Orville Renbacher to your chair, please. Okay, I think we'll go ahead and call the meeting, the regular meeting of the Gilbert Town Council, December 16, 2025 to order. Our invocation this evening will be by Rabbi David Roller of Shabbad Jewish Center for Gilbert. Welcome Rabbi. the next few days to meet you with more grace than you expect and more than you have known in weeks. May every unseen burden be lifted, every quiet hope be heard, and every door that's meant for you open wide and without delay. I speak favor over your name, light over your path, and provision into every corner of your life. What felt blocked will begin to flow. What fell far will be will draw near. You are not forgotten. You're being guided and the universe is already shifting things into your favor. Your Shalom. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. May the Lord lift up his countenance to you and grant you the gift now of peace. Good evening. >> Thank you. >> My pleasure. >> Our pledge of allegiance will be led by Council Member Bonjiovani. 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. We have one presentation tonight. Um, if >> Mayor Anderson, pardon me. Yes. >> May I do the roll call? >> Yes. Sorry. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Mayor Scott Anderson >> here. >> Vice Mayor Bobby Buckley >> here. >> Council member Chuck Bonioani >> here. >> Council member Kenny Buckland >> here. >> Council member Young Kapowski >> here. >> Council member Monty Lions >> here. >> And council member Jim Toreson >> here. >> We have a quorum present. >> Thank you for that reminder. Uh we have one presentation tonight for town manager Patrick Baner. If you'll join me down near the podium down there. Where'd he go? >> Don't be frightened by his jacket. He He's well intended. We really appreciate this man. He's given 14 years of his life to Gilbert and we really appreciate everything he's been able to do. And tonight we have a a a little presentation we have to to make to him and as well as a resolution recognizing his years of service. I'm going to read a portion of the resolution and there will be some that actually is going to be appearing on the screen if you'd like to follow along any of that. a resolution of the mayor and council of the town of Gilbert, Arizona, recognizing and commending Patrick Baner for his 14 years of dedicated service as town manager. Whereas Patrick Banger has served Gilbert with distinction for more than 14 years, providing exceptional leadership and vision that positioned Gilbert as one of the nation's premier communities. And whereas under his stewardship, Gilbert achieved AAA bond ratings, unprecedented economic growth with billions in investment in thousands of jobs, and the attraction of major employers alongside support for small businesses. And whereas he championed the creation of Gilbert Regional Park and Desert Sky Park, transformed the heritage district into a vibrant destination and advanced public safety through expanded services and new facilities. And whereas Patrick Baner promoted transparency through a nationally recognized open data platform and fostered innovation, collaboration, and excellence among town staff, earning Gilbert recognition as one of the safest and most desirable communities in the nation. Now therefore, be it resolved by the mayor and town council of the town of Gilbert, Arizona, that Patrick Banger is hereby recognized and commended for his 14 years of outstanding service as town manager. We extend our deepest gratitude for his visionary leadership, his unwavering dedication to excellence, and the enduring legacy he leaves. A legacy that will continue to shape and inspire Gilbert for generations to come. Passed and adopted by the council of the town of Gilbert, Arizona, the 16th day of December, 2025. As I said, we're going to miss him greatly, and we want to wish him the best. Uh Glendale's gaining and something that we're losing and we're sorry for that. But uh um we truly do recognize all of the service, all of the uh everything that he's been for this town. And we'd like to um present him with this resolution and we're going to get a picture with you and I with this and I'm going to invite the council to come down once we get a picture. >> [applause] [applause] >> I'd like to give Patrick the microphone if he'd like to say a few words. >> Thank you, mayor. I will find out which members of the team were responsible for this. I didn't notice it on the agenda, but it's been it was a blessing to me and my family when I got this job in August of 2011 and we relocated from St. Louis, Missouri to Gilbert, Arizona. And it very quickly felt like home like I know it does to so many of our residents that move here. And it went by in the blink of an eye. It's hard to believe um how much different the community is, how much it's grown and and of course changed, how much we've accomplished together, and and I give all credit to our elected officials as well as the amazing executive team, our assistant town managers and all 1850 employees. Everything that we accomplished, their fingerprints are all over that. And it's been an honor to be a part of it. And I'm very grateful to have served this community and we'll be cheering for Gilbert um in all of your endeavors. and I know your best years are are yet to come. Thank you, Mayor. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you, everyone. [applause] To make this official, I'd like to uh entertain a motion that we adopt resolution 4620 recognizing town manager Patrick Ban Baner for 14 years of distinguished service to the town of Gilbert. So moved. Second. >> You the first. >> I was first. >> Okay. >> Moved by Council Member Torus, second by >> Vice Mayor Buckley. Please vote. We got the uh we'll do it by voice vote. All in favor say I. I. I.................... Any opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. We'll move on to um we're going to move the the town manager's report up to this portion of the agenda and I'll turn the time over to Patrick. >> Mayor, council members, I believe we're bringing uh the presentations from item number 26 up. That's correct. Okay. Okay. Mayor, council members, thank you for the time. Tonight we're going to be discussing the utility bill proposed uh rate increases and the notice of intent is part of the formal process for tonight before we get into the presentations um on this issue which is an incredibly important one as well as an very complicated one um with all of the various aspects and and factors that uh play into that. I [snorts] wanted to take just a few minutes and go over um some key things regarding our enterprise fund as well as some of the drivers of the rate hikes and some of the things we're doing as a town and an organization in this matter um because it can get lost in the presentation of the material itself. So, beginning with our enterprise funds, maybe this is off. Okay. Beginning with our enterprise funds, the lines of service that are contained within this are water, wastewater, solid waste, and environmental compliance. And they are self-supported through rates and fees. And I think the easiest way to understand these funds which are separate from the general fund, it it's set up very similar to how a private enterprise would be where the cost of the service um is covered by the fees uh charged to deliver that service. The only uh expense that is coming out of the enterprise fund are the overhead costs for the support services, HR, finance, IT, those services. those funds need to operate just like any of our other service lines in the organization and there is no markup on those uh expenses whatsoever. The town of Gilbert also does not transfer any of those funds out of the enterprise uh funds for for uh non-enterprise related activities like some cities do. We have to follow a very prescriptive regimen uh defined by statuto um Arizona statute and when it comes to requirements for rate increases beginning with a notice of intent which is is tonight and then a formal adoption by council which is currently slated for February 27th. Then there's a mandatory notification and waiting period before the new rates can take effect. and the town has begun a process of reviewing rates every two years for potential changes um to be more responsive to to the needs um and ensure that our funds are solvent and and can operate. Another major factor of importance uh when it comes to these funds is our credit rating and the impact of that credit rating. And I I'll use an example um in our personal lives uh our credit rating and and how that will affect the interest rates we can get on a car loan or or a home mortgage. And we know with home mortgages in particular um sensitivity to that rate and the subsequent interest is paid can can total up to a lot of money in your monthly payment as well as the interest cost over the life of that debt. It is no different when we issue debt. the better our credit rating is, the better interest rates we'll get when we do have to go to the markets to issue bonds. And that can total uh tens of millions of dollars over the life of that bond. Recently, Fitch just reaffirmed Gilbert Ay's water resources MPC utility system revenue bonds at AAA with an a stable outlook. And I'm going to uh cover just a few of the things they highlighted in their review. Starting with the operating cost burden. The systems operating cost burden was considered very low at $3,458 per million gallons. This affirms that the raging agency views the operating cost of both water and wastewater enterprise funds as very efficient, a strength to the system, and a positive factor in the rating. Looking at the life cycle ratio was deemed low at 35% in fiscal year 24. Planned capital spending for the next 5 years should generally outpace historical depreciation, supporting a continued low life cycle ratio. This affirms the strength of Gilbert's long-term infrastructure maintenance. Capital spending that keeps pace with or outpaces depreciation is a key indicator of a well-run utility for long-term sustainability. They noted some rating sensitivities and these factors could lead to a ne negative rating action. First is failure to manage the rate adjustments in support of the CIP sustained trend in capital needs increasing but what by beyond what is supported by the system revenues and pitch also noted they will be watching the large volume of capital expenditure over the next few years closely to see how the town is executing on its plans. the major factors driving the current rate changes and Rebecca Hamill on our our water resource or I'm sorry our water department manager uh will go into more detail on these but the four major categories are the historic ongoing and worsening drought in the southwest United States and what we need to do to prepare Gilbert for impacts from Colorado River shortages. The Colorado River makes up 40% of our current water portfolio and there is a very uh strong potential for stage three conditions which would take effect in January 1st of 2027 and that would result in significant cuts in Colorado River allocations to all the cities uh that receive water from that source. Second factor is the cost of water itself. And again, I'm not going to dive into the details on this one. Rebecca will cover in her presentation, but the cost of water is going up. There's inflationary pressure on our operations and supplies. And then our crit critical infrastructure needs which were one of the biggest drivers of our rate pressure uh that we're currently experiencing. The northwater treatment plant that is under reconstruction right now and expansion. The seven wells that again will prepare us for potential cuts to the Colorado River and making sure we can meet our peak demand [snorts] and maintenance and replacement of water related infrastructure. Some of the things we are exploring and doing is evaluating cash versus bonds to understand what that impact is on rates, the available funding and overall cost. We're looking at uh providing additional funding for our financial assistant pro financial assistant programs. We're looking at diff different rate or tier options for agricultural users. We're researching the ability to serve septic users that currently that water that they use is not uh treated by the town and and reused either recharged or put into our our um recycled water program. We are looking at to uh our incentive programs and uh to reduce water usage and new ways to incentivize uh reduce water usage and new programs that could be employed. And then we're doing a water meter audit. And I'll dive a little bit deeper onto this one because it is on for council action tonight. So, the town has selected Kimley Horn and Associates, Inc. to complete a third-party audit with preliminary findings available in March 2026, including a public presentation to the town council. The town anticipates the water audit to strengthen public confidence in its utility billing practices. Looking first at the third party team, Kimley Horn Associates will look at data and business operations analysis. AMKA services will look at uh perform the infrastructure audit and then me Simpson Company will perform a 95% statistical confidence confidence level for sample sample testing and they are nationwide leader in water operations and maintenance. From a transparency perspective to ensure complete independence, Kimyhorn will have access to all relative systems and data and the consultant report findings to the council without town staff filtering or editing any of those results. The audit components itself, the data audit, is the information flowing correctly. Operations and business practices audit, are the processes sound? And the infrastructure audit, are the meters measuring accurately? And one thing I'd like to point out under the audit is they will be looking at all 90,000 plus utility billing accounts and analyzing that data to find any anomalies, any any statistical differences that we can then drill down and try to figure out what may be going on. And then as part of the public engagement, there will be a 247 project hotline. There will be project email and website uh project email and a website with bi-weekly updates. And there will be weekly updates to assist with the timely resolution of customer inquiries. During this period of time, we are requesting anybody if you believe there is an issue with your billing, with your meter, with anything to do uh with your water usage in the town to continue to reach out to the town and we will continue to address those matters as they are brought forward to us. With that, mayor, that's everything I'd like to uh cover at the beginning. Um if there's no questions, we'll ask Isaiah to come up and begin the right presentations. Any questions of Patrick at this time? Isaiah. >> Good evening, Mayor Council. My name is Isaiah Scarci Romero. I am the solid waste and recycling manager. And uh as we get the presentation loaded, uh Rebecca Hamill uh the water manager will be presenting on the water enterprise fund. I will be presenting on the solid waste and recycling fund regarding our utility rates. And as we be begin our presentation, uh it's critical that with all this discussions, uh we believe it's essential to highlight our mission guides every decision for Gilbert's future. We anticipate challenges, we create solutions, and we help people thrive. Some solutions require difficult choices, but they prevent far greater problems. We cannot be successful in serving our community without our council. Council's direction is essential to delivering on Gilbert's high quality of life that we've all come to love and expect. Before we begin looking at the solid waste and recycling enterprise fund on the rate pressures and the 2026 rate overview, I'd like to recognize the great men and women of the solid waste and recycling team. Um I'm fortunate and grateful to be a part of such a dynamic and talented team serving our community. We'll begin by discussing the rate pressures of our solid waste and recycling utility fund. When we show here there is no such thing as away, when we throw anything away, it must go somewhere as quoted by Annie Leonard, former CEO Greenpeace, uh former CEO of Greenpeace. In the graphics that you see here, you'll see an active landfill where refu trash goes to get buried for decomposition. The other image is a materials recovery facility where um recyclable items are bailed to be able to be sold on the secondary market and have a second useful life. When discussing our rate pressures, we'll begin with our vehicle replacement costs. We've seen significant increases in capital costs for new collection vehicles. We want to point out that the inter industry replacement cycle is every seven years and we currently have a backlog of one in three vehicles that are due for replacement. Before 2020, we could purchase a refuge truck for about $285,000 with a 10-month lead time. After 2020, production delays and supply chain issues drove costs above 300,000 and lead time stretched to nearly two years. By 2021, the price had already risen to 325,000 as indicated by the first bar. Lead times uh have since returned to normal 10-month production schedules as production and supply chain stabilized. Costs, however, have continued to rise, bringing the current price of a silo vehicle to over 525,000 due to component and manufacturing expenses. As a result, vehicle replacement costs have increased by 87% since 2020 and by 27% since our last race cycle adjustment in 2023. These pressures have permanently raised the baseline price of our refuge vehicles and reduced the purchasing power of our replacement fund. Now that we've reviewed the capital cost regarding replacement of our refugees vehicles, we'll dive into the second pressure regarded in this category which is our vehicle repair and maintenance. We have an aging fleet which typically requires higher replacement and maintenance costs. We will touch base on what the industry spare vehicle ratio of 15 to 20% which is needed to cover downtime uh to do those maintenance and vendor repairs. And looking at our residential silo fleet condition, we see that the industry replacement cycle dictates that at seven years, a vehicle should be replaced. Meaning that at year six, we'll place an order. At year seven, we receive that vehicle within that 10-month lead time of placing that order, and we'll uh replace the vehicle at its seven-year mark. As you can see here, one in three vehicles is currently past the seven-year cycle. We have 13 vehicles in that category. Eight vehicles are in years five and six, which means that they're going to be scheduled for replacement in the next two years. and we have 15 vehicles in the age category of 1 to four, which is a typical standard um uh cycle for our our year. What we see here is that over half of our fleet should be replaced within the next two years per industry standard. In comparing that with the repair and maintenance costs, we see the 13 vehicles contributed to 1.8 million in expenses last year. The eight vehicles that are due for replacement in the next few years uh contributed 