City Council - Regular Meeting

Well, nice stitches. So, There's several up here.

So, ours is there. Alexander meeting the council meeting had to finish with give me a little bit of that wood chips.

Sorry.

Good evening and welcome to the February February 23rd city council special meeting. Clerk, we do have several meetings here tonight. This will be followed by a study session uh of which many of you are here for that. But this is to uh cover a number of public hearings and some other items that that are precient with us. So with that, clerk, please take the role. Mayor Harky here. Vice Mayor Enz here. Council member Poston here. Council member Ellis here. Council member Orlando here. Council member Harris here. Council member Hawkins here. We have a quorum.

Thank you so much. Our invitation is going to be brought forth by Pastor Chris Morris from Foothills Community Church. Welcome, Pastor.

Let's bow our heads. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for another day of life. And we thank you that you've brought everyone here safely for this very important meeting. I thank you for the passion on the hearts of everyone here. A passion that results in being present and in participating and in sharing and voicing their perspectives. Lord uh I also ask in this prayer today that complementing that passion would be your wisdom as there are very important decisions to be made Lord may your wisdom infiltrate this room and the hearts and the minds of the people within so that the best decisions can be made for the well-being of the residents of the city of Chandler Arizona. We pray this prayer Lord in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Please join us in reciting the pledge of aliance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America of the United States of America and to the republic for which it standyice for all. Council member Ellis, there's a couple second delay on the uh online there. So, we're all you're coming across as an echo to us when when you're saying things with us. So, all right. Um,

I will not be speaking, so I'll stay silent. All right. We uh we have one scheduled public appearance. There will be several other awards and things on Thursday, but uh uh Mr. Pelum, please state your name and city that you are in. And you have up to three minutes sir to share your thoughts or concerns.

Okay. Good evening uh mayor and council members. My name is Karthik. I live in Chandler. I have uh two daughters. One is four years old and another one is 8 months old. And I really appreciate the Chandler's welcoming to family. I still remember the birthday wishes from mayor and when my second daughter born we had greeting card from the mayor right that meant a lot for us and uh that shows that city case people and that's how uh we can build a better cities I feel but today I would like to bring a problem that many parents especially the fathers could face when they visit public spaces places like parks and other places where there is no single single uh rest single person restroom or family restrooms. the daughter of two when I visit the parks right I have two options whether I can take my daughter to the men's washroom or the women washroom taking men's washroom I feel uncomfort and it's not designated for her and taking to women washroom I feel that is not uh uh that will create inconvenient to the others the inconvenient is not only u a small issue it's creates it it it could affect the child uh privacy, safety and uh dignity and this is not small uh issue uh not my personal or not my personal my daughter it basically u every uh children every uh child dignity issue and especially during the that age right uh it uh also put a lot of uh difficult position to as a parent and I feel more uh uh single person use restrooms could solve this issue and that uh gives

the privacy and safety and given parents peace of mind and al also helps to the caregivers including grandparents and with the people with the disabilities. I hopeful that the uh both new public and existing facilities in Chandler uh will include more single uh person or family restrooms that could make Chandler one of the first city to uh address this kind of issue. Uh I'm hopeful that will happen sooner and so families like me uh uh mine uh feel fully supported for this initiative. Thank you for giving this opportunity. Thank you, Mr. Column. City manager, will you make sure that uh if there are things we can do or or ration that parks or staff would get with Mr. uh Mr. uh Pelum and and walk through this?

Yes, Mayor. We will. Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Uh Council Member Poston.

Um Mayor, I just wanted to say tell the applicant we got a chance to chat a little bit uh outside. So, I just wanted to say I appreciate you coming in. It's always good to have that different perspective from a parent. As a mom of boys that are now grown up, I remember that same issue. One boy would be old enough to sort of be aware and uncomfortable of his surroundings while the other one could care less. And there's that concern of sending them in. So, if you haven't had that experience ever before, it might not occur to you. So, I appreciate you coming in and sharing that experience and so that we can at least have the opportunity to see if we can address it. Council member Harris.

Yeah. Mayor and just and I think um I think we have all our I think our bathrooms in in Chandler is like men men women woman male women women and men I think we have women and men bathrooms. They're both labeled the same. Um, but to the point of um, men bathrooms, um, we definitely need to have like the baby changing diaper in the men's bathroom because men change their babies, too, you know? And so, I mean, since we're talking about the issue, I mean, my young babies, I hated going into the men's bathroom because I didn't have a baby changing table in there for me to change my babies. I always had to change my baby on the sink and I have to take all the paper towels to lay it on the sink so I can change my baby. So hopefully there could be an addition to the men's bathroom to have baby t changing tables in the men's bathroom as well. At least one or two. Can we handle that, city manager?

I think my only answer for that is yes. Thank you, council member. Seeing no further comments, uh thank you, sir. Um, next on our agenda is a public hearing, the proposed local alternative expenditure limitation home rule option election. Uh, this will be our first public hearing.

Sylvia, welcome. Good evening, mayor, members of city council. Tonight is the first public hearing for the proposed local alternative expenditure limitation called home rule option for the city of Chandler. On June 3rd, 1980, the state of Arizona placed a new expenditure limitation on cities and towns. The Arizona Constitution sets a maximum spending limit based upon a formula incorporating the expenditure level from fiscal year 197980 adjusted for annual increases in population and inflation. The formula also allows for some expenditure exclusions. The constitution also provides several alternatives to the state imposed spending limitation. a one-time override, the local expenditure limitation known as home rule, and permanent adjustment of the base limit. Chandler has always opted for the local expenditure limitation home rule option. Residents approval of home rule gives the city council the authority to make its budget decisions based on upon revenues available and services and amenities desired by the citizens of Chandler rather than being held to a state formula based on the 1980 budget. Chandler voters have approved the home rule option 11 consecutive times since 1982, most recently in August 2022, beginning fiscal year 223. The approval is good for four budget years. So the 22 approval of home rule covers us through the upcoming fiscal

year 2627 budget. The next home rule would then start with the fiscal year 2728 budget. Two public hearings are required. So tonight is the first of those hearings and we have scheduled the second for Thursday, February 26th. Following that second public hearing, council will be asked to vote on a resolution to place home rule on the general election ballot on November 3rd. The council vote requires a two-third majority to approve the resolution and put the item on the ballot. This is five of the seven votes. If and when placed on the ballot, it needs a majority of those voting to approve. The preliminary financial implications of operating without home rule are shown here on this slide. The state computed limit takes the 1978 population and the 1980 budget and applies a formula for population growth and inflation to come up with a comparable budget of about $350 million. In addition to this base amount, cities are allowed to spend bond proceeds, interest, income, federal grants, and some other revenues which do not count against the spending limit and make this amount that and make the the amount that can be spent higher, bringing the total state maximum to about $873 million. When comparing this to the city's anticipated fiscal year 2728 expenditures of about 1.1 billion, the preliminary projected amount over the state limit is about $232 million. Without approval of the home roll option, the city would need to reduce the budgeted expenses by this amount. If the city were to not go forward with home rule, we don't know exactly which programs or services would be impacted, but some of the types of things that might be impacted are shown here on this slide. Of course, none of this would happen without working through a full process with the city manager, mayor,

and council. It is important to note that home rule does not increase taxes. Without a home rule, revenue would continue to be received, but it would not be able to be spent based on the state imposed expenditure limit. Lastly, I want to show you an abbreviated version of the home rule election schedule. There are actually many more administrative steps in the process, but I boiled it down to the key dates shown here. The first public hearing is tonight, and the second public hearing will be on Thursday, February 26th. Immediately after, a resolution will be presented for adoption during a special meeting. On July 21st, we will send off the financial worksheets to the state auditor general. The argument filing period is July 6th through August 5th. In July, we will be working with the city clerk to prepare the voting pamphlet in these pamphlets will go out September 22nd after approval by the auditor general. Then we will end with a home rule item on the general election ballot on November 3rd. This concludes the public hearing presentation.

So I'll start with a question and we'll council discussion and then input for the public if they wish is I' in the past I've had people uh approach me and say well city why can't you live within your budget? you know, why are you spending so much? Which is a misnomer because this is a formula that has never applied to many cities across the state. And the truth is we do have uh we are city that is proud to have a balanced budget. We just take more money in than we spend. So the actual expenditure over the state prescribed amount has really nothing to do with overspending or living within uh our budget. It's just we don't fit the formula and that's why they have allowed this special uh home rule designation. So I uh to any of our audience listening we we do live within our budget. We just because of the intels and other companies within our city, our budget is just larger than what the prescribed formula that the state is. How many we've you've said we've run this many times and my recollection is we usually pass this by 85 90% is that uh do do you have any of those figures or any thoughts on that? So I understand in 2022 it was I think that's close to the figure. I'd have to get the exact numbers,

but yeah, they've passed. Yeah. So it's it's never a controversial issue. This is just a procedure that we need to go through to um to stat satisfy state.

Thank you. Council questions or comments here? Council member Orlando. Just to follow up on that, it's a over 40 something year old ruling or legislation, something like that. And probably it's time to maybe take a look at that again so that we don't have to keep doing this every year. Um allow for growth, allow for expansion. Um which is we're trying to encourage cities to grow, expand, and make a better life for their population. So um I couldn't imagine this failing ever, but what would I mean police, fire, what would we start cutting? So the residents, they get it, they understand it, but it's just one more hoop we have to jump through. It's unfortunate because of an archaic law. Thank you.

Additional questions or comments. Council member Hawkins, can you provide um the website address for where they can go to find the slides that you showed us all today for future? Would you mind? Yes. So, um these slides are um in our website for the city council meeting tonight. Um and then we can probably provide them in our budget um page as well.

Wonderful. Thank you. And I would I would suggest obviously deputy city manager, city manager that as we get closer that this is this is prominent and easy to find so that when citizens are looking how to vote that uh they don't have to wonder how to find this information. Mayor, we will definitely create a home rule landing page that has some educational material as well as the presentations.

Great. Any other questions or comments for Sylvia? Seeing none, any discussion from the audience related to home rule? Seeing none, I would like to close this public hearing. Thank you, Sylvia. We have a second um general plan update. And for the guy who likes to bang gavels, I'm not banging my gavvel yet. So, this has to do with the Chandler general plan update PLH25-000010 uh for public input, consideration, and discussion regarding the update of Chandler's general plan continued from the February 5th, 2026 regular meeting. I would like to open our public hearing and invite staff presentation from Lauren Schuman, our planning senior programs manager. Lauren.

Thank you, Mayor. So, we come before you today with one of the final steps of our general plan update. Uh, state statue requires that we conduct a a public hearing at the city council meeting. Uh, during my presentation, uh, to let the public know, I'm going to go over what's a general plan and why we update it. uh our process and the timelines that we had uh the type of public outreach that we did as well as uh the proposed revisions. But before I get started, earlier this month at the mayor's uh for our city uh presentation, uh he sparked something in me uh when he started talking about uh how Chandler grew. Uh and there's this presentation I like to do. Uh I have a series of maps and it's uh every decade of when land was platted, not just residential, any type of development when it was platted. So I just want to run you through this just to show you a brief quick history of of Chandler. So the image before you is 1912 to 1919. 1919. Uh so in 1914, uh Arizona received statehood. Uh, and this is what the city looked like in 20 19 pardon me 19 uh 21 1921 uh Chandler became a town site. Uh you could see a majority of the development occurred in and around the downtown. 1930 was a slow decade with only one subdivision building southeast of the downtown area, the Hilago uh subdivision. 1940, uh, more development occurs. Uh, 1950,

uh, the estimated population of Chandler was 3,800 persons within our town site. Here we have uh, the 60s and the 70s. And then something happened in 1979. Intel began construction on their first campus within Chandler. Developments uh development uh boomed after that with uh new subdivisions and developments, commercial centers being uh uh provided all within North Chandler. Uh the population during 1980s was uh 29,673. A decade later, the population increased to about 90,000 persons. It was a 205 increase in population. In the early 2000s, the the Loop 202 was completed, moving development further south. and and here we are at our present day. Uh so as you could see growth has occurred throughout our city. But why? So general plan uh what is a general plan for the public? Uh the general plan is a comprehensive set of broad policies that help guide development within cities. Uh so all of those colors on those maps, all that development occurred because of special planning, planning from all city officials. Uh when we look at general plans, think of it as uh the vision for the city at ultimate buildout, the blueprints for our ultimate buildout in Chandler. Our general plan is not uh

a a strategic plan, but it's um it's very broad. Uh we don't it's not parcel specific. The image before you is our future land use map. Um we use it when any developer comes. This is one of the first documents we look at. Uh we have to uh deem that it's it's consistent with our general plan. Uh with our future land use map we have four different land designations. Uh we have neighborhoods, regional, commercial, employment, and open space uh recreational. It's within the in the text of our document that explains where uh intensities of uses could occur. Um general plans uh are community goals. It's important that we reach out to the public to understand what their vision for the city is. Uh the last general plan was approved in 2016 and it was approved by the voters with an approval rating of 85.8%. Since that approval, no general plan amendments have occurred. The state statute requires that cities uh take a look at many different elements uh 17 different elements to be uh exact. It's not just a planning document. uh we have to take into consideration open space, uh transportation, housing, public buildings, uh neighborhood preservation and revitalization. There's a whole list of it. Um and so we worked with all the different departments to understand their goals for the next 10 years. It's important that we update our general plan because state statute requires that cities do it every 10 years. uh any resonings that come before the city council must be consistent with the general plan.

It's important that we look at uh trends. Uh so by updating the general plan, it allows us to address new development trends and factors within Chandler. 10 years ago, we didn't have self-driving vehicles within our city. Um, it's important to check back with the community and ensure that our community vision is still there and that the values uh are still relevant. And ultimately, we're approaching buildout. In 2016, when the general plan was approved, the city of Chandler was 85% built out. When we started this process in January of 2004, Chandler was built out at 94%. Of the 6% that's remaining, 70% of those land uses are are uh vision envisioned for nonresidential uses. Since uh the last general plan uh update in 2016, the city's seen uh just under 12,000 residential units built. So when we were going through this general plan process, we really had to ensure that the the future land uses of these properties were still relevant. Uh and we had to take into account uh that the resources water more specifically water was available and we made had to ensure that we were planning accordingly. Because this is a community document, we were tasked with trying to come up with innovative ideas to do public outreach. Um I was here for the last general plan update in 2016 and there was a lot of meetings that were held where it it would be a poster board in the library and we would be talking about a topic and we would get a handful of people. Uh

so we were tasked to to really reinvent what that public outreach was with the help of our consultant Logan Simpson. We had a series of events. Our first public meeting was a a spin on a TED talk but we called it Chandler Talks. We had uh a panel of experts from outside the city come and talk about housing and water. Um and we had a panel of um I believe it was six uh professors and experts outside of the city come and come and chat. Um it was recorded and posted on our website. The following week we held a Chandler listens where we talked for the first week and the next week we invited people to an a public openhouse to talk about uh what they considered uh what types of land uses they wanted to see within their neighborhood. Uh we held a total of two Chandler talks. The second was we invited um a a builder who specialized in small infill residential development um to talk about what that could look like and gave a bunch of examples. Um and then we held a series of uh Chandler listens following those Chandler talks. Uh we were invited to community events where we had tables. uh we we offered um four or three different uh online surveys to get uh feedback from the community. Our consultant also had 54 uh one-on-one interviews with uh stake important stakeholders within our community. Um another sounding board that we had was uh the mayor appointed 21 uh members as part of our resident advisory committee. they were our sounding board. Uh we went with them, we went to them with ideas and suggestions and you know

they gave us feedback on that. Um and then our last showcase we held a mobile immersion lab uh at Soho 63 for one of our last events and we had 200 people in attendance. Uh all together we believe that we've had a touch point with nearly 4,500 community members uh throughout this process. It's been a process. We've been working through uh just over a year. Um the image before you shows the timeline. Uh throughout the process, we've had a series of public hearing events, meetings with our resident advisory committee. Um but some things I wanted to point out. uh for the general plan process. Uh once we uh have that draft in place, we're required to put our pencil down and post it on a website for 60 days for public comment. That was done on October 1st and we left the portal open till December 1st. So we had it open for 61 days and I'll talk more about that. Um, with the general plan, state statute requires that, uh, the general plan be heard at two planning and zoning commissions as well as a city council meeting. Um, if approved this evening, the general plan update does get put on a ballot for the residents to vote on. So, what's different? Uh, the minor housekeeping changes, we, you know, changed the format from 2016. We updated pictures, policies, uh historic timelines, glosseries, but really what I wanted to walk you through were more of our significant changes uh regarding our future land use map, um our growth areas and a a policy as well

as our implementation action table. So before you we have our 2016 future land use map as well as uh to the right our 2016 uh draft future land use map. As you can see we have not added any additional uh land designation. We stayed with the four land categories. Uh we did reduce the amount of growth areas uh taking out our downtown area regional area plan because that was recently approved by the council. Area plans uh are more specific and offer more guidelines with regards to land use and design of the areas. We also removed uh the Chandler Air Park area plan because that too has a recently approved uh 2021 revised uh Chandler Air Park area plan uh in place that talks about uses that could occur as well as design. It's within that text that some of our our changes occurred. So the first under the yellow the neighborhood category uh in order to align with the trends that we've been seeing uh we've just uh increased densities. Um 10 years ago uh a standard application would be uh no more than uh 20 25 units per acre. Um so we aligned our densities to align with current submitts that we see. So high density is anything under 25 and urban residential densities is anything exceeding 26 units per acre. It's within the text of the general plan that states where urban residential could occur. uh regional shopping centers along arterials in growth areas uh as well as

in the infill incentive area to um incentivize uh underutilized commercial developments. The next change was within the magenta purple uh under the regional commercial category. In the 2016 uh draft or general plan, it did say that uh residential a compatible mix of residential densities could occur. We further defined what that means. We encourage that any uh density within the regional commercial category be 26 or higher. Uh commercial regional commercial areas in and around the mall. they're large uh power power centers, large regional commercials. Uh so we added add additional language to higher density should be encouraged in those areas as well as we added some language that said um as as long as there was consideration for the existing land uses that surround it as well as uh infrastructures were in place to support the higher densities. And moving on to the employment category, the purple, uh we worked closely with our economic development as well as uh used the council's strategic framework uh regarding targeted industries within the city. You know, the series of maps that I showed you earlier showed, you know, just one user coming in and what that did to a community and how it um uh ignited growth within the city. So we wanted to ensure that we had language in place to ensure that we got that next big user uh saying that um we will continue to prioritize employment uses of advanced manufacturing, knowledgebased industries,

advanced business services, next generation software engineering and healthc care services. light industrials al also considered as well as corporate and large office developments. Um, and we added some context in our 2016 general plan. It said that last sentence here, a compatible mix of industrial support uses and residential densities may be considered. We expanded on what that meant. Um and it and it points to uh the growth areas have uh more specific policies to how residential could occur. Again, here's our growth map. Uh we remove two two growth areas. Uh but we did enlarge the areas to encompass more developed areas in and around for future development. One of our large policies, one of the large changes within the general plan update is our south Price Road corridor growth area. Historically, this corridor has been reserved for employment users of large campuses. Prior to our last general plan update, any development that occurred on Price Corridor had to be 15 acres or larger. uh but it's always been reserved for employment and residential has never been considered. Um in order to stay relevant with the times and the trends, uh we've seen a change in the possibility of uh larger corporations wanting to provide housing for their employees. Um and so we did add a policy within the South Price Road Corridor growth area which could consider residential. Uh in speaking and working with the council, the policy reads um enhance

campus-like environment by supporting development that includes true vertical mixed uses allowing for employee and ancillary residential uses which are subordinate to the primary employment uses centered on a common design theme. Urban residential 26 units or more with vertical integrated uses may be considered when groundf flooror uses include non-residentidential uses that directly support employees and residents and and it is ancillary to an a subordinate part of a large employment campus that off offers shared amenities and enhanced pedestrian connections. And lastly, the last major change I wanted to walk you through is uh for this general plan update, we decided to uh implement uh an action plan. Uh so we could continue to use our general plan and ensure that we're uh meeting our goals. We worked with the various different departments to understand what their goals were for the next 10 years. Uh and we we have 73 different uh actions between all the the city departments uh with timelines ranging from short one one to five years uh mid five or more and then uh upwards for long-term goals. So, as part of the process, we were required to do a 60-day statutory public review. Uh, we did post it for 61 days. From that, we received 88 comments from the the public uh from 19 different

persons. It was attached to your uh memo. Uh, of that 50 revisions came about. Um, there were no major edits from it. It was just tweaks with policies in place. Uh, additionally, staff had 33 comments uh to uh enhance language within our our general plan draft regarding uh urban forestry um as well. So in total we had 127 comments and 89 revisions. Uh so as part of the process after that we had to take the final draft to our resident advisory committee. Uh there were 21 members and they were appointed by the mayor and council. Uh at this point I do want to take a quick minute. I know there are a couple here in the audience. Uh if if you were part of the resident advisory committee would you stand? In total, we had seven meetings and our final meeting occurred on December 9th of last year. We went through all of the public comments and all of the edits and all of the large edits we talked talked you through and a couple of things occurred. So, so, uh, what came of that? Um, the rack members requested that we renamed, uh, our growth area number one. Originally, we renamed all of our growth areas to align with economic development uh, and their branding of of the area. Um, and so we changed uh growth area number one. Originally, we had it uptown

Chandler, but when we look at what the boundary of uptown is, it it encompasses all the way to Alma School, uh, including the NXP property. Uh, so we thought it would be best to just rename it to North Arizona Avenue because, uh, we didn't want the growth area to expand all the way to Alma School. as well as uh it was brought to our attention that there was some language in there regarding future light rail that was never part of the discussion during any of the general plan meetings. So we removed all language regarding uh light rail and at that meeting the rack uh recommended approval of the draft general plan to the hearing boards. We were required to go to two planning and zoning commission meetings. The first occurred uh on January 7th. Uh the state statute requires that it be held at a location other than the normal location in order to throw the net out as far as possible and get as many residents involved as possible. We had it at the the Chandler Museum. Uh it was just anformational meeting and no uh action was taken of the planning and zoning commissioners. We did have two residents speak at that meeting and they were very positive of all the the work that we've done throughout this process. The second meeting occurred on January 21st and our planning and zoning commission made a recommendation to the city council of approval uh 7 to zero. Uh so before you this evening uh on your agenda this evening is uh the action to um approve the draft general plan with the new edit uh to the south Price corridor growth area and approve the language for the ballot. And with that uh I open the floor for any questions or

comments. Yeah, I'll start with a few. Um you'd mentioned that uh we had input from about 4,500 people initially and and I've been in I was the previous two I I think I was one or two people hanging out in a library room and and uh it seemed like this is a good number but is this a good number and I think it's about 1.5% what statistically it's a lot of people compared to 290 it's 200 190,000. It It's not huge, but statistically, is that considered a good number of citizen input? And do you have any recollection of the previous one or two?

Great question, Mayor. Uh I did go and pull uh the 2016 the amount of touch points that they had and it was about a quarter of of what we received throughout this process. Um and so we're very happy with the outcome of the public participation that we had and the innovative ways for us to engage with the community.

Okay. My second question is you had mentioned increased densities and for the most part this is what is possible not mandated right. So if someone wanted to put uh uh a project somewhere perhaps other than the the mall where that is considered a specific, it isn't it isn't uh mandating maximum. It's just giving a a higher density possibilities. Correct. Great question, Mayor. Yes, that's correct. It's encouraging higher densities in and around the mall area.

That's what I like about Lauren. Everything I say is a great question. So apparently my uh my last great question or last question anyway has to do with I can't read my own writing. You'd mentioned the the last bit Chandler honors and kind of a tick list of possibility or or list of things to do and ultimately these are these will appear before council and presentations and perhaps sometimes approval. Right? So, it's not just this list of 70 things that's now got its own engine. There is a checks and balance concerning u council approval. Correct.

Uh through the mayor or mayor, that that's correct. Uh we would hope to actually use it as like a report card to report back yearly of how many of those items were completed throughout the year. Great. Thank you, Lauren. Um a lot of good work from you, the the resident advisory committee, staff, all around. So, council, I see council member Harris waving his hand there.

