Kenny Buckland
Kenny Buckland has spent the last 40 years refining his leadership skills. He began as a teenager managing the family business, progressed to become the second in command of a large police department, became a leader in long-range surveillance technology focusing on protecting our borders, and served as a global crisis manager. Currently, he serves as the senior director of sales in a second chance company, driven by purpose and duty as his North Star. Kenny firmly believes that leadership is the cornerstone of success. With a master’s degree in educational leadership and a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, Kenny is well-equipped for his roles. He is a graduate of both the FBI National Academy Command College and Northwestern University’s School of Police Staff and Command. Kenny holds a third-degree black belt in Judo and has dedicated many years to coaching youth and adults in martial arts.
Kenny’s wife of 10 years is also a public servant, currently serving as the Chief Deputy to the Maricopa County Assessor. Together, they have a blended family of five adult children, including one in neurosurgery, two serving our country in the United States Air Force, and two currently pursuing higher education. They also cherish time with their two grandchildren, making the most of every opportunity to be together despite their family being spread across the nation and world.
2024 CANDIDATE EDITION
This episode is part of our 2024 Candidate Edition. Candidates' participation in this podcast does not constitute an endorsement, express or implied, by the podcast, its host(s), 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 informed decisions when casting their votes. Thank you for listening!
Episode Transcription
Welcome to a special episode of Guiding Growth, Candidate edition presented by Modern Moments, independent news media, Gilbert Independent, Your valley. net and the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce. Candidates participation in this podcast does not constitute an endorsement expressed or implied by the podcast. Its host, 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.
Thank you for listening, Guiding Growth, conversations with community leaders in this podcast, we'll explore the human journey of leaders, their stories of humility, triumph, roadblocks and lessons learned, come join us as we journey together and uncover the questions you've always wanted to know. This podcast is brought to you by the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce, providing resources, connections and belonging for business professionals and modern moments, an event and meeting venue in the heart of Gilbert and at Gilbert Independent, your valley. net dedicated to serving readers with good community journalism.
The Gilbert Independent is a nonpartisan newspaper, an online site that covers our town's institutions, development and events, subscribe and follow your valley. net Daily to stay up to date with latest local news. Kenny Buckland has enjoyed a career in law enforcement. He served as a second in command of a large police department then as a leader in long range surveillance technology, focusing on protecting national borders. Currently, he serves as the senior sales director at a second chance company. Kenny holds a master's degree in educational leadership and a bachelor's degree in criminal justice.
He is a graduate of both the FBI National Command College and Northwestern University School of Police Staff and Command. Kenny and his wife of 10 years have a blended family of five adult Children and cherish their time with two grandchildren. Fun fact, Kenny won the gold medal in 1984 Junior Olympics in Los Angeles. Annie holds a third degree black belt in judo. Kenny is running for a seat on Gilbert's Town council. Welcome, Kenny. Thank you. Welcome. Glad to be here. We're glad to have you here. We're going to start with what we call rapid fire.
Here we go. What's your favorite hidden gem in Gilbert? That more people should know about. Garage East. There you go. If you could have any superpower for a day, what would it be and how would you use it? I want to be able to read people's minds. Are you sure? I do? I think I know what's in there sometimes and their expressions and their behaviors and how they act. But I really want to know. Ok, what would you consider to be? The town's greatest strength. Town's greatest strength is its ability to all work together as one team versus silos.
What's your favorite outdoor activity to enjoy in our community? Pickleball? If our town were a movie, what genre would it be and why? So it's feels like a big city or it looks like a big city but it feels like a small town. So Andy Griffiths show love it. OK? If you could have dinner with any one person alive or not, who would it be my grandfather who's, who's not alive? He's passed. But I'd love to have dinner with him again. Lots of wisdom in that man.
If you had to describe our community in three words, what would they be safe, vibrant and comfortable who is a leader you admire and why? So my mentor, a longtime mentor is a gentleman named John Coca. He was an assistant uh chief in Scottsdale PD, served as a department, liquor board director uh for a term and now is uh really enjoying retirement. I learned so much from that man and, and he mentored me uh my journey with the Gilbert PD. Uh I didn't want groupthink. So he was a great mentor for me on an outside perspective and we both have a very strong faith, uh our Christian faith and he's just been an amazing leader for me.
