Maybe it's not the public responsibility for a responsible journalist to dig into the reasons for a surprising defeat or ask why taxpayers think it's a bad idea going in the wrong direction with a hefty $200Million Dollars++ price tag, but reporter Ms. Ridenour, shown in the image to the left from her Twitter account, likes to get nearly all her news stories spoon-fed to her in narratives provided by Mesa City Hall.
Mesa voters and taxpayers turned out to give a big thumbs-down to a tricky $500,000-privately funded Public Relations campaign that was admittedly a MAJOR SCREW-UP.
Those hard-to-find behind-the-scenes jockeying to benefit their own personal profits in public holdings for real estate, apparently eluded Ms. Ridenour or she chose to ignore them
She uses as one of her contact sources Interim Fire Chief Mary Cameli who is quoted as saying, "Because the city’s population has grown quickly, the city has gotten behind in expanding fire and medical services, . . " using exactly the phrase proffered by Mesa City City Manager Chris Brady who's now been in office for over ten years ....Gotten behind?
[image @ right, Chris Brady striking a pose from his bully pulpit preaching to the choir]
If Mesa ' has gotten behind ' then the City Manager is accountable for that, along with all six Mesa City Council who usually unanimously rubber-stamp whatever he wants. In the ten years in office Chris Brady has been contract-employed here he's earned over $2,000,000 in salary and benefits. Not bad for a guy who says that Mesa ' has gotten behind ' on his watch.
Ever in denial about his shortcomings or "challenges" or undisclosed family and business connections who might have enriched themselves tapping into a treasure trove of taxpayer-financed $200 Million ++ Bond debt, Mayor John Giles once again tries to SLOW-JAM the entire narrative behind voter rejection by saying, ". . . city officials need to determine Plan B for funding the departments. With three new City Council members just elected, he expects those discussions to begin in January.
Giles calls himself "non-partisan" but gave $600 of his own money for political action to benefit his "highly-influential" friends in their ownership interests for speculation in real estate downtown?
Simply put Mr. Mayor you can't have both.
Perhaps someone might point you in the right direction?
So why did you knowingly financially support a tax increase, at the same time getting quoted that people don't like tax increases in a conservative city like Mesa. Conflict of interest?
Near the end of her report a brief mention is made to note that "The defeat of the measure also means four planned buildings to house an Arizona State University campus in the heart of downtown Mesa won’t be constructed. . . ASU officials declined to comment on any downtown project, . . "
Ms. Ridenour goes on to add that "Giles is a supporter of increased educational attainment for Mesa residents to make the city more attractive to employers. . . "
In data provided by Ballotpedia college graduation rates here in Mesa are as low 25% in spite of the lip-service support from the mayor
In data provided by Ballotpedia college graduation rates here in Mesa are as low 25% in spite of the lip-service support from the mayor
Not noted by Ms. Ridenour is that two local branches of out-of-state universities- Benedictine and Wilkes- have struggled to enroll students even with incentives from the city for favorable leasing terms on vacant or under-used buildings owned by the city. According to reports at public meetings BenU only reached their goal of 500-student enrollments [unclear whether part-time or full-time or online] with what they said was a 40% increase this year.
Contact Shelley Ridenour at 480-898-6533 or sridenour@evtrib.com.
Readers of this blog can find Shelley Ridenour on Twitter >> here Contact Shelley Ridenour at 480-898-6533 or sridenour@evtrib.com.
Related Content:
How Local Cronyism Hurts America's Cities
September 28, 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment