2 target last Gilbert Town Council seat

Oct. 6—Early ballots for the Nov. 5 General Election will start hitting Gilbert mailboxes later this week, and among dozens of decisions facing voters is who should fill the last seat on the seven-member Town Council dais.

Aaron Accurso and Kenny Buckland are facing off after the July 30 primary resolved the mayoral race with Scott Anderson's 56.75%-43.25% victory over newcomer Natalie Dibernardo and Air Force veteran and former Boeing employee Monte Lyons's outright win with 26.7% of the vote.

Planning Commission Chairman Mundt was out of the race after getting the lowest vote tally — or 23.89% — leaving Accurso and Buckland to duke it out up to November.

Both candidates were almost head-to-head in the primary, with Accurso garnering 18,476 votes, or 24.81% — a mere 367 votes ahead of Buckland, who had 18,109 votes or 24.32%.

The deadline to register is Monday, Oct. 7, and Oct. 25 is the last day to request a mail-in ballot. For more information, go to elections.maricopa.gov .

Besides the council election, the town also has two propositions on the ballot.

Proposition 497 calls for a permanent base adjustment on the state-imposed town expenditure limit and Prop 498 asks voters to exclude Capital Improvement Projects from the expenditure limit by approving a Capital Improvement Accumulation Fund.

Council races

Accurso, a construction manager, is promising to bring a family-first focus to the council. He routinely attends council meetings in person or online and said the fact he doesn't own a business will provide a fresh perspective on town issues.

Buckland, a retired Gilbert Police commander, wants to bring servant leadership and civility back to the council, after a rough period in the wake of numerous ethics complaints.

He believes the council's main job is to set policies that address present issues and prepare the town for future challenges.

Among those challenges is affordable housing, and legislation passed this year that curbs municipalities' ability to manage its own growth by limiting some zoning options.

For instance, House Bill 2721 mandates municipalities to allow more middle housing — duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and townhomes — on single family lots.

As the median price of homes sold in Gilbert continues to far exceed the Valley median, many residents have balked at the number of apartment complexes that have won town approval in recent years.

Accurso contends the town needs to hold firm on fulfilling its voter-approved General Plan and put the brakes on multifamily housing development. He also believes that the government isn't responsible for providing affordable housing and the market will adjust in time with the demands.

"The public has made it clear that it doesn't want multifamily housing in the town," Buckland said in response to the Gilbert Sun News' questionnaire, which appears in full with Buckland's answers at gilbertsunnews.com .

"Our town needs to hold to the General Plan that the voters approve every 10 years," Accurso said. "We approve this as a plan to give us as residents and businesses an appropriate expectation of what will be built on neighboring, undeveloped property and what to expect when a property is re-developed."

Buckland believes that the higher median-home price in Gilbert reflects the law of supply-and-demand driven by smart development.

"None of us wants to see too many apartments forever change the character of our community," he said in his questionnaire. "At the same time, I would like my adult children to be able to afford a home in Gilbert; that is not an option right now.

We need to be thoughtful about providing intermediate housing options, considering all options and the communities' desires, as well as strong consideration for the landowners' rights."

While Buckland wants the younger generation to be able to afford homes in Gilbert, he thinks that an emphasis on landowners' rights, community input on rezoning and building crime-free apartment complexes would be key in the long run.

"I do think balance and diversity is important, while considering land owners' rights and community input in determining how we manage rezoning," he said.

The town has also been dealing with teen violence in the past year, with incidents of assault, underage drinking, loitering and mischief in isolated pockets of Gilbert like the downtown Heritage District garages.

To combat the problem, the council in August approved a private security firm to have two unarmed guards patrolling the garages from Wednesday to Saturday 6 p.m. — 2 a.m. and video surveillance during the rest of the week.

The council and the police department also urged residents to participate in the county attorney's "Report! Don't Repost" campaign, asking adults to actively report teen crimes if witnessed.

On the issue, Buckland thinks that getting ahead of the community narrative on such incidents and providing accurate information to build trust is important.

He also suggested the town could seek an outside agency evaluation called After-Action Report (AAR) to understand the lessons to be learned and for accountability.

Accurso wants to change the reactionary handling by the council and the police department and be more proactive in the future, doing more outreach in the community.

He also said as a council, police department and community, Gilbert should not remain comfortable with "safest communities in the country" declarations and work continuously to encourage the public to report incidents as and when they see them.

As Gilbert approaches buildout, the council has been discussing the possibility of raising the sales, use and bed taxes in the town to supplement as many as 23 prioritized capital improvement projects.