1 million to the repair and maintenance expense. And then the 15 vehicles that are earlier in their life cycle, 900,000 um in last year's uh expense repair and maintenance. Now what that means for us, these are the drivers of for the increased cost. As I mentioned, the age of the vehicles, the hundreds of moving parts as technology becomes upgraded and more advanced, and the increased cost for parts. As you can see here, before COVID, repair and maintenance costs were slightly below 1.5 million. Postcoid, we had an initial jump of 2.8 million in 2021, as shown in the graph. Again, supply chain disruptions, parts scarcity, they continue to impact hydraulic systems, electronics, sensors, wiring, control modules yearover-year. When factoring in the age of the vehicles, as the equipment becomes more advanced, technology improves, the increased cost for parts. We've now experienced a 301% increase in since 2020 and a 44% increase since our last rate cycle in 2023, bringing our repair and maintenance slightly under 5.5 million last year. We've reviewed the vehicle uh costs as they relate to our pressures on our solar waste residential and commercial funds. We'll now discuss the landfill disposal fee. As you can see here, the landfill disposal fees continue to rise. Their rising costs in the last two years were not incorporated in the last approved rates and it's one of the primary rate drivers for the solid waste systems nationwide. Landfill tipping fees rose to 3.4 4 million postcoid which is what we pay our private vendors uh Republic Services and WM to dispose of the refues that we collect. These costs were relatively stable uh until uh right before 2023. Since then, our partners have cited supply chain issues, equipment and material shortages, labor challenges, rising fuel costs, among others for drivers of the higher fees. As a result, our annual post collection costs increased from 3.8 8 million in 2023 to 5.5 million last year. As you can see here, overall the landfill tipping fees have increased 78% since 2020 and most importantly 44 45% since our last rate adjustment. As mentioned previously, landfill disposal cost is one of the primary rate drivers of solid waste systems nationwide. As part of the 2024 Gilbert, Arizona benchmark report. Data shows that last year the average household in our town generated 279 pounds of trash. That's 240 pounds more than the average or 13% higher than the average household among comparable cities. Now that we've reviewed the cost regarding our trash disposal, we'll dive into the second pressure regarding our materials, and that's the recycling market. Recycling revenues continue to fluctuate based on commodity prices. We have to budget conservatively to account for market shifts and the contamination will reduce revenues and increase up processing expenses. Recycling markets continue to fluctuate in response to global and domestic economic continues conditions. We observe strong commodity pricing starting in August 2023 with steady month-over-month increases continuing through May of 2025. Since then, the secondary market has softened and we are currently experiencing a broader market downturn. Paper and cardboard decline is tied to national market pressure and lower mail demand. Two major third-party US plastic processor shut down earlier this year, significantly impacting the plastic recycling market. These closures have reduced processing capacity. They've slowed the movement of material and they've contributed to the instability in the market. Industry analysts expect these depressed conditions to continue for the next few months. Although they do anticipate that paper and cardboard prices will not fall or decline much further. Metals continue to remain stable under moderate demand. What that means for our operations because of ongoing market volatility and the uncertainty about when the secondary market stabilizes. We budget conservatively and rely on historical trends. Over the past five years, recycling costs have signific sign significantly fluctuated with our highest annual cost reaching 800,000 in 2021 postcoid uh where we paid $362 per ton. The market improved in 2022, declined again in 2023, then recovered later in that year, continuing to strengthen through 2024 2025. As shown last year, we did receive a rebate of $5.83 83 cents per ton for every material that we took to our material recovery facility. During this 5-year period, our average cost has been $188 per ton. The overall charted data illustrates that significant fluctuations are driven by market conditions. In this graphic here, we're illustrating how our our solid waste system uh operates in our community. If we can see here, we are currently collecting uh materials at the household. We're generating our trash, our recyclables. We're sorting them and placing them either in our trash uh cans or in our recycle cans for collection. Our system will collect those and take them to their end uh and and places. They'll either go to the material recovery facility or to the landfill. When we went to the uh recovery facility, we see that the lowest cost per ton was $5.83 83 cents in rebates that we received just last year. The lowest cost per ton to trash uh our materials to take them to the landfill was $2511. That was 5 years ago in 2021 when the rate was the lowest. Again, that rate continued to increase over the last 5 years. On average, uh our our recycling cost has been $18 over the 5year period. In comparison, uh the average cost per ton to landfill our waste has been $30.97 over that same fiveyear period. Our highest cost per ton to recycle occurred five years ago at the uh at the turn of the postcoavid era. Uh where we paid $362 as the highest cost to recycle that year. Our highest cost per ton to landfill took place just last year where our highest tipping fees came in. We were averaging $41.58 uh per ton to dispose of our material. In referencing our 2024 Gilbert, Arizona benchmark report, data shows that our average household generated and recycled 443 pounds of recyclable material. This is on target with the average that we see across local municipalities. To summarize, our landfill expense is the highest disposal cost pressure of our solid waste system. Recycling alleviates some of the burden by saving money and supporting sustainability. Each ton of recycled material avoids landfill disposal fees, reduces overall operational costs, and provides long-term sustainability benefits such as preserving the landfill capacity, and extending the life of long-term infrastructure. In regard to our solid waste utility enterprise funds, bottom line, recycling isn't just environmentally responsible. It's the financially smart choice for our town. In referencing our 2024 Gilbert, Arizona benchmark report once more, we're comparing the waste that we generate and the materials that we recycle, our diversion rate is less than average. Again, the more that we can divert from the landfill, the better it would be for our solid waste system and the utility enterprise. As such, we have additional programs to help divert material away from the landfill. Since each ton of material diverted from the landfill is positive for our system, in response to recycling conditions, we discontinued CLA glass collection in the blue cans and introduced a glass drop off recycling in February of 2024. Our contracted vendor does not have a secondary market for glass. So, uh what happens when the glass reaches that destination? We pay a processing fee. The material gets ultimately landfilled and then we pay a disposal fee for that material as well. The drop off program is available in five locations to collect glass exclusively so that we can deliver it to our partners at strategic material where we earn recycling rebates. To date, we have earned $8,000 compared to 39,000 that we would have incurred in processing and disposal costs through the material recovery facility. If the glass were landfilled or collected in black cans, the disposal cost would be 13,000 for that same material. This program is one way we are mitigating recycling market volatility, offsetting operational costs while promoting a circular sustainable reuse of glass and material that can be used in the secondary market in the secondary life. In addition to glass recycling, we partner with Goodwill of Arizona on a pilot donation dropoff program. We have two containers that are located in town parks. One at Discovery Park, one at Cactus Yards. These state-of-the-art solar powered containers provide 247 donation access. They're ADA compliant. They're equipped with 247 camera surveillance and are maintained by Goodwill of Arizona at no cost to the town. This program promotes reuse, helping to keep items out of our landfills and the recycling system. Again, at no cost to the town or to our rateayers. We are also developing a battery dropoff pilot program to serve residents furthest away from our HHW facility. These sites will support safe battery disposal. They'll encourage responsible recycling and they'll help prevent operational expenses such as truck fires caused by lithium ion batteries. We anticipate that these sites will be operational by March 2026 following some logistics planning uh that we're having with our team internally, staff training, and collaborating with our HHW experts and our teams over at the HHW facility. Now that we've gone over these uh rate pressures, we're going to go into how these impact the 2026 rate overview. Our solid waste and recycling residential services include weekly curbside collection of trash and recyclables. We have 10 uncontained bulkup pickups per year included in that. And we have year-round household hazardous waste facility as part of our residential services. Weekly curbside collection and trash recyclables makes up 11.5 million of the residential services budgeted expenses. We have uncontained bulk or that makes up 1.6 million of our expenses. in our household hazardous waste facility uh contributing 334,000 to the expenses. The pie chart shows here that 85% of our expenses by category is contributed by curbside collection. Uncontained contributes 12 a.5% and our HHW at 2.5%. In looking at our residential 5-year operating fund cash flows, expenses shown here are higher than revenues through fiscal year 28. Our ending balance dips below the minimum fund balance. It corrects again in fiscal year 2029 with an ending balance above the minimum fund balance in fiscal year 2030. This model assumes a 2% revenue increase beginning in April of 2026. This model doesn't assume additional rate increases through fiscal year 2030 assuming current market conditions remain unchanged. We evaluate our five-year plans every two years and we adjust to meet the demands of the present day. This model does include the replacement cycles to upgrade our vehicles and replace some within the marks that they're needed at their end of life within that seven-year industry standard. And it also includes um projections on what we anticipate could change in the market. However, again, we review it every two years to see if our projections are in line and we'll make changes if needed. This is what it means for our residential customers. The 2% revenue increase that we need to met the pressures of our residential fund means a slight monthly increase to these lines of service. Our standard household rate is a 90-gallon trash and recycling service. This service will see a 55 cent monthly increase. Residents can also opt into the other remaining categories in this chart or the alternative services if they like. Those monthly increases range between 14 cents and 51 cents. Again, we need a 2% revenue increase to support our residential operating fund. These proposed rates will meet the impact we see from our rate pressures. We also have our solid waste and recycling commercial lines of service which include frontload collection and rolloff service. These support a vibrant economy and serve a diverse range of customers including businesses and offices, retail stores, restaurants to multif family complexes and schools. We compete in the open market, meaning that these customers can shop around and select the hauler that they like to receive these services from. In looking at our 5-year commercial operating fund cash flow, the current ending balance in fiscal year 26 is at the minimum fund balance, but the projected revenues cover expenses through all five years, resulting in an ending balance above the minimum fund balance by fiscal year 2030. This model assumes a 20% overall revenue increase in starting in April 2026. Again, no additional rate increases are shown in this model through fiscal year 2030, contingent upon stable market conditions. We review and update the 5-year plan for this uh lines of service every two years as well to meet current operational and financial needs. Here's an example of what this means for our commercial customers, which again can shop around for the best price. Although we still believe we'll remain highly competitive with the private sector with these rates. We forecast an approximate 13% increase for our base rate payers. Using this example, as uh one three container serviced one time a week, the current rate is $95.78. Their proposed new monthly rate will be $108.23 for a monthly increase of $1245. Again, this projects a 13% monthly increase if they are we're going to be offering smaller discounts for heavier users to meet the demands uh that we're seeing. Currently, when we add another container to this service, instead of charging the full rate of $191 for that secondary container, we offer a 21% discount for the rate of 156 $151.68. In the proposed new rates when another container is added instead of paying the full rate at that new rate, the customer will receive a 17% discount, bringing the total to 180. This means that their actual bill we will see a monthly increase of $2845 or a monthly percentage increase of 19%. To summarize, we are needing to generate 20% of additional revenue to meet the demands of our commercial operating fund by right-sizing the cost of the services by reducing the discounts uh and staying competitive in the open market. Rolloff and commercial rates in this table are also part of the commercial services that we offer and they reflect minor one-time or monthly adjustments based on the services selected by our customers. Again, these can also be shopped around for a better uh for a different hauler. However, we still remain highly competitive in these areas. These services are available to commercial and residents needing specialized waste removal, largecale projects. Uh the major categories here are rolloff delivery, rolloff hall, and compactor hall. Those are the most requested service in these lines of services. These are charged per request, meaning when a customer requests it that that's the the service is rendered and we charge the fee. They're increasing by four and a half to just a little over 6% across these lines with the compactor hall costing $16.60 extra per service compared to the current rate. That's one of the highest ones that we see here. However, again, still competitive with the open market. The disposal per fee ton is a pass through cost set at the current highest landfill rate fee. The highest last race cycle fee was $34.50 two years ago. And as I mentioned previously, those costs continue to rise year-over-year. The uh the next highest cycle will begin in January 1st, 2027 when we will be charged through our vendors $44.66. Again, this is a pass through cost that we'll be passing on to our customers for the landfill disposal fee. To summarize, we are needing to generate 20% additional revenue to meet the demands of our commercial operating system. The updated rates remain competitive with the private market. We're aligning our service costs more closely with the private sector and we're supporting the commercial fund requirements. Any questions? Council, any questions this time? Thank you, Isaiah. >> Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, council. >> Rebecca. Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Rebecca Hamill. I'm the water manager for Gilbert and I'm here tonight to talk to you about the water uh portion of this utility rate increase. Last week at the council retreat, we shared with you a version Oh, I'm sorry I didn't advance it. Uh last week at the council retreat, we shared with you a version of this presentation. We appreciated your feedback and applied some of the updates that were discussed to ensure transparency for council and for the community. We want to first start off by acknowledging that these water rate increases are difficult, especially as household costs continue to rise across the board. We recognize the real impact this has on families and businesses in our community. However, there's an expectation that we all share that water will always be there when we need it. The town has an unwavering commitment to provide clean, safe, dependable water so our community can continue to enjoy the quality of life that we're used to. What we don't always see is the work behind that promise. Reliable water only feels automatic because hundreds of people are constantly monitoring, treating, and delivering it so it reaches every home every day. We know this is tough and wish there were easier solutions. We're actively working to identify ways to help rates normalize in the coming years. However, we cannot ignore that our once reliable water resources are diminishing and providing res to residents and providing water to residents now and into the future requires constant care and investment which sometimes involves tough decision-making. Before we get into the technical details, it's important to remind ourselves that when we talk about water, it's easy to think of it as something routine that just shows up when we turn on a faucet. But water is actually the center of everything that makes daily life in Gilbert possible. It keeps us healthy and safe. It supports our schools and our hospitals. It allows our firefighters to protect our community. It powers businesses and keeps our local economy strong. And it's part of what makes our neighborhoods thrive. So when we talk about water, we're not talking about convenience or preparing for future growth. We're talking about protecting life as it is right now for the people who already live here. for families, for seniors, for kids, for every household that depends on water every single day. Water isn't just a service, it's the foundation of our quality of life. And keeping it reliable is the most important, one of the most important responsibilities we have as a town. As we walk through the pressures on our water rates, there are really three main areas creating financial strain on the water fund. First is the water resource cost. As drought continues and supplies shrink, the cost of securing water keeps climbing. An everinccreasing share of our budget is dedicated just to getting the water that we need. Second, critical infrastructure projects. Major projects like the Northwater treatment plant and our well drilling program are being hit by the