Council Subcommittee

MINUTES OF THE GILBERT TOWN COUNCIL SUBCOMMITTEE ON TEEN VIOLENCE, IN SPECIAL MEETING OF THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 2024, AT 3:00 P.M., GILBERT MUNICIPAL CENTER I, COUNCIL CHAMBERS, 50 E CIVIC CENTER DRIVE, GILBERT, ARIZONA COUNCIL PRESENT: Vice Mayor Scott Anderson, Councilmembers Chuck Bongiovanni and Jim Torgeson COUNCIL ABSENT: None STAFF PRESENT: Town Manager Patrick Banger, Town Attorney Chris Payne, Town Clerk Chaveli Herrera, and Police Chief Michael Soelberg CALL TO ORDER Town Clerk Herrera called the meeting to order at 3:03 p.m. ROLL CALL Town Clerk Herrera called roll and declared a quorum present. AGENDA ITEMS 1. Selection of Subcommittee Chair A MOTON was made by Councilmember Bongiovanni, seconded by Councilmember Torgeson, to appoint Vice Mayor Scott Anderson as Chair of the Subcommittee on Teen Violence. Motion carried 3-0. 1 Chair Anderson noted it was the first Subcommittee meeting of this type and that the goal was to make recommendations to the Council. He said there would likely have more opportunity to speak during listening sessions, and future Subcommittee meetings would likely be more active with public comment. He said it would be a good opportunity to make suggestions, then noted that the comments previously made were heard and acknowledged. He said they would be opening up the floor for future comments. 2. Goals and Desired Outcomes Councilmember Bongiovanni stated he had five goals and outcomes. Focus on teenagers and schools. He proposed that the town hire a company to do a professional survey that could go out to students and schools to see if they were feeling safe in the community and gain their ideas. He said it was important to focus on teens themselves and envisioned to have the Subcommittee members go out and talk to them first. Legislation. He talked about finding a local senator or representative to sponsor a bill to make it illegal for a minor to purchase or own brass knuckles, adding it should be controlled for minors. Mentoring. He spoke about working with local churches and volunteers to create mentoring programs for teens. Businesses. He spoke about looking into options with local business to support activities with teens. Working with general community and parents. He discussed options for support groups for parents with troubled teens and working with community groups to help teens foster trust with adults. Councilmember Torgeson agreed to reach out to teens and said the reason why some things did not come forward was probably rooted in cultures at schools. He spoke about facilitating 2 more communication and Representative Hendrix’s efforts with a bill to change the interpretation of Open Meeting Law to allow municipalities to talk more openly. He said going to the Council Chambers or Police Station was not the most comfortable and spoke about coffee with a Councilmember, saying it would make people feel more at ease. Councilmember Bongiovanni said he wanted the data from the survey to show level of trust in local Student Resource Officers (SRO) and to gather information from the highest group to see what was working well and if valuable could be added to SRO training programs. He added the need for the data of school counselors with higher trust scores as well. Chair Anderson spoke of parental support and said he would like to see parents comfortable coming to attend and with SROs he had seen “See Something, Say Something” repeated in the community and would like to see it facilitated at schools. Chair Anderson gave opportunity for the public to comment. Amy Hommen, Gilbert resident, stated she was a former teacher and spoke of her experience. She said federal funds were a major problem and too many kids of color were being suspended and expelled, so schools with less expulsions got more money, and discipline plummeted. She said that was something they had to fight because schools would not get the money they needed. She said kids were afraid to say something because when they did nothing would happen. She spoke about an incident at a school she had taught at that resulted in a suspension so that the school did not to lose federal funds. She said teachers were abused by students constantly and nothing was being done and teachers could not talk about it. She said parents needed to have some responsibility and Gilbert needed to talk to teachers, adding she was willing to be involved. Chair Anderson thanked her and said school districts needed to be involved. Councilmember Torgeson said to expand that as a separate thing for teachers to be able to give information anonymously. Councilmember Bongiovanni said they had some hurdles, but he was hopeful that with community support they could get through them. 3 Anna Van Hoek, Gilbert resident and Higley School District board member, said the biggest thing was parental involvement and