The Guiding Growth Podcast candidate edition is presented by Modern Moments, Gilbert Independent/yourvalley.net and the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce. Candidates’ participation in this podcast does not constitute an endorsement expressed or implied by the podcast, its hosts, its sponsors or its production team. The purpose of these interviews is to provide listeners with insights into the journey perspectives and policies of various candidates. All candidates running for Gilbert Town Council were invited to participate. Listeners are encouraged to do their research and make an informed decision when casting their votes.
Gilbert has two candidates for mayor this fall: Scott Anderson and Natalie DiBernardo.
Scott Anderson, a Gilbert resident of more than 30 years has been deeply involved in town affairs. As the visionary behind the Gilbert Riparian Preserves, he is committed to preserving Gilbert's status as a nationally acclaimed community and a top-tier destination in Arizona. With three decades of experience in local governance, Anderson brings expertise in land use, city planning, sustainability and essential municipal processes. His track record is adorned with accolades for his innovative projects and programs, demonstrating his ability to lead with creativity and efficiency.
Natalie DiBernardo, an Arizona native, epitomizes the spirit of community engagement and entrepreneurial drive. As a mother to teens, she understands the importance of building a thriving environment for future generations. DiBernardo’s journey in entrepreneurship has equipped her with experience in turning visions into successful actions. She is committed to local politics, recognizing the significance of ensuring that the voices of her community are heard and represented. She wants to see our town foster a transparent environment where every individual feels empowered and represented.
To hear more answers about what they would do in office and learn more about the life journeys of the candidates, listen to their Guiding Growth Podcast candidate edition episodes.
Scott Anderson
Natalie DiBernardo
Should you be elected, what would you consider to be your most significant responsibility in the position? And what would your top three priorities be?
Anderson: I think that the most significant thing that the mayor needs to be able to do is be an example of those priorities and speak of those priorities all the time. And I do have some priorities. It goes to this whole idea of build-out that,as I said before, we're on a different growth pattern right now.
We're approaching build-out in the next five or probably 10 years. And as we get to that point, then growth is going to look back in to into Gilbert and look for the parcels that are vacant, and it's going to be difficult to accomplish the development that will go along with that if we don't pay attention to these priorities. The first is our economy that we need to maintain a strong economy. We need to have the businesses, both the large and especially the small businesses, which is the bedrock of the community, to continue to develop.
And we need to find the ways to be able to provide incentives to make sure that they come here, and they stay here and that they're high quality. Our employment base has to be, bar none, the best in the state. And we only do that if we're able to attract them. And there are things in the community that will attract them to our community.
The second priority is our prosperity in the community. And that has to do with the clean, safe and vibrant, that especially safety right now, that's an important thing in the community.
And we need to stress how to be a safe community, the policies that go along with that. And we need to be able to find the ways to facilitate people making connections with one another. That's how we get that small-town feel, and it's our amenities that we provide. It's our design guidelines, our development regulations. Those are the things that bring the quality that will ensure prosperity in the community. And you can just see that by the values of the homes in the community now, which is kind of a good thing/bad thing, I guess.
And then the last is the infrastructure, the built environment. We need to pay attention to that. Sometimes I say this, and some people kind of shake their heads, but we are in the business of developing wealth in the community. And people say, ‘well, how does the town do that? We build the infrastructure. We provide the infrastructure that attracts the business that attracts the employment base that brings people to the community and that builds wealth in the community. And you can see that we've been successful just if you look at the overall wealth in Gilbert.
DiBernardo: My most significant priority I think is being able to tell the residents that I represented them. The reason I'm doing this is because I feel like the people want representation. So whether I agree with someone or not is not the point. I told you I would represent you. And so I want to be able to look everyone in the eye and say that's what I did. So that's the biggest responsibility.
Priorities for me are I have a lot of concerns about our budget. You know, I'm a single mom, and I've done pretty well, but the times are hard for everyone. And so I think that everyone is worried about that. So I want to dig in and find out ways. I want to make sure that we're saving the money that we need to be saving and not just passing on those taxes to our residents. I guess I would call that responsible growth, right? Making sure that our growth is responsible.
