[0:02] Welcome to the regular meeting of the chandler city council, december 9th.
[0:06] clerk, please, uh, take the role. Mayor hartke. Here, vice
[0:10] mayor harris. Yes, here. Council member encinas. Here. Council member ellis. Here.
[0:14] council member stewart. Here. Council member orlando. Here. Council member
[0:19] post here. We have a quorum. Thank you so much. Our indication
[0:23] tonight will be, uh, delivered by reverend sarah sby
[0:28] oglesby dunnigan, a valley unitarian universalist, and our pledge
[0:32] by council member orlando reverend.
[0:41] today I want to offer a prayer of presence, and that's
[0:45] not the kind of things you receive from each other this time of year, but the thing that we give to each other right
[0:49] now, uh, being in the room together. And so I ask that instead of
[0:53] vowing your head to retreat into an inner spiritual world, you allow yourself a moment
[0:57] to be present to spirit. As spirit moves in this room,
[1:02] let your eyes and ears see and hear each other with respect and care.
[1:07] we may pray using different language to name the holy, but we are given the capacity
[1:11] to see, hear, and experience the holy and each other. And in the world we have
[1:15] inherited, distorted, and to protect. So as we
[1:20] pray to a god of many names and no name at all, to the spirit of love
[1:24] and life, I pray that we may find the strength to resist the messages
[1:28] that allow us to dehumanize each other and the courage to name our fears and
[1:32] face them for the capacity to collaborate and to be honest,
[1:37] for the wisdom to see beyond our own needs and to work for the common good.
[1:42] may our values of fairness, compassion, and accessibility be
[1:46] undiminished by our desire to be effective and efficient.
[1:50] may we begin and end as neighbors who care about each
[1:54] other. May our smiles convey the prayer
[1:58] that we carry for each other's wellbeing. For this, in your many names,
[2:03] we pray, oh, holy one, amen. And blessed. B,
[2:08] please join me in pledge allegiance. I pledge allegiance to
[2:12] the flag of the united states of america and to the
[2:17] republic, which it stands, one nation under god,
[2:21] indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
[2:27] thank you, reverend. And every time you said mayor, I cut thought you were talking
[2:31] to me and I had to refocus. So thank
[2:36] you and thank you council member orlando. Next on our agenda
[2:40] is, uh, scheduled public appearances and if council member encinas
[2:44] will join me up front
[3:07] and first on our scheduled public appearances, our service recognitions, city
[3:11] manager. Thank you mr. Mayor and members of city council. We do have three employee service
[3:15] recognitions this evening. And for the first I'd like to call forward our chief
[3:19] information officer, sandeep deia.
[3:29] good evening mayor. Council members. Tonight I'd like to invite jason anna
[3:33] to come join us up in the front, recognizing his 15 years of
[3:45] jason joined the city back in 2009, an it pro whose skills
[3:49] are well-rounded from novell to windows. He led the great shift
[3:53] boosting our tech stack with a much needed facelift as
[3:57] the sole linux guru. We're in good hands, no issue, too
[4:02] big for his expert commands. Crowdstrike, no problem.
[4:06] jason saved the day with scripts and automation clearing the way
[4:11] beyond his tech work. Jason jason's a board game king,
[4:15] a problem solver always on the wing with an amazing wife, four
[4:19] great kids and two cats at his side. ,
[4:23] he hikes camps and games when work is set aside. So here's
[4:27] to jason for all. He has done an it legend for all
[4:31] second to none who for another 20 years will keep us on
[4:35] the tech stack on the one . Congratulations,
[4:40] jason
[4:54] generos,
[5:04] mayor and council for our second service recognition. I'd like to call forward our economic
[5:08] development director, micah miranda.
[5:20] good evening mayor and council. I'd like to recognize ryan k for his 10 years of
[5:24] service with the city of chandler.
[5:33] so ryan actually joined the city as an intern, um, serving at various roles across
[5:37] the organization, and, uh, actually joined the ed team in december of
[5:41] 2014, where he was a research assistant. And over the years he was subsequently
[5:47] promoted to economic development specialist and economic development program manager.
[5:51] and over those 10 years, it's been wonderful to see ryan, uh,
[5:55] grow professionally. I can, I can say without any doubt that he genuinely
[5:59] cares about the city of chandler, the residents, and what it's
[6:03] gonna take for chandler to remain economically vibrant into the future. And on the personal
[6:07] side, I I really do appreciate everything you do for us. Um, your
[6:12] work doesn't go unnoticed. You do everything in the back in the front to,
[6:16] uh, make chandler the dynamic place. It is. So thank you for everything. Uh,
[6:21] I can't imagine not working with you. Um, you're just fantastic and we're lucky to have you
[6:25] at the city. Thanks, ryan.
[6:47] congratulations micah. Don't go anywhere.
[6:52] turn around. , you're not done yet.
[6:56] mayor and council, I will be handling our third, uh, surprise service recognition
[7:00] this evening and it's for the certificates in the mail. I promise.
[7:05] uh, mayor and council, I'm honored tonight to recognize our
[7:09] esteemed economic development director mike and miranda, on his 10 years of service
[7:14] to the city of church,
[7:19] micah began his tenure with team chandler in december 14. His face
[7:23] says it all about how appreciative he is that we're doing this tonight for him. , after
[7:28] previously serving the cities of maricopa, tempe, and mesa and east valley, native
[7:32] micah returned home for his career after attending the university of arizona, bear down
[7:37] and has raised his four children here, along with his wife stacy. Over the
[7:41] last decade, micah has led some of the most impactful and newsworthy initiatives in the
[7:45] city's history. He has presided over multiple corporate relocations and expansions, including
[7:49] intel, northrop grumman, rogers corporation, wells fargo, edwards
[7:54] vacuum, and many more diversifying chandler's tax base and strengthening our
[7:58] economic portfolio by effectively reaching across department lines
[8:02] and partnering with other thought leaders in the community. He has also been a champion of innovative
[8:07] economic development policy, including the city's water allocation policy,
[8:11] infill incentive program for chandler workforce development initiative and
[8:15] the choose chandler business retention and hiring program during the covid-19
[8:19] pandemic. Many of these programs were subsequently, subsequently copied by
[8:24] other jurisdictions as leading edge policy and economic development
[8:28] for all these achievements and more, you may know that micah was named economic developer of the year
[8:32] by the arizona association for economic development, and chandler was named the
[8:37] best city for business by the arizona chamber of commerce, both awarded in 2023.
[8:42] but what you may not know is micah is a great economic developer because he truly
[8:46] cares about this community. While economic development is known
[8:50] for being focused on the art of the deal and the classic triangle of relocation,
[8:54] retention, and expansion, micah goes beyond to advocate for education,
[8:59] job training, infrastructure and quality of life as essential elements
[9:03] of chandler's prosperity. He embodies these values in his personal life as
[9:07] well as you will find no one more committed to supporting his children and the
[9:11] future opportunities he firmly believes they should all enjoy. Thank you
[9:16] micah, for your boundless perseverance, creativity, and intellect. We are
[9:20] truly fortunate to have you here in chandler.
[9:43] thanks, josh
[9:49] , mayor, that concludes our service recognition this evening. Thank you.
[9:53] very good. Um, next recognition, rural roads
[9:57] transportation champion. This is a bit awkward for me. I'd like
[10:01] to call up mayor mcfarland and irene higgs.
[10:08] I'm certainly honored to have mayor mcfarland and irene higgs here in chandler with us today to
[10:13] present the rural roads c champ transportation champion
[10:17] award and mayor mcfarland and I have been good
[10:21] friends through the year and let me turn it over to you. Thank you, mayor. Thank you
[10:25] council members. It is with great, uh, pleasure and
[10:29] honor that I'm here tonight speaking to you. My name is craig mcfarland. I'm actually
[10:33] the past mayor as of last monday, so I I I term limited last
[10:37] monday. So I've been a citizen joe citizen now for a week . So,
[10:42] but it feels okay. It's all right. Anyway. Um, mayor hardy
[10:47] can I have been working together on I 10 widening for at least
[10:51] the last six years, uh, that he's been elected here and I've been working on it for
[10:55] about eight years. So it's been a full-time job for me to
[10:59] harass and pester adot, uh, to the point where they finally gave
[11:03] up and they put, uh, I 10 widening on the, on the five-year plan. So we're
[11:07] there, we've, uh, with the mayor's help, uh, with a lot of
[11:11] other people's help, we've been able to, uh, collect the money. It's
[11:16] $1.1 billion, so we could see what one point billion dollars looks like
[11:20] when we get I 10 widened. Uh, I'm gonna guess it's gonna be more than that by
[11:24] the time we get done, but, uh, it's here and it's happening and it's,
[11:28] uh, it's in large part to mayor hardy. So thank you, mayor.
