A potential town ordinance defining what Gilbert cannot do about rail has been pushed off until a Nov. 1 Gilbert Town Council meeting after confusion Tuesday about what proposal should be considered.
Council unanimously tabled a revised proposal that was on the agenda and will bring back a proposal, either the original or a revised one, at the Nov. 1 meeting, one week before the general election. That election includes a runoff for one council seat, though neither candidate sits on current council.
The proposal on the Sept. 6 agenda was a revision of the original proposal, authored by Vice Mayor Aimee Yentes and studied at the Aug. 23 meeting.
Yentes’ original proposal prohibited using town resources for the “furtherance of commuter rail, commuter rail projects or light rail transit within the jurisdiction of Gilbert,” including feasibility studies and stations. It also prohibited the town from assessing a tax or fee for the construction, operation or maintenance of heavy or light rail.
That proposal was put on the agenda at the request of Yentes and council members Laurin Hendrix and Kathy Tilque to address concerns arising from council consideration of a feasibility study for putting a transit center on either or both of two pieces of land the town owns next to the Union Pacific rail track through town.
The Arizona Department of Transportation and Maricopa Association of Governments have planned for possible commuter rail between Tucson and Buckeye, and ADOT’s preferred route runs through Gilbert, but no active proposal exists and no funding identified.
The revised proposal eliminated the prohibition on using town resources and limited the ordinance to assessing any new tax or fee in support of rail. Attorney Chris Payne said this came out of discussion at the Aug. 23 study session in which limiting the language to a prohibition on light rail or not allowing a tax or fee.
However, Hendrix objected to that being the proposal under consideration since the three council members who put the original proposal on the agenda had not signed off on it. He said that would have to have happened or Mayor Brigette Peterson would have had to put the revision on the agenda for the revision to be the proposal under consideration.
He also said it was his opinion that having the discussion on the revised item without it having been properly put on the agenda would violate state opening meeting law. Payne said the revision had been placed on this agenda in a timely manner so it would not be such a violation.
Tilque said she also believed the revision came out of the discussions from the study session and that she agreed to put the original ordinance proposal on the agenda so that a discussion with the public could be had, which she believed had been done.
Yentes said she may have misunderstood Payne about putting competing proposals on the agenda. However, she indicated she did not feel the revisions matched the discussions from the study session, though she did say Aug. 23 that she was open to compromise on the ordinance.
Other items
Council unanimously approved giving the town manager power to approve long-term storage exchanges on ground water under the conditions that it be a one-to-one trade and includes no monetary exchange besides administrative fees and that it has a hydrological benefit to the town. Water Resources Manager Lauren Hixson said the move will help the town with its Colorado River water management plan.
Council unanimously approved bylaws, a fundraising and programs budget and a fundraising policy for the Veterans Advisory Board. Board Member Les Presmyk said the fundraising will allow the board to put on town events without additional money from the town beyond its $5,000 administrative budget. The board puts on the town’s annual Veterans Day event, sponsorship events for the USS Arizona nuclear submarine and addresses veteran wellness.
Council unanimously approved liquor licenses for the Double Tree Inn by Hilton-Phoenix and Uncle Bear’s Brewery.
Tom Blodgett Senior News Editor | Gilbert @sp_blodgett
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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