that getting parents involved in every aspect of education was key. She spoke about the importance of SROs and the licensing requirements of school counselors. She stated most school counselors were not licensed by the Board of Behavioral Health and expressed concerns about them providing mental health services. She spoke about the importance of bullying policies and discipline. She said the policies needed to be enforced, and it took away time from class when teachers needed to discipline behavior. She asked if parents could be held responsible for their children when minors were involved and if that was something that could be done through legislation. She spoke about social emotional aspects at school and the need for more focus on academics. She noted that the surveys were opt-in and parental consent would be needed. Chair Anderson asked if the Higley School Board would be willing to get more involved. Anna Van Hoek said yes, committee and community meetings with schools boards, the Council, and parents was discussed at their meeting and they would like to work together. Amiée Valenzuela Altomare, not a Gilbert resident, spoke of her experience living in various places and said her father was involved in multicultural work and it helped them in working with gangs and gang prevention. She talked about the overlap between towns and cities and asked the Subcommittee to spread the survey out beyond Gilbert. She expressed support for coffee with a cop and survey ideas. She said there were lots of parents talking in Chandler because of the death of Preston Lord. She said other cities were doing gang prevention, and Chandler was able to eliminate gang attire out of dress code and it had not been an issue. She discussed other violent attacks and looking at gang mentality and the Town’s growth. She spoke of the need for a diverse use of faith counsel in the east valley and churches being involved. She spoke about the 80’s program of block watches and something to carry showing “I’m a safe person.” She spoke about the importance of parent involvement and accountability and pushback on social emotional expectations. She asked about what local businesses and their employees could do to intervene and being educated on what to do and who to call. Chair Anderson discussed signs indicating a “safe house” and said he liked the idea. 4 Councilmember Bongiovanni expressed interest in the social media trend and requested contact information. Amy Hommen, Gilbert resident, shared an example from when she was teaching and said if kids got in trouble up to four times, they were not allowed back until parents came and sat with the child throughout the day. She said the kids felt embarrassed and parents had to take time off work, and it was effective. Doralise Machado-Liddell, Gilbert resident, said she did not know who was arrested or doing it, other than what was in the news, and said she would like to hear about the outcome for the 18-year-old adults that were involved. She asked about how the adults were being held accountable, and said if it was a gang, some type of outcome was needed, and she hoped it was expanded. Amiée Valenzuela Altomare, not a Gilbert resident, said there were struggling kids and parents and that social emotion impacted the entire family. She spoke about divorce rates, overwhelmed parents, and social media. She said social media was almost required with phones because some teaching methods and communications were done through phones. She said she appreciated looking into legislature on brass knuckles, but parents could buy them, and kids could make weapons out of anything. She said parents knew about the tendencies in children and started to see signs before it erupted. 3. Conducting a Youth Violence Survey Councilmember Bongiovanni said he had met with a school superintendent of another city, noting there were some regulations before a survey could be done and parental permission would be needed. He spoke about getting the scope from the kids themselves and did not want to make a bad decision on a bad assumption. Chair Anderson spoke in agreement and said things they heard from the speakers would help how effective the survey could be. 5 4. Creation and Scheduling Community Listening Sessions Chair Anderson said the Subcommittee would not vote on action items but would make recommendation to the Council. He asked about time and format, then welcomed any other thoughts or ideas. Councilmember Bongiovanni asked if the time of the meeting was appropriate or if there would be more input in the evenings. Amy Van Hoek, Gilbert resident, said the later the meeting could start the better and teachers may not want to attend and speak because of potential issues with the school administration. She asked if there was a way for teachers to speak with Subcommittee members anonymously. Town Attorney Payne said Subcommittee members could