conversations with the town attorney as well, because I want to be sure of my decision, but uh and also you know, based on the harm that can happen for the developer as well.

Um I don't believe there is standing thank you.

We have a motion.

Councilmember Buckman.

Thank you, Mayor.

I moved to deny based on the lack of standing.

I'll suck at that.

It's been moved and seconded that there is a termination there is no standing in this case.

Please vote.

Motion carries seven zero.

Thank you.

We'll move on to uh administrative items.

Item thirty fees cons which is the notice of intent to increase short-term rental licensing and renewal fees.

Um did you want to make another presentation about this mayor and council members?

We do have a presentation ready.

It's it is essentially the same presentation that was shown in April uh as the information then.

So we can run through that, or if there are any questions, we can respond to those as well.

Council, what's your pleasure?

Probably run through it just for residents.

I mean, like run though, right?

Forrest.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

Again, Ashley Nomore, I run our short-term rental program here at the town of Gilbert.

Tonight we're seeking your approval to publish a note of intent to increase the fees for the licensing and renewal applications for the short-term rental program.

So first, to quickly define what a short-term rental is.

It's any property rented out for a period of 29 days or less.

This is reported in the hotel motel tax classification.

And these are properties that you'll see commonly listed on an online lodging marketplace like Airbnb, VRBO, or the multiple of others that you may use.

For a quick overview on what the legislation has looked like for short-term rentals, this started in 2016 with SB 1350, which basically said towns cannot regulate STR properties, leading us all the way through to 2022 where SB 1168 passed, which allowed the option for towns to monitor short-term rentals and charge a licensing fee.

In 2023, Gilbert Town Council adopted our short-term rental ordinance, which allowed us to license properties, monitor them, and that's where we stand today.

For an overview of what the current status for short-term rentals look like in the town of Gilbert, we have about 450 active short-term rentals.

We see an average of 25 book nights per month, so we are pretty busy.

We have a 98% compliance rating for the short-term rental licensing requirement.

We also have the ability to fulfill uh quite a few public records requests.

Um and because of the software that we use, it does take us uh a fairly low amount of time.

The notice of intent that we're looking to seek approval for is to increase the fee from 100 to 250 dollars.

So this is for the initial application as well as the renewal.

Um this increased fee would allow us to cover the cost of operating the program which went before you for approval tonight as well.

Um and this would allow us to hear a public hearing and then have a final vote at September 1st uh later this year.

Um to the right, you can see a table of what Gilbert's fee looks like compared to others across the valley.

And that's the last slide, but I'll leave it there in case there are any questions about this.

Thank you.

Questions?

Council.

Councilmember Lyons.

Yeah, just a question.

We're we're looking at increasing this to cover the cost of the operating program.

Um, but I I have suspect on things when I see things rounded up and uh equalized across the whole deal.

Are are we are we running short?

Is this costing us?

Is it costing the town money right now if we if we don't do this to run the program?

Are we running in the red?

Currently, yes.

So when we first started this program, we were running off of the data that was provided at the time with this X amount of properties that we believed were operating as short-term rentals in the town of Gilbert.

Over the last three years, our team has corrected that number to a true amount of short-term rentals, which is almost half of what the projected original number was.

So we are currently operating in the red, which is why we're coming before you to seek an increase to this fee.

Um, that way we can ensure that the cost of operating is covered by this fee alone.

So, how have we been covering the uh deficit to date and for how long have we been covering this?

Yeah, it's a good question.

Mayor, council member Lyons.

Uh we have uh budget allocated uh to acquire the software, uh, but the revenue coming in is not enough to cover that.

And so the general fund is covering the difference right now.

Yeah, I see Kelly shaking her head.

Yeah.

What does the software allow us to do?

I mean, what's its purpose?

Uh I'll let Ashley take that one.

Okay.

Uh Mayor, council member.

Uh, what the software allows us to do um is kind of twofold.

It helps us serve property owners as well as neighboring residents in Gilbert.

So for property owners, this software allows us to identify short-term rentals throughout the town of Gilbert.

It allows us to create notifications, um, letting them know what the licensing requirements are.