Yeah. Um, thank you, Lauren. I hope I have a good question. Um, may we'll see. Uh, just real quick, um, the backgrounds. Um, I know that, uh, the vice chair, former vice mayor, Jack Sers mentioned the background of the individuals that was participating in that. Can you kind of tell us what their background is? Their career backgrounds are through the mayor. Council member uh Harris, great question. Thank you. Thank you.

No, it was uh our resident advisory committee was a a great group of people. You know, we had former mayors on there. Uh my the the chair was unable to attend this evening. uh but a former mayor, former council members, we have uh the president of the Chamber of Commerce on there, we had zoning attorneys, we had residents that were just passionate about our community and it it was very inspiring to hear the different voices in the room.

Yeah. And I did see um Alisa Gray out there who's a realtor, long-term resident of the city of Chandler, and this ain't her first rodeo, but I know she was a part of that group. There she is, Lisa. Wave your hand. Had to call her. Uh um just one last thing, the future thought of why this group of amazing residents decided to say, "Hey, let's exit out the the light rail conversation." Was there a specific reason for that or can you just talk about that?

Yeah. Uh there was um it was actually done in air. Uh staff didn't realize that uh there was uh talk of future uh public transportation with a light rail. our consultant works for many different cities and I think it was just a a guess that at some point the city would uh consider light rail but we know we don't have ridership of of bus um and so it it's not the time to um light rail it's not ready not for this general plan update but it is something that we would have to consider and talk about within our general plan. Yeah, because light rail is more of a aity people mover. Correct.

And we're still having a shortage on people riding the bus. The foot traffic. The foot traffic. Yeah. Okay. Thanks, Mayor. Council member Fost, I just have a mediocre question. So, back to the Price Corridor um page that you showed. There was a point in there where it mentioned that the bottom floor needed to serve employees and residents. Um, just to confirm that wouldn't exclude the general public, would it? For instance, if they wanted to have a restaurant that served the general public, that could be included as well.

That through through the mayor, uh, Councilwoman Poston, uh, that's correct. We would envision that these businesses be open to the public for to service uh, the employees, residents, and anybody in and around the area. Okay. Thank you, Council Member Poston. I'm sorry that wasn't a good question or a great question. Is it okay? Or a great question,

mayor. Council member Orlando. So, Lauren, um, you covered pretty much everything. It's very well thought out, balanced approach. This is my third one. Um, and I must admit you did an outstanding job, particularly the visual uh, presentation you had and I know you kind of glossed over that, but I thought you may want to talk a little bit about that because I thought that was really cool to see this 3D parameter what it could look like.

Yes. Uh, through the mayor uh, council member Orlando. Uh so for our last uh public uh participation point that we had so uh for the month of October you know a lot of times municipalities when they post the public comment it it it gets comments the first couple of weeks and then it it gets really slow. So we wanted to make sure that we kept that momentum going. So the middle of October, we we held a a second Chandler talks, but at the end of that of October, we had the immersion experience where Logan Simpson was so kind to provide us the technology where they took four different scenarios and they rendered it into a 2D 3D type setting and there was a 10-ft tall screen, 180 degrees, and you stand in front of it and it feels like you're walking through that neighborhood. Uh it was just giving the residents of the community the ability to see what a neighborhood could be through the policies in place within the general plan draft.

Yeah. And I particularly enjoyed it because it did visualize, you know, what a higher density looks like, what an urban area looks like, what you could do with the mixed use. And I think as I know you were there, mayor, there's a couple other council members might have been there. Um it they got some good comments from the residents at that time once you visualize what it could look like. And uh it's one thing to see it on paper, but it's another thing to actually visualize walking through that. So it was it was a great experience. Um yeah, I mean when you look at the numbers um 4,600 is a big is a big number. Um I mean if you start taking away kids and some other you know entities that probably wouldn't be participating this that's that's even a larger percentage of our population. So, I feel comfortable that we're able to give folks uh both a push and a poll and be able to get their input on this and I'm I'm looking forward to this getting on the ballot and uh getting that 87% 89% approval rating and thanks for all the work you did. It was great job.

Thank you. Additional questions? Great questions, comments, vice mayor. Thank you, mayor. Um no questions this evening. I just want to give some comments. Thank you to the staff. Thank you to the residents and for the committee for putting this together, for having their input and being part of this their time. This is a blueprint for us for the next decade as our city continues to evolve and change. And thank you guys for putting this together. Yeah, it's about it. Thank you.

Yeah. And I would say council, thank you. This process of even forming a resident, um, you know, each of you had a couple people that that that you uh uh made available. they were willing and it really helped put together extraordinary team. I heard the relationships there were great and uh from staff that they were just really pleased of having an engaged group. So thank you for your connections in the community that allowed us to put together a great team. All right, no additional council discussion. Is there any discussion from the audience? All right, seeing none, I will close our public hearing. Next on our agenda is uh an action item to approve the general plan update, the Chandler 2026 general plan evolving the Chandler Way. Council, how would you like to proceed?

Mayor, like Mayor, Council Member Orlando. I'd like to move that a motion make that a motion uh to approve resolutions 5973 updating the city's general planned. Um I don't think I need the rest of that but I think we're all good. But as recommended planning and zoning and of course with the changes that was announced earlier. All right. We have a motion. Is there a second? Second. So second by council member Hawkins. All right. Councel, no reason to recuse. Please vote.

Council member Ellis.

She I wonder if she dropped off. Motion carries unanimously. Okay. Thank you. Council. Next is uh resolution number 5990 repealing resolution number 5968 providing notice of the primary and general elections to be held on July 21st, 2026 and November 3rd. If you recall, uh the the state several weeks ago, three weeks ago, changed moved up the dates of the primary and the general or the primary by two weeks. And therefore, we have to repeal our resolution that was made just a couple weeks ago. Council, how would you like to proceed? Mayor,

Vice Mayor, I move uh for city council to pass and adopt resolution number 5990 repealing resolution number 5968 designating and providing notice of the 2026 primary and general elections to be held on July 21st, 2026 and November 3rd, 2026. Second. We have a motion by vice, second by council member Poston. Council, please vote. Council member Ellis. Yes. Motion carries unanimously.

All right. Thank you. Um council, is there any you do have public comment after our meetings here or does I don't have any? Did anyone else have any for tonight? We will again on Thursday. Seeing none. Hello. I'd like to call to order the meeting of the city council study session of February 23rd, 2026. Clerk, please take the role. Mayor Harky here. Vice Mayor Cena here. Council member Poston here. Council member Ellis here. Council member Orlando here. Council member Harris here. Council member Hawkins

also here. We have a quorum. Very good. Council, we've had um a number of items that have been called in. And if for some reason I I missed the fact that you received your information, we'll just move on. But the first one now in front of me is item number 16, the purchase of fire emergency medical supplies. Uh and assistant chief Keith Hargus is going to come up. This is from council member Harris.

Mayor, council, thank you for the opportunity to talk a little bit about this uh agenda item as well as our um ambulance transportation services um which this item is tied to. So, this item that's before you is a is a purchasing contract for EMS supplies. Um it is larger than what we've seen in the past and that's because of the ambulance transportation service system that we are ramping up. Um so the large a large part of this um this item includes funding for stocking the ambulances um as well as ongoing supplies to initiate our service for the first six months. And so I know the follow-up question uh Council Member Harris was in regards to where we are with the ambulance uh service right now. I can say um before I brief you guys first, thank you so much for the support taking on a project this significant um and structurally uh changing the face of how we deliver um emergency medical care in our community and really uh stabilizing that care for our residents is um incredibly important uh to myself, to Chief Dwiggins and our fire department. I think it puts our residents in a great position um and secures that access to healthcare which is really important. city manager's office and of course all of our staff in the department um have put in a lot of work. So we are um full speed ahead, all hands on deck. Um we are taking a multiaceted approach really. It involves training our members. Um one thing is we're uniquely set up to be successful in this business because we've been doing uh ambulance operations for a long time. We've never been responsible for the business. Um so we are learning and uh how we've done that is we are not only training our members but we have also hired um some experts. We have an ambulance transportation manager now for the city of Chandler. Um we have a ambulance transportation analyst. Both of them um have years of experience on the business side of this which will be excellent for us and and we've already learned much um from these individuals.

We have 12 firefighters that are in the fire academy right now. Um but we are also gathering resources and you can see on the agenda item as well. We have some other purchasing for cardiac monitors related to the ambulance. We have uh we have radios on this agenda item for the ambulance. You will see in the future um a contract for billing services as we look to establish how we're going to uh run that business and receive revenues. Um we are looking at adding equipment like our ambulances. First one is is scheduled for March. We have them coming in batches of three in May or June, June, July, August or September. So we should have all 10 of our ambulances by September and uh we will be ready to uh to deliver this important service starting in January of 27.

That's all we have.

Yeah. Thank you so much um Chief and thank you Chief. I'm I'm so glad that this item is like really moving forward and coming forward. I feel like it was in the dungeon of great ideals and now is out in the light where it can really grow and prosper. And I wanted to kind of give the residents kind of an update on where we are that we're creating this amazing life saving tool that we already kind of have, but we use it through a third party. And um now we get to take it inhouse and give our customers, our residents basically um a a class A service they already get, but I'm gonna call it a AAA class service that we get because we get to bring it inside house. We get to control the environment and we also get to be a part of the lifesaving procedures. and and I I know like many residents and probably people on council have great experiences with our fire department because you guys truly are committed to saving people's lives and making sure that um people during their time you get to see people at their worst moment and um but you're trying to be there to be their healer to help support them through and and I can just remember a time when we were going through uh COVID and so many people were ill and sick and things like that and and through all those different things where it really does matter when our community is is that. So, I just kind of wanted to bring this out. So, our residents and we have a lot of we have an aging community, too. Our seniors are aging. I know uh council member Ellis works a lot in that community and things of that nature and I know that she cares just as much about this as I do, but and all the council does. Mayor and council does, but I just wanted to say good job. I can't wait till we get across the finish line to get the um to get the first to send the first ambulance off as they say. We're sending you off to the

world. So, I can't wait to see that happen. And I am kind of glad that um our training for our firefighters, they're they're cross trainin they're crossrained firefighters and paramedics. Correct. That is correct. Yes. So, will we be um so with that being said, this is where I'm going to land the plane at. Um, can you just kind of give us some of the background of what our paramedics will now be trained to be able to do? You don't got to give them everything, but just give a couple things that they're going to be.

Absolutely. So, so right now we have at least two paramedics on every firet truck. Um, we also staff the ambulances that are operating in the city right now. Um, the ambulances are owned by a third party and we have a a private public partnership with that vendor. They provide the ambulance and the driver, the EMT driver. We provide the firefighter paramedic that is responsible for the care, the medications and uh and managing that patient all the way to definitive care. Um what we will do is we will take over the front seat portion as well as well as the vehicle itself. Um we will control all the operations. Our paramedics right now are trained in ambulance operations, but our EMTs aren't responsible for driving and operating those. Um so we have some training to do there. We also have some ramp up training to do with documentation. But I know when we're done um and I appreciate those words that uh this is something that we have thought about and have worked on our entire careers because it's so important and having that transportation and access to transportation when you need it. U we can't do it in a firetr. Uh we need this this vehicle to deliver um people from where we find them to where they need to go and we want to have the ability to take the best care of them through the time. And it allows us to be nimble. It allows us to respond to the community. It allows us um to deliver the absolute best service, which is what we're committed to do. And uh and we're very excited to this as well. So, we will be ready to go.

Well, thank you so much. I'm glad to be able to be a partner in supporting this effort. Um and I'm glad I'm I'm glad about it. So, thank you so much, Mayor. That's all I have. Thank you. Um just a comment for me or an affirming question is it we're not only offering a better service that we can best take care of our residents but with the ambulances that this will be an enterprise zone that even starting with these expenses there will be with the additional revenues that will come in from carries that will the intention is to be able to also cover this additional amenity to our community. Correct.

