Gilbert's teen violence subcommittee making early progress, members say

By Tom Blodgett
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Members of the Gilbert Town Council Subcommittee on Teen Violence said they believe they are making good progress in making things happen in response to community concerns on the topic. 

Vice Mayor and subcommittee Chair Scott Anderson said it was the subcommittee’s hope not just to listen to the community but create actionable items for Gilbert Town Council. 

Councilmember Chuck Bongiovanni, one of three members of the subcommittee, told council during its Jan. 23 meeting he has been able to make headway in five areas: 

• A survey for town teens; 
• Finding a sponsor to run a bill at the Arizona Legislature on outlawing the sale of brass knuckles to teens; 
• Finding organizations to do a mentorship program; 
• Talking to businesses about ways to allow kids into safe environments after 6 p.m.;  and
  
• Programs to give teens a voice. 

Bongiovanni said he had spoken to superintendents of Gilbert Public Schools and Chandler Unified School District about getting cooperation to distribute a survey and had an appointment with Higley USD to talk about the same from that district. 

He pointed out the town has no oversight of schools so it would require the districts’ cooperation. The town also can look to get cooperation from charter and private schools, he said. 

Bongiovanni said he hoped a statistically valid survey could measure the scope of the problem and give insight on how much teens trust school resource officers on their campuses and who they feel they can talk to when they feel threatened. 

Arizona Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, has agreed to run a bill on brass knuckles, said Bongiovanni, who has created a website, nobrassknuckles.org, which has a petition to get grassroots support for such a measure. 

Bongiovanni said he had spoken to a number of nonprofits and businesses on the other initiatives, as well.  

The business initiative is to give teens a safe place to go after 6 p.m., such as arcades that make their businesses off limits to teens after that time. Bongiovanni said perhaps charging a small fee to teens so the businesses could hire an off-duty policeman for security after 6. 

The work earned high praise from the other council members who are not serving on the subcommittee, who took advantage of the report being on council’s agenda to offer some ideas they had collected and pass along the names of people and organizations who said they were willing to help the effort. 

“Thank you for all the work that you've done so far,” Mayor Brigette Peterson said. “It's impressive.” 

Council sought to tamp down criticism from a couple of residents during the public-comment period.  

The first, Kristine Brennan, had thanked the subcommittee members for attending a local TV station’s forum on teen violence last week but criticized the others for not being there. 

“Your ongoing apparent lack of care and inaction around is honestly shameful,” she said. 

But Peterson said she was not invited to the forum and even if she was, she could not attend because it would violate the state’s open laws that prevent a quorum of the council from appearing together at such an event, a fact echoed by the others. 

“If you did see us there, then we're breaking a law by making a quorum,” Councilmember Bobbi Buchli said. “A quorum is four people. So please don't think that we aren't trying to do things.” 

Councilmember Jim Torgeson said State Rep. Laurin Hendrix, R-Gilbert, a former Gilbert council member, is running a bill at the Legislature to allow subcommittees more leeway to have open discussions. 

Resident Natalie DiBernardo, who ran for the Arizona House of Representatives in 2022, also said open meetings law prevented more council members from coming to the forum, but said the subcommittee’s limitations are why council should have created a task force rather than a subcommittee. 

“You’ve really created a division committee,” she said. “The reason why none of our female town council members spoke is because the minute that subcommittee was created, open meetings law applied and now none of the women can speak. We’ve silenced the voice of the mothers yet again.” 

Anderson said he was bothered by the insinuation they were freezing any out of the subcommittee. 

“We heard from the citizens quite loudly in the previous council meeting that we need to take action, and it’s been our intent all along for this to eventually probably end up as a larger task force,” he said. “But we needed to take some action now and thus the creation of the subcommittee.” 

Bongiovanni said he also was bothered by the comment as the subcommittee was created as an act of expediency.

“I'm reminded daily of the value and the powerful perspective of a woman's voice,” Bongiovanni said, alluding to his wife. 

Anderson asked for council direction on going out into the community with the subcommittee and having meetings at different places and times to allow for more participation. Council members agreed. 

Furthermore, Peterson asked that reports from the subcommittee be made a standing item on the administrative items portion of council agendas. 

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. 

Tom Blodgett
Senior News Editor | Gilbert

tblodgett@iniusa.org

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).