And then it also sets up the licensing application for them online.

So it's a fully automated online process that allows them to get a license in as little as 20 to 30 minutes.

Um on the resident side, this software also provides a 24-7 hotline for residents who have complaints or issues with a short-term rental to notify our team so that we can deal with it through either us or another town department.

Um that 24-7 hotline uh is a hotline, but it's also an online complaint form.

So it's kind of like a centralized uh complaint system for us.

Before we saw these kind of go all the way across the town.

Now they're centralized into this one system, and then our team kind of given them out uh and partner with other departments to help address those issues.

So what happens if we don't do this?

Uh mayor, council member, uh, we would continue to operate where we have been, um, which is pulling from the general fund um to cover the cost of the software.

I mean, what if we didn't do I'm I'm looking at Peoria here, they don't charge anything, and I'm just curious why.

Are they even managing this?

Uh Mayor, council member.

Peoria has a fully they've created the process using their own software.

Um, what Peoria does is they kind of take a data dump every two to three years of what they believe is current software or short-term rental information.

Um they take that, they send out notifications using their own licensing system.

Um what our software does is we do sweeps two to three times a week.

So if a new short-term rental pops up, we can catch them and notify them within a couple of days, um, which it's quick for us, um, but it also ensures that we're uh capturing and we have the most up-to-date information regarding short-term rentals.

Um, but this software also it provides us the service, and that our team and staff doesn't have to do 100 percent of the licensing 100 percent of the time.

Okay, right, thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Torreson.

Yeah, I'm not I'm never a fan of raising a fee or a rate if we don't have to, but we're losing money.

So you're saying it's the general fund money, the average person is subsidizing the STR owner in this case.

Mayor, council member, that is correct.

Okay, so 250 puts us somewhere reasonably in the break-even category.

We're not capitalizing on them.

Uh no, this is meant to be a revenue neutral program.

The the goal is never to create revenue, it's just to ensure that the fun the fees cover the cost of the program.

Okay, and I wanted to get a number straight.

You said it was 25 rentals per month is the average for some of these these STRs.

Mayor council member, that is correct.

So that'd be 300 nights a year.

So it'd be a dollar a day basically.

And how many were there?

500?

We have about 450.

So close.

So that's about 140,000 hotel rooms a year, we're missing out on fantastic.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

I can uh tell the council I was at a meeting this week, last week with uh Rob Amy and Monica uh discussing this with other cities.

There was probably 30, 35 other cities on there, and only two or three of them didn't support um raising fees, but the majority of them, like all the rest, um, actually wanted to double it to 500 uh because of these these uh costs that they have councilmember buckling.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just want to remind ourselves and the public that when we say general fund is paying for this, this is what funds our hardworking staff, and we are the shortest there is in Maricopa County.

That is how you hire police officers, firefighters, other staff.

We don't have enough, so we have to at least break even uh if not do better, in my opinion.

Thank you.

Any other comments?

If not, I'll take entertain a motion.

Motion to approve item 30.

Second.

It's moved moved and seconded to approve item 30 and B.

Please vote.

Motion carries 70.

Item 31 is policy number 202602.

Consider approval of council policy 202602 regarding policies of responsible financial management.

Repealing policy number 20242.

Kelly, are you gonna be brief on this one?

Certainly, Mayor and Council.

This is really straightforward and easy.

Earlier in the year, we talked about the health trust fund and the rate increases that were needed there, and that the health trust board had recommended decreasing the minimum fund balance required from 30 percent to 25 percent.

Uh, it still meets our needs for protection in the fund against spikes, um, but doesn't require us to overcollect on our premiums to keep a higher balance.

So this is codifying that into our financial policies to decrease that back down to 25 percent, and then updating the name of OCE in the policies.

So quick and easy changes there.

Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you.

Questions?

A motion.

I'll make a motion to approve item 31.

I'll second that.

And moved and seconded to approve item 31.

Please vote.

Mine didn't vote.

Motion carries 70.

Item 32 is discussion and direction of staff to staff regarding potential council meeting efficiency measures, including adjustments and public comment, other procedures and meeting times.

I'm suggesting at this point to postpone this until our first meeting in August.