What would you consider to be the town's biggest challenge? How do we navigate, getting to build out? And then once we're there, what do we do? What's your mantra or words to live by? It's the final question, by the way, do the right things for the right reasons. All right. Well, let's get to know you a little bit. So we'll start at the beginning. You're an Arizona native. Talk about your childhood and what that looked like. I have a really great memories of my childhood, amazing parents, brother, sister, uh, early on in life, I grew up over in South Phoenix.
Uh, once I was uh school age, we moved to Tempe where I really grew up, uh, between there and bouncing back and forth. A lot of family uh in uh South Phoenix, but mostly Tempe, uh went to Marcos and hes a high school. Graduated there as a padre. Uh Really? It's, we, I love how my, my father said this. We're gonna spend our life making memories. Your inheritance is gonna be in the memories we make. My, my sister was third in the US uh at junior nationals.
My brother was uh two times, second. Uh I finished fourth twice. So clearly we were a competitive family and we were traveling family around the country and that cost a lot of money back then. So they committed to it and created family time out of it. And we bonded out of it and just lots of, uh, family time all over this country. High school days. I love sticking on those sometimes. Were you involved in a lot of activities there? What kind of things did you do? It wasn't, you know, it's funny.
I was, I was pretty quiet, reserved. I was always the good kid. I didn't get in trouble, you know, I didn't go out and party. I was training for judo and wrestling all the time. Everything I did was for that. My father also owned a business, uh, dry cleaners over in South Phoenix. And, uh, I worked since I was nine years old. There's no child labor laws when it's your family. And so I wanted a bike. Uh, I was probably nine, I was nine and, uh, it's like then you can earn it and I would stand on a box because I couldn't, I wasn't tall enough to put the sports coats on the, on the puffer stand on a box and then jump down, push the button and jump back on it, get it off and over and over and over.
And I learned the hard work, uh, you know how to earn your money. Um, it just taught me the value, the value of hard work and how it pays off. Little. Did you know he was making you do box jumps all day, which was great for you when you look back on that time in elementary school and high school and I have to call out that we're both full and falcons are, um, share a little bit about, um, some of the lessons learned and, and things that you learned along the way.
I learned that you, you don't take anything for granted and I learned that nothing is free and if it is, it's probably a ruse. Just work hard dig in. Don't complain. You know, my father taught me a long time ago. Don't complain about things, fix them. Right? And you have no right to complain if you're not willing to jump in the arena. So I learned that from early on in life, my parents were very pragmatic and they were small business owners. They didn't come from wealth. There were hard times.
There were good times but hard or, you know, or, uh, you know, financially good. There were still great times because what I learned was family is what matters, you know, friends is what matters. My, I had to, you know, just a push to push me. I did well in school when I wanted to and I had a, I remember I had a, a teacher uh, from fees, Mrs Munoz. I don't know if you remember her. Um God rest her soul. I believe she's passed now. But she, I was pressing hard and didn't want to go and didn't like it.
And my parents are like, listen, this is what you need. This is a teacher who cares about you. She's investing her life into you. You need to press in. And I did and I learned so much and it was, it was great because that set me on a better trajectory for high school. And I always got a decent grades. I was never the top, top. I was a jock. I was never the top, you know, scholar, but, uh, those lessons really changed my trajectory and MS Munoz was, was vital in that.
I'm curious more about your sports area too because I imagine you had some amazing coaches that helped you with that area. Um, you want to talk a little bit about that wrestling at Margo Denisa, uh, coach Weed. Um, and, uh, your chick were fantastic. Um, and Judo, which was my main focus. I wrestled during wrestling season because it, it, they both, you know, they both complement each other. And David Webb was my first judo coach and it happened by happenstance. Everything was on TV, was karate. I wanted karate.
That was cool. And I wasn't a big kid and, and, and Feast could be a little rough at times. Huh? There was, uh, you know, there was some, uh, kids getting jumped and stuff and I just wanted to learn to protect myself and, and, and have fun. I love sports. I got to, uh, David Webb Judo Academy and there was, there were no kids in, you know, in karate. It was all adults and he's like, give judo a try and I didn't know what it was. And my dad said, you know what I did that when I was a kid one time and I loved it and just try it.
And he said, if you, if you want to switch it, you can. And I never looked back. I fell in love with the throws and the grappling of judo. So David Webb taught me to love judo. And then he retired and a gentleman uh named Peter Rennick, who uh here is he still here in the Valley? Uh Three time Polish Olympian uh taught me to be good at Judo. And uh I got the old Soviet Union style training and then uh Shuji Mia who's a uh um sensei in Japan did a sabbatical here for two or three years.
So then I learned the Japanese finesse style of judo. So I was getting a different mix of arts and uh it just really grew me well. So they were two people who influenced my life and uh who I absolutely love and adore and, and um were contributory to, to my success. That's great. What happened after graduation from Marcus Denisa, I went up to NAU um didn't start out so well. I uh I pledged a fraternity. I joined Sig Manu and, and I came back with a 275 GPA.
You had a lot of fun, a lot of fun and uh my parents being the good parents that they are. They said, uh that is unacceptable. You can come home and uh, you live in our house and, you know, you can focus on school or you're paying for it. We can't, we can't. And their, their business was also struggling at the time. That was uh um, back in, uh, you know, the 21.3 when market was not doing so well. And I said, no, I love it up here.
Love Flagstaff. I can do this. And I, I worked, uh, about 21000 22.0 hours a week and, uh, my grades got a whole lot better. So it taught me to mature and, uh, and really commit that. I was there for school, not for play. So I had a, you know, I spent my life in high school. I never partied. I didn't go out, you know, and, and I didn't drink, I was always a designated driver and I just, uh, I think I cut loose when I, uh, when I got to college and it was a, a short period of, uh, stupidness and then I never got in trouble, but it was, uh, certainly a life lesson, uh, to grow up.
You're a grown man and I act like it. And, uh, that gentle shove certainly helped. So, what leads to law enforcement? So I, I've always wanted law enforcement. Gosh, probably since high school and maybe before that, my cousin by marriage. His brother was a Phoenix police officer and I really looked up to him. He was just a, a noble guy, a man of integrity. And, and, uh I looked up to him a lot, but I, when I went to NAU I kind of had, you know, ventured away from that a little bit.
I actually had an experience at Marcos with an officer that I was not impressed with. And I got pulled in and interrogated for about two hours over a stolen vehicle that I had nothing to do with and the entire school knew who did it. And ultimately, they caught the right guy. But I learned from that experience that, um, I said to myself, I could do better and, uh, you know, I deserved better than that. That was frightening. And so that was in my mind, I had a couple of experiences with that guy and, uh, always in my mind and I kind of wanted it, but people would talk me out of it, you know, like why, you know, why would you want to do that?
It's dangerous and, and, well, it's because of what I want. So I listened to other people for a while. I had a long time girlfriend in high school. Absolutely did not want me to be a police officer. And ultimately it came down to, I said, you know what you're doing, what you want to do. I get to do what I want to do and she said goodbye and, and that was the best decision that ever happened. It uh I got to do what I wanted to do.
I look back now after 21000 years of service, uh both to the cities of Prescott and the town of Gilbert. And absolutely best decision that pivoted me to where I needed to be. What are some of the lessons learned in your career? Maybe some of the highlights and some of the challenges that you faced. So the challenges were we were doing a lot with very little Gilbert was growing rapidly. I think if I remember a stat, we were the fastest growing city in the decade of the nineties, I started bilateral down here from Gilbert or from Prescott in 275.
I started in Prescott in 20163. And I think there was 22016 I was the 211rd officer and there were 24,000 people. I retired in 2016. A little more than 20 years later, what, 21 years later? And we were 200 I think 65,113 people. So we were one of the leanest police departments in the nation having gone to the FBI National Academy. Uh Doctor Jarvis ran a class on data and uh um we 272 students from all around the world. He was amazed, everybody's amazed that we were, we were bringing in best in class service at pennies on the dollar and, and with, at a 0.89 officer per 1000 ratio and we were doing it well, it's exhausting.
It takes a lot of work, a lot of hours, a lot of overtime, but we did it. So that was a challenge. And as you get into leadership and you know, when, when you, we follow the direction of staff that the council sets for us in the, in the, in the direction they had set was to be lean and to do more with less and we just committed. So keeping your people motivated, keeping them from not jumping ship to another agency, um can be difficult. So how you lead them matters and, and uh how, you know, to help them understand like we weren't paid the best at the time.
You know, we were paid, uh, uh pretty low compared to the market, but we had other values here that, that you don't get in other, other cities like we, you know, other cities at the time, you know, bigger cities, you went on a call and you, you're like you called investigations, you hung crime scene tape and then you stand there here, you got to be engaged, you got to learn, you got to grow and it makes police officers as a whole better. And I do think all of that contributed to, you know, us working our way towards the second safest city in the United States.
Because everybody was committed. Everybody dug in, everybody learned, everybody grew. It was just fantastic. Interesting. So, I, I want to dig a little bit on that experience more too because today and you're not in the system now, right? So, out of it, but you hear a lot more of uh unrest with the trust and the, I guess the stability with the police department here. What's your perspective on that now? Like looking at it as you're seeing it because you were in it where, where, how would we fix that kind of stuff?
So, I, I think people as a whole and for the most part still trust the police here in Gilbert. You know, there's some big cities they don't and those cities have earned that and, yeah, there's a lot of stuff going on in the news right now. Uh, that, that's, you know, putting Gilbert out there. But I do think as a whole few, few incidents aside, or a few issues aside, I do think most people still trust the police deep down there are, uh, you know, the, the recent news has been tough and it's been hard on Gilbert and, um, you know, it, it's, it's difficult because you have, we came, you know, the, the, we've grown into social media as a, as a, a nation and it's become our news and it's like instant information but it's, you don't know if it's true or not and people a lot of people tend to believe what they read, you know, on X or Twitter or Facebook as the gospel.
And my concern is that we're not vetting our information anymore, even though the media, you know, you hear the term if it bleeds it leads or if it yells at sells, it's, uh, entertainment and, uh, there's not as much true journalism out there to help provide the truth. So that I think that puts the, the police department in a pickle. People want, we're used to instant gratification. People want crimes solved now. But at the same time, we also want them, them solved accurately. So we put the right people into the system and we don't harm the wrong people by mistake.
And those two things clash because you, you can't get it both ways waiting on a crime lab because there's thousands and thousands of cases, interviewing witnesses, some who are willing to talk to you and some who are not, you know, how do you get that information? And when it's different incidents, piecing it all together can be really difficult. You have different officers responding to different incidents. So I think that puts uh any police department in a really tough situation because people expect it now. But if they rush through it and then you lose the case, county attorney says it's not a quality case or a jury, you know, doesn't convict and it, and it really was uh uh a convictable case.
But because you rushed, didn't do your due diligence, didn't dot Your, I's cross your t make sure that you, you probable cause is the threshold, everything I did. I wanted to make sure that when I presented it to the county attorney that they felt like it was beyond that, that they felt like it was beyond a reasonable doubt because they're the ones that have to try it. And there's the gap between probable cause and that. And so, so I know that, that, that most officers want to do the right things right in the right way and that takes time and, and you know, time kills feelings, talk about what you do today.
So I actually work for a second chance company. What that means is we hire felons ex-cons who serve their time, pay their dues to society and now get a second chance. So I used to put people in prison. Now I'm working really hard to try to keep them out because I believe that has a solid impact on recidivism. You know, I've been a victim of crimes. I've had a assault on me numerous times as a police officer. I remember my father's business was broken into three times in a week in South Phoenix and, and the pain that my, my parents went through.
