Minutes of the Special Meeting of October 18, 2021

Meeting Minutes
City Council Special Meeting
October 18, 2021 | 1:00 p.m.
City Hall Training Rooms A and B
175 S. Arizona Ave., Chandler, AZ
Call to Order
The meeting was called to order by Mayor Kevin Hartke at 1:03 p.m.
Roll Call
Council Attendance
Appointee Attendance
Mayor Kevin Hartke 
Josh Wright, Acting City Manager
Vice Mayor Mark Stewart 
Debra Stapleton, Assistant City Manager
Councilmember OD Harris 
Dawn Lang, Deputy City Manager/CFO 
Councilmember René Lopez 
Kelly Schwab, City Attorney 
Councilmember Christine Ellis 
Dana DeLong, City Clerk
Councilmember Matt Orlando
Absent
Councilmember Terry Roe – absent/excused
Staff in Attendance
Matt Burdick, Communications and Public Affairs Director
Ryan Peters, Governmental Relations and Policy Manager
Micah Miranda, Economic Development Director
Cori Harris, Mayor and Council Communications Manager
Alexis Apodaca, Governmental Relations Coordinator
ASU Staff in Attendance
Melissa McCann, Director University City Exchange
Warde Nichols, Executive Director Government and Community Engagement
Duke Reiter, Executive Director University City Exchange
Aric Bopp, Executive Director Knowledge Enterprise
Lev Gonick, Chief Information Officer Smart City Architect
Ji Mi Choi, Vice President Knowledge Enterprise
Discussion

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1.
Welcome and Introductions
MAYOR HARTKE welcomed everyone to the meeting. Mayor Hartke said the City is proud of their vision 
to be a world class city that provides an exceptional quality of life. And through their commitment to 
residents and businesses, Council has put together five focus areas that drive the strategic planning 
process and objectives as they continue to look to the future. Council understands that the best way 
to advance these goals is through partnerships at all levels. Within the economic vitality focus, there 
is a strategic goal of partnerships with higher education, workforce development, and 
entrepreneurship programs. Mayor Hartke said there are a lot of jobs in Chandler and they want to 
strengthen the relationship with all of the educational institutions. Mayor Hartke hoped this meeting 
would serve as a launch point for future endeavors and cooperation between both organizations. 
2.
Discussion of Partnerships between Arizona State University and the City of Chandler
MICAH MIRANDA, Economic Development Director, said on the economic development side it is 
important to have a deep relationship with the colleges to create a pipeline of workers in the 
community. Mr. Miranda said prior to COVID-19 the ACIC was going well, and ASU did a phenomenal 
job bringing that facility up to what it should be. Mr. Miranda talked about the innovations and 
entrepreneurship that was happening in ACIC. Due to COVID-19 there has been a pause, but they want 
to relaunch the space. Mr. Miranda asked how ACIC could really be a destination in the Valley and how 
they could add additional programming. Mr. Miranda asked what they could do with an activation 
schedule and launch this in the next 60-90 days. 
JI MI CHOI, Vice President Knowledge Enterprise, thanked Mr. Miranda for his comments on the 
ACIC. Ms. Choi talked about the bankruptcy and ASU was able to buy out of the bankruptcy and it 
took about a year to get everything back up to code and running again. Ms. Choi said in November 
2019 is when the maker space was relaunched and discussed the different community-based 
groups and partnerships using the space. In November 2019 people started signing up for 
memberships again and using the space and then March 2020 COVID-19 happened. In January 
2020 they had six fulltime staff and in March 2020 those staff members could not work remotely. 
By April they began to lose some of the staff members. Ms. Choi said they are rehiring all of the 
staff.
MS. CHOI said they are continuing to work with Chandler Innovations and made the ACIC a step 
out space for Chandler Innovations clients. They pay $86 a month and there are currently five 
companies working out of there. Ms. Choi said they are reconnecting with all of the organizations 
they previously worked with. Ms. Choi said they are using the maker space for a new program. 
There are two fulltime people left in that space and they are recalibrating how to bring the maker 
space back. They are now designing programs around the maker space. The idea is to work with 
K-12 stem teachers and teach them how to make different things and the beginnings of robots. 
Ms. Choi said they have had a number of events through there with students and faculty. Ms. Choi 
said they are restarting the maker space as a studio model. An idea is to host studio nights as a 
pilot to start. They want to bring the space to be available and reactive the community interest.

