Welcome to the regular meeting of the chandler city council, december 9th.
clerk, please, uh, take the role. Mayor hartke. Here, vice
mayor harris. Yes, here. Council member encinas. Here. Council member ellis. Here.
council member stewart. Here. Council member orlando. Here. Council member
post here. We have a quorum. Thank you so much. Our indication
tonight will be, uh, delivered by reverend sarah sby
oglesby dunnigan, a valley unitarian universalist, and our pledge
by council member orlando reverend.
today I want to offer a prayer of presence, and that's
not the kind of things you receive from each other this time of year, but the thing that we give to each other right
now, uh, being in the room together. And so I ask that instead of
vowing your head to retreat into an inner spiritual world, you allow yourself a moment
to be present to spirit. As spirit moves in this room,
let your eyes and ears see and hear each other with respect and care.
we may pray using different language to name the holy, but we are given the capacity
to see, hear, and experience the holy and each other. And in the world we have
inherited, distorted, and to protect. So as we
pray to a god of many names and no name at all, to the spirit of love
and life, I pray that we may find the strength to resist the messages
that allow us to dehumanize each other and the courage to name our fears and
face them for the capacity to collaborate and to be honest,
for the wisdom to see beyond our own needs and to work for the common good.
may our values of fairness, compassion, and accessibility be
undiminished by our desire to be effective and efficient.
may we begin and end as neighbors who care about each
other. May our smiles convey the prayer
that we carry for each other's wellbeing. For this, in your many names,
we pray, oh, holy one, amen. And blessed. B,
please join me in pledge allegiance. I pledge allegiance to
the flag of the united states of america and to the
republic, which it stands, one nation under god,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
thank you, reverend. And every time you said mayor, I cut thought you were talking
to me and I had to refocus. So thank
you and thank you council member orlando. Next on our agenda
is, uh, scheduled public appearances and if council member encinas
will join me up front
and first on our scheduled public appearances, our service recognitions, city
manager. Thank you mr. Mayor and members of city council. We do have three employee service
recognitions this evening. And for the first I'd like to call forward our chief
information officer, sandeep deia.
good evening mayor. Council members. Tonight I'd like to invite jason anna
to come join us up in the front, recognizing his 15 years of
jason joined the city back in 2009, an it pro whose skills
are well-rounded from novell to windows. He led the great shift
boosting our tech stack with a much needed facelift as
the sole linux guru. We're in good hands, no issue, too
big for his expert commands. Crowdstrike, no problem.
jason saved the day with scripts and automation clearing the way
beyond his tech work. Jason jason's a board game king,
a problem solver always on the wing with an amazing wife, four
great kids and two cats at his side. ,
he hikes camps and games when work is set aside. So here's
to jason for all. He has done an it legend for all
second to none who for another 20 years will keep us on
the tech stack on the one . Congratulations,
jason
generos,
mayor and council for our second service recognition. I'd like to call forward our economic
development director, micah miranda.
good evening mayor and council. I'd like to recognize ryan k for his 10 years of
service with the city of chandler.
so ryan actually joined the city as an intern, um, serving at various roles across
the organization, and, uh, actually joined the ed team in december of
2014, where he was a research assistant. And over the years he was subsequently
promoted to economic development specialist and economic development program manager.
and over those 10 years, it's been wonderful to see ryan, uh,
grow professionally. I can, I can say without any doubt that he genuinely
cares about the city of chandler, the residents, and what it's
gonna take for chandler to remain economically vibrant into the future. And on the personal
side, I I really do appreciate everything you do for us. Um, your
work doesn't go unnoticed. You do everything in the back in the front to,
uh, make chandler the dynamic place. It is. So thank you for everything. Uh,
I can't imagine not working with you. Um, you're just fantastic and we're lucky to have you
at the city. Thanks, ryan.
congratulations micah. Don't go anywhere.
turn around. , you're not done yet.
mayor and council, I will be handling our third, uh, surprise service recognition
this evening and it's for the certificates in the mail. I promise.