same inflation and market pressures affecting construction everywhere. And third, rising operational costs. Chemicals, electricity, raw materials, and labor have all gone up. These increases are touching almost every part of our day-to-day operations. Let's first dive into the rising water resource costs. We've been hearing news about the the state of the Colorado River for many years now. The river remains overallocated. The reservoir levels are unstable and the seven basin states have still not made an agreement for how to sustainably allocate the water that remains. The latest deadline for the seven basin states to reach an agreement was on November 11th, 2025. This deadline has come and gone, and the states failed to reach a consensus on new operating guidelines. The current operating guidelines expire at the end of 2026, and without an agreement to operate the river in 2027 and beyond, the federal government will need to step in and impose its own plan. What all of this news about the Colorado River really means is that our access to water is getting much more expensive. It now makes up nearly 20% of the entire water fund's operating budget. We've been tracking these increases closely and since 2020, the cost of cap water has gone up 73%. Putting it another way, the same amount of water we bought in 2020 now costs us $3.5 million more in 2025. And it's not just CIP. Communities across the region are turning to new water sources to make up for shrinking Colorado River supplies. And those al alternatives are significantly more expensive than they used to be. For example, Gilbert purchased water from the San Carlos Apache tribe in 2019 for just over $5,200 per acref foot. Today, many communities in the valley are now paying more than $20,000 per acref foot for similar long-term supplies. So, the reality is simple. Water is costing more everywhere, and paying attention to these increases now helps us avoid even higher costs down the road. One thing to take away from this is that Gilbert planned ahead. We have a plan and we have many projects under construction to make up for these lost supplies. But being prepared for drought costs money. In Gilbert, we get our water from several places. SRP, CIP, reclaimed water and groundwater. But 41% of our supply comes the comes from the Colorado River. And that alone supports about 120,000 people in our community. In 2026, we're losing 17% of that Colorado River water. Some of it is required because the river is shrinking and some of it is voluntary so we can help stabilize Laid Me Lake me and earn grant funding to support local conservation projects. To deal with these cuts, Gilbert is strengthening operations, managing our water sources carefully, and pushing more conservation. So, even though we planned ahead, keeping water reliable takes real work and real investment to make sure Gilbert has enough water now and into the future. Excuse me. As we look for ways to conserve water in the community, it's important to understand where Gilbert is using the most water. This graph shows that single family homes use most of the water in Gilbert, about 69%. After that, commercial customers, then apartments, schools, and municipal buildings because households use the biggest share. That's where we focus most of our water conservation efforts. And here's why it matters. Water in Arizona, a desert, is scarce. Every gallon that we save is a gallon that we don't have to find, buy, treat, and deliver. And that saves money for everyone who pays a water bill. When we look at what drives higher water bills, our research indicates outdoor water use is one of the biggest factors. Gilbert is actually very efficient with the water used inside of our homes. We can clean and reuse 100% of the indoor water returned to us as reclaimed water. That means showers, sinks, and washing machines all help us stretch our supply and keep long-term costs down. But outdoor water use works differently. About 50 to 70% of water is used outdoors for lawns, landscaping, and irrigation. It's gone for good. It doesn't return to our system and we can't reuse it. That puts more pressure on our water supply and makes it more expensive to replenish. So, when we talk about conservation, it's really outdoor water use that makes the biggest impact both for individual households and for the community as a whole. Water conservation is not just the right thing to do. It actually saves us money. Using less water outdoors means lower bills for customer and less pressure on our our overall water supply. We offer lots of programs to help people cut down on outdoor water use and many residents are already taking advantage advantage of them. In 2025, the water conservation team performed 842 checkups. Each checkup produced an estimated annual water savings of 65,000 gallons per home per year. This translates to 54.7 million gallons of water saved from our conservation programs. We know our conservation programs are working, but we also know that it costs money to run these programs. And so in order to offset these costs, our water resources and conservation team helped bring in over $28 million of state and federal funding for the water savings project in the past two years. This included $6.3 million in grants from WIFIA, $2 million from the Bureau of Recommendation for Water Smart Water Efficiency Savings, and $6.9 million from the lower Colorado River conservation efforts. All of this helps stretch our water resources and reduce the long-term costs for the community. Not only is water conservation cost-effective for the community, but responsible use of our water resources is required. In 1980, Arizona recognized that our groundwater supply wasn't unlimited, and the state created the Arizona groundwater code to protect it. Areas that relied heavily on groundwater were placed under special management rules called active management areas or AMAs. Gilbert is a part of the Phoenix AMA, one of the largest and the most regulated in the state. As a member of the Phoenix AMA, we're expected to balance how much groundwater we pump with how much we put back into the aquifer. In other words, we can't withdraw more groundwater than we replenish. To stay in compliance, Gilbert has to follow a number of best practices, and we take those seriously. Some of the ways we do that include running water conservation programs, offering resources and tools for customers, hosting community education events, tracking and reporting our water conservation process our progress, using a tiered rate structure to encourage smart water use, monitoring and reducing water loss in our system and protecting groundwater and replenishing what we use. All of these efforts help make sure we're managing our water supply responsibly now and into the future. Now that we've talked about the water resource pressures on the fund, the next rice rate pressure I'll be talking about is our aging infrastructure. One of the other biggest pressures on the fund or biggest pressures on our water rates come from aging infrastructure and the rising costs of fixing or replacing it. Even though inflation has started to level out in some areas, construction costs are still really high, especially for big projects like treatment plants, wells, and major pipelines. These are the kinds of projects that keep water flowing safely to every home and business every day. And avoiding these means risking failure of this critical infrastructure, which is not an option. So, while things are stabilizing a bit, the truth is that building or repairing essential water infrastructure is still a lot more expensive than it used to be. And that puts real pressure on our water budget. The work we have to do hasn't changed, but the price of doing it has gone way up. One of the biggest projects we're committed to and one of the most important is the northwater treatment plant reconstruction. This project is the largest investment in Gilbert's water system and a major part of our long-term water resiliency. Here are some quick buy the numbers on the project. The good news is that we're making huge progress. We've passed our 50% milestone for construction completion and we're now less than 200 days away from the treatment complex coming online. We're now around 400 days from fully transitioning water production to this brand new facility. Once it's finished, the North Water Treatment Plant will provide 70% of Gilbert's entire water supply. That's enough to serve about 250,000 residents with a maximum treatment cap treatment capacity of 60 million gallons per day. The North Treatment Plan isn't just a construction project. It's a 50-year investment in Gilbert's future that will serve our children and our grandchildren. This treatment plant ensures that our water services remain reliable, safe, and available as our community grows. Another major initiative we're investing in to keep Gilbert's water future secure is our well program. This program gives us access to groundwater at various sites across town, and it's a huge part of our long-term water resiliency strategy. These wells are especially important during drought conditions, including the shortages we're already seeing on the Colorado River. Here's where things stand right now. We have a total of 20 wells that are currently available within our water portfolio. Those 20 wells are capable of serving up to 52,000 residents. We also have eight new wells under construction that will be added to our groundwater portfolio. Drilling is complete for these wells, which is a major milestone. However, finding water in the desert is a challenge, and finding highquality water is even more rare. Some of the wells that we drilled have mixed water quality challenges. We're now working on the treatment and blending designs for the sites that need it to make sure that the water meets all safety and quality standards before entering the system. So, just like the Northwater treatment plant, this well program is another big strategic investment to maintain Gilbert's water resiliency both today and for the future. It gives us options, stability, and flexibility when other supplies face pressure. Not only are we seeing cost increases on our major infrastructure projects, we're seeing rising costs across nearly every sector, which means that treating and delivering the water like we all we have always done now costs more. The next rate pressure I'll be speaking about is how those operational costs have increased. While inflation has begun to stabilize in recent years, uncertainty remains in many areas of the market, and Gilbert's operating costs continue to rise. Major impacts to chemical and electrical costs resulted in the department adding over $600,000 to the budget in chemical and electrical costs alone. These can be attributed to no local and national inflation in all sectors of the market leading to limited manufacturers and small labor pools available in highly specialized sectors. Increased cost of skilled labor leads to manufacturing and cost supply incre increases especially in areas like mechanical and electrical components which we use to keep the water system running. Nationally and internationally we continue to see impacts from uncertainty with tariff and trade. And locally we're now competing with other large valleywide projects which makes sourcing highly skilled labor even more challenging. All of these various factors place an additional pressure on the water fund and lead to higher operating costs. Now that we've covered the three main areas of cost pressures on the wa water fund, I want to talk about the ways in which we have saved money in the budget in Gilbert. Before we ask for any rate increase, we always exhaust every available measure of cost reduction, alternative funding, or project prioritization. Raising rates is the last resort. Before asking council to consider the rate increases, we took a hard look at where we could save money, request funding, or adjust plans, and we were able to make some big impacts. Some projects, like updating older water lines, were safe to delay for a short time. The risk is still manageable right now, but will grow the longer these projects are delayed, so they'll still need to happen. We're also successful in pursuing alternative funding, including grant awards and state appropriated dollars, which directly offset the cost of project expenses. Savings from valuebased engineering and fiscally responsible budgeting practices help us to stretch the fund even further. Altogether, we were able to reduce, avoid, or rep prioritize $239 million from the 5-year plan. All of this helped lower the overall costs and keep the community's water system moving forward in a responsible way. Without these cost-saving efforts, we would be looking at raises significantly more. An increase of more than 55% would have been required in 2026 if we had not been able to reschedu, reduce, or generate revenue to help support the fund. Now that we've covered all the rate pressures on the water budget, I'll be talking about what goes into utility rates, the history of rate increases, and how our current rates measure up. Okay, let's talk about something that can get confusing. The difference between impact fees and water rates. They sound similar, but they pay for totally different things. Impact fees or system development fees are charged when new development is built. These fees help pay for the parts of the water system that need to grow because more people are moving in. Things like new treatment plant capacity, new wells, expansion to the water distribution system. Basically, growth does pay for growth. And impact fees cannot be used for everyday system needs like repair or operations. They only fund expansion. On the other hand, water rates are the monthly user fees we all pay based on how much water we use. Rates fund the things that keep water system running day-to-day like operations and maintenance, chemicals and power, repairing or replacing aging infrastructure, paying existing debt payments. The rates cannot be used to expand the system for new residents, and they also don't fund general government services like police, fire, or parks. So, in short, impact fees build new capacity for future users. and the rates maintain the system we all rely on today. When we say water pays for water, that's what we mean. Water rates have to cover everything it takes the to run the water system operations maintenance repairs, and debt. Tax dollars do not pay for water. Those are used for things everyone shares like parks, police, and fire. And the cost of service means we charge only what it actually costs to provide the water, not anymore. If we drift away from these financial policies, it could hurt Gilbert's credit rating, which would make projects much more expensive in the long run. Well, this may be slightly redundant. To summarize, the water fund utility rates are used to cover costs associated with water resources, water treatment, water system maintenance, water system repair or replacement. They are not used to pay for costs associated with new developments, street projects, quality of life projects, or any other town services. Similarly, each of the other three lines of service in the utility bill bill are also solely used to fund the operations of those services. A typical utility bill is made up of four different lines of service. There's solid waste recycling, sewer, environmental compliance, and water. The bill has fixed charges and it has variable charges. Solid waste recycling, sewer, environmental compliance, and the base fee associated with your water bill are all fixed. They do not change month over month. The only portion of the bill that does change month over month is the tiered rates uh located on the right of this graph. Diving a little bit deeper into utility bills and how those tiers relate to our usage, we can see of over 1 million utility bills collected each year, about 57% of all residential water bills are for homes using 0 to 8,000 gallons per month. That's normal indoor use, drinking bathing laundry cooking the essentials, and some moderate outdoor use. Our water rates are set up in tiers on purpose. Water in the lower tiers costs less to to help keep essential use affordable for everyone. Water in the highest tiers costs more to encourage conservation, especially for outdoor watering, which uses the most water. Now, if we look at the other end of the chart, only 1% of all bills consume more than 50,000 gallons per month. But that small group uses 7% of the town's total water supply. This tiered rate structure helps keep basic use affordable while encouraging high volume users to conserve. This chart shows how the utility bill changes as water use goes up. The fixed parts of the bill, sewer, solid waste, and recycling, environmental compliance, and the meter base fee stay the same no matter how much water is used. We can see those bands across the bottom. Excuse me. What really changes is the volumetric charge or the water consumption cost. At low usage, the bill is mostly made up of those fixed charges. As usage increases, the volumetric charge grows and becomes the larger part of the bill. If you use less water, your bill stays lower and more predictable. If you use more water, the variable charges rise. I want to make it as clear as possible when we're talking about water rate increases. We're not talking about a total percentage increase on all lines of service in the bill. We are only talking about a percentage increase to the meter base fee and that water consumption cost. Now, we took a look at the 3/4in meter. This is a very similar slide that looks at a 1-in meter. The overall shape of the chart is familiar. Fixed charges stay steady and volutric charges grow with usage. But there's one key difference that the meter base fee is higher for the 1-inch meter. You can see it in that red orange band. It's thicker than in the previous slide. Large meters are designed to deliver more water faster. That means they place a greater demand on the system and require more robust infrastructure to support them. The higher base fee reflects that increased capacity. It's not about penalizing larger properties. It's about ensuring the system is funded fairly based on the service level provided. The slide helps reinforce that utility rates are not one-sizefits-all. They're carefully structured to reflect both usage and system impact. For customers with larger meters, it's important to understand that the higher base fee isn't just a flat charge. It's tied to the scale of service they receive. What we can also tell from these two graphs is that customers water bill or utility bill is highly individual and it depends on each customer's unique situation. Now, we realize that many customers are struggling with increases to their utility bills, and it's important that Gilbert's water services remain affordable. In February, the ASU Kyle Center for Water Policy released a report on tap water affordability. In this report, the study evaluates the household burden of water services in communities in Arizona and nationwide. The report calculates the household burden as the