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MS. CHOI said there were many things about the maker space that were great but there were 
things that did not work. Ms. Choi said they need to create a welcoming culture to have people 
who work together. Ms. Choi said they want the culture to be a community practice and people 
are not clashing with each other who are working on a different type of product. Ms. Choi wants 
the City to be a part of the activation schedule. 
COUNCILMEMBER ORLANDO said he liked the new business model and asked if there was enough 
space as the classroom model takes off. 
MS. CHOI said yes, for now. 
COUNILMEMBER ORLANDO said he would love to see the classrooms come back as it drives the 
economics. 
MAYOR HARTKE said the advantage of the current location is connecting people and is integral to 
downtown. Mayor Hartke asked if this would continue to be available to ASU students. 
MS. CHOI said they would like to see that, but they are trying to navigate what it would look like. 
Ms. Choi said it is an interesting challenge right now as they need to hire staff in order to have a 
safe environment. In the past they had a lot of students from the Mesa campus because their 
maker space closed earlier and this one was open later so there was overflow. Ms. Choi said this 
is an ASU issue not a Chandler issue. 
COUNCILMEMBER HARRIS asked about the digital space. 
MS. CHOI said the digital creative studio gives people a chance to understand what it means to do 
a podcast or shoot videos. Ms. Choi said they are working closely on the three-sided model of 
content control, media platforms, and users and how people are able to monetize their social 
media accounts. This space gives people a chance to experiment with that and create a community 
of practice. 
MAYOR HARTKE said they have opened The Makery in the library and does not see competition in 
this but sees it as complimentary. 
COUNCILMEMBER ELLIS asked how the City is involved with ASU on this space. 
MR. MIRANDA said it is a City owned facility that ASU leases. 
COUNCILMEMBER ELLIS said there was something that was thriving and then the City did not shut 
down but ASU shut down and the constituents could not use this space. Councilmember Ellis 
asked what assurances there are so the City could continue to be a partner.

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MS. CHOI said the concern was that it was an unprecedented health issue. All of the employees 
are ASU employees, and some people were onsite and some could work from home. Ms. Choi 
said they are still navigating reopening and did not have the answer yet. Ms. Choi said it was 
important to be fair to all of the employees and to follow the same protocol for everyone. Ms. Choi 
said she would be open, if a shutdown happens again, to have City employees that manages it. 
Ms. Choi said Chandler Innovations was able to access the space. 
COUNCILMEMBER ELLIS said it was very limited and they need to find how to move forward.
MAYOR HARTKE said they had full access to the space, not the tools. Mayor Hartke said he 
understood not having ASU staff there. 
MELISSA McCANN, Director University City Exchange, said their office works with external partners 
to bring together an idea of regional planning options. Ms. McCann said all the Council’s focus 
areas are embedded in the way they work on projects with the City and other organizations. Ms. 
McCann said they currently work with other municipalities to work on quality of life and address 
certain urban planning initiatives. In that collective they are usually leveraging other industry 
partnerships and nonprofits in the community to help be part of the process or solution. In the 
past they have leveraged research partners in the University. Ms. McCann said they are currently 
the facilitator for the river revitalization project in Maricopa County for the Salt and Gila Rivers. 
They are working with the different tribes and cities on the project and are bringing resources to 
the project and facilitating meetings. Ms. McCann said they are also working with Phoenix on 
creating an arts and culture district in downtown Phoenix. Ms. McCann said there is a strategic 
vision that is embedded in their office and work with many partners on grant opportunities and 
private sector resources. It may not always relate to a physical environment but may impact it.
COUNCILMEMBER HARRIS asked about the partnership with the City of Phoenix. 
MS. McCANN said they engaged in a visioning session with the City to come up with an idea around 
existing institutions in the downtown and how to complement those to add dynamic activities and 
develop what was missing. Ms. McCann said they developed a vision concept and that created 
discussion with other arts and culture community organizations and a campaign to reach out 
larger art institutes for traveling exhibits. Ms. McCann said they are still working on this initiative. 
VICE MAYOR STEWART said clearly ASU is committed to the customer experience. Vice Mayor 
Stewart said he would like to see a partnership with ASU on studies regarding sustainability 
projects. This creates a direct conduit between the City and ASU. 
MS. McCANN said a lot of their work is centered around urban resilience and sustainability such 
as heat mitigation. Ms. McCann said they may be able to bring in partners to the conversation that 
are not currently. Ms. McCann said they are working on an urban forestry initiative and have

