The city of Chandler has approached the town of Gilbert about a possible partnership in building a police crime lab.
Discussions have been preliminary, too soon to say it will happen, but Gilbert Town Council members encouraged staff to explore the possibility.
Town Manager Patrick Banger said he had a conversation in early March with Chandler Interim Police Chief Melissa Deanda, City Manager Joshua Wright and Assistant City Manager Tadd Wille about the possibility of a joint facility.
“(It is) very early on in the discussions, but they are definitely open to that conversation and we'll be following up with them soon,” Banger told council at the town’s financial retreat March 11.
Banger said Chandler has about $50 million to bring to the project from voter-approved bonds.
Gilbert has been pursuing its own crime lab, and it is on the town’s list of priority capital projects along with a number of others from police, fire and parks and recreation. But the cost, which staff pegs at $76.84 million, has been a sticking point for council.
At the financial retreat, council members discussed what should be on a $650 million priority list for projects to be done in about the next five years. Council members signaled a desire to pay for those primarily through a half-cent sales tax increase that will put the town’s rate more in line with other municipalities in the Valley.
The crime lab stood out as one project council members were reluctant to pursue, but the thought of a partnership warmed them to the idea.
“To invest $80 million in order to spend (another) $3.5 million more (in annual operations) doesn't sound like the best deal to me,” Councilmember Jim Torgeson said. “It does sound like that would be something that to maybe keep in our back pocket.
“Now if you get other communities like Chandler willing to bring $50 million of the $80 million forward, well absolutely. That's closer to real talk. But I think if we're funding it ourselves and we're planning to fund it ourselves, it's a no-go.”
A partnership also would put a lab high on the priority list as Chandler has its funding and is looking to move on its lab soon, council members said.
Previously, Gilbert had talked about possibly having partnerships with Queen Creek, Apache Junction and Tempe police, but those departments would not be sharing in the cost of construction, just sending work that would help pay for operations.
Gilbert gets its crime lab work done at the Mesa Police Department’s crime lab. However, Gilbert Police Chief Michael Soelberg said Gilbert’s work is not a priority there and there is a concern that Mesa’s load may increase to the point where it says it can longer do other departments’ cases.
Because of that possibility, Gilbert negotiated a five-year out in its last intergovernmental agreement with Mesa on the work, meaning Mesa would have to give the town five years’ notice if it is going to stop doing GPD case work.
“The lead time associated with designing and constructing a crime lab facility and then getting that facility accredited is an extremely long timeline, easily a five-year timeline,” Gilbert Assistant Town Manager Leah Rhineheimer said. “And that's why Chief Soelberg was very intentional and persistent in negotiating that five-year out clause with the city of Mesa. But we need every minute of that five years.”
We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on X.
Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
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