The council approved the publishing of a notice of intent on the hikes earlier this year and set the date for the public hearing for Oct. 22.

If approved, Gilbert's sales tax will be raised from 1.5% to 2% and bed tax — paid by tourists staying at the town's hotels, from 2.8% to 5%. Use tax is paid by residents and businesses for online purchases with Arizona vendors who do less than $100,000 sales per year. The town, which currently does not have a use tax, might have it at 2% from the beginning of next year.

The town will not be raising its secondary property tax, stating that it only burdens Gilbert's property owners. A municipal bond approved by voters is how the town would utilize funds collected from this property tax.

Accurso was clear that the government should do its best not to raise taxes in Gilbert, encumbering the town's families. Instead, the council should reassess their priorities to make do with what the public has provided.

"If something becomes untenable," Accurso wrote, "it is the responsibility of the governing body to reassess its priorities and make do with what the public has given them in their taxes."

Muni bonds should be rarely used and for one-time, long-term capital projects, he added.

Buckland reasoned that if sales tax is used, it should be for the general public's benefit and it might be a good way for pass-through traffic to contribute to Gilbert's development.

While he said bonds provided voters with a direct voice to share their priorities, Buckland observed that Gilbert has a AAA bond rating for a reason and the town should strive to live up to that trust.

"If we raise taxes today to pay cash, we may be unfairly burdening today's residents to pay for the benefit of people yet to come," he said. "We have a AAA bond rating for a reason and need to continue to live up to that trust."

Accurso is happy that the town has done an incredible job creating and maintaining a premiere image, with clean common areas and beautiful landscaping. But, to get to the next level of development, he also believed that the town would need help thinking "outside the box."

"I believe that the overall leadership of the town has been lacking," he said. "We need vibrant, competent leaders on the council to hold our staff accountable and ask the tough questions."

Buckland also appreciated the high quality of life that comes with living in Gilbert as the second safest community in the nation. Yet, he wants to make sure the town handles the little details that can help extend the infrastructure life and save tax dollars from going into early replacement.

"Additionally," Buckland said, "we are very good at celebrating our victories, including marketing the awards our community receives, we must also have the humility to communicate where we fall short, to ensure the community knows where we went wrong, and what we are going to do to continually improve and strive for best in class service."

Propositions 497 and 498

Both of the town's propositions are tied to Gilbert's capital improvement projects needs and the state imposed expenditure limit.

Arizona caps what each of its municipalities can spend regardless of the revenue they receive.

This limit was approved by voters in 1980 and is calculated based on the 1979-80 fiscal year budget. Since then, the state adjusts this limit for communities to account for population growth and inflation.

Arizona towns and cities can ask voters to approve adjustments to this limit. Gilbert last asked its voters to adjust this in 1998, when the town's population was 87,878.

Gilbert's population today is 288,000 and the town has a per capita expenditure restriction of $1,963.

This year, if voters say yes to Prop 497, the permanent base adjustment, Gilbert can raise the spending limit by $1.5 million. The new per capita spending limit will also be $3,219, second lowest among the Valley's most populated cities and towns, after Glendale, which is at $2,877.

The town said this will not result in a tax increase.

Instead, this allows the town more room in its budget to allocate for capital improvement projects. Gilbert will still be required to have a balanced budget and cannot spend money that it doesn't have.

The town also notes that roads, public safety buildings such as fire stations, libraries and wastewater treatment facilities have been built and are being operated within its bounds.

Town officials earlier this year also identified Gilbert's parks expansion as a key focus area, after surveys by the town, Parkscore and Wallethub gave poor ratings for the town's parks and recreation facilities.

These capital needs tie into the second question on the ballot for Gilbert's voters, Prop 498. The proposition asks voters to approve a Capital Projects Accumulation Fund.

If the fund is approved, the infrastructure projects in Gilbert's pipeline will be exempted from the state spending limit. That means the town will not risk exceeding this limit due to the projects' costs and would not have to resort to municipal bonding to cover the costs either.

Again, this would not be a tax increase, the town says.

The town in the past has successfully managed to stay below the state spending limit without incurring any fines.

Mayor Brigette Peterson in a September council meeting urged citizens to work their way from the bottom of the four-page ballot, as most city and town questions appear at the end, alongside school district bonds and overrides.

"Please start at the end and work your way back because the important issues facing us, our communities and our state will be at the end of that ballot. And please do your homework before you vote," she said.

She noted that it is uncommon to have such a long ballot but asked that the public cast their votes for its entirety.