City Council - Regular Meeting

camera or business camera that had been registered with Chandler PD, and don't worry, they don't want your live feed, if that child or resident got lost in your neighborhood, they could come to you and you could fill in some of the gaps that those public cameras may have missed. And the quicker PD can get eyes on a crime, the sooner they can get to stopping it. But all of this wouldn't be possible without the analysts who equip the Real-Time Operations Center and are hard at work keeping me, you, and our community safe. For the City of Chandler, I'm Lydia Curry.

I love Chandler for providing a place to play table tennis and providing us top of the line tables to play. It's an excellent place for recreational sports. Hashtag love Chandler.

Thank you. From now until February 7th of this year, the Gallery at the Chandler Center for the Arts will be hosting Rice is Met by Tucson artist Antwi Nguyen. Nguyen spent weeks individually sculpting grains of rice for this exhibition that explores the themes of culture, wisdom and motherhood while also.

We are lost. We are lost.

Good evening and welcome to the Chandler City Council regular meeting of June 11, 2026. Tonight, we actually have two separate meetings that are going on. We've got our normal consent agenda and meetings related to this. We will then also have a public hearing related to the adoption of our budget as well. So I want to thank everyone for being here tonight. And with that, uh, clerk, please take the role.

Mayor Harkey.

Here.

Vice Mayor Encinas.

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, um, Our invocation tonight will be led by Pastor Bernard White from Feed the Children and our Pledge of Allegiance by Vice Mayor Encinas. Pastor.

Thank you. Father, tonight, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So I thank you, Lord, for your will being done tonight over this agenda. I thank you, Lord, that according to your word, that it says that we are to feed the hungry, to help those that are in trouble and that your light will shine like new day in darkness. So I ask that your light shine today over each and every one of these servants on this council. I thank you for all that they do. I thank you for their commitment to serve. You said in your word that all those who refreshes others shall be refreshed. So I ask that you refresh them in their household, refresh their wives, refresh their husbands, Lord, rejuvenate them, encourage them. And I thank you for their commitment to governance. I thank you for their love for your people. I thank you for their love for this city. And I ask you, Lord God, that your light would continue to shine over this city, over every department, over the police department, over the fire department, over all of the medical officials, over all of the transportation department. Let your light shine tonight in all of these areas and all that you do. Let your light shine over this agenda. So I ask you to let your light shine over their ears so that they can hear what you would have for them to hear and let your light shine over their tongue so that they can say what you would have for them to say. So let your light shine over their feet, Lord God, so they can walk by faith and not by sight. So continue to let your light shine over this city from the west side to the east side to the north side to the south side. Let your light shine over this agenda and let your will be done because your word says that we are to feed the hungry to help those that are in trouble. And if we do that, that your light will shine like no day in darkness. So we thank you for your light. We thank you for these guests that have come from a mighty long way. Bless their travels as they come and they go. And everyone that was able to attend tonight. So we thank you for all that you have done and all that you will continue to do. We give you all the honor and we give you all the glory in Jesus name. And together we say, Amen.

Awesome. I can listen to that all day, Pastor. Thank you so much for those words. Please join me in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Pastor. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Council, before we vote on the consent agenda, I do want to introduce, we have some guests and I think a couple of them have filled out speaker cards, but we have a group from the Mayor's Youth Commission and supporting staff from North Miami. If you all would please stand up. Thank you for joining our council meeting tonight. I believe we've also, on our agenda is also, you can be seated. Also on our agenda is some appointments to boards and commissions. I think we have some folks that are here as well. Please stand. I thought we had some, there you are. Welcome and thank you for serving. Very good. Tell us which commission you're with again. HRC, Human Relations Commission. I was the first chair of that back in the day. I enjoyed my days there, and I hope that you do as well. So thank you. And Council, I have a few speaker cards related to this, and then a couple others as well. Our first speaker card is in regard to item number four. We have Mr. Beal. Please come up, state your name and city of residence. You have up to three minutes to share your thoughts.

My name is Brooke Beal from Chandler. This will actually be pretty quick. I don't think you guys really appreciate the risks that e-bikes present. And the ordinances that you're proposing is wholly inadequate to address these concerns of mine and what I think will turn out to be risks that result in deaths. And first of all, I don't think you've addressed the issue of enforcement. How you see the police department enforcing this is beyond me. They've had plenty of opportunity to demonstrate their expertise on the canal, and they have done so by doing absolutely nothing. And for them to be able to identify a class one, class two, class three bicycle, whether they're going 15 miles an hour or 20 miles an hour or 28 miles an hour, whether or not the individual who's riding the bike is 12 years old or 15 years old, I don't think we're going to see any enforcement of this law or any meaningful enforcement of this law. And I think that what's going to happen is that there are going to be accidents, injuries, and deaths as a result as these become more popular. And I think that what you're doing here is just trying to expedite so that you can say, we passed the law, we've done something, but it's meaningless. So I'm opposed to this in its form. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beale. Next, item number seven, Derek Logan. Hello, sir. Please state your name and city of residence. You have up to three minutes to share your thoughts on item number seven.