That is correct mayor. Uh yes, we're projecting that uh this is self- sustaining enterprise fund and hopefully we'll be able to to meet the needs of the community with growth as it goes. Um and and I think it's going to be a great value to the community for for what we're going to be offering. Very good, sir. Any additional questions or comments? Thank you. Thank you very much. Um next is item number 16. This is brought forth by uh I'm sorry, item number 18 by council member Ellis, council member Orlando, the purchase of customer engagement portal and relationship management software Mikeel.

Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Christa Melo. I'm an applications manager within the information technology department here at the city. I'm here to present on the purchase of customer engagement portal and relationship management software. The city's current internal utility billing system, customer engagement portal, and fieldwork order systems were originally implemented in July of 2014. In 2023, staff began evaluating and planning a comprehensive upgrade of these systems, transitioning from on-remise software to modern cloud-based solutions. This shift is intended to improve system reliability, security, and long-term scalability. In 2025, we began configuring and testing the upgraded internal utility billing system to ensure functionality, and operational readiness. In 2026, staff will focus on configuring and testing the fieldwork order system and customer engagement portal applications. During this time, we will also develop and implement a structured communications plan to ensure the community and internal staff are informed and prepared for the transition. Prior to the end of fiscal year 2627, all three cloud-based applications are scheduled to go live simultaneously, completing the modernization effort and providing a fully integrated cloud-based platform to support our residences and business. Our current customer engagement portal has several key limitations. It is not compatible with the new cloud-based utility billing system, and it does not allow for future enhancements or expanded functionality. It is also approaching end of life, meaning vendor support and future system updates will be discontinued. Finally, access to historical utility billing information online is limited, which reduces transparency and self-service capabilities. The existing portal provides limited data with no access to detailed usage trends or comprehensive historical information. It also lacks export

capability preventing downloading billing or usage data for independent review. As shown on the screen, the system is basic in both design and functionality and does not meet today's digital service expectations. These limitations are one of the drivers for this modernization. The new customer engagement portal or C represents a significant improvement in transparency, accessibility, and customer self-service. With integration to our advanced metering infrastructure or AMI system, daily water usage will be available for viewing, providing timely insight into consumption patterns and helping identify unusual activity more quickly. The portal features enhanced visual tools, including intuitive consumption graphs and clear utility billing visuals and dollar amounts, making it easier to understand how usage impacts monthly charges. Utility usage and billing history can also be exported into Excel for independent review and analysis. Beyond improved data visibility, the new portal enhances overall customer convenience. Access will be available through a dedicated mobile app, allowing account management anytime and from any device. The utility system expands online access to billing images and simplifies enrollment in paperless utility billing. The customizable dashboard allows users to prioritize the information most important to them. And we are exploring move in and move out request submissions online. Together, these enhancements modernize the customer experience and align our services with today's digital expectations. One of the most impactful enhancements is the upgraded consumption graphing capability. Water usage can be viewed in multiple visual formats, including standard line or bar graphs as well as a heat map display. The standard graph provides a clear view of water usage trends over time, helping track increases or decreases in consumption. The heat map offers a color-coded visual representation, making it easier to quickly identify high usage days,

seasonal patterns, or potential anomalies that could indicate a leak. By offering multiple visualation visualization options, the portal improves understanding and supports more informed decision-making. In addition to the consumption tracking, the portal provides enhanced utility billing visuals. Build amounts can be reviewed through similar graph formats, allowing charges to be tracked over time and clearly illustrating how usage impacts costs. The color-coded display highlights higher and lower billing periods at a glance, making seasonal fluctuations or unusual increases easier to identify. Rather than reviewing billing information line by n line, financial data can be interpreted visually, improving clarity and comprehension. These tools promote transparency and support better household budgeting and planning. The new portal enhances access to payment and utility billing history by providing a centralized, easy to navigate record of past bills and payment confirmations. The improved layout simplifies account review and reduces the need for staff assistance with historical documentation. Another key feature of the new portal is the ability to configure personalized account alerts. Notifications can be set based on usage thresholds or utility billing amounts, allowing alerts if consumption exceeds a certain level or charges reach a specified amount. This proactive approach allows potential issues to be addressed early rather than discovering them after receiving a higher bill. Overall, user configured alerts increases transparency, encourage conservation, and provide greater control over utility accounts. To support a successful roll out, we are implementing a coordinated internal and external communication strategy. Internally, staff will receive timely updates, training, and the resources needed to confidently assist the community. Externally, we will provide advanced notice of the launch, clearly communicate the portal's benefits, and

offer simple guidance for account setup along with accessible support resources. This proactive approach is intended to minimize disruption, encourage adoption, and ensure a smooth implementation. In closing, the new customer engagement portal represents a meaningful step forward in modernizing our utility services. It improves transparency through enhanced data visibility, provides greater convenience with mobile access and self-service tools, and supports proactive account management through alerts and expanded history access. It also promotes operational efficiency while aligning our services with current digital expectations. This investment positions the city to better serve the community today while building a scalable foundation for future enhancements. We look forward to a smooth implementation and continued improvements in customer experience. At this time, I would be happy to answer any questions or provide additional details.

Thank you. Um, Council Member, you called this in first, then. Council member Orlando, did you have any questions or comments? Council member Orlando, the floor is yours. Yeah, look, she's having problem with the phone. We'll I'll just take it from here. Um, nice job. Can you go back to the first slide to talk? I go ahead. Why don't you let her go? All right, council member Ellis, did you have any questions? No. Okay, thank you. I I did send you a text, mayor. Because of the delayed, it's harder for me to ask questions, so I will get together with the city manager, which I've already given my comments to.

Okay. Thank you, Council Member Ellis. Council member Orlando. Thank you. K, can you go back to that first slide for the time frame again? Yes. Oops. Sorry, you went one too far. I don't if you have it yet. Okay, there we are. Thanks. Um, so I guess the question I have here, this seems like a short timeline. Is this offtheshelf software we're modifying or is this our own software? It's off the shelf. Okay, council mayor.

Go. I figured as much with that time frame in line. the um so there's no work we have to done at our end to tailor it or anything like that or is there some work at our end? So through the mayor um council member Orlando yes there is work on our side there's configuration we haven't done the discovery sessions yet to determine what requirements we're looking for but there is going to be some work for the city IT department as well as working with the business units to get all the integrations completed. So, do you know how many cities are using this or towns? Um, locally here, I know of one for sure. Um, and then there's a couple others too that I have. I don't have the names with me today, but yes, there are a few others. And there are they have any problems with their roll out of this or anything like that.

Um, through the mayor, council member Lendo, as far as I'm aware, there is no issues um from a rollout perspective. Um, we do have another, um, city that's in a different state that did pretty much exactly what we're doing where we're going from an on-remise solution to the cloud-based solution. Um, so I do have her contact. She's more of an IT person. Um, so I do have her contact and we're I've been meeting with her regularly.

Well, I'm excited about this because I think it's going to save a lot of anxiety. I know I you and I shared a story with earlier today where my water bill went down immediately once I start realizing what was going on. So, uh, I think this is going to be very helpful to, uh, one more step in Arizona's ability to, uh, utilize our water resources, which other states think we're we're not good stewards of the water. So, I'll leave the political side, but anyway, the, uh, the this is great. This is great stuff to see. We use technology, and I'm looking forward to have the app. And so, they could do onscreen like I go to my computer or I go to an app. Is that what you're saying as well? That's correct. Both. Both. Perfect. All right. Well, I'm I'm great great technology. Good stuff. Thanks.

You're welcome. Additional questions or comments. I know I've been um promoting this, I think, a little overly zealous when we were first talking about rolling this out, saying that parents could tell if their teenagers were taking too long of showers. and that might have been a little overzealous of my statement, but uh we're really pleased as council member Orlando said to be able to better monitor uh potential water loss and able to hang on to our vital resources. So, thank you so much. Thank you.

Before we go into the next one, I I am I am aware that we've got a number of folks in the audience that were uh invited asked to come because of uh they're here for gaming grants. uh that's listed items five through nine. And so I I want to give you a chance if you would just come up to the mic, state who you are and what and um just what's your organization that's receiving a grant. Don't need any more dialogue. Other than that, but you took the time to come here and we want to uh give a chance to acknowledge you. So you're all welcome to form a line and state who you are, what's the grant, and then please no more commentary. Proceed.

Mayor Council, thank you for the opportunity to come before you on behalf of the Chandler Cultural Foundation and our Connecting Kids program. We have received $20,000 to support Title One students coming into our theater and our facilities to be able to obtain arts education as well as science education through the theater programming that we provide. We also provide other programming such as our youth arts council which instills leadership, positive speaking and we have found that these programs actually reduce depression and encourage students to increase their speaking skills and their self-esteem. Lastly, we do have a program also called Camp Kids and that allows children to come into our facilities and to see themselves on the stage and have themselves reflected and hopefully think of themselves as one day being arts administrators, performers inside of our society and more importantly inside of the community of the city of Chandler. So, we thank you all for your support and we will be applying again this year and we hope that we can count on each and every one of you to continue to support our youth and their education here in the community of Chandler.

Thank you, Sandra. I knew I was setting myself up for longer than what I asked when I saw you coming up first with all of your passion. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mayor and Council.

Thank you, council. My name is Freddy Labari. I'm with the Fireheel STEM Institute. We run a STEM center uh in Chandler and we also have a mobile STEM center and we're preparing to embark on the uh gaming grant process. Thank you, Mayor Council. My name is Jennifer Huitt. I'm the executive director of the Chandler Education Foundation and we are applying for the uh the grant as well. So, thank you very much for allowing me to come up. Thank you. Be patient with me. We're patient,

mayor, council. This I am Yolanda Robinson. I am the founder and CEO of Arizona Packs of Life and we partner with the uh Chandler Housing to provide a summer program um in the summer. We we started actually in 2024 and we want to continue on and and apply for these funding. Thank you.

Hi Mayon Council. My name is Jennifer Francisco and I'm the development director at Matthews Crossing Food Bank just right down the street here in Chandler. We're applying for our funding for our emergency food assistance programs, which includes our emergency food boxes, and our meals to grow program, which is our student hunger relief program for students from kindergarten through college. Thank you.

Hi, Mayor and Council. I'm Becky Hines. I am with Ian, Positive Programs for Youth. We provide free out of schooltime care at five sites, including three in Chandler and two in Mesa. We'll be applying for funding through the Hila River Indian Community to provide academic enhancements and some further partner collaborations with the goal of boosting math scores in reading and proficiency scores. Thank you, Mayor and Council. My name is Laurel Veetch. I'm the grants director at Dignity Health Foundation East Valley and uh we support Chandler Regional Medical Center. Uh we're going to be applying for two grants. one for one from Hila River uh for an oral health program and then the other from Oxchen um Indian community for a new uh non-invasive cancer treatment program. Thank you. Hello mayor and council. My name is Shelley Nelson. I'm here with Ascend. We help people struggling with hunger, poverty, and homelessness. We have three proposals before you to um help us fund our food bank, our senior centers, and our literacy programs with vehicles and operational costs and food costs. Thank you for considering them.

Thank you. And I I want to thank each and every one of you for coming here in case there were possible questions as well as I think one of the things that we appreciate as leaders of Chandler is the just so many organizations that we get to partner with, collaborate with, provide uh inspiration, provide uh vital services in ways that is economically enhanced by the passions that you and your organization represent. So, as uh as mayor and I think speaking for all of council, we're we're grateful for the work that you do and we're glad that the tribes and gaming money has provided this vehicle that to help you with your mission, which helps us with our mission to keep Chandler safe, to keep Chandler um uh educated, engaged, and in the so many other ways that you provide services. So, thank you so much. All right, back on the script. Our next item called in was item number 25, agreement for nonprofit blueprint programs. And uh Ryan Balch.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Let me find this presentation for you. All right. Um, excited to be here this evening just to tell you a little bit about the nonprofit blueprint program. To set the stage quickly, you might remember that in 2024 we updated uh our nonprofit allocations process, the process that we give uh Chandler nonprofits. This is a great transition for me seeing all of our friends up here. Um um competitive funds and one of the things that you identified at that time that you were interested in was a way to support those smaller emerging nonprofits that weren't quite ready to maybe um participate in our very competitive uh broad funding process, but that really wanted to um you know get their feet wet and and do some good here in Chandler. So this is the result, what I'm presenting to you uh this evening is the result of of that ask. And so the nonprofit blueprint program is a partnership between the Chandler Chamber of Commerce and the city of Chandler. And the idea is to give 15 nonprofit organizations a year an opportunity to build their capacity and to get ready to apply for things like our allocations and also like what you just saw um the Indian gaming grants and other grants that are available. Each year 15 agencies would be selected to participate in this program um over a 4-month period. They would learn everything from um improving their systems to governance and um how to diversify their funding base. And at the end of their participation, they would each receive a capacity building a grant in the amount of 5,000.