[11:37] well, thank you. And, uh, I, I would say it belongs to oliver mayors and
[11:41] between, um, I 10 and the work that many mayors have done
[11:45] in prop 4 79 that will turn around and also
[11:49] serve all of arizona through those dollars. It's been an incredible time and
[11:53] we're grateful for the partnerships that we have. I'm extremely grateful
[11:58] for your work and, um, I will miss you
[12:02] as a friend and a very effective mayor across our state for the
[12:06] work that you've done. So thank you. Thank, thank you, irene.
[12:10] anything to say? Sure. Good evening mayor council. My name is irene
[12:15] higgs and I'm the executive director for the sun corridor metropolitan planning organization.
[12:19] uh, work very closely with the maricopa association of governments. They're
[12:23] one of our sister agencies. Uh, I'm a staff of two, so I rely very heavily on
[12:28] mag to assist us, uh, in all of our transportation needs.
[12:32] this year at the arizona rural transportation summit was our first year to
[12:36] recognize transportation champions and mayor harkey would like to say,
[12:40] uh, thank you sir. We feel that you are our true champion in transportation.
[12:45] and so, um, please continue carrying that torch. Torch. We're
[12:49] gonna miss mayor mcfarland, but, uh, our new mayor, uh, lisa fitzgibbons,
[12:53] uh, is gonna be, uh, our new mayor and do a great job. So thank you, sir. Lemme make sure,
[12:57] yes, thank you for a photo.
[13:47] all right. Thank you again for this honor. And, um,
[13:51] I know that I'll still see you at league events and, uh, looking forward to continue
[13:55] to collaborate with you and your new role in the county as well with
[14:00] economic development. So next on our agenda is the recognition,
[14:04] the chandler exchange club award to chandler firefighters and
[14:08] police officers. If I could call up mark whitaker and all the exchange
[14:13] club members on the days or audience,
[14:17] our chandler exchange club, uh, public service recognition is
[14:21] an annual tradition that we all look forward to. So, mark, get
[14:25] us started.
[14:32] good evening. Uh, my name is leanna graham, the president of the exchange club in
[14:36] of chandler. And I just wanted to say thank you to mayor, mayor hartke
[14:40] and, um, the city council for giving us the time to present our award
[14:44] tonight. Um, the exchange club of chandler is a community service organization
[14:48] that has been working in chandler since 2013. Exchange clubs across
[14:53] the united states strive to give back to their communities and help make them better
[14:57] through community building projects. Just as we strive to improve the communities
[15:01] we live in, we know that first responders work on a daily basis to make their communities
[15:06] safer and a better place to live and prosper. Two
[15:10] to, uh, we tonight we would like to pr we have the privilege to be here
[15:14] tonight to honor captain joshua whitney, um, of the chandler fire
[15:18] department and police officer michelle pots of the chandler,
[15:22] sorry, did I say that? So captain joshua whitney of the chandler fire department
[15:27] and the police officer, um, michelle pots of chandler police department
[15:31] as exchange club of chandler first responders of the year. In our experience,
[15:35] through our various projects, we know that all the members of the chandler fire department and police
[15:39] department worked to make chandler a safer and better community. However, captain whitney
[15:44] and officer pots were put forth by their rep respective
[15:48] departments for go, uh, going above and beyond their job descriptions to provide
[15:52] an exemplary, uh, service to the city of and residents of chandler.
[15:57] um, captain whitney and officer pots, thank you for all that you do. We are honored
[16:01] to have you as our chandler first responders of the year.
[16:26] alright, thank.
[16:49] all right, I think we're ready for a photo. Nobody else wants to talk.
[17:00] ready? 1, 2, 3.
[17:06] thank you more.
[17:15] thank you so much. Thank you.
[17:27] thank you.
[17:40] yeah. Lost the mic.
[17:45] flip it up.
[17:58] it's out. It's out. Uh,
[18:03] just mark, while we are here, uh, do you wanna make an invitation on saturday
[18:07] as well? Yes, please. Uh, we as the exchange club, uh, we like to,
[18:11] uh, do a lot to serve the community and be involved in the community building.
[18:16] one of those projects is this saturday morning at the valley of the sun cemetery.
[18:20] uh, the project is called the reeds across america project.
[18:25] and, uh, we'll be honoring the over 3000 veterans that are interred
[18:29] there at the valley of the sun. We invite you all to come out and help us
[18:33] lay res on their headstones. Uh, volunteers can start together around eight.