Another thing I'm really passionate about is restoring the community's faith in the police. We have really great first responders, and I want to make sure that our community knows that. And I want to make sure that we as a town are doing everything we can to support it, even though the mayor doesn't have anything to do technically with the police and the oversight and all of that. I think that the mayor really supports that relationship between the police and the first responders and the community.
The third thing is I want to make sure that our community feels safe, and that goes into schools, that goes into just, I've heard so many residents tell me, I had a resident tell me yesterday when I was getting signatures that someone called the cops on her son because he was in the front yard messing with the car door, and it's like stuff like that, that makes residents feel not safe, but they are safe. There just seems to be a lot of unrest in Gilbert right now. And so my priority is making sure that we go back to feeling Gilbert kindness, community connection and that we have control over our community because we do, we really do. Our community is really great.
The town is approaching build-out and some areas of the community are aging even as others continue to develop. How would you prioritize the needs of build-out with the needs of aging areas?
Anderson: We have an initiative in the town that's called City of the Future. And the idea behind that is, every municipality goes through a natural process, a natural kind of evolution. When they start is, typical of what happened in Gilbert, they start off slowly for a long period of time.
You know, there were no more than 1,000 people in Gilbert for many, many years, and then it explodes for one reason or another. And tthere are many development pressures that happened during that time, and there's a lot of stress and so forth. But eventually the town or the municipality will get to a point where, as you get toward build-out, things begin to deteriorate. And all you have to do is go to some of our neighboring communities. You can see some of the areas that are more run-down.
And that's a natural evolution that's happening in the community. And it'll happen here also if we don't pay any attention to it. But that's why we have the City of the Future initiative and those priorities I was talking about because we can pay attention to it. We can revitalize areas. We're looking at the northwest area of Gilbert, which is an area that we're concerned about. That's starting to show signs of that process. We can establish it as a redevelopment area, much like the Heritage District, and put resources into correcting what's happening there either through development standards or actually being able to influence what's happening through property maintenance codes and things like that.
That's how you balance out what's happening on the fringe like in South Gilbert. And (that) has one kind of development pressure, and then you've got to look back into the community, and that's where we have to pay attention to infrastructure maintenance and the other things I was talking about.
DiBernardo: Aging areas are kind of the forgotten piece in Gilbert. We say, ‘Oh, Gilbert's new,’ and then we forget that some of the areas are aging.
For me, if it's broken, it needs to be fixed. That is what I say. If it's broken, it needs to be fixed. We can't let our town get to the point where the things that are broken are causing breakdown in other places. For me, things that are broken are priority No. 1 and then growth after that is priority No. 2. If it's working and it just needs a little bit of TLC, maybe it can be put off. But if it's broken, I think it needs to be fixed first.
Ideally (do we wait until it’s broken)? No. Being in real estate, I've seen, if you wait until it's totally broken, it's going to cost you way more. And that's what I actually Gilbert does. We do a really good job of trying to predict when things are going to break. The Water Tower (Plaza) is the perfect example of that. We're already fixing stuff. So we said, ‘You know what? We might as well fix the other components of it right now so that we don't have to go back in and do demo again, and we save costs there. So I think Gilbert does a good job of that most of the time.
How would you measure success?
Anderson: I think I'd measure my success by the, I wouldn't say the amount of criticism — that comes with the office. But I count, for instance, I'd say right now what we've been doing the subcommittee work on teen violence. I count that as success because we've been able to take a very rowdy crowd that has some serious issues, and I have to hand it to them that they were very sincere about it. But I feel like they have come around now to the point that they feel like they've been listened to. To me that's success in the town, when I can talk to a constituent and they say they understand where we're coming from or they say, ‘I don't agree with where you're coming from, but here's my input,’ and they'll share that with me rather than hold it back and do it some other way that I might not know about. I'd rather have him tell me right up front.
But I count that all as a success. Projects in the town — virtually every housing development pretty much in town I had a part, and so I count that as a success as well as creating the Riparian Preserve. So those are some milestones I think in my career, big ones, too.
DiBernado: I would measure my success if my kids were proud of me. I am the kind of person I measure success by if you can look your family in the eye at the end of the day and say I did the best job I could and I was integris, I did the right thing, I can sleep at night. That's success to me. So if your kids are ... if my kids couldn't be proud of me, I didn't do a good job. That's just how I feel.
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