Uh some of the things they'll be participating in. So, there's four group sessions that really makes up the core of this program, but there's so much more than that. And you can see in the four group sessions, they would learn everything from governance to fundraising to communication strategies and sustainability. And aside from that, outside of that, they'll also receive um one-on-one coaching um sessions after the sessions. And they would look at things like policy development and website um you know, make website infrastructure and how to write strategic plans, everything that small nonprofits need to learn. Um, once they completed the program, they would receive a $5,000 capacity building grant and it could go towards things like operational improvements, technology upgrades, marketing, whatever that particular nonprofit is ready to embark on. So, it's really an individualized um thing. And in addition to that, they would receive uh blueprint membership benefits, and that includes things like professional head shot, um assistance with business and marketing, um opportunities for networking, and of course um opportunities for recognition by both the chamber and the city. This is our anticipated um timeline. So, we anticipate if if this is approved tonight, we would begin to well, the chamber would begin to open their application process in April. That's the time when they would select the 15 nonprofits. This coincides with our process, our our bigger process where we are allocating general funds. Um, we would have notified nonprofits whether or not they had received those. So this is a great time because those who may have not succeeded in that process will still have the opportunity to apply for this process. And then you can see in June through September they would go through their training sessions, have

opportunities for coaching and technical assistance. And then in in September they would complete the process. There would be a ceremony and some opportunities for recognition. This is that time too when will that they would be awarded that $5,000 grant. And then um for the rest of the year um they would they would work with us, continue to get technical assistance um have their award and again more um opportunities for recognition just participation. So we think this is a wonderful partnership. We're really excited to start it um this coming April. We have already uh dreamed up our curriculum and we're just really excited to present it to you today. And with that, I'll take any questions.

Sure. Since I brought this forth, um, not a question, but I I've all have been seeing the HHSC process for years and and seemingly that there are a fair amount of smaller organizations that want to grow uh that that are always asking about city funds. yet it seems like uh not not many not all have had the capacity to do what they're hoping to do or haven't fit the city vision. So um I'm pleased that uh that we're moving ahead in this area. I really called this forth because I I thought it's a good first time to bring out before our community and uh to uh further enhance the the nonprofits and the mission and vision that those who are starting them how they can serve our community. So, I want to thank you and thank the chamber for this partnership and uh look forward to watching this first cohort and uh being apprised at at after September of their progress, wins, etc. where we go from there. So, thank you. Additional comments, Council Member Orlando.

Yeah. Um, so the I know it's maybe too deep here, but the selection criteria, are you looking predominantly for Chandler based residents or Chandler based businesses to start up um nonprofits? Yeah. Through the mayor, uh, Councilman Orlando, thank you for that question. We are looking Was it a good question? It was a great question. Okay, great. Thank you. Hold up. Hold up. No one else should use great except Lauren when she's talking about the mayor. I have to, you know, Lauren's fabulous. I have to take her. It's getting late. Go ahead. I'm sorry.

Um, it's a great question. We are looking for organizations that serve Chandler residents. So, some organizations don't have the opportunity to be right here in Chandler, but they still are serving Chandler residents, and that is one of the criteria. There are also other eligibility criteria based on size and number of employees and budget and things like that. Yeah, I'm excited because I I know the chamber does a great job in a lot of areas and we we could forget about their education uh portion of the they had their business side and what they do on that, but uh just realized dawned on me a few minutes ago that this the education sides handling this which is a separate 501c under the chambers's uh purview, not directly tied to the business aspect of what's going on in the chamber. That's correct, Councilman Orlando. Um, it's the it's the foundation side. Yes. Good. And we are really excited about the chamber because they do bring so much of that knowledge.

Yeah. Well, I'm excited to work with the chamber and we've done they've done great relationships. So, thank you.

Um, finally, I understand the chamber is also I think you had a bullet on your slide. I know a couple of council members were kind of talking about this earlier. um that they're going to allow these the individuals to obviously network at these events so that they could because part of it is education part of it meeting people obviously to be and then of course the grants come a little at the end of it. So that's very um you got that to put in contract as well right? We sure do and that's one of the reasons we think the chamber is just the perfect partner because they have that network and they can really introduce emerging nonprofits to this whole network of of um the Chandler community. So that's a real a real strong point for us which is potential resources obviously too.

Exactly. All right. Well, thank you mayor. Very appreciate it. Additional questions. Council member Hawkins. Um just one additional question on council member um Orlando's. Is it assuming that once they're through this program, it's just a oneanddone situation, they cannot repeat in under any circumstance or is that applicable? Excellent question. Through the mayor, um, Councilwoman Hawkins, that would be our intent is that it's a one-time thing. It's a capacity building program. We have never, because this is our first time, it's our pilot year. We have not talked about what if, you know, in the future a nonprofit had come back. That's something we'll have to discuss further, but the intent would be to have 15 new organizations a year. Okay. Thank you,

Council Member Harris. Yeah, I hope to see Chandler based nonforprofits here um getting the opportunity versus, you know, outside because it is being funded by the Chandler residents. So, I'm looking forward to these applicants that's going to come forth and making sure that they're Chandler based applicants. This is Chandler based money. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. All right. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you,

Council. Next. And the the final call-in is item number 27 by Council Member Orlando, a briefing on um professional services agreement for the Delaware Street parking. You're good. Okay. Good on that one, too. All right. Next on our agenda is item number 33, discussion of implementing an ethics policy and possible direction to staff to review and return with recommendations. Council member Poston, tell us what your thoughts are.

Thank you, Mayor. I wrote some notes down tonight just so I I am very clear with everyone that um this is something that's been important to me for some time and I'm bringing this forward for discussion tonight so that we can look at this holistically as a council. What I'm asking for is staff time. I am looking for the opportunity for staff to investigate and do a little research on this. something a little more than I can do individually as a council member and it being an ethics policy that would affect the entire council, I don't think it would be appropriate for me to do that by myself anyway. So that's why I wanted to bring it forward. That's reason number one. Another reason is that I think it's a fairly standard process for large organizations to have an ethics policy. We expect our employees to abide by ethics policies. I think we can do so ourselves. And then finally, this has been brought forward from the community in several different formats. Um, one of our largest partners, the chamber has it in their how we stand document. Um, they've they've been requesting this for quite some time. Um, and then finally, it also came forward with some pretty robust discussion from our charter committee. They had also discussed that and I know we didn't move forward with the charter committee and I would say that I'm not convinced that the charter was the right place for it. Anyway, there's some documents that I've been doing a little bit of my own research to try and take a look at this. I provided um the city clerk provided some documents to your desk. Some of those are from there's some pros and cons. Those are from the um chambers discussion when they had that. I reached out to them and they provided me some information. I know the city of Mesa has a pretty robust ethics policy that covers both their city council and their boards and commissions. So, I think there's information out there that city staff could take a look at. I What I didn't want to do tonight was to say this is

the one and only idea. I wanted it to be up for discussion. The way that the um the two cities that the chamber looked at both were looking at a commission. I'm not convinced that that's right for Chandler. You know, that that wouldn't be my recommendation either. The reason I want to have the discussion is because this I I I don't I am not this could be it could be a charter amendment. It could be a resolution. It could be an ordinance. It could simply be a policy of the mayoring council, one of our policies and procedures. So, I'm looking for the discussion and the information. Um, I don't think that it's a bad idea to get information. I've never been afraid of being educated or informed or getting information and moving forward. So, I guess I will open it up now to my fellow council members with hopes for some discussion on this. But again, what I'm asking for is not for you to implement one specific policy, but really to give direction to staff that go and look and see what a policy would look like. I think we are the exact council to do it. I think we have a reputation that has served us well for um being a council that can have differences of opinion while having respectful and professional discussions. And I'm not trying to solve a specific problem on this council. I am trying to prevent one and to plan for the future. So, thank you for the opportunity to bring this forward. I hope it's a robust discussion or you know, you have some opinions on this or that you would join me in directing staff to take a look at this.

Thanks, Mayor. So, I'll start with a question. Um, your your last statement there. I guess I guess my my question I've asked all along when I when I first saw this is what's the problem we're trying to solve and you said you don't have a specific but you hope to that we don't or something. So so so give me an example of what this could do would do.

I well there could be there could be some rules and regulations around um and it goes from very granular the what I've seen has gone from very granular to very broad. There could be social media policies. There could be policies around um the acceptance of a meal. I I've I've seen it all over the map. Um but what I would say is the problem I'm trying to solve is that I'm hearing from the community that this is something that they would like us to look into. And so I think it's important that we be responsive to our community and take a look and at least give them the courtesy. We had our charter committee do an excellent job and take a deep look into this. I know that the chamber has a monthslong policy when they begin to look in putting together their how we stand document and this has been on their how we stand as a checklist. So I think it's simply us being responsive to the community that's put in the work. So you but you didn't quite answer my question is what's the you gave some examples but is there you it doesn't sound like you have a scope you it sounds like from what I just heard you say you're interested in pursuing a process to see if there's anything there because you mentioned receiving food you mentioned uh the poss or you mentioned uh uh social media. Do you have a problem you want to solve, I guess, is my question. Or is this just the baseline of of a of a shotgun to say there might be a problem and this would give because you could go off in a variety of different directions with in what you just stated there.

So, I'm still looking what's what do you hope to see the problem solved? I'm not hearing that yet. or maybe it's me, but I'm not hearing you identify the problem.

Well, mayor, I I think I'm actually looking for us to put a process into place before there's a problem. I have absolutely no problem with being proactive with getting information and looking forward and looking at the future. Again, we have our community members asking about this. I've been asked about this. Um, we have two very respectable organizations asking us about this. So I don't think that I think the exact wrong time to approach something like this is that when there's a problem and then we're just reactive. What I'm looking for is for us to be proactive as a council and you before one last question before I turn it over. Sure.

So robust conversation. So you also wouldn't potentially have a problem of since the charter review committee did look at this is to turn this back to them and say re re-imagine rethink this and come back to us since we have some time uh between now and June. Correct? No, actually I I don't think the charter committee is the appropriate place for this because the charter committee's job is to take a look at what goes on the charter and I'm not convinced that this needs to go on the charter. Like I said, I think this could potentially be it could be a charter issue. Um, but we've already had some robust discussion around that, but it could also be an ordinance like is done in some cities. It could be a commission that is also done in some cities. It could be a resolution. It could be simply a policy and procedure or it could be something that it could be something that we just I'm sorry I think I lost my train of thought. I think those are the four places where I think it it could land. But I'm not convinced that putting it on as a charter amendment to have our voters vote on it is the right place or what should be done in such a short amount of time. So I I if if you think that that's that's an interesting discussion, but I think we already determined that it wasn't an amendment that we wanted to move forward with the charter commission, but I do think the right place is our city staff that has the resources and sort of that broad look on that. So I don't know if our city staff looked at that deeply. I'd like to see them do so. I just my concern is apart from charter if we're going to make any changes that have any any statements on on policy I I don't think it would have I'm not sure it would have any teeth

as that would be my concern because an ordinance with council would can easily change as as councils change but also if there's uh I don't think an ordinance would necessarily if this is a question of of of discipline I don't think it would provide that's why I'm asking what's the

yeah an ordinance or a resolution or or the different well um I think we all as a council have actually already signed an anti-bullying anti-harassment policy I haven't seen the teeth in that either so if if that's where we wanted to start maybe we need to look at teeth there I'm not really recommending that I'd rather take a broader look at um an ethics policy. Okay. Council, other thoughts, comments, quick question. Um Council Member Orlando,

thank you. Do we have an ethics policy for our staff? Mayor, uh, Council Member Orlando, we have a number of personnel rules and administrative regulations that just does govern a lot of different things for staff, arguably ethical issues as well as, you know, how to conduct themselves, social media, participation in elections, things like that. We don't have what I would call an ethics policy, but it is um throughout the various personnel rules and um and administrative regulations. I think that's it's a good place to start. I like to take a look. I know that's the first I mean I'm assuming we had something on that. I didn't know we officially had something on that. Um and I think we're I mean you could you could do something very if you if you want to go down a charter path and I'm not recommending that or not. You could have something very simple as the council shall have the city and council shall have an ethics policy and you're done. And then you could decide how you want to put that policy. I think what I heard tonight in all fairness, um, all I heard tonight was like any other council member up here who has asked for additional information, discussion, uh, to because it is a staff time element, more than four hours, I'm assuming, and like you said, you put together whatever time here. Um, I don't know what this will look like. I don't know whether it's going to be a resolution, a policy, an ordinance, or on the back of a napkin. I just don't know what this is going to look like. But if we don't do the due diligence, at least answer the question of what it could look like. I think um we're we're probably that's that's a good place to start is just say, "Okay, we want to take a look at this. What's out there? What's not out there? What do we have already?" And then once we get this package together, um we could take a look as a council the work session and say, "Is this something we want to go forward on?" But that I mean, I I don't

think it's I think it's reasonable. I don't know if it's um how much staff time this will take. Um but I think it's reasonable to take a look at it and that's all we're doing right tonight. We're not making any decisions to implement something or No. So anyway, I'll let it go at that for now. Additional questions or comments. Council member Hawkins.