So whatever we can do to correct the behavior to give hope to people who paid their dues and they deserve to pay their dues if you, if you violate the law and you victimize people, you deserve what you get. But once you've paid those dues and you've done exactly what society asked you to do. You get grace. And so my job as a senior sales director is we, we've got a couple of operations. We have, we have uh sales development reps who actually are inside prison now, gaining skills, right?
Communication skills, sales skills, typing, all the things that we need. They need when they get out and we try to level them up and then we, once they're out, we, you know, we can hire them, give them a job. They have, they have paid and they're getting paid while they're in so they can come out with a little bit of money and there's no need to go out and rob and, you know, burglarize because they have, they have a little money to get rent and, and start their life and then we give them a job, we get them working, we hold them accountable, you know, and I tell them, I don't, I don't care where you've been and I don't ask them their story, but I care where you're going and your behavior now matters because if you want to be a part of this, you, you have to, your behavior has to match our, our vision and our values for this company.
And um, we're having tremendous success. About 75% of my staff are second chancers, they want to be there. They want to work, they appreciate the grace. They work hard, they pay their taxes, they're contributing to society and not one of them has been arrested since I've taken over there and before, but I only know what I know, not one has been arrested and put back in. So it's really, uh, it's just purpose driven and it's gratifying and, and I get to make a difference in people's lives. Well, I know we're going to get into some questions.
But before we do, I'm curious, um today, as you're doing this type of work and um obviously running for election, who, who is most, who is most influential in your life right now. So probably my, my uh really close friend who's also the CEO of this company. He uh he's the pastor that married uh do Marie and me. He's the pastor that uh uh baptized two of our five kids. He spoke at my retirement, uh did the prayer there and spoke for me uh at my retirement.
And uh it was, it was just, well, last night he spoke at, at the launch party and uh he said, you know, there was standing room only like people couldn't get in the door. And he said, if that's how it is like I want that where I work. Well, it turned out he was, ended up being a senior director at Amazon. And, and so I need your leadership over here and brought me over as a global crisis manager. So I was able to work with a company that's the size of the East Valley, but worldwide and helping them navigate through their, you know, greatest tragedies of these sites, shootings, um weather events, you know, tornadoes, floods, hurricane, uh just tragedy and helping them navigate from cast to calm.
And then he became CEO of this company. And uh here I am. So we get to work together to, to drive, you know, he drives the, the, the vision and the culture or he sets it and, and I'm a part of a team of a few that drive it. And uh we, we're just doing great things and we believe for, you know, for the kingdom of God and, and uh right now, I would say he probably has the most influence because he is my boss. He is a pastor and he is a really close friend.
Well, we've put together a few questions that we think our listeners would like to hear answers to. And so I will start, they're doozies. You're going to love these. We keep them simple for Ben. Um What would you consider your most significant responsibility? Should you be elected? And what would your top three priorities be? So most important responsibility of council is to work together to set good policy for the staff to actually execute as a staffer. For many years. I watched council members come in with agendas thinking they had, you know, they had, they had ideas right, wrong or different that were planted in their head and some right, some wrong oftentimes it, it was, they're hiding money somewhere. Right.
You know, it's, there's something that they were upset about and they got there because there's an anger point. I don't have that. What I got to witness was council members would, new council members would come in with an agenda thinking they were going to uncover something and then fix it. And what they found was we were actually, you know, high integrity. Our, our budget was rock solid. I give my wife credit to that. She was the budget director and uh it was rock solid and then I would watch them like fall in line of just love for serving town of Gilbert.
But it took a while and for me, I already know, I already know it's not gonna take, I've, I've been involved with every part of the town I worked in one part, but I partnered with every part of the town because we are one team. Gilbert's one team. And so I get a head start because because I know what really needs to happen is set policy, get out of the weeds and don't meddle create the policy that, that the council uh feels is where the town needs to go as we head towards build out and through it and then get out of the way and let staff work it.
And if staff is not doing their job, that's the manager's job. And if the manager is not doing his job and his staff's then his council's job to deal with the manager. But I think the best thing that, that I could do is help unify, work together. We're gonna, we're gonna, uh, agree to disagree on some things. Period. We, we will. But that's, doesn't have to be a blocker, right? I don't know why everything has to be so lying in the sand these days, our national politics are that way.