Derek Logan, Chandler, Arizona. Thank you, Mayor Hartke and the council members. Sorry, my voice is a little hoarse today. I just want, real quick, to let you know that item number seven, the annexation of the northeast corner of The Ocotillo and the railroad tracks, I'm in favor of. And I think I can speak for many of the residents in that area. And, you know, all the issues we've gone through before with this. And so we're in support. The only thing we want is just to make sure that it continues to follow the Chandler general plan and the airport area plan.

Thank you. And for this to be a change from that, that would come back to Chandler. It could not, by right, do any measurable or significant changes to what's promoted forward. So whether that's use or setbacks or any other significant change, that would trigger our planning and zoning to bring it back to us.

All right. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr. Logan. And lastly, on the consent agenda, Mr. Beal, item number 32. Please state your name and city of residence again.

Brookfield Chandler, Arizona. I'm not actually opposed to item number 32, but what I would like to see council do is address the issue of population control of the pigeons. What this might do at best is just simply distribute the pigeons to a wider area or so that they're not quite so concentrated. I don't think it does anything to reduce the population of pigeons. And if that is a concern, then Chandler should take the initiative and address that. And I know that there are uh, measures that can, that can work with this basically birth control for, for pigeons. And it's, this is something that's available. Uh, I'm not sure whether Chandler is invested in that or if they are how much, but I think that that would be something that would be a benefit. I clearly we could always do a few fewer pigeons. Um, But I think that you need to take the initiative to do that because it's not something that individuals can do. There's just nothing I can do to do that. So thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr. Bale. And staff, again, this isn't just pigeons. This is the dissemination of bird food in public places, right? In front yards or parks or really place where there is birds, right? That's what this covers, correct?

Yes, Mayor, that is correct.

Great.

Okay.

Mayor. Council Member. I want to move Item 7 to action.

You want to move Item 7... To action. OK. City attorney, we can do that without voting on that. That's correct, right?

Mayor, you can. At the request of a council member, you absolutely have that authority.

All right. For practice, yes, we can move item number seven. Whoever makes a motion for the approval, please note that on the consent agenda.

Mayor. Mayor. Council Member Orlando. Quick question. Excuse me. Quick question. Item six. Staff, can you get us the plan of how we're going to discuss with the residents as we're transitioning from less maintenance to normal maintenance? I want to know what the communication plan is, who we're going to talk to, and what the timelines are. Are they okay?

Okay. Mayor, Council Member Orlando, yes, we can get you how we're going to notify those landowners that now have to care for their own property, the timing of that.

Because I'm sure there's going to be a few people who will surprise and want to make sure we've articulated very well.

We can do that, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you. Council, at this point, unless there is any other desire to move things to action or any announcements of being conflicted, a motion would be in order for the consent agenda.

Council Member Ellis. I move that we accept the consent agenda and the numbers that we, not the numbers that we have removed, but the rest of the numbers that are on the agenda at this time. Thank you.

All right, so we have a motion to approve the consent agenda sans item number seven. Is there a second? Second. Second by Councilmember Poston. Again, no conflicts. Council, please vote.

Clerk, I'm going to dissent on item number four.

All right, motion carries unanimously with the exception of item four, Councilmember Harris dissenting.

Okay. Okay. All right. Council member Harris has moved item number seven to action. Council member Harris, what is your wish on this, moving this to action?

Yeah, Mayor, I got a conflict of interest, so I wanted to make sure that I remove myself from that vote. So I'm going to step off the dais so they can take the vote, but I do got a conflict of interest.

Okay. I think you don't need to vote. You could have just voted no on that item and cited conflict of interest on consent.

Well, I just want to make sure that it's noted for the record that it's showing up a conflict of interest for me.

Okay. Okay. That's it. So further instruction for him? He just does not vote or tell us?

Mayor, if I may, yes, Councilmember Harris just refrained from voting on this item. I don't think there's going to be a lot of discussion, so the need to remove yourself from the dais is not present tonight.

Okay. Is there a motion to approve item number seven? Mayor, so moved. Item number seven. All right. Motion by Councilmember Orlando. Is there a second? Second. Second by Vice Mayor Encinas. Again, no further conversation. Council, please vote. My tag is still, there we go. Thank you.

Motion carries by majority.

Very good. Council, next on our agenda is a public hearing. Let's get a little confused. Do I need to, this is a separate meeting, correct?

Mayor, this portion for the public hearing is part of this meeting.

Okay.

After the public hearing, you can close this meeting and we'll go to the special meeting for an action.

Thank you for the clarification. All right, at this point, we're going to have our public hearing, and we have Matt Dunbar to walk us through this. Proceed.

