Monte Lyons
Monte Lyons is a USAF veteran and has worked in the aerospace industry for over 40 years. He holds three degrees with a Masters in ADR. His career in aerospace included roles in manufacturing, quality, facilities, tooling, biz ops, flight test, and operations.
Monte has been married to his wife of 40 years, they have 7 children, and 7 grandchildren together. They have lived in Gilbert since 2019.
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. Monty Lyons is a US Air Force veteran who has worked in the aerospace industry for over 40 years. He holds three degrees including a master's in ad R his career in aerospace included roles in manufacturing, quality facilities, tooling, business operations, flight test and operations. Monty has been married to his wife for 40 years. They have seven Children and seven grandchildren.
They have lived in Gilbert since 13. Fun fact, Monty has supported the space program in the Air Force and is a Boeing employee as a result of his career. He has lived in seven states and visited 38 of the 50. Monty is running for a seat on Gilbert's Town Council. Welcome, Monte. Hey, welcome. You appreciate it. We're so glad you're here and we're so excited to have this new format for our episodes here with this uh candidate kind of special, but we're going to stick to tried and true. We're going to start with rapid fire. Alright.
First question. What's your favorite hidden gem in Gilbert? That more people should know about? Wow, that's a tough one. I like uh pro for me, my favorite one is the riparian up here. And when I go up there, I notice that a lot of the people that I meet there are from out of the state or out of the country. And so you get to meet a lot of neat people there. The environment's really good. My grandkids like it. So, for me that, I think that's my favorite.
Here's one of my favorite questions. If you could have any superpower for a day, what would it be? And how would you use it? Mind reading is to keep, keep me from getting in trouble and saying stupid stuff and look for that. Right. What would you consider to be the town's greatest strength? I think it's community, the sense of community that the town has the identity that comes with it. People that live here are very proud of the community. They uh take pride in their homes and take pride in, in just all the different amenities that we have to offer.
And I, and that's one of the things that drew us here. So it's a very attractive thing and it, it makes it a comfortable and nice place to live. All right. So this one might be related to the first one. But what's your favorite outdoor activity to enjoy in the car community? I, I do like hiking and I like the trails that we have when you look down. Uh I can't think of what that's called, but there's the along the power lines there that go across, you know, riding the bikes down through there or walking is very nice.
And I like that getting out, especially in the time. Of year where it's really comfortable or early mornings in the summer, the sunsets and the sunrises in Arizona are just phenomenal and you know, you've got a clear view and it makes it really nice to see. So I like that. Alright. If our town were a movie, what genre would it be and why? That's an interesting one, I would say one we could probably do. Uh it would be like a Hallmark movie I think would be the thing that comes to mind because just the, the, uh how you feel when you come into it.
So it'd be one of those uh campy type movies where you've got, you know, a Christmas theme or, um, you know, a summertime theme or something, you know, something to that effect, you know, feel good movie. It definitely has that around here sometimes unless Sarah's walking down the street, then it's switching gear, different format. You're supposed to be nice to me. That was not in this. How about this one? If you could have dinner with any one person alive or not, who would it be any one person alive or not?
Would have to. And this is gonna sound kind of cliche, but it would be Jesus Christ. There you go. And I think one of the reason is, is that he, he was a nonconformer to a degree and he, he really challenged the status quo in where people got comfortable. It's like, are you doing the right things and he laid out and I'd, I'd be asking him, you know, why did you, you know, why did you do the things you do? Why did you engage the people the way you engage them?
Um And, and I mean, it's God and all that kind of stuff, but still it would be an interesting conversation. So, ok, if you had to describe our community in just three words, what would they be? Can I use two family friendly? OK. Sweet and short. Here we go. Who is a leader you admire and why leader I admire and why um can it be in any period? All right, I'm gonna stick to us. History. I, I would, I would say one would be Abe Lincoln and, and the reason I admire him, he made tough decisions.
It took a lot of courage and he found himself many times alone. So as he made those tough decisions, it takes a lot of character for a person to be able to do that. And when I look at his life where he came from, how he became an attorney, how he practiced law, how he ended up in politics. He was a, a person that had a sense of who he was and what he needed to do and he stayed true to that. And I respect that. It was a good book too.