State politics have become that way and I really don't want our local, which is the most important politically. The most important impact that we can have on our citizenss is this job, I think more so than the state, more so than the Feds because it's where we live, work and play and so Unify, work together sometimes agree to disagree. In the end. There's a vote, right? And the majority is going to set the direction and then get out of the way and let the really good staff we have do their jobs.
What would you say will be your top three priorities, uh, on issues. So, public safety, no one wants to be here. People will flee from here if it's not safe period. Public safety is my number one. I, I was here when it was, was really difficult. Uh, you know, the the staffing was so, so short, I love that we move towards a data driven staffing model. I believe in that, you know, I studied that at the FBI National Academy and I, I absolutely believe in that because a number, you know, like, let's, we're gonna make, we're gonna be at 1.3 per 1000 or 2.0 per 1000. Why?
That's my question. Why? What does the workload tell us what are the expectations, right? What, what's our response times? How are we doing in, in what we're doing and use data to staff us? So I think we need to be, we need to make sure we have the appropriate number of officers to actually respond. We need to use data to help do that to staff and to deploy and and we need to have solid technology to help advance the the the expediency of these cases that the people want investigated and sent to the prosecutor immediately.
So public safety for sure, fire, you know. Absolutely. If my house is on fire, I want those guys there now yesterday, you know, if, if, if my wife has a medical incident, I want them there yesterday. We need to make sure we have strategically deployed our stations and I and I feel confident that we have, but that that doesn't just stop once you're there, we need to keep looking at that because as the town grows and as people, businesses continue to, to to deliver and people come and thrive, that changes things.
So we got to constantly be looking at that. Do we have our stations in the right place? Do we have enough personnel for it? Right. So public safety business, we need, we need diverse economic development in business. I, I was a business owner after I retired, I started, well, I didn't, I started a portion of a business. I jumped in with uh uh my father in law, we were based in Oregon. Heavy regulations, COVID hit. We weren't allowed to work anymore. We were, but it was, there was, there was restrictions that forced us if we wanted to work, we had to lay off 75% of our staff.
And then with that, we couldn't get the work done too many regulations. You had marijuana dispensaries that were essential and we weren't and we lost a business, you know, and my father-in-law lost years of work because of regulations. So I want to see, I like limited regulations allow businesses to thrive obviously, within reason, I'm not on the polls. Everything needs to be balanced and you can't have a business that, that hurts people right. There has to be checks and balances. But for the most part, let the businesses do their job and, and, and have an opportunity to, to thrive.
And I think that will help grow Gilbert, that will create balance in, in the funding we need to, to grow and to build out and beyond. And uh I just want to see that we have balance business. Third is long term infrastructure sustainability. I was here years ago when they were digging up all the roads and they're putting the pipes in and that was a long time ago and, and time has passed and, and things start to deteriorate. So I do think it's important that, that, that as a town, we are managing that very well, the li little things cannot be overlooked because little details get overlooked, can create big impacts down the road.
And my goal trying to be financially responsible, I don't want to just throw money, you know, away do the due diligence along the way to extend the life of what we have now for as long as we can, but don't over, you know, shoot it so that all of a sudden the catastrophe happens because I've also seen that side of it and roads torn up for months because of massive failures and you know, we didn't predict it, right. So, so I think those three things are my three main pillars and if those things align, then I believe that the high quality of life standards that we have now and that we love and the whole reason we're here will continue.
Next question, paint a picture of your vision of a well run Gilbert for us. And how would you take to contribute this vision a well run Gilbert is a Gilbert. It starts at the top. If, if the council is messy, the town will be messy. Right. If all of you are heads of households somewhere, you know, we probably all have kids. If mom and dad are a mess, kids are a mess. Right. So it starts at the council. I do not like that. Our tax dollars, you know, required for mediation.