All right, Mayor and Council, I'm happy to be here this evening for one of the final steps for the adoption of our fiscal year 26-27 budget. This will be the last on the budget, and there's one more remaining step for our tax levy, but after nine long months of work on this, we're happy to deliver this to you this evening. For our fiscal year 2026-27 budget, the total budget is $1.87 billion, which the total general fund portion of that is $617 million. Of that, that does represent a 14.8% increase over all funds, with the majority of that, though, coming from capital projects. So on the operating side, about 1.2% increase to our operating budget. On the capital side, about a 27.3% increase to capital, as we have capital projects which have begun in the current fiscal year, which will continue in the next fiscal year and be carried forward, as well as new capital projects in the new year, including infrastructure projects in water, wastewater, and other utilities and streets. When you break out just the general fund portion of that budget, it's a 0.3% increase to the general fund. Again, coming primarily from capital with operating actually being reduced by 2.3% and capital increasing 8.2%. Again, this budget does adhere to all our financial policies. It provides cost-effective quality services to our residents and includes any input that we receive from residents throughout the process, including our resident budget survey, which happens in the November-December timeframe. This slide shows again where the money comes from and where the money goes for our anticipated budget. Funding comes from a variety of sources, including existing fund balance, local taxes and licenses, utility charges, property tax, state shared revenues, and is used for a variety of operating needs, capital needs, both capital existing and capital carry forward, as well as contingencies and reserves and vehicle equipment and technology replacements. The 10-year capital plan in front of us this evening, the 2027 to 2036 capital plan is a $2.9 billion capital plan that has increased about $330 million from the prior fiscal year 10-year capital plan. But it does reflect updated utility projects, updated project costs to their current values. It includes increased focus on our aging infrastructure, especially on the utility side as we move forward in the north and northwest portions of Chandler, replacing some of that infrastructure that was put in many years ago. It also includes projects utilizing our bond authorization in years three through 10 that was recently approved by our voters. From a property tax perspective on our levy, just a reminder for our residents that when they pay a dollar of taxes in property tax, only about 11 cents of that dollar comes to the city of Chandler. The rest is for public schools, community college districts, Maricopa County, and special districts. But there is a portion that comes to the city of Chandler, that 11 cents, and that is used for a variety of items throughout the city for the primary property tax, and the secondary is for debt service on our capital program. From a property tax levy perspective, there was a 3.8% increase to total property. 0.9% of that is new property, net new property added in the City of Chandler, with 2.9% of appreciation. In total, with the new levy amounts, the total levy increased about $1.4 million. With that information and at the all-day budget briefing with Mayor and Council, we were requested to make a reduction to the primary property tax rate, which we've done. So the total tax rate of 1.0818 has been reduced to 1.0759, which reduces the property tax for the 11th consecutive year. So what does that mean for a median value homeowner in the city of Chandler? As you can see in this chart, comparing 2026 to the new year, 2027, the full cash value has increased about 3% with the limited property value increasing about 5% to about $270,000 is the limited property value. Of that, 10% of that is assessed the property tax. So the new tax rate for primary is about $55.44. The secondary tax rate would generate $234.24 for a total of about $290 in total. That does represent though an increase of about $1.02 per month for our residents. From a key budget date perspective, we are most of the way there. As I mentioned earlier tonight, the public hearing and final adoption of this budget, and then the adoption of the tax levies will happen on June 22nd and June 25th. So for your consideration tonight, Mayor and Council, at the special meeting after this public hearing will be Resolution 6012, which would adopt the fiscal year 2026-27 annual budget, set the amount proposed to be raised by direct property taxation, and adopt the 2027-2036 CIP And then tentative and final adoption of ordinance number 5168, which sets the primary and secondary property tax levies, will be June 22nd and 25th. There is additional information to you and the public available at chandleraz.gov forward slash budget. All of the presentations throughout the nine-month process we've gone through, this presentation and proposed and adopted budgets will be available there for the residents viewing. With that, I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Matthew. Council, any questions?

What's that? The nine months. Yeah.

Yeah. I want to, for those in our audience, particularly from Miami, Council Member Orlando brings up the point is we start our budget really last October. And we work through this in varying levels, getting council input on some of the key principles of our budget. What do we want to prioritize? Maintaining what we have, for example, and streets and construction, those kind of things. And then kind of tailoring this till we get to this day. So if there is a seemingly lack of conversation tonight, it's because Council Member Orlando said we've been working on this for nine months and we're there. So no discussion here. I do have one speaker card related to item number 39. Thank you, Matt. Mr. Beal, please come up, state your name, city of residence. You have up to three minutes.

My name is Brooke Beal here in Chandler, Arizona. Uh, I don't remember that I've been involved in this for the full nine months, but it's, it's been a while. Um, and there were a couple of things that I asked for at the first meeting that I attend. One was for a line item to, uh, increased police patrols on the canal. And the second thing was to have a line item for cameras that could be placed along the canals so that you wouldn't necessarily have to have quite the police presence there. You could use the cameras to monitor the situation. So I certainly hope that those made it in there, into the budget this time, because I know I've asked for it in a public meeting. There's no reason not to, with your budget of, what, $1.8 billion, I think it would probably cost you $20,000 to increase the police patrols on there once a day, something like that, for an hour. Not even. I mean, it's minimal money, and to not spend that, I think, is ridiculous. So I certainly hope that it made it in there. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Beal, for your opinion. All right, council, that discussion from the audience is over. I'd like to close our public hearing. Don't go far, Mr. Beal. We're now moving into unscheduled public appearance, and you were the first card in. So this will be your day. You'll be first in, maybe first out. There you go. You should sit over here. You can save some steps. Again, state your name, city of residence. You have up to three minutes because this is unscheduled. Council cannot engage you. The floor is yours.