cost of water service for 4,000 gallons per month, which is enough to cover indoor water use and a very moderate outdoor water use. Basically, enough to live on. And they took that the the cost associated with the 4,000 gallons per month as a percentage of the monthly income of the lower 20th percentile of the community. So, a person making the lower 20th percentile in a community, what percentage their water bill at 4,000 gallons per month would be. And the report considers a value less than 2% affordable. This report also showed that the Arizona average was 1.42%, the national average is 1.44% and Gilbert's current rates were 1.01% of the 20th c percentile income. Even though it meets the definition of affordability, we realize that many Gilbert customers are still struggling to keep up with these rising costs. And that's why we offer utility bill assistance for residents making up to 120% of the area median income, which is 79,140 for a single person or any residents that receive assistance from other programs would also automatically qualify. The discount covers 30 $30 per month towards the utility bill and to date we have 591 clients enrolled and have issued over six $76,000 in discounts. As we evaluate utility rate increases, we will continue to monitor and adjust this program to provide assistance to the the residents that need it most. Now, I'd like to show this timeline to remind everybody of the history of utility rates in Gilbert over the last 20 years. We went eight years without a water rate increase in 2010 to 2017 and 13 years without a rate increase in solid waste recycling between 2009 and 2021 with two rate decreases during that time frame. In recent years, we followed council's direction to review the utility rates every two years, alternating which funds are considered for rate adjustments in an effort to spread out the impact to customers. This two-year evaluation timeline aligns Gilbert with the best practice of the industry for fiscal stability in the four enterprise funds. Here is a summary of the options given before you in 2023. As a reminder, we had three different options. There was an allcash option which required an immediate increase of 130%, a bond option which required an immediate increase of 95% with a $25 million additional debt. and then a cash bond option which required an immediate increase of 50%, a 25% increase one year later and another estimated 25% increase 2 years after the initial increase. We are now in that third year. The plan also included $80 million in new debt. And this plan was preferred because it was a phased increase that allowed customers for to prepare for this increase over time. Here we're looking at our water utility revenue and what we can see is that we're meeting our revenue goals with the two former rate increases in place and we're on target to meet estimates this year assuming the rate increase goes into effect in April, whichever option the council may choose. It is essential that the water fund received increased revenue beginning in April to keep all of these essential projects and operations funded and on schedule. Now that we have an understanding of Gilbert's financial policies and what goes into a utility bill, we have two options to go over for the 2026 rate increase. Before bringing these options before council, we first brought them to the public works advisory board. This board reviews and makes recommendations to the council regarding the strategy, approach, and fund planning and of initiatives and large-scale infra infrastructure projects across all divisions of the public works department. We brought before them the wall the water and solid waste recycling rates. We reviewed the water and solid waste recycling rate fund pressures. They evaluated initially three different rate options for water and one for solid waste recycling. The board asked for two additional options for water and ultimately recommended one option with support of a second option for council to consider. In making these decisions, the public works advisory board used these five decision-making criteria in order to form their recommendation. Those five criteria were short-term customer impact, operating fund capacity, repair and replacement fund capacity, total cost of ownership, and long-term customer impact. The board ranked each option for each category and a waiting was applied based on their category ranking. And ultimately the board ended up ranking option E first. Option E is a modification of the original planned 25% increase, but it's more gradual. So instead of a single increase in April of 2026, this option includes a 14% increase in April of 20 2026 and a 14% increase in April of 2027. Ranked closely second was option A. That was the original plan. uh April 2026 increase of 25%. Following that was option D. This was the all cash option and it had the highest increase but included no new debt to the fund. And then the two bond options uh of varying amounts which issued more debt but ended in ended up resulting in a lower operating fund balance with option C likely requiring future increases to remain stable. So getting into the details of these options, I'm showing before you option E. This model assumes a 14% increase in 2026, a 14% increase in 2027, and then an estimated 5% in 2028, 0% in 29, and 5% in 2030. As we evaluate rates every two years, uh we will this is this is what we know with the information that we have now, and we will revise those numbers at the next rate study. And so for the operating fund, we can see that there's an estimated $33 million new bond needed in this operating fund. The fund balance will dip below minimum in 2029 and sit right around minimum in 2030. Uh this option includes increased contributions to the repair and replacement fund so that we can continue to protect our critical infrastructure and an estimated $80 million bond on repair and replacement. Option A, which is the original planned increase, includes 25% in 2026. This again includes an estimated $33 million bond in the operating fund. The fund balance dips below minimum in 29 slightly in part due to how we budget our capital projects all in the first year and it has a very similar repair and replacement fund contribution. The difference between these two options were the ultimate uh resulting rates. Here we have 25 all at once whereas the other option we have 14 and 14 leading to more than 25 after 2 years. So here we're looking at a a utility bill comparison. This is the total utility bill, not water only. total utility bill assuming all four lines of services we show the current 3/4 inch total bill as compared to option A in red option E in yellow and then orange for the first and second year what we can see is option year for 20 option E for 2026 is lower than the other options but option A which is for 2026 and 2027 still remains lower than option E in 2027 seven due to the additive nature of those two separate rate increases. It's for this reason that the public works advisory board ultimately recommended option A. Here we see a very similar slide with a 1-in meter utility bill comparison and the same trend where option A remains the lower of the two options after fiscal year 2027. So, I'm going to go through a few examples here on um different water usage and what those total utility bills look like. Here we have a minimum usage uses usage case scenario. This is a customer that may live in a 1500 foot home, have a desert ad adapted landscape, have water efficient appliances, low indoor water use, and is very conscious of all utility costs. We can see what their util their total utility bill would look like with a 3/4 inch meter and a 1-in meter for that 4,000 gallons. Next, we have an average water user. This is a moderate single family home, small container garden on the patio, no pool, moderate landscaping, daily showers, and moderate indoor water use. They're using 8,000 gallons. And we can see what their utility bills look like on a 3/4 inch meter and a 1-inch meter. And I will have a summary slide at the end of these. Next, we have an above average user. This is a moderate single family home with a medium-sized yard with grass and a play area, a pool, sprinkler, slip and slide in the summer. Four people means multiple daily showers and baths and higher indoor water use. They're using 15,000 gallons per month. And we can see what their utility bills look like with the 3/4 inch meter and the 1inch meter with the two options. Next, we have the high usage. This might look like a 2500 foot home on a quarter acre lot with mature landscape with grass and trees, a medium-sized swimming pool, front and backyard landscapes that aren't drought tolerant. They use 25,000 gallons a month. We can see what their utility bills look like with 3/4 inch meter and 1inch meter. The last we have the very high usage case. This could be a one or a five- bedroomedroom custom home on a 1acre lot with a large pool and a spa and water features. They may feature an outdoor kitchen with multiple entertaining areas. Have high maintenance landscaping that receives very frequent watering. This customer might use 45,000 gallons of water per month. And we can see what their utility bills would look like with a 3/4 inch meter and a 1-in meter. Now I want to summarize what these two options look like with each um with each options. Option E, we can see what the current utility bill for a 3/4 in and a 1in meter looks like as well as the difference between the existing bill, the first year of rate increase with option E and the second year rate increase with option E. And I want to note that the lines that list 2027, that is the second year of the planned increase under this option. And that is the total amount increase. That's not in addition to the line above it. And so we can see here what that what that delta what that change looks like for 4,000, 8,000, 15,000, 25,000, and 45,000 gallons per month. I have a similar slide here for option A, a little bit simpler since this is just one and done. So this is what the delta the change to the utility bill for a 3/4 inch meter and a 1-in meter with low usage, average usage, above average usage, high usage and very high usage. looks like with hopefully a bit better understanding on how the water rate increase may affect customers. We want to reiterate that we know many customers are struggling financially and it's important that Gilbert's water services remain affordable. When looking again at the ASU Kyle Center for Water Policy tap water affordability report, it shows that with either option, Gilbert still meets the affordability standards for 4,000 gallons a month for the 20th percentile of the the community. We can see that option A is 1.26% in affordability. Option E is 1.15 in the first year, but ultimately 1.31 in the second year. Again, less than 2% is considered affordable under the report. Now, not only do we care about what our affordability looks like and how we relate to our neighbors at the lowest level of water use, we also take a look at average water use. So, taking a look at water usage in comparison to other valley cities. This chart is showing an average water use around 8,000 gallons per month. And we can see that Gilbert falls within the region depending on the option selected. The gold port portion is showing the meter base fee which is set when we set rates at 50% of our required revenue so that the fund has stability that is not based on customer behavior or weather patterns. When we compare Gilbert to other cities both today and with the proposed options, we're still in the same range as many of the valley communities. We aren't at the top and we aren't at the bottom. We're relatively in the middle. This helps show that even with the changes we're proposing, Gilbert's rate remained reasonable and competitive with similar cities in Arizona. This slide is looking at household use, household using a very large amount of water, about 40,000 gallons a month. Even at this high usage level, you can also see that Gilbert remains competitive with other cities. The gold bars show the base monthly fee and the blue bars show the cost of the actual water used. Gilbert's current water rate and future options sit right around the middle of the chart. This is intentional. Our tiered rates are designed to encourage responsible water use and conservation, but they also keep Gilbert's pricing fair compared to what other cities charge at high usage levels. Our tiered water rates are designed to encourage responsible water use and conservation. Now, this chart requires a little bit of explanation, but what we're showing here is how Gilbert's rate tiers, how much we charge per thousand gallons of water at each consumption, compare to our neighbors. And because there are so many of them on here, I've I've grayed out all of the other colors except for Gilbert's current Gilbert's option A and Gilbert's two option E. And so what we can see here is because comparing the cost per thousand gallons across different cities in the valley, Gilbert is right in the middle of the pack. Even with the proposed adjustments, we're still comparable to many of our neighboring cities. Some cities have higher spikes in their tiers because they charge more for high water use. Others are lower depending on their own water supplies and their infrastructure needs. But overall, Gilbert's rate structure stays well aligned with what we see across the region. Now, while we focus the majority of our time today on the residential water rate increases, we now have to acknowledge that Gilbert also has commercial and non-residential water increases. This percentage increase is uniform across the board. So the 25% increase we see on the residential base rate and the res residential volutric charges is the same 25% increase we're seeing on non-residential water use, landscape water use, hydrant water use, and all of the various different meter sizes. We can see the same thing for option E. For simplicity, I've only included 2026 for option E. uh but we will have this full rate study located on our website following this meeting. Now I know this is a lot of text but I do want to read uh the recommendation letter from the public works advisory board. As Gilbert residents ourselves, every member of the public works advisory board carefully weighed the economic impact that any rate increase would have on the community. We spent considerable time evaluating the options, striving to identify an approach that minimizes the immediate burden on residents while also avoiding the risk of shifting higher costs or additional debt onto future generations. The option we recommend reflects what we believe to be the most balanced, responsible, and least impactful path forward. Based on our evaluation, the public works advisory board rem recommends that the town council approve a notice of intent to increase rates and fees at its meeting on December 16th and set a public hearing for February 17th, 2026. We further recommend that the council adopt option A for the water fund as it best balances short-term affordability for its residents with long-term financial needs of the water system and the continued resiliency of this essential community resource. written by Sam Elliott, public works advisory board chairperson. Now, I want to be clear. What we're asking for tonight is not a final decision. We're not we're seeking approval to p publish the notice of intent which sets the maximum amount that rates can be made can be increased and starts a 60-day clock. During those 60 days, we will be publishing the rate study and working on community outreach efforts prior to bringing the increases back to council for consideration or adoption on February 17th. Now, if we'll hold questions for just a little bit longer, Candace will present our communications plan for the rest of the rate setting process, after which I'd be h more than happy to answer any questions you have. You want me to keep using? Thank you. Hi, Mayor and Council. Candace Quan, chief communications officer. It's important to remember we just sat through about an hour or so going through highly technical information. It just shows the thought and and passion that our teams are going through to thought uh carefully weigh out all of the costs. But we have to now create bite-sized digestible information to talk to the community about how important it is to consider increased increased rates. So, we're going to get into that. The first thing is just establishing the goals. Uh ensuring the community or majority of the customers are Oh, I'm sorry. ensuring the majority of our customers are being informed about the potential rate increases and the importance behind it of why water rates are changing, how our system works, and what Gilbert is doing to protect the community now and into the long-term water accessibility. When customers have facts, hopefully the conversation should become clearer and more grounded in shared understanding. Our goal, our goal isn't to just notify people. It's to empower them with accurate knowledge and help them plan, conserve, and trust the complex work being done on their behalf. The objective is people engage in different ways online, in person, through email, on social media, or simply by reading their bill. Our strategy is to show up in all the places residents naturally spend their time with clear, accessible information that fits their daily routines. Whether it's quick, scroll friendly messages for busy families, deeper dives for those seeking details, or in-person conversations for residents who prefer dialogue, will continue to deliver information in ways that feel natural, convenient, and respectful of how people live. Before we get into any strategy, we want to acknowledge that we did conduct three listening sessions because we wanted to hear from the community. The town has now completed all three of them. The format was comprised of tables where a council member, staff subject matter expert, and notetaker engaged in a two-way conversation with residents for up to 20 minutes or even more. Notes were taken to ensure feedback at any and any action items were appropriately accounted for. Over the span of the three listening sessions, a total of 93 residents attended. We want to send our sincere thank you to those residents who attended as it's people like them who helped shape Gilbert. We also want to thank members from council, town manager's office, public works, office of communications and engagement, and finance who stepped up outside of their normal daily responsibilities and dedicated time to prepare, attend, and follow up with community members, showing their unwavering commitment to serving residents of Gilbert. Overall about 50 to 100 employees for the past six months have been working on anything related to rates to the listening sessions. Um and that amounts to about a little thousands of additional additional hours. So we just want to say thank you. Your work does matter. Of those 93 attendees, we reviewed the questions and most of them fall into a few consistent themes, all which are completely understandable. A lot of people wanted to