meet individually and explained the requirements of meetings, subject to Open Meeting Law. Amy Van Hoek, Gilbert resident, suggested doing an anonymous survey for teachers and asked if the survey responses would be subject to public records requests. Town Attorney Payne said once completed and done, the survey could be part of public records requests, but if the survey was done anonymously then only the responses would be public record. Councilmember Torgeson discussed an effort from Councilmember Bongiovanni called “Chuck Chats" and asked if something similar could be set up anonymously, adding that things did not always come out in surveys. Councilmember Bongiovanni said he hoped schools would work together. Chair Anderson agreed and hoped to bring schools in early on to see if they were in agreement. Amiée Valenzuela Altomare, not a Gilbert resident, asked if the Subcommittee would be open to a different forum, such as a school cafeteria with a facilitator and said parents would be more comfortable than speaking into a microphone. She also thanked the police officers. 6 Chair Anderson asked Town Attorney Payne if meeting in a cafeteria would still be a public meeting and need to be noticed, to which Town Attorney Payne confirmed. Councilmember Bongiovanni said the dais could sometimes become a barrier and liked the idea of informal settings, such as a cafeteria. 5. Presentation from Chief Soelberg on Youth Violence Stats and General Community Safety Stats Police Chief Soelberg thanked the community and stated he provided a media briefing earlier that day. He said the focus had been on supporting the tremendous investigations behind the scenes that led to arrests. He discussed the crime trends and different calls for service. He said overall crime was down, but violent crimes went up involving adults and youth. He said in 2022-2023, Gilbert Police Department responded to 375,568 calls for service and of those calls for service, less than .07% were involving incidents of teen violence. He said every call for service mattered and the entire Police Department was committed to bringing justice to anyone and hold offenders accountable and would continue efforts to make teens and everyone feel safe. He said he was thankful to see the community members present, then noted the Crime Prevention Unit ran the Block Watch program. He added the Getting Arizona Involved in Neighborhoods (GAIN) program was another opportunity to provide resources and bring the community together. Chair Anderson asked if block watch included a sign noting a “safe place;” Chief Soelberg responded that it did, but there were qualifications and criteria that needed to be met. Chair Anderson asked how many active ones there currently were; Chief Soelberg said not a high number, but he could get that information to the Subcommittee. Amy Hommen, Gilbert resident, asked if there were enough police officers and police presence to accommodate the Town’s quick growth. Chief Soelberg spoke of the growth over the last 25 years and said everything was being done to keep with the challenges of growth and making sure the community was safe. He said 100 officers had been added since, and 7 they were working in the confines of the Town’s budget and looking at what the Police Department could do and how they could partner with others. Councilmember Torgeson said a lot of this crime was from affluent neighborhoods, and it was more unique and not a simplistic situation. 6. Set next Youth Violence Subcommittee Dates Chair Anderson said to consider times and dates to meet and report back to the Council. Councilmember Torgeson suggested to meet every other week so there was time to digest information. Chair Anderson said the Subcommittee would take what was heard at the meeting and develop action items to report back to the Council. Councilmember Bongiovanni said they needed time to create and do a survey and, in the meantime, could meet and do some listening sessions. Chair Anderson said he liked the idea of getting out into the community. Councilmember Bongiovanni said it was going to take the whole community to be involved and maybe even legislature and change in laws. Councilmember Torgeson said there still was a feeling of community in the Town and spoke of creating space and communication to find ideas. ADJOURN Chair Anderson adjourned the meeting at 4:06 p.m. ATTEST: ___________________________ ___________________________________ Scott Anderson, Vice Mayor Chaveli Herrera, Town Clerk CERTIFICATION 8 I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the special meeting of the Subcommittee on Teen Violence of the Town of Gilbert held on the 18th day of January, 2024. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and held and that a quorum was present. Dated this ____ day of ____________________2024. ___________________________________ Chaveli Herrera, Town Clerk 9