All right. Brookfield Chandler. So tonight I'm going to talk about the new signs that have been placed along the canal. Back in November, I received an email from Parks and Recreation asking for my input into the new signs. And I provided my comments and suggestions. What I found was that none of them were implemented. Specifically, I had asked for signs to be placed on both sides of the canal, and they're not. They're only on the one side. Two is that they are placed near bridges so that as... as bikes or e-bikes go onto or cross over the canal. They're placed there as they enter into the canal system that they're seeing. That was not done. And the one thing in particular I did mention was the QR codes were ridiculous. But they did manage to put the QR codes on these signs. Just to show you what I think is ridiculous about it is I'm six feet tall. I'm actually in the 90th percentile of adults, probably in the 100th percentile of juveniles. And the QR code, if I want to scan it, I have to hold it about eight inches from the sign like this, which means that 90% of the population isn't going to be able to do it. Pretty stupid. Anyway, the lettering on the signs, since they're seven and a half feet up in the sky there, they're an inch and a half high. And for traffic at 20 to 30 miles an hour, which is what we're trying to capture here, these are the individuals that are breaking the law, need to be at least four and a half to six inches for 20 to 30 miles an hour. So they're one third to one quarter the height of what they should be. QR codes taking up space that really isn't necessary. Totally ineffective. They're not placed properly. There aren't enough of them. And basically done wrong. So maybe you could put that in your agenda or your budget also. Thank you very much.

City Manager? Actually, this is going to be a surprise. I think Mr. Beal's comments, if that indeed is a scenario, could we please look at those and make sure that they are best used and most readable? So if you can just have, I don't know the process, I've not seen them, but again, just revisit these and get back to us concerning the usability on this. If you could do that for me, please.

Mayor, Council, we can do that.

Great. Thank you so much.

Council Member Harris.

Yeah, I'm just going to add to that. Sign location, beginning, exit, in between, just making sure that we have sign locations there. If we're going to go ahead and make these adjustments, let's just make sure that when you enter into the space, there's a sign there. As you're traveling through the space, if there's other exits, let's have another sign. Let's make sure we have one at the end. That way, we'll just make sure it's consistent all across the board.

Yeah, please get back to us and look and see do they best serve our purpose for doing this. All right, I have three other unscheduled public appearances. We'll do those. We will then break and then vote on or gavel out, gavel in and vote on the budget and then our comments after that. I think our next three are from our guests from Miami. So please forgive me if I butcher your name. And when you come up, again, this is unscheduled. We cannot engage you, but you have up to three minutes to share your thoughts. First up is Mary Estimay Irvin, Councilwoman. Councilwoman, welcome. Please state your name and city of residence.

Thank you so much. Good evening, Mayor Harkey, Vice Mayor, Councilman Ellis, and esteemed members of the Chandler City Council. I am Councilwoman Mary Estamay Irvin, representing the vibrant and wonderful city of North Miami. And I bring warm welcome from our mayor and council, as well as our 60,000 plus residents from the city of North Miami. We are especially grateful for the hospitality that you've extended to our North Miami Youth Council, who have come to understand how local government operates here in Chandler, Arizona. Your support is invaluable to shaping our leaders of tomorrow. I'd like to especially thank the city managers and all of those who participated in making sure that they were welcome. I'd like to again say thank you to my colleague, as in the National Haitian American Elected Officials Network, which she's actually our vice chair. Councilman Ellis, thank you for all that you do. My place of residence, obviously, is the city of North Miami. And I just want to thank you because our youth and you'll hear from our youth mayor and you'll hear for our youth liaison. As a public servant, I thought it was extremely important that our youth understand civic engagement, that they are involved. And so it's been an absolute pleasure to be here and to see them learn here in our city. Thank you again for having me.

Thank you, Councilwoman. And just to our team, we would love to get a photo with all of you and Council up in front after a meeting if you guys would so allow us the honor of being in a photo with you. Next up is Paul Basile, Basile, library director. Again, correct my mispronunciation of your name and state your city of residence.