So I think that council needs to work together and I think they actually are doing much better and I'm really proud of that and uh impressed with that and I do think I can help with that because I come in everything I've done. My, my entire life in leadership has been very, very inclusive, has been very non threatening, has, has been the ability to build relationships to not always agree with you and not beat you down and tear you down and respect your opinion. But then say, ok, it's not about you, it's not about me, it's about them.
So how do we come to a win win solution for our community? And I think that's where I will come in and add to the council and what they're already doing uh to, to make it a, a much more stable um government. And then, like I said before, then set policy, get out of the way, keep casting vision and allow the staff who, who, who work very hard to, to execute that. Yep, I like it. We have a great staff there for sure. The town is approaching, build out and some of our, some areas of our community are aging even as others continue to develop.
How would you prioritize the needs of build out with the needs of aging areas? So I don't think you look at one and not the other when you're looking at vision. So let's say differently where I work, I've got lots of different sales seats for different journeys. If, if I'm not holistically looking at the entire department, I'm gonna have things go off the rails right over an Upsell department because I'm focused on renewals. And so same thing applies here. It's business, right? Whether it's my day job or it's a government job, it's still business at the end of the day.
And you have to look at the whole thing holistically and you have to look, evaluate all the parts and pieces of that. You use the staff to provide you data and, and if they're not, then then implement it. But we need to be very data driven. And what does that tell us to help us make smart decisions? Because I think you can do both. I don't think it's one or the other. How would you, are there any specific um projects or initiatives when it comes to aging areas of our community that you think should be called out?
So, uh you know, the north, the northwest area, Gilbert is really our oldest area. There was a time when all the activity was, you know, over near, near country club in Guadalupe and that area and, and we just expanded, you know, east and south that area is, is, is older, but it's still part of Gilbert and it's valuable to Gilbert and they, and they deserve attention too, being trying to be financially responsible. I like to look at how can we fund things? Can we use grants when I was at the police department applied for?
Or I had my staff apply for multiple grants. Much of the swat equipment that we have today was purchased off of us us c funding that we were given by the federal government to purchase. It didn't cost the Gilbert taxpayers anything. There's lots and lots of grants out there. Are we looking at them? I don't know yet. I'm, I don't have a seat at the council, but if we do, I'll be looking for that because if there's ways we can offset funding, I think that's important. I, I worked for a council, uh, that had a council member at one time that said I, we will not take any money from the Feds.
I scratched my head at that. Why you say you don't want our taxpayers, our taxpayer dollars used for stuff. But then at the same time, you don't want to take from the Feds and the that money grant money has to go to a certain purpose and, and, and legally it can only be used for a certain purpose. So if we don't take it, someone else is getting it. So I think an area there, we really need to be looking into, uh you know, this, the, the town leadership is really smart.
I'm sure they are. But uh I think that's an area we can help offset costs. All right. How important is it to you that all residents feel represented? Even those who don't share in the same values? 100%. I absolutely believe in diversity. I think diversity makes us better. You know, we don't all look the same. We don't all think the same and I think that makes us better. You know, what the, why did the Challenger crash group think? Ok, when I, when I built my staff as a commander to PD, I had lieutenants around me that I felt like offset because I know that I have things I need to work on.
I know I have things that I'm really strong at and things I'm not. So I, I had, you know, lieutenants around me that had different strengths that offset mine. And we together had a really strong team and delivered a really great product for the town of government. It's, it's no different. It's just a bigger model. You have a, a whole citizen base that every day I go to work and learn something that have, have backgrounds, you know, that they learned something from their parents who are different than my parents.
And I, if you don't include that, then you're, you're selling yourself short and you're missing an opportunity to, to be the very best we can be. And we're at the summit right now, right? We're on top and people want to knock the champ off. We, you know, we're the second safest city in the nation. We're winning awards like crazy for all kinds of different reasons. Uh to people want to be here and live here and, and uh and thrive here, hard to stay on top. Welcome people, listen to people.
You may learn something. I think you've touched on this a little bit. But I will ask nonetheless, as a governmental agency, the town is a complex business and major employer with many lines of service and corresponding budgets. If elected, how would you navigate or perhaps maybe what would your approach be to gain a strong understanding of the inner workings of the town? So when you sit down with the budget staff, because it may be run differently now than when I was here before. II, I certainly had a hand in it because my wife was the budget director for many years.