[18:38] we will lay res at nine and we have a formal ceremony at 10. Mayor
[18:42] harkey will be there to read a proclamation as well. So again, we invite you to come out and be part of
[18:46] our project this coming saturday morning. Thank you. Thank you. Thank
[18:50] you. Alright, next, uh, angel's
[18:54] gonna read five proclamations .
[18:59] next we have the recognition government finance officers association,
[19:04] distinguished budget presentation, uh, the award
[19:09] for fiscal year 20 24, 25. And if we could call
[19:13] up our budget team.
[19:23] so, mayor, if I may, uh, tonight we recognize this amazing
[19:27] budget team and all, they're all
[19:31] here tonight except one. So we have, uh,
[19:35] matt dunbar, helen parker, kat dixon, enrique sandoval,
[19:41] um, I'm missing sylvia diot and
[19:45] lucy quez. And then we have savannah martinez who could
[19:49] not make it this evening. But we also recognize the efforts of sam
[19:54] latuda, who was our chandler gilbert community college intern
[19:59] who contributed in many meaningful ways. So the city of chandler's
[20:03] earned this distinguished budget presentation award from gfoa or the government
[20:08] finance officers association for many years and for fiscal 20 24 25,
[20:13] the budget document award makes it the 37th consecutive year.
[20:18] woohoo, woohoo .
[20:22] and they work very hard every year to ensure they meet all these requirements.
[20:27] but this award reflects the commitment of staff in meeting the highest principles
[20:31] of governmental budgeting. To receive the budget award, the city must satisfy
[20:35] nationally recognized guidelines and effective budget presentation.
[20:40] the guidelines are designated to assess how well an entity's budget serves
[20:44] as a policy document, a financial plan, an operational
[20:49] guide, and a communication device. The budget documents must
[20:53] be rated, budget documents must be rated proficient in all four
[20:57] categories, and it is, and in the 14 mandatory
[21:01] criteria within those categories to receive the award. And I'm happy to report
[21:05] that chandler's budget was rated outstanding in many of those areas.
[21:10] additionally, I would be remiss if I did not also recognize the vast
[21:14] amount of work done by each department throughout the city, the city manager's
[21:19] office staff, and the mayor and council for their direction and support
[21:23] to create and improve the budget document annually. We
[21:27] are thankful for everyone's contributions and congratulate the city
[21:31] and the budget team for this accomplishment. We are proud to have
[21:35] such a talented and dedicated team and we celebrate team chandler tonight. Thank
[21:39] you.
[21:44] matt, would you like to share anything else? I don't have anything tonight, mayor.
[21:49] I had a good joke, but I just lost it when you put the mic right on me. So, uh,
[21:53] let's come back to me later. Okay. Thursday. I'll, I'll have one thursday. We'll be good.
[21:57] yeah. Later we expect a memo. Yeah. , let's
[22:01] take a photo and congratulations to the team. We are
[22:06] a city that prides their herself on being well run and you guys add
[22:10] the cred beyond the ability that, that when we say we're a well run city.
[22:14] so we are grateful as council members and mayor. Thank you.
[22:38] thank you
[22:44] angel. We're not done yet.
[22:58] went too far. Alright. Next
[23:02] we have our digital cities and government, uh, x
[23:06] govx. So if I could call up the staff for our digital cities recognition,
[23:21] our itt our it team has recently received two
[23:25] national designations, which recognize the work of staff from across
[23:29] nearly all departments of team chandler. First team
[23:33] chandler placed second for the digital cities award, which focuses
[23:38] on how technology people and digital services,
[23:42] power, innovation and customer engagement. And kirsten,
[23:46] thank you for joining council members poston and, and
[23:51] orlando in florida to receive this. So we
[23:55] received this award at the most recent nlc conference
[23:59] as I just mentioned, and we are super excited to receive that.
[24:04] I think the last one we received, where were we? Sixth place. So we've
[24:08] gone from I think what, ninth to sixth to second.
[24:12] I like the trajectory next year. Number one. Say it again. Next year
[24:16] we're gonna be number one. All right. All
[24:20] right. We also placed second for govx, which focuses
[24:24] on digital te and technology services that enhance customer engagement.
[24:29] if you were involved in this effort, I think please come on up.
[24:33] and you're already up here . So thank you all for your continued
[24:38] efforts to make chandler and accessible and innovative community.