Uh because we will have probably some some lively discussion on this one.

So if uh council of you support that, I'll take a entertainment a motion to postpone until the first meeting in August.

That's a really good example of making things when I make a motion to extend extend this meeting to August.

First meeting August.

First meeting of August.

Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and second we postpone item 32 to our first meeting in August.

Please vote.

Motion carries 70.

Item 33 is a presentation on the water meter audit final report.

Hawken.

Mayor, council members.

Thank you.

Here this evening to provide an update on the water meter meter audit and to announce that the final audit report from the Kinley Horn team is being released today.

So we'll have a brief overview of the audit and next action steps for the town.

We'll touch on process improvement opportunities as staff will have time to digest that final report.

We'll discuss the return to normal utility billing operations and look at the communication plan and wrap up with a summary.

So beginning with some background on why the audit was conducted, there were many within the community that were frustrated with the increased utility rates and felt that there were errors with the meters and or the water consumption calculations.

And it was critical that we maintain transparency and have an independent audit firm dig deep into our utility system and receive whatever they found.

So the audit team came in to evaluate our metering system and business practices to ensure that water usage is measured and billed accurately, reliably, and on time in accordance with industry standards.

We selected an auditor in November of last year.

Speed was important, and the auditors dug into over 50 million rows of data, performed statistical testing on hundreds of physical meters and evaluated office and field operations, asset management, infrastructure, and procedures, all while following generally accepted auditing standards.

The Kinley Horn audit report has been finalized and is now or will shortly be available on the town website as well as the Kimley Horn audit website.

The final audit report is about 350 pages.

It contains a lot of information and it does have some color coding to help guide the reader to see the different areas of review and how each falls into one of these three main buckets infrastructure, data, or business operations.

And while the purpose of today's presentation is not to go into depth of that final auto report as it's just being released today, there are some key initial findings.

First, no system-wide or systemic failures.

Yes, some issues were found, but very small, both in terms of accounts potentially affected and in terms of dollar impact.

There were a small number of multiplier setting issues to review.

The new Mueller meters are functioning exceptionally well.

The older meters are still reliable but are showing their age, which is why staff already had an active replacement program underway.

Some of the old meters are just outside what we would like to see in terms of variability, but with minimal to no actual impact.

So going back to a slide that we saw in April, uh the key takeaway here again: no systemic issues, the system is working as intended.

There were some issues that needed to be redressed, and we were working to do just that.

The data presented by Kinley Horn in April was not yet finalized.

And as the audit team was able to complete their analysis, some of their conclusions around abnormalities were finalized to what we see here.

And you can see that the number of customers affected dropped from about 2700 to about 2200, which means we had fewer than the 2.9% of accounts potentially impacted with an abnormality.

And here's another slide we saw in April as a reminder of the scale of the audit review and the heavy slant towards residential accounts over the six year audit period.

And this slide, again, we've seen before.

It's a review of the water consumption data portion of the audit, which covered all accounts, not just those whose physical meters were tested.

And again, emphasizing that the review concluded that fewer than 0.5% of those transactions had a potential issue.

This is a fantastic level of precision.

So let's look at the data findings of the audit, starting our focus on the residential side.

When we look at the abnormalities that could result in a credit owed, Kimley Horn has identified 381 potentially impacted customers.

Gilbert staff are reviewing the details and have found that some of those confirmed as overbuild have already received a credit, reducing the amount potentially owed.

Staff also need to confirm which account was active at the time of the potential error.

We are working quickly to confirm this data so we can proceed with issuing credits to these impacted customers as appropriate.

Moving to the potentially underbuild accounts, staff continue to review this data and will provide these results to the council for any potential action once that review is complete.

Switching to the non-residential.

Zero overbilling is fantastic.

We are digging into the data of these potentially underbilled abnormalities that were found.

And this review is more manual and sometimes requires a physical inspection before conclusive data can be confirmed.

What we have been able to review is the hydrant meter data, and we were able to confirm that there were in fact no billing, no errors in billing, significantly reducing the potential underbuild amount.

Staff will continue to review this non-residential data as well, and we'll provide recommendations to the council for any potential action once that is completed.