Paul Basile, North Miami. ONCE AGAIN, GOOD EVENING, EVERYONE. GOOD EVENING, MAYOR COUNSEL, GOOD EVENING, COUNCILMEMBER ELLIS. JUST TO ECHO WHAT COUNCILWOMAN ESTIMATE URBAN SAID, WE JUST WANT TO REALLY THANK YOU FOR YOUR HOSPITALITY. ON MONDAY WE GOT THE CHANCE TO VISIT THE CITY HALL, WE GOT THE CHANCE TO VISIT YOUR CITY, AND WE ARE VERY IMPRESSED. LIKE COUNCILWOMAN SAID, THE WHOLE GOAL WAS FOR OUR YOUTH COUNCIL TO SEE CIVIC ENGAGEMENT OUTSIDE OF THE MIAMI AREA, AND I THINK IT'S SAFE TO SAY THAT I CAN SPEAK ON THEIR BEHALF THAT THEY'RE VERY IMPRESSED. One of the things that's the most memorable so far with the trip is the council meeting tonight, right? So we get to explain to them in North Miami how council meetings are usually the same all over the country, right? You have your residents who come in who oppose, you have residents who favor things. And tonight was a perfect example for them to see that. I also was impressed by the way you vote. So we already have discussions about that when we get back in the van. So just COMING HERE AND SEEING HOW YOU GUYS OPERATE IS A VERY, VERY FIRST REAL LIFE EXPERIENCE FOR THEM. WE'RE DEFINITELY GOING TO HAVE A DISCUSSION WHAT THEY SEE DIFFERENT BETWEEN THE TWO CITIES. AGAIN, COUNCILMEMBER ELLIS, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SETTING THIS UP. FROM THE BEGINNING WHEN I REACHED OUT BACK IN MARCH TO FINALLY BEING HERE IN JUNE, YOU KNOW, IT'S BEEN A GREAT EXPERIENCE. I JUST WANT TO THANK YOU GUYS FOR HOSTING US AND THANK YOU GUYS FOR ALL YOU DO. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. And Council Member Ellis, thank you for setting up a time that we can break bread or break tacos with our new friends from Miami. And last speaker is the youth mayor of North Miami, Estesay Cotier, again, please correct me, and state your name and city of residence.

Estesay Cotier, North Miami.

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Estesay Cotier, and I have the honor of serving as the youth mayor of the North Miami City Youth Council. On behalf of the youth council, I would like to take this time to thank mayor and council for having us tonight. Special thanks to Councilmember Ellis for really being our host during our whole stay here. Councilwoman gave us a tour of the city of Chandler on Monday, and she really has accompanied us to all the other cities that we have visited throughout the state of Arizona. So thank you so much for sacrificing your time for the sake of us. It was truly an amazing experience, and I learned so much about local government in the state of Arizona. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, Council, with that, I'm going to adjourn our meeting and then open up again for a special meeting. Welcome to the special meeting of the Chandler City Council.

Here.

Council Member Poston.

Here.

Council Member Ellis. Still here. Council Member Orlando.

Here.

Council Member Harris.

Never left.

Council Member Hawkins. I'm here. We have a quorum.

Thank you. And to our guests, we break out and go through this because these are packaged separately on social media. So it's not a continuous meeting. So we have breaks. I don't know how you all do it. Probably the same. But that's what we're doing here. Council, we have one action item, which is to vote on resolution number 6012, adopting the annual budget. How would you like to proceed?

Mayor.

Council Member Orlando.

After nine months. best part of the budget, right? I move to approve resolution number 6012, adopting the annual budget, setting forth the receipts and expenditures and the amounts proposed to be raised by direct property taxation for the various proposed for fiscal year 2026 to 2027 and adopting the 2027-2026 capital improvement program.

Second.

All right. We have a motion by Council Member Orlando, a second by Council Member Ellis, any comments? There better not be any recusals. Giving you all the stink eye.

Council Member Harris. I'll have comments after we vote on it. You'll have what? I'll have comments after we vote on it.

So during our normal, afterwards we'll go straight into getting ready to take a motion.

Okay, that's fine. Do you want to take the motion?

No, we've got a motion and a second.

We're just getting ready to vote on it. Okay, then let me just do discussion right quick. Please. All right. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to say on the budget has been a nine-month grueling process. City Manager, this is your full budget. I just wanted to tell you how I appreciate the care that you were able to hear from Council, Mayor and Council, as well as residents. Although we're passing this, acknowledge the work that you and your team did, Tad, Dawn, Leah, Ryan, and all those, Mr. Dunbar over there. And all those that may not be, and all our directors, because they're a big part of this process too, is they come and they sit down with you. You guys talk about things that matters. And where we get that information from, we get that from the community. We do that through surveys. We do that through councils, individual groups that come to us and say, hey, we like this and we want that. And you hear the testimonies here. But I just wanted to let you know that we run a very fiscally sound budget here. We really do care about our residents. This is not a county. We wasn't for sure where we were going to go with this budget. But I think you were able to continue on the things that's needed for our most vulnerable community, which I'm glad we didn't cut programs. We didn't lay off staff. We didn't have some crazy thing happen. You've been able to meet that. And I just want to tell you how proud I am of you and the work that you're doing with our team. And I just want to let you know, for your first budget from A to Z, I just want to say thank you for doing that. And to Mayor and Council, thank you for all your hard work that you guys did. So I just wanted to put that on the record. And I'm looking forward to a good passing of a good budget. Thanks.

Council, additional comments? Anybody? All right. Councils, let's vote.

Motion carries unanimously.