I've read that one. What would you consider to be the town's biggest challenge? I would think right now for me right now. And this is one of the reasons that I got into the race. We have had a lot of rapid growth over the last 25 years. And if you look, I think we went from just around 270,210, almost 220 now. And if you go back just 220 more years in the nineties, we were down in the high twenties or low 235 thousands. So you have that rapid growth. There comes a point on the curve where you start to get in a sustainable mode.
And I think we're in that transition. And I think the challenge is gonna be recognizing the change in our behaviors that's gonna have to take place in order to manage that transition mindset. OK. Last question for you on the rapid fire. What's your mantra or words to live by? Treat other people the way you want to be treated? Simple as that? Perfect. All right. Let's get into you and your journey. This is the fun part. Now we're going to talk about, get to know you a little bit.
So you grew up in Tennessee, Kentucky and Arizona. Tell us what childhood was like for you. Childhood was. For me, it was kind of ideal, idealistic in the sense. And the towns that I grew up in were a lot like Gilbert years ago. I can remember riding my bicycle in the summertime, taking off and be gone. All day and my parents never having to worry about us. Um, you know, you, you went out, you experienced life, you pa, you rode a bike without a helmet, you know, those kind of things.
And, um, you learned, I, I grew up on a farm too so it was hard work. You got up early in the morning and I still get up at four in the morning. I have not been able to break that habit but you get up early, you get the livestock fed, you get em out and you do your things and then you either take off to school during the school season or, and I work too at the same time. So when I got out of school, I went to work at night and then when I got home I had to, you know, tidy everything up.
That's just part of what you did. But it, um, it, it was one where there was a balance between playing and hard work and it, it developed character because you had to make decisions. Sometimes the cows have got to be taken care of. The chickens have got to be putting up. But there's, my friends are gonna go over here and it's kind of like, ok, we got a sacrifice here. And I think that was a valuable lesson coming into adulthood growing up in that environment because you realize that there are times that you have to put other people before yourself in your own interest.
So, farm parents, what kind of influence did they have on you? Well, my father grew, uh he was born in the Appalachian Mountains, dropped out of school in the eighth grade and left there because of the abstract poverty that was in that area and tried to make something better for himself. And he, he went into the military, ended up in occupied Germany. Um you know, part of that, you know, transition after the war. And uh he brought back to the United States when he came back, it changed him as a, as a young man.
And one of the things that he told me, he said, life will deal you a very bad hand. It's how you play, it determines what the outcome is gonna be. Nobody defines that. But you, so my, my father in a lot of ways, put that work ethic and that mindset into me and, you know, I, we were a lower middle class family growing up. And because of that, um, you know, back in the late seventies, uh there was many changes in the economy and it wasn't really good when I got out of high school and I went into the Air Force, um because we couldn't afford college.
And after I got into the service, I began, you know, working, ok, what's gonna be my career trajectory? Where am I gonna go with this? But to kind of cut to the chase it caused me to, I, I worked full time. I went to college full time and in some cases I worked two jobs, we had seven kids and, you know, had to support them and, and, you know, mom needed to be engaged. So it's like, ok, do we, we didn't have daycare or things like that in those days.
And so it was like, ok, honey, I'm going to go do this, this and that and that's how we survive. But I think my, my father put that work ethic in there that made sure that I never gave up. And any time there was a setback, we just said, ok, let's retool and go at it. Yeah. Share about your military experience. What that was like for you. And if there were any mentors along the way in that space in your life. All right. Very good. What's interesting is my father owned an HV AC business and I went to trade school for uh heating and air conditioning and we were going to uh I was gonna be a partner with him in that.
When I got out, I was gonna learn to trade and do that with him. And my mother and father went through a divorce and they lost the business and that, and, and that kinda set my trajectory toward military because he told me he said, hey, look, if you want to do this, this helped me go do that. So I went down, talked to the air force and it was interesting after, I guess, is basic military experience in the sense you go in, you say, hey, I wanna do this and you're like, ok, great.
You're gonna do HB AC. Now you're an aircraft mechanic and that's how I ended up working on aircraft and I fell in love with it. Um, and part of that was II, I remember I wanted to, to get my pilot's license when I was 21 and I was working and I took my money and I did my first flight at 413 years old. And so it wasn't a hard stretch to move that direction. But once I got into the service, there were really good people there. I remember one Andy Anderson, um, he was one of the oldest guys, enlisted men still in the Air force at the time.