So what are the next steps?

We are working to issue credits related to the audit period as soon as possible.

This would be that approximately 44,000 once we can confirm which accounts have not already received a credit and that the correct account holder is identified.

Our target is to have that ready by the July-August time frame.

And we will continue work to confirm if any additional credits may be owed since January of 2026, which is after the end of the audit period, and issue those credits as appropriate.

The next steps for potentially underbuild residential accounts.

Some of these also require physical in-the-field review to move forward, which will take more time.

Options will be provided to the council once the analysis is completed.

Very similar for the non-residential accounts as well.

We are reviewing these 250 potentially impacted accounts with the same many requiring physical review before we can move forward.

The audit identified several additional recommendations to further strengthen our system and operations.

The following five focus areas reflect the work our team will be actively pursuing going forward.

Asset and system infrastructure.

These recommendations look at strengthening the foundational controls, tools, and spatial data that govern how meters are configured, tracked, and overseen.

We'll look at billing processes and collaborations, the recommendations here for improving processes around documentation, coding, and cross-team collaboration.

Performance monitoring, looking to enhance proactive oversight by implementing meter alarms, automation, automated anomaly detection, and real-time operational visibility.

Processing communication, again, looking at opportunities to improve standardization of work order documentation, the way the town communicates with customers about their service and data.

And then governance and improvement look at those opportunities recommended to enhance the policies, data standards, and feedback loops needed to sustain long-term operational quality and continuous improvement.

We know that in the near future we'll we will need to return to normal billing operations.

And throughout this process, we recognize that every customer's situation is different.

For customers that may need additional support, the town offers several resources designed to designed to help and also seeks to connect residents with other available assistance programs.

This includes flexible payment plans that provide a manageable path forward to resolve outstanding balances as well as programs that may help reduce utility costs or provide assistance during times of financial hardship.

Our customer service team is prepared to work directly with customers to understand their individual circumstances and help identify the best available options.

Whether you have questions about your account, need assistance, navigating available programs, or would like to discuss a payment plan, please reach out.

We encourage you to do so.

Our top priority will continue to be reviewing the audit findings and ensuring any affected customers receive the appropriate credits adjustments or other remedies based on their individual circumstances.

At the same time, we want to be transparent about what comes next.

As this work is completed, the town will need to return to normal utility billing operations and what does that look like.

Of the about 4,000 past due accounts, the following communication process will apply prior to any action being taken by the town.

And we know this can be challenging, so we have worked to enhance this process and will also increase the ways we communicate using additional notification methods to ensure customers have ample time, information, and support before any action is taken.

And now I'll turn the time over to Candice to go over some communication plans.

Before we get into the details, it's important to recognize why communication matters so much in moments like this.

Over the past year, many residents have had questions about their utility bills and confidence in the systems that support essential services.

Regardless of the audit findings, we know uncertainty is frustrating, and that's why our approach is grounded in a simple principle, clear as kind.

When people are concerned, they deserve information that is timely, transparent, and easy to understand.

They shouldn't have to navigate technical reports or complex processes to know what's happening.

At its core, residents are seeking three simple questions.

What exactly happened?

How does it affect me?

And what are you going to do about it?

Our communication strategies designed to answer those questions clearly and consistently.

We know success of how we communicate essential information isn't measured whether everyone agrees with us.

Residents success is measured by whether residents feel understood.

They need to get a clear understanding of the key findings from the full report and how that directly impacts them.

Another is accountability in making sure that they know town is facing things, are facing things head on and taking accountability.

They also need to get gain confidence, know what decisions are being taken, and of course, with approximate timing.

And lastly, start to garner trust, begin to trust the systems that support these essential services.

As again, like Hawkins said, no systemic issues were found, and anomalies are in fact being remediated.

While tonight marks an important milestone, it's not the end of the process.

Reviewing the report, addressing the findings, implementing of improvements, and ultimately returning to normal operations will take time.

Because of that, we believe it's important to provide residents with a clear They're not seeing the I'm sorry.

It's important.

Ultimately returning to normal operations will take time.