uh, mayor and council, I'm honored tonight to recognize our
esteemed economic development director mike and miranda, on his 10 years of service
to the city of church,
micah began his tenure with team chandler in december 14. His face
says it all about how appreciative he is that we're doing this tonight for him. , after
previously serving the cities of maricopa, tempe, and mesa and east valley, native
micah returned home for his career after attending the university of arizona, bear down
and has raised his four children here, along with his wife stacy. Over the
last decade, micah has led some of the most impactful and newsworthy initiatives in the
city's history. He has presided over multiple corporate relocations and expansions, including
intel, northrop grumman, rogers corporation, wells fargo, edwards
vacuum, and many more diversifying chandler's tax base and strengthening our
economic portfolio by effectively reaching across department lines
and partnering with other thought leaders in the community. He has also been a champion of innovative
economic development policy, including the city's water allocation policy,
infill incentive program for chandler workforce development initiative and
the choose chandler business retention and hiring program during the covid-19
pandemic. Many of these programs were subsequently, subsequently copied by
other jurisdictions as leading edge policy and economic development
for all these achievements and more, you may know that micah was named economic developer of the year
by the arizona association for economic development, and chandler was named the
best city for business by the arizona chamber of commerce, both awarded in 2023.
but what you may not know is micah is a great economic developer because he truly
cares about this community. While economic development is known
for being focused on the art of the deal and the classic triangle of relocation,
retention, and expansion, micah goes beyond to advocate for education,
job training, infrastructure and quality of life as essential elements
of chandler's prosperity. He embodies these values in his personal life as
well as you will find no one more committed to supporting his children and the
future opportunities he firmly believes they should all enjoy. Thank you
micah, for your boundless perseverance, creativity, and intellect. We are
truly fortunate to have you here in chandler.
thanks, josh
, mayor, that concludes our service recognition this evening. Thank you.
very good. Um, next recognition, rural roads
transportation champion. This is a bit awkward for me. I'd like
to call up mayor mcfarland and irene higgs.
I'm certainly honored to have mayor mcfarland and irene higgs here in chandler with us today to
present the rural roads c champ transportation champion
award and mayor mcfarland and I have been good
friends through the year and let me turn it over to you. Thank you, mayor. Thank you
council members. It is with great, uh, pleasure and
honor that I'm here tonight speaking to you. My name is craig mcfarland. I'm actually
the past mayor as of last monday, so I I I term limited last
monday. So I've been a citizen joe citizen now for a week . So,
but it feels okay. It's all right. Anyway. Um, mayor hardy
can I have been working together on I 10 widening for at least
the last six years, uh, that he's been elected here and I've been working on it for
about eight years. So it's been a full-time job for me to
harass and pester adot, uh, to the point where they finally gave
up and they put, uh, I 10 widening on the, on the five-year plan. So we're
there, we've, uh, with the mayor's help, uh, with a lot of
other people's help, we've been able to, uh, collect the money. It's
$1.1 billion, so we could see what one point billion dollars looks like
when we get I 10 widened. Uh, I'm gonna guess it's gonna be more than that by
the time we get done, but, uh, it's here and it's happening and it's,
uh, it's in large part to mayor hardy. So thank you, mayor.
well, thank you. And, uh, I, I would say it belongs to oliver mayors and
between, um, I 10 and the work that many mayors have done
in prop 4 79 that will turn around and also
serve all of arizona through those dollars. It's been an incredible time and
we're grateful for the partnerships that we have. I'm extremely grateful
for your work and, um, I will miss you
as a friend and a very effective mayor across our state for the
work that you've done. So thank you. Thank, thank you, irene.
anything to say? Sure. Good evening mayor council. My name is irene
higgs and I'm the executive director for the sun corridor metropolitan planning organization.
uh, work very closely with the maricopa association of governments. They're
one of our sister agencies. Uh, I'm a staff of two, so I rely very heavily on
mag to assist us, uh, in all of our transportation needs.
this year at the arizona rural transportation summit was our first year to
recognize transportation champions and mayor harkey would like to say,
uh, thank you sir. We feel that you are our true champion in transportation.
and so, um, please continue carrying that torch. Torch. We're
gonna miss mayor mcfarland, but, uh, our new mayor, uh, lisa fitzgibbons,
uh, is gonna be, uh, our new mayor and do a great job. So thank you, sir. Lemme make sure,
yes, thank you for a photo.
all right. Thank you again for this honor. And, um,
I know that I'll still see you at league events and, uh, looking forward to continue
to collaborate with you and your new role in the county as well with
economic development. So next on our agenda is the recognition,
the chandler exchange club award to chandler firefighters and
police officers. If I could call up mark whitaker and all the exchange
club members on the days or audience,
our chandler exchange club, uh, public service recognition is
an annual tradition that we all look forward to. So, mark, get
us started.