And I think he was in his early sixties. But, um, he was AAA really good man. He took an interest in me, saw that, uh, um, you know, I needed some direction and he began to, you know, coach me and talk to me and challenge me in such a way, you know, that made me think about the future and what I wanted to do. And I didn't have answers at that. You know, I'm, I'm 241 years old and kinda clueless. And it was really odd because I remember setting at Edwards Air Force Base, I was stationed there at the time.
And, um, we were out on the run pad in an aircraft and I looked out the cockpit window and we were doing some maintenance on it in the 240 taxi by, with a space shuttle on it and it was heading out and I'm, I'm watching this and I'm going, I'm 241 years old. What am I experiencing? But Andy's coaching and, and being immersed in that type of historic setting really made my mind turn and it's like, ok, I've been given certain gifts and talents. I, I need to make sure that I stand good on this because one of these days I'm gonna give an account for that.
You know, if not in the hereafter, at least with my kids are gonna go and my wife. What'd you do with what you had? Does that make sense? It does. So you did a lot of traveling? You said you traveled a little bit when you were young, it seems like most of that happened after you left and went to the, my parents were always kind of adventurous. So, um we had, my family originally came in Arizona, my grandmother and her siblings in the early fifties. So we came out here quite a bit recently.
We found some old eight millimeter films in a box in my, at my brother's house and he sent them to me and we had them converted to digital format and we watched them over Christmas. I'm a toddler in a diaper in South Phoenix running around. And then there was a, a Western Days parade in Scottsdale. We were watching in there and there was film footage from Globe and Jerome and stuff. And we spent a lot of time coming out here during that time frame and through that my family would drive out.
So we'd go the old route 66 for a while. I remember I 40 being completed. I remember segments of it not being done. And, and so um that, that contributed to that adventurous spirit. So when I got into the military, I was like, all right, send me wherever you want to. So I ended up in South Carolina and Texas and uh here in Arizona, California, Nevada and uh it, it made for a lot of fun and I got to meet a lot of people and I developed a habit of not going to the tourist spots.
I like to find, I'm still this way if I can find a greasy spoon restaurant over in a corner, that's where I want to go. And you just watch the people, you talk to the people and it's just, it gives you a flavor of America that you don't get in other places. I don't know how people did that before Google though. He just did a family trip. And I'm like, how do people figure out how to navigate a city or travel before Google? I'm not sure. Well, there was a book called Thomas Guide which would give you maps of cities and you could track through cities and then, uh AAA would give you maps if you call AAA and say, hey, I'm gonna make a trip here.
They would give you a map for every state that you were gonna, you know, go through. I was 16 years old and drove by myself from Cincinnati to Phoenix and, uh, just using those maps. What's crazy about that is my parents, let me do that. You think about that for a minute? Yeah. But, you know, you, you learned in those days and coming here today I got, I used my GPS and my truck to get here and I'm over at the dental office that tells you the difference in how things work.
Talk about your career a little bit. Um, so mechanic with the military. But where did that go? And how did that kind of transition? Ok. So when I got out of the Air Force, I was on my way to Arizona. Uh, my mom lived up in North Phoenix at the time and was gonna come here, get in heating and air conditioning and eventually start my own business. That's what I wanted to do. And as I was packing up stuff to leave Edwards, I got a phone call from a guy that worked at North American Aviation which Boeing eventually ended up buying and, uh, he's like you work B ones out the base, you work, you know, support of the shuttle stuff.
He goes, we're finishing up Endeavor, which was the last shuttle to know what replaced Challenger and the B one program was taking off. Would you like to come to work for Rockwell? And I'm like, ok, I said, what's that entail? And he told me the money and the benefits and I got two small kids and I'm like, yeah, ok, I'll take that job and I started as an assembler actually drilling holes and putting rivets and assembling that aircraft. And then once we got it built, I ended up, you know, kind of promoting up and was doing part of the checkout systems, checkout and stuff like that for delivery when, and I liked it, you know, I thought, you know, this is fun.
And my wife encouraged me to get my air frame and power plant license, which I did, which made me pretty marketable. And uh back in those days at Air Force Plant 42 you basically finished a project. You got laid off, you walked over, got your last check and the next company would hire you and you went to work on the next program. So I was over at the uh rec center picking up my last check when the layoff time came. And this guy walked up to me, Bill Wadsley was his name and he said, hey, he said, are you Bonnie Lyons I'm like, yeah, I said, how do you know me?
