CHANDLER SETS BOND ELECTION
PROTEST DISRUPTS CUSD MEETING
PAGE 5
PAGE 3
From Uptown to Downtown, covering Chandler like the sun.
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
INSIDE
This Week
BUSINESS .................... 22 Experts foresees an office glut in the Valley.
SPORTS ......................... 24 Chandler Wolves coach mourned.
FREE | chandlernews.com
June 13, 2021
Police group calls Chandler of�icer hiring inadequate BY KEVIN REAGAN Arizonan Staff Writer
T
he Chandler Police Department will be hiring more officers in the coming year to make up for years of stagnation, but some police officials think the city’s plan doesn’t go far enough to meet the agency’s long-term needs. Police Chief Sean Duggan has drawn up a five-year plan that adds 67 new positions to various divisions in the department. Several of these new positions could potentially
come online in the next fiscal year, followed by more positions in subsequent years. But a separate five-year plan devised by the Chandler Law Enforcement Association, which represents the interests of more than 250 local officers, goes beyond Duggan’s plan by recommending the addition of 83 officer positions. Mike Collins, the association’s president, said Duggan’s hiring plan is a “good start” in correcting a system that allowed Chandler to go more than a decade without creating one new officer position.
But Collins believes the city needs to invest more in strengthening Chandler’s investigatory powers in order to make the police department more comparable to other agencies throughout the Valley. “Our whole police department is pretty much reactionary,” Collins said. “We can respond after a crime happens, but we have very few units that can go out and be proactive.” While Duggan’s plan adds 67 positions
see POLICE page 7
Arts Center prepares Celebrating life for big comeback BY KEVIN REAGAN Arizonan Staff Writer
GETOUT ...................... 26 Chandler singer cuts new gospel-country song.
NEWS ...........................................3 COMMUNITY ........................ 19 BUSINESS ................................ 22 SPORTS ...................................24 GET OUT ..................................26 CLASSIFIEDS ...........................28
A
fter more than a year of barring patrons from visiting its theater, the Chandler Center for the Arts is preparing to welcome back audiences for live, in-person performances. Since March 2020, the pandemic has prohibited theatergoers from buying tickets to the center’s 1,500-seat auditorium and enjoying its season of touring musical acts. For the last year, audiences could only watch the center’s concerts online by streaming performances virtually. Much of that virtual content has also been free – a perk that’s benefited the community, but has done little to raise the center’s revenues. Starting July 23, the center will begin opening for big in-person events. “This is really our grand opening in many ways,” said Michelle
see ARTS page 6
Ayden Smith, 7, right, and his sister Peyton, 5, of Chandler joined the Super Heroes celebration that Banner Health and the Children’s Cancer Network held on June 5 at the cancer network’s Chandler headquarters for kids who have overcome cancer. Ayden was diagnosed in July 2018 with leukemia and finished treatment early this year. The Children’s Cancer Network helps families with children stricken by cancer – a disease that affects one in every 285 children in the country. Information: childrenscancernetwork.org. (Pablo Robles/Arizonan Staff Photographer)
The latest breaking news and top local stories in Chandler!
www.ChandlerNews.com .com
JUST A CLICK AWAY