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leveraged a number of community organizations, parks department, and schools. ASU has a 
carbon offset program that gives a stipend for planting trees. 
MAYOR HARTKE said there are Councilmembers interested in planting more trees and they are 
learning more about low water use plants. 
COUNCILMEMBER ORLANDO said there are a lot of things they can do such as solar and building 
colors. Councilmember Orlando said he would like to brainstorm some ideas to bring to Council.
COUNCILMEMBER HARRIS said he would like to see Chandler more lively and felt there was not 
enough art in Downtown Chandler. The City is doing a light study to make the Downtown more 
lively. Councilmember Harris he wanted to see more creative spaces and more inviting spaces. 
MAYOR HARTKE said staff would discuss with Council on what options the City has to put their 
best foot forward.
ARIC BOPP, Executive Director Knowledge Enterprise, said they want to support the Arizona 
Commerce Authority, Greater Phoenix Economic Council, and local economic development 
communities to make Arizona an attractive place for companies to locate. Mr. Bopp said they 
work with a lot of projects and they are often the first people from ASU to interact with a 
company. Mr. Bopp said they assist companies in choosing a location and may bring the utility 
companies to the table as well. Mr. Bopp said they wanted to ensure all of their resources are at 
the table to really show why Arizona is the best place to be and not another state. In addition, 
ASU has several real estate innovation zones that would be developed over time and wanted to 
find good tenants for those zones. Mr. Bopp said some days Mr. Miranda and Mr. Bopp are 
working together to get a tenant and other days they are competing against each other. Mr. 
Bopp said ASU is there to support economic development in Chandler. Last year, they touched 
319 different projects and hosted about 43 prospect visits and located about 11 projects in the 
innovation zone portfolio and 13 projects in the Valley. Mr. Bopp said they want to create 
meaningful job opportunities for Arizona residents. 
COUNCILMEMBER ORLANDO said he wanted to ensure jobs were in Chandler and thanked ASU 
for their support. 
COUNCILMEMBER ELLIS asked when there would be an ASU annex in Chandler so they could keep 
their dollars in Chandler. 
MR. BOPP said he would defer to other staff members regarding that. 
MAYOR HARTKE said it was a process and they have never gone out like Mesa for a bond to secure 
something like that.