Great. Thank you. Next on our agenda is current events. I'll start. I was really thrilled this week as we celebrated the opening of Villas on McQueen, our newest affordable housing project, and the first one built through HUD rental assistance demonstration, or RAD, program. This 157-unit development replaces two public housing communities built in the early 1970s. It creates additional housing units for Chandler. And I want to thank Council for your support. I want to congratulate Leah Powell, Amy Jacobson, members of Team Chandler, our developer, Gorman and Company, and their work on the project. I also want to thank the many funding partners, including Arizona Department of Housing, Maricopa County, RBC Community Investments, Capital One, and Stonehenge Capital, and Cedar Rapids Bank and Trust for making this project possible. So well done, Leah. Well done, Amy. Well done, City of Chandler. I think we started this close to six years ago. And it's good to see this incredible new opportunity for people to live, to prosper, to find new opportunity, to build community, and carry on with their lives. So Council, we're quite honored to have had a role with this. Secondly, I returned Sunday, did a road trip to Long Beach for a US Conference of Mayors. Their annual meeting where mayors from across the country focus on practical solutions facing local communities. Topics range from public safety and housing affordability, infrastructure, ALPRs, data centers, emerging technologies like in AI and many others. And they were really relevant, especially to us in Chandler with their national role in semiconductors and advanced manufacturing, and certainly my work on the Technology Innovation Committee and the CHIPS Implementation Task Force. So it was good to be there. I I find that, although I consider Chandler to be an extraordinary, exceptional city, really the issues facing cities in North Miami or Chandler, there's a lot of similarities. We might address crime differently. We might have challenges with housing or different things, but as councils and mayors, we're really all trying to serve our city and make sure that our citizens have the best life possible, that they're safe, that the cities are clean, that they have opportunity. And that was my discovery here again. I even was able to, one of the last sponsored events was a Snoop Dogg concert. And I was reminded of why I didn't allow my teenage sons to listen to Snoop Dogg. A little bit of profanity everywhere. Not just laced. I was there. My now adult son was giving me grief because I wouldn't let him go to Snoop Dogg concerts, and I went. And so I took that. A couple more for me. I do want to thank Council and many others for what we put into the budget and capital improvement project tonight. This allows us to keep our sales tax as the lowest in the entire state, lowering property taxes for 11 years in a row, maintaining our top tier AAA bond rating while adjusting for inflationary pressures and addressing residents priorities for service. It's an exceptional city that is able to juggle so many things and it reflects in a budget And at the end of the day, we're able to provide critical services, keep costs maintained, and continue to ask how can we make this, how can we help the common taxpayer? So to council, to staff, I feel you heard us and you implemented what we asked. I'm grateful to our community that really has put us in a position that, once again, that we can do this. This budget includes targeted investments in the police forensic facility, ambulance operations, city parks, water treatment and technology upgrades, and the replacement of aging infrastructure intended to future-proof our city while controlling long-term cost of taxpayers. Our next regular meeting later this month will include a vote on the property tax rate, which is proposed to be lowered, as I mentioned, for the 11th consecutive year. And then lastly, I just want to mention we have a primary election coming up on July 21st. I encourage everyone to vote. Voters in the city here will elect a new mayor, three council members, and consider Proposition 415, the proposed general plan, the charter review, No, I'm sorry, the general plan update, of which I'm grateful for the citizen committee. I see Terry Kimball out there. Thank you for your work on that and others that really helped us get here again with a plan that will reflect our development over the next 10 years. The deadline to register the vote is Monday, June 22nd. You still have time. Residents can register online through Maricopa County Elections at register.maricopa.vote. And is that right? That sounds weird.

I believe it's theballotready.vote. That's where they can get registered and check their registration.

All right. I'm glad I asked. Thank you. Whoever put my notes together, tsk, tsk. For questions about voter registration, please contact Maricopa County Elections at 602-506-1511. Councilmember Poston. Still trying to get over Tisk Tisk over here. So thank you, Mayor.

I just wanted to give a little shout out to a local business. Today, the mayor and several council members went to welcome a new business, the Angry Crab Shack, into town. I've been driving by it a lot and waiting anxiously for it to open, which they did today. They're sort of creating a milestone for Chandler as they're the first Angry Crab Shack that was built entirely from the ground up by the Appiah family. And what is really exciting to me, because this is what local businesses do, is that they are already committed to participating in charitable initiatives, and they typically support veterans, children's hospitals, and local food banks, which I always think is wonderful. And then next, I wanted to wish a happy Father's Day. Father's Day is coming up on June 21st. So I will take a point of privilege and give a little shout-out. Happy Father's Day to my husband, Jason, as well as happy Father's Day to the mayor, Councilmember Orlando, Councilmember Harris, and everyone in the audience in Chandler, all those fathers who do so much for their kids and make Chandler great. So thank you very much, Mayor.

Thank you. No, I just said it's the first time you said something nice about me. That's it.

Oh, quite a privilege here.

He's only kidding. Those hush puppies were amazing, weren't they?

Yeah.

Yeah. City manager, there also, there is a space that on the edge of the property there that they would love to see. It was kind of put in there for decorative, but it's just kind of an open space that they can't do much with. You can't put banners there. You can't serve alcohol or events. So I'd love to see how we could work with the owner to have something that's more than a decorative space to see if we could work with them and activate that with some use. They suggested perhaps Veterans or if there's some other use that we can just take, which is if you drive right at the corner of their building, you'll understand what I'm saying. But they would love to see us helping them find a good use for that rather than just kind of a non-usable space. So if you'd please get with them, Ron or the owners, Carson or Adelaide, and see what we can come up with, I would appreciate that. Report back to us. Mayor, we will take a look at it. Thank you. Council Member Ellis.