good evening. Uh, my name is leanna graham, the president of the exchange club in
of chandler. And I just wanted to say thank you to mayor, mayor hartke
and, um, the city council for giving us the time to present our award
tonight. Um, the exchange club of chandler is a community service organization
that has been working in chandler since 2013. Exchange clubs across
the united states strive to give back to their communities and help make them better
through community building projects. Just as we strive to improve the communities
we live in, we know that first responders work on a daily basis to make their communities
safer and a better place to live and prosper. Two
to, uh, we tonight we would like to pr we have the privilege to be here
tonight to honor captain joshua whitney, um, of the chandler fire
department and police officer michelle pots of the chandler,
sorry, did I say that? So captain joshua whitney of the chandler fire department
and the police officer, um, michelle pots of chandler police department
as exchange club of chandler first responders of the year. In our experience,
through our various projects, we know that all the members of the chandler fire department and police
department worked to make chandler a safer and better community. However, captain whitney
and officer pots were put forth by their rep respective
departments for go, uh, going above and beyond their job descriptions to provide
an exemplary, uh, service to the city of and residents of chandler.
um, captain whitney and officer pots, thank you for all that you do. We are honored
to have you as our chandler first responders of the year.
alright, thank.
all right, I think we're ready for a photo. Nobody else wants to talk.
ready? 1, 2, 3.
thank you more.
thank you so much. Thank you.
thank you.
yeah. Lost the mic.
flip it up.
it's out. It's out. Uh,
just mark, while we are here, uh, do you wanna make an invitation on saturday
as well? Yes, please. Uh, we as the exchange club, uh, we like to,
uh, do a lot to serve the community and be involved in the community building.
one of those projects is this saturday morning at the valley of the sun cemetery.
uh, the project is called the reeds across america project.
and, uh, we'll be honoring the over 3000 veterans that are interred
there at the valley of the sun. We invite you all to come out and help us
lay res on their headstones. Uh, volunteers can start together around eight.
we will lay res at nine and we have a formal ceremony at 10. Mayor
harkey will be there to read a proclamation as well. So again, we invite you to come out and be part of
our project this coming saturday morning. Thank you. Thank you. Thank
you. Alright, next, uh, angel's
gonna read five proclamations .
next we have the recognition government finance officers association,
distinguished budget presentation, uh, the award
for fiscal year 20 24, 25. And if we could call
up our budget team.
so, mayor, if I may, uh, tonight we recognize this amazing
budget team and all, they're all
here tonight except one. So we have, uh,
matt dunbar, helen parker, kat dixon, enrique sandoval,
um, I'm missing sylvia diot and
lucy quez. And then we have savannah martinez who could
not make it this evening. But we also recognize the efforts of sam
latuda, who was our chandler gilbert community college intern
who contributed in many meaningful ways. So the city of chandler's
earned this distinguished budget presentation award from gfoa or the government
finance officers association for many years and for fiscal 20 24 25,
the budget document award makes it the 37th consecutive year.
woohoo, woohoo .
and they work very hard every year to ensure they meet all these requirements.
but this award reflects the commitment of staff in meeting the highest principles
of governmental budgeting. To receive the budget award, the city must satisfy
nationally recognized guidelines and effective budget presentation.
the guidelines are designated to assess how well an entity's budget serves
as a policy document, a financial plan, an operational
guide, and a communication device. The budget documents must
be rated, budget documents must be rated proficient in all four
categories, and it is, and in the 14 mandatory
criteria within those categories to receive the award. And I'm happy to report
that chandler's budget was rated outstanding in many of those areas.
additionally, I would be remiss if I did not also recognize the vast
amount of work done by each department throughout the city, the city manager's
office staff, and the mayor and council for their direction and support
to create and improve the budget document annually. We
are thankful for everyone's contributions and congratulate the city
and the budget team for this accomplishment. We are proud to have
such a talented and dedicated team and we celebrate team chandler tonight. Thank
you.
matt, would you like to share anything else? I don't have anything tonight, mayor.
I had a good joke, but I just lost it when you put the mic right on me. So, uh,
let's come back to me later. Okay. Thursday. I'll, I'll have one thursday. We'll be good.
yeah. Later we expect a memo. Yeah. , let's
take a photo and congratulations to the team. We are
a city that prides their herself on being well run and you guys add
the cred beyond the ability that, that when we say we're a well run city.
so we are grateful as council members and mayor. Thank you.
thank you
angel. We're not done yet.
went too far. Alright. Next
we have our digital cities and government, uh, x
govx. So if I could call up the staff for our digital cities recognition,
our itt our it team has recently received two
national designations, which recognize the work of staff from across
nearly all departments of team chandler. First team
chandler placed second for the digital cities award, which focuses
on how technology people and digital services,
power, innovation and customer engagement. And kirsten,
thank you for joining council members poston and, and
orlando in florida to receive this. So we
received this award at the most recent nlc conference
as I just mentioned, and we are super excited to receive that.
