Glendale City Council hired Gilbert’s town manager, Patrick Banger, who created the town’s censorship department.
Banger will receive base compensation of $400,000, subject to adjustments based on factors including performance, the market, and cost of living. This makes Banger one of the highest-paid administrators in the Valley, not including the other perks that come with the position.
The city’s human resources and risk management director, Jim Brown, said they settled on Banger after undertaking a “nationwide search.” The current city manager, Kevin Phelps, intends to retire.
Council member and Alhambra Elementary School District member Jose “Lupe” Conchas Jr. said Banger aligned with their values of commitment to growth and serving residents with distinction. Councilmember Bart Turner, who has been accused of walking in lockstep with Conchas, was reportedly advocating “hard” for Banger.
“This vote isn’t just about selecting a new city manager, it’s about the future of Glendale for the next decades to come,” said Conchas. “I’m confident that Mr. Banger’s leadership will help us continue the path forward.”
Banger will assume the city manager position on January 12 of next year. Banger will depart Gilbert after 15 years with the town.
Banger beat out one other top candidate, Vicki Rios, Glendale’s assistant city manager and a longtime resident. Rios is credited with the city’s “dramatic financial turnaround” after she saved the city from bankruptcy upon entering the administration in 2013 by refinancing debt and building up cash reserves.
Behind the scene, conservative council members and city residents have vowed to keep Banger in line when it comes to aligning with Glendale values — and not importing those of New York.
AZ Free Newsreported last year that Banger credited former Democratic New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg as his inspiration for town management, and caused his creation of the Office of Digital Government (ODG).
“One of the things that I’d been doing for quite some time is following what Mayor Bloomberg was doing in New York,” said Banger.
ODG was a department within Gilbert that monitored the online speech of employees and elected officials to ensure alignment with progressive ideologies. Department salaries cost the town over $1.1 million annually.
The former lead of ODG hired by Banger, Dana Berchman, resigned following reporting on ODG activity. Berchman now runs a communications firm, Oh, hi! Communications.
While managing Gilbert, Banger oversaw a $2.2 billion annual budget and nearly 2,000 employees. Banger is credited with generating nearly $400 million in investments and over 700,000 square feet in new construction in Gilbert.
While all those benefits to Gilbert were felt, residents may be more quick to recall Banger’s leadership during the “Gilbert Goons,” a group of mostly wealthy teens who committed a series of crimes and terrorized the community from 2022 onward that ultimately resulted in the murder of a boy in 2023.
The Gilbert Goons and their Halloween murder quickly became a national story, with much scrutiny over the city’s handling of the teens’ crimes leading up to the murder.
ODG control over city communications led to what former employees and residents believed to be the cause of delays and scarcity in communications on the Gilbert Goons.
Banger is also president-elect of the Arizona City/County Management Association. He was formerly chairman of the Maricopa Association of Governments Management Board and an Honorary Base Commander at Luke Air Force Base.
Before taking over as town manager for Gilbert in 2011, Banger’s roots were in Missouri, where he was a consultant, home builder, city administrator, and city financial analyst.
Watch Glendale City Council discuss and vote on Banger’s hiring here:
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For those of us who live under the blazing Arizona sun, we recognize this as foolishness. Road diets have not been successful accomplishing any of the goals their proponents claim they will. Instead, the result is that the streets become more congested, you’re spending more time on the road, emergency vehicles have a harder time getting around, and everyone is mad.
Of course, unsurprisingly, the residents of those very cities often don’t want their own tax money to go to ripping up the roads they rely upon. One such city is the tiny town of Page, Arizona, where in 2022, the city council approved the “Page Downtown Streetscape Master Plan” which calls for removing vehicle lanes along a 1.4 mile stretch of Lake Powell Boulevard in the heart of the downtown area. In the small northern town, residents stood up against these restrictive, dumb transportation ideas. Page is a community known for its tourism, with visitors bringing boats and heavy gear to explore Lake Powell. For locals, these roads are lifelines for tourism, commerce, and daily living, and Page residents aren’t willing to surrender any more of their precious infrastructure.
The citizens of Gilbert are bracing for a third water rate increase since 2024 on top of the 2025 sales tax increase that resulted in legal action against the town in January 2025. The new rate increase, following a 95% increase in the town’s utility wastewater rate, could see the town’s water rate jump up another 25%.
Gilbert Water Manager Rebecca Hamill revealed in a Town Council study session last week that the rate hike could be necessary based on Gilbert’s biannual utility rate analysis and adjustments, according to the Gilbert Sun News.
As previously reported by AZ Free News, there were no utility rate increases from 2019 to 2021, until a 29.6 percent jump in 2022, followed by a 48 percent increase in 2024 and a 25 percent increase in 2025, resulting in a staggering hike of 102.4 percent over 2021 rates.
“Arizona and Gilbert are facing uncertainty in water resources and providing a secure water supply is a top priority for our department,” Hamill told the council. “One of the main impacts on the budget is these increasing water resources costs, and we have seen since 2020 a 73% increase in the per acre-foot cost of CAP (Central Arizona Project) water, and we continue to see an increase in the percentage of the water resources as a component of the overall water budget,” she added.
Hamill explained that the Town of Gilbert’s water portfolio includes 40 percent of its potable water coming from the Salt and Verde Rivers, with 41 percent coming from the Colorado River via the CAP, 15 percent coming from the reclaimed recharge system water, and just four percent coming from groundwater. She described the town’s water sources as “diverse,” despite 81 percent of it being dependent on surface water and 41 percent subject to fluctuations in Colorado River water allocation.
As noted by the Gilbert Sun News, the town is in the early stages of reconstructing the North Water Treatment Plant to supply 70 percent of the town’s needs or approximately 60 million gallons per day, but it is only nearing the halfway point of its completion in October and is not expected to come online until 2028, according to the most current project update. This leaves the Town of Gilbert effectively at the mercy of a myriad of factors beyond the town’s control for at least the next two and a half years, with the town forced to defer $151 million in future water system improvements.
“The bill is typically made up of rates and fees for four lines of service, including water, sewer, solid waste, recycling and environmental compliance,” Hamill told the outlet. “We refer to each of these four lines of service as enterprise funds, which means that each fund operates as a self-sustaining business entity within the town. Revenue collected for each service is only used to fund that service.”
The increase is part and parcel to the cash/bond gradual approach the Town approved in February 2024.
“This is where we are now – we are working with our rate consultant to determine that 25% is the proper number for the fund,” Hamill told the council. “This option provided the (water) fund with sufficient revenue for critical capital projects, ongoing $5 million capacity in the operating fund, and an ongoing $66 million capacity in the repair and replacement fund starting in FY29.”
As a result of the delays in the Water Treatment Plant reconstruction, caused in part by an increase in the cost of chemical and electrical components, coupled with its dependence on sources susceptible to environmental and political factors, the Town government is turning to the public and conservation efforts in an attempt to stem the rising costs of the water system. Mayor Scott Anderson explained, “We have to remember it costs, and it’s going to cost more over time, to purchase the water, to transport the water, to treat the water, and to distribute the water. It’s going to cost more all the time – we can’t lose sight of that,” he emphasized. “Conservation is the key.”
A recent report has identified the five safest cities in Arizona and also noted a significant drop in violent crime experiences as well as a slight decrease in property crime experiences.
The report from Safewise found the ten safest cities in Arizona are (ranked order): Oro Valley, Queen Creek, Gilbert, Sahuarita, Surprise, Buckeye, Maricopa, Marana, Chandler, and Prescott Valley. Twenty-five cities in total were ranked.
The five lowest ranked were Apache Junction, Avondale, Casa Grande, Glendale, and Tempe. For comparison: the violent crime reported per 1,000 people in Oro Valley was 0.55 and property crimes per 1,000 people were 11.51. Tempe with over quadruple the population has 5.2 violent crimes per 1,000 people and 36.13 property crimes per 1,000 people.
Zeroing in on the reports findings, SafeWise found that the five safest cities collective violent crime rate is 1.0 incidents per 1,000 people while property crime was 10.4 incidents per 1,000 people. The report also found that the number of Arizonans surveyed who said they feel safe jumped up 5% from 36% to 41%.