Thank you, Mayor. Really would like to take a moment to take the team that are here from North Miami and thank you for saying yes to Chandler. I know you've been here in Chandler, Vice Mayor, former Vice Mayor and Council Member Estimé in 2022, I believe, when we brought Neon here, the national Haitian American elected officials. There were about 177 something strong of us here in the city of Chandler for the first time. And the opportunity arrives now for the Youth Council to come because we spoke about it so many times. And they have an understanding now what Chandler looks like. Thank you again for choosing Chandler. The other thing that I would like to also mention, maybe the audience is not aware of, your constituents is about 95% Haitian American or nationwide. uh native that are here living in miami and those children represented their majority of them are also parents and from hispanic descent and also haitian descent the one thing that i really appreciate about this group being here to uh this week is the fact that the next leadership that we are grooming to serve the united states is right here in front of us and we don't take that lightly we instill the patriotism into them, understanding that they were born here, they serve here, and they live here. It's important for them to do that. At the same time, also remembering where their parents came from and working really hard in their community to make sure that they have dignity and growing their neighborhoods to also receive what they came here to do. So thank you again for having the foresight to put this. You're the only one on your council who have put this onto your agenda to have the youth council working diligently to continue to have the youth empowered to do their work. Here in the city of Chandler, we do have a youth council, but they're on vacation right now, so you didn't have an opportunity to meet them. I know when you went to Scottsdale, you had an opportunity to interact with their youth council and did some stuff with them. Throughout Arizona, we are doing this also. So thank you again for choosing Chandler and coming here When you go back, remember that your dollars have been contributed here in Chandler. Whatever it is that you spend here, it has been really, we enjoy having you here. So thank you again for that. The other thing that I have is I was going to say Happy Father's Day. So you already said that. So I will join my colleague in saying Happy Father's Day to everyone. My husband will have, I've never mentioned him in public on here. But Benjamin Ellis is my husband. And this year is five years without his son since he passed away. So I would like to give a big shout out to Benjamin Ellis and telling him a happy Father's Day. You probably have not heard or maybe you've seen one of my posts. I'll take the point of privilege to say that our daughter, who's 29, have just graduated from medical school. Three weeks ago, actually, I was in Florida for that on May 15th. And so we have a full-fledged MD in our family at this point. So when you, as also someone who holds a couple of doctorates, so when you see us, it's not Mrs., it's not Miss, it's doctor, if you please. Thank you, Mayor.

And I just want to say that we're so glad to have you guys here. I feel that North Miami is in good hands with the leadership that we've met with the Youth Commission. I know several of you have impressive scholarships that you're looking forward to. Some are still obviously continuing in high school there. So thank you for coming here. I'd be proud to have any of you in Chandler as part of our youth commission as well. I was very impressed with each and every one of you. So thank you. Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. Again, to our friends from North Miami, thank you guys so much for being here. Chandler is a home to you guys. You guys are welcome anytime. It was a pleasure meeting you guys on Monday and sharing a bit of my story. So again, the message I left with you guys, I encourage you guys to continue your journey in serving your communities and hopefully to see you guys as a future mayors, vice mayors, senators of your state of who you represent. So thank you guys for being here today. A very quick... An event in our community for next week that I would like to share is going to be our Pride Month. Marin Council will be hosting an event to celebrate Pride Month next week on June 18th at 8 a.m. at the downtown Chandler Library branch. We'll be having a brief program to raise the pride flag and recognize one of our Chandler local entrepreneurs, Ms. Mafam, right here in downtown Chandler. We'll then move indoors to hold a light reception inside the Chandler Library. It's going to be pretty hot out there, so we're going to make that quick. and transition into the library. Council, I look forward to seeing you all there and celebrating with our channel community. Thank you.

Council Member Orlando. Thank you, Mayor. June 14th is Flag Day and has two special meetings for me. Obviously, it's commemorating the adoption of the United States flag in 1777. And no, Council Member, I nor the Mayor were there. That's why we don't like him because sometimes he's... I beat him to the punch. But it also has second meaning to me because growing up in New Jersey, we had an agrarian calendar, September to June. So I knew when June 14th came around, school was going to be over soon. All right. So there's a point of privilege. The Chandler Museum is hosting the 27 flags of the 250th anniversary. We had 27 flags. You can see each of the flags. You explore this at the Chandler Museum. It's a rare view of the start of the display. And I encourage all of you to get out there. Take a few minutes to reflect the service, sacrifice, and shared ideals that unite our community and our country. And right away, I'd be remiss if I didn't say, go Knicks.

All right, we're done.

I thought you were going to wish Farmer Council Member Stewart a happy birthday, too. I remember he always brought it out. It was always his birthday on Monday. All right. Councilmember Rouse. I'm sorry, Harris.

I just want the record to stand corrected. I do have a picture of Matt back in 1877. Next to all the flags. He took it.

Well, I still look good, though.