He said, well, Bob Mord, your boss gave me your name. You want to come to work for Lockheed? Yeah, when do you want me to start? He said, take two weeks off, come and meet me at this address. So I went to work for Lockheed. So, um, they had a lot of, um, classified aircraft, that's where they worked on the, they were developing the tr uh the U two replacement at the time. And uh so that was what I was gonna end up working on. So they were upgrading my security clearance.
And Boeing called and said, hey, would you be interested in a job? And I'm like, yeah, possibly. What do you got going? Well, I can't really talk about it right now but come down and visit with us and I did and, and uh so what, I didn't know unbeknownst to me because they asked me what I was doing, they started tracking Lockheed's clearance process and as soon as I got to a certain level, they called me and said, hey, you want a job? And I started working on the B two program.
So I built the B two bombers and when we started uh when it got to the point where that, we only ended up building 20 some of them, uh Boeing said, well, do you want to come to Wichita? So we ended up moving to Wichita, which has got a huge aviation presence there. And uh I worked at Bowie military aircraft company and Wichita is a small town. It really is even though it's a good size community for Kansas. But on a national scale, it's a small town, very tight knit.
Very, the aerospace industry is really, you know, uh integrated there. And um I came in, I had in that time frame, I went from an assembler into, I became a journeyman tool and die maker. So I went through their apprenticeship program and was doing that at that point. And one of the men that I worked with, you were talking about mentoring and stuff earlier um came to me and said, hey, you know, we think you would be really good on the management side of the equation. Would you be interested?
And I'm like, I don't know, I kinda like working with my hands and he goes, yeah, but we notice you do more of this. Would you be interested? And I'm like, OK, I'll look at it, what do I gotta do? He said, well, we'll put you in this program, but you're gonna need to get an education and stuff. And the union paid for my first college degree and I got a degree in aerospace science. And um then from there, I went into uh I think it was quality for a bit after that.
And then the same guy that was working with me, his name was Steve Anderson, him and Bet Ketcher said, who was our business manager at the time, encouraged me to get my bachelor's. So I went and got a Bachelor's in business, uh something that complemented that and that worked out real well. So uh then Boeing decided to sell after the merger with mcdonald Douglas to sell the Wichita plant. So I worked with the team consolidating the site, prepping it for, for sale. And by this time, I'm working my way in the middle management and then the war broke out and um I got asked to come back to the B two program and we relocated to Texas, Abilene, Texas and I was the base operations manager at DAAs Air Force Base, supporting the uh upkeep of the aircraft to keep it flying and stuff and going into that program.
I just progressively, I got my master's degree there in, in AD R which is alternative dispute resolution at the time. I think it was mediation, negotiation and arbitration degree. And so I had to mediate um you know, conflict, you know, contract issues with the government and let's be honest. So you picked that up with having seven kids. So, yeah, that is true. Oh boy, is that true? Um But um you know, just kind of that evolution of just being in the right place and, and, and I say the right place at the right time, you, you do the preparation.
So when the opportunity comes you can take advantage of it. And that was one of the things that one of the men that had had mentored me said, look, you may not know where you wanna go, but you've gotta have skills to do something. So think about what skills you need to have and, and then when the opportunity comes, you're ready. And one of my biggest weaknesses is I didn't like conflict. So my father said, if you're ever afraid of something, go attack it right away, get right in front of it.
So, uh one of the first, that's how I ended up in quality because if you're in quality control on aircraft and you don't, you don't have the courage to tell somebody, hey, that's wrong. You need to fix it, then you're in big trouble. So it forced me to be a little bit more assertive. And then when I got the degree in AD R, you know, it's like, ok, um I'm in the conflict now so I actually enjoy mediating conflict between people and organizations. So I had to deal with contract disputes with the Air force.
And um you know, some, you as a, as a manager in a unionized workforce, you got grievances that come up all the time, but it really helped and complement that. And uh I ended up running um a crew of engineers that did sustainment engineering for the B one fleet. We did maintenance mods and upgrades on it to keep the airplane viable and flying through the war effort. And uh um that, that was a lot of fun. So it's just been an evolution through that you currently right now, I'm the global director of facilities for another aerospace company because I retired from Boeing.
And um so I, I, you know, keep the factories running and, you know, keeping stuff going and it's, uh that's, that's something I think that's gonna help me as a town councilman, you know, understanding infrastructure, understanding, you know, how business interacts with the community and stuff I think is, is gonna be helpful. Very interesting. Well, let's talk about um raising your family here in Arizona and what that looks like for you. Um, of our seven Children, six live here, uh of the seven grandchildren, six are here.