[24:43] kirsten, tell us anything else about these two . So first
[24:47] of all, this is, uh, definitely a team chandler effort. This is an it
[24:51] award, but it's a reflection of all of these great people and many that aren't here
[24:55] tonight. Um, to propel the city from an innovation perspective,
[25:00] tech from a technology innovation perspective, I would be remiss not to
[25:04] recognize our leader, sandeep, in all the partnerships we've been creating
[25:08] across the city, as well as support from our city leadership and mayor
[25:12] and council that provide the dollars to keep us moving forward in the innovation
[25:17] space. We have some exciting new things coming with emerging tech. Uh,
[25:21] we already are doing a lot of amazing things and, uh, like I mentioned
[25:25] before, we're looking forward to taking home first place next year.
[25:29] so keep it up, team chandler. Alright, well let's take a photo.
[25:34] let me scoot over here. Two rows. We're gonna do two,
[25:44] you're as tall.
[25:58] alright, great. 1, 2, 3.
[26:05] wonderful. Like the choir.
[26:10] , jingo.
[26:16] here we go. Here we go.
[26:28] alright, we do have one more. This is, uh, an
[26:32] exciting one for council. I'd like to call in the video team
[26:37] for the rocky mountain emmy awards.
[26:57] I'm very excited to announce that our very own video
[27:02] team has earned a rocky mountain emmy award, chandler's
[27:06] 2024 state of the city video entitled str, which
[27:10] means in latin, it means ostrich. Very good,
[27:14] won the category of graphic arts and other two chandler produced videos,
[27:18] earned nominations in the commercial and public service
[27:23] announcement categories. We are fortunate to have an extremely
[27:27] talented and gifted digital media team working
[27:31] for the city, and it was very wonderful for several of us to join you
[27:36] at the rocky mountain emmys and to see the, the
[27:40] joy, surprise and everything on courtney and everyone else's face.
[27:44] so we're very excited, matt. Absolutely. So mayor, uh, I'll
[27:48] just add a couple of words of context. So the rocky mountain emmy awards just for
[27:52] the folks, it's uh, basically television stations, media production
[27:57] companies in arizona, uh, utah, new mexico, and a portion
[28:01] of southern california. So we're competing with broadcast syntheses in all of
[28:05] those states. Um, we have numerous award-winning productions
[28:09] that this team has produced, but this is our first year that we've ever had
[28:14] nominations in the rocky mountain emmy awards. So we had three
[28:18] as the mayor said. So strato uh, won, uh, the award,
[28:22] but we also had two other nominees. We had an award, uh, a nomination
[28:26] for the, uh, joint team chandler commercial ads that were put together in collaboration
[28:30] with human resources, the chandler police department and public works and
[28:35] utilities department. And then we also had a, uh, nomination in
[28:39] the public service announcement category for the let's go blonde campaign, which was a
[28:43] unique, uh, campaign to really encourage residents to save water by skipping over
[28:47] seeding during the winter. And so wanna congratulate again the team, uh,
[28:51] for all three of those. And we're very excited that we're able to bring home the hardware on,
[28:55] on strato obviously. So mayor, we're working on state of the city, so you
[29:00] know, we're working to, to, uh, put together another award-winning production for
[29:04] the upcoming state of the city as well. All right. If digital is gonna bring home a number one,
[29:08] it's our challenge to bring home another emmy. We're
[29:12] in good hands with this team. Yeah. Alright, stacy, we're trying to raise stacey. She's back. Working
[29:16] on, alright, let's do
[29:20] a photo. Come, come
[29:25] on. Council, come on down. Oh, nobody, nobody knows how to
[29:29] say no to julie . Okay. We have to,
[29:43] we should go. We should go the front.
[29:48] you guys can, you guys can do the cheerleader huddle. Cheerleader on
[29:53] down.
[29:59] can you see everybody? Yeah, that's good. One, two,
[30:05] great. One more. One more.
[30:36] the jacket.
[30:45] alright. And that concludes our special announcements. Public
[30:49] announcements.
[31:01] cut off right here and just cut you off.
[31:07] I don't know who's on in production now. , are we still live?
[31:11] are we still live on tv? Yes we are.
[31:19] they had a little remote one. Alright, council next on our agenda
[31:23] is consent agenda of our regular meeting. Uh, is there a motion mayor?
[31:28] motion? I move that we approve the council regular meeting consent agenda.
[31:32] monday ninth, december 9th, 2024. Items one
[31:36] through four. Second motion by council member orlando.
[31:40] I second. Second by council member poston. Any uh,
[31:45] recusal discussion points? Seeing none, council please vote.
[31:56] motion carries unanimously. All right, thank you counsel. That
[32:00] concludes our regular meeting of december 9th.