John Giles Answers The Question: Leader? or Cheerleader? in #SOTC17

This year's State-Of-The-City speech staged at the Mesa Convention Center for guests ready-willing-and-able to pay the ticket-price of $50 took place this morning with the usual rah-rah fanfare for his speech to a choir of faithful brethren, friends-and-family, city hall employees, East Valley area politicians, business associates and city employees who paid their homage to the mayor during his third annual address to the assembled faithful.
Last year it all started with his running onto the stage from the back-of-the-room re-living no doubt his track career as a college athlete. . .

This year he answered a question on a blog post here on January 22, 2017

"Can John Giles lead or is he just a cheerleader on the sidelines?"

This year he opens as a leader of the MHS marching band - waving a baton in the air in front of his battalion of musical instrument players who no doubt blasted loud enough to startle and wake-up the gathered faithful.
Your MesaZona did not attend and could not force himself to watch the entire extravaganza staged in front of a polite and low-key audience in the usual format of a prepared speech in between snippets of this and snippets of that about the city we all call home.
One segment was about harnessing social media to get more feedback that will be rolled-out in the next couple of months.

Who can forget the highlight from last year seen in the image to the left?
Though who wrote that script remains a mystery, appearing with a costumed character named "Sparky", the mascot for ASU, for what became the key cornerstone of his campaign for NextMesa and somehow didn't work out ...
We all wish the mayor - and all the people who live here in Mesa - the best outcomes for all the challenges and opportunities on the road ahead in 2017

If you'd like see the entire #SOTC17 live stream, go here >>
https://www.facebook.com/MesaMayorsOffice/videos/10158577272345725/