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VICE MAYOR STEWART said he heard about the seven innovation zones and said there could be 
an opportunity to create an innovation zone in the Price Corridor. 
MR. BOPP said some of the innovation zones are owned by the cities they are located in and it 
would be a possibility to have an innovation zone in Chandler as long as it makes sense. 
VICE MAYOR STEWART said there are some incredible organizations to put some wind behind that 
to make it happen. 
COUNCILMEMBER ORLANDO said there has always been the desire innovate and see what they 
could actually do to support that. 
COUNCILMEMBER LOPEZ said it was great to see the relationship. Councilmember Lopez talked 
about the Valley area and how others view Arizona and how to show what Arizona is actually like. 
LEV GONICK, Chief Information Officer Smart City Architect, said before COVID-19 the technology 
community got together to discuss being connected amongst all the cities and leverage core 
competencies in each area. Mr. Gonick said this is an ongoing collective that is important. From 
that connective, they put together a regionwide Broadband Task Force as there is unprecedented 
federal stimulus dollars and broadband is on the table for investment opportunities. They are 
working to help connect the underserved and under connected residents in the Valley and there 
is a series of initiatives underway and is a requirement of some of the grants. Broadband is not a 
nice to have which was shown during the pandemic and there is uneven growth in the Valley. Mr. 
Gonick said at one of the innovation zones there is a series of technology partners and AWS with 
ASU has set up a cloud innovation center to address water management, pedestrian and 
cityscapes, and mapping tools regarding broadband. 
COUNCILMEMBER LOPEZ talked about broadband providers and that there are Cox connections 
throughout all of Chandler and the City is doing well. They do have a program for lower income 
households to get broadband at a lower cost or free. Councilmember Lopez asked if those 
programs were being leveraged across the Valley. 
MR. GONICK said the Valley is their largest customer and they would love to work with ASU. Cox 
is another tenant in the Sky Song facility to work on the internet of things. Cox said they do not 
know how to engage the community to let them know the program is available so they are looking 
to ASU help them work with the local community. 
COUNCILMEMBER LOPEZ thought it would be good to work with the schools. 
MR. GONICK said in many cities about a third of the households do not have broadband at home 
and there are opportunities to get them that. Mr. Gonick said broadband is a necessary 
investment and it is part of everyone’s everyday life. Mr. Gonick said if they can engage students

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to work on these types of projects during their academic journey they are more likely to stay in 
the area. There are just under 100,000 IT professionals in the Valley and they need to increase 
that pipeline of talent and keep them in the region to get to the next tier of 200,000 to 250,000 IT 
professionals. 
COUNCILMEMBER LOPEZ departed at 2:11 p.m.
COUNCILMEMBER HARRIS talked about the CUSD technology programs and ASU should have a 
pipeline of students as well as Chandler Gilbert Community College. Chandler is a city of 
innovation, and they want to find a great way to produce the next generation of IT professionals. 
There needs to be more conversations about certificate programs and wanted to see how to 
partner with different entities to close the gap. Councilmember Harris thanked ASU for the 
conversation regarding these issues. 
COUNCILMEMBER ELLIS said when COVID-19 happened it opened the door for us to see where 
there are problems. Councilmember Ellis asked if the City was part of the Broadband Task Force. 
Councilmember Ellis asked about having an ASU Annex so they can keep moving forward. 
COUNCILMEMBER ORLANDO thanked ASU and they have had numerous meetings over the years. 
The City just did a facilities study and a bond item for municipal buildings. Councilmember 
Orlando said there is land downtown, and they could look at modeling something for the 
downtown area for a partnership.  There could be an anchor in downtown Chandler to address 
some issues around energy, education, and environment and if they do not address these, they 
would not be successful in their goals. Councilmember Orlando asked to consider a small steering 
committee to see what could be possible. 
MAYOR HARTKE thanked ASU for the updates and seeing how they could mobilize some urban 
planning concepts. There are a lot of partnership opportunities. 
MS. CHOI said they would bring these items back to ASU leadership to increase ASU’s presence in 
Chandler. 
Adjourn
The meeting was adjourned at 2:22 pm.
ATTEST:  _______________________
______________________________
City Clerk                                                   Mayor

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Approval Date of Minutes:  December 6, 2021
Certification
I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Special 
Meeting of the City Council of Chandler, Arizona, held on the 18th day of October 2021.  I further 
certify that the meeting was duly called and held and that a quorum was present.
DATED this _______ day of December 2021.
__________________________
City Clerk