She delivered our AAA bond rating and she balanced our budget during the crash. So uh you know, my understanding is what she brought in, which was the zero based budget is still in place. If it's not, I think we need to be there. I didn't like it, admittedly, I didn't like it when I first had to work with it. But I learned it's the best value for the town and for the citizens because you have to justify every single dollar that comes along. It's not easy, which is why I didn't like it because I was busy, but it's the right thing to do.
So I think to sit down with the budget. See, you know, what does it look like? Where are we spending? Uh are there areas that we're being not so smart? Are we, you know, are we too much and you know, too much one area or not? But I, I don't know what, I don't know. So I need to get in there. I need to look at it. Um I need to listen to a lot of listening and evaluating and then if there are, you know, if everything's perfect, which is probably not then great.
But if not, that's where the, that's where the collaboration starts and you gotta start working together on. Ok. How do we get where we need to be with the money we have and if we don't have enough, how do we get more? Right? What grants? Where do we, where do we cut to, to supply here? Uh What are the priorities? Because you can't say yes to everything. All right. Final question. Are you ready? Yes, sir. This is the best one. In the future. When you look back at your time in office, how will you measure your success?
Well, I hope and I expect that I stayed, I stayed true to who I am. Everything I've done has been to serve people from, you know, a really young man in, in my early twenties, in law enforcement to, to southern border, working with border patrol, you know, and technology to Amazon to where I am now, everything I've done has been to help people to put others first. I believe you have, I know you only have one life but I believe you have to, you know, you have to do something with that every single day, purpose driven.
I don't want to be a guy that looks back, you know, at the very end of my life and say, man, I should have done something different. I, I could have helped here when I didn't, I'm not doing this because I want this, I'm doing this because I think there's a, this is a time where it's so critical that I can help. And I believe that my leadership style fits perfectly for a time such as this. So what I hope is going to happen, what I expect is going to happen because I worked very hard to accomplish the goals, right?
My North Star is purpose. So I wanna look back and say that I made a difference in Gilbert. I do believe when I left here in 2016, I had a hand in making Gilbert better than I found it and I expect I will have that same result, Kenny, thank you for joining us today and for sharing your journey and answering questions. Um Before we let you go, do you have anything else that you would like to share with our listeners? I uh yeah, so, so as I understand it right now, a lot have not turned in their signatures.
I have my appointment scheduled for Monday to turn mine in. I have more than enough and I will turn them in on Monday. But the numbers have dwindled from around 11 to 4 or five as far as best I can tell. Not, not totally sure. Either way the numbers are not what they started. And that's typical, but this election is a primary and a lot of people do not vote at the primaries. They wait for, you know, they wait for November and, and I'm just, uh, imploring all of the Gilbert citizens, please get out and vote.
It's important if you don't, if you don't think I'm the guy don't elect me, but at least participate in the process. Don't stand by on the sidelines. I'm jumping into this because I've been sitting by on the sidelines. I vote. But I've been sitting by this on the sidelines watching, you know, watching what's happening. And I can do better than that. I can jump in that arena and help our citizens can jump in and vote and let's get as many voters out there as we can and then let the citizens decide who gets to lead this down.
Thank you. Thank you for your time today. Thank you. Enjoy this conversation and I know you out there listening, enjoyed it as well. So if you want these to come into your inbox, join our tribe, subscribe and we will get them right to you. Thank you for listening today, guiding growth, conversations with community leaders. Ben, let me ask you a question. How do you see other community members being involved in this podcast? This is going to be a great opportunity for so many people in the community to have a chance to be heard if they want to tell their story or if they just want to be part of this journey with us and help sponsor in a way that helps bring more people to the table with us.
So I think there's many opportunities at hand whether you want to again be on the show, reach out to us, let us know what your story is and how you think you could be part of it. We'd love to hear from you. Reach out, let us know and we'll see if we can make that connection.