Thank you, Mayor. You're too late, Ellis. Sorry. Oh, no. Council member Hosen, I just I had a couple of questions or I guess a couple of thoughts just based on some of the stuff you said tonight. Um I guess in my head I see it going through the charter. Um mostly because they're the residents are who help guide what we're doing. They're our bosses. They have a say so and they should have input on what that would look like and what they expect from us. So, that's just kind of like my thoughts on it in the general sense of why it makes sense to go through the charter and along with I think uh mayor maybe your comment was that it doesn't really have the teeth and and we could put something out there but what's the point of it if it doesn't also get married up with something that has impact is I guess a concern of mine.

Council member Ellis, did you have a comment? Yes, mayor. Uh I don't know how I'm coming across as far as that the delay is concerned if you're hearing me on in time or am I being delayed when I'm speaking? You're good.

Okay. Thank you. Um when council member post called me uh concerning this putting it on the agenda, I I think my concern was that what are we trying to accomplish into this? Are we trying to find a way to weaponize the council in a sense for us to come after each other? Because this ethic uh uh in the context of this ethic committee or even putting something together with an ordinance that's going to concerning us and who's going to implement it against each other, it's going to have to be us because if we leave the people out of it, uh it does not go to the charter. does not go to the people who vote on it when they are the one who elected us. Now, we are the one who who's going to have to call each other in into this. And at this time I have a concern about that because of the fact that it could be anything that we don't like about somebody and then is there four of us who decided that this person have to go or this person cannot do their job or they did something that we didn't like and we rally four other three other people with us and then we come for this person. We've seen that happening before um in other cities and everything and this has never happened in all the 40 years that I've lived here in Chandler. Has never happened before. I don't think that that's the direction that I would like to see this council go into. First of all, number two is the fact that for me personally, I will find myself doubleminding what I had said prior, which was when council members are acting as council members for the city of Chandler, we already have accountability for them through the process that when we come in, they sit down with us and say these are the dos and these are the don'ts. But when they are acting upon their own recognition in their own businesses

doing their own things on their own social media or on their own doing other things that doesn't have that's their personal businesses I don't think that as a council a mayor and council we should interfere into that and if I find myself saying yes to this right now I will think that I'm being a hypocrite because I have defended so many council members into the square over these kind of things already when other people whether in the community or other entities have come and say hey this person needs to go because this happened to them and I've always asked what is it that they have done within the context of being a council member is this a personal thing that they are dealing with is this personal business or is this something that they are doing on their own that has nothing to do with us here within the square of the city so I I I I this is where I stand. I did have that conversation with council member Poston and I wanted to make sure that I go on record saying it again that uh if it's going to go through it needs to go back to the charter and we need to give the charter direction because that's again whether the charter had chosen not to look into it before but now at mayor and council we can actually give them direct direction and say take the time to look into this and come back to us I if there's validity into of sticking back to the people of Chandler to make a decision on it. That's my take on it, Mayor.

Council member Poston.

Yeah, I actually am really glad that we have such a diverse uh opinion about this because this is exactly what happened when I tried to do the research myself. When I started going down, there were so many different options. And when you talk about the charter committee doing, you know, going and taking this on and doing the research, um, and then you have council member Ellis that maybe has a different opinion about the direction that it go, maybe the charter committee is the best place, but I think that there are other potential options and if that's where our city staff landed and said that it needed to go back and that was their recommendation. But I always like starting with the expertise of city staff to take a look at that because that's what they do and it's what they're paid for as opposed to an ad hoc committee that we are trying to fit this into a certain amount of time. It's certainly like we can we can't we it's not like we can never convene the charter committee again, but we are on a time frame. We've already been escalated on our vote tonight on home rule that you know that that had to be on the agenda tonight and to move forward since that vote has moved up. I don't like squeezing them into this tiny little box um when we've actually already said no, we don't want you to look at that, but then oh by the way, come back. I want to be responsive to them, but I also don't want to give them the direction. I I don't think we have enough information to give them the right direction to move forward. I think that's really something that our city staff could look at. I think they should start with the charter committee and their recommendations and also go over to the chamber and take a look at their recommendations. These are two committees that have a pretty strong voice. Um, but I don't see one as better than the other. It's just something that I'd like looked at. I don't think the charter committee is the right place to start for those reasons. But I I do think that they should be included in the discussion. Absolutely. And that we should consider it. So, I'm trying to be responsive to them, but convening them again and making this happen that quickly doesn't seem like the best

procedure. City attorney, what's the timeline again? Yeah, council member, let me get a clarification. City, what's the timeline on um charter u further that we would actually have to prove approve something for the next election? Is it June? What? It's in June is the deadline for ballot language to the county. I believe it's June 22nd. June 22nd. Okay. Um, council member Ellis, go ahead.

Um, thank you, mayor. Um, if I may ask, Council Member Post, uh, we stated that there were a few organizations that requested this. This is the first time I'm hearing that the chamber, the chamber chamber is asking for the city council to have an ethic committee. I had never heard about that before. The president of the chamber has never approached me or neither do I know that did they approach other council members but they I was not approach on this subject asking what my opinion was or whether I needed and who else uh council member Fen is asking for this again.

Sure. Council member Ellis. Well, I I'm I'm coming from this was a discussion from our charter committee that that was one of the items that they brought up that they were interested in the in taking a look at. And this is actually from the how we stand document that the chamber Chandler Chamber does. Um I don't I I don't want to speak for the president of the organization, but what I do know about the how we stand committee is that it's put together um through various members and volunteers where they go and approach issues all across um the business related issues um in a variety. I actually have a copy of the how we stand document right here. Um and so they have committees made up of chamber members. Actually, we as elected officials are invited to be on those committees. I did not sit on this one in particular, but it covers everything from economic vitality, health care and affordable insurance, infrastructure, legal and tax policy. It's a fairly large document. I'll just show it right now. Um, and this is one of the items they talk they talk about local, state, and federal issues. And this is one of the local issues. So having those two organizations talk about it, I think it's just trying to be responsive. And again, I'm not trying to come up with a specific policy. I'm just asking for staff time to take a look at that.

Council member,

thank you for your response. I have sat on on that on those committees before for the last five years. I think this year was the first time I had not really consistently go to every one of those meetings. For the last four uh five years, I pretty much have been to every one of those how we spend um and and I don't think uh ethics had always been a strong stance uh for those committees at the time. But if we are having an issue at this time, again that's the question that the mayor had asked. Uh is there an issue that we are trying to solve? if there was an issue that we are trying to solve uh with the ethic committee being now uh present uh from the how we stand document and I I I would have loved to have an idea uh what the problems are at this point. The other uh thing that I have council member postman I don't know if you can answer that question for me or anyone else a member member of the council might be able to open uh we also looking into whether how do we receive donations from organizations that are coming in front of us how do because I heard you mention how do we receive a meal how do we also present ourselves are those things are also going to be part of uh if if that's where you see there's a concern concern that we need to address or also uh is there other things whether how do we um conduct ourselves when we go out uh with protocol and different things like that. Uh

council member please

I don't know if I can answer all of that question. I might be able to answer part of it. Um, I do and and and council member Ellis, we do have the uh chamber members in the room so that they can correct me if I am wrong, but I do believe this has been in their how we stand document um several times before and and and that was part of my question as well when you say that, you know, I wonder what they were looking at and what they were seeing and what drove this, that's the question that I'd like answered as well. So, I think it's important that we take a look at that and find out what did drive that. And if I could just look over and ask, this isn't the first time, is it? If or please correct me if I'm wrong. Um,

okay. Council member. Oh, I'm sorry.

Okay. Council member Ellis, I don't know if you could hear that, but that was Terry Kimell who had mentioned it's been in their how we stand document for seven years brought together by various business members. I I like you would like to know why why that you know what what made them bring that forward again this year. I have some questions about a couple other things in the how we stand document but they're not as specifically rated related to council. So I think that's an important question to start with the chamber and ask and those business members and see if they would be responsive and help us figure out what exactly the business community is seeing and interested in along with our charter committee finding out what they are interested in and why it was important to them as well. But I don't think this is any one organization or another. I think they're they are our stakeholders and we should listen to them. But I would be interested in taking that broad sort of view. And Council Member Ellis, you bring up some interesting points. I hadn't thought of some of those. I'm open to listening to whatever you have to say, and I'm I'm hoping that that is the kind of direction and question that you would ask staff.

Vice Mayor, thank you, Mayor. At this time, I do have a question for city manager. All right. If I may, Vice Mayor, hang on there. Mr.

Proceed. Mr. Pompier. Thank you, mayor. Um, city manager, I I would like to get a a a good understanding because right now we are asking your staff, our staff, uh, to get vested into this in this time around this process where we we have a home rule. We have elections going on. We have the plan that we are in the process of doing. In fact, I mean at this point our assistant can only even answer our email basically or just manage our calendars. So now we are asking for time for them to go deeper into looking um to bring us back very quickly turn around um on this particular subject. Is that something that uh we are we are we we have the capac capacity and the within as a matter of fact to to attack at this time or what is your opinion right now for us as a mayor and council when it comes to this

mayor council uh I appreciate the question you know as we go through the budget I can tell you one of the things we constantly talk about is that we do more with less and we are lean and mean and so I have staff that is is very busy. With that being said, whether this was set to the charter commission committee or whether we did it individually, we staff the charter committee and we would be doing the leg work for either either way that this goes. And obviously, if this becomes a council priority, then staff will make it a priority. So, we will find a way to make it work. Um, I appreciate you acknowledging how busy they are. They are very busy right now. But at the end of the day, we serve at the pleasure of this mayor and council and we will make uh all do efforts to meet the the needs and desires that they put forth for us.

So you are saying that if we send this back to to uh the charter staff will still be the one doing the leg work with the charter. Yes, council. Am I hearing you correctly, Mayor? Council member Ellis, yes, we staff the charter committee. So if they have questions about other options out there or options for the charter, we would be the ones that would do that investigation and bring it back to them. They can obviously as committee members do any of their own research that they choose to do or they can ask staff to do it.

All right. Thank you. That's what I needed to know. So ultimately staff will be involved whether we we send it back to charter or whether we try to do it internally. So that gave me a comfort not right now to know that what council member Poston is asking of staff is can still be satisfied through the charter um if we send it back to the charter. Thank you council member Poston then vice mayor.