No, I just wanted to acknowledge the youth here. Councilmember Ellis, you did get a chance to invite me to come and sit with you, but due to other obligations and family obligations, I wasn't able to join you. But I will tell you the most important thing that I am so proud to see you guys sit here in this front row looking beautiful as ever. And you should be very proud. You represent yourself well. And we need you that represent in a way that is respectable, not just to the community, but to yourselves. And I think that's important. So when you go back to North Miami, you get to take the things that you learned in a different culture and apply to your culture and to what you guys do. I'm very proud of you. And I can say When I was your age, I did not have a leader like the vice mayor here who has decided to gather and come and accompany. I never had that ever in my life. So I just want you to know that you guys are doing something that people have never experienced before in their life. And I just want you to make sure that you take this moment in. and marketing your journal of history because this is so historic because communities like this does not get the opportunity. And I will say this, and I'm going to say this in the best way I can. African-American kids hardly ever see this ever happen. We just don't have the privilege to do it. Either there's funding, there's a gap, there's someone not reaching out. So I just want to honor you, Vice Mayor, and your team for doing a good job. And I want to honor Councilmember Ellis for making it a point to close the gap. And thank you for inviting me. And I just wanted to make sure I say that to you guys. So with that being said, I want to make the first announcement that I have tonight, which is the Mrs. Juneteenth pageant, which will be happening this Friday. This pageant empowers young African American women to define their goals, achieve them, and uplift future generations. So join me along with Mayor and other council members for this year's Miss Juneteenth pageant at the Chandler Center of the Arts starting at 6 p.m. One of the things that you guys should know about the Miss Juneteenth pageant winner, the city of Chandler actually adopts that winner. allows them opportunity to get media exposure, get a chance to be here before council. They also, the winner also goes on to help support the next announcement I'm going to be making, but we really do put a lot of resources and I really do honor and mayor and council for that commitment to uplift a teenage, an amazing teenager that will represent that banner. which I always believe Juneteenth represents, it's the second largest, it's the second longest historical holiday in the United States. And after the Emancipation Proclamation, of 1865, that's when they were free. But prior to that, they were already free, but it took Abraham Lincoln and a group of military personnel to actually take those individuals that was enslaved in Galveston, Texas, and say and force them out of slavery so that way they may live their life free and that was two years after um two years after it was declared so i just that's important so this week we're celebrating um freedom week which brings me to my next event um culture music and apart i'm so glad because i was able to initiate this amazing celebration of freedom week at culture music in a park this year is is bigger than ever because it's five years uh and we have the iconic vaughn willis and you guys know vaughn willis and air candy you know i'm gonna be on the dance floor dancing you know showing i might even have to have a little mayor you might have to play me a little snoop dog see what you like about snoop doggie dog say hey i was thinking bye-bye-bye anyways um but i'm looking forward uh to seeing you there but also you guys bring your lawn chairs your blankets your dancing shoes it's gonna be so much fun and bring your rags because i'm i'm i'm on the dance floor like you're not pulling me off the dance floor i am doing that i'm doing the one two step Since I've been doing it for a long time, it hasn't went viral, so that means I must not be doing a good job. So there you go. But I want you guys to invite, but we moved it from the downtown over by the downtown library. So it's going to be over there at the Stage Plaza, which is next to the Chandler Library downtown. The admission is free. The parking is free. There's going to be water. There's going to be amazing things. There's going to be vendors, community stuff. So I'm just going to tell you. It's going to be amazing. Five years, it's going to be off the chain. So I invite everyone to come on out, and I hope to see you guys there. Thank you. Oh, it starts at 7 p.m. It ends at 9.30 p.m.

Thank you. Council Member Hawkins.

Thank you, Mayor. So I am letting you all know that there is a ribbon cutting happening. It's the renovation reveal happening on June 24th at 10 AM for the Chandler Compadres Branch and Teen Center for the Boys and Girls Club of East Valley. This has been a huge project in the works. We're very excited about it. The improvements were funded jointly with the city of Chandler, along with the Chandler Compadres. to better serve our youth and enhance the safety of that. So the project remodeled the teen center. It enclosed the exterior patio. It basically expanded the programming and really catered to the teen services. So we're very happy about that. We hope to see you there. This is my personal invitation to see you there. Also, I wanted to say happy Father's Day to everyone here, all the staff. Are you going to say our names? No. And also, thank you guys for coming. We love to have you here. It's an honor to have you here. Very proud of all the things that you guys are doing at such a young age. So thank you and welcome.

City Manager.

Mayor, Council, I want to start by echoing the comments of Council Member Harris. This nine-month budget process is a huge undertaking. And to the department directors that are sitting in this room, it is their staff that does the lion's share of the beginning work. They build it. They bring it to us. So for my department directors and their staff, it's a personal thank you from the city manager and his team because it's the work that you do that makes all of this possible. So I'm a very proud city manager right now to look out and see these directors who took a budget process nine months ago and developed something we could bring forward today and be this proud of. The second thing I would like to announce is also speaking to the kids from North Miami, getting to know you, getting to meet you, reminds me of why I came into this profession. It reminds me of why we do the work we do. And to see a youth commission that has a designated city manager is a great idea. I was really proud. I did notice the city manager didn't get to talk. If you want to be a city manager, get used to that. Thank you, man.

Very good. That concludes our meeting. Let's make sure that we get a photo. And thank you.

And that's where all the departments stand up and they talk about all the great initiatives