Hey! What Did The Public Miss? Mesa City Council Meeting - 9/12/2016

Published on 12 Sept 2016
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Running time: 16:13

Yesterday's regular meeting starting at 5:45 was preceded by a brief "study session" at 5:15 to review the regular meeting's agenda

Regular Meeting [you are encouraged to watch it]
- Nice award presentations noted by Councilmembers Dennis Kavanagh and David Luna [watch the video for details
- Updates by City Manager Chris Brady about Mesa Royale were postponed to a later date since no one showed up to hear them ....that's not stopped the Mesa City Council from going ahead anyway - hardly any members of the public ever attend City Council meetings!
- More frequently than not, items that perhaps will most impact business owners and residents here in Mesa are placed at the end of items for action.
Any interested person - and there do not appear to be many in a city with a population of over 450,000 persons] - might question the openness, transparency or accountability when there's little attention directed or the public given enough time to look at and understand, or ask questions - about things up for A PUBLIC HEARING, and the votes go down in about 10 minutes, most often unanimously without any comments or any discussion from the six City Councilmembers.

At this meeting two persons spoke in support of approving a designation of Blight in two Redevelopment Areas RDA - one in SW Mesa and one applied to increasing the boundaries of the Central Business District CBD Expansion. 
1. Scott Jackson, who lives in Paradise Valley, principal partner of Verde Fiesta LLC,  is one of the five owners in the Fiesta Corporate Center, with a vested interest
2. Christopher Nickerson, representing Banner Health/Cardona also spoke for approval - again with a vested interest.
Notice how fast John Giles moves on Item 9

WHAT IS IT?
It's the opinion promoted in a 24-page presentation of an RDA survey, finding and analysis done by a lending outfit in out-of-state Salt Lake City, Utah ZIONS PUBLIC FINANCE INC https://www.zionspf.com/overview/offices.php
Now any reasonable citizen might ask Why is a finance entity in Utah interested in economic development and excise tax issues here in Mesa, Arizona?

A follow-up question can likewise get asked: Mayor John Giles stated numerous times that this ZPF opinion was discussed in City Council Study Sessions - like when?
And was a link included on the session agendas for the public to view it?
Your MesaZona blogger is purposefully not including a link - just to show you how easy or difficult it really is to access information. 

Link to agenda >> http://mesa.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=A&ID=502290&GUID=02BF49AE-141F-45EC-9A56-2198D7922C27