Thank you. Um thank you council member Ellis. I I did just want to mention and I think I talked about it briefly at the very beginning. As a council member, I do have the ability to ask staff to take I think about four hours to do the research and that that was a possibility. Um, I I will admit to being a little surprised at the the the differences and I know mayor, you and I have had this conversation before and I agree with Council Member Ellis that um it's disappointing to have seen uh policies weaponized with at at other cities. I agree with you, but that's actually part of why I think this council is the appropriate council to take a proactive look at this because this is one of the most respectful um and respected I think councils that I've seen in the valley. I think we're the exact right ones. So, that being said, I was I'm a little surprised that that just taking a look at it, whether we move forward or not move forward, um is is creating this. But I will say, you know, I I was willing to take a, you know, my staff hours to go and look at that, but I didn't think that was the appropriate approach. I would imagine that if you found out I was looking into an ethics policy all by myself and I'm directing city staff to do that, that that would have raised concerns as well. I really just thought this was the better forum to have this discussion and have that feedback back from my fellow council members. So, thanks,

Vice Mayor.

Perfect. Thank you, mayor. um all of us up here, we are elected officials here and I feel that we, you know, we're leading the direction of the city and we have a huge responsibility to that and to our residents and I feel like at some we're held to a certain standard um to the people that we serve, our residents. So to me, I look at this as a form of accountability and transparency. So for myself, I am open to learning more on what this actually look looks like. I have a lot of questions in regards as to what this mechanism would actually even look like, whether it's a policy, whether we take send it to the charter, whether we do it in November, whether we do it in a couple years. It may take some time before we actually perfect something like this. But I think um it does have value in seeing what it could potentially be on there. So question just I I would like to know where boundaries were um or are what you're trying to cover on there and then looking through some of these um examples that you provided here from different cities around. I want to know kind of like who would be able to put in a a a claim or an incident? Does it take a certain number of residents? Does it take um a certain number of council members to put in a claim? And what would actually be the outcome? what are the consequences if a legitimate claim was processed and validated, what that would actually look like as well. So, I do have a bunch of different questions on this and uh I know all of us have other questions on where it can and cannot go there. So, I I am opening to learning a little bit more on seeing what staff can can come and research and bring back to us on this.

Okay. Um, city attorney, tell us again the, you know, for it says in the language there that an individual council member can have up to four hours or staff time. For more than that, the entire council um there has to be a majority, I think, is is the language there. So, uh, tell us this is a Monday night. Um, I know we're meeting again Thursday night. What would be a good path to decide uh whether there was interest in doing this? Now, at this point,

mayor, um the rules as far as putting something on the agenda, and this is really something that affects the council, um so it is really helpful to get council direction on it. Um the rules say that we put on study session. um it can come back um Thursday for more discussion and direction. If an ordinance or a resolution need to be drafted that would we would get that direction um on Thursday and then and proceed accordingly. Um so really what we need from the council is direction um by a majority so that we can proceed with that direction. Obviously, I know there's a lot of different ways um that have been talked about tonight, but would be what we need for staff is just direction from maj majority of the council on how you wish staff to proceed. Um obviously nothing's going to be ready for Thursday. It would just be more discussion on Thursday and direction. Um that can be done tonight or it could be done on Thursday.

Okay. Um

so this is not you haven't spoken yet, Council Member Harris. Yeah, I just Thank you. Thank you, mayor. I just kind of wanted to cover what we already kind have already as a council um because um city attorney when we do the on boarding um you kind of lay us you give us the right basically. You tell us like for instance like I'm I'm an entrepreneur. I'm a business owner. So, there's people I do business with here in the city of Chandler. And when we first start that conversation, I I basically tell you who I do business with, who I've who I have contracts with in the city of Chandler, right? And then you then tell then if there's a vote that gives a direct interest, you basically pull me by the cotail and say, "Hey, this is I know this is one of your clients, so you can't, you know, you can't vote on that." And then um well this is what I want you to do just kind of tell us tell the public what's the unboarding process in terms of like what do you normally tell us? I know you tell us about our business our business association. Can you just kind of give us that snippet of what you already tell us that we have to report to you? Um and what you tell us as elected officials when we first kind of come on board. You may not know everything because this is a on the spot question but what are some of the main highlights that you give us? Are you kind of asking for main potential violations?

Yes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, that might be helpful.

Sure. If I may, mayor, um, council member Harris, when each of you are on boarded, we do meet with you individually and talk to you about and go over what is required by the state law through the open meeting law, how to have conversations so you don't violate the open meeting law, um, how uh, to bring things forward to a meeting. again to avoid violations of the open meeting law. We also talk about conflicts of interest and the legal requirements um the legal potential legal penalties in the event someone were to violate um their obligations relating to conflicts of interest. And of course that governs the individual council members um where you have a pecuniary interest whether it's with a potential client whether it's property you own things like that. We um you know we want to educate you upfront and then keep that dialogue open with you throughout your tenure so that if there's anything that we are concerned potentially could be a conflict of interest or you're concerned we have that we have that conversation so that we can evaluate that under uh the state law requirements. Um, of course we do have the anti-bullying, anti-arassment, which a number of years ago the council voted to require council, not just city staff, but council and board and commission members to comply with and those any violations of those are reported to our office. There is a process for investigating um um I'm trying to think of what other then you have your council rules and procedures that was developed through a council committee. Um we had some in place already and then that those were reviewed um in great detail and revised and brought back to the council for adoption that governs how um staff time is used uh how things are put on the agenda, those kind of things. and and you have those in place as well. Those are the main things that come to mind.

Um

and of course and one other thing if I may, I'm sorry. uh the charter requirements on um who directs staff and how operations occur in the city because there are specific requirements in the charter that the city manager direct staff and the council um should deal with um the city manager for those operational issues as well. So I think that is as much as I can come to as I can think about right at at the top of my head here. No, I was the only reason why I was bringing that forth because I kind of that that's kind of helping guide me in terms of what I know that and now the city manager um you have rules and policies. Can you tell us about some of the rules and policies that you have that governs this portion ethics and things like I know city attorney touched on a little bit but

mayor councel we have admin rags and some policies that govern kind of how employees interact with the public and how employees interact uh they can't take certain gifts they've got to do you know we I can't give you exact specifics council member but I can tell you we look we look at a lot of different regulations that don't create an ethics policy but they refer to ethics

so we set out for our employees exactly what they expected them to do in certain situations and sometimes we have to modify them or create new ones when we find new situations we haven't dealt with before. So the bullying being a very good example, sexual harassment, any of those policies that we kind of set out kind of guide the morals and ethics of our employees when they're at work.

Okay. So basically from so like so we have the council rules that kind of helps governs how we move and then there's these added things that you add on there every time you know we're adding on additional rules and stuff like that and then you have the city the city side which kind of lays out like what they can and cannot do. I guess that's kind of where I all that's kind of where I'm leaning in is like, you know, I just want us to solve the problem because like even with you know like the 4hour rule that we have maybe that's something that we can look at and extend but I didn't even know how much of the four hours that um council member Poston that you may have used or not used or maybe you just say I want it bigger and granular because I I know that I send staff I have I direct staff uh to do certain things for me And um like even if it's just gathering information, you know, like you know, like, hey, I want to bring something forth to council and I've directed uh city attorney, I've directed city manager to to get information together for me. I just didn't know if if you've used all your four hours of staff time because I'm hearing you saying, "Hey, I just want a little bit more time with staff to kind of go through this process." But then I didn't know if you already had started using your four hours of time or if there's like a hangup in that four hours of time that you get to direct the staff. So that was one of my um big things that I wanted to kind of um bring forth. But um if if the charter if staff is being used with the charter, I would prefer to go to the charter because if we're going to if we can address your concerns like grab your four hours of time, get what you want to pull together because we're there is going to have to be a direction that you you will eventually have to give to to the team. We will have to be finding a way to to solve a problem. That's kind of where I try to make sure that I'm in like how does that what problem are we

solving? Is there something that you're bringing forth that we may not have heard from the electeds? And then like when we look at the community, what does that look like? Is there something happening on council that we don't know about? You know what I'm saying? That we should be aware of and things like that. Have that been reviewed with the city attorney? Things like that. So, you know, because each council member is allowed, you know, if they have an issue, they can they can involve a city attorney. they can get the city or they can request their own attorney for for their own for the for the use of the purpose of doing something within the city. So, I guess I guess kind of where I'm at is that if if you maximize your four hours and then it goes to the charter and then they get to maximize whatever direction you're giving, whatever different things you're gathering, send it over to the charter. charter is already going to have staff connected to it and then as there's additional things that needs to be brought forward you can work with the city manager and say hey add this to the charter conversation I think that would be you know I think that would be a good pathway but I just kind of wanted to make sure that there is a direction like what is the final direction what is the final thing because I do kind of have concerns not from a um like the internal part which is city city already has ethic policies that's governed by and then council have policies that we're governed by as well. I just want to make sure whatever the problem that we are solving that we find that thing and we solve it. And the question then I would have to ask to you is that something that the residents need to solve which you know they have the option of recalling council members. Um they have the options of coming here to testify to rebuke council members which they've done in the past. Um or they have the option to they I mean we got a whole election coming up. They have a whole

option there too. So, I'm just kind of making sure that if we if we say we want something um something that's that's not being governed that you see that needs to be governed, then I would want to see I would like to see that thing worked out. Um but we've also seen examples of how these things get out of control and um how bad characters with the wrong type of elected leadership could get in place and create um really nasty stuff. And I I would just say just just thinking about like ordinances. Ordinances controlled by the council. That's a fourperson vote, you know, that's controlled by council. If you talk about a resolution, that's controlled by a vote. That's a city that's more of a city policy and things like that and how it's governed. If you're talking about a proclamation that says, hey, we practice ethics every single day. That's more of an awareness that we are constantly on it. But our city attorney is also tasked with that responsibility to keep us in line and to bring if there are issues that is brought forth, she's tasked to bring that forward. So, I just kind of want to make sure um Council Member Poston that if we're solving a problem, boom, let's let's figure out all those different things that we're solving. But I do think that the best but I I'm thinking that the the method to get there is to go through the charter if we're going to go down that path go through the charter review team since we already have a committee together to to do it. So I'm just kind of I I threw a lot out there but I'm just kind of trying to figure out where we're going basically. So

can I just ask I I do want to ask a question of you council members and the council members that are interested in starting with the charter committee. Um, we had a whole other organization that actually and of business people that actually also had an opinion. They were not part of that charter committee. Are you are would you be interested in including them or excluding them? Because if this goes directly to the charter committee, they were not a part of that committee. That's that's really part of why I think it starts with staff and to move down that direction. I also do agree. I like council member Orlando's I think it was council member Orlando's idea of starting with the policies that our own city staff have and that's that's been kind of a tried and proven process and going in that direction. But I think we need to ask the question at least of the members that have been looking at this for seven years in addition to the charter committee. So I I'd be curious to see how you where you stand on that. Well, Mayor Mayor, may I respond, please? Um, I guess I guess the thing is that it's um it's not like I I think that what I would think we should start at would be you utilizing your four hours of time. That's where I would probably be more comfortable with. You utilize your four hours of time. Your four hours of time, you know, you direct staff, you tell staff what you need to do. They come back with your four hours of time and say, "Hey, this is what we were able to gather during your four hours of time, during your four hours of direction, then come back to council and say, "Hey, I need two more hours, three more hours because I'm still trying to get this through." So, I'm just trying to think if we're going to because I what I what what essentially what I'm hearing or interpreting, we just want to have a big robust conversation about it and we want it to be at a maximum unlimited maximum amount of time. But then staff is like, you know, staff are are experts. So they're going to go and say, "Hey, if you're trying to figure out how to move something across the town or if you're

trying to do something, our staff is going to go and find that solution." Because staff is we're directing staff to find solutions to problems. But if you don't take your four hours and gather your information that you want to solve and and list out the things that you're trying to solve, then staff would just bring back a lot of different things that may not be to your benefit to help you. lead or champion that is what I'm saying. And I think that if you don't utilize your four hours, if you don't utilize that, then coming to us and saying, "Hey, I want you to help out. Maybe another council member can give you two of their hours for that same project and you can partner up and now you can have six hours to work towards it." I just kind of want to make sure. I don't know if that's possible. Well, Kelly gave me a weird eye, but I'm just saying, can we use the I'm just saying if you use your four hours currently right now, then once you once you get the results from your four hours that you already have, then come back and have that robust conversation with council and say, I need some direction. But I think that if you say, I'm going to I'm going to jump the gun and and and say I need council buyin for it before I use utilize my four hours of staff time, then I think we're moving too fast. Well, if you're comfortable with all the direction coming from me, I don't like that's that's what you're saying. What I

No, I know. I think I think what I'm saying is that our four hours of time allows you the opportunity to collectively put together the problem that you're trying to solve. It allows staff to kind of gather information and you give staff directions. What I'm saying, your four hours of time allows me to tell the city attorney, I need you to do this, this, and this. And they're pretty efficient because they get done with stuff pretty fast. I've asked for stuff and it's came back within that 4 hour time. So what I'm saying to you, would it be behooen for behoove you to use your four hours, go talk to staff, gather information that you feel and if you feel like it needs there's a problem that you're trying to solve, come back to council and say, "Hey, I need more time." Um because John says, "I'm out of time." And now he's on the fifth hour and he said, "You're out of time. I need more time to gather more information." is what I'm saying because I right now I feel that if we if I say yes to this, not that I don't disagree with what you're trying to solve, I have to say yes to the problem you're trying to solve. And I want to make sure that you already since you're going to lead this, I want to make sure that you already use your

asking not to lead this. I'm asking the council to lead on this, not me personally. That's that's that's I'll I'll let I'll let question I just We hear what you're saying. Yeah. You you got what I'm saying? Yeah. Does anyone need any more clarification, Mayor? Council member Land.

