April 25, 2021 | www.santansun.com
Relentlessly local coverage of Southern Chandler
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
‘Exhausted’ police ask Chandler officials for help BY KEVIN REAGAN Staff Writer
Chandler Police Chief Sean Duggan is pleading for help from city officials to improve his department’s staffing levels amid an inexplicable strange spike in violent crimes. And now two police organizations – The Chandler Law Enforcement Association and Chandler Lieutenants & Sergeants Association – are recommending a five-year plan for an additional 83 sworn officers to address critical police staffing shortages in the City of Chandler. “This would bring Chandler in line with other Valley agencies in a fiscally
Chandler Police Chief Sean Duggan pleaded with City Council recently to beef up his department's ranks. (Special to SanTan Sun News)
responsible way,” the two groups said last week in a release. Protests, shootings and a pandemic have plagued his department for the last year and the wearying job conditions have been making it harder to recruit new officers, the chief said said. Duggan said he’d like to fill 15 vacancies just to get the city up to its staffing capacity but Chandler is having to compete with every other Valley city for the same pool of suitable
candidates – and that pool is becoming smaller. “There aren’t many people that are willing to do the difficult job of being a police officer,” the chief said. The two police associations noted that it has been 13 years since new police positions have been added despite the continuous influx of new families and corporations to Chandler. “Instead, positions have been reassigned to meet only basic patrol needs, leaving a gap in other investigative and proactive policing divisions,” they said. “We will be there when we are needed. We’ve always been there,” said See
POLICE on page 9
Council split on Chandler non-discrimination policy BY KEVIN REAGAN Staff Writer
Marvin Wessel has been waging a one-pilot war with city officials over safety issues at the Chandler Municipal Airport. (Pablo Robles/Staff Photographer)
Chandler pilot on mission to make airport safer BY KEVIN REAGAN Staff Writer
Marvin Wessel keeps a detached airplane tail sitting on the asphalt outside his hangar in the Chandler Municipal Airport. It’s the only piece of wreckage he was able to salvage from a fire that destroyed Wessel’s plane last May on the airport’s runway. While Wessel was testing his plane, a brake fire broke out and the pilot quickly radioed for help. Firefighters were dispatched to the airport and struggled to swiftly gain entry to the flaming aircraft. Wessel watched as firetrucks stood outside the airport’s gates, waiting for one of them to open. Sixteen minutes would pass before firefighters could start dosing water on his burning plane. “It was very, very, frustrating to say the least,” Wessel recalled. The incident almost didn’t come as a surprise: Wessel said he has been trying to raise the alarm about fire safety at the
airport for years. Wessel witnessed a fire at a hangar in 2017 and observed how firefighters seemed to not know how to navigate the airport’s layout. According to data Wessel has collected, Chandler is one of the few top general aviation airports in the country that has no fire station located in less than one mile of its perimeter. In early 2019, Wessel said he brought up his concern before the Chandler Airport Commission and was invited to meet with city officials over his worries. They assured him fire safety was under control at the airport. One year later, Wessel’s plane was demolished in a fire. Now, he is on a mission to get the city to respond to his concerns. “These guys better wake up and smell the coffee,” Wessel said. “If people die because they can’t respond, no money See
AIRPORT on page 8
Chandler City Council is split over whether to adopt a resolution or ordinance to protect certain populations from unlawful discrimination. After several cities across the Valley passed ordinances prohibiting discrimination in public places, Chandler is thinking of following suit by introducing similar legislation that could apply to local residents and businesses. Chandler city Councilman OD Harris has been recently spearheading the initiative and has already begun drafting some language he’d like to see included in a non-discrimination policy. “Chandler celebrates and welcomes all people of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, social-economic status, age, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, immigrant status, veteran status, disability,” a draft of Harris’ policy states. Harris publicly mentioned his desire to pass an ordinance last month after hundreds of Asian-American residents assembled outside City Hall to protest discriminatory behavior observed nationally against Asians throughout the pandemic. During a council meeting on April 21, Harris said passing a non-discrimination
ordinance could send a “strong message” to the community that Chandler is committed to protecting vulnerable groups and treating all its residents fairly. But other Chandler leaders feel an ordinance is a bit overzealous and could result in criminalizing behavior the city should not be in a position to regulate. Councilman Rene Lopez prefers establishing a resolution that could include many of the same elements as an ordinance, but without any enforcement aspect to it. Resolutions, considered a notch below an ordinance, are a formal expression of opinion or position that represents the will of a municipal body. Chandler typically passes resolutions to handle administrative matters involving grants and intergovernmental agreements. Lopez believes it may be best to pass a resolution that embodies the city’s stance on discrimination without including a regulatory feature to it. Unless there’s a systemic problem of discrimination in Chandler, he said, an ordinance with a set of penalties and fees almost seems unnecessary. “That’s why putting something in with a criminal aspect to it, is a bridge too far,” Lopez said.
F E AT U R E STO R I E S Street cameras staying in Chandler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . COMMUNITY . . . . . Page 4 Downtown Chandler icon to close . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BUSINESS . . . . . . . . Page 31 Chef basks in VFW Magazine limelight. . . . . . . . . . . NEIGHBORS . . . . . . Page 38 Cinco de Chandler is on. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ARTS . . . . . . . . . . Page 43 Ocotillo getting famed breakfast joint. . . . . . . . . . . EAT . . . . . . . . . . . Page 50
Real Estate .................................... Center Section
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COUNCIL on page 12
More Community . . . . 1-21 Clip-It . . . . . . . 22-24 Business . . . . . . 31-35 Sports . . . . . . . 36-37 Neighbors . . . 38-42 Arts . . . . . . . . . 43-46 Faith . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Directory . . . 48-49 Eat . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50