know why have water and utility rates increased and closely linked to that is why did we go so long without any rates? That long wool created a situation where unavoidable increases are now happening closer together. Residents are also comparing Gilbert to neighboring cities and wondering how our rates stack up and why bills differ from household to household. Those are all fair questions and we were able to have we were able to explain how rates were calculated are calculated and what drives those differences. Another major area was billing and meteor accuracy. Some customers had issues with user experience and the new billing system, delays, confusing statements or difficulty tracking usage. Others asked whether their water meters are accurate and fair. We heard those concerns and have been validating meters, auditing the system, and improving communication around billing cycles so people know exactly what they're paying for. We also heard a lot of questions about growth and development. Things like, is growth causing higher utility costs? Are new developments paying their fair share? If we worried about the Colorado River, why are we building new homes? These are important questions. We assured them that developers do pay their share of fees and the decisions about land use and development are ti tied to long-term planning, affordability, and state requirements. And finally, we heard about communication and customer service. Some customers felt previous interactions left them frustrated or without clear answers. We recognize that and we will continue to iterate on our strategies without straying away from best practices to provide plain language updates. In short, people want clarity. They want fairness. They want reassurance that the system is accurate, responsible, and sustainable. And we are committ committed to doing just that. And you'll see what we're planning in the coming next coming weeks. What we know when people are worried about their bills or trying to understand why changes are happening, they turn to places where conversations feel easiest, often online. And those conversations can feel big, fast, and overwhelming. What we've learned is that online discussions usually represent a small group of highly engaged residents, not the whole community. And that doesn't make those voices any less important. It just means it isn't the entire story. We truly listen to every concern. We expect questions and frustrations, especially when household budgets are involved. Every comment, every email, every call matters to us. And at the same time, most residents engage in quieter ways. paying their bills, conserving water, or simply expecting the service they rely on every day. Another way to put it into perspective, Gilbert has about 300,000 residents. That's similar to sizes of large cities like Cincinnati, Ohio or St. Louis, Missouri. And of those residents, about a little over 90,000 utility customers. And of those customers, more than 76,000 customers have created an account in that new portal. That's a 95% more than what we had within the old old portal showing that our communication efforts did connect and inform majority of our customers. And of those customers, only a few hundred people drive those online conversations. Small but mighty conversations that we know are important. But an smaller number have joined in our per p in-person listening sessions. That's why we need to remind ourselves that we see online conversations often reflect emotion and not the size. So we listen widely online, by phone, face tof face, and we focus on the long-term community needs, data, and decide responsibly for the betterment of the community. In the end, strong opinions matter, but so does the quiet majority who expect steady service and uh thoughtful planning. Those are the purpose behind these tough decisions. Protect protecting people, protecting daily life, and protecting our future access to water. So, as we go into that, uh, we're looking at the strategy that's going to go through and inform how we're going to be speaking to the community and how how where they want us to to listen and engage. It's important to look at the demographic of majority of our community. About 30.4% are between 25 and 44 years old. That's a little over our 290 of the makeup of the 290,000 residents. The median age is 34 years old and a third of that population is under the age of 18. This is a snapshot of our media consumption. So, as we're going into and we're starting to look at the types of materials and communication assets that we're going to be developing, we're going to be looking at the most me media consumption that our community is engaging with. You'll see in the dark that it's mostly digital, social, and traditional. A bit of print as well. And then this is our toolbox. Based off of that media consumption, we consider every single one of these assets. I would say about maybe 85 to 90% of these of these toolbox uh assets were utilized when communicating the most recent uh increases. Additionally, we wanted to double click into tra traditional marketing strategies because this is the most direct way to inform and connect and uh and create informed citizens. But the backside of that is it is very costly. You can see that the mailers, so if we were to send a mailer to every single uh utility customer, it would cost about $40,000. And we did that. The last rate increased. Um, so every single resident or customer did receive a direct mailer, but again it is quite costly. So based off of the strategy that we would have we would be developing, there are key messages that probably you saw throughout the presentation, Rebecca's presentation and Isaiah's presentation. One is water is life and it's getting a lot harder and more expensive to provide. Two, before raising rates, we cut or deferred every cost we could. Most a uh customers are average water users. Gilbert Gilbert's rates are higher but do remain affordable. And yes, growth pays for growth. And based off of that strategy and approach uh is the timeline we are going to start communicating today, tonight all the way until April 2026 and most likely thereafter to ensure everyone is informed uh the essential need of of the potential rate increase and what it means to ensuring that we have water now and into the future. I think that's it. Can bring Rebecca Isaia's up for any questions as well. Thank you. Questions, discussion. Council member Bonjivani. >> Thank you, Mayor Rebecca. Thank you for doing an incredible presentation. It was nice and slow like me as a third grader. I totally understood it and I appreciate that. >> Thank you, Council Member Bajiovani. appreciated your feedback at the retreat, >> your um slides about where we are um compared to other cities. I assume that those slides aren't showing potential rate changes in other cities because we don't know them. Correct. >> That's correct. They include anything that has been adopted to date, but not anything that is pending their council action. So, with the chatter that I'm hearing, I'm assuming that we're going to be going to the left in that chart after some of the cities that I know that I'm talking to raises their raises their rates. Also, >> from what I know about our neighboring cities, there are a lot of other communities raising rates right now. Yes. >> So, someone may say Gilbert [clears throat] option E 2027, oh my god, it's almost the second highest. It's not going to be there. I I I don't see it be staying there as other as other cities raise their rates also. >> Do you agree? >> I agree. Yes. >> Okay. I appreciate that. Okay. I'm good for right now. >> Thanks, Rebecca. Again, >> thank you. >> Other questions? Just as a reminder, we're not here tonight to debate the options. We're here only to set a date for public hearing. Um so, just keep that in mind. just uh wanted to see between you and Candace, one thing that I think is important [clears throat] is that people don't see the end of this. And with all things the same, if you can project something to show us some when the end game is, >> when do we stop collecting this? Does it stop? you know, we we're paying for something specific. And what most people are losing is that while we're being compared, let's say, to Tucson here or to Buckeye, they're not building what we're building. And the building is what's driving that bottom piece, that reddish orange piece that you showed. Uh that's where over 50% of the money is coming in. When these projects are done, how do we demonstrate? You'll never have an exact day. I know that. But demonstrate that >> we're looking at it comes down at a certain point. Not that it's always rising, but once once the car is paid off, it's paid off, >> right? >> You don't keep paying the bank for it. So, can we get this incorporated? And people need to know what they're paying for because it's not just the water, it's everything around. And quite frankly, if we don't do it at some point soon, your [snorts] property values go down because you don't have clean water. So, can we give them a little bit of what they're really paying for and how long and have that incorporated in and presented to people? >> Uh, Mayor, Council Member Tores, one of the things with the the water rates specifically is that because we did take bonds out for that, we we will be paying for those bonds for at least the next 20 years at this point. that's what the term is. Um, plus any future bonds that we issue that are still part of these these needed um, infrastructure projects. Um, we can say is that we do evaluate the rates every two years. Well, we evaluate them every year, but we review them every two years for potential increases. And as you could see on the solid waste side, when we had more revenue coming in than we than we needed, we decrease the rates twice. So, it's something that we're constantly evaluating. At this point, we can't be certain when those rates could potentially go down. We know that we're paying for the bonds for the next 20 years, and we know there are a lot more infrastructure needs coming as the community continues to age. So, as those are paid off, likely that money will go towards reinvesting in future infrastructure needs as well. >> And I know I'm not making myself clear, but with all things the same, >> let's just say nothing changes. The the acre foot doesn't change. the cost of asphalt doesn't change. What would the like you collecting? Let's say it's an extra $40 a month. When does when is that enough that it's paid off the projects? Now, you've got the bonds. You can show a line this bond's going to be 20 years and you're paying this much for it. But the ones we're cash out on, we can show I mean, you can't promise it because things change. I understand. But what a reasonable period of time would be, you know, you're paying that extra 40 bucks. We expect it to be four years, six years, whatever the number is. But to show that the light at the end of the tunnel is not a train. There is some sort of end to it. It's not continual no matter what the same thing. I mean, with all things staying the same. >> Okay. Yeah. We can sit down and and discuss that with you more and see exactly what it is you're you're wanting to see. I want people to be able to see that they're not getting clob clobbered forever. >> That's important to people. >> Council member Bonjivani. Thank you, Mayor. Rebecca, I just want you to say it one more time. >> Yes. >> Um I know we're not discussing [snorts] the rate actually tonight, but um we're not talking about a rate change like a percentage of the whole bill. Correct. Absolutely correct. >> Just the water. >> Just the water base fee and the volutric charge. >> Tomorrow when Facebook goes crazy that we're all raising fees x amount percentage. My responsible I call my responsible positive keyboard warriors should correct them and say no it's just your water bill. Correct. Just the water portion. >> Council member Bonivani. That's correct. I would also direct those keyboard warriors to post a link to our utility bill calculator which we'll be posting later. positive keyboard warriors. There's there's there's a lot of positive ones out there. It's not the ones that are just lying out there. It's just the positive ones. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Just as a reminder, the u between now as we set the date for the public hearing between now and that date, uh we saw the list of items that Patrick had that we will be evaluating. And there may be others that will come up too during that time and we should be aware of that and and um between now and February 17th we can look at all those options of how we can affect the the rate. Maybe >> that's why it's a maximum. >> Yeah. Any other >> discussion >> any other comments discussion? No. So, uh, Chris, is it appropriate since this was under administrative items to just go through and and and take the vote on this item? >> Mayor Anderson, you can do so. You can wait if you want or you can just move move that second part up and take the vote right now. >> Going to pull the council and see what your preference is. Mayor, if there are >> member Kapowski, >> if there are people here that may be in communication from from citizens, I would suggest we >> wait >> wait. >> I concur. Okay. Okay. We'll u vote on that in in the order it's in in the agenda. Then thank you for that excellent presentation for that information. We'll move on to uh communications from citizens. Vice Mayor, >> thank you mayor. So to begin the communications from citizens, I'll be reading the rules of decorum. So we value the participation of our community members and robust exchange of ideas. However, it's essential that this discourse remain respectful and constructive reflecting the professionalism expected in such forums. Misinformation and personal attacks undermine our collective efforts and do not contribute to the productive dialogue necessary for our town's progress. This is an opportunity for the public to address the town council directly in an um about issues impacting the town. Accordingly, the town council will not allow for moments of silence or playing of music or other recorded material which could distract from the meeting decorum or violate copyrights. While we could understand and appreciate the passion our community members bring to this session, we remind everyone that clapping during the meeting is not acceptable. This practice can disrupt the flow of discussion, potentially intimidate others, and distract from the respectful atmosphere we strive to maintain. In accordance with state law, we are unable unable to respond to issues that have not been properly noticed. Therefore, the town council may only listen to citizens who wish to address them. And at the conclusion of the open call to the public um to the response is limited to individual members of the council responding to criticism by those who have addressed the public body asking staff to review a matter or asking that a matter be put on a future agenda. However, please be assured that your concerns and your inputs are heard and valued. In accordance with town code, each speaker is limited to three minutes. Pri um three minutes. Priority will be given to Gilbert residents, business owners, and property owners. Public comment will be limited to 30 minutes total at the beginning of the meeting. The town clerk will notify the council once the 30 minute limit has been reached. If additional comments remain, they will be heard after the conclusion of the public hearing items with the same three minute limit per speaker. When you come up to the podium, please state your name and the city of residence for the clerk's record. So with that, our first speaker will be Darren Grossen. My name is Daryl Genen, Gilbert resident, mayor, council members, and neighbors. As we head into the holiday season, the town presented yet another notice of intent to increase rates. It may not look like a story, but it reads like a lot like a Christmas carol, a warning about where we're headed if we don't change course. Think of this notice as the ledger of Ebenezer Gilbert, the ghost of utilities past. The first ghost shows up the shows us the past. Gilbert was known for careful planning and affordable living. Families bought homes, acreage, and small farms believing they could afford to stay here long term. Water was a b basic service, not a luxury. This changed four years ago with yearly increases up to 82% or a total over 300% shackling our residents. The ghost of utilities present. The second ghost brings us to today. The draft proposes up to an additional 25% water rate increase. As for many residents, these are not small adjustments. They mean real hardship, especially for retirees, families on fixed incomes, and those on larger properties who already pay more per gallon, much like a luxury tax. At the kitchen table, a resident like Mrs. Kratchet is doing the math with Tiny Tim. Not between wants, but between essential needs. She's asking, "Can we afford clean water and food? Must I pay for essential services with my family security?" The ghost of utilities future. The final ghost shows up shows us what happens if these increases are adopted blindly without changes. You risk losing the trust of your citizens. You will see who will see you not as good stewards but as Scrooge demanding every last penny which what might happen. People are priced out. Small farms disappear. Families who help build this town are forced to leave. Gilbert risked becoming a town that balances his books by insisting on more and more from a small group of residents. Not because it's fair, but because it's easy. Is this who you want to be? A better ending. This notice of intent is not fate. It's a warning. We're asking the council to slow down and take a closer look. Find efficiencies. Phase increases more gradually. Find ways to reduce existing costs. create a fair rate structure that recognizes lands size essential use and real impact. We all understand the need to invest in infrastructure, but it must be done with care, fairness, and compassion. Let's not become the Ebenez or Gilbert of this story. Let's choose a future where our town remains livable for everyone so that when we look back, we can say, "God bless us everyone and God bless the town of Gilbert." Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Grossen. Our next speaker will be Tiffany Silva. I'm Tiffany Silva, Gilbert resident. Um, all of these presentations and I went to the last water presentation. At no point have you guys ever said what the current money is is used for. We've never seen a breakdown of where all of that money goes. What we do see is what the new money will go towards. And it seems like there's a disconnect between what we currently are paying for and what's going to be paid for. And what I've realized is the increase is to pay for the water treatment plant. That plant was formed in or approved in 2022 for $450 million. And over the years it has increased and right now I think it sits at around $657 million and it's only set to increase even more. I don't know how the costs got out of control and where all the money is going. And I understand uh inflation and all of that, but what I'm asking the council for is if you guys can have an independent audit of the entire um water uh situation, all of uh residential uh intake water and that treatment plant to find out where the money is going. and not a government audit, but an independent outside auditor that can come in and give an itemized detailed list for all of us so we know where everything is going and then post it on the website and let us know and that we can read it and look over it and that way we can have uh confidence in your guys's decision when you guys put forth these huge increases in our utilities. Thank you. >> Thank you. Our next speaker will be Kim Brihan. Hi, my name is Kim Britain. I'm sorry I didn't know it was you were calling me up. Um, I am a 20-year resident of Gilbert and fourth generation Arizonan. and the fact these facts don't make my comments hold any more weight than the family who arrived six months ago. Um, every resident deserves to know where the town of Gilbert intends to take us in the future. Um, so in interest of time, I'll try and be brief. A lot of questions were answered um, previously. I listened to I listened to both presentations and I appreciated both of them. Um, I want to make clear a couple of things. First, I feel some somewhat like the public is sometimes viewed as a resource and maybe a slush fund for that would be cool projects. Um, especially at the expense of things that are critical and making the town run well project. Um, I'm sure we would love to see projects moving forward should be judged by three things. Do 100% of the residents use this? And water clearly falls into that category. Um B, is it available to all residents? And does it occupy a public space? If the answer is no to any of these and the project must not move forward when we have issues like basic water um that we need to deliver to everyone. Um, I've I the government's basic job is clean and safe public spaces, protecting citizens and their legally obtained property, and maintaining roads and utilities. And these need to be fully funded before anything else that happens. And in the um options that were given, I saw I'm sorry, Wes, I've never spoken before in front of in front of a council before. Um, and the options that were given, I didn't see moving funds from projects that were approved but not yet started to help out or putting a freeze on new projects, building projects going forward until we can get this situated. and especially since we're waiting for the judgment on the Colorado River Basin, which I believe will end up in the hands of the federal government if it already isn't. Um, and then the Supreme Court will most likely the states will sue and it's going to be a whole big thing. But I would recommend before we do any rate increase that we wait to see what was what will be happening with that. Um, I know Tampa, Florida has a total operating similar city has a total operating budget of 1.6 billion. Arlington, Texas, similar 750 um million. New Orleans has an operating budget of 1.6 billion. Oh, sorry. Um, I just hope that we can explore all the options, not just the options within the water. So, thank you. >> All right. Thank you very much. Our next speaker is Dave Rosenfeld. [snorts] >> I am Dave Rosenfeld. I am a resident of Gilbert. It is said that silence in the face of authoritarianism is complacency. Speaking out is a patriotic act and a duty. Democracy does not defend itself. It requires participation, vigilance, and courage from ordinary people. None of my friends have threatened to break anybody's arms because of what was said at a town council meeting. Mayor Anderson, Council Member Kapowski, in October of 20 uh 2021, you were both sitting on council. You may recall the hatefilled rant of Mr. Toruson at that time and his disparaging comments to the entire council. Following my speaking at that meeting, Mr. Toruson posted on his personal social media account asking two of his friends, "Can you help the lost sheep find the herd?" His friends asked if he was suggesting broken arms. When this was brought to my attention, it was a threat. I should have reported it to the police, and I did not, and that is my fault. It has also been brought to my attention the police a police report has recently been filed again uh regarding threats made by Councilman Toruson to a Gilbert resident. While I have not personally seen this report yet, I have been informed. The report number is 2025194431. So I assume that there is some credibility to it. Maybe Councilman Toreson will address this after comments from citizens. Fast forward and now Councilman Toruson comes to my table in a restaurant without introduction or even a hello and starts making demands of me in front of my wife and our guests. Demands regarding the Lions Boys. Following week, I was asked for clarification from the sitting mayor and the other liaison to the FAB. I have no recollection of ever having met the Lions Boys, who I later found out are in their 30s. But as the VAB chair, I did send a letter, an email to everyone who applied for the VAB that the count council did not choose. These and other continuous actions bring us here today. This has been an ongoing vendetta led by Councilman Toruson, who retaliates against anybody who dares to challenge his authority. We saw this again when he went on his Zebomb leading diet tribe on a reporter and then ignored the vice mayor on the dis when she told him he was out of order. Councilman Lions offered to mediate a conversation between myself and Councilman Toruson, clearly demonstrating that my removal from the Veterans Advisory Board is all about Councilman Toruson and retribution. I need to be clear. In my mind, this was nothing but an ambush attempt. Councilman Lions had no authority to mandate immediation on behalf of the town and he stated that my four foyer requests cost the town millions of dollars which is ridiculous. Councilman Lions can say all he wants that he was concerned about me, but he violated the code of conduct repeatedly and this council and town staff allowed that to happen. Councilman Lions supported Toruson in removing me from the VAB. They have both disparaged me from the dis and I suspect they will do so again tonight. But I will ensure our neighbors have a clear picture of the coordinated attacks against me as they continue to fire on those who question or speak out on anything. This council does not have a right to choose what foyer requests get fulfilled. That is our freedom freedom of information and it is our town staff and obligation to fulfill those. Thank you. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Rachel Jones. >> Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, council. Thank you for this opportunity. I did want to point My name is Rachel Jones, Gilbert resident. I did want to point out that the slide presentation usage comparisons didn't reference anything other than HOA style single family homes, which brings me to my main concern. What about the attention to the single family farm properties? Because our water rates went up in many cases over 400%. Um, I've honestly tried to stay as quiet as possible because I'm old Gilbert. I'm from a time when the hay and cotton farmers were the most well-known town residents. I'm still friends with them. The Lamaros, the blevens, the lambs, the rays, the people that the streets are named for in our town. We're dinosaurs now. We're from a time when Gilbert was still deeply rooted in agriculture and farming and livestock. My small home was built in 1984. I've been a single mom for most of the 30 years I've lived in Gilbert. I have two boys who go to school in the Gilbert public school system. I bought my farm in the 90s when it was still a county property and the 60 ended as a dirt road at Val Vista. I'm scared that old Gilbert is disappearing and you guys don't necessarily care. This water crisis is just another sign that the life I've known in Gilbert for over 30 years is disappearing and no longer valued in the push for progress and apartment buildings and highrises. I'm here to beg you that there is still so much value in our roots and our heritage and the traditions that Gilbert was founded on. I have met with several of the council members and I want to thank Mr. Toruson, Mr. Bonjiovani, and Mr. Lions for speaking with me on multiple occasions and being willing to go to bat for us old-timers. We don't want people to forget what made Gilbert unique and beloved to begin with. I think it's important that the council recognizes what my farm and others like it have been to the community since the 70s. Uh Carolyn McInness owned my property at that time. She offered lessons and boarding to people who loved horses and the rural lifestyle and its values. I bought her for farm when she retired and I've done my best to keep its vision true to what Carolyn started. I've taught generations of children, their parents, their grandparents what it means to care for and be guardians of horses. At this moment, I teach the grandchildren of students I had back when I started. My students aren't, for the most part, wealthy. They participate in 4 pony club, the Mustang rescue makeover, retired racehorse rehabilitation, intercolgate competitions for kids who aren't able to afford their own horses. But is that somehow now less valuable or healthy for the body and mind than playing pickle ball? As Gilbert finances pools, parks, and pickleball courts, I just wonder why teaching people to be good stewards of the land and appreciative of farming and livestock and being outdoors and interacting with the animals that Gilbert used to be so proud of is now something you seemingly want to get rid of. Is there more value in water skiing, pickle ball, or HOA landscaping than keeping access to live animals available? I just don't feel it's fair for me to pay five times more for my water than you do for yours. That's all. It's just that we just want you to be fair. We're good stewards of the land. We're respectful of its water. We flood irrigate our grass areas. We recycle the water from our wash racks and hoses to water our 50-year-old trees. My farm isn't fancy, but you'll see six-year-old children all the way up to 70year-old women, Gilbert residents, who are outdoors enjoying nature and animals, experiencing what Gilbert used to be, and I hope it still can be because without a solution for our heritage properties to these tiered water rates, I fear that we're at risk of being priced out of exist. distance and I beg you to consider that that would be a travesty. Thank you for your time. Whoops. Thank you very much. Our next speaker will be Barbara Kovven. My name is Barbara and I live in Gilbert and I've been to every town council since all of this arrived. The town council has the authority to seek bond money. The fact that the town council, whether it be you or previous members, waited eight years without doing anything, knowing that eventually infrastructure needed to be taken care of. And where was the town manager doing all of this? He wasn't overseeing why there weren't smaller fee rate increases so that we wouldn't get slammed like we are now. You are also choosing to lay the cost of three multiple expensive projects at the excuse me at the feet of the single family homeowner and land owners. When my water and sewer utility bill is higher than my electric bill, something is really, really wrong. And it's only going to get worse. If you were an ordinary business and raised your cost for your product like this, I would take my business elsewhere or do without. But that is not an option here. The service you provide is a life essential service. You, the town council, are victimizing and extorting the individual homeowners. You have us trapped like prey because we cannot go anywhere else for these services. You have the authority to stop and figure out alternatives, not keep shoveling it into our utility bill. As it is, you are still planning on continuing with a 25% water increase. But that's not the only increase. You're increasing every aspect of the Gilbert utility bill and the individual home. I have a single person in my household. My water for this month was $259. The rest of the $130 was for the rates that you when you doubled the sewer. And I understand that you're going to be raising that another $30 in the near future. So that will take what was a $30 sewer bill to a $90 a month sewer portion of the bill. You provide breaks for apartments, condos, and commercial businesses. Yes, the developer may pay a hefty impact fee to build once the project is complete. He says, "See you." And you also need to revisit your mission vision statement because your actions don't even come close to it. You wanted that small town home feel like Gilbert was what everybody loved about Gilbert until all of this young 34 and under came into play and all of these apartments went up and your mission should now become the apartment capital of Arizona. It's like you want to eliminate homeowners and have nothing but apartment complexes, expensive ones at that. I attended the listening sessions on November 10th and November 15th and I actually saw no value as they listened and tried to defend your actions but it was nothing but lies. The november 15th session my friends and I asked specifically are you at least curtailing and halting approving more apartments going up? They Tim and Jessica answered yes absolutely. Those were bold-faced lies. Five more complexes and constructions became out there. You can't pay for water if you don't have the money, regardless of how much you raise it and how clean you. Yes, costs have risen. That still doesn't help because salaries do not increase. You're not the only entity that is raising prices that is impacting everybody in Gilbert's budget. Your own council member stated in last month's town hall that you could lie to us and if you kept telling us lies, we would either believe it or think it is true. All of you have lost the trust of our community that you claim to value. The everyday common resident homeowner cannot keep absorbing the exorbitant increases unless that is your intent. The homeowner cannot do it all. The apartment people have to pay their fair share. They're using a lot of water, too, regardless of what your little chart says. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. Uh, [clears throat] our next speaker will be Bill Spence. My name is Bill Spence. I'm a Gilbert resident. Um, you'll be happy I completely rewrote my speech in the last 5 minutes because of the water rates over here. So, we're going to we're going to just go with it. Um, last week I made allegations about fudge numbers with Gilbert Police Department and the town has acknowledged these allegations but has not addressed staffing levels from 2017 to 2023 when this policy was being used at the direction of Chief Soulberg. This is concerning to me. May 2020, Nick Cordova was murdered. June 2022, Rachel Hansen was murdered. 2021 through 2023, teen violence was on the rise. And in October 2023, Preston Lord was murdered. I want to acknowledge that Alicia Cordova, Nick's wife, is with us this evening. She's going to be spending another Christmas alone without justice for her husband. I fear that reduced officer staffing, significant detective work, significant detective workloads, numerous command staff changes, and other issues related to this policy may have affected the ability of these and other cases to be investigated in the same manner they would have been by a fully staffed department. I believe this is a big deal and there are lots of questions that must be answered. It is not my intention to attack anybody, but rather expose the truth about where we stand so we can take necessary action to hire the personnel necessary to fully staff our police department and find justice for Nick, Rachel, and Preston and to ensure we never face these kinds of issues again. I got a question for Chief Soulberg. How many more officers do we need to be able to pursue these investigations? And what's the holdup? How can we make this happen? On the water, couple lookups. And I did all three listening sessions. I want to thank um I want to thank we did like an hour 20 minutes. I'm still looking for any single time that an increase was denied by council. I look back 20 years and have not seen it. Mayor Anderson, you and I talked about that at the listening session. System development fees. I have not found one single instance where the increased system development fees have been used for apartments. That's another one I asked on all three listening sessions. I'm still waiting for that. One of the biggest litmus tests that we are not equally yolked between business and residential. We have yet to have a single business show up here complaining about their water rates. And I think that there's an option to be able to go through and take a look at our mixeduse residential and commercial business to be able to start equalizing some of these water rates. I really bet you guys wish that you had that $700 million for parks uh to be able to allocate somewhere else. And I understand that we can't move money around, but whereas we're not moving money around, it's all moving out of my wallet. I'm informing the town that Daryl G and I have submitted a complaint to the attorney general against the town of Gilbert for violations of state law related to unlawful noticing of utility rate changes, rates that are not just and reasonable, and the fraudulent billing of utility customers. More information is coming. There are options. Jim, Chuck, we talked about this a year and a half ago. I've been talking about this for a while. there are other options if you take away the swim lanes that you're trying to give these people. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> Um, our next and last speaker is Cararissa Arnold. My name is Cararissa Arnold. I was a resident of Gilbert, but I recently moved to Mesa. On November 17th, I formally notified the town council that public records were being deliberately deleted in violation of Arizona law. This included records that contain evidence of misconduct related to criminal investigations and the alleged misconduct of town officials. This email was entered into the official meeting minutes of the November 18th town council meeting. In an email dated October 7th, 2025, the town clerk acknowledged that the record deletion policy was implemented at her direction. Records filed with the state of Arizona clearly state that the town clerk does not have the authority to establish policy or procedure. These ongoing actions appear to be intentional and violate multiple statutes with the apparent goal of deleting all records by the end of the year as directed by the town manager. Yesterday, I filed a police a report with the Gilbert Police Department alleging criminal violations of Arizona law by the town clerk with possible involvement of the town attorney and the town manager. I realize the Gilbert Police Department cannot ethically conduct this investigation. Therefore, I expect on immediate referral to an outside law enforcement agency and the attorney general's office. Additionally, I demand that all records deletions throughout the town cease immediately pending the completion of a full investigation. I was furious when I learned about the manipulation of the police data and how it may have affected the investigation into my daughter's rape and other cases. I am deeply disappointed that this council has not taken any action to initiate an investigation. One of your own colleagues confirmed you that you were lied to and as usual, you guys did nothing. My dear friend Alicia is here tonight with her friends and family. We want to know how many officers and detectives were available in 2020 when her husband Nick Cordova was murdered. How many officers and detectives were available in 2022 when 19-year-old Rachel Hansen was murdered? And how many cases involving teen violence were not thoroughly investigated because there simply were not enough officers available. What bothers me the most is this. Council member Buckland, you stated that police staffing levels were so low they were scary, and that Chief Dorne's policy compromised the safety of both the officers and the public. Yet, you just praised Chief Soulberg for doing the same thing. You knew the truth, and you said nothing. Mr. Banger, you have a duty to act in the best interests of the town. The council relied on you to provide accurate information so they could make informed decisions. Yet you allowed the practice of manipulating data to continue, fully aware of its impact on public safety. Who else knew? You knew the truth and you said nothing. Chief Soulberg, you are responsible for the safety of your officers and the residents of this town. You knew the truth about the condition of your department and you said nothing. The patch on your uniform says honor, courage, and integrity and professionalism. It's time that you start living these words instead of just wearing them. I think that goes for all of you. >> Thank you very much. Um, do any council members want to respond to anything before I move on? Anyone? All right. Well, with that, mayor, I think I'll be going on to consent calendar. Okay. Uh, so I I'll continue on with the consent calendar and uh I believe Patrick will be um going over some items. So to begin the consent calendar portion of the meeting, I will pass the time over to our town manager, Patrick Banger, for my probably last time to provide an overview of the items on the consent calendar this evening. Over to you, Patrick. >> Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the council. We've got quite a few items on our consent calendar for the last calendar meeting of 2025. I will run through these at a high level. And please feel free to ask any questions as we go along. Again, we categorize the focus into three areas. Our strong economy, prosperous community, and the exceptional built environment. Beginning with agenda item number two. It's roadway. It's a roadway rehabilitation IGA. It's a motion to approve a resolution authorizing an IGA between the town and the state of Arizona Department of Transportation for construction related to a roadway rehabilitation project on Arizona Avenue. There is no direct financial cost associated with entering into this intergovernmental agreement and funding for the project is the responsibility of ADOT. Agenda item number three, an employee engagement survey contract. It's a motion to approve a contract with decision- wise for $34,000 annually with two optional renewals for an total not to exceed $12,000. To attract and retain top talent in Gilbert, we must gather employee feedback to determine our net promoter score, compare it with similar organizations, and develop plans for improvement. In 2024, we implemented a third-party vendor survey to gather benchmark data. After two requests for proposal processes, decision wide was selected because it was able to provide the critical needs of an annual engagement survey, benchmarking data, ad hoc surveys, and SSO capability within the current budget. This item is funded through the general fund. Agenda item number four is a JOC agreement with MC for mechanical and plumbing services. It's a motion to approve the following master job order contracts for mechanical and plumbing services with the following companies. HACI mechanical contractors, professional piping systems and react mechanical services. Each contract sets an amount not to exceed $1 million and an annual maximum of 3 million. The work involves providing maintenance, repair, minor and major new construction services, including related design services for town-owned buildings and facilities. These services are mechanical and plumbing related projects on an asneeded [clears throat] basis as determined by the town. Once job orders are established and assigned, they'll be funded by the source that funds that project. Agenda item number five is a Joocc task order intersection improvement. It's for uh work at Market and Williamfield intersection with CS Construction in the amount not to exceed $217,000 in change. Encompasses the design and construction of enhancements of the intersection aimed at alleviating congestion and addressing safety concerns. projects extend uh scope involves extending the northbound right turn lane on Market Street and the westbound left turn lane on Williamsfield Road. The GOC task order authorized the contractor procure items with extended lead times ensuring readiness for the project commencement of construction in early spring 2026. Items funded with a voter approved 2022 general obligation bonds. Agenda item number six, it's approval of the construction phase 3 GMP number three to contract with Kiwit Infrastructure West in an amount not to exceed 4,950,000 and change for site 39 well development. The well development program has progressed and now the town is ready to move forward with project phase three for wellwater treatment construction services as part of the phase construction manager at risk project delivery in order to maintain program schedule goals. Project phase number three includes Seymour construction services proposed for well 39 located adjacent to the northeast corner of Higgley and state route 202. This item is rate supported through the water fund and an intergovernmental state grant. Agenda item number seven, approval of an architectural engineering services contract for design bid build project contract with Wilson & Company and amount not to exceed 179 $179,000 and change for the Ray Road and Wave Drive signal. Mayor and council, we have a lot. If you guys don't mind, maybe I'll I'll skip some of the detail because that is available online for anybody who'd like to go and and read more. And I'll just hit what it is and then how it's funded. Sounds good. >> Okay. This item is right supported via the traffic signal system development fees. Agenda item number eight, reclaimed water facility contract. It's approval of architectural engineering services contract for the design bid build project contract with waterworks engineer and an amount not to exceed 170,000 and change for reservoir number three remote terminal unit control system repair and replacement. The items rate supported through the wastewater replacement fund. Agenda item number nine, Freestone Park Pickle Ball Complex. Consider approval of the following contracts for construction manager at risk for the Freestone Park pickle ball complex. The project includes the design and construction of a 16 court pickle ball complex, bleachers for the main court, shade structures, a restroom facility, romadas, parking facilities, and associated landscaping and irrigation improvements. The project is part of the council's quality of life initiative and funded through the general fund. Agenda item number 10, Freestone Park SPLA Splash Pad. Consider approval of the following contracts for the Seymar at risk for the Freestone Park uh splash pad. This project will consist of design and construction of the splash pad facility and associated infrastructure. And again, this project is also part of the quality of life initiative funded through the general fund. Agenda item number 11, Desert Sky Park phase 2 construction. Consider approval of the GMP number one to construction services contract for CM at risk with Hunter contracting in amount not to exceed $40 million for phase two of Desert Sky Park. This project is part of the quality of life initiative and funded through the general fund. Agenda item number 12, a motion to approve the following contracts for the reclaimed reservoir safety improvement site 1 and three. This project is to design and complete the construction of fall protection on the three above ground reclaim water storage tanks at site one and three per OSHA standards. The item is rate supported via the wastewater fund. Agenda item number 13, water transmission line phase three. It's a motion to approve the following for a water transmission assessment phase three. The project will complete operational improvements such as isolation valves, air release valves, drains while simultaneously completing an assessment of the pipeline to determine remaining useful life and identify corrosion areas for repair. The items funded via the voter approved water resource municipal property corporation bonds. Agenda item number 14, fleet cooperative purchase agreements. It's a motion to approve entering into the following cooperative purchasing agreements for the mo purchase of equipment parts and sublet services with Empire Southwest Superstition Collision Centers, Prime Collision, Norwood Equipment, Sun Country Truck Equipment, Freightlininer of Arizona, and Cumins. Total cost of acquiring new or replacement vehicles and equipment, including any necessary upfit is covered by each department's approved capital budgets. Additionally, the fleet division pays for maintenance and repairs as well as sublet services from the fleet's operating budget. These budgets are part of the annual adoptated adopted budgets approved by council. Agenda item number 14A. This is a motion to authorize a professional services contract for Kimley Horn Associates for amount not to exceed 476,000 and change. Kimley Horn Associates is proposed to review the town's water data, operations, and infrastructure to audit building accuracy and water meter performance by analyzing consumption records, reviewing business practices, and testing meters and AMI systems. This project aims to enhance transparency and public trust in utility building. Projects partially funded by an existing $97,000 contingency request approved on October 15, 2025. An additional 37 379,000 in change from the water operations contingency fund is required to fund this project for a total of 476 and change. The water operations contingency fund has sufficient funds available for this request. Agenda item number FE uh F 15 consider approval of construction phase 3 GMP3 with Nesbbit contracting an amount not to exceed 5,291,000 and change for Mosquite Street Lindseay Road to Val Vista Drive and Kao Park improvements. The project aims to upgrade Mosquite Street to meet the town of Gilbert's minor collector road standards incorporating curb and gutter, sidewalk, street lights, drainage improvements, and a new 8-in water line. The 29th place Kao Park improvement project aims to enhance road the roadway between Elliot Road Mosquite Street featuring a single lane in each direction. Items funded via the voter approved 2022 GO bonds and the rate supported water replacement funds. Agenda item number 16 is consider approval of project phase 3 with Coron Environmental Consulting in an amount not to exceed 1,882,000 and change for the northwater treatment plant facility upgrades and reconstruction. The item is rate supported via the water fund system development fees and the voter approved water resource municipal property corporation bonds. Agenda item number 17, consider approval of Desert Sky project phase 2 with J2 Engineering and Environmental Design in an amount not to exceed 785,000 in change and approval of project phase 2 with the Bacus PM an amount not to exceed 3,322,000 in change. This project is part of the quality of life initiative and funded through the general fund. Agenda item number 18, a motion to approve Gilbert Regional Park to phase 2 design services contract with Duke Studio in an amount not to exceed exceed 5,399,000 and change. This project is part of the council's quality of life initiative and funded through the general fund Jet N, [clears throat] excuse me, number 19. Consider approval of project phase 4 guaranteed maximum price with Felix Construction Company in an amount not to exceed 3,29,000 and change for well development. This item is rate supported via the water fund and an IGA uh state grant. Agenda item number 20, a notice of award of the contract for fiscal 2627 improvements in the specified parkway improvement districts. The cost of these contracts are paid through the property owners monthly assessment. Overall, there is a cost savings of $8,990 to the PKIDS. Agenda item number 21, consider approval to declare Maricopa County Assessor parcel number 304-26-888 as surplus property and authorize staff to advertise an invitation for bids and conduct bid opening on February 2nd, 2026 for the parcel described to identify the highest bidder for cash pursuant to state statute. Agenda item number 22A, a motion to appoint Matthew Busing and Scott Sasser as Judge Pro Temporar temporary. >> Temporary, thank you, Chris. Of the Gilbert Municipal Court. And that concludes the consent agenda for this evening. >> All right. Thank you so much, Patrick. And does anyone have any questions or comments? No one. 11 8 9 10 >> or 9 10 11 >> Okay. So, council member Torus, >> I'm having a difficult time with this. >> What [clears throat] >> for three years I've been hoping that we can land a baseball field as a priority, a so a soccer field because kids are turned away every weekend. And you know, through discussing priorities, maybe I don't share the right priorities with some people because other people are putting pickle ball first. And uh it seems to me that parks really need to be around kids first before the rest of us. And I'm having a hard time supporting that. I was great to hear that our roads are not on the cusp of failing this year because that was a huge concern for me after we've been blindsided by this water stuff. But I am having a hard time wanting to go forward with anything in parks if I can't see a ball field for some kids in the next few months. For three years, I've been asking for baseball fields and it keeps getting blown off. Is there any way to prioritize that ahead of a pickle ball court and a splash pad? It seems like it's simple. Can somebody come to the rescue here and make that a priority for our kids before our middle-aged people? Can we do that? Anybody? >> Good evening, Mayor and Council. Councilman Torgusen, I'm assuming that this was not a rhetorical question that you're asking a question regarding the development of the parks, right? So, in the quality of life projects, as you prioritize them earlier this year in February, several of these projects were prioritized specifically for the ability to deliver tangible results to the community within a reasonable amount of time. Um, specifically with the ball fields. So if you look at the phased approach of some of our projects, um we do have if the contracts move through the expected delivery of ball fields within the next year. 27 >> well breaking ground in spring of 26 um at this point in time um because of some of the timelines that we're at um with one year of construction which is about I I would say about as good as as you're going to get um with the construction of infrastructure and a ball field is a piece of infrastructure um there is a lot of complexity that goes into the construction of these the same thing to be said with the freestone project is that it is on a timeline that allows us to deliver some tangible results to the residents within a reasonable amount of time. I recognize what you're saying about the pickle ball um and the need for ball fields for our residents. Um I would offer that the splash pad as part of the freestone project which is a very important amenity for our youth and something that is lacking in the northern part of town. Um, with regards to the pickle ball, um, while it is, uh, mostly an adult amenity, um, we do see heavy use with our teens. As a matter of fact, as part of our youth engagement programs recently, um, we had a pickle ball um, tournament at Gilbert Regional Park and attracted about 80 teens. So, it is popular um in our youth engagement and getting our teens into um healthy athletic endeavors within our community. >> It will be 2027. If we start now, um if we delay any further, that timeline does get pushed back. Correct. Thank you, sir. Microphones guys. Microphones please. turn that off. Um, okay. Apparently, uh, Council Member Toruson has made a motion to accept items 2 through 23. And um I guess I seconded it, but someone else wants to second it, that's fine with me. Vice Mayor, Council Member Toruson excluded items 9, 10, and 11. >> Okay. So, are you pulling those for a separate vote? >> Yes. >> Okay. That's helpful to know that. All right. Then you go ahead and make the motion and again and remove those items. I'd like to make a motion to accept the entirety of the consent agenda except items 9, 10, and 11. Hold those for a separate vote. >> Okay. Does anyone want to second that motion? >> Second. >> Okay. So, we have a motion and a second. And um council members, please vote. That isn't me, is it? It is that I have to really push that button to make it work. Okay, so we have a the motion has carried with a 70 vote and um Oops. [clears throat] Yes. Okay. So the motion is carried to 70 vote and um then we will bring item 9 and 11 back for council member. >> Oh 9, 10 and 11. Okay. >> I'll make the motion to accept items 9, 10, and 11. >> Second. >> All right. So we have a motion to accept items 9, 10, and 11. Does anyone have Did you have any questions? You did your questions correct? >> Okay. >> I got a comment. >> Pardon me. >> I have a comment if we can do that before we vote. >> Can Well, there's been a motion. So, do you want to comment on the motion >> or discuss? >> We're discuss. >> Okay. Go ahead and just comment. >> Yeah. I mean, you know, over the last year or so, um, you know, we did the the parks survey, more than 60,000 community members, uh, had, uh, touch points and and told us what they wanted. It wasn't a wish list. It was, um, define priorities and then we made priorities. And we made a clear promise when we asked residents to support a dedicated sales tax to fund these projects. And I think tonight's vote is about keeping that promise and not just saying, "Hey, we're going to raise your taxes for these life initiatives, but you know, we're not happy with with what we're doing, so [snorts] we want to pull it and not and not support it." You know, I think we we have we went over a number of times the prior our priority lists um what