Yeah. Um I think part of the problem she's struggling with, not so much borrows of time, is implementing a policy. What I heard her say is implementing a policy that affects the council. I think she feels like it should be a council uh decision. I think that's that's where she was driving that earlier today. So the time element is one thing, but I think it's more appropriate the time element. So I the other thing I want to ask um when we did the bully policy, I was on the council. Was there an issue?

If I may, mayor, um council member Orlando, there was not I'm not aware of any specific issue that prompted the extension of that policy to the council and the board and commission members. Okay. So, was it when we did the non-disclosure ordinance, was there an issue? The non-discrim I mean the the non-discrimination ordinance, was there an issue? Again, I'm not aware of any particular issue that prompted that. So, those are items that were educational. Those are items that gave us guidelines that if this did happen, bullying or and discrimination, we'd have a document to go to to say this is how we'll handle it. That's all she's saying here.

No. is what? Council member, I know, but you're directing you're directing your statements towards me and I have No, I'm just I went this way. Well, no, you you direct your statement toward member Orlando is doing a good job of articulating what I'm trying to say. No, I understand that, but you direct but you directed your you directed your comments towards me. Um, I'm not disagreeing with the ideal. What I'm saying is that she's It is not a point of automatic. You directed your statements towards me. I have You've got to be recognized for me to talk. Mayor still have authority. I will give you a call. Council member, I went this way. This way. This way. Council member, you look directly at me. Respect.

All right. Council member, look, I love you. I'm not looking at you. I'd rather be looking at her anyway. She's better looking than you. All right. So, I'm not looking at you personally. I'm not looking at the council. I'm being directive. All I'm trying to bring the point I'm trying to make here is and we have other policies. When you put together ethics policy, all these other policies, they're not policies to say something happened. There's something to give us guidelines that if something does happen. So that's all we're saying here. There's no difference between the bully policy, the non-discrimination ordinance, this policy, or any other policy we've done. I won't look this way. any policy we've done that we're doing here tonight. We're just having a council member ask and first of all I don't even know if other cities have that in the charter. Do they have it in the charter? I don't know. So until we ask these questions, then we could maybe formulate a better decision later on. So we're not trying to solve a problem no more than those other examples I just used. There were no problem to solve. We wanted to be available. We want to be proactive looking at something if it does happen at least we have guidance versus something that does happen and we have no guidance on it and then we're scrambling. That's all we're saying here tonight. So, I appreciate the conversation. Um I'm hoping we can move forward and give the council member the um the council could at least say let's look at this. Let's ask some of these questions. Council member Har um Ellis had good questions. I think they're very relevant. Mayor, you asked some good questions. You had some We all had good questions here. And that's the issue. We have questions, but no answers. So, until we go seek those answers, then we come back with something to be deliberate. And we may decide not to do it at all. That's fine. Or we may decide to to do both the charter comm. I don't

even know what a charter would even address other than have a policy. I don't know. So, that's all we're asking tonight. So, that that's my suggestion. we just move forward, get some of these questions answered. I'm sure you got a lot of questions you're doing here. City clerk, you're probably all these questions are you're taking down that we could be addressing in the future. Mayor, can I respond? Mayor, thank you. Council member Council Member Harris,

thank you. Well, first of all, um my problem is not the actual policy bringing forth. What I'm trying to do as a senior council member here is trying to help provide what I think will be a better solution to the process, which is what I would like to see council member Poston do is to take her four hours in direct staff and gather what she can, then come back to council with some pointed direction that she wants us to solve. That's all I'm saying here. I'm not disagreeing with the ideal of that and we can experience it. But what I want council member Poston is to do the work that I' I've passed several several I won't look at you but I passed several several policies and ordinances and I've led and championed them. I know what it means to go through a process with the community. I know what it means to kind of go through a um to understand the gathering of information. I understand what it feels like to be pushed back on staff. But I also hold them to the fire and and at times um and direct staff would tell you at times they said you're out of time. I' I've had those conversations with the city attorney. She said you're out of time. You got to get another council member to get on board with what you're saying. What I'm saying here if we're going I am trying to solve a problem and I'm trying to determine what problem we're going to solve and what direction we're going to go. What I don't want to do is give a broad a broad range of information to staff and say come back with something and they can be all over the place. What I'm trying to do is specifically find that and what I want to do with uh giving council member Pollson who wants to lead this um uh I want her to lead this. I want her to do that work that it's going to take to get it done. And I want her to go with her four hours and direct staff and get information, then come back to council and say, "Hey, I need more time." Um, because I wasn't able to get the

information. That's what I'm requesting of council posting. That's not that's not a far request to say that I don't want a policy. It's a request that says if you're going to lead the ordinance or a policy, you got to do the work. I don't want to be tied to doing the work. I would rather you go out and get the work. do it, use your four hours, come back and say, "I need more hours." And then we can kind of have a robust conversation about it and then you come back with a specific pointed sol a specific pointed policy that helps you solve the problem that you're trying to solve. That's what I'm trying to do. But I'm not interested in doing broad stripes of information if that's the case. And I'll just make up stuff and tell them to go out and do a whole bunch of stuff. Staff must have a pointed direction to go. And right now I feel that there needs to be more information for you to give them guidance and tell them I want you to go do this with your four hours then come back to us and say I need more time. That's what I'm asking for you to do. I'm not saying stop your process. But I am saying let's consider your first four hours and then let's come back and talk about it. That's what I'm asking.

Council, I'm not sure we're getting anywhere with this. We're just restating our positions. I I will let Let me go to Council Member Poston. Then I'm going to go to Council Member Ellis and then I I think we will I I'm going to close conversations at that point. Council member Poston. Sure. Thank you. Thank you.

Um just you know if if I think it's so easy to say what's the problem you're trying to solve and I think I've answered that question over and over again. I think I'm trying to solve a problem that has been brought to us by our residents and be responsive to that. Um, I like what council member Orlando said. The the only thing that I would like to point out is that um I have never been afraid to do the work ever. So, I really don't like the implication that I am and that I haven't done the work and that I'm not doing the work. But when I did the work, I got more questions than answers. and I felt it was more appropriate to bring it here to council. If that's the direction that all of the council members decide that you want me to take the lead, then I will do that and I will use my own best discretion. I really feel like I'm a little surprised at the push back, but I really do feel like that this is a council decision as a council, as a body, not a specific council member. I'm I'm happy to go and do that, but I find it surprising that you wouldn't want to be a part of it.

Council member Ellis, then I'm going to close the conversation after my comments. Council member Ellis.

Thank you, Mayor. I I tend to really listen since I'm not in the room. I'm really listening to the words. And when when it was asked, were there a problem with bullying? Yes, there was a problem with bullying because uh the schools, the students in the community, everybody, we did have an ordinance of bullying already concerning the the public, the general public and then on council when I came on council and other people who have been on council before who have always been spoke down to or overly spoke over and all those kinds of things. We felt that we needed to have that. There might not have been a complaint specific complaint about bullying on console but it was in the community and we wanted to elevate it to that level that it did not happen with console or console also bullying people in the community not necessarily us with each other but also the community. Second, when it comes to discrimination ordinance, same thing. There were issues happening. I remember clearly people who were running for for council at the time coming to speak to council members into the forum of the chamber letting us know that they are concerned about this in the community with all other things that were happening considering the the cases that were being brought before us. students from the schools who were being also discriminated against were coming to us on a daily basis asking for this. So there was an issue and a problem that we were trying to fix. That being said, I said, um I I agree to the fact that u council member Fton stated that she's never afraid of doing the work. Well, let's all do the work. Yes. And and I know you what you said concerning that I agree with you. The uh I've seen you do the work. I've seen you want to to go forward and and make it happen. Well, maybe this is another time where we need

to follow that that process again and go make it happen. Um, I am all in to making sure that staff is involved in getting the information we need in order for us to move forward uh to see if this thing is going to be something that we can all rally around to make something meaningful happen of it. But right now, I don't have that information to be able to do it. Thank you, mayor.

All right. Um, thank you for providing these documents and, you know, I I was the one that got this going and I worked hard with the council there beforehand, got everyone on board. I worked with staff to do the anti-bullying thing. And I I'm not sensing a consensus here of what to do, but council, I'm going to suggest Thursday we will come and give direction. I don't sense that that is here tonight. Uh but again, I was quite clear what I wanted to do. I was concerned about council bullying staff. I was concerned about board members acting out in in proprietous ways to staff. And I had a very careful close mission of what I wanted to do with this. and this contained it. And I know for me I'm I'm I need to know I need to know what the mission is and I I know what you're saying and but it's not resonating with me in terms of exactly what's the scope. If it's if it is indeed we want to do like a tempee or if we want to do like a Mesa then it is an ordinance change because we're a charter city. not an ordinance change. I'm sorry. It's a charter change because that gives teeth than to remove a council member. If it's if it's to look at uh how much money do you take? Is $5 dinner okay? Should it be this? We've got a we we've got some things on there. If you want to codify that, that's an entirely different move. But before I know I'm interested in opening up a ethics committee, I just want to know as I knew when I did this, what's the scope and where you want to go? And council suggests Thursday, this has been a good discussion and I want to thank you for uh you know, I I love passionate council. I I do. We don't have to agree

to get things done. So um I don't sense a a clear either way here tonight. and uh we'll see where we are on Thursday and that will either give direction to further your hours, but I'd suggest narrow down exactly what you want to do. And uh with that, I think you've got some suggestions and thoughts here that different have shared with you. Um, it isn't any council member's job to vote on this, but it is in order to I think it's our job to convince others that this is what we want to do and and that I'm going to leave to you between now and Thursday to see whether you have uh the ability or that if there's interest in

or more clarity before we gather on Thursday to understand. Okay. Final words.

Yeah, sure. Thank no one thank you for the discussion. Um, I think the fact that we do have such a diverse variety of opinions is exactly where I was landing and why I wanted to bring it to us as a council as a body. I still believe this is a decision that should be made by all of council. Um, and if all of council isn't willing to move forward and give that direction to staff, I do want to make sure that council and at least we've had the discussion and I brought it forward and I am getting at a very public forward that you have a comfort level with me leading this by myself with um and and being the one to give that direction. So, I didn't feel that comfort level before to go off by myself and use my four hours to go and direct staff about something that affects this entire body. I really thought that the best this was the best approach. So, um, just Thursday, I'll I'll do a little homework in the meantime, but when we come back, I would just like to make sure that there's clarity that if we aren't directing staff in this way, that there is a comfort level with me taking the lead on this. So, that's really the the sort of um the sort of options that I was weighing. I really thought this was the best approach. Uh I still think it's the best approach that we as a body should be giving direction about where we should go as a council. Um but I do appreciate this discussion and diversity of opinion and um thank you mayor.

Yeah and to be clear this will be a council decision but I I think what is being asked if you want to use your hours is to get more research and decide ultimately what do you want to present to council to further approve. So, and that's available to every one of us for a variety of issues. So, with that, council, thank you. We'll see you on Thursday.