SafeWise Managing Editor and Safety Expert, Rebecca Edwards said in a statement, “Violent crime experiences are trending down across Arizona, and mass shootings dropped by more than 60% year over year—from eight in 2023 to just three in 2024. Cities like Queen Creek and Surprise saw decreases in both violent and property crime, showing that safety is improving for many Arizona communities.”
According to the report, although 63% of Arizonans surveyed were concerned about property crime on a daily basis, personal experiences with property crime dropped year over year with just 26% of respondents reporting a personal experience with property crime in the past year.
Arizonans are also ranked third for adopting the use of security cameras for their homes, following Delaware and Louisiana. As a matter of preference most Arizonans surveyed, 59%, preferred security cameras or guard dogs, 44%.
Overall, Arizona respondents were most concerned over violent crime, although violent crime experiences fell from 19% to 11% year over year.
Approximately 14% of Arizonans polled reported carrying a firearm for personal protection and 33% reportedly own one for property protection. Incongruently, the number concerned about gun violence increased from 58% to 67% despite a decrease in mass-shootings.
According to SafeWise, the report was generated from “voluntary, self-reported information that cities and jurisdictions across the country report through the FBI Summary Reporting System (SRS) and National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). For our 2025 reporting year, the most recent FBI data was released in October 2024 for crimes reported in 2023.” The company’s full report and methodology is available here.
The Town of Gilbert is the target of a lawsuit by the Goldwater Institute on behalf of the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona and a local property owner, Jonathan Barth, for allegedly violating the Arizona Constitution which bans tax increases on “services.”
According to Goldwater, the tax increase imposed by the Town of Gilbert includes “many types of business that do not produce tangible goods, such as advertising, photography, utilities, hotel/lodging, and construction.”
Goldwater is challenging two of the tax increases in particular: on homebuilding and short-term rental properties.
Lawsuit Alert: The Goldwater Institute challenges Gilbert’s illegal pickleball tax.
Gilbert officials are hiking taxes to fund pickleball courts, splash pads, and even a ropes course—all in violation of the Arizona Constitution. Here’s what you need to know: 🧵
As noted in the text of the lawsuit, the Arizona Constitution prohibits “any county, city, town, municipal corporation, or other political subdivision of the state, or any district created by law” from creating any new or increasing any existing transaction-based taxes on the “privilege to engage in, or the gross receipts of sales or gross income derived from, any service performed in this state.”
The new tax ordinance in question, per the Town of Gilbert’s website, imposes a 0.5% increase in the existing sales tax and creates a “use tax” to be “paid for by residents and businesses when purchases are made online with out-of-state vendors who do less than $100K of sales in Arizona per year.”
The lawsuit explains that, “As a result of the Ordinance, individuals, businesses, and taxpayers, including Plaintiff Jonathan Barth, who engage in the rental or lease of real property, including for transient lodging, will pay a higher tax rate for the services they perform. Additionally, individuals, businesses, and taxpayers that engage in general contracting services, including the members of Plaintiff Home Builders Association of Central Arizona (“HBACA”), will pay a higher tax rate on the services they perform.”
Barth, an educator and father of five, will be impacted because he earns supplemental income by managing his detached bungalow as a rental for short-term tenants. He told Goldwater, “This tax hike makes it all the more difficult to make ends meet in Gilbert.”
Former Mayor Brigette Peterson and all of the members of the Town Council are named as defendants in addition to the town itself.
The town allegedly intends to use the projected $55 million yield of this new tax for “Critical Infrastructure Projects,” adding that “Time is of the essence as many of Gilbert’s services are over capacity and new infrastructure is needed.”
The Goldwater Institute has found however, that these “Critical Infrastructure Projects,” include pickleball courts, splash pads, a ropes course, and a “statement” bridge.
The Home Builders Association of Central Arizona (HBACA) told Goldwater that the new taxes will result in increased construction costs in the town as well. HBACA CEO Jackson Moll warned, “Gilbert officials are trampling on their own constituents’ rights with no regard for the consequences their illegal actions will have on taxpayers and homebuyers. The Arizona Constitution is clear: increasing taxes on services, including on construction contracting, is unlawful.”
As previously reported by AZ Free News, the Goldwater Institute pursued a similar action against the Town of Payson in September when the Town Council decided to incur a $70 million debt via a bond measure without a public referendum.
