Never Mind "Fake News" How'z About News Spoon-Fed to Mainstream Media Reporters?

Case in Point: a recent article by Shelley Ridenour that appeared in The East Valley Tribune on November 14, 2016 just days after Mesa voters overwhelmingly rejected a bogus tax increase ballot question cleverly titled Yes1Mesa by VOTING NO. [see link below about 'Local Cronyism']
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.

The article starts off like this: "Tuesday’s decision by Mesa voters to not approve a sales tax to pay for new fire stations and more fire and police services and employees means city leaders will have to find creative ways to do those things. . . " Say What? Those "things"
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?

Question: Why didn't Mesa City Manager Chris Brady exercise some forward-thinking years ago when brilliant minds in the city manager's office and planning/zoning approved huge real estate developments in those areas? They didn't think that developers of single-family-home in master-planned communities should pay the costs of required services in nearby locations for police and fire/medical? A charter school corporation like EdKey can spend $35 Million to acquire land for a school, but the City of Mesa did not budget for "those things" ten years ago??
[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 recognizes that voters on Tuesday said they are concerned about the economy and don’t want to pay more taxes. . . " Conveniently not recognizing or acknowledging the tainted political gimmick he and his "highly-influential friends" financed to the tune of over $500,000 for double-dipping dabbling in real estate speculation while holding public office here in Mesa, here in the Arizona State Capitol, spearheaded by Congressman Matt Salmon dba influence-peddler who used the same public relations company Summit Consulting Group with clients mostly in Utah and Arizona, including Senator Jeff Flake.

Too bad the dirty $500,000 PR trick  - financed by the FOG [Friends of Giles] and registered as a political action committee or PAC at the location of his own private personal injury/accident law offices on 2nd Street - turned into A MAJOR SCREW-UP.
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?

When someone who is elected by public trust to a public office where he's supposed to represent the public interests [voters VOTED NO] and at the some time engages in paying for a PR trick that double-dips dabbling in real estate speculation that's a conflict of interest
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

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 

Related Content:
How Local Cronyism Hurts America's Cities
September 28, 2016
by Nolan Gray 
It's worth a good read to help readers of this blog begin to understand the political give-and-take so evident to some here in The New Urban Downtown Mesa:
" . . . You eventually secured the deal with the fancy representative and your city issues a few million in bonds to fund the road, water, and sewage upgrades. It’s scary, particularly given that your city is already in rough financial shape, but that’s okay because it will all pay off. A shiny new Big Box location opens in your city and everyone is happy. A few chain restaurants and shops come to town to fill out the new infrastructure and you now have a bona fide stroad. A multinational manufacturing company catches word that your town is “pro-business” and arranges to open a facility in your town in exchange for some free land and infrastructure upgrades. Looking at the books, it makes you a little uncomfortable, but that’s okay; everyone loves the giant new roads and shiny new development. Your town’s mayor is praised for “turning the town around” and is even elected to Congress.
The shine quickly starts to wear off . . . "