I think the last one we received, where were we? Sixth place. So we've
gone from I think what, ninth to sixth to second.
I like the trajectory next year. Number one. Say it again. Next year
we're gonna be number one. All right. All
right. We also placed second for govx, which focuses
on digital te and technology services that enhance customer engagement.
if you were involved in this effort, I think please come on up.
and you're already up here . So thank you all for your continued
efforts to make chandler and accessible and innovative community.
kirsten, tell us anything else about these two . So first
of all, this is, uh, definitely a team chandler effort. This is an it
award, but it's a reflection of all of these great people and many that aren't here
tonight. Um, to propel the city from an innovation perspective,
tech from a technology innovation perspective, I would be remiss not to
recognize our leader, sandeep, in all the partnerships we've been creating
across the city, as well as support from our city leadership and mayor
and council that provide the dollars to keep us moving forward in the innovation
space. We have some exciting new things coming with emerging tech. Uh,
we already are doing a lot of amazing things and, uh, like I mentioned
before, we're looking forward to taking home first place next year.
so keep it up, team chandler. Alright, well let's take a photo.
let me scoot over here. Two rows. We're gonna do two,
you're as tall.
alright, great. 1, 2, 3.
wonderful. Like the choir.
, jingo.
here we go. Here we go.
alright, we do have one more. This is, uh, an
exciting one for council. I'd like to call in the video team
for the rocky mountain emmy awards.
I'm very excited to announce that our very own video
team has earned a rocky mountain emmy award, chandler's
2024 state of the city video entitled str, which
means in latin, it means ostrich. Very good,
won the category of graphic arts and other two chandler produced videos,
earned nominations in the commercial and public service
announcement categories. We are fortunate to have an extremely
talented and gifted digital media team working
for the city, and it was very wonderful for several of us to join you
at the rocky mountain emmys and to see the, the
joy, surprise and everything on courtney and everyone else's face.
so we're very excited, matt. Absolutely. So mayor, uh, I'll
just add a couple of words of context. So the rocky mountain emmy awards just for
the folks, it's uh, basically television stations, media production
companies in arizona, uh, utah, new mexico, and a portion
of southern california. So we're competing with broadcast syntheses in all of
those states. Um, we have numerous award-winning productions
that this team has produced, but this is our first year that we've ever had
nominations in the rocky mountain emmy awards. So we had three
as the mayor said. So strato uh, won, uh, the award,
but we also had two other nominees. We had an award, uh, a nomination
for the, uh, joint team chandler commercial ads that were put together in collaboration
with human resources, the chandler police department and public works and
utilities department. And then we also had a, uh, nomination in
the public service announcement category for the let's go blonde campaign, which was a
unique, uh, campaign to really encourage residents to save water by skipping over
seeding during the winter. And so wanna congratulate again the team, uh,
for all three of those. And we're very excited that we're able to bring home the hardware on,
on strato obviously. So mayor, we're working on state of the city, so you
know, we're working to, to, uh, put together another award-winning production for
the upcoming state of the city as well. All right. If digital is gonna bring home a number one,
it's our challenge to bring home another emmy. We're
in good hands with this team. Yeah. Alright, stacy, we're trying to raise stacey. She's back. Working
on, alright, let's do
a photo. Come, come
on. Council, come on down. Oh, nobody, nobody knows how to
say no to julie . Okay. We have to,
we should go. We should go the front.
you guys can, you guys can do the cheerleader huddle. Cheerleader on
down.
can you see everybody? Yeah, that's good. One, two,
great. One more. One more.
the jacket.
alright. And that concludes our special announcements. Public
announcements.
cut off right here and just cut you off.
I don't know who's on in production now. , are we still live?
are we still live on tv? Yes we are.
they had a little remote one. Alright, council next on our agenda
is consent agenda of our regular meeting. Uh, is there a motion mayor?
motion? I move that we approve the council regular meeting consent agenda.
monday ninth, december 9th, 2024. Items one
through four. Second motion by council member orlando.
I second. Second by council member poston. Any uh,
recusal discussion points? Seeing none, council please vote.
motion carries unanimously. All right, thank you counsel. That
concludes our regular meeting of december 9th.