Um, back in 2018, my mom got really sick and she passed away that year and my stepfather and her lived over in Sun City. And it was, at that point, I was thinking about a change in what I needed to do and we decided to, you know, come to Arizona and said, you know, we've spent a lot, my wife and I had come through here a lot and, and it was like, this is a good place to be. And so we talked to our Children about it and we all started collecting here and part of that process, we had a big family meeting and talked about Ok, where in Arizona we want to live and you know what cities have got or what towns have got qualities that we want for our grandchildren.
And Gilbert came to the top of the list. So my wife and I came over here, got a hotel room, um, and spent a week exploring the town. Uh, my kids, a couple of my kids did the same thing. We made the decision. This is where we needed to be and we started plugging into it. So like right now all of us live within a couple of square miles of each other. So it's pretty cool. But we chose the town because of the quality of life. It had uh it was affordable and at that time anyway, and um it, it just, it had this flavor.
It's like, ok, this is a good place to be because I would see kids riding their bikes down the street and they're like, ok, where's their parents at? And other places I've been, you don't do that. Told us a lot about the character of the community. If you can trust your kid to ride the bike to the grocery store a mile away and not have to worry about him. That's a good thing. And that was one of the characters of the town that, that we thought, ok, this is, uh this is gonna be a nice place to be. Absolutely.
Well, thank you for the opportunity to get to know a little bit more about you and your journey. Um because we're doing this a little differently, we wanted to put together some questions that we thought voters might want to know. And so speaking of your run for council, I'll give you the first question here. What would you consider your most significant responsibility in a position on council? And what would your top three priorities be? Well, I, I think the most important thing honestly is, is the fiduciary responsibility with the, the, the fiscal health of the, of the, of the town.
You know, we've got, I think it's quite close to a $403 billion budget for our, our community. And, you know, that's, that's real money and that belongs to the taxpayers that are paying into the community. I, I feel like you have an obligation to make sure the money is being spent uh on the appropriate programs in the appropriate manner. So managing capital budgets, uh you know, for these corporations, I'd ask myself three questions, you know, where are we gonna spend our money? Why are we spending it there and how are we gonna spend it?
And um those would be questions that I would bring to bear on, on what we're looking at to make sure that stuff is going where it needs to go to maintain the affordability and the character of the community. Uh And I think there's competent people within uh our town government and uh you know, they want to do good things and I feel like my role is to help them do that. Does that make sense? I didn't answer the second part, which is like three things. Ok. Um, so that fiscal management was the first part.
I mean, I wanna get in there and take a look at that. And now we, we've, I had the privilege of touring the, uh, water treatment facility that we're building and I was talking with, I think it's Dan Henderson about some of the development that's going on in town. And uh then the trash trucks, we have some maintenance issues with that that's causing some um you know, cost to be incurred by the community and looking at those kind of things and, and this, I've noticed uh uh in, in the aerospace industry is that there's a lot of pent up demand for maintenance and stuff, honestly, whatever industry it is, there's been a lot of neglected things over the last 30 years because as the economy has just, the nature of the economy has caused people to really be judicial about where they, where they spend their money.
And a lot of people don't realize that because there's not problems there. It doesn't mean that you shouldn't take a look at it. So for instance, like uh underground plumbing and stuff, that stuff should last, you know, 50 100 years if it's taken care of properly, if you don't maintain it it gets fragile real quickly. So looking at trying to uncover where we may have risk and mitigating that risk is, is one of the important things to me. Um, the second one I, I think would have to do with law enforcement.
Uh, this, this was a, and one of the things that really kind of got me looking at this, um, I knew somebody that had, that was assaulted in town, the person that did, it was arrested, but there was no prosecution of that person. And um, when I asked about that, it was just like, well, it's not worth our time to do that because it's a minor thing and we need to put our resources to, you know, greater crimes and stuff. But the person who was assaulted had bodily injuries and, and to them, that's a big deal.
And I feel it sends two messages, one to the victim that, hey, we're gonna, we're gonna judge you based on how valuable we think you are. And then it sends a message to the person doing it that you're not gonna get prosecuted for, you know, minor things. And I've used minor and air quotes and I think that's a bad message to send. So, looking at uh our policing, do they have the adequate resources to do what they need to do? Do they have the adequate training? I noted in the, in recently there's been um, some, um, break ins and stuff where they're thinking that it's an organized criminal activity from like Venezuela or something that's been doing some break ins and so forth and our, our police aren't equipped for that.