Because of that, we believe it's important to provide residents with a clear roadmap of what they can expect moving forward.

The first phase focuses on the final report and immediate next steps.

We will help residents understand the purpose of the audit, the independent review process, the key findings, and what those findings mean for them.

And most importantly, we will establish clear expectations for what comes next.

The second phase centers on accountability and remediation.

This is where staff will carefully review individual accounts, validate those findings, determine impacts, and implement any credit, adjustments, or other actions that may be warranted.

Throughout this process, affected customers will receive direct outreach and updates.

The third phase focuses on returning to normal billing operations, which Hawkin addressed.

This includes helping customers understand the timing of the standard billing practices, available payment options, customer service assistance, and our goal is to ensure customers have the information and support they need as we transition back to normal utility billing operations.

And finally, focusing on operational improvements.

While this audit found no systemic issues, it's also provided valuable insight into opportunities to strengthen our operations.

As we review the full report, we will share improvements related to procedures, tracking, quality control, oversight, and other enhancements designed to improve the experience.

At every stage, our goal remains to the same to provide timely, transparent information that helps residents understand what is happening.

While we've shared a high-level overview, there is considerable amount of information that needs to be communicated communicated to ensure transparency and avoid overwhelming residents.

We want to quickly double-click into each of the phases.

First step is making sure every customer knows the report is available.

We'll be sharing this through various things such as the news items, press releases, newsletters, the billing portal itself, uh a direct customer email, of course, on our town website, FAQs, any media coordination as necessary, and supporting that customer service staff.

Phase two focuses on customers whose accounts were identified as overbuild through the audit review process.

Affected customers will be contacted directly, and credits will begin to be applied to their accounts.

Because each account is unique, credits may vary based on specific circumstances identified during the audit.

It's important to note here again that 381 resident accounts were identified as likely over billed, and no commercial accounts were identified as overbuild through the audit, meaning the vast majority of customers will not be directly impacted or contacted during this phase.

For customers who are affected, the town will provide direct outreach through a variety of channels, including email, text, billing portal notifications, and phone calls.

Customers will receive information about their credit amount, how it was determined, and when it will be applied to their account.

So again, if you are not contacted directly, no action is required from you.

Your account was not identified as overbuilt through the audit review process.

Phase three focuses on transit transitioning back to normal billing operations.

As we've already discussed, customers will receive ample notice, multiple reminders, and opportunities to work with staff before any action is taken.

For customers who need additional support, payment plan options and customer assistance will remain available.

The release of the audit findings does not mark the end of this work.

While many of the immediate actions will occur in the months following the report, our commitment to transparency and continuous improvement extends well beyond that timeline.

As we continue reviewing the findings, including potential underbilling and implementing improvements, we will keep the committee informed about the enhancements to our processes, operational updates, and additional actions that may not be may be necessary to ensure fair, accurate, and reliable utility service.

Throughout this presentation, you have seen examples of tools and tactics we will use at each phase of the process.

We understand residents' access information in different ways, and because of that, we'll meet them where they are using multiple channels, including the emails, utility bills, billing the portal itself, customer service, and direct outreach.

One of the most common questions we anticipate receiving is when will all of this happen?

While the audit report is available today, the work will follow that follows will occur over several months.

As shown here, each phase has its own timeline and purpose.

The first phase begins with sharing the report findings, which is live, and helping customers understand what was reviewed, reviewed, what was found, and what they can expect.

Thank you.

From there, we move into remediation where staff will review affected accounts, validate findings, and implement any necessary credits or corrective actions.

Throughout that process, we will also continue identifying implementing operational improvements designed to strengthen our systems, procedures, and customer service.

And finally, as remediation efforts progress, we will begin transitioning back to normal billing operations while continuing to provide customers with information, notice, and support.

While the timing may evolve as our review continues, this roadmap should provide a clear view of how information and actions will be shared in the months ahead.

And I'll throw it back to Hawkin to close us out for next steps.

Thank you, Candace.

Again, summarize what comes next.

The final report is available today.

We're working as fast as we can to confirm what is necessary so we can issue credits to impacted customers.

We are also working to address any other issues that may have been found as a part of this audit.