we wanted to see first. I would have loved to see, you know, baseball fields and and soccer fields first, but there is a time to uh takes to to build them. I'm not going to take away a ballpark or a soccer field because I don't like the timeline. Um, you know, I think that it's fiscally responsible for us to to keep our word to the residents that this is why we raise this raise our sales tax is because we wanted to to supply these quality of life initiatives that they're paying for. So, yeah, as much as I would love to have a ballpark tomorrow, I can't build a ballpark tomorrow, but I'm not going to take away a ballpark just because it's not in the order that we want to see it in. Um, the fastest thing when we had our meeting, the fastest thing we talked about was the splash pads and the um pickle ball courts. I don't play pickle ball. I'm not one who specifically wanted to play pickle ball, but it doesn't mean I'm going to take them away from people who responded to a survey and and said that pickle ball was important to them. Whether it's important to me or not, it doesn't matter. Um, but I I I don't want this to to go down just because the baseball field's a year later. It's going to be a baseball field. If we vote this down, we're not going to have a baseball field. So, to me, there's no question in mind here. You know, it's it's something that we made a promise to, and we need to live up to that promise. Thank you, Council Member Bonjiovani. And um thank you for those comments. I I agree with you. So, we have a motion from Council Member Copski. Did we have a second? Who seconded that? And a second from Kenny Buckland. So, please vote. Okay. So, we have a six six yes, one no, and the motion carries. All right. I believe that will end the consent agenda. So, I will give it all back to you, mayor. >> Thank you. I've had a request for a bio break. So let's take a 5m minute Great. Okay, this is the one minute warning. >> One minute. >> You are a bully. You know that. Wow. >> Okay, let's uh >> let's resume our meeting. Um I think we're ready to go on to public hearings. And before I start in the public hearings, I two have two cards request to speak. Katherine Jones, are you still here? Katherine's not here. She was going to speak on an item that's going to be postponed. And Michael Lachlin. Is Mike here? >> Neither one is here. >> You scared him away, council member. So, with that, um, Chris, can we include the, uh, items be postponed as part of an overall motion for the public hearing items? >> Uh, Mayor Anderson, yes, you can. It's been noticed that item being continued. So yes. >> Okay. Unless, uh, any of the council members have any of the items on public hearings they'd like to pull off and discuss. If not, I'll open the public hearing and close the public hearing. Bring back to council for a motion on the on the block of items 24 25A and 25B >> being continued till January 20th. >> No, that's what I just asked. Chris, were you paying attention? No. >> Okay. >> I'll [clears throat] move to approve item 24, item 25, to continue item 25A, and to continue item 25B. >> We have a motion. Is there a second? >> I'll second that since I missed it the first time. >> Moved and seconded. Please vote. >> Got it that time. >> Motion carries 70. We'll move on to administrative items. Item 26, fees. Uh, I'll consider a motion. We've already had a presentation. I'll consider a motion to direct staff to publish a notice of intent to increase water and residential and commu commercial solid waste and recycling rates and fees and set the public hearing date for February 17, 2026. [snorts] Council, is there discussion andor motion? Um, I'll move to approve item 26. And it's my understanding that this will um include both options that were presented tonight. >> Yes, it's been moved by council member Kapowski. Is there >> second? >> Second by council member Lions. Please vote. [snorts] Motion carries. 70. Item 27, policy number 2026-01. Consider approval of council policy number 2026-01 regarding purchases from from members of governing body. Do we need any more explanation on this? Chris, >> Mayor Anderson, this is just an annual this is an annual resolution or policy that needs to be adopted by the council. Okay. >> Pursuant to town code every year. Do >> I have a motion? >> I'll move to approve item 27. >> Moved by council member Kapowski, >> second by council member Buckland. Please vote. >> [clears throat] >> Motion carry 70. Future meetings we have study sessions that will be highlighted for future agenda communications. Patrick, you going to tell us something f in your final communications? Mayor, members of the council, I think I've talked quite enough tonight, but I do have a short presentation for you. Going to recognize highlight some of our departments and recognize some of our employees. So, we'll get going. Under department and division highlights, we're going to start with the intergovernmental relations department. Some of the key areas that they work on are policy analysis and advocacy. And why it matters is to ensure government's voice is heard. and policym help protect protect local authority and funding. Legislative engagement and appropriations. It matters because it results in millions in of savings in state and federal appro appropriations. And then regional representation and collaboration and it matters be uh for regional planning and decisions that involve our community to highlight some of the areas where they've had great impact. They were of uh critical assistance and importance for the uh state and federal appropriations we received, many of which were highlighted tonight in previous presentations and and the one that wasn't the 8 million for the Octio Bridge, which is about 50% complete right now. Moving on to the mayor and council office. Some of those areas include council support and initiative implementation. And it matters to ensure that elected leaders can focus on governments governance and community engagement, constituent and staff communication that facilitates transparency, responsiveness, trust and trust between the town and residents and leadership development and community engagement. It fosters civic engagement and intergovernmental collaboration. And these are some of the things over the last year that uh many of you have been involved with as well as the members of the team that help support these efforts. the MYAK and the Young River, the Young River People's Council from SRPMIC, the Advancing Education and Gilbert roundt, and the community listening sessions. Moving on to retirements, recognitions, and awards. We're going to start with Gilbert's leadership and water resiliency and recognize Lauren Hixon, who represented Arizona. She was chosen by the Bureau of Reclamation to represent the entire state of Arizona. She spoke at the Voices of Colorado River Basin ahead of the Colorado River water users conference. She addressed the impacts of stalled basin negotiations on Gilbert. She showcased community investments and water resiliency and emphasize adapting to a future with less water. And this selection reflects Lauren's leadership and Gilbert's for foresight. We're very proud of Lauren in representing not only us but the entire state of Arizona in very very important discussions and negotiations. With that, I think I've got one more slide or I should have one more slide real quick. This one is a surprise for the individual. I'm going to recognize Kirsten Beay. Um, she has been she is an assistant to the town manager in the town manager's office. And Kirsten has been involved in countless initiatives, projects, programs. Through the years, she's provided key support, leadership, and collaboration on cross departmental initiatives, provided thoughtful leadership in public speaking. She's been a champion for indigenous advocacy and community building. She's uh had a commitment to mentorship and youth engagement and dedicated support to Gilbert's Native American internship program. And she was awarded the certificate of achievement in tribal administration in 2025. And Kirsten will be leaving us soon to complete her educational studies and focus on some uh things of uh high priority to her in her life and uh her professional ende endeavors. And we thank Kirsten for everything she did with us. She was a absolute pleasure and a joy to work with and we wish her the best in everything. Lastly, mayor, I know that um I did not see that resolution coming tonight, so I'm not going to repeat a lot of the things that you highlighted, but I did want to recognize um some key individuals and some final comments. After 14 and a half years of serving this community, it's hard to believe this is my last council meeting and it's been uh very busy with a lot of things that we know of great importance and I've had but I've had moments where it's hitting me that it it's coming towards an end and um I would be remiss to not lay all the credit for all the achievements to the 1850 employees we have in this organization. And I think they are the best municipal team in the country. Not only the state, their professionalism, their innovation, their dedication to residents is unmatched. I mentioned it uh earlier. Every achievement we've celebrated through the years is has your fingerprints all over it. To the mayor and council, your vision, courage, and commitment to excellence made everything possible. And the collaborative relationship between council and staff has truly been Gilbert's competitive advantage. And I know that you guys will continue that because we may serve in different roles, but we are on the same team serving this community and trying to do the best job we can in meeting their needs and protecting their interests. To our community leaders and partners, Gilbert success is a team sport. I want to thank our business community, our nonprofits, and our civic leaders. Your investment in this town goes far beyond economics. Together, we built a community. I'd also like to rec uh recognize the team in the town manager's office. Um these individuals um are absolutely integral to our success. Want to recognize our assistant to the town managers, Alina Bay, Jennica Horta, and Kirstston Beay. They get thrown into special projects, initiatives, and assignments, and they never hesitate to just jump right in, understand what needs to be accomplished or what we hope to accomplish and help see things through um to successful outcomes. Deputy Town Manager Eric Brown. Your growth um in this organization has been just a pleasure to watch. Um he was our water resources manager at one time and an exceptional one at that. And I think that we are very blessed to not only have Lauren but have Eric Brown as well as Hawin Johansson. Many of you may not realize Hawin Johansson was a water resources manager for us at at one time. And I'll tell you, at a point when water has never been more important to our health and welfare and our future, to have three individuals of that caliber on our team, um really is um something that is uh extremely beneficial to our community. But Eric, congratulations. I look forward to watching uh your continued growth as a professional. Our assistant town managers, Don Prince, Leo Reinheimer, Mario Pantiagua, and Mary Goodman. You're as talented and capable as anyone in our profession and it has been a pleasure working with you. I know that um we get pulled in many different directions every single day of the week and our schedules are such that very seldom do we eat lunch uh much less take breaks for anything. But their ability to just again dive right in, lead our departments, work with our directors and ensure that our services are delivered with excellence that we anticipate the needs of this community. We create the solutions and we never forget we're here to help people. Just what our mission statement says. And and it has been an absolute pleasure and an honor working with all four of you. And I wish you the best of luck in [snorts] your continued growth as professionals. Our executive management assistant, Debbie Dana, and she's going to be mortified that I'm calling her out. But I'll tell you, we couldn't do what we do in the manager's office without her support and the exceptional job she does every day. Most of the time she's doing things that we don't even realize to make our lives easier to ensure that um the little things that are of great importance, managing calendars, um just fielding phone calls, dealing with employees, assisting. I think everybody in this organization calls on Debbie for assistance with something. She's like our our [snorts] shell answer woman, but Debbie has been a pleasure to work with and she is an exceptional um individual within this organization. We're we're blessed to have her. To my fellow appointed colleagues, town attorney Chris Payne, town clerk Herrera, and presiding judge David Cutchin, it's been a pleasure serving alongside you. Truly, they are not only exceptional in their fields, but they are exceptional people to work with. And it has been an absolute pleasure. And I just want to say in closing, government's day best days are ahead and the foundation is strong. and it has truly been an honor to serve you and this community, serve with our very dedicated employees um and the residents of this community. I'll miss all of you dearly. Thank you, mayor. >> Thank you. And believe me, uh it's our pleasure having you here. And don't any of you if he's talked to you about going to Glendale, don't even think about it. >> I'm sorry, mayor, that's going to happen. >> Thank you so much, Patrick. Um, council members, council member Bonjivani. Thank you, mayor. We're going to talk about parks and wreck right now. Teen holiday paint night. Join join us for a fun and festive paint night. We'll guide you through step by step. So, no experience is necessary. Just need to show up ready to ready to have a good time. All supplies are included, and you'll leave with a one-of-a-kind masterpiece made by you. December 17th, 2025, Gilbert Community Center from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. And let's not forget Reparian after dark. Reparian Preserve comes alive with Holiday Glow during Gilbert's annual Reparian Afterdark event. Stroll around 1.5 miles of trails and walkways to that weave through the park and enjoy thousands of holiday lights and displays December 12th through the 22nd at the Reparian Preserve from 5:30 to 9:00. again. Get your tickets tonight. >> Thank you, Council Member Lions. >> I just want to take the opportunity to um wish everybody a happy holidays. We're celebrating Hanukkah and Christmas right now. And for my family, those are two very special holidays and um it tends to bring out the best in people. And I just want to uh wish all of you a happy holidays and be safe. Um, this will mark the my end of Kenny and I's first year on the council and uh, you know, Patrick, one of the things that's come up with you leaving, I thought it ironic that we were at that point and a lot of people worked really hard to put me in the seat and I was really concerned about the ability to perform. And one of the things that I have to say is the staff that you've built, and this goes to all of you guys, I really appreciate all that you've done this year to help me get up to speed, to be able to understand how the town functions, and uh to try to be successful in this role. So, every one of you, I really appreciate and it's a testimony to Patrick, your leadership, but also your all's commitment to the town. And when I drive this community from the south to the north, I see the reflections of each one of you as I look at different things. Whether it be Jessica, a project that you're working on, or Susanna, a project you're working on, Michael, stuff that parks and reccks are going to be working on. All of you have done things that when I drive through the community, I see reflections of you in and I really appreciate that. And I just want to say thank you for a good first year. So, you can beat me up next year. Okay. >> Thanks. >> Any others? Council member Buckland. Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to echo those sentiments. It has been a good first year. [clears throat] Um Patrick, I think you did this on purpose so that I couldn't embarrass you uh because I'll be out of state with my grandbabies uh for your open house. So, we'll just do it publicly here. [laughter] I uh I'm not leaving this dis without telling you what an amazing leader you are. Uh you know, you you spoke highly of your staff and everything you said was true. there. Everything that you said, I I knew many of them um as staff here myself, met many since I got here. And the one consistent thing that you have brought to this town is a vision and a team that executes brilliantly and all of you get credit for where we are today. Yeah, times times can be tough. you know, financially is a little tough and there's some some angry sentiments out there, but the majority of our citizens appreciate you every day. I hear it. I talk to people all the time and I hear it. They appreciate the hard work that all of you do. Um, so I hope that you guys go into this Christmas knowing that, enjoying that, uh, celebrating that. Um, because, uh, you have absolutely put this place on the map. Patrick, um, thank you for, um, as a new council member, your guidance along the way. You've talked to me off a ledge a few times, um, needed it and, uh, you know, as a, as someone who worked for you and now someone who works, uh, with you till next week. Um, it has been an absolute privilege and an honor and, uh, I wish you the very best in Glendale. I know that you will you will accomplish great things there, too. We will miss you. Thank you. Uh I just wanted to to to echo those same sentiments. I had the opportunity also to attend the lighting of Anora Sunday night and what a special event that was. Um, you know, in light of the tragedy down in Australia, the spirit is still high and they are just wonderful people to uh to be gathered with and be a part of Gilbert. And they are just a small part of the the spirit that is in this town. And thank you so much for all that you do. Uh, and Patrick, you are part of that spirit. So, thank you. And I know it'll never leave you. Um, so stay in touch with us so we know what you're doing and how we can make fun of you more. >> I'll send you my number. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Mayor, if I could make one more comment. Um we had a lot of stuff moving uh to get the final agenda for the year um together and there was uh something that went on that did not make it onto the consent agenda overview. Uh it was an oversight, but it was the approval of the contract for Don Prince, our new uh interim town manager. And my apologies, Don. Um you made a great choice. And Don, you're going to do an exceptional job. And so, best of luck to you um as you continue to lead this organization. >> Don, you have one week to keep harassing him, so keep it up. Thank you. I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. I'll make the motion. >> We are adjourned. Thank you very much.