So there is a gang unit, you know, up in, up in the Phoenix area, some cross training between the two might be a good thing to do. So, looking at stuff like that, talking to the rank and file, talking to the leadership, what are your struggles? You know, where do you guys need assistance and what are your priorities? Understanding that? So that, that would be the second thing that, that I wanna look at and the third thing would be positioning the town for the future. Like I said, I think we're in that point where we're getting into what I call a sustainment mode, the growth is, you know, arching out and now we gotta look at how we're gonna manage the property and the businesses that we have here from the town's perspective to make sure that we're successful and we're putting the right programs policies in place to help business and people, uh you know, experience the best of what Gilbert is that?
Make sense? That was three, right? All right. My next question here. Paint a picture of your vision of a well run Gilbert for us. How does that look financially and regarding services, amenities and public safety? If elected, what role would you take to contribute to this vision? You put a lot in that question. It's ok. We can, we can about the picture. How would you paint a picture of Well Run Gilbert. Well, Run Gilbert is one where, um, this and I, and I'll base this on how I manage when, when, um, as a people manager I tell people here's a task that I need you to do.
Go do it if you need my help. Let me know and then I get out of their way. Ok. Um And as long as they meet the metrics and deliver, I don't care how they get it done. As long as it's ethical and legal. I'm good with that. You know, people don't like to be micromanaged and uh but they, they do want to know that they've got the support that they need to get their job done. So for me a well run Gilbert is where we've got the most qualified people who are empowered to do what they need to do in their area of expertise uh in order to accomplish the task that they need to do to, to keep this town running smoothly without any big hiccups.
Does that make sense? Ok. Now, what was the next part of that question? Let's just go to the next question. Thank you. I think you've touched on this, but I'm asking it anyway, the town is approaching build out and some areas of our, of our community are aging, even as other areas continue to develop. How would you prioritize the needs of, build out with the needs of aging areas? Ok. That's a very good question. That, that was one of the reasons why I took the time to talk with Dan was to understand, you know, what the town was looking, you know, what they were looking at, what they were thinking.
I think the critical part of that is understanding. I mean, what, what are we about 70 square miles, something like that and uh looking at where we have developed things and I know they've got zones set up where they're going to do certain type of developments in certain zones, which I think is a great idea. And he had talked about some light manufacturing uh type businesses over on the east side of town near the airport, some aircraft RNO type stuff. Um I, I think the critical thing is, is to, to think about what the end product looks like and then back into it from there.
And so there needs to be discussions about that. What does Gilbert look like? 10 years from now? 20 years from now? And then how do we chart our course to get there? Um because you can come up with a lot of good ideas to do things, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea when you think about the end results. So I think you gotta think about the, the picture of what we look like in 20 say 35 and then back into that and then beginning, put, uh those, uh inch steps to get us there, get the consensus that this is, you know, what we want to be and then work that direction.
Does that make sense? Yeah. Fantastic. OK. Next question, how do you prioritize listening to, engaging with the voices of the residents with our different perspectives or backgrounds do it over? Did I mess that up? How do you prioritize listening to and engaging with the voices of residents with different perspectives or backgrounds than yours? How define to me what you mean by prioritize what do I mean by? So how important is it to you that all residents feel represented? Even those who don't share your same values? Very good.
OK. That's, that's what I thought. Um, again, go back to that thing. A guiding principle, treat other people the way you want to be treated just because somebody doesn't share your particular perspective or ideology doesn't mean that their opinion or their desires and stuff are any less important than yours. And the other thing that I've noticed over the years, if you take a lot of the, the veneer off the top, we all really have very similar things that we want. And um, a lot of those is about being treated respectfully and, and knowing that they're heard and for most people just knowing they heard is important at the same time, I think that uh I'll quantify that, that statement with this.
You're never gonna please everybody but you at least need to be open enough to sit down and listen to a person that doesn't have your opinion and let them know. Ok, I am listening to you and you can tell when somebody's being dismissive, you know, you sat there and they're looking like, yeah, ok, man, you walk away and go, well, that person just blew me away. You blew me off and I don't want to be that way, you know, for me, I, I, because I, you know, growing up the way that I did sometimes that would happen to me because I didn't have a, a degree at one point and I'd be talking to somebody that did, they would talk down to me, you know, and I never liked that and a lot of my life experience and the values I had, I learned from what not to do rather than what to do.