Finalizing and executing that communication plan that Candace just uh emphasized, uh continuing our data review and making recommendations for uh anything left to research and then ongoing efforts to look at the other recommendations found in the audit report.

So there's a lot more work to do, but with that, I'll leave it here and ask if there are any questions.

Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Hawking, I think you gave me this number before, but um we looked at data for what five, six years?

Six years was it?

Six years.

Six years found overbuild 44,000 over six years.

How much have we built total during those six years?

Uh Mayor, Vice Mayor, the audit period was calendar years.

We report in fiscal years.

So these numbers aren't precise, but they're very close.

And if I go back six fiscal years, uh the total revenue uh of the water uh division was about 409, 410 million dollars.

And so 44,000 out of that number is about zero point zero three six percent of a potential you know revenue error.

You knew right where I was going.

Thank you.

Any other questions or comments?

Councilmember Torqueson.

Okay.

Councilmember Kaprowski.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um Hawkin and to the rest of the team.

I just wanted to share my appreciation for you all during this entire process.

It's been a burden, but at the same time, I think it was um in the best interest of transparency, and we did find some things that we can take action on.

So I appreciate that very much.

I also wanted to share that recently um a resident shared their experience where they were proactively contacted by the town because we re-en we re-engaged that system where they had some high water use, they were contacted, and it they did have a leak, and that got resolved, and they were very appreciative of that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I do want to thank you all so very much, Hawken, for the work on this.

And as you mentioned, and I hope everyone has noticed the report is available today.

So I encourage those who are watching or listening to uh contact us to get a copy of that report.

Councilmember Torgison?

Just because we have some people that are cantankerous about water.

Can we make sure that you guys are available to speak to people that maybe don't understand it?

This report mayor and council members, yeah.

The report will be available online.

Uh our communication team will push that out into the community in in a variety of ways, and and we are here to answer any questions as well as the Kinley Horn team.

That that audit website continues to be available for comments and questions, as is our customer service team and a number of staff.

Thank you.

Thank you, Hawken.

Yep.

That's it.

Thank you.

Uh future meetings, future agenda items.

You can see what's listed here, communications report from the town manager.

Thank you very much, Mayor.

Um, I know, Mayor, that you're gonna be discussing some of the town's accomplishments uh coming up, uh, but I just want to take this opportunity.

Given that this is the final meeting of the fiscal year.

I want to thank all of our very service-minded and hard-working employees who provide the outstanding service to our residents day in and day out.

Our police officers, firefighters, parks rangers, recreation coordinators, administrative staff, technology teams, and and many, many more critical staff.

Keep Gilbert running at a very high level.

And with great gratitude, I want to recognize their those outstanding employees for their excellent work this year.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Reports from the council.

Should have some slides coming up here.

Council member Alliance.

Um, we just wanted to say thank you to different members of the Veterans Advisory Board who are uh now moving on to do other things.

Uh Chair Dine is now going to be our vice chair and did a very good job in that position.

Uh Pam has been with us a long time, and uh Peyton and Aaron have done a fantastic job on the board, and we're just thankful for the service that they brought to us.

Uh we do have uh new board members that have stepped in for more, and we're looking forward to the years ahead.

Uh these members who are stepping aside right now are going to continue to work with the board on a volunteer basis.

So just want to recognize them and say thank you for all the work that they have done.

It has been greatly appreciated.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh let's talk about parks and rec.

Um, so uh dine in movie night.

Please join us in celebrating parks and recreation month for a free uh dine in dine-in movie night and mosquito uh aquatic center, uh, where Zootopia 2 will be shown.

Doors will be open at 7 p.m.

and the movie will begin at properly 7 30.

Date is Friday, July 24th at the Besquete uh Aquatic Center at 7 p.m.

Next is Nerf Wars in the Stacks.

Get ready for competitive action packed.

Uh Gilbert Nerf Wars at the library.

Participate participants will uh be split into two teams who will play three games.

Registrations required based on the appropriate age bracket.

That's going to be Friday, July 31st, 2026 at Southwest Regional Library from 5 30 to 8 30.