Does that make sense? So, bringing that to the table I think is important. So when you're dealing with, with folks, um and again, the town's community, the, the, the citizens are our customer. So, you know, you gotta look at it that way. Uh It's their money you're spending, it's their lives you're messing with. So you better listen to what they're telling you, especially if I want them to vote for me, you know, and like I said, you're not gonna please everybody. But I think if you treat people the way you want to be treated, at least they'll, they'll come away and go, ok.
You know, I wasn't, he wasn't a jerk, at least, you know what I mean? Um, as a governmental agency, the town is a complex business and a major employer with lines of, with many lines of service and corresponding budgets. If elected, how would you navigate? Gaining a strong understanding of the inner workings of the town? You got to ask the people who are doing it day in and day out. That's just the bottom line. I mean, I can look at it at a high level and based on the experience that I have understand, you know, the different elements of it, but you don't really get the understanding of the inner workings and what it takes to make stuff happen until you talk to the people that have to do it, you know, and that's just, that's just the way it is.
So maybe I'll even take that a step further and say in those initial days, let's say the 1st, 1st year of office. Um How much do you lean on your trust of those practitioners versus um your own, your own knowledge? OK. So there's two, there's, I'll tell you how I'm going to approach this, to be honest with you. Um I'm pretty confident I'm gonna win this election because I'm gonna work hard and get it. Ok? Once that's done. And even right now, I, I'm doing that, I was talking with Shane Krauser, who you're gonna interview a little later today.
I, I think it's gonna be critical for us to get ahead of the game before we ever get sworn in to know where we're headed and what we're gonna do. So that means talking to people that you need to talk to. Like, one of the things that I'm looking at doing is a ride along with, with the, one of the police units or, and talking to the, the chief of police and talking to the fire folks and finding out, you know, what, what are your challenges and so forth.
But I go back to that initial respect question. I give everybody the benefit of the doubt starting out until you do things that tell me I can't trust you, uh, or demonstrate that you're not competent and, uh, you gotta give people at least a baseline to start from the assumption that you are competent and you're gonna be truthful with me and then you move forward and as that relationship builds, then you get more and more confidence in what they're doing. They get more confident in you. And when you get to that point where there is a conflict where they think you gotta go, one, they wanna go one way and you wanna go the other, you have that level of trust between each other where you can hammer out, you know, what are the underlying issues here to get to a solution that you both can get behind hopefully.
And that that's part of the mediation process is understanding the issues and the interest between the two parties seeing where the common ground is. Because there's always this, this region of agreement that you have try to get into that region of agreement and then move forward. Does that make sense? Does that answer your question? OK. Alright. Lastly final question in the future. When you look back on your time in office, how will you measure success? As long as my name is not a verb, simple and easy.
I like it. Anything else you'd like to share? Um I just think this is one of the greatest communities to live in and one of the greatest states to live in. I've, I've, like I said, I've lived around the country, got to meet a lot of people lived a lot of places and this is an awesome place to live, but it kinda like give this caveat, it only takes a short period of time to lose it. So it, it's kind of like with a car or a home or any asset, you have to take care of it or like with a marriage, I've been married 41 years and I'll give you some context on this real quick.
My wife and I met, dated and got married within a month period of time. And we ran off to Vegas and eloped. Ok. We've been married 40 some years. Uh, be 41. This May. And we came from two different backgrounds. I was a farm boy. She was a city girl. Completely, two different backgrounds. Um, we've had to work at it and maintain it to make sure that we've been able to do that. I still like her. She still likes me. So that's a good thing. Yeah. And I, and I think that that's an important lesson for our community.
You have to take care of it and you got to like it and you really gotta love it and from that love and, and, and, and mindset you put into it and you get out what you do best. Does that make sense? Well, thank you. Thank you for being here today and sharing your knowledge and your thoughts and your journey with us. We appreciate you to talk about that. Thank you. Well, thank you for the opportunity. This has been really good and uh I look forward to uh the days ahead.
Very good. Alright. Well, thank you for listening. I know you enjoyed this conversation. I know we did. If you want to get more of these into your inbox, just join our tribe and you'll get them right in and we look forward to hearing more with you. Thank you 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.