And don't forget this little party we're having on July 4th at Gilbert Regional Park where we have a fireworks and a droad show.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Any others?

I do have a uh audio you guys this time with slides.

Tonight marks our final council meeting for the fiscal year.

And before we do close the books out on fiscal year 26, I want to take a moment to recognize some of the many things that our team has accomplished over the year.

Everything that we do comes back to three commitments for today for tomorrow for Gilbert.

And this past year, every department, all the team members delivered on all three of these.

And what you what I'm going to describe now is just a part, it's just a sample, but it tells the story of a team that's uh totally dedicated to Gilbert.

Um Public Works Water.

Uh Gilbert continued construction of its well-drilling program.

You know where we're at with our water resources, and this is a very important program, and they're doing an excellent job.

Public Works Wastewater purchased and started using a new recycler sewer cleaning truck to clean sewers and main arterials using less water and improving inspection capabilities.

Public works environmental compliance held the first household hazardous waste and recycling event in 20 years.

848 vehicles served, averaging 79 pounds per vehicle.

I bet Chuck's car was probably heavier than that.

46,033 pounds of household hazard hazardous waste collected, 20,840 pounds of documents shredded.

Public works, solid waste and recycling.

Residential collected over 84,000 tons of trash and recycling and picked up almost six million cans.

Bulk service serviced over 140,000 bulk piles, totaling 12,995 tons.

Commercial, over 100,000 cans service for our business community.

Streets, we treated 119 miles of asphalt roadways.

Engineering, we added three new traffic signals to our system.

Capital improvement project, substantial completion of the advocacy center phase one.

Uh and which I think is now at seven, is it 75% now complete?

Is that where we're at?

The Northwater Treatment Plan is at 66% completion.

And in the advocacy center, we did hire a new director and assistant director.

And there's extensive cross-metal coordination underway in preparation for the opening of that great center.

Parks and recreation was named a finalist for the second consecutive year for the 2026 National Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Park and Recreation Management.

Fire, the community risk reductions fall prevention program reduces fall falls and congregate care facilities by 30 to 50 percent, which I understand this is the vast majority of your calls for medical assistance are falls.

Is that is that true?

We have any fire guys here.

No?

Yeah.

This reduces low acuity call volume, improves residents' lives, estimated one million dollars in medical cost savings, reduces industrial industry injuries for first responders.

Uh PSPRS, the uh emergency services uh public employee uh retirement system returned to 90 percent funded, which is the goal for tier one and tier two, which is I I think this puts us ahead of many of the other communities in the valley.

Is that true, Kelly?

Yes.

Finance implemented a modernized vendor payment process, eliminated paper check printing, which is projected to save over $900,000 over five years.

Our people team launched leadership essentials and agile mentoring, over 110 mentoring conversations logged.

Development services advanced several important legislative text amendments, including adaptive reuse, middle housing, at risk grading, and international headquarters work.

IT, uh the what's developing nearby uh went live, which helps residents understand what is going on in development around them.

Police had 51 recruits in class 10, 800 applications, different recruitment strategies, close coordination with OCE, biggest class to date.

Economic development earned a reaccreditation as an accredited economic development organization by IEDC.

Intergovernmental relations advocated for Gilbert's core interest this legislative session, protecting local authority and revenue while building regional partnerships to advance solutions that benefit municipalities statewide.

OCE launched two strategic communications campaigns for Gilbert and your dollars, your Gilbert.

Courts, they implemented a juvenile court.

Emerging technologies facilitated multiple AI tool pilots, Claude, Scribe AI, Adobe, Adobe AI assist, and additional emerging tools.

Facilities, public safety building, a memorial garden renovation.

I might also add that a uh leadership team 34 also added to an improvement in our facilities over at the McQueen Activity Center in their project that they completed.

Water resources removed 349,000 square feet of grass through residential and non-residential grass removal rebates, saving an estimated 17 million gallons annually.

Thank you so much, Team Gilbert.

You've done a wonderful job.

You deserve a round of applause.

Thank you all.

That concludes my report.

Anything else, Council?

If not, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn our final fiscal year twenty-five-26 meeting.

I make a